Sermon Tone Analysis

TEXT: Exodus 25:8

TOPIC: Touring the Tabernacle

Bible Survivor Series, First Baptist Church – Icard, Message 8

Pastor Bobby Earls, October 28 2001

Exodus 25.8, "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them."

SLIDE 1

I've got some wonderful news today: God wants to dwell with you!

He wants to join in your activities!

He wants you to enter into His presence!

He wants you to experience His power!

He wants you to enjoy His provision!

That's what the Old Testament Tabernacle is all about!

God instructed Moses in Exodus 25.8, "And let them(Israel) make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them."

So God spent 40 days on top of a mountain with Moses giving him the directions and dimensions for constructing the tabernacle.

God wanted that tabernacle constructed a certain way because that tabernacle was a shadow of things to come!

This week our church has been taking people on tours.

People have been touring their final destination through our Judgement House.

But today I want to take you on a tour.

I want us to take a tour of the tabernacle God told Moses to construct.

SLIDE 2

Before we begin our tour, let me tell you a few things about the tabernacle you’re going to see.

First of all, notice that this tabernacle (which means tent) was portable in it's purpose.

In other words .. it was a portable worship center!

Everywhere the children of Israel went ... God went with them!

God wanted to take every step they took as they wandered through the wilderness!

I'm talking to some people here today and like the children of Israel ... you're in the wilderness!

Cheer up! God is with you!

But not only was it portable in it's purpose .. .it

was permanent as a portrait.

Everything associated with the tabernacle points to the person or work of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Everything from the altar to the ark was a permanent portrait that shows us the conditions for knowing God! It's God's House of Symbols!

If you had a picture of the Tabernacle you would notice that the tabernacle only has one place of entrance.

There was only one gate that led into the presence of God!

If the presence of God was to be experienced ... they had to go through the gate!

And that gate is a picture of Jesus Christ who said, "I am the door.

If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved."

So I want to tell you there's only one gate to God and that gate is the Lord Jesus Christ!

Now as we walk through the gate we are confronted with the Brazen Altar.

SLIDE 3

(1) THAT ALTAR SPEAKS OF SALVATION.

There on the Brazen Altar innocent animals would be sacrificed!

It was the shedding of the blood on that altar that made it possible to move into the presence of God.

And that blood was a shadow of the blood that would be shed on another altar for the Bible says, "for it is the blood that makes atonement for the souls" (Lev 17.11) and "without the shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9.22).

Those innocent animals that were sacrificed by guilty human sacrificers were a picture of Jesus Christ the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Directly West of the Brazen Altar was the Laver.

SLIDE 4

(2) THAT LAVER SPEAKS OF SANCTIFICATION.

That's where the Priests would wash their hands and feet before entering the Holy Place!

Before they could experience genuine worship .. they had to get cleaned up!

Let me tell you something: Dirty Saints cannot experience genuine worship!

You cannot sow wild oats 6 days a week and come into this place on Sunday and pray for crop failure!

Before real worship comes real washing! 1 John 1.9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Now the Holy Place contained 3 pieces of furniture: the golden candlestick .. table of showbread ... and altar of incense.

SLIDE 5

(3) THAT CANDLESTICK SPEAKS OF ILLUMINATION.

The Candlestick provided the only source of light in the Tabernacle.

God told Moses that there should never be a time when all 7 lamps were out!

Exodus 27.20b, "to cause the lamp to burn continually."

Practically speaking ... the Priests needed the light in there to do their work.

Spiritually Speaking ... that Candlestick and it's illumination was a shadow of another light that would come and that light was the Lord Jesus Christ: the light of the world!

Now beside that candlestick was the table of Show bread.

SLIDE 6

(4) THAT SHOWBREAD SPEAKS OF SATISFACTION.

Exodus 25.30, "And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always."

Those twelve loaves of bread represented the 12 tribes of Israel.

And those 12 loaves were an offering of thanks to God from every tribe for His grace and goodness upon them!

But that Showbread was more than an offering of thanks.

That Showbread pointed to an even greater provision!

They pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the bread of life!

Listen friend .. Jesus not only leads us ...

He feeds us!

He feeds us through His Word and He leads us through His Will!

Now .. that brings us to the last piece of furniture in the Holy Place: The Altar of Incense.

SLIDE 7

(5) THAT ALTAR SPEAKS OF INTERCESSION.

Exodus 30.1-10 ... Now the altar of incense is different from the brazen altar.

SLIDE 8

They are different in their position in the tabernacle!

The Brazen Altar was in the Outer Court and the Altar of Incense was in the Holy Place.

But not only were they different in their position in the tabernacle .. they were different in their purpose!

Upon that Brazen Altar burned a sacrifice!

Upon the Golden Altar burned incense!

The Brazen Altar spoke of Salvation!

The Golden Altar spoke of Intercession!

Psalm 141.2, "Let my prayer be set before You as incense ..."

Revelation 8.3, "Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.

And he was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne."

Luke 1.9-10, "according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense."

The incense speaks of our prayers and it's continual burning reminds us of the necessity of constant prayer.

But that golden altar of incense has a deeper meaning.

Let me show it to you.

Take your Bible and turn please to Romans 8.34, "Who is he who condemns?

It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

Hebrews 7.25, "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them."

Hebrews 9.24, "For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."

Oh ... listen friend!

That incense points us to Jesus Christ ... our Intercessor!

Jesus is our intercessor!

The way to God is through Jesus!