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It's a great honor and privilege to still be with you this evening and be able to preach again unto you guys and to preach the most exciting chapter ever in the Bible, Exodus 25. No, I'm just kidding. But you know what I like about having sections of the Bible like this is it tells us that not everything in the Bible is going to have the same level of excitement. Some things are just a little bit more practical, serious, details, instructions, and really our lives are not necessarily always just going to be 100% fun. You might not just like every single thing that's going on. And you know, I preached kind of more of an exciting sermon this morning, but this evening I'm going to kind of talk about some doctrine and some pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ that are here in the Bible. But what you have to understand about the Lord is He gives us all of these things on purpose. You know, this chapter, to me, I struggle and maybe you don't, I don't know, I struggle when I read chapters like this thinking like, why is this in the Bible? Has anybody else thought this? Okay, I'm not the only one. All right. Well, I'm just kind of like reading. You know, you read sections of the scripture like Psalms or Proverbs and it just seems like every phrase is just jumping out at you and it's all really exciting. A lot of New Testament books are really easy to read. And then you get to some of these Old Testament portions of scripture and it's kind of a chore to have to even read through. It's difficult to always think about the context of what you're even talking about. I often read through it and think like, I have no idea what I just read. And I'm just being honest with you, that's kind of how I feel. But there's a couple of verses in this chapter that really kind of got me thinking when I was reading about this recently. And I want to look at a couple of verses here again. Look at verse number eight. The Bible says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. And what kind of stuck out to me is this idea of the pattern, the pattern that's being shown here. And if you kind of understand a timeline of where we're at, the children of Israel have come out of Egypt, they passed through the Red Sea, they've come back to Mount Sinai, the Lord has descended, he's giving the law unto Moses. And frankly speaking, when I read the book of Exodus, all of that's really interesting. It goes really quick. And then you start getting into this part. And it's a little gnarlier. But notice the whole essence that's kind of being communicated here is that God wants to dwell among them, he wants to have a place to be among them, and he's having him make a pattern of things that are in heaven. He's having him make a pattern of a tabernacle, and a tabernacle is just more or less a dwelling place. And in this context, it's a pattern of something that actually exists in heaven. Go to the last verse of this chapter and notice the same mention. And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount. So all the things that are constructed here are things that are already in existence, but they're in heaven. So they're making a replica, imitation, model, a figure, a pattern, all these things are similar words here. Now go if you would to Hebrews, we're going to come back to Exodus in a minute, but go to Hebrews if you would, and let's see how the Bible describes what we kind of read about already. Hebrews chapter number 8, look at verse number 1. Now the things which we have spoken, this is the sum, we have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the real minister, the real servant of the true tabernacle, which is in heaven, and the Bible is saying that God himself, the Lord, is the one who made it, pitched it, set it up in heaven. And that all the things that were in the wilderness were simply just a picture or a pattern of what was in heaven. And if you think about it, Moses himself is also a picture of Christ. Moses is picturing Christ, and he is building this sanctuary just like the Lord had built this sanctuary. Verse 3, for every high pieces are deigned to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle, foresee, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. Notice this phrasing is kind of picking back up from what we read in Exodus 25 about how there was this pattern showed to Moses in the mount. He's on the mount of God. God shows him what the real tabernacle looked like in heaven, and then they made a model or an example of it. This is also why it's impossible for us to recreate such a tabernacle today because we haven't been given this special heavenly vision of what it actually looked like in order to build it. And while we have plenty of instructions, I don't think they're necessarily replete without that heavenly vision, without that special heavenly knowledge and wisdom that God gave unto Bezalel and to Moses and the men that ended up crafting and creating these things. Some people want to try and recreate them, but there's no point in recreating them. We had that for the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ is where the true tabernacle is, and he is the one that was the true priest, and Moses was just a picture. He was just a figure. Now look at chapter 9 verse 23. The Bible further elaborates on this point. It says, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. So in the previous chapter, it talks about how the earthly tabernacle, Moses' tabernacle, had sacrifices. They killed animals. They killed the goats and the oxen and turtle doves and various animals, the lamb, and that was a foreshadowing, and Jesus Christ had to have something to offer, and we know that he offered himself. He was the lamb of God. He was that offering. Now it's saying here in chapter number 9 when it's talking about this particular sanctuary and the offerings, that if those things were purified with animal blood, then the heavenly has to have a better sacrifice than animals, and of course Jesus Christ was truly a better sacrifice than these. Verse 24, for Christ is not entered in the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. So according to the Bible, Jesus Christ literally entered into this heavenly tabernacle and performed a similar ritual or a similar exercise as what Moses did with their blood sprinkling, but not with the blood of bulls and of goats, but with his own blood. He entered in once into the holy place and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat, and that's what gives us the phrase, the blood atonement. A lot of people use this terminology, the blood atonement. Well that blood had to go into this tabernacle in heaven and to be literally sprinkled on the mercy seat in heaven to give us that true atonement with the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, how does Jesus get blood? Well he had to be born, right? He had to come down to this earth, he had to be given a body, and that body had to have blood. Not only was that blood shed, but it was innocently shed. So Jesus Christ had to live a life of innocency, live a life of purity, and beyond just being a child, because every child is innocent, but being a full grown adult and still being innocent, still being without blemish, without spot, and he had to then die and have his blood shed and spilt so that he could then take that blood into heaven and sprinkle it on the mercy seat for us. So a lot of incredible things here that are being pictured, talked about, and of course Moses and them going through all these rituals, I mean think about it, they're going through the hot desert, I'm sure you can relate, and doing all kinds of sacrifices of these animals, but it was really a foreshadowing and a picture of what Christ was going to do for us. And so every sacrifice is one element of what Christ did. That's why there's so many different sacrifices. You notice this? There's like a burnt sacrifice and a sin sacrifice and a trespass sacrifice, I mean there's one for the ruler, then there's one for the layman, it's just like all these different sacrifices because there's so much to Christ and what he did that you have to have all these different pictures just to give a glimpse of what he did for us. And all of them are picturing Christ and what he did. Verse 25, the Bible says this, So according to the Bible, it was a one-time event of Christ, even though the Old Testament, they had to do this on a regular basis, a daily basis. They had to offer all of these sacrifices and all of these pictures. But the phrase that really kind of stuck out to me when reading this passage is verse 24 where it says, So everything in the Old Testament was only a figure. It was not true. It did not give true forgiveness of sins. It did not give true peace with God. It did not give true reconciliation. It did not give true atonement. No, what Jesus did is gave us the real forgiveness of sins, the true forgiveness of sins, the true atonement, the true reconciliation, everything. All that they had was a figure of the true. And that's the title of my sermon this evening, it's Figures of the True. Figures of the True. Now I want you to go back to Exodus and let's go to all the way to chapter 32 now. We'll flip a little bit further forward in the story. Exodus 32 is where the story kind of picks back up. He gives us in chapter 25 to about chapter 31 a lot of the instructions on how to build this sanctuary and the tabernacle and all the different instruments involved. And what's interesting about Exodus is we get a little bit of story and then we go back again to all of this tabernacle construction. But what's important to understand is that God told them exactly how to do it. And then we have a whole other section of scripture telling us that they did exactly what God said. And this is important because we have to realize that God wants us to do things exactly like he said. Not just close or my own version of it, not the NIV version of it, but the King James version of it. You know, every word. You know, exactly right. And yet there's also other cool pictures that are mentioned here. But we've already kind of established a few things, right? Moses is a picture of Christ. The tabernacle in the wilderness is a picture, a figure of the true tabernacle, which is in heaven. Now this leads us to this interesting story about Moses. And look at verse 1 of chapter 32. The Bible says, And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we woe not what is become of him. So we see right off the bat, Moses has gone up, he's talking with God, but it seems like it's been a while. And there's this delay. There's a long period of time. Well, who does Moses represent? Moses represents Christ. He's a picture of Christ. And think about this, from the day that the Lord has delivered them out of Egypt, from the time when Christ actually arrives, isn't that a pretty long period of time? Now what do the children of Israel do from the period of leaving Egypt until Christ? Do they just stay faithful, committed, God-serving, God-loving children? Or do they go whoring after idols? Don't they go whoring after idols? And they can't contain themselves. They can't stay committed long enough. And we have the same picture here of Moses, kind of this delay, taking a while to come down off the mount, taking a while to come, and the people are just, hey, let's make us gods. And we don't know what happened to this Moses. It's like it's so quick to just drop Christianity and just embrace paganism, heathenism, false religion. And it's not even that much different than what happened in the New Testament. If you think about after Christ ascended up into heaven, the Catholic Church didn't take long to pick up idolatry, did it? And isn't it taking a while for Christ to potentially return? But this is just how God operates. God will give us long periods of time of human history to go to the next event. You know, as we read our Bible, we're kind of spoiled. You know, we read passages where it says like, oh, and there was 40 years of peace. Like, that's a long time. A lot of people in here aren't even 40 years old, you know? And so we just skip through. I mean, we read about the pre-Flood era in just a handful of chapters, and this is a period of like 1600 years. I mean, that's a long time. So we go really quickly through the Bible. We have to understand that God, his operation of time is different than what we perceive sometimes. And sometimes he takes a long time to interact with humanity again or to go to the next prophet or to come to the next major event. You know, he expects us to treat his word as precious as if it was just hot off the press, even if it was 500 years ago or 1,000 years from everlasting. It just stays the same. And you get this from Deuteronomy. Y'all are going through Deuteronomy. Have you noticed it's pretty much the same as Exodus? And it's like, hey, after 40 years, you know what God decided? I still believe the same things. Here's the log in. I just want to refresh you that I still believe everything that I told you 40 years ago. I was really serious about it. And the same applies that today, hey, God's still serious about everything in the law. God's still serious about everything that he gave us in the Bible. Now look what it says in verse 2. And Aaron said, and then break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool, after it made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. That is crazy. I was not that long ago that they walked through the Red Sea. Can you imagine walking through the Red Sea, being delivered by God in such an extreme miracle? And this was right on the heels of the plagues of Egypt, where they saw all manner of miracle just perform before their eyes regularly. Now they're instantly just worshiping a golden calf. That was quick. But you know, that's how ungodly people are. That's how the world is. That's how humanity is, that they will just quickly go after other gods, quickly go after false religion, just easily led astray. Verse 5 then tells us, and when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow's a feast of the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, go, get thee down for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way, which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. So Moses is commanded by God the Father to go down from the mount unto the people. Now what is this picture? Well if we think about kind of the timeline that we're building here, we had a delay of Christ's initial coming, but then why did Christ even come to this earth? Because God the Father commanded him to come. Keep your finger here, go to John, chapter number five, go to John, chapter number five. We're going to see the same parallels of that God is the one that instructed Jesus to even come down from heaven. John chapter five, look at verse number 30. The Bible says this, I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. So is Jesus Christ saying it was my will to come down? No he's saying it was my Father's will that I come down, and he came down at the commandment of the Father, just like Moses is sent down from the mount, not of his own will, but as the will of the Father, the will of God sending Moses down from the mount. And notice why God's sending him, because the people corrupted themselves. Why did God send the Lord Jesus Christ? Because we're all sinners in need of a Savior. Go back to Exodus chapter 32, and look at verse number 10 now. The Bible says in verse 10, now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. So God wants to destroy them. God wants to just take, wipe them all out. Verse 11, Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven. And all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. So notice another thing. Moses not only is going down, what is Moses doing? He's interceding on the people's behalf. He's interceding. It's not that he doesn't know they're sinners, he knows they're sinners. He's interceding on their behalf, and he's causing God's wrath to not be poured out on those people. Just like Jesus Christ came down here to be a reconciliation unto the Father, and to intercede on our behalf, and the Bible makes it very clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is interceding on our behalf. Look at verse number 15. And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables are written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome. But the noise of them that sing, do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. So Moses comes down off the mount, he has the law with him, he has both tables, and he sees them committing their sin, and he breaks the two tables of stone. What kind of symbolism do we have here? Well, we have symbolism of a couple things. Number one, that when Jesus Christ came to this earth, he fulfilled the law. He had the law, he obeyed the law, he was doing the law. He didn't come with a new law, he came with the original law. But what did he do? In Moses' story, he broke the law, and what did Jesus do? He fulfilled the law. But in essence, he's kind of doing the exact same thing, in a sense that he's breaking the law. Go if you would to Romans, chapter number seven for a moment. Go to Romans, chapter number seven. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried and rose again, we entered into the New Testament. And what this did is it caused us to then now become dead to the law, and he took the curse of the law upon himself. And so just like Moses breaking the tables of stone, shows how it has no bearing anymore. It has no effect anymore. Just like Jesus Christ dying on the cross and us that believe in him, now the law has no effect on us, and in essence, the Bible describes us as being dead to the law. Look at Romans, chapter number seven, verse number one. The Bible says, Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. How the law hath dominion over man, as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore my brethren, ye also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So in the same way that if a woman was married and her husband dies, she no longer is under any of her husband's authority, her husband's rules no longer apply to her, and she is completely free to then be married to another man if she so chooses. It is the same as how us, when we believe on Christ, the law has no longer any kind of dominion or effect on us, and I cannot go to hell. Because for the wages of sin is death, and what that means is going to hell. So whenever I transgress the law in any way, even one sin, I would be guilty of hell, and I would be condemned to hell. But because I'm not under the law, I'm under grace, no matter what I do, I will go to heaven, because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's like the law was broken in a sense to where it has no effect, no binding on me, and now no longer do I have to suffer the consequences of breaking the law in eternity. Of course there's still earthly consequences, we understand that, but this is the symbolism that's being portrayed of Moses coming down, breaking the law, just like Jesus Christ came down, died on the cross, was buried and rose again, and what happened as soon as he died? In the veil, rent and twain, just like the tables are broken, just like that veil was ripped apart, showing that no longer is there this separation between us and God, and the law has no more effect over us in that particular context. Go back to Exodus chapter 32, so we're seeing a lot of different parallels here, it keeps getting more interesting though as we get through the rest of this chapter. Let's just skip ahead a little bit, go to verse 26, the Bible says this, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. So Moses then also rebukes the people, and he ends up making a division of the people, and if you think of it, when Christ came, he divided the children of Israel as well, to those who believed on him, and those who did not believe on him. Jesus Christ did not come to give peace on earth, nay, rather division, is what the Bible says. Christ came and he divided the children of Israel, and some Jews believed on Christ, and they were saved, and they were on the Lord's side, and other Jews did not believe on Christ, and they were on the wrong side, the side of death. Now in this story, they go out and they slay all of those that did not end up coming to his side, coming to his mercy, coming to his grace, just like coming to Moses' side and coming to his grace and mercy, they resisted, and they stayed where they were. What is this a picture of? Well, after Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, what happened to all the Jews that stayed in Jerusalem in unbelief? The Roman army came and they slayed every single one of those Jews, didn't they? You see that death and that destruction that came upon them, just like these Levites go out and they slay all these men that were guilty of this wickedness and did not seek unto the Lord for mercy or for grace, and several thousand were destroyed. Now look at verse 27, and he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. So we see a slaughter of the wicked, even though they were brethren, but they were brethren physically not spiritually, and as a result, we see the death and destruction of these wicked sinners. Look at verse 30, And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin, and now go up unto the Lord, peradventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. So Jesus Christ, he came down, he died, he was buried, he rose again, then what happened? He ascended unto heaven, and he took his blood into what? Into the true tabernacle, and he put his blood on the mercy seat, and he made the atonement for our souls. So he's saying unto all the people, Hey, you're all sinners, let me go up and make atonement for you. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ did, is that he ascended back up into heaven, and he made atonement for us. Now go to chapter 34, go to chapter 34 for a moment, and look at verse number 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew the two tables of stone like unto the first. Now I really like this verse, because we see that Moses broke the two tablets, and we see that Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the law, so then the question is, oh, so the law no longer applies? No, no, no. Write it again. Meaning what? Hey, in the New Testament, the law still applies, folks. Hey, there's still sin. You know, if there was no law, sin wouldn't even exist. That's where you have some people like hyper-grace teachers that literally teach that there's no sin anymore, and it's not about rule following, it's a relationship. These people don't have a relationship, okay? These people aren't even saved, that have this ridiculous hyper-grace mentality. Yeah, obviously, there was a change of the law, and even specifically in the Ten Commandments. We don't necessarily have to observe a physical Sabbath anymore, but much of the law, if not the vast majority, especially when we talk about moral law, still applies today. We're not supposed to go around killing and stealing and doing all this wickedness, no. God is still giving him the law again, he's making it, write it again, and he's delivering it unto them again. Of course, we're not under the curse of the law, and we're not under the law, we're under grace, but we still should obey the law. We should still follow the law where the New Testament has not replaced it. Now look at verse 29, we're going to skip a little bit further ahead, and I'm kind of trying to speed up here for a moment, but think about some of the elements that we had. Jesus Christ came down, Moses came down, broke the law, fulfilled the law. We see that the wicked were slain, and we see that the atonement was made, he was given the law again, and now we're kind of back in the same pickle where Moses is back way up in the mount and nobody knows what's going on, right, it's been a long period of time. And isn't that where we're experiencing the New Testament? Jesus Christ went back up in heaven, it hasn't been quite a while, I mean almost 2,000 years at this point that Christ has been up there in heaven, it's felt like a long time. And we've seen a lot of history, and what are we all kind of anticipating? We're anticipating his return. Of course we understand the Antichrist is first, but we're looking forward to Jesus Christ coming back and kicking his butt, so there you go, all right? And so we understand that there's a long period of time here, and you say, how long is it going to be, Pastor Shelley? I don't know, but he's not going to come back at the end of the sermon, okay, sorry. You're going to have to endure the entire sermon, all right? I know there's a lot of preachers out there that say, he could come back even before I'm done with this sermon. That's not going to happen, okay. But he could come back relatively soon, I don't know, 10 years or something, could be 100 years. It doesn't really matter to me because I'm still going to live the exact same life. If it was 10, 50, 100 million, it doesn't matter. We're supposed to fear God and keep his commandments, this is the whole duty of man. It's not like the mission changes, we still go out and preach the gospel and do everything the same way. But what's interesting about this picture is that Moses is up there taking his time, getting the log in, hopefully he won't break it this time when he comes down, right? But look at verse 29, the Bible says, and it came to pass when Moses came down from the mount, Sinai, with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wished not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him, and when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him. So notice when Moses came down the first time, he broke the law. When he comes down the second time, what happens? He's brightly shining, picturing what? The glorified Lord Jesus Christ when he returns. Hey, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, he's not coming in a lowly, humble state. No, no, no, he's coming back in all glory, in a full glorified state, and we're going to see his face shine. In fact, the Bible tells us that the wicked are going to go hide in the rocks because of how bright it is. I mean, he's going to be coming in all this glory and all this power and all this majesty. So just like Moses is going up and back, we see it's the same pattern of the true. It's the pattern of the true minister, of the true intercessor, of the true savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses was a picture, Moses was a pattern, but he was not the true savior, not the true high priest that Jesus Christ is. Now when you get to chapter 35 to 40, we're restarting that whole section that's just kind of like, and here's how you build this sanctuary and all this snuff dishes and whatever that is. I don't even know. You know, you've got all these instruments that they're building all these things and you see that Moses is setting up the tabernacle, but think about it. When Jesus Christ returns, what is he going to do? Be setting up the millennial reign of Christ and setting up his tabernacle on earth just like we get this retelling here in Exodus. So you start reading these things and you just think they're just so arbitrary, but then when you start looking at the spiritual pictures, you see God put these things in here on purpose for a particular pattern of the things that are going to happen, the figures of the true, the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and the things that he's going to do. And Jesus Christ is truly the high priest and everything that we have here is simply a copy of what was really going on in heaven. Now go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter number, well, let's go to Exodus 16, I'm sorry, go backwards first and then we'll go there. Go to Exodus chapter 16. This is what I was thinking. Okay, why does this matter? Right? Because doesn't everything, you know, everything in the Bible is obviously on purpose and there's a point to it and we see all these cool pictures and patterns and figures of Jesus Christ. Why does Jesus Christ, why does God give us a pattern and a figure, an imitation, a replica and not just the real thing right off the bat? I mean, why do we have to have all these pictures and foreshadowing and shadows and types and all this? Like what's the point of it? I kind of wonder that. I'm kind of thinking like why not just give me the real thing right off the bat? Well, I'm going to submit to you why I believe that the Lord is doing this. Look at verse 4, then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ cause them to have to gather manna every single day to test them? Couldn't you have just been like, hey, I've stored up like endless amounts of food. You can just get it whenever you want, but he said, no, no, you have to gather it every single day and if you gather extra, it'll just rot and breadworms and stink and you won't even be able to have it unless you did it on the Sabbath, you know, the day before the Sabbath. Then it'll just miraculously not stink and, you know, defy the laws of physics for some reason and we see that they have to do this every single day because he wanted to see what they're like. What kind of people are you? Are you the kind of people that'll gather it on the first day only or will you do it the second day? Will you go a whole week? Will you go a whole month? Will you go a year? Will you go a whole lifetime? What kind of Christian are you? And, you know, you say like, why'd I have to go to church three times a week? Well, you know, we're trying to see what kind of Christian you are. Are you a Sunday morning only? They have a name for a reason, folks. Now you guys aren't because you're here. All right, I see you. But if you're listening online, you know, I don't know. Are you an online only listener? You know? I mean, do you go to church just on Sunday? Do you go every single time the days are open? Hey, are you a Christian for five months? For a year? For five years? For 50 years? What is God doing? He's trying to figure out what kind of Christian are you? What kind of Son of God are you? What kind of child are you? So when he's giving them all these instructions about the tabernacle, he's, I believe, testing them to see what kind of Christians they are. Think about Aaron's first two sons. What did they do? Offered strange fire unto the Lord and he smote them like that. We figured out what kind of children they were real quick. And God wants to see what kind of person you are, what kind of integrity you have. Go to Deuteronomy, chapter number 8. Now this is a common theme in the Old Testament and throughout the Bible that God is going to give you figures of the true to test you. Now this makes sense now that we've established this principle. Why? Well, think about if you were going to hire someone to work at your company and your company has some really expensive equipment. And if you make a mistake, it's going to break all of this equipment. What would you probably do? Hey, here's a replica of it. Here's a really cheap substitute version of it and we're going to test you and see how you handle that first before we give you the really expensive stuff. And if you would think about it, we're all interviewing for the jobs in heaven. The true job, the true servanthood, the true opportunity to serve the Lord. And you know what he's doing right now? He's testing us with figures of the true, with patterns of the things that are going to go on, to see where he's going to place you in his company, in his business, in his kingdom. And this is our opportunity to show him that we mean business. You know, there's great principles in the Bible that he that is faithful in the least will be faithful also not which is much. You know what? Those people that are not faithful, you know what, they're not going to be faithful whether it's a dollar or a trillion dollars, it just doesn't matter to them. And what God's doing is really testing your heart and your mind and your will and seeing what kind of person you are. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 1, all the commandments which I command thee this day shall you observe the dew that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swears in your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. Why did you do this for 40 years God? Well I wanted to see what you're really like. And boy you'll learn about somebody after 40 years of being with them. You'll know what they're really like. What are their real patterns? What are their real habits? What are they actually like on the good days, bad days, the ugly days? What kind of character do they possess? Look at chapter 13, chapter 13 verse number 1. Have you not realized that this entire life in some way is just really just a big test? We're all taking a giant test of the Lord right now. This is all just a giant exercise for the Lord to see what you're really like as a person. And all the things that are going on in this world are seemingly random until you read the Bible and you realize they're all there on purpose. You know you drive down the street and you see all kinds of temptations. You know the fast food, you see all the different things and it's just testing you. How far will you drive to get good food? And it's like McDonald's is trying to plant one every corner just to see how far you'll go. And it's like I'll go a lot further than McDonald's. And we see the church, how many churches are there? I mean I venture to believe that most people in this room pass hundreds of churches before they get to this one as far as proximity to their house and it's just a test. Which one are you going to go to? But look at Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse 1. If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass, where have ye spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You say, Why in the world does Joel Osteen exist? Why is there TD Jakes? Why is there a false prophet on every corner? It's because God is proving whether or not you really love him. God is proving whether or not you really care about the Bible. I mean how many Christians today just settle for the NIV? Settle for the New King James? They're not even willing, they're so apathetic to discuss which Bible is the right Bible. I mean I was in an argument with someone recently about Bible versions and I said, Well, you have to at least admit that they say different things. And I show this person in Proverbs chapter number 18 verse 8 how it's radically different. Now I don't know if you have, I don't even think about this, does he have an ESV in here? Let's see. Oh, it's Joel's Witness, yeah here's an ESV. That thing's trash. Go to Proverbs chapter 18 for a moment. I wasn't going to argue with this person and this is the point I was making, they're different. I wasn't trying to argue which one's right, I'm just saying they're different. They can't both be the exact same when they're different. Look at Proverbs chapter 18 verse 8 in the King James Bible. The words of a tail bearer are as wounds. Now does that sound like good, bad, indifferent? It sounds pretty clear that it's awful, right? And this person's trying to advocate the NIV to me. So I looked it up, what it says in the NIV. Proverbs 18 verse 8, this is what the NIV reads. The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels. Now tell me that's the exact same. Now I said, this is the point I was making, they're not the same. That's the only point I'm making. They're like, well the ESV's right though because if you look it up in the Hebrew, you know. And I'm thinking like, you speak Hebrew now? That's impressive. I didn't realize that you speak Hebrew now. And even if, even if that word did theoretically mean in Hebrew, delicious morsels, which I'm not saying that it does or doesn't because I don't care. That doesn't even prove your point. They're putting all their faith in a lexicon. And frankly, people don't understand the complexity of speech. Because I was in Brother Segura's office and I was looking at his computer monitor, which was giant, and it's 4K. And I said, man, these computer monitors are sick. You know what I didn't say? Your monitors have become very ill. Why? Because words change all the time. In fact, we read in our Bible this word all the time, nay. You've heard the word nay, right? What does nay mean? No. Now if you speak Greek, you'll also find a word called nay. You know what the word nay means in Greek? Yes. Isn't that confusing? And it's because words, you know, can constantly mean different things and change their meaning based on context. And why am I going to listen to someone that speaks English interpret for me what Hebrew means from a lexicon? They have no idea. But let's go back to my first point. They're not the same. Take one. They're not the same. So you know what you have to decide? Either one's good or one's bad. But they're not both good. And this is the person's opinion. I think both Bibles are good. Oh, okay. Yeah, just like the false prophet here in Exodus, I'm sorry, Deuteronomy chapter 13, he's not good. He's a bad guy. He's a false prophet. It's false dreams. Not everybody's good. Not every Bible's good. Not every verse in the ESV is good. It's obviously trash version 2. And I'm not going to give you the complexities of Hebrew this evening, but here's the point. Care. Why wouldn't you just care? How can you not care about the Bible? How can you not care which one's right? One is saying that whispering is like a delicious morsel. And the other one is telling us that tell-bearing hurts people and causes people problems. Which one sounds even just logical because you know what God did? He put the word of God into your heart. Do you know the law of God is written on your heart, meaning that you just instantly know which one's right? Just like two plus two equals four. You just know it's right. You just know everything is right because God already basically told you it was right in your heart. You already knew that a man was a man. No one had to tell you and that a girl was a girl. It's just period. But you know what God does? He puts all these little traps out there and all these little liars and fakers and deceivers out there to just see what you're really like, though. To test you. You know, the Pentecostal church and the Catholic church and all these different things out there. And people will just be like, well, I just think that everybody's a liar and every church is bad and all the Bibles are bad. And they just give up. Or they go the other extreme. Everything's good. Everybody's wonderful. I like all of it. And God doesn't want you to do either of those. God wants you to decide what's really right. This is like people who take a true-false test and they just say, everything's true. I'm not even going to read the question. It's true all the way down the line. And then there's other people like, no, no, false. Every single question. And it's like God wants you to actually read the question and decide is it true or is it false. He wants you to put in the effort. And he's trying to test you and figure out what you're really like. Go if you would to Ephesians, chapter number six. He's testing our faith. God is giving them these figures and all these pictures and all these commandments and all of these things so that he can know what are they going to really do with the true things. Now the Bible gives us a lot of other figures. We don't necessarily have this physical tabernacle or anything like that. But what's a couple figures that we have? Well, the Bible tells us to honor thy father and thy mother. And you know a father is a figure, is a picture of God the father. And we as children are supposed to honor our father, earthly father, just like we would honor our heavenly father. And God gives us that figure. God gives us that father figure to see how you would treat him. That's why, think about certain commandments in the Bible. Hey, if you smite your parents, you're put to death. Why? Because that person represents God in your life. And how dare you smite and curse your parents? How wicked would you be? Just because they may not be perfect doesn't matter. He's a representation of God in your life. And how dare you disrespect your parents? You know, you children, you say, I love God. Well, you know how you love God? By loving your dad. By loving your father and honoring your father and following his commandments and following his instructions. And God is testing you to see what you're really like. Look at verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Did you know that this specific commandment is tied to how long you're going to live on earth? God is saying, I'm going to give you a certain amount of time on earth, and it's dependent upon how you honor your father and your mother. Let me tell you something. It's called a test. It's like, hey, if you don't get this question right, you're not going to the next question. You failed the test. You're immediately just out. You already lost on this particular procedure. God is giving you a test right now. And you know what? When your father asks you to do something you don't want to do, it's God saying, how are you going to respond? Because when your parents tell you to do things you want to do, like, hey, eat ice cream. Like, okay. Hey, do you want to stay up late? Yeah. You want to go to the movies? Yeah. Clean your room. Oh. You know. Eat vegetables. You're like, eh. You know, right? They pick some restaurant you don't want to go to, and you're just like, ah, I don't want to go here. I don't want to do this. But you know what? God's testing you to see what it's like. Just like when you flip the page, you're like, Exodus 25. You're like, okay, I'll read it, you know. It's like Psalm 23. Yes. You know. Psalm 139. Yeah. You know. First Chronicles. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's like. But you know, not every commandment is ice cream, is it? Not every commandment is just always super fun. You know, it's like, Pastor Anderson, woo, Pastor Shelly, oh. Yeah, that was a long sermon in the morning. You know, sometimes, you know, it's a lot of fun. Sometimes you enjoy it. But he's testing you to see what you're really like. How about your husband? Look at Ephesians chapter 5. Look at verse 22. The Bible says, wives, submit yourselves and your own husbands as unto the Lord. Here's a question. You ladies that love God, how do you treat your husband? The wives that are not treating their husbands well don't love God. God is testing the ladies in this world and saying, you know what? I'm seeing how much you love me by how much you love your husband. Why is Sarah so praised in the New Testament? Because of how she treated her husband. And how that was an example of how she feared God. Because how you fear your husband, how you love your husband, is directly connected to how you fear God. And God is using him as a picture, as a figure of the Lord himself to see how you would really treat the Lord. I think a lot of women think like, yeah, if Jesus was here, I'd make him a sandwich. I mean, if Jesus came over tonight and was like, make me a sandwich, I'd be like, yes, sir. I'd put bacon on it, you know, I'd get out the good bread, whatever. And the husband comes home, he's like, hey, can I get a sandwich? It's just like, when do I get a sandwich? You know, it's like God's testing you to see how you would respond, how you would act. And how you treat your husband is how you would treat Jesus, folks. That's just what the Bible is giving a picture of. Look at verse 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he's the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Obviously, the only caveat we have to the figures in this life are if they're asking us to do something sinful. But apart from the authority figures in your life telling you to disobey Christ, when they give a commandment, you should look at it as if God gave you a commandment. God gave you an instruction. You know, you have all these different people as a figure of the true. Is your husband really Jesus? No. If he is, get away from him, okay? If you're married to Tyler Doka, run, all right? But what I am saying is he's a picture. What I am saying is he's a figure of the true. Your father is a figure of the true. And go, if you would, to 1 John chapter 4, here's something that applies to all of us. How we treat each other is a direct figure and picture of how we love God. You want to know who loves God the most in this world? You don't have to wonder. You can know for a fact it's whoever loves people of Christ the most. Whoever loves the people of God the most is the person who loves God the most. Look what it says in 1 John chapter 4, it's a really interesting verse, verse 20. If a man say I love God and hated his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Notice what God did. God gave us a person as a substitute to show how we would love him. If you love your brother in Christ, you love God. If you don't love your brother in Christ, you don't love God, you're a liar. And so many people really struggle with loving their brother in Christ because they just don't love God. And the people who are truly loving their brothers and sisters in Christ are the ones who truly love God. And God is testing us to see where he's going to put us. You know, he's saying this song, so little time. And it has some verses in there that seem to apply really strongly. Like despite the heat, boy, I'm thinking like you guys need to be singing that one hard, you know, here. But think about it. You're going to be serving God in heaven forever. But if you won't work for him now, why would you work for him then? If you're not willing to serve him now, I mean his commandment to go out and preach the Gospel to every single creature didn't stop 50 years ago. It didn't stop 100 years ago. You know, when Christ gave that to the apostles and to the early disciples, that is still just as relevant today. And he's testing us and he's proving us, hey, what are we going to do when we actually have a job in heaven? Well, you know what? How you're doing it right now is how you're going to do in heaven. That's why he's going to put those who are faithful here into high positions in heaven because he's testing us with figures of the truth. Our job here is just a temporary job. It's not as important. It's not necessarily for everlasting. Obviously it's important in the sense that we want to get people saved, but God is testing us and proving us to see how faithful we'd be. Just like we have parables of people giving talents. That's important. There's nothing, it's not that that's not important. But then when the master returns, what does he exchange those talents for? Cities. Cities. I mean way more important. All of a sudden, way more extreme. Why? Because he's testing them. Hey, what are you going to do with a little bit of talent, okay? Well now have a city to rule over. And God is constantly testing us and proving us with figures of the truth. And this phrase kind of stuck out to me in the hymn this evening, how sad to face the slacker's blame. How sad to face the slacker's blame. We're going to be standing before God one day. We're going to have to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. You know when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, we're going to see that glorious face, that bright shining just like Moses came down. And it's going to be one of either regret or rejoice. And the whole song that we sang is just hammering the fact that we want to hear, well done, about good and faithful servant. Not like the AHSB that says well done the good and faithful slave, okay? All right, I want King James here, all right? But according to the Bible, you know, it's very clear that how we respond to the figures of the true is just as important to God as the true themselves. And he's using them as a test for us in our lives. So you know, don't look at the mundane things of this world, the mundane chapters, the church services that maybe you're less jazzed about. The soul winning and the areas that aren't necessarily the greatest, the hottest parts of the year when you go out soul winning, when it's not necessarily as much fun. You know, look at that as a challenge to see how much character do you really have? Are you going to serve me when it's easy or will you serve me when it's hard? Will you serve me for five minutes or will you serve me for a lifetime? Will you do the things that I ask you to do when it's not fun and it's not cool or will you only do the stuff that you really like? And we need to be people of character because at some point there will be a time when we reap. You know, you're going to reap what you sow in this life and that's going to be directly based on this lifetime. This is your one opportunity. This is your one big test. Don't waste it. Don't just squander it. Don't be like Esau that despises birthright and just give up on it. Don't be like people who just despise the Lord and depart and having loved this present world just decide to do nothing for God but rather be that faithful Christian who clings onto the faithful word and says I'm here to serve God for the rest of my life. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this church, for these people. I pray that you would help give us a burning desire inside of our heart that would never be quenched to serve you and that we would look at every challenge in our life as an opportunity to make the right decision. We understand that you're looking down from heaven to try and prove us and to test us and that there's all kinds of obstacles and difficulties and struggles. And I pray that you would increase our faith to understand that all these things have purpose and that you want us to show how much we love you by loving those around us and going out and preaching the gospel. And I pray that you would just keep that burning desire in this church's heart so that they would be faithful soul winners all the way to the end when we see the glorious face of Jesus and in sins of your son's name we pray, amen.