THROUGH THE BIBLE - Exodus 4..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Let's open up our Bibles together and let's read corporally as a congregation. Exodus chapter 40.

I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. This is the word of God with reverent hearts and paying much attention to each one of the words. Let's read together. Exodus chapter 40. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, On the first day, of the first month, you shall erect a tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting, and you shall put in it the Ark of the Testimony, and you shall screen the Ark with a veil, and you shall bring in the table and arrange it, and you shall bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps, and you shall put the golden altar for incense before the Ark of the Testimony and set up the screen for the door of the tabernacle.

You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting, and place the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. And you shall set up the court all around and hang up the screen for the gate of the court. Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it and consecrate it and all its furniture so that it may become holy. And you shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils and consecrate the altar so that the altar may become most holy. You shall also anoint the basin and all its stand and consecrate it.

Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tenement meeting, and shall wash them with water, and put on Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest. You shall bring his sons also, and put coats on them, and anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may serve me as priests. and their anointing shall admit them to a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations. This Moses did, according to all that the Lord commanded him.

So he did. In the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid his bases, and set up its frame, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. And he spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark, and set the mercy seat above on the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the tabernacle in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil, and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil and burnt fragrant incense on it as the Lord had commanded Moses.

He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle, and he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering as the Lord had commanded Moses. He set the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet when they went into the Tent of Meeting. And when they approached the altar, they washed as the Lord commanded Moses. And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not sit out till the day that he was taken up for the cloud of the Lord. was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

Amen. This is the word of the Lord. And by the grace of God, now we're coming to the end of this book of Exodus and doing it in chapter number 40. And as we arrive to the end of the book, we are not to forget how the book started. And we started with the story of these people of Israel, these people of God who were in slavery in the land of Egypt, and how the Lord God of Israel remembered them and visited them.

And through Moses, He gave them freedom. He gave them this promise of, I'm going to take you to a land I promise land in which you are going to be free." And something that I've said that is very important, beloved brothers and sisters, is that the promise of the Lord was not only to take them to this land in which they were going to be free, but rather by doing so, by taking them into this land, the Lord promised that He was going to enter into a relationship with the people of Israel. This is what the book calls it a covenant. They were going to enter into this relationship with the Lord in their journey towards this promised land.

And as part of this covenant, the Lord gave them the law, the Sabbath, and also a location where to meet the Lord, namely the tabernacle. the law, the Sabbath, and the tabernacle were the items, if you want, of this covenant, of this relationship that put together or put a framework of how the people were going to relate to this Lord God of Israel who had taken them out of the bondage of the land, from the land of Egypt. Here in the end of the book, we have the setting up or the assembling of the tabernacle as part of that covenant that establishes that relationship between God and the people in the process of fulfilling the promise of taking them to the promised land that He had given. through Moses. This is what we have here.

Now, if you pay attention to the text, the way that the assembling of the tabernacle takes place, it is by two things. First of all, the Lord is given the instruction of assembling or, as he says, you shall erect the tabernacle of the 10th meeting. And he gives all of those instructions. And then in verse 9, after he has given all of those instructions of how the tabernacle is going to be assembled, the Lord says to Moses, then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it. So the Lord is calling Moses to assemble all of these parts of the tabernacle.

And when all of these parts of the tabernacle are put in place, even the priest, then Moses is to anoint them with oil. This is very important, brothers and sisters, because here we have very covenantal language and it's showing us something very important in the conclusion of the book. And that is that the covenant between God and the people of Israel now has been established. The word that we have for erect the tabernacle in our ESV, perhaps you may have a different word if you have a different translation of the Bible. That is exactly the same word that the Lord uses to speak of the establishment of the covenant with Noah.

and the establishment of the covenant with Abraham. So when God, the Lord God of Israel said to Noah, that I will establish my covenant with you and I will establish my covenant with you, Abraham, it is exactly the same word that is used for the establishment, if you want, of the tabernacle. Now, the second thing is that through the anointing with oil, we can see very clearly that all the furniture and the priest were made consecrated unto the Lord, as verse 9 says, and they became holy. Verse 9 says, Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it and consecrate it and all its furniture so that it might become holy. holy.

And then you will have that combination of those two words in that section there. Anointing with oil, it is consecrated, and then it becomes holy. And then when it speaks of the priest, it is anointing with oil, they are consecrated, and then they become the priest. We have covenantal language in which the tabernacle, the meeting place of the Lord, is established, is erected, is assembled, and all the elements or all the items, including the priest, are also consecrated and made holy unto the service of the Lord. But the best proof that we have that this is covenantal language is found in the end of the book, when the glory of the Lord, it said in verse 34, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

The glory of the Lord came down and filled the tabernacle and this shows the approval of the Lord with everything that had been done. Now, brothers and sisters, this is very important because the people that have now found favor and acceptance and approval in the eyes of the Lord to the point that the glory of the Lord has descended in the tabernacle in the same way that it descended at Mount Sinai and Horeb, are the people that had broken the covenant in Exodus chapter 32. So this shows that they had repented of what they had done and that the Lord had accepted the repentance of these people to the point that when they had concluded the assembling or the putting up or the putting together of the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord, the manifested presence of the Lord God of Israel, came down into the tabernacle so that all of them may see. Now, there's something very important that the author of Exodus wants us to see and that is the faithfulness of Moses. It is at least eight times, he started in verse 16, that the author, of course, himself, but the Spirit of God points us saying that this is what Moses did according to what the Lord had commanded him.

that Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded. And then from there, we're going to have at least seven repetitions that say, as the Lord commanded Moses, as the Lord commanded Moses, as the Lord had commanded Moses, seven times it will be given that statement pointing to the faithfulness of Moses. And if you think about the whole book, Moses was indeed faithful because the calling of Moses started way beyond the Exodus. The calling of Moses to redeem these people started way beyond the moment that the people were taken out of slavery. That is the point that the author of Hebrews makes in Hebrews chapter 12, if you want to come please with me to there, because here you can see a very important aspect of the ministry of Moses.

It is in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23. In the last chapter of Exodus, we're told, and he did as God had commanded him to do seven or eight times in verse 23, says, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the kings. Now verse 24, "...by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward." By faith he, Moses, left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured, seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover, and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. This is the faithful Moses whose ministry started not only when the people of Israel were liberated from the oppression and the bondage of the people or under the people of Egypt, but rather it started way beyond when he was born through his parents and he continued. Now, brothers and sisters, the faithfulness of Moses, in keeping and protecting the people of Israel is very important because the author of Hebrews uses the faithfulness of Moses as a type of what the Lord Jesus Christ does for the church.

Come with me to Hebrews chapter 3 so that I will make that point clear. Hebrews chapter 3. The faithfulness of Moses over the people of Israel, over the house of God, it's a type, it is a shadow of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ over his people, the church. And this is where we learn something very interesting. Chapter three, verse one.

Therefore, Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1, Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, of course, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." Now pay attention. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant.

to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. Now here comes the comparison. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence in our boasting in our hope. Now, brothers and sisters, this is vital, and this is important because the assembling and the putting together of the tabernacle as the dwelling place of God in which He manifested His glory and His approval of everything that the people of Israel did is very important. But we also know that many of these people who were the partakers of this glory being revealed and all of these things that took place, they will fall and will perish in the wilderness.

So Moses, was faithful to God in the protecting and the keeping on the house of God, the people of God as a servant. But Jesus Christ, it is faithful to God, the father who appointed him for similar service, but not as a servant and as but as a son. And this is very important because the ministry of the law The only thing that can produce is servants of the Lord. That is the point of the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 4. But the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as Son over the house of God produces sons and daughters of God.

So, therefore, the relationship that covenant members can have under the law through Moses is not even compared with the relationship that sons and daughters have in the house of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because at its best, the things that Moses did under the Old Covenant speak of the things that are going to come later. namely, only point to the person of Jesus Christ in whom the Beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased, all of those who by grace through faith are united to Him, become sons and daughters, and the glory of God does not depart from the dwelling place, because now they become the temple of God, and Jesus Christ dwells among them. While in the old covenant, the presence of God, the glory of God could depart and actually departed from among the people. But praise be to God that through the blood of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the dwelling of God is now within us.

And when consummation comes, He is going to establish new heavens and new earth. And His dwelling is going to be with His people, removing all sin, death and sorrow so that all the things of this world pass away. And we are eternally united to Christ, not because of the fulfillment of the law in our strength, but because Christ came, fulfilled the law of the old covenant, made that covenant obsolete, and in His holy blood established a covenant that makes us sons and daughters of the eternal God. Amen?