The Fulfilment of The Tabernacle

God bless you. You may be seated. And uh I want to uh just start off by saying I I do deeply appreciate the opportunity uh to be able to share with you tonight u what I feel on my heart. Um, we have discussed the entire year and you've heard me say this time and time again about a very important uh place that is given to us in the scriptures in the Old Testament and that is the tabernacle what we would call the house of the Lord.

Amen. And uh how many you are thankful for a place to go and meet with God? I think it's very important for each and every one of us to understand the importance of a place to worship God, a place to meet him, a meeting place for you and God to to dwell together. And you know, I know this that you can call on the Lord anywhere you are and whatever you may be doing. Uh you can talk to the Lord. But I think it's very important for us to have that place, right?

And u uh I know growing up that one of the one of the most u memorable times of my life is being in a prayer room. I mean you remember the prayer rooms. uh is being in those those moments that uh you were there to talk to the Lord, but then you began to hear God talk to others and you was listening to what they were praying and it's not long until you're learning something. Uh I I know this by experience that uh you can sometimes learn a lot just by listening, just by listening.

But um we are going to be talking about uh something tonight and I I want to take uh your attention to uh starting off let's take our our focus toward Romans the 6th chapter. In Romans the 6th chapter verse 23 uh simply reads like this and many of you could quote this but would you read it with me? For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death. And I think it's important that we understand that there is there is um repercussions.

There are there are things that can happen to an individual because of because of actions. Uh that is one of the most simple and understanding ways that we have of understanding that that if you have an action there is always something that follows that action something there is a repercussion from that. Amen. And and and the scripture tells us that the wages of sin, if we if we spend into sin, if we if we partake of sin, it's it brings death. But if we have God, we have eternal life.

We have that eternal life. In the book of Leviticus, and I think for just a springboard, we'll do this. the book of Leviticus. Uh we find uh the setting there. Uh many of you we have studied that I I remember just back at the first of the year pastor was he spent a lot of time in Leviticus um during his time of study and and he would make comments uh about the tabernacle and what was taking place. uh we we've studied through this and we do know that that there was a time in Leviticus that uh in that book that he begins to talk about um some things that was going on in the tabernacle that was not holy that was not righteous and because of that there was some deaths that took place how many you remember uh Aaron's sons There was death that came because of the way they acted, the way that they uh they did not do it according to God's law, the way that God structured it.

God puts things in place for a reason. Amen. He puts uh order in everything. Just as Sunday we talked about when when we have um God gives us he gives us a plan. He gives us uh structure. He gives this to us for us to take and to use for our lives. Amen. And each and every one of you have what is called the BIBLE. Right? And in that book, you will find the structure or the instructions of how to live your life. Leviticus the 23rd chapter.

And I've asked brother Robin, I've given him the list today. Uh I I remembered this about halfway through the lesson last week that we did not give him a list. And so he was he was over there struggling. It was like a Bible quiz to him or or what did we call it? Uh sword drill. He was he was trying to find him. And I I realized that he did not complain. Uh but then I realized that and I did apologize to him and I said this is not right.

But I gave him a list tonight and he is going to help us. This kind of helps me from having to click back and forth and try to read screens and and and do those things. Leviticus the 23rd chapter verse 27. Levitic Leviticus 23 verse 27. Listen to this. Also on the 10th day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

This particular scripture talks about a particular day, a day of atonement. If we were to uh look at that word atonement, in other words, and we will do it in just regular lay terms, that is to make things right. To make it right. and uh and this is a special day because uh these the priest was to go in. Now understand I did mention in chapter 16 we find the setting of where uh this right after u the death of Aaron's sons that there was some very uh I'll be honest with you if I was in Aaron's shoes and this has just happened uh and now atonement is upon us uh I would be shaking in my shoes wouldn't you?

I would I would be very uh I would be very questionable about what I was doing. But here here we find told us exactly when this was to happen. This is to happen on the seventh month, the 10th day that there would be a day that you would make an atonement. Now, the way that that structure worked is the priest would go in and he would offer sacrifice for himself and he would then he would offer sacrifice for the people. I I began to look through um and just kind of highlight some things and and you know I I do I'm one of those I'm one of those dreamers.

Um I I I like to dream through the story. um and see how that that all rolls out. And I I was just sitting there thinking of of um how that Aaron's life would have been. Now he has just lost his sons. Now he is at that place of atonement in chap in chapter 16. Um and now he has to go in for the people. I don't know about you, but me being in a position like that, I get up that morning if I was to put myself in Aaron's shoes and now I am going to go before God and approach the Lord for the people.

I I I can only honestly say that this is one of those situations where uh you're ringing your hands. You have you have cleansed yourself because that is the instruction. You've cleansed yourself. You've cleaned your house. And that is one of the instructions that the Levitical law gives us. As you clean house, you clean everything. Now, all of the people that are there are standing outside of their tents and they're looking down at the tabernacle. Aaron makes his way into the first the gates where the there would be an altar.

That altar would set there and Aaron would begin to make sacrifice. The very first goat, there are two goats. Many of you could probably recall all of this, but there are two goats. There's one that is called the scapegoat. That goat is where Aaron will go and he will lay his head upon that goat. And this is to take away the sins of the people. And then that goat was to be led out of and into the wilderness and never to be seen again. Then the second goat was the one that sacrifice was made.

Now I we're talking about Aaron and his family and the things that's gone on. Now Aaron's taking and he's he he has done the sacrifice. He's put on the linen co the linen garment and now he is he is there to sacrifice and he takes the blood from that sacrifice at the burnt offering. He goes to the labor and there he washes himself. I've given them a picture and I hope that they can put that up there. But these are the articles that were in the tabernacle.

And I put this up here in this art form because this all represents and we will look at in just a little bit the parallel of what we see here versus where we are today. But he would take and he would make off offering and then he would go to the labor and there he would wash his hands. And we're talking about the priest Aaron and he is on this day of atonement. This is one of those special days that God shows up. There is there is fire.

There is smoke. There are things that's going to happen this day. And so Aaron washes himself and he makes his way. Now I I want you to think with me. Aaron knows that his sons have just been a part of this and now they're not. And so he goes through and he takes the the the blood. He's carrying this bucket of blood and he takes it to what we call the altar of incense. And we did an extensive study on the altar of incense. But he takes it to the altar of incense.

And there on the horns of that altar, he will put that blood for that atonement. And then he sprinkles some of the blood into the fire. And then he begins to sprinkle incense. This is a part of the worship. He begins to worship the Lord. And as he gets to a certain place in his worship, he will then go into that holy place. And in there, blood is also applied. He applies blood upon the altar in the mercy seat. He applies blood all through that place.

And inside there is where all of those people that are standing on the outsides are looking in saying, "Can we see the smoke?" That is their prayer. Can we see that our sins will be rolled back another year? This is what they're looking for in all of this. Every year they must come back to realize that my sins are only there rolled back for one year. Now I've got to come back next year and do this same thing. I bring this to you because there was because because of the atonement, because of the making right, the people of God continues, they continue to come and go, trying to get through the sins of of their life and trying to overcome.

May I tell you today that because of what Jesus Christ did, we have forgiveness. God has forgave us of all of those things. He has because of the approach that that Aaron would make for the people. You see, the people could not do this. Now, because of what took place at Calvary, we are able to approach the throne room of God, we're able to approach that place, that special place, and say, "God, we start back down here. This is what we call repentance. This is where we place everything that we have ever done.

Paul wrote about this. You say, "Really?" Yeah. Paul wrote about that. He said to repent, right? He said to repent. Take your take all of the sins that you have committed and and lay them on an altar and say, "God, here it is. But the only way that that was possible is there was a man called Jesus that came and dwelt among men. Came where they were. And because of that, he was the one that went and took that place, took that place, took that place, and took that place.

and his blood was applied throughout that place. I am truly thankful for what Jesus Christ has done for us. I am so thankful, brother Ron, that I don't have to go through all of these things anymore. And I don't have to worry about whether or not this is going to be accepted, worry about whether or not I've got the right the the right gift to give the Lord because he took my place. He came and robed himself in flesh and then he became that lamb that was to be slain.

That was Jesus Christ. I am truly grateful today because of what Jesus did for me at Calvary. Hebrews 2 and verse 19 uh 17. Hebrews 2 and verse 17. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. To make in reconciliation for the sins of the people. Jesus Christ himself became the lamb slain. Jesus Christ himself became the fulfillment of that covenant.

I don't know about you, but I'm I'm thankful. I'm thankful. I'm thankful that I that he became he became sin for me. He became the lamb of God for me. Many of you could probably quote these scriptures, but we're going to read them for the sake of what we're talking about here. But I want us to look at John 1 and one and two. Let's look at let's look at both of these scriptures. In the beginning was what? The word was with God. The word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. And the word was what? Made flesh and it dwelt among us. I want you to notice that he was the one that came. He was the one that became that living word. He was the one that came and dwelt among men. He was the one that became the ultimate glory. Amen. John 1, drop down to verse 14. Read that, Brother Rob. Yes, that was it. It became flesh for you and I. You see, Aaron, he had to do this every year.

He had to make sure that everything they would clean and make sure that everything now we have been given that opportunity that we can go and approach the throne of God at any point in our life. We get to a place in our life and I hope that you visit that altar every day. That should be something that you visit every day of your life. very first scripture we read out of Romans is that that the wages of sin is death. We are sinners. That's who we are.

That's who we are. We were born in sin. We were shapen in iniquity. That is who we are. But you can take this and find this map in the scripture and do this scripture. You can make that make your way to the throne room of God. You can make your way into that holy place. Christ became the priest. He became the one that took that place. He took he was the high priest. Look at this parallel that we we will share with you. Hebrews 9 verse 28.

Hebrews 9 and verse 28. without sin. You will you will see him without sin because he became the ultimate he became the ultimate lamb of God. Amen. Romans. Let's go. Let's go to uh Matthew. Matthew 3:16. Matthew 3:16. A very familiar scripture. back at our our our picture that we had up there earlier. You find the labor. Jesus showed us the example of how to live. Look at this. He goes here. And the scripture says that when he was, how many you remember that setting in the scripture?

Who was it that baptized Jesus? John the Baptist. And when he baptized Jesus, what happened? There was a dove that appeared up over him, ascended upon him and come down representing what? The spirit of God. All of this was an example. We find we find trans there. There are so many things in the Bible that are parallel that you can go through and see the typology of of how that this is all laid out. But he goes and and he baptizes himself just as Aaron would go and wash himself.

He was to clean himself. Why? Because he was getting ready to go into a holy place. There's a reason why that when you b when you're you repent of your sins and you're at an altar and you repent of your sins that there is there is a reason why that there is a terry there. There's a reason why that you you sometimes linger there. Why? It's because I want to make sure that I'm clean. I got to make sure that everything is gone. I remember in times past praying with some people in the altar, there would be uh I I'm thinking of one particular one right now, but the individual would pray and everybody just thought that this would be the night that they received the Holy Ghost, but they would get up and walk away.

And you would think surely you can see it on their faces. They they they're truly repenting. The truth be told that the individual was having to work through some things in their own life. They were having to clean out some things and it was not that we could give them the Holy Ghost. It was not that we could we could tell them what to do to get the Holy Ghost. They had to work through those things. In other words, they were here at this particular place right here and they were continuing to throw things on that altar that needed to come out of them.

Continuing to lay things out and say, "God, forgive me of this. And God, is there anything else?" And I I I don't know about you, but you get to cleaning house sometimes and physically you start cleaning and you find stuff that you just didn't realize you still had. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Yeah. And then it's something that you say, you know, I might use that again. Stick it back in there. That's just the nature of us is sometimes we've got to start laying it out there and we don't get rid of everything.

We've got to literally give it all to the Lord and we began to lay it on the altar. And there comes a point when we have surrendered everything to God that we start seeing things start happening inside of us. Now many times what we we do encourage people is once you have repented of your sins, we ask them to go to the to the water to be baptized. Sy symbol of of what we are doing is washing away our sins. Taking those sins away, washing ourselves, cleansing ourselves.

Symbolic right here. And then we see ourselves entering into that holy place. There's nothing like how many of you that have the Holy Ghost that sat in this room, you remember the night you received the Holy Ghost? I mean, as young as I was, I remember the night, Brother Rob. I remember where I was standing. And to this day, I can take you and there's a pole that's still in that same old building. It's been remodeled. It's been turned around. But I can take you to that bu that that pole and show you exactly where I was.

Why? Because there was something that happened in that spot that changed my life forever. You get into the holy place. You get into the holy place of God. You know exactly what God has done in your life. I want us to look at this again. We are parallel with the cross and what God has done for us and what he is for us along with the tabernacle. Look at this right here. You got the uh the candlesticks. Somebody tell me real quick. We've studied this all week, all all year long.

What does the candlestick represent? We know that it provided light for the tabernacle in that place where there was no natural light inside there. But it also represented the church, right? John 12 verse 35. John 12:35. Again, we use this scripture because I want you to understand is there is there there are things about the holy place and what God is doing inside that place and you you you need to know that he is that light. He is the light of the world. He is the one that that is always going to to shine in that path.

And we we use the psalmist quite a bit when when he talks about that that he lights my path. He he shows me the path of righteousness. And those are that is that enlightenment that God gives us. Amen. Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. He also we see this that that prayer and we talk about the prayers that go on in the in that special place in the holy place around the altar of incense. How many you know worship is very important? It's very important in what we that's one of the reasons that you have repented of your sins.

you've been baptized in the name of Jesus and we enter into that holy place of worship. That's what we tell we we that's some of the instructions that we would give an individual is is just begin to thank God. Begin to worship him. God will that is what ushers us into that holy of holies. You cannot get into the holies of holies without worship. You cannot get there. You have to have God supplying that. He has to be that ultimate light that is shining. Then of course the table of shoebread and we're showing that in parallel table of shoebread.

He is the bread of life. Amen. He is the bread of life. But not only is he the bread of life that he is that that indwelling of the spirit of God that pass that place beyond the veil. He is that ultimate holy place. Hebrews 10 verse uh 19 and 20. Hebrews 10:1 19 and 20. Let's look at this. That is what? His flesh. It was his flesh. this veil. The scripture tells us that when Jesus hung on that cross, at that very point that he died, the scripture tells us that there was thunder.

There was there was lightning. There was things that was going on in the elements. And then inside the tabernacle, inside the tabernacle, the veil was rent representing the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood being shed for us. His flesh literally dying in his body is now. That is his flesh being ripped. want you to understand that he is he is ultimately the king of kings. He is the lord of lords. He is the one that understands everything about us. He is the one that we follow his his orders.

We follow his instructions. I am so grateful today that I do not have to go back to the tabernacle every year just to try and roll things back for a year. I'm so thankful that I don't have to follow the instructions of the Old Testament laws. I I'm I'm grateful for what we learn from them. I'm grateful for what they share and the things that we see that that that it teaches us. But I am so thankful that I do not have to approach that point ever again of saying that I've got to this is what I've got to do.

This is what I've got to I I I I you know it it just brings that sin back up. That sin comes back up and I have to go back through it again. No. If your sin has been washed away, if you have repented of your sins, it is no longer any anymore yours. I I'm glad I can't call I don't call them my sins. It's called sin and it's no longer mine. Amen. As you say, God forgive me. Thank you, Lord, for being that that place, being in that place that I that I can literally say, "God, I surrender to you.

I surrender you." I I know, Brother Rob, this is not in your I don't think in your list, but look look at uh second Peter the first chapter, verse 9. Second Peter, the first chapter and verse 9. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. Notice he he mentions here that that this is this is just like the day of atonement is is all of this is taking place because of what God has done.

He it's like a light that comes on in a dark place. It is it is a light that takes over in the midst of all of our torment and all of our sorrow. all of it, you know, just just coming to God and understanding that he is Lord, that he is over our life and he can forgive us of all of our sins. Just understanding that simple principle, understanding what God can do in our life, that he can show up in the midst of all that is going on in our life and change things.

God makes a way. He makes a way in the midst of when things just seem impossible. I am truly thankful that my redeemer lives today. I'm truly thankful that he has given me something to live for. That he's given me a reason to get up every morning. I'm truly thankful that he went to the cross and he shed his blood so that I don't have to re take that approach on myself and have to go through this over and over and over. I'm thankful for that.

Aren't you thankful for that today? Aren't you thankful that that because he lives, I don't have to face that? because he lives, I don't have to go through all of the the guilt and the and wondering if he's going to show up right in the middle. You see, that was that was the big challenge for Aaron is the people were told to clean their houses. They were told to do everything and and he's going before them, going before the Lord for them. If they had sin in their heart, guess what was happening?

God didn't accept. He did not accept that that al altar would that or that offering would not be accepted. Every one of them had to be purified and and under the people understood that they understood that and they knew that that was the thing that they were waiting on is that we're waiting on the fire to fall and when we see that then we can breathe again because the Lord has accepted that. I'm so grateful that I don't have to approach it that way. Is living under a law that says says I I don't know if if I'm worthy.

I don't know if I've I've done everything right. I don't know. Once and for all I can go before him and say, "God, forgive me." And God forgives our sin. God forgives us. He washes away our sin. I want you to lift your hands with us together. Would you do that? God, we love you. We thank you, Lord Jesus. I thank you for being my redeemer today. Lord, I thank you, Lord, for being the one, God, that understands everything about my life, everything that I I face, God, I don't have to face it alone.

I don't have to come before you wondering if everything's going to be okay. I know God that you are ultimately the one that took the sacrifice. You paid it all for me. You brought it all for me. You you you're the one God that that approached it and said, "I will be that redeemer. I will be the one God." I thank you for that, Lord Jesus. Thank you for your goodness and your mercy, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that we can see your glory in the midst of all of it.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. In the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. I know this has been just a few minutes short, but that's okay. I um today I I was not feeling well, and so I'm I'm I'm getting better. I just have not felt good today, and I ask for your prayers. But uh I thank you for being in this lesson today. And I know I know that everything that God did for us, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that he was that he went to the cross for me.

I'm thankful for that. We're at We're at the Christmas season. This is a time when we can say, "Thank you, Lord, for coming to earth. Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing. Why I thank you for for coming and visiting mankind." Amen. God bless you. for just a few moments. You can get together and we've got we've got our rest of our service here in just a little bit. God bless you in Jesus name.