So Great a God Part 2 - Christ Centered Worship

Well, this is the seventh message in the series. So Exodus, redemption, deliverance, and worship. And this is our second week in talking about worship. And I will start in reading the verse for tonight one more time in chapter 25 of Exodus and verse 8. "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." Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for your timeless eternal word. Everything in the word of God is worth reading and studying and gathering and gleaning.

This evening, Father, your word promises us that where two or more are gathered, you are with us. We know that you are omnipresent. You are all places at all times. But, Father, when two or more are gathered because they love you, because they are seeking you, because they long for you, because they adore you, you are with them. Father, we pray for the heart of God to be unleashed through the word of God in this world. We ask for your guidance and your comfort. God, we thank you for the timeless and eternal truth of God as it has unfolded to us. Help us in this time, in this hour, in this day. In your name we pray. Amen.

So last week we began looking at the Sinaitic Covenant. God gives to Moses the moral law, the Ten Commandments. But he also gives him the ceremonial law. And the ceremonial law is that instruction to Moses about how to construct the tabernacle. Everything from tent pegs and what they were made of, and everything from the walls of the tabernacle, the clothing of the priests, all of it down to the most minute detail was prescribed by God. And it was to be obeyed. And it was important. And it is important for us as well. And so here at the Sinaitic Covenant, God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses.

He writes them with his finger, it is the law of God, it belongs to him. And Christ kept his Father's commandments perfectly. And we see Christ in the Ark of the Covenant as the Ten Commandments are placed within the Ark. Last week we centered our discussion around the tabernacle. We can think of the tabernacle as a portable temple or a tent, a meeting. It sat with a movable courtyard that's described in Chapter 27. And the tabernacle had this courtyard 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. That's about the dimensions of half a football field. So 150 feet would be 50 yards, 75 feet would be 25 yards of width.

And as worshippers would enter into this courtyard, the very first thing they would see would be the brazen altar. The altar made of bronze would have looked a lot like copper. I pray this is our heart as we come into worship. May the first thing that we see as we enter worship is the cross. The cross represents that perfect sacrifice as our Passover lamb was slaughtered for our sin. Behind the brazen altar was the bronze basin or the bronze laver. So the basin was for ceremonial washing. So the Israelites would take their sacrifices to the priest. These sacrifices would be burnt completely into this altar.

And priests were commanded to wash constantly before every offering and after every offering. Now people in this day now and in time, we're washing our hands constantly because of the coronavirus. But that constant hand washing of the priest was totally different. It was as much spiritual as it was physical. Because the high priest show us a picture of Christ, we can come to worship and rest assured that we have a pure high priest. He is perfectly clean. He is perfectly capable of giving the offering and the sacrifice. Now just behind the laver, this place of this basin of washing, just behind it was the holy place.

The holy place was 30 foot long and 15 feet wide. You could think of it as a tent within the courtyard. It had very ornamented coverings. It was blue and purple and angelic figures had been woven into this covering. On the inside, there were beams that held up the structure and they could be taken down. But in this holy place, the high priest would walk into and find three pieces of sacred furniture. If you're reading through Exodus and you read about these pieces of furniture, you may think that it is of no value to you in your spiritual life.

Like we said last week, there are two chapters in scripture about the creation of the world and there are 50 chapters about the tabernacle. And God is giving this instruction because it is important because the tabernacle is a shadow of heaven. I was talking to Brother Tommy after last week's message. I gave the illustration of a child who could only see his father's shadow and seeing his father's shadow and studying the shadow, getting excited about those outlines. Tommy, in his unique way, said that the shadow always makes us look for our father.

And so these three pieces of sacred furniture, the golden lampstand, the table of the showbread, and the altar of the incense, we will talk about those tonight, as the elements that they represent in our worship should be present every time we show up to meet with God. And once a year on the day of atonement, the high priest would enter even further into the holy of holies. I introduced this last week, but the holy of holies, it bears repeating in review and in introduction, that this was perfectly square and within the holy of holies, remained the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat.

So in four major points of truth that I want us to see tonight, I want us to see that Christ-centered worship should bring us to focus on his nature. That Christ-centered worship should bring us to focus on God's nature. And God is giving Moses precise instruction about the tabernacle or the tent, a meeting. And the first thing he tells Moses is how to build the Ark. The Ark is gold plated, but it is made of acacia wood. It's three feet long, 40 inches to be precise, 27 inches deep, two feet deep. It could house completely the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on stone. But the mercy seat was a lid that covered the Ark.

As I mentioned last week, it had two angelic figures, two cherubim. And they were not built later intact onto this lid. They actually were one piece. So this was a very beautiful angelic picture, and it was created by a man who was filled with the Spirit of God specifically for this task. They took one very large piece of gold and they literally chiseled out the lid that was called the mercy seat. And God said, "There between the cherubim I will meet with you." And once a year, Aaron the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies. And he communed face to face with the presence of God that dwelt between the cherubim.

And as we mentioned last week, this is heavenly. This is a shadow of the throne room of heaven. Now it's important that we see behind what some may see as a historical element of worship. What we should see here is great theology. The mercy seat that covered the Ark was fully gold and it was also called the throne of grace. The mercy seat was pure gold, the cherubim pure gold. And notice that the mercy seat is placed over and on top of the Ark. I want you to see that Jesus submitted to the Father's will. The mercy seat sat on top. Shows us that Jesus learned, not that he needed to learn, but Scripture says he demonstrated obedience.

That Jesus being God clothed himself with flesh and submitted to his Father's will. He even told his disciples that he had no words of his own, only the words of the Father. So I want you to get this picture, specifically key in with me here on the nature of God. That God being completely heavenly, completely holy, unlike any other, he is adored and worshiped by angels. The cherubim are crying out, "Holy, holy, holy," constantly. They're covering their face. But the Ark, because it is made of acacia wood, represents the humanity of Jesus and it's covered with gold. And I want you to answer a question with me.

The Ark, was it made of gold or was it made of wood? The answer is yes. And if I asked you the same question, was Jesus God or was he man? You would have to say yes. And so when we come to worship, we are worshiping God-man, Jesus submitting to the will of the Father. Jesus contained the law of God in his heart. You know, when I got saved March 3rd of 2003, I'd grown up religious but did not know Christ. And I did not have much for big theological words. There's a word that I would come across, a phrase. It's called the hypostatic union. I didn't really have much for big, fancy theological words.

But the definition of the hypostatic union is the theological concept of Jesus being fully God and fully man. And although I did not care for those terms, I could study the Ark and the mercy seat all day. In 2003 and 4 and 5, I started teaching a Sunday school class and these kind of concepts, I would spend hours just meditating on them. Getting in my study Bible, you can find very detailed pictures of them and it can help you understand. And I was fascinated with the Ark. I was fascinated with the tabernacle. I was fascinated with the sacred furniture that was in the holy place, in the most holy place.

And then it dawned on me several years later, after I learned the hypostatic union, if you have studied the Ark and the mercy seat, you have studied the hypostatic union. You notice there are certain pieces of furniture in the tabernacle that are completely gold. And some are made of wood and they're simply overlaid with gold. And if you can see that anything made of acacia wood covered by gold is symbolic of Christ and the deity of Christ, that which is the humanity of Christ, that which is pure gold are those things which are heavenly.

And if we look at this mercy seat, I'm reminded of something I do remember from my childhood in Bible study classes. The definition of grace is not getting. The definition of grace is getting what you don't deserve. The definition of mercy, not getting what you do deserve. So I believe I've mixed those up. But mercy, getting what you don't deserve. Grace, not getting what you do deserve. Two sides of one coin. And it is fitting that the mercy seat speaks to God's merciful character. But it's also the throne of grace because it represents His grace. God meets with man and we don't deserve it.

We don't deserve to have a high priest mediate for us to bring our sins before the Father on our behalf and plead for us. We don't deserve God descending and meeting with us. But yet God in His unmerited favor towards man gives us grace. So when we look at worship, when we look at the nature of God, we must think about His holiness. We must think about His eternality. We must think about His mercy and His grace. We should also think about His holiness. That He demands us that we worship in the way He has prescribed. There are a lot of people who are inventing new and clever ways to worship. And those are usually man-centered.

They're usually focusing on getting men to church or meeting men's felt needs. But one element of the ark that I want to bring out tonight is how the ark was to be moved. The ark had four corner rings and posts remained in the ark. They were not to be moved. These posts made of acacia wood covered in gold. And the high priests, specifically the sons of Aaron, the descendants of Kohath to be more precise. And as God would lead the procession through the desert, the ark was to be carried in the direct center. Half of Israel would have been walking ahead. Half of them would be walking behind. Such is the case for us when we worship.

Christ should be in the very center of everything that we do. However, we hear of a story in 2 Samuel 6, 7 where God's holiness is on display. King David had not been the student of God's Word that he needed to be. He had been anointed king years prior, but for about 7 years he was hiding out. He also had become king of the southern portion of Israel. The ark had been lost. The ark had been out of the possession of Israel. And David was bringing the ark back. However, he did not bring the ark back as prescribed. He brought it back on a new cart. It was not being carried by sons of Aaron, the Kohathites.

So a man named Uzzah was walking next to the ark. The ark became unsteady. It was about to fall. He touches the ark. And God strikes out and kills him. If you do a Google search on this, you will see all kinds of discussion boards. People say, "Was it unfair of God to kill Uzzah?" You know, there's this sentiment that God is just randomly walking around with a big paddle and spanking his children for no reason. This was a serious, serious offense. I challenge you to study this if it's been some time that you've read the passage and that you're familiar, maybe you're not familiar with the story.

But this is a reminder that God is holy and he deserves to be worshipped rightly. We need to remember his nature when we worship. But we should also see that Christ-centered worship is about his work. So we begin with the ark in the mercy seat, and now we're moving from the Holy of Holies out into the holy place. Now, I want us to see these three pieces of sacred furniture. The first is the table of the showbread. The table of the showbread remained in the holy place. This is something that only Aaron would have seen. He was to enter the holy place twice a day.

He entered in the morning and the evening, and I'll explain more about what he did. But the Levites were allowed to replenish the table of showbread. It had 12 pieces of bread, one for each of the tribes of Israel. And every Sabbath day it was replenished. The old were removed and eaten by the priests, and new loaves were placed. It was transported on rings. All of this furniture had beautiful coverings that were taken out and covered, and they were also in the middle of the procession.

Because Jesus is our faithful high priest, I want you to see that Jesus is always faithful to obey, and he is precisely and he is intently concerned about his people. When you see the table of the showbread, any time we see food, whether it's the Levites, at times feasts of Israel, eating in the presence of God, this is a blessed time. God gave us manna in the wilderness when he gave us Christ. But also the second piece of furniture I want you to see is the altar of incense. So in the holy place, in addition to the table of showbread, there was the altar of incense. This was built of acacia wood. It's symbolic of Christ. It's gold plated.

We see the humanity and the deity of Christ in the altar of incense. Now this is not like the altar that is in the courtyard. This is not the brazen altar that was seven foot wide and four feet long. Now the altar of incense was much smaller. It was beautiful. And Aaron the high priest burned incense in the morning and in the evening. When you see incense pictured throughout the Bible, it represents worship, praise. It represents intercession. If you read the book of Revelation, you will see that the prayers of the saints rise like incense to the Lord in the morning and in the evening.

This is a picture of God's communion with his high priest on behalf of his people. And the last piece of furniture that we see is the golden lampstand. You could read about this in Exodus 25, 31 through 40. The golden lampstand was pure gold. It's representing something that is a deity and something that is of eternity. It was pure gold. It represents light. Jesus tells his disciples, "You are the light of the world." This was the only source of light in the holy place. Because this had a roof, it was completely pitch black. This is a picture that the light of the world is necessary. Now Christ himself is the light.

But there's something about the lampstand that is really important to worship in the church. Because the lampstand had seven different lamps. Again, they were trimmed every morning and every evening by the high priest. And to be more specific, the lampstand represents the people of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit. So I want you to think about this. It's seven, so that's symbolic of all of God's people. If you come to church, maybe like tonight, there's just a few of us here. There's other times when you may come to church when all of God's people are here. But when the lampstand is lit, it represents the Holy Spirit moving through his people.

And that's why in the seven churches of Revelation, God tells the pastor of the church, "Repent or I will remove your lampstand." He's saying, "Yes, you could still have a building, you could still gather, you could still have your policies and even sing songs, but the Spirit will not be in your midst." We must see God's nature as we see his work. And thirdly tonight, we must see his sacrifice. We must see his sacrifice. The reason why I'm giving the message in this order is because this is the order God gives it to Moses. He started with the most sacred furniture and then the most sacred places. And he moves out.

So we see heavenly worship in the Holy of Holies. We see Christ's intercession on our behalf as the great high priest in the Holy Place. Now in the courtyard, we see the altar of the burnt offering. And as I said at the very beginning tonight, when we see the altar of the burnt offering, we see the cross of Christ. You could read about the altar of burnt offering in Chapter 27, verses 1 through 8. The altar was the place of sacrifice. It is the place of fire. It's the place where countless offerings were lifted. The conservative theologians say that there was about 2.6 million Jews. Liberal theologians put the number at 200,000.

Why would liberal theologians have a harder time with a bigger number? Because it's a bigger miracle. Because God brings 2.6 million people in a desert wasteland, a place of pits, where people could not live and they couldn't even travel. The high priests, not the high priests, but the priests, the Levites, used censors to manage this fire. An animal was placed on this altar, and these censors would basically be sacred firepokers, if you will. If something happens, Hebrews 10, 11 references this, but there was a rebellion. There's a man named Korah who led a rebellion against Moses and against Aaron. And I'm going to summarize this.

It would certainly be worth your time to come back to study this. But Korah basically had had enough of Moses and Aaron. Aaron had the fancy garments, Levites had the fancy garments. Korah came and argued that everyone was holy. He was making the case that everyone in Israel was in line, and could have a direct line with God. Moses was basically excluding people from fellowship with God. So this is what Moses did. He prays. He and Aaron, they spent the night praying and fasting over this.

And he said, "Okay, the next day what we'll do is we'll get together, and I will bring fire to the altar, and you bring fire to the altar." See, Moses lost two nephews like this. Aaron had two sons who died. They offered strange fire or unauthorized fire. And so Korah comes to the altar with those he is rebelling, and he's saying the whole priesthood, the whole assembly is holy. And God literally opened up the ground and swallowed Korah and all of those that rebelled with him. And from that day on, something changed about the altar. Instead of sensors used to manage the fire, they used a bronze...

The best way I can describe this, it was basically a flat, long bronze plank. Because it served two purposes. When it wasn't being used to shovel ash out or to move the sacrifice, it could be laid across as a cover. And all of the different bronze planks were then set as a covering over the altar. What does that have to do with anything? That's a symbol instituted by God to show that the priesthood was reserved for certain people. The take-home is that not everybody is a mediator. There's only one mediator. And not everyone is a leader in the church. The leader in the church should be the one who is called.

In our day, we look at 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy and Titus to see those who are God called. But moving on, let's look at this altar. I want you to see that real worship involves sacrifice. I'd mentioned that this altar was 7.5 feet long and 4 feet high. And on the corner of the altar were projections, also known as the horns of the altar. These were built in. They weren't attached again. This was one large piece of bronze. And many regard them as a symbol of power and protection. If a person was fleeing from an enemy, they would sometimes run into the temple. And they would throw themselves on the horns of the altar.

This was in an extreme case. If someone was trying to avenge or someone had become angry with them, and this was a dispute. They would basically run to God and literally run to the place of sacrifice and throw themselves the horns of the altar. And we do the same when we're having conflict. It could be that you are being oppressed by a relationship. And it would do us all good to run to the cross of Christ, to throw ourselves on the horns of the altar. In New Testament language, we'd go to the feet of the cross and plead for mercy. Because at the cross we find our power and our protection.

The cross of Christ has become our symbol of salvation. Jesus is our high priest. He is our altar. He is our sacrifice. And we need no other altar. We study the brazen altar not because it's historical. Because it is a shadow and a type of Christ. And it points us to Jesus. And we love Christ, therefore we love the image of Christ that it gives us. We need to see though that Jesus was a superior sacrifice. You could study Hebrews. Hebrews 727 says that Jesus's sacrifice, unlike the Old Testament mosaic sacrifices, did not need to be offered daily. Hebrews 727. Hebrews 912 says that God does not take joy in the blood of goats and calves.

The blood of Jesus was superior to the blood of goats and calves. Hebrews 926. 926. Saying that Jesus, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, Jesus only had to offer his sacrifice once. Romans 928. That Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Again Hebrews 1010. We've been sanctified through offering of the body of Christ. And Jesus is a superior offering and he is a superior offeror. Now in light of all of these, what is our response? In conclusion tonight we look at point four.

Christ centered worship demands a response. You know there were four different types, five different types of offerings that were brought into the altar, were brought into worship. The most costly was the burnt offering. The burnt offering was the entire animal was given for sacrifice. The entire animal was burned except for the skins which were given to the Levites. And the burnt offerings were given for thanksgiving, for penitence. If you had done something wrong and you were specifically, the law demanded burnt offerings for certain sins. If you were making a vow, you know you think of the vows that are made at weddings.

This is probably the closest thing we might understand. Also if you're buying and selling a house and the contracts that happen are very symbolic of a vow. But also atonement, that once a year blood was brought in, blood was taken from the sacrifice. And the blood was taken into the holy place and blood was used, was placed on the horns of the altar, as well as to the sacred elements of worship in the most holy place. The golden altar would have had the blood as well as the mercy seat. So the burnt offerings were costly and priceless. But you also had grain offerings. That you'd bring a tenth of whatever you had.

And because commerce involved many different people groups, the currency would have varied depending on who you're interacting with. You often could have traded flour, oil, frankincense and salt. And you would bring a tenth of this into worship. And this would be burnt up. The smell that would have been given from the tabernacle would have been glorious. Flour, oil, frankincense, salt, meat, roasting, incense. This would be a very pleasant smell. And the grain offerings for us represent giving of our resources to God for the work of the church. It should not be begrudging of you to bring offering. Not just tithes, but offerings.

From time to time people in our church have needs. And we bring these gratefully and willingly. But also there were peace offerings. This would be the third type of offering. The closest thing we would have to this would be communion. But a peace offering is when the fellowship ate in the presence of God. You know we think of Thanksgiving and we think of Christmas. And we get together with family and we cook customary food, traditional foods. We say a blessing before the meal. But Israel had national festivals that God prescribed. Certain foods would have been cooked.

And God was saying, "Eat in my presence." This is a God who draws near to his people and he eats with them and he fellowships with them. And we looked at this last week. After God gives 10 commandments he asks, he invites the 70 elders of Israel up the mountain for dinner. And they have a meal with Moses and Aaron and the elders of Israel. Before Moses and Aaron wait six days and then ascend higher. Peace offerings were important. The fourth type of offering, sin offerings. This was repairing our relationship with God. Sin offerings varied depending on the sin. And fifth, the fifth type of offering were guilt offerings.

If you had wronged someone you would be prescribed certain guilt offerings. Now it would be reductionistic of us I think to say simply, "Jesus is our high priest. He takes care of everything in our life." Although that is true. I believe that as the church becomes more mature in her walk with the Lord, I believe praying becomes more specific. I think there are times when we have specific offerings that we are bringing before the Lord that are spiritual in nature. If you have problems in your life and you bring a problem to the Lord. If you have a conflict in your life and you bring that conflict to the Lord.

If you have a monetary need and you're bringing that before the Lord. If you're thankful for your salvation you're bringing that to the Lord. And Sunday when you come to church and you sing and you meditate on the excellencies of God's mercy and His grace. His eternal attributes. Those are offerings. And the reason why I love studying the tabernacle and the worship is because it shows me what should be on the plate of a mature believer. You should see there is a time in your life where you have wronged someone. Are you bringing the blood of bulls and goats for penance? No. Because you have one sacrifice and that is the blood of Jesus.

You were a sinner therefore you wronged someone. You injured them. And God has covered your offense but there will also be probably things you have to do. And the Holy Spirit will tell you and lead you. For us we have the witness of the spirit. The spirit living within us is our seal that we have a high priest who is interceding for us. And so we ought to be able to resolve conflict better than lost people. We ought to be able to handle impossible situations better than lost people. And when we look at these offerings and we look at this very ornamented worship that is beautiful and complex and nuanced.

We see the Christian life and we are in awe that we have a good God, a present God, a God who supplies all of our needs and most importantly he supplies all of our spiritual needs. When we come broken before the Lord we might be coming to the Lord like Joseph and Mary. There is a sacrifice to be brought when you brought your son in to be circumcised. Poor people brought in small birds. If you were wealthy you had brought in more expensive. So God has a way of showing you in your moment what is the perfect prayer to pray. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit, think of the incense that is burning from the Holy Place.

When you go into your prayer closet and you don't know the words to pray, Scripture tells us the Holy Spirit prays that we don't know what to pray and he prays through us. When I think of that incense I think of everyone around the world who is praying right now. I think of the coronavirus as a time to bring the church together because we know that Christians all around the world are praying for the same thing at the same time. Even while we are asleep, Christians on the other side of the planet are bringing these concerns to us. Our prayers should be filled with praise. Our prayers should be filled with thanksgiving.

Our prayers should be filled with consecration. Not my will but your will be done. Our prayers should be filled with intercession, praying for the lost. I pray that we would become real prayers and worshippers and as we see the tabernacle, we can fellowship with them through the pages of the text. Because you've brought the same sacrifices to the Lord even though you've never brought spices to be burned. You've never brought an animal to be burned. But you brought every bit of that when you brought your concern to the Lord in prayer.

When you had a relational conflict and you brought that to God and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you wrestled over it and you labored in prayer over this until God allowed you and gave you the words to say to the offended party and there was resolution. And you know that only God could have gotten you through that trial. Only God could have gotten you through that patch in your life where that relationship was strained. And you look back on all of it and you see all the sacrifices over the years of walking with the Lord. All the sacrifices that you offered and you know He received them.

And we talk about Hannah who is so burdened about her barrenness that every year she brought that burden to the Lord. And a high priest came to her and spoke to her and he said, "God is heard." And the Lord spoke to her heart and said, "This time next year you will have a son." And in that moment she knew that God had heard her. Don't stop bringing your sacrifices to the Lord. Be faithful to the Lord in the secret place. Bring these burdens to Him. Next week we will have a final message to wrap this up and we will look at the curtain. The curtain that separated the company of Israel from the Holy of Holies.

There was a curtain in the temple just like this and it was rent asunder. And we will take a look at that beautiful picture of redemption. I want to close us in a word of prayer. I'm going to ask Scott, you would close us tonight in prayer. And then we'll be dismissed.