Appreciating The Holiness of God
Holy, Holy, Holy • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last week, we began to look at the holiness of God. God is different than you and me. He is different than any other creature thing. He is God. He has always been and he will always be. Remember before there was anything, he was. He is the Ancient One, or as Daniel said, the Ancient of Days.
And because there is not like him…. he is HOLY. Remember last week I said that holiness means to be set apart. Different. Nothing like him. But also he is Holy because of his character. What is his character? He does not change. I change, you change, but he does not change. His promises are always fulfilled. What he says in Scripture will come to pass. We can see where the prophecies in the Old Testament have been fulfilled. But there are still prophecies in the BIble that will be filled… and we know they will be filled…WHY?… because he does not change… HE IS HOLY.
BUt not only is HE holy… but he provides his holiness…. through his Holy Spirit to those who believe. You and I, if we believe in God through his Son Jesus Christ, we have access to his Spirit that guides us through his holiness.
But also, knowing that his holiness, through the Holy Spirit, fills our lives, we be filled with amazement and appreciation and not take it for granted.
Last week we saw the holiness of God manifested through a burning bush in front of Moses own eyes. His very presence there in the bush and on the ground around became Holy because his presence was there. That was in Chapter 3 of the book of Exodus, and this morning we are going to move to the end of Exodus and once again see the holiness of God shown among his people.
But first, lets grab our Bibles and declare what we believe as a church.
***CREED
The Bible is The Word of God.
The Truth of the Bible will change my life.
Lord open my heart and awaken my mind
And give me grace to respond.
Change me for your glory and my joy, Amen.
Open your Bibles to Exodus Chapter 40.
As I mentioned, last week we were at the start of Exodus, chapter 3, and this morning we move to the end of Exodus. There has been a lot that has happened from Chapter 3 to Chapter 40.
Moses and Aaron did go to Pharoah and told him, LET MY PEOPLE GO. He refused. So God would send 10 plagues upon Egypt, and finally Pharoah said GO! So they did, and as they were out of town they came to the Red Sea. You know the miracle that God performed. So then the continued. This journey that the people of Israel took should have taken three days… but because of their unbelief, their bowing down to false gods, and so many other ways that they did not trust in God, it took them 40 years to get to the promised land.
But chapter 40, they are still not there. But from Chapter 3 to Chapter 40 as God has moved them through the wilderness, he has given Moses instructions for building a temple or tabernacle. A place where the holiness of God would reside and where they can come before God and offer sacrifices for forgiveness of sins and giving honor to God.
But this temple was not built to stay in one place. Just like they were moving through the wilderness, the temple would be picked up and moved, then set up again when the would stop for a period of time. In other words…. the Spirit of God…. his holiness would never leave them throughout the 40 years they were wondering in the wilderness.
So lets look at Exodus 40:17-38
So the Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year. Moses erected the Tabernacle by setting down its bases, inserting the frames, attaching the crossbars, and setting up the posts. Then he spread the coverings over the Tabernacle framework and put on the protective layers, just as the Lord had commanded him.
He took the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant and placed them inside the Ark. Then he attached the carrying poles to the Ark, and he set the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—on top of it. Then he brought the Ark of the Covenant into the Tabernacle and hung the inner curtain to shield it from view, just as the Lord had commanded him.
Next Moses placed the table in the Tabernacle, along the north side of the Holy Place, just outside the inner curtain. And he arranged the Bread of the Presence on the table before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded him.
He set the lampstand in the Tabernacle across from the table on the south side of the Holy Place. Then he lit the lamps in the Lord’s presence, just as the Lord had commanded him. He also placed the gold incense altar in the Tabernacle, in the Holy Place in front of the inner curtain. On it he burned the fragrant incense, just as the Lord had commanded him.
He hung the curtain at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and he placed the altar of burnt offering near the Tabernacle entrance. On it he offered a burnt offering and a grain offering, just as the Lord had commanded him.
Next Moses placed the washbasin between the Tabernacle and the altar. He filled it with water so the priests could wash themselves. Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons used water from it to wash their hands and feet. Whenever they approached the altar and entered the Tabernacle, they washed themselves, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Then he hung the curtains forming the courtyard around the Tabernacle and the altar. And he set up the curtain at the entrance of the courtyard. So at last Moses finished the work.
Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
Now whenever the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out on their journey, following it. But if the cloud did not rise, they remained where they were until it lifted. The cloud of the Lord hovered over the Tabernacle during the day, and at night fire glowed inside the cloud so the whole family of Israel could see it. This continued throughout all their journeys.
In the middle of Exodus, Moses had been given all of the details of how the temple, or tabernacle was to be set up. Even the smallest detail was done. And because of the details that we see in the book of Exodus, here are some drawings of what it looked like.
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And we can see pictures of what the temple looked like as they traveled through the wilderness, and we can think that is so cool how, when God would have them travel to a different place, they would pick all of that up and move it and set it up again. And we can see all of the fine details that God gave Moses, and he did those…perfectly. But lets not lose sight of what is important about this tabernacle… the presence, the holiness of God was there.
This wasn’t just a place to bring an offering, a sacrifice. This wasn’t just a place for the Levite priests to make sacrifice for the people…. this was the place where God dwelled. He was among them. The cloud that led them as they travelled through the wilderness, would come into the temple when they stop and set it up for a period of time. The cloud…was the holiness of God, and it would dwell in the most sacred part of the temple… the holy of holies.
The holiness of God was with his people… in the temple.
In the years that followed after the Bible was written, the Jewish community placed a name on the presence of God which would show itself outside of heaven. Like the cloud and the smoke in the temple that was the presence of God. The name was this:
SHEKINAH
means “to dwell”
The Holiness, the shekinah glory of the Lord dwelled in the temple. His presence was among them.
Before we move forward, I want to point out three different things about Moses here in Exodus 40.
Moses was AWARE
I have read through the book of Exodus before and I will soon be reading it again. But God gave great detail of how the tabernacle and even the ark of the covenant should be built. The height, the width, what materials to use, how they should build them, what tools they should use. God gave Moses a lot of instructions, and Moses had to pay attention and listen for the leading of God to be able to build it exactly as God had told him.
For example, look at the details God gave to Moses…
“Make the Tabernacle from ten curtains of finely woven linen. Decorate the curtains with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim. These ten curtains must all be exactly the same size—42 feet long and 6 feet wide. Join five of these curtains together to make one long curtain, then join the other five into a second long curtain. Put loops of blue yarn along the edge of the last curtain in each set. The fifty loops along the edge of one curtain are to match the fifty loops along the edge of the other curtain. Then make fifty gold clasps and fasten the long curtains together with the clasps. In this way, the Tabernacle will be made of one continuous piece.
That was just a small area of the tabernacle. God had so many more instructions, so Moses had to be aware. He had to be listening for the leading from God.
2. Moses was OBEDIENT
Look at the actions of Moses:
Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, 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.
Six times, in these verses… Moses set things in the temple and the Scripture says that he did this as the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses was obedient to the voice of God. He knew that God had a plan for his people. He may not have known everything that God had planned in the future, but whatever God was leading him to do, he was obedient.
When I think about the obedience of Moses, I remember back to the first words Moses said to God. We read them last week. From the burning bush, God called out to Moses. What did Moses say? Exodus 3:4
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
God said, build this temple, here is how you should do it, and Moses said….HERE I AM…he was obedient.
3. Moses was FAITHFUL
Moses wasn’t perfect. There were times in the wilderness that he disappointed God, in fact he wasn’t even allowed to enter into the Promised Land to see it with his own eyes. But he was a faithful man. He allowed God to lead him through those 40 years, and because of his faithfulness.
This is what the writer of Hebrews says about Moses… Hebrews 11:27
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Moses was faithful to what God had called him to do. Moses never saw God. He saw a burning bush, he saw an angel, he heard the voice of God, but he never saw God. That’s why the writer of Hebrews said that HE ENDURED AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE. He never saw God, yet, he endured, he was faithful to a holy god.
Moses was AWARE, OBEDIENT, AND FAITHFUL
What about you? What about me.
Do you realize that the cloud that dwelled in the temple in the Holy of Holies dwells in the life of every believer? Is you believe in Jesus, the presence of God, his holiness, his Holy Spirit dwells in you. Galatians 3:2
Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.
His presence no longer dwells in a tabernacle or a temple or a building, it dwells inside the life of a believer.
Do you know when that changed? Do you know when God’s Spirit moved out of the temple into the hearts of his people?
Let me show you, Luke 23:44-45
By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle.
That curtain has the tall, thick curtain that separated the HOLY of HOLIES from the rest of the temple. Only the HIGH PRIEST could enter the HOLY of HOLIES and it was only one time in a year. Behind this curtain was the holiness of God, the SHEKINAH GLORY of God. When Jesus breathed his last breath, and the payment has been made for the sins of the world, the curtain was torn from top to bottom, not by huan hands, but by God. What did this mean… no more did you have to go to a priest for the forgiveness of your sins, no more did you need to make a sacrifice at a temple, because Jesus, the final sacrifice had been made, and now the holiness of God would dwell in his children through the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit… God in YOU!
So, if you have believed in Jesus and called on his name and he is your Savior and Lord…
Ask yourself these questions.
AM I AWARE?
Are you aware of the Spirit that lives inside of you? Are you allowing God’s Spirit to lead you in a way that honors him. Or are you ignoring his voice. It’s there, you just have to be aware of it.
AM I AWARE?
AM I OBEDIANT?
When the spirit does lead you in a certain way are you being obedient to his leading or away are you going along your own way? Is your attitude: HERE I AM LORD?
AM I AWARE?
AM I OBEDIANT?
AM I FAITHFUL?
You and I are not always going to get it right. We are going to sin, we are going to disappoint God, but more than ever, are you being faithful to him? Are you being faithful to a HOLY God? Are you truly appreciating that a Holy God, resides in you. The creator of the universe, and the Author of Salvation has given you HIS Spirit to indwell you…. how will you live your life knowing that?
