Exodus - God Dwells Among His People - Exodus: 35-40

Well, hello, welcome to the roots where it's all about Jesus.

As Pastor Greg mentioned, my name's Jordan and one of

the elders here at the roots where it's all about Jesus,

and I just got to say real quick, I'm sad that.

We are reaching.

We have reached as of today, the end of our

series in Exodus, which means we have to say goodbye

to that awesome intro song by one of my favorite bands.

Yeah, I see Jackson's sad face. He said too. Oh

you're yawning. Jackson's already asleep. But yeah.

We've been in the series going through the Book of

Exodus since January, looking at God's mighty work of deliverance

of his chosen people Israel, the demands that he made

of them to both separate and identify them as his

chosen people. And now we've come to the conclusion of

this incredible account of God's mercy, his power, and his salvation.

We're going to see the One True God come to

dwell among his people. Let's pray heleny Father, I thank

you for this time that we can gather in your name,

in your presence, to recount the ways that you delivered

your people, the demands you've made of them to obey,

and the truth of your dwelling among them, and your

promise to dwell among your people today. And I pray, Lord,

we would see the truth of this account, the promises

that you made, the promises that are going to come

to fulfillment of our dwelling with you one day in eternity, Lord,

that we would submit trust in and just rejoice in

the truth of your scripture today as your people, we

love you and ask all these things in your name.

A men, now.

To start before we get into this, because we have

covered thirty four chapters already.

It's a lot, it's a lot of content. So I'm

going to give us a high.

I overview recap of sorts of what we've looked at

so far in this book of Exodus before we get

into the meat of today. We've looked at God delivers

his people.

God delivers his people.

In chapters one through eighteen of Exodus, we looked at Jacob,

later named Israel by the Lord, his twelve sons and

their descendants settled in Egypt and died there. And we

read in chapter one, verse seven, but the people of

Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew

exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

And later on in the book, in chapter twelve, we

see that the tribe of Israel, a census was taken

and that increase added up to roughly six hundred thousand men.

That's just men who were counted, So we're not even

talking about women and children. So we're talking millions of people.

So when Scripture tells us they multiplied so that the

land was filled with them, that's no exaggeration. Millions of people.

And this multiplying in the land spanned the course of

four hundred and thirty years, according to verse forty in

chapter twelve, and toward the end of that time, a

new king, Pharaoh, rose to power and greatly oppressed the

tribes of Israel. He put them to servitude, to slavery

and to hard labor. And while Israel is enslaved, God

raises up Moses, the man chosen and equipped by the

Lord to deliver, to lead Israel out of Egypt and

into the Promised Land, the land that God promised to

Abraham and then to his son Isaac and to his

son Jacob, who we see now as Israel and all

the tribes that came from him. In Chapter six of Exodus,

starting in verse two, it says God spoke to Moses

and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared

to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty.

But by my name the Lord, I did not make

myself known to them. I also establish my covenant with

them to give them the land of Canaan, the land

in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard

the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians

hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say

therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord,

and I will bring you out from under the burdens

of the Egyptians. And I will deliver you from slavery

to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched

arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take

you to be my people, and I will be your God.

And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God,

who has brought you out from under the burdens of

the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that

I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob,

I will give it to you for a possession. I

am the Lord, and we see that he does just that.

God delivers his people from slavery. He displays his power

through ten plagues, and at the end of it all

the Egyptians are begging the Israelites to leave. The Egyptians

want them to leave so desperately that they give the

Israelites everything they ask for, and the Bible puts it

as they plundered the Egyptians. God delivers israel from their slavery.

He delivers them from Pharaoh's army by parting the Red

Sea for them. Pharaoh's army, they have a change of

heart because Pharaoh's heart keeps getting hard and he's like, no,

never mind, I want them back. They chase after them

to the Red Sea and God parts the very sea

for them to escape Pharaoh's army. He delivers them from

hunger and thirst in the wilderness multiple times, and then

he delivers them from the Amalekite army who attack them

later on. And throughout all these great acts of deliverance,

the Israelites are continuously grumbling and complaining, but God remains

merciful and patient, and keeps his promise as he always does.

Next we see God makes demands of his people. God

demands when God brings them to Mount Sinai. He makes

demands of his people, and he gives them his law,

the Ten Commandments, which they immediately break by making a

golden calf to worship instead of him. But again God

is merciful, and like Pastor Duncan showed us last week,

God is always more merciful than we deserve, and he

shows his people yet again his amazing grace. He renews

his covenant with them and gives Moses a new set

of stone tablets. And the stone tablets have those that

law written on and he gives them to him. And

as Duncans had said it so beautifully, he didn't do

it because the people were good.

He did it because He is good.

He renews his covenant with them, not because the people

were good, but because He is good. And these tablets

of stone with the law written on them, was given

to instruct the people how they are to live and

act as His people separate from the rest of the world,

both for his glory as the deliverer as God, and

for their good. Now today we're gonna be in chapters

thirty five through forty. We're gonna go verse by it. No,

it's kidding, We're not going verse five verse. But please

turn with me there start in chapter thirty five.

If you have a bible. Turn there.

If you need a bible, we have some on the

connect table just outside those double doors that are there

for your use and for you to keep. And I'm

gonna take a drink of water while you're turning there.

A lot of you are faster than me. And we

now come to the conclusion of this incredible story and

see God come to dwell among his people, which, if

you're taking notes, is the title of my sermon today.

God dwells among his people like we talked about, like

I talked about, and you sat here and listened. We

saw God renew his covenant with Israel, and he writes

the law on a new set of stone tablets and

gives them to Moses to instruct the people how they

are to live and act in obedience to him. And

one way they do this is by following the fourth

commandment written on these tablets, which is remember the Sabbath

day to keep it holy. In thirty five, verse one,

It reads Moses assembled all the congregation of the people

of Israel and said to them, these are the things

that the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days

work shall be done, but on the seventh day you

shall have a sabbath of solemn rest holy to the Lord.

Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

I remember this is immediately after Moses comes down from

the mountain with the original set of stone tablets. He

sees the people worshiping a golden calf, smashes the tablets

on the ground, says, what are you doing, rebukes them,

goes back to God and say, your people messed up.

So he rebukes them, comes back and starts with this

the most important rule for them to obey.

Keep the sabbath.

It's so important that anyone who does not follow this commandment,

anyone in Israel who does not follow this commandment, is

to be put to death. Why this seems pretty extreme.

Why are they going to be put to death for

not working? Put to death for working instead of not working?

Why would that be the outcome? God himself tells us

in chapter thirty one, verse thirteen, he said, above all,

you shall keep my sabbaths for this is a sign

between me and you throughout your generations.

Watch this.

That you may know that I the Lord sanctify you.

Let me explain this. It wasn't a golden calf that

delivered them out of their slavery in Egypt. It wasn't

a golden calf that provided for them time and time

again in the wilderness when they were hungry, when they

were thirsty, despite all of their grumbling. It wasn't the

golden calf that did that.

It was God. It's not a golden calf that sanctified them,

a thing.

Made by man's hands. It's God who sanctifies them. It's

God who set them apart from a world in rebellion

against him. It's God who instructed them how they are

to live. He told them in Leviticus. Later on, you

shall be holy as I am holy. It's God who forgives.

It's God who purifies wicked people, making wretches like us

even able to stay before Him one day. It's not

a man made thing that does all that. And in

the case of Israelites, the Israelites, the golden calf, it's

not a man made thing that does all that. Therefore,

it's not a man made thing that is to get

the glory for these acts. It's God who gets the glory.

For Israel, keeping the Sabbath is one of the most

important ways they remember and give God glory for their deliverance.

It's God who gets the glory, not some thing. You

can fill in the blank there. It's not some thing,

and this needs to be our view today. This needs

to be our view today. So often we wrongly give

our time, our attention, our money, our focus to things

made by men instead of to God who rightly deserves it.

I'm gonna say that again. Just make sure you really

get this. So often we wrongly give our time, attention,

money focus towards man made things, and thereby we give

glory to that thing instead of to God who alone

rightly deserves it. It's not your money that provides your

food day by day. Hold on, I know you're thinking, Jordan.

I literally just like tapped my card at the cash

register and walked home with bags of groceries. Is your

trust in that dollar to be there for you tomorrow?

Or is your trust in the God who gave you

that dollar that provides for you? Because that'll tell you

real quick where we're giving the glory when we and

I'm going to stick on this for a minute, because

we're talking about money, when we hoard our money, when

we cling to it and trust in it, like it's

the thing that's going to eternally provide for us, eternally

bring us joy, eternally give us security.

We're stealing the.

Glory that rightly goes to God and instead giving that

glory to something other than him. It's the one true

God who gave you the skill and the means and

the job that provides you today. Is God who gets

the glory, not the thing, not the means. He gave

you those means to give him the glory. And this

is just one example of how we can so easily

and wrongly withhold the glory that is meant to be

directed towards Him and instead direct it towards something else

that does not deserve it. It's just one example. God's

people are to give God glory in all things and

at all times, because He alone is worthy of it.

He alone is worthy of it. Now, this is all

building to the conclusion of God dwelling among his people,

and the people he's going to dwell among are to

glorify him in all things. Moses then tells Israel that

it's time to build the Tabernacle, God's dwelling place. It's

time to build it, and it's going to take a

lot of resources. In verse four, chapter thirty five, it reads,

is said, to all the congregation of the people of Israel,

this is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Take

from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is

of generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. And

as you read on, there's a lot that goes into

building this tabernacle and all of its parts, and all

the pieces, all the priest's clothing.

A lot is needed.

And remember earlier I mentioned that after the ten plagues

take place, the Egyptians so desperately want Israel oh out

of their sight that they're basically just like, take everything,

take whatever you want. And the Bible says they plundered them. Well,

now that plunder is going to come into play exactly

as God intended it. I might add, if you read

in verse twenty, the people respond, Then all the congregation

of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses,

and they came everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone

whose spirit moved him and brought the Lord's contribution to

be used for the tent of the meeting and for

all of its service, and for the holy garments. So

they came, both men and women, all who were of

willing heart, brought brooches. Yes, I said, brooches. I will

fight you on that. It's brooches. It's brooches. Do you

brooch a subject or do you broach it? We're getting

off topic. Brought brooches, and earrings, and signet rings, and armlets,

all sorts of gold objects. Every man dedicating an offering

of gold to the Lord, and everyone who possessed blue

or purple or scarlet yarns, or fine linen, or goat's hair,

or tanned ramskins or goat skins brought them. Everyone who

could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it

as the Lord's contribution. And everyone who possessed acacia would

or any of any use in the work, brought it.

And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they

all brought what they had spun in blue and purple

and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.

All the women.

Whose hearts stirred them to use their skill, spun the

goat's hair, and the leaders brought onyx stones and stones

to be set for the ephod and for the breastpiece,

and spices and oil for the light, and for the

anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. All the men

and women the people of Israel, whose heart moved them

to bring anything for the work of the Lord that

the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought

it as a free will offering to the Lord. Finally,

the Israelites are responding correctly. They're not hoarding all of

their plunder from Egypt. They're giving it freely and willingly,

contributing the plunder that God provided.

To build his dwelling place.

In fact, they go so hard with their giving Moses

has to tell them, please stop. He gives the command

look at chapter thirty six, verse two, And Moses called

Bezilel in a holyab and every craftsman in whose mind

the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him stirred.

Him up to come do the work.

And they received from Moses all the contribution that the

people of Israel had brought for doing the work on

the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him free will offerings

every morning, so that the craftsmen who were doing every

sort of task on the sanctuary came each from the

task that he was doing and said to Moses, the

people bring much more than enough for doing the work

that the Lord has commanded us to do. So Moses

gave command and word was proclaimed throughout the camp. Let

no man or woman do anything more for the contribution

for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing

for the material they had was sufficient to do all

the work and more.

That's amazing.

Israel finally responds correctly, say Okay, God needs this, We're

gonna do it.

We're gonna meet the need. Now.

We don't talk a lot about giving here, and you're like, yeah, Jordan,

this is your second time talking about it now.

Ready, Hey, we don't.

Talk about it a lot, partly because we don't want

to strong arm you into giving out of compulsion. The

Bible speaks against that. It tells you to give cheerfully,

not out of compulsion. Secondly, we know and trust that

God's word will teach us about giving when we come

to verses like these, And since we're here I'm gonna

say this. Just like God provided the Israelites with the

means to contribute freely, willingly and joyfully toward the construction

of His dwelling place, he is also divided you to

give freely, willingly and joyfully toward the work of His kingdom,

the work of spreading the Gospel, the means to give

to the church, the means to give to your neighbor,

the means to give to the person on the street corner,

the means He has provided you to give that contribution.

The simplest way I can put it, and you've heard

it a dozen times, I'm sure he has blessed you

to be a blessing. He has blessed you to be

a blessing. When we give freely of the things that

He has given us, we place our trust in the provider,

not the provision. When we give freely of the things

he has given us, we place our trust in the provider,

not the provision. And this doesn't stop with money. It's

your skills too. He's blessed you with skills for the

work of his kingdom, just like He gave skills to

Bezeleel in a holy ab and the other craftsmen we

read about. He blessed them with skills to build his

dwelling place, the Tabernacle. He has blessed you to be

a blessing.

That wasn't so bad? Was it all right? Thank you

just kidding, Avery, You're good.

These craftsmen, as we see in chapters thirty six through seven.

Thirty six through thirty seven, they put.

Their God given skills to work building the tabernacle and

all the pieces that are placed inside of it, and

the court that surrounds it, and all the clothing for

the priests to war. They may the linen curtains, curtains

of goat's hair, the tent covering made of tanned ramskins

and goat skin upright, frames of acacia wood with silver bases,

bars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. The veil made

of blue, purple and scarlet yarns that separated the holy

place from the most holy place where God's presence dwelled.

The screen to the entrance of the tent made of

the same colored yarns with five pillars and bronze bases.

And then they made the arc of.

The covenant, where the stone tablets were placed inside of

and then they made the following things. And by the way,

you're about to see Jesus in all of these pieces.

You just can't escape it. Also, I'm going to tell

you next.

They made the table which held the bread of the Presence,

and this symbolized God's ongoing provision and sustenance for his people.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes

to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me

shall never thirst. The craftsmen made the lamp stand to

provide light in the Holy Place, where it represented God's

presence in light among his people. Jesus said, I am

the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not

walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

They made the altar of incense, where incense would be

burned as an ongoing offering of perpetual offering and pleasing

aroma to the Lord. The apostle Paul wrote in Second Corinthians,

for we are the aroma of Christ to God among

those who are being saved. In chapter thirty eight, the

craftsmen make the altar of burnt offering, which was used

for burnt offerings and other sacrifices in the outer courtyard

of the tabernacle front of the entrance to the tent

it's self. Now, this is where animals animal sacrifices were

offered to God as substitutionary sin offerings and guilt offerings

and peace offerings and grain offerings. All these are listid

in what we've read already. But here's the thing about

the altar. No one could approach God's presence in the

Tabernacle without first dealing with their sin at this altar.

It symbolized the necessity of atonement and sacrifice for sin,

because the wages of sin is death. To approach God's presence,

it was necessary for atonements and sacrifice for sin to

be made. Jesus took our place as the sacrifice for

our sins, making the only way to the Father. Then

the craftsmen build the bronze basin, which held water for

washing the priest's hands and feet to ceremonially purify themselves

before entering the tabernacle. Paul again wrote in Titus that

Jesus gave himself for us, to redeem us from all

lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his possession.

Jesus fulfilled all of this.

And lastly they made the court that surrounded the tabernacle,

and they made all of the priestly garments worn by

Aaron and his sons. The the Levites, the priests, the craftsmen,

collect all the resources needed provided by the people. They

make everything according to the specifications that God gave Moses,

and they bring it all before Moses. And in chapter

thirty nine, verse forty two, we read according to all

that the Lord had commanded Moses. So the people of

Israel had done all the work. And Moses saw all

the work, and behold, they had done it as the

Lord had commanded. So had they done it? Then Moses

blessed them. A side note, this isn't really like a

crucial point. I just wanted to point this out. Look,

what can be accomplished when God's people do what they're told.

I just thought it was.

Really cool seeing Israel respond by like, yeah, take everything

you need for building. Moses is like stop, it's too much,

thank you, but stop. And the people with the skills,

blessed with skills to build this do it. When God's

people do what they're told, amazing things happened.

I just thought that was cool. So a little nugget

for you.

In chapter forty, God Moses's instructions on how, when, and where.

He used to put everything together.

Moses follows God's instructions finishes the work, and in verse

thirty four we read, then the cloud covered the tent

of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle,

and Moses was not able to enter the tent of

meeting because the cloud settled on it. So you approach

God's presence, you're going to die. And the glory of

the Lord filled the tabernacle throughout all their journeys, whenever

the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the

people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud

was not taken up, then they did not set out

till the day that it was taken up.

They're following God's lead verse thirty eight.

For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle

by day, and fire was in it by night.

So He's with them at all times, in the.

Sight of all the House of Israel, throughout all of

their journeys, He's with them at all times. God dwelled

among his people. I need you to understand what happened here.

Sometimes when we read a story in the Bible, and

this is especially true in the cases with stories from

the Old Testaments. I remember as a kid, I would

I mean almost avoid reading the Old Testament. It's like,

I don't get any of this. Is this really important

for me to know? The language used here is really weird.

I don't want to try to pronounce a holy ab

and I would avoid those kinds of stories. Or maybe

I would read them once and say, Okay, yeah, that happened.

Cool. I see see Noah made an arc, animals were

saved on it. Awesome.

We read stories without really stopping to think of the

implication of what just happened, without really to stop and

think or comprehend the significance of the thing we just read.

God dwelled among his people.

Despite every failing, despite every time they grumbled or complained,

despite every time they sinned against him. That God kept

his promise and dwelled among them because he is merciful,

because he is patient, because he is good. The God

who is all merciful, all patience, all good, all powerful,

dwelled among his people, literally dwelled among them. We can't

our feeble brains can't comprehend the significance of that. I'm

going to try to explain it, but not even I

myself can comprehend it fully. He literally dwelled among his people.

He literally dwelled among them. He provided for them, he

protected them, he led them to the land he promised

to their ancestors centuries before them. He literally dwelled among

his chosen people, and he literally dwells among you. Now

think about this. He is in this room. His very

spirit is in this room. It's the whole reason we

gather as a church to worship him, to praise him

with song, to offer our prayers before him, to come

before him with our needs, to come before him in

our brokenness and our sin.

It's the very reason any of this matters.

It's because he's here with his people now, and we

overlook that. We overlooked that because we get caught up

in a routine like, oh, it's Sunday at three thirty,

I better leave go to church, without.

Thinking about what actually is happening. When we get here.

He's here.

He's here, he's listening, he's active, and even though we

cannot see him now with our eyes, we can attest

to his power and his mercy. And his love and

his salvation in his church right now.

Do you understand this, Go Ridica. He literally dwells among

his people.

Now, I'm sure you all can relate. Sometimes in life,

he's like, God, where are you?

Like, He's literally with you. Stop sending in, just pray.

Go be with another believer who's going to lift you

up with their prayers to him, who's gonna.

Lead you in songs of praise to his glory. This works.

Ah, He dwells among you. Think about okay, the creator

of the universe. Yeah, the creator of the universe. Tonight

when you get home, look up at the stars. The

God that made those stars, that made the galaxies you

can't even see with your naked eye that are so

far away you have to use a telescope. Galaxies we

haven't even discovered yet, galaxies you may never see.

That God, the God that made this.

Earth with its oceans and an ocean life that swims

inside of it, the land that you're standing on, with

all of its creatures, in every creeping thing along the ground.

The God that formed man out.

Of the very dust of his creation and designed him

in his own image. That God dwells among you right now. Yeah,

that's what just happened to the people of Israel. That's

what happens for every man, woman and child that puts

faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells among you

and within you. Amen in Hallelujah. We just suck at

remembering it. We're terrible at remembering it really thinking through

the implications of that truth. Amen in Hallelujah. I've gotten

so far off my notes where am I? But this

is the very reason we gather as a church. When

we gather, when we sing songs.

Of praise to glorify his name.

We read scriptures that recount of every wondrous deed and

promise that He's written down in his word for us.

We do that not because we hope he will hear us.

We do that not because we hope he's going to listen.

We do that not because we hope we're singing the

right song, we're saying the right prayers. It's because we

know that he's here with us. It's because we know

that he hears our prayers. It's because we know that

he is pleased with our offering of worship with the

songs of praise. But it's not because of you. It's

not because you're singing the right song. It's not because

you're saying the right prayer. It's not because you're reading

the right scripture. It's not based on any of our works.

It's based on Jesus Christ and his finished work on

the cross. It's the only it's the sole reason Jesus

work on the cross. It's the only reason that God

accepts our worship. That God is pleased with our singing

of praise to his name, that God is pleased with

the reading of his scripture to his church. It's all

because of Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Why we say

it all the time, It's all about Jesus. It's only

because of jesus sacrificial death on the cross that our

worship gives God glory. It's only through Jesus that God

hears and accepts our song of praise. Why because without Jesus,

all of the praise, prayers and worshiped offered unto a

holy God means nothing coming from unholy creatures. It means nothing.

We couldn't possibly dare to dream about. Please, we couldn't

do it. Think of all the work the Israelites that

the priest had to do before even entering the temple,

before entering the tabernacle.

All of that.

Work Jesus completed. He completed it, He finished the law,

He fulfilled the law.

Man.

Amen, Sorry, I'm shouting at you. Jesus had to purify

us to present us to the Father. Jesus had to

be the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we

could one day stand forgiven before a holy God. Jesus

did that, as the writer of Hebrews put it so beautifully.

Because of Jesus, we can with confidence draw near to

the throne of grace, praise the Lord. The only thing

we deserved is to to be zapped out of existence,

because we're a sinful creature that has sinned against its creator.

But God instead made a way to save us. What why?

Because he he's good, because he's merciful, because he's a

god of love, and because.

He's a just god, because he's a judge. He's still

acted righteously when he killed his own son, willingly die

that death in your place, in your place, in your place,

in your place.

I could keep pointing, but I'd be here all day.

I gotta get back to it. I'm sorry, Yeah, I'm

as welding. Thanks baby. God dwells among his people. But

the question for each of us, I'm gonna narrow this

down a bit more. The question for each of you.

I want you to own this. Really hear me, Am

I counted among God's people? That's the question? Am I

counted among God's people? To get the band come up?

One thing I find interesting about the whole process of

building the Tabernacle.

Is how God.

Didn't leave it up to the Israelites to decide how

to do this, how to build it, where to build it,

when to build it. It's not like he said to Moses, hey,

I would really like to dwell among my people. Can

you figure out a way to do that? Or hey,

I promise to dwell among you, can you figure that out?

He didn't say that. He gave them specific instructions on

how and where he is to dwell among them.

It's the same for us today. He gave us, in his.

Word, specific instructions on how he is to dwell among

his people today.

And the answer is Jesus. Literally, the answer is always Jesus.

When Jesus died, as the Gospels show us, the veil

in the temple where the Jews worshiped. That veil that

kept people separated from God was torn top the bottom.

His pastor Greg explained a couple months ago, now that.

Veil weighed a lot. Was very heavy. It's like sixty

feet tall. Yeah, huge veil. Heavy veil was torn into

when Jesus died on the cross. That ushered in a

new temple for the Holy Spirit, for God's presence, which

is the body and soul of every believer, any person

who puts their faith in the death and resurrection of

Jesus the Sun. In John fourteen, verse sixteen, Jesus said,

and I will ask the Father, and he will give

you another helper to be with you forever, even the

Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it

neither sees him nor knows him. You will know him,

for he dwells with you and will be in you.

This is another one we don't really think about very often,

because up until that point of Jesus's death, that veil

kept you from God's presence. Today, the only thing keeping

you from God's presence is your own sin. But Jesus

made a way to remove that barrier, to tear that

barrier to tear that veil to access the Father. The

only barrier between you and the Father is your own sin.

And you can't handle it on your own. You can't

atone for it. You never could. But Jesus did. Jesus did.

The same spirit that dwelled among Israel through all of

their journeys, that led them, that provided for him, that

kept them safe, that same spirit dwells among and within

every believer.

Think about that.

Every time you're hurting, he's with you. Every time you're

in your brokenness, He's with you, and he's with you

to lead you out of that hurt, out of that

brokenness through the promises and the truth found in His word.

Brothers and sisters, if you're not hurting, I guarantee you

a fellow brother and sister in Christ is hurting. You

are the answer to that hurt. You are the answer.

God raised you up for that moment. Go be with them.

He's there.

To hold you in your brokenness and your hurts and

your confusion. He's there to carry you into his presence,

glorified by belief in the death and resurrection of his

son Jesus. And that's the key. Belief in the death

and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just as the israel Lights

had to construct the Tabernacle according to God's specific instructions

for him to dwell with you, you too have to

follow his specific instruction, which is believe in Jesus. The

problem is, like always us, we get in our own way.

Jesus said, I am the Way and the Truth and

the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

You cannot make your own way to the Father. You

cannot do it. You can't just pick a path that

seems best for you. You can't pick a path that

seems easiest. You can't pick a path that's most comfortable

or convenient. There is only one way.

And it's Jesus. That's it. That's it.

In John three point sixteen, John wrote, for God so

love the world that he gave his only son, that

whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world

to condemn the world, but in order that the world

might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is

not condemned.

Amen, But.

Whoever does not believe is condemned already. He is because

he is not believed in the name of the only

Son of God. The only thing standing between you and

Almighty God is yourself. It's your sin. It's the only thing.

For those that put their faith in Jesus Christ, you

are counted among God's people. You are promised the Holy

Spirit to dwell within you. You are forgiven of your

sin by the atoning and finished work of Jesus Christ.

And you will one day stand before God glorified, righteous,

pure and blameless.

Amen.

But if you haven't done that, if you have not

done that, I pray that the Holy Spirit would convict

you of your sin, would give you the faith to

believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and

that you would see and know and experience the love

and the mercy of God directed towards you. That you

he experience his power and his truth and his love

in your life, the freedom of the freedom of His forgiveness.

E Spirit. Please, if you've already.

Put faith in the Lord Jesus, I want you to

reflect again what we've seen in this book. God delivered Israel,

his chosen people, from slavery and bondage in Egypt. He

has delivered you, beloved, delivered you from slavery and bondage

to sin. God brought Israel, delivered them from their hunger

and thirst, provided for them, and made demands of them.

Told them, this is who you are now. Your identity

is in me. This is how you live and act

in this world that isn't rebellion against its creator. He

made demands of them. He made demands of you. Two

obey them. If you're asking Jordan what demands, please please

read this, beloved. He tells you what his demands are.

The very verse before with the John fourteen, where Jesus

is promising the Holy Spirit. The very verse before that,

he says, if you love me, you will obey my commands.

God has made demands of you. Obey them. Obey them.

It's for his glory and for your own good. God

came to dwell among his people in the wilderness, and

he dwelled among them throughout all of their journeys. He

dwells among his people. Now he dwells among his people.

Now rest in that truth. Rejoice in that truth. He

is with you. He is with you, He dwells among you,

He dwells within you. Rejoice in that and the same

spirit that we are promising God's word will never leave you,

never forsake you, never abandon you, and will keep you forever.

In Revelation, John.

Wrote, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,

for the first heaven and the first Earth had passed away,

and the sea was no more.

And I saw the Holy City New.

Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as

a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a

loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the dwelling place

of God is with man. He will dwell with them,

and they will be his people, and God himself will

be with them as their God. He will wipe away

every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor paying anymore

for the former things have passed away.

That's the promise we cling to.

He dwells with you now, and if you've put faith

in Him, you're going to dwell in his.

Very presence forevermore.

Ay Men, Hallelujah, Praise God.

Praise God.

As a believer, as a child of God, saved by

His wondrous and immeasurable grace, be at peace knowing that

the Holy Spirit dwells within you, and according to our

heavenly father's promise, who never breaks his promises. As his child,

you can be full of hope, knowing that one day

you will dwell in His glory forevermore. But until that gate,

until that day comes, rejoice in the deliverance of your sin.

Obey the demands he is made of you in his word,

and know that He dwells with you.