Okay, take your Bibles and go to Exodus 25. To start with, if you keep your Bibles handy, we'll look at some more scripture tonight. I'll have you go into 1 Kings and Hebrews as well. But we're starting in Exodus 25, and we'll start in verse one there, Exodus 25. Verse one, this is the instruction for what is called the tabernacle, okay? It says in Exodus 25, one, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering. Everyone that giveth it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them, gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair, and ram skins dyed red, and badger skins, and shittum wood, oil for the lot, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. And they shall make an ark of shittum wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold, Round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof. And two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of cinnamon wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be born with them. The staves shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it. and thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee." So we read as we're starting tonight about the tabernacle, which was the very first structure constructed for the worship of our God. We worship the same God they worshiped, you do know that, the God Jehovah. And this was the first thing that was built, constructed for the purpose of worshiping our God. And the first item of business as the tabernacle was being mentioned here, the offering of course is mentioned, but the first thing that he talks about there is the ark in verse number 10. They shall make an ark of Sidon. Well, even before he gets to the details of the tabernacle itself and its dimensions, he's already talking about the ark, which as we read there would contain the things that God would give to them there. The Lord has just given these instructions to Moses concerning the tabernacle. The tabernacle, of course, you Bible readers know, was that that was portable. They would take it down, set it up, as the children of Israel moved throughout the wilderness, and at times they would stay in a place for a long time until the pillar of the cloud or the pillar of the fire arose and moved them either by day or by night. And so it was portable but it was the place of worship and it symbolized there that holy of holies did, the presence of God. And there kept in the holiest of holies was the Ark of the Covenant where the holy things were at. And God himself was there and he lived there. That was the idea of this thing of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was built and the Ark of the Covenant was put there, and there were certain things that were put into the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, we'll just go over to Hebrews 9 now, if you will. Hebrews 9, and we'll see what was inside the Ark of the Covenant, which was at the center point of the temple inside the Holy of Holies there. Hebrews 9. The Hebrew writer says in verse number 1, then verily the first covenant, that would be the Old Testament, had also ordinances of divine service in a worldly sanctuary. Worldly here simply means on this earth, okay? For there was a tabernacle made, the first wherein was the candlestick, and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, and after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, or as I've termed it already, the holy of holies. Verse number four, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, listen to this, wherein was the golden pot that had manna. and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. He goes on to say, and over it the cherubims of glory overshadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. And so there is that verse that tells us what was inside there. We've got the tabernacle, okay? It's portable. the Levites and the priests, the priests carrying certain things, certain branches of Levi, of his sons, they would carry certain things. They were designated carriers. They moved, and then they would set it up, and they would worship there, and they would give their sacrifices there, and they would bring their tithes and their offerings there, and they worshiped God, and God met with them there. A cloud would come down over the tabernacle, and God would meet with Moses and Aaron, and the people of God there. And so there's the tabernacle. Now go with me to 1 Kings chapter six, okay? 1 Kings chapter six. That would be back into the Old Testament again, left in your Bible if you're in Hebrews to the first book of the Kings. And for 480 years, we'll find that in 1 Kings 6 and verse 1, for 480 years the children of Israel have had the tabernacle, okay? They've had this tabernacle that they've moved around, and there is that same Ark of the Covenant, built with shit and wood, overlaid with gold. Inside it is the golden pot with manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the two tables of stone that God took his finger and wrote on. for 480 years, 1 Kings 6 verse 1 now, and it came to pass in the 480th year after the children of Israel would come out of the land of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel in the month of Zeph which is the second month that he began to build the house of the Lord. So we've got this tabernacle. It's moved about. It's been in certain places. David has eventually brought it to Jerusalem. He's found a place for it there. He's given instructions for the temple to be built. And now four years after David's death and Solomon's reign in the fourth year, he begins to build 480 years after the tabernacle and the children of Israel have come out of Egypt. And they've been worshiping there. Now he's going to build a temple, a permanent structure, if you can call it permanent there, a definite a stationary place that God chose to worship for his worship and for people to call upon his name where sacrifices and tithes and all those things will be brought to him. And there too was the holiest place which contained the holy things that God gave to keep therein. And the ark remained in Solomon's temple over 400 more years, about 420. Now I want you to think about this. So there, starting in the tabernacle, eventually in the temple, in the Holy of Holies, in both of those places, the holiest of all, a separate place that only the priest could go once a year, was this Ark of the Covenant that was the first thing mentioned of the construction of the tabernacle. And there inside that Ark of the Covenant was a golden pot full of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and two tables of stone that God Himself took His finger and wrote the Ten Commandments on. You think that's special? Yeah, yeah. That's quite a relic. Yeah, what a, I don't know if I can even think of a word that would describe, masterpiece doesn't fit very well, antique certainly doesn't fit very well, but certainly, we heard on the radio on the way here tonight about a Rembrandt painting that was found in a house in an attic in Maine, Sister Lorraine, in an attic in Maine, they found a Rembrandt painting and it just auctioned for one point something million dollars. Well, I'm telling you what, our house is new. It makes me want to go look in the attic and see what's up there. Well, that was a masterpiece. What about this? What about this? For 900 years, and then after about 900 years, Nebuchadnezzar came because God's people had failed and the temple was destroyed. Later, there were two more temples built. Even the day of Jesus Christ, there was a temple there. Those temples were destroyed. But through the years, due to the failure of those who claimed to worship him, the contents of the ark became depleted. Go with me to 1 Kings 8. I'm still preaching to you about the church tonight. 1 Kings 8, I want you to see this. 1 Kings 8, this is at the dedication of Solomon's temple, that stationary place that God chose for his temple, his house, he called it his house, to be. The Bible says in 1 Kings 8, verse 9, look at this, as they moved, well let's just back up to verse 6, the priest brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. This is Solomon's temple. For the cherubim spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark, and the staves thereof above. And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without. And there they are unto this day," listen to this now, there was nothing in the ark, save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. And so this 480 years later, when the permanent, if you will, and I say permanent loosely, stationary is the best word there, the stationary, and if I can use again the word permanent place, of the temple was built, and the Ark of the Covenant goes into its place there, it's minus some things it started out with. And then about 420 years later after that, after the destruction of the temple that Solomon built, to where we're at today, there is no temple. And as far as we know, there is no ark. And there are no tables of stone that God wrote on with his finger. And there is no golden pot with manna. And there's not Aaron's rod that budded. Well, we don't worship at the tabernacle, we don't worship at the temple, but God has given us a church And God has given us holy things. God has given us as a local congregation, local church, holy things. We don't make sacrifices there, and I understand that He lives in us. Know you not that you're the temple of the Holy Ghost, but God gave us a place to worship, okay? So here's what I want to preach to you tonight, is this, church. What are the holy things in our church? What are the holy things in our church? The things that are... Get this picture. You've got there inside, the Holy of Holies, the heart, if you will, of the tabernacle. The heart, if you will, of the temple. There where God, His presence was at. There were the cherubims overshadowing that Ark of the Covenant. Over that's the mercy seat. And there's those holy things that God gave to be kept there. We don't worship in the tabernacle, we don't worship in the temple, but we worship in this place, this church that God has brought us together at. And I just wanna preach about the two tables of stone, the golden pot with manna, and Aaron's rod that budded tonight and say that you and I have some holy things as a church. We have some holy things at the church. Now, let's start with the two tables of stone. Now, there's some history there. Most of you know that the first two tables of stone that God Himself took those two tables of stone and He wrote on His finger, but Moses broke those. when he came down from the mountain, he saw the children of Israel worshiping the golden calf, and they were singing, and the Bible talks about they rose up to, they sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play, and Moses comes, and he's so angry at what he sees, he throws them down and he breaks them. And sometime after that, the Lord said, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first. And so this time, Moses has to make them himself, but God still takes his finger. What would you do if you had tables of stone that God had took his finger and wrote on? Well, I'm gonna tell you something. This Bible is just as much the Word of God. This is just as much the Word of God as what was in that Ark of the Covenant. How can you say that? Because God told us! God told us that He would preserve His words. This is a doctrine of the church and it is a holy thing. Paul told Timothy, preach the Word. How can we preach the Word if we don't have the Word? We're to take, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the what? By the word. I'm here to tell you tonight that at Quebec Baptist Church, we have a holy thing that God gave us that we need to hang on to, and it is the very precious word of God. It's our final authority. And so for the children of Israel, Things might have been in dispute. Well, what do we do here? Somebody might say, well, let's let the priest tell us what God says. Thank God we have much more than 10 commandments. We have the whole complete revelation of God to man. We've got all 66 books that God intended for us to have. Say, Brother David, is it just the Bible? Well, there's all kinds of Bibles, aren't there? And they're not all alike. You know, I don't want you to think that I tiptoe around this issue, because I don't wanna, I'm not gonna tiptoe around this issue, okay? I'm not gonna tiptoe around this issue. But every version of the Bible is not the same. Every version of the Bible is not the same. They all claim to be the word of God, but they're not all the same. They're not all the same. And God has given us a book that's unlike the rest of them. I've always liked what David said when he's there at the place of the priest there, and he's asking for something to eat, and he's asking for a sword, and the priest says there, he says, the only sword we got is the sword of Goliath. And David said, there's none like that. Well, there's none like this one. There's not a Bible like the King James Bible. It stood the test of time. There's none like it. There's none like it. It's got the blood. It's got the virgin birth. Some of you have sat through some classes where I've taught on this subject before. It doesn't even come from the same place. It doesn't even come from the same manuscripts as the modern versions of the Bible does. This one's different. But even if it wasn't different, We've got to have a final authority as a church. We've got to say, this is what we believe. This is it right here. And so for our church, this is it. This is it. King James Bible. King James Bible. And we can't back up on that church. We can't back up on that. God's handwriting, God's words, It's our final authority. Now we may not always understand it like we should, and we may not always understand it like each other, but at least we can say, this is it! This is it right here! This is the Word of God. I'm glad that God saw fit to preserve His Word. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver purified in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. And so for the children of Israel, they had two tables of stone. Well, we've got something holy, it's the word of God. It's the word of God. And we ought to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Be turning with me to John chapter six tonight. John chapter six. I'm talking about the holy things that we as a church have, okay? We're not the only church that has these things. We're not unique to the whole world. But we need to know what we've got. We need to know what we've got. After the Hebrew writer mentioned the tables of stone, he also mentioned there The golden pot with manna. John 6, verse number 30. John 6, 30. They said, therefore, unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For, listen carefully, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. They said unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And so, as a local church, God has given us some holy things. I hope you see where I'm going with this, folks. These are things to be treasured. These are things that can't be substituted for. These are things that can't be bought. These are things that need to be, we need to hang on to them. Brother David won't always be around here. Brother Josh won't always be around here. Some of you young people need to know what we've got going on here. Need to hang on to it. And so, the manna is crossed. It's crossed. What a blessing tonight to hear the testimonies about crossed! We didn't come tonight and get entertained! We didn't come and get pumped up with some wally music. We didn't come tonight and pull down the big screen and watch Andy Griffith and talk about the life lessons we learned. But no, we've heard about Christ and how he changed his lives, how he redeemed souls, how he shed his blood for the church. It's about him. He's the golden pot with manna. Can you imagine losing the golden pot with manna? Can you imagine? I don't know how long it was before they discovered. It's 480 years at the dedication of the Solomon's Temple that we find out about it. But can you imagine the point where somebody says, man, what happened to that golden pot with manna? Where you gonna get manna now? It ceased on the day the children of Israel went into Canaan land. No more manna. It's not falling anymore. Somebody should have got fired. Where's it at? The golden pot's gone. I mean the golden pot itself should be priceless. But what was in the golden pot? The literal manna that came from heaven to feed the children, and there it is, a golden pot full of manna that God instructed to be put up, laid up for the generations to come. That holy thing that God gave. Well, we're no better outside the grace of God than any other church, and I don't want you to think I am saying that tonight. But it's not about a big crowd, it's about him. It's not about having a newer building, it's about Him. Kind of play on words here, but we sing the hymns. about him, amen? It's all about him. I'm not against food giveaways. I'm not against trips. I'm not against the things that a lot of churches are doing, but I'm telling you folks, if we forget and lose the golden pot of manna, we've lost a treasure that can't be replaced. You know what needs to happen in our church? Sunday school lessons need to be about Him. The preaching needs to be about Him. Testimonies need to be about Him. Our lifestyles need to be about Him. Family camp needs to point our families to Him. Quiz Quest needs to be all about Him. The missions and the missionaries we support, it needs to be all about Him. He's the bread of life. We don't want to get to a point a few years down the road that we say, man, what happened to the golden pot full of manna? And then lastly tonight, there's Aaron's rod that budded. Now, if you know your Bibles, there was a dispute about who should execute the office of priest. That was about the time of Korah's rebellion, and the Lord had chosen Aaron of the seed of Levi. And of course, you Bible readers know that Aaron was the first high priest, and the sons of Aaron became the high priests. The others of the tribe of Levi were just Levites. And so Moses, with the wisdom of God, told each tribe to cut a rod, a limb, out of a tree. And he said, we're gonna lay them up before the Lord. We're gonna settle this once for all. And so each tribe had brought a limb from a tree. And miraculously overnight, Aaron's rod didn't just bud. Didn't just bud, it didn't just put out a leaf. It bore almonds. Overnight. You can't hardly argue with that, can you? And so there in the church, if we can say it, order was established, order, order. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14, 40, let all things be done decently and in order. Now, I taught yesterday at our homeschool co-op a class about, it's a civics class I was teaching, and I tried to explain to them the difference between a democracy and a republic. Now our country is a democratic republic, which simply means we're a mixture of both. But church is not a democracy, folks. Church is not a democracy. A democracy, you say, but David, I thought a democracy was good. That's where the people rule. Yeah, but do you want everybody in America deciding what we do as a country? No, no, no. And so the people choose their leaders and that constitutes a democratic republic, okay, which is what our nation is, which is what the church was established to be. The church, the Lord Jesus Christ chose the apostles, and then afterwards, the church has chosen its own leaders, and those leaders have authority in the church. The Bible tells us in Acts 6 that the apostles said to choose out seven men of honest report. We call them deacons, and those deacons made decisions. The whole church didn't vote on everything they did. They put people in charge that made those decisions for the church. And so the church had order. The church had order. I've really appreciated what you had to say about the Bible. I appreciate what you had to say about Jesus Christ. He's the bread of life. But this, well, I'm just telling you what I see in the scripture here. Aaron's rod that buttered is a picture of order. And so because it's a picture of order, it's a picture of stability. Stability. And forever afterwards, after Aaron's rod budded, there was no tribe saying, you know, hey, I think our tribe, it ended the discussion. And so what a church that would have holy things needs to do is to unite behind the leadership that God gives them. Which is biblical. Okay. So here we are tonight as a local church. Aren't you glad God gave us some holy things? Can you imagine going to church and the preacher getting up and saying, we don't have a perfect Bible? There's plenty of them out there. Listen, if I didn't think we had a perfect Bible, I sure wouldn't get up here and try to preach it. If it's not perfect, where's the mistakes at? I need to know so I can avoid them. But it's just the words of man. No, it's not the words of man, it's the words of God. What would we have to offer this community if we didn't have Jesus Christ to offer to this community? And the things that are important to this church are preserved by order in the church. And so I want to look ahead to the future to you this morning. I think about the children of Israel there. We see them with this tabernacle. We see them 480 years later with a temple. We see God giving them some things. The Ark of the Covenant there overlaid with gold and the things that are in it. The two tables of stone that God wrote on with His finger. Aaron's rod that budded and the golden pot full of manna. And as time goes on, they lose what God gave them. And eventually, they don't even have a building. That's what's happening in the church world today. God gives a church holy things, and if they can't keep up with the holy things, eventually they won't even have a building. Folks, we better hang on to this word of God. We better hang on to Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's all we've got. Well, I know there's people out there that says, well, we've discovered this, we've discovered that. I tell you what, I'll settle with the three things God put in the Ark of the Covenant. That's good enough for me, and I wanna hang on to those things. And I sure don't wanna lose anything that the Lord gave us, such valuable, holy things as the Lord has given us. And I just wanna encourage you as a church tonight, let's rally behind what God gave us. Let's cherish those things. Let's treasure those things. Let's don't lose any of them. I don't wanna lose a piece of the manna. I don't want to lose any of the almonds off the Aaron's rod that budded. And so I encourage you tonight, church. I forget which one of those churches, probably two of those churches in Revelation. He told them to strengthen the things that remain. He said, that which thou hast, he said, hold fast till I come. And so I want to encourage Quebec Baptist Church tonight. God's given us some holy things. Let's hang on to them. Amen. Let's hang on to them. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer tonight. I appreciate your attention.