Will you please turn to Exodus? Exodus 25, just one verse: verse 8.
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
—Exodus 25:8
Now turn to 1 Chronicles 28, verse 19.
All this, said David, have I been made to understand in writing from the hand of the Lord, even all the works of this pattern.
—1 Chronicles 28:19
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, our hearts do bow in worship, thanking Thee for all that Thou hast done for us on Calvary’s cross. Thank Thee for calling us to come together to remember Thee at Thy table. Thank Thee for calling us to commune with Thy blood and with Thy bread, Thy life. And thank Thee for calling us to wait for Thy return.
Lord, Thy love is so amazing, so tremendous. We are overwhelmed. We do thank Thee.
And as we continue in Thy presence, we look to Thee to open Thy Word to us, as Thou didst open Thy Word to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Lord, may Thy Word not only warm our hearts, but may Thy Word give us hope and give us strength to return to Jerusalem.
We commit this time into Thy hands. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Last Lord’s Day, we began to share together on this matter of the house of God. The house of God is a mystery that has been hidden in the heart of God even before the foundation of the world.
In other words, the house of God is an integral part of the eternal purpose of God—what God wants to have and to accomplish. We find how God, through the ages, revealed what was in His heart.
Last Lord’s Day, we mentioned that the very term house of God is first mentioned in Genesis 28, in connection with Jacob. There, for the first time, God reveals to Jacob the hidden principles concerning the house of God.
When you study the Word of God, we often mention that there is the principle of first mention. Whenever something is mentioned for the first time in the Word of God, usually hidden in that first mention are all the basic, fundamental thoughts of that thing.
When God revealed to Jacob the house of God, the basic understanding was this: What is the house of God? The house of God is pictured as a ladder, the top of which reached to heaven, while it was set on earth.
God Himself stood at the top of the ladder, and Jacob lay at the bottom. That ladder joined God in heaven and Jacob on earth together. This is the house of God: God and man in Christ Jesus, because only Christ Jesus is the way to heaven.
This morning, we would like to continue with the revelation in the Word of God concerning the house of God.
We remember how God led the children of Israel out of Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt, and God delivered them. Through Moses, God brought them to Mount Sinai.
There, in Exodus, we find God saying to Moses, “I brought My people out as on eagles’ wings unto Myself. And if they will keep My word and My covenant, I will make them My people, My possession out of all nations, to be a nation of priests. I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
In other words, God revealed to the children of Israel the reason and purpose for which He delivered them. He delivered them not merely to set them free so that they might live for themselves. He delivered them with a definite purpose.
After He gave them the law, He began to tell them to build Him a sanctuary, that He might dwell among them. Now, brothers and sisters, why did God give the law to this redeemed people? The reason was that they might truly be God’s people.
Sometimes our emphasis is entirely upon the giving of the law. But as you read the Word of God, you find that only five chapters are devoted to the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, while seven chapters follow concerning the tabernacle, the sanctuary.
In other words, the giving of the law was a preparation—a preparation of a people for what followed. And what followed was this: God said, “Make Me a sanctuary, a habitation, that I may dwell among you.”
God is holy. Even though this people had been delivered out of Egypt and had been given the law in order to be God’s people, they were not holy enough for God to dwell immediately and directly among them.
That is why God said, “Make Me a sanctuary.” Through this sanctuary, He might dwell among them.
Here you find a further revelation, still based upon the same principle. Even we who are redeemed by the Lord and separated unto God, who are supposed to be the house of God, are not, conditionally, holy enough or separated enough as God is holy.
Therefore, the only way for God to dwell among men is through a tabernacle, a sanctuary. We know that the tabernacle is a type of Christ. So the same principle remains: How can God dwell with man? How can God and man be together? It is through Christ Jesus.
This tabernacle is basically and primarily a type of our Lord Jesus.
God commanded Moses to build that tabernacle. Of course, there is so much in the tabernacle, but for our present consideration, let me put it very briefly.
The tabernacle represents Christ our Lord, and the tabernacle has three sections:
It is through that tabernacle that man is able to approach God and come into the presence of God. It is through that tabernacle that God is able to speak to His people, commune with His people, and come out to bless His people. Everything is centered upon this tabernacle, and that is what our Lord Jesus is.
We may say that the outer court represents Christ in relation to the world, because in the outer court everybody could come.
In the outer court, you have only two things: the brazen altar of sacrifice and the brazen laver for washing.
Now, brothers and sisters, we know that the brazen altar represents the cross of our Lord Jesus. No one can approach God on his own. If anyone dares to approach God in himself, he will be stricken to death, because God is so holy and we are so unclean, unfit for God.
Anyone who desires to come to God must come by the brazen altar. There the sacrifice was offered, and it is by the blood that our sins are all washed away.
Here you find our Lord’s relationship to the world. “Whosoever will”—anybody can come. But they must first come to the brazen altar. They cannot bypass the cross of our Lord Jesus, because there He redeems us. He shed His blood for the remission of our sins, and there He justifies us before the righteous God.
That is salvation in relation to the world. But after we have gone through the brazen altar, after we have believed in the Lord Jesus and Him crucified, we are the Lord’s.
As we become God’s people, we are called to serve. “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” By being redeemed, we are redeemed for the purpose of serving. We are made priests unto God.
When priests begin to serve God, they must first come to the brazen laver. There they must wash their hands and their feet in order that they may serve at the brazen altar of sacrifice and also enter into the holy place to serve God.
Here again, the brazen laver typifies our Lord Jesus and His work. He is not only the One who justifies us at the brazen altar; He is also the One who sanctifies us at the brazen laver.
We who have been saved are still in this world. We are still in contact with this world, and in our daily life, unconsciously, we pick up the dust and dirt of this world. It makes us, as it were, unfit to serve God.
So every time we are to serve, we have to come to the brazen laver. We have to be washed. Our hands and our feet need to be washed, so that our relationship with the Lord will be clear and we will be ready to serve.
This is basically what sanctification means. He will wash us by the water with the Word, that we may be holy, sanctified, and fit for Him.
In Ephesians 5, this water represents life. In other words, after we are saved, He uses His Word and His life in us to cleanse us and sanctify us, that we may be fit to serve Him.
Here in the outer court, you have all the preparation for our approach to God. Then, briefly stated, as priests, we enter into the holy place. The holy place, in a sense, represents Christ in relation to the church.
We, as members of the body of Christ, are all priests. Even in Old Testament times, God’s original purpose for the children of Israel was that they should be a nation of priests.
It was because of their failure that God had to call one tribe and one family to be priests unto Him. But God’s original thought concerning His redeemed people was a nation of priests.
In the New Testament, through the work of our Lord Jesus, He has restored us to God’s original thought. All believers are priests, and as priests, we live to serve.
We live to serve God. As priests, we do not live for ourselves; we live for God, to serve His purpose. The holy place is the church. In the house of God, in the church, we serve.
In the holy place there are three furnishings. First, there is the golden table of showbread. This typifies, basically, Christ as our life.
We are in communion with the life of our Lord Jesus. As we commune with Him, we find the twelve loaves of bread upon the table of showbread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
In other words, it is communion with the life of Christ. As we commune with the life of Christ, we are transformed, and we become showbread—a bread of testimony to the world.
Then, of course, there is the golden lampstand, the light. The work of the priest is to light that lampstand every day, so that the light is always shining.
How do we serve the Lord? We serve the Lord by walking in the light. He is the light. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sins.
That is service. As we serve Him in that way, we become light to the world—a testimony to the world.
Then, in the holy place, there is the golden altar of incense. It represents chiefly our Lord Jesus as the High Priest, living in heaven today and making intercession for us unceasingly, to save us to the uttermost.
It is through the prayer of our Lord Jesus that we are able to be kept throughout this world. In union with Him, we too become intercessors. We come to pray, and pray together with Him.
Prayer is the highest ministry of the church, the highest ministry of the priest.
In the old days, in the days of Christ, if a priest was given the opportunity to burn incense in the holy place, he could do it only once in his lifetime. At that time, he represented the whole nation. He was the only one in the tabernacle, while all the people stood outside praying.
He stood before God representing the nation, and he prayed the prayer of the nation: “Come, Messiah, come.” It was a high privilege. Many priests did not even have the privilege of doing it in their lifetime.
We who are priests unto God have the responsibility not only of receiving the benefit of the unceasing prayer of our Lord Jesus for us—for that is the only way we are able to be kept—but also of joining with Him in prayer.
“Let Thy kingdom come. Let Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Let Thy name be honored and glorified.” Here we find a step further, nearer, as it were, to the throne of God.
Then you find the holiest of all. In the holiest of all, there is only one furnishing: the ark, with a mercy seat upon it. The glory of God rested upon the mercy seat, and there He would speak to His people and bless His people.
Thus, the holiest of all represents Christ in relation to heaven, or to the heavenly realm—the very presence of God.
Today, we are in the heavenly realm. There we are able to be in the presence of God, to behold His beauty, and to inquire of Him. It is a life of union with God in Christ Jesus.
Just a word of caution. Throughout the ages, as people have sought to be united with God—and I believe this is God’s purpose, for He wants us to be united with Him—they have sometimes come to a serious heresy.
They think that union with God means the deification of man—that man becomes God. That is not Bible teaching.
God is God, and man is man. There is a gap that can never be crossed. Thank God, we are saved. Thank God, we receive His life. Thank God, we are united with God. But this union with God is in life, not in person.
We are not deified. We receive His divine nature and divine life, but we are not Deity. He is always God to us, and we are always man. But thank God, there is a union, and that union is in Christ Jesus.
Union with God in Christ Jesus is scriptural. Union with God in order to become God, to be deified, is heretical. So let us be careful about this.
Thank God, it is His will that we may live a life in the very presence of God. We may be so joined to God in life, in Christ Jesus, that we may be like Him, conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son.
That is the real union life. It is in Christ Jesus. The whole matter is centered upon Christ. Without Christ, we will not be justified. Without Christ, we cannot be sanctified. Without Christ, we will never be glorified.
But thank God for Him and for what He has done for us. Now we are not only justified; we are sanctified, and we are glorified. That is the full salvation of our Lord Jesus.
God’s desire is that we may be one with Him, but that is in life, in Christ Jesus. That is the meaning of the tabernacle. It is in that tabernacle that God dwells with man.
Here we find something more revealed. God said, “Make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.” God wanted His people to become involved in the making of the sanctuary.
God created the heavens and the earth all by Himself. He did not need any help. But, strangely, in this house of God, it is His will to involve His redeemed people. He will not do it alone.
In Exodus 25, God said to the children of Israel, “Give Me a love gift, a heave offering.” A heave offering is a love gift. Give Me what I have given to you, that the tabernacle may be built.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to remember that the children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. A slave owned nothing, not even his life.
But when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, He commanded them to ask the Egyptians for gold, silver, clothing, and all these things. When they left Egypt, they were no longer poor people; they were wealthy people, because they spoiled Egypt.
Egypt at that time was a rich country, and they came out with plenty, with abundance. Now, out of what God had given to them, out of that abundance, God said, “Give Me a love gift.”
It is all God’s, but God wants His people to give something back as a love gift, as an expression of their love for God.
You know the story of how Satan tried to deprive God of those resources. While Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on the mount, the people built a golden calf. Where did the gold come from? The gold had been given to them when they left Egypt.
But thank God, Satan was not able to exhaust all that God had given, because God gave so plentifully. Afterwards, God said that whoever had a heart touched by the Spirit of God should come and offer willingly.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is a lesson for us to learn. Everything we have is given by God. We came out naked, and we will return naked. Everything that we have is given to us by God.
We are not owners of anything; we are stewards, entrusted to manage what God has given to us. Out of what He has given us, let His love constrain us, and may we be constrained by love to give to God something of what He has given to us.
Let not the enemy deprive us of such giving. It was out of the heave offering of the children of Israel that the tabernacle was built. This is a further revelation concerning the house of God.
There is another thing. God said, “Make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.” This was spoken primarily to Moses.
Who was Moses? Moses was a man of great learning. He had learned all the learning of Egypt, and Egypt at that time was famous for its architecture. Even the pyramids that are still standing today are great feats of architectural skill.
Moses was a trained engineer and architect, a great builder. When God said, “Make Me a tabernacle,” Moses could have said, “Fine, easy. I can build pyramids, burial places for emperors. To build a tent is the easiest thing to do. Just let me do it for You.”
But God said, “No. I will give you the pattern on the mount.” Every detail was given: not only the material, but also the types and shapes of the furnishings, the weight, the color—everything.
God gave the pattern to Moses in detail, and then God warned Moses to do everything according to the pattern on the mount.
There was a temptation. Oftentimes we think we are cleverer than God. Oftentimes we think we are able to do God a service. But God says no. Everything has to be from Him, through Him, and unto Him.
There is a pattern for the house of God. It is not for men to invent the form and shape of the house of God. We must learn from the revelation of the Word of God what that pattern is.
Moses was considered faithful in all God’s house. Why? Because he followed everything to the last detail.
Brothers and sisters, that should teach us another lesson. Thank God, in the house of God there is a pattern. We need to study that pattern—not only to know the pattern, but also to follow the pattern in every detail.
God has not given us liberty to do what we think would be best for Him. It may be a trial to our flesh, because we think we know better and that we can do it.
But thank God, everything spiritual has to be done in God’s way and not in our way. Here you find a further revelation of the house of God in type.
As you continue, you find that the children of Israel built the tent and carried it through the wilderness for thirty-nine years. Then they entered into the promised land.
But unfortunately, the children of Israel were unfaithful to God. They allowed the ark of God to be captured by the Philistines.
The ark was among the Philistines for seven months. But thank God, the ark, which represents the presence of God, knew how to protect itself. Finally, the ark was sent back.
But when it was sent back, instead of being taken to Shiloh, where the tabernacle was, it was hidden on the hill in the house of Abinadab for a long time.
The children of Israel had no heart for God. The tabernacle at Shiloh was there. Perhaps the daily sacrifice was still being offered, and some faithful priests must have been there. But there was no ark. The holiest of all was empty. There was no reality there.
Even the outward testimony was so corrupted and degenerated. The ark was hidden, not until David—and there had been about four hundred more years.
David was a man after God’s own heart, one who would do all His will. Thank God, He raised up David. David had God’s heart. He treasured what God treasured.
If you read Psalm 132, you find his heart crying out for a place for the ark of God. He could not close his eyelids. He could not go to his bed or into his tent. He was thinking of the ark.
He discovered it in the hill of the forest, and it was his desire to bring it back to Zion. Here you find a man who had a heart for God’s heart.
David not only brought the ark back and put it temporarily in a tent set up on Mount Zion; after he became king, he told Nathan the prophet, “How can I dwell in a house of cedar while God’s ark is still in a tent? I want to make Him a temple, a permanent place.”
He was not allowed to build it because he was a man of war and had shed much blood. But God was so pleased with him. God’s heart was touched.
God said, “Wait a minute. I will build your house first, so that your son may build My house.” His son would build the house of God.
When you read this, you may think that it was David’s idea to build God a temple, a more permanent house for God. But actually, we know that it was God’s thought, even before the foundation of the world.
Yet, in this case, God did not ask for it. In the wilderness, God asked His people to make Him a sanctuary. But here, God did not even ask for a temple.
The children of Israel had proved themselves unfaithful, so God would not even ask for a more permanent place. He was waiting for someone who truly loved Him, who really had a heart for Him, who truly wanted to please God, satisfy God, and fulfill God’s desire.
He was waiting, and He had to wait hundreds and hundreds of years for that man to rise up.
Brothers and sisters, I believe there is a lesson for us to learn. How gracious is our God? He can force us to do things, but He never will.
He is waiting for the love of His people. He is waiting for the love of Christ to constrain someone to think of God’s need and to put God’s need first.
That is how the temple was built. That temple was built with love—not only the love of God for man, but the love of man for God. That is the house.
David was not allowed to build the temple, but God gave the pattern to David. That pattern was more elaborate, more full, and more permanent.
The house of God represents the fullness of God in Christ Jesus and the fullness of Christ in the church. It is everlasting; it is permanent.
David also prepared materials for the building of the house. If you read 1 Chronicles 22, you find that, out of his affliction, David prepared materials for the temple.
I think the affliction there refers to the many wars David had gone through. Out of the spoils of war, he set apart gold, silver, and metals for the building of the temple.
Is that not true? Out of our affliction, there should be spoils. Out of our trials and sufferings, there will be some spoil. These spoils are to be offered to God for the building of the house.
Spiritually, that is very true. If you have no spoil, you have no material to offer.
When you come to 1 Chronicles 29, David said, “I gave out of all my power; all that I could do, I gave.” Then he said, “I gave all out of my affection for the house of God.”
Out of his love, he gave and gave and gave. That is the expression of love.
Dear brothers and sisters, every day of our life is a preparation, preparing materials for the house of God. Every trial and every affliction should bring some spoil for the Lord.
Out of our power and out of our affection, we are preparing materials for the house of God.
Then you find that it was Solomon who built the house. Love prepares the material; wisdom builds the house.
Solomon is a symbol of wisdom—not the wisdom of this world, but wisdom and understanding: a heart that knows God and understands God. With that wisdom, he built the house.
He could read the blueprint, the pattern. He could transform that pattern into a building. That is wisdom.
It is love that prepares the material, and it is wisdom that builds the house. We cannot build the house of God with human wisdom. Human wisdom can only build a tower of Babel.
It takes spiritual wisdom. May the spirit of wisdom and revelation be given, that we may know the will of God and know how to build the house.
Thank God, finally it was built. All these are types. More revelation will be given, and we hope that we may have the opportunity to consider these things together.
Dear Lord, we thank Thee for revealing Thy heart to us. Thou wantest a house. Thou wantest a family. Thou wantest us to be with Thee, united with Thee in Christ in life, to be together forever in one life.
O Lord, we pray that Thou wilt impress upon our hearts the importance of the house of God, that we may not each go after our own house and forget the house of God.
Dear Lord, put that burden upon our hearts and make us a people who, out of love, daily prepare materials for that house. Give us wisdom to build it according to Thy will. We ask in Thy precious name.