Will you please turn to Exodus? Exodus 25, just two verses, verses 8 and 9.
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.
And then please turn to Ephesians, chapter 2. We will read from verses 19 through 22.
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone;
in Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in Whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we do pray that Thou wilt speak to us. Touch our spirit, give us understanding, and draw us into Thy thought.
Lord, wilt Thou not take each and every one of us up, that we may be truly those in whom Thou wilt be glorified, and Thy will will be done on earth as it is in heaven? We commit this time into Thy hand and trust Thy Holy Spirit to do the work. We ask in Thy name. Amen.
Last time, we shared on the vision of the burning bush. Moses was called the servant of God. In other words, in Moses we will find the principles of true servanthood.
We who are saved by the grace of God are saved to serve—not to serve ourselves anymore, but to serve the Lord Who gave Himself for us. But how do we serve? We can find in Moses the principles concerning serving the Lord.
First of all, you cannot serve God by your natural strength, by yourself. We can only serve with vision. Moses tried to serve God with all his learning and eloquence, but he was a total failure. And thank God for the failure. What if he had succeeded? Then he would have been doing a work of man instead of doing a work of God.
And then God allowed him to unlearn all that he had learned in Egypt until he could not speak. He had no more eloquence. He had no more strength in himself.
According to what he wrote in Psalm 90, he told us that when a man came to eighty years of age, that was the end of his life. And Moses, at that time, was eighty years old. So he considered himself as nothing, able to do nothing anymore. He had no more ambition of any kind.
But it was at this very point that we find how God began to use him. So, brothers and sisters, we have to come to the end of ourselves. If we still have hope in ourselves, probably the Lord has to wait some more years until we finally come to the point of our own end in the service of God. Then you find God begins to work.
So we find that when he was eighty years old, without any ambition of any kind, he was willing just to pass as nobody, as nothing, accomplishing nothing. But then God gave him a vision. It was the vision of the burning bush.
Moses himself was like a bush in the wilderness. A bush easily caught fire in the wilderness because it was so hot, and a bush is burned quickly. But there he noticed something different. There was a bush burning. He fully expected the bush to be burned up and become nothing.
But strangely, that bush was burning but not burned. Instead, it glowed. So he went forward to look at it, and then God called him out of the burning bush.
Brothers and sisters, Moses was like a bush in the wilderness. He was no longer a prince in the palace of Egypt. He could easily expire, but the reason why he was still alive was because God was in that bush. The burning did not consume him; rather, it gave him glory.
So, brothers and sisters, in serving God, the first thing we need to learn is to see that, in order to serve God, we cannot serve Him with our own ability or with our own strength. We can only serve Him by His grace and according to His will.
And he was sent back to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel out of slavery.
But, brothers and sisters, God saves us not just that we may have a good time or that we may escape eternal death. God saves us with a purpose.
So here you find God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, and God wanted to lead them into the land of Canaan. But on the way, He led them to Mount Sinai. Why? Because there He wanted to make Israel His people, and He was to reveal to Israel His purpose concerning them.
So here you find, when Moses led the people of Israel to Mount Sinai, God gave revelation again to Moses. The first revelation he received was the law. God gave the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. God wrote them Himself on tablets.
Now, why the law? What did the law say? You know, in the two tablets, the first tablet had four commandments. These commandments tell us of the holiness of God. Then it was continued by another tablet of six commandments, and the six commandments told us of the righteousness of God.
And by the law, God made that delivered people to be His own people. So this is the function of the law given to the children of Israel. Through the law, God made this people His own people.
And then, following the vision of the law, God gave him another revelation, and that is the tabernacle. Now, the law is just a process; it is not an end. The law is for the sake of the tabernacle.
That is to say, they were to be made God’s people so that God might dwell in their midst. So this is the purpose of God in saving the children of Israel.
So we find in the history of the children of Israel, it is actually a history of the tabernacle. I think it is very edifying to trace the relationship between the children of Israel and the tabernacle.
Even after they made the tabernacle and the glory of God came and dwelt in it, they were led, as it were, by the tabernacle through the wilderness journey.
And yet, when you read the New Testament, you find in Acts 7, when Stephen related the story of the children of Israel in the wilderness, he said that they were not carrying with them the tabernacle of God. They were actually carrying with them the tabernacle of their god.
Outwardly, it was the tabernacle of God, but inwardly it was something else. However, God, in His mercy, still led the children of Israel into the promised land.
So after they arrived in the promised land, they put the tabernacle in Shiloh. And then you remember the story of how the ark was captured by the Philistines.
And when the ark returned to Israel, it was no longer in Shiloh. It was in the home of Abinadab, and it was hidden there for years, until the heart of the children of Israel began to turn to God through the ministry of Samuel.
And it was David whose heart was for the ark of God. When he became king, he brought the ark back to the city of David. And it was Solomon who built a temple.
But I think we all know the story. Because of the rebellion of the children of Israel, God even allowed His temple to be destroyed by the Babylonians.
But after seventy years, God, in His mercy, brought the remnant of the children of Israel back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The same temple service began to continue, even to the time of our Lord Jesus coming to this earth.
But as we all know, during that period, even though the temple was rebuilt, and afterwards Herod enlarged this temple to make it a beautiful building, there was something missing. The ark was missing.
And we all know the ark is where God dwells. So outwardly you find everything went on: the worship, the priests, the Levites, the services, and the sacrifices. And yet there was no ark. In other words, there was no presence of God.
And then we find our Lord Jesus came to be a man. When He began His ministry, He was challenged, and He said—you remember in John 2—the Lord said:
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
He was not talking about that physical temple. He was talking about His body. Why? Because while He was on earth, He was the true tabernacle of God, because God was in Him.
So our Lord was speaking of His body: “You destroy this body; in three days I will raise it up.”
And after our Lord Jesus had accomplished everything, then we know that on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came and baptized the one hundred and twenty believers who were praying with one accord for ten days, Christ began to build His church.
You remember, towards the end of the life of our Lord Jesus on earth, when He was rejected by His own people, He retreated to the area of Caesarea Philippi, which was a Gentile city. And He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”
And you remember how His disciples told Him every good thing that was said of Him: John the Baptist come to life, Elijah, one of the prophets.
Now, for us Chinese, if somebody were to tell you, “You are as good as Confucius,” what would your response be? You would reply, “Oh, no, I am not. I am not worthy.”
So when the disciples told the Lord about all these good things, He was not satisfied. So He said, “You who know Me, whom do you say that I am?”
And you remember the story of how Simon Peter said:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
So far as Your person is concerned, You are the Son of the living God. So far as Your ministry is concerned, You are the Christ, the One sent by God for a specific purpose.
After that confession, the Lord began to tell them He was going to build the church. But how? He had to suffer, even unto death.
And, brothers and sisters, on the day of Pentecost, we find the one hundred and twenty believers together, praying with one accord and waiting. The Holy Spirit came down, and they were baptized into one body.
Now, we often say, how do we know that our Lord Jesus, when He ascended, reached heaven and reached the throne? Because you cannot see Him anymore?
The disciples saw Him leaving the Mount of Olives, going up, and then the cloud took Him, and they could not see Him anymore. But they were still looking, because the cloud was going up. And you remember two men in white appeared and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you looking up? This One Who has gone up, He will return in like manner, in the same way.”
So, brothers and sisters, we find that after our Lord had ascended, even though the disciples could not see Him anymore, He reached the throne. How do we know?
Number one: because of Pentecost. If He had not reached the throne, He would not have been anointed, and the oil would not have fallen from His head downward. So this is how we know that our Lord has reached the throne.
Number two: when you read Revelation 5, you find the vision of a Lamb newly slain, standing before the throne. And He received the little book, which is the title deed of this earth, from His Father. So we know our Lord has reached the throne.
And He said, “I will build My church upon this rock; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
So in Old Testament times, you find it was the law and the tabernacle. But when you come to New Testament times, it was not the law that made the people God’s people; it was grace.
It was the grace of God in Christ Jesus that made us the children of God. It was no longer the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt, and I will.” In other words, the responsibility was upon the children of Israel. If they behaved, if they kept the commandments, then God would recognize them as His people.
But in the new covenant that God has made with us, it is no longer, “Thou shalt, and I will.” On the contrary, you find it is everything, “I will, I will, and I will.” And because I will, therefore you shall be.
So, brothers and sisters, the new covenant is the covenant of grace. If you want to know what this new covenant really is, you go to Hebrews 8, because Hebrews 8 tells us of the new covenant that God will make with us, from verse 8 through verse 10.
In the new covenant, you find only three articles. In these three articles, you find it is all God saying, “I will do this. I will do that.”
Article number three: He said, “I will forgive your sins, cleanse you from all your unrighteousnesses.”
Article number two: it says, “You do not need to tell your brother, ‘Know the Lord,’ because everybody knows Me in himself or herself.” In other words, it is an inward knowledge of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
And article number one: you will have the power to do My will.
So, brothers and sisters, it is by the new covenant of grace that we are made children of God, and we are made to be the church of God.
Brothers and sisters, when we talk about the church, probably some people think the church is just an outward thing. The reason is because, through so-called church history, we find the church has become outwardly a human organization.
But according to the Word of God, the church is the church of the living God. In other words, it is not an organization; it is an organism.
The difference between an organization and an organism is great, because it is life and death. If it is an organization, it is only done outwardly. It is a dead thing. But if it is an organism, then it is a living thing; there is life with it.
So, brothers and sisters, the church is not an organization, a religious organization. No. The church is a living organism. Why? Because the Bible says, “I am the head, and ye are the body.”
The very life of the Head is the life of the body, and the body is the fullness, the expression of the fullness, of the Head. Think of that. Our Lord Jesus is the Head.
All the fullness of the whole Godhead dwells in Him, because He and the Father are one. Whatever you can think of the Father, that is what the Lord is. When you think of the love of God, that is what Christ is. When you think of the righteousness of God, that is what Christ is. When you think of the holiness of God, that is what Christ is. He is the fullness of the Godhead.
And yet this fullness dwells in the body, His church. So, dear brothers and sisters, what a privilege we have today.
We are here not as a religious organization. We are here as a body of Christ, as a representation of the body of Christ.
We dare not say we are the body—that is to say, everybody else is just an organization and we are the body. Brothers and sisters, we dare not say that, because in Richmond we believe there are many of God’s people scattered in different organizations.
If we declare that we are the body of Christ in Richmond, then, in a sense, we excommunicate all the brothers and sisters in Richmond. We dare not do that. We are only a few.
But we are here not as a religious organization, a Christian organization. We are here as a small representation of the body of Christ in Richmond.
Our emphasis is not on organization. Our emphasis is our life. What we need is life. What we seek for is life. It is not our life; it is the life of Christ in each and every one of us.
And, dear brothers and sisters, how is God going to accomplish His purpose to make us His real body? How is He going to develop the life that He has given to us in the first place?
What do you mean that you are a believer? What do you mean when you are saved? We often think that to be saved is to have our sins forgiven, that we may not go to hell. In other words, that is all we are concerned about. We do not want to go to hell.
And our Lord Jesus, as we believe in Him, His blood cleanses us from all our sins, that we may not be condemned forever. But this is only the small part of the salvation of God—the negative thing.
There is something positive and more glorious when we are saved. Because when we are saved, our dead spirit—the spirit that God created in man in order to have fellowship with Him—is made alive.
Because God is Spirit, and you cannot communicate with God with your soul or with your body. You can only communicate with God with your spirit. God is Spirit.
But unfortunately, when our forefather sinned, our spirit became dead to God. It did not mean that we did not have a spirit anymore. We still have the spirit that God created in the first place, but that spirit was dead.
So far as God is concerned, because it had no contact with God, it could contact evil spirits, but not God the Holy Spirit.
But when we are saved, the Bible tells us, “He that is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He that is born of the Holy Spirit is the new human spirit. And that is the beginning when we can communicate with God.
But more than that, because we find Christ Himself, in the Spirit, comes and dwells in our spirit. Christ becomes the life of our spirit.
More than that, the Holy Spirit also comes into our spirit and dwells within us. And what is His commission? His commission is only one: to see that the life of Christ given to us may grow into maturity.
That is the only commission of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He dwells in each one of us to see to it that this new life of Christ in us may grow within us until we can come to maturity.
But how does He do that? He does it in two ways. We call it the revelation of the Holy Spirit and the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
But the revelation of the Holy Spirit—if you are reading Ephesians, you find what Paul prays is that God will give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of God.
In other words, if we want to know God in a real way, it has to come by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to us.
As a matter of fact, in our whole Christian life, the revelation of the Holy Spirit that comes to us in life-changing experience probably is not more than two or three times in your whole life.
But the revelation of the Holy Spirit in gradually changing your life actually comes all the time. He is there in us to reveal Christ to us throughout our lifetime, whether you are reading the Bible, whether you are going through some experience, or whether you are in contact with people.
The Holy Spirit will use the opportunity of your environment to speak to you and to lead you into a fuller knowledge of Christ. So such revelation comes all the time, if you are in your daily life in touch with Christ.
Now, if you live far away from Christ, you will not have such revelation. Big revelations, yes—maybe once, twice, or thrice, such as Paul on the way to Damascus. That was a big revelation because it transformed his whole life.
But later on, you find he had further revelation. He had revelation that in him—that is, in his flesh—there was no good. That is another big revelation. And then revelation of the eternal purpose of God—that is another big revelation.
But so far as the discipline of the Holy Spirit is concerned, I think if we live close to the Lord, we will experience it daily.
In our daily life, the indwelling Holy Spirit will speak to us. We call it the discipline of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, He will so arrange everything in our life that we may learn Christ.
Usually, He will begin with something small and something outward. You know, I sometimes hear from the young people. The young people say, “You always talk about God speaking to you, but God has never spoken to me. How is this so?”
No, God has spoken to you, but you have not heard. Why? Because you are so busy hearing all the noises in the world. If you are quiet before God, you will hear Him, because He speaks in a still, small voice.
You remember the story of Elijah? When he fled because of Jezebel, he fled to the mount of Moses, and God appeared to him—not in the earthquake, not in the storm, not in the great wind, but in a still, small voice.
In our Christian life, we are always hearing that still, small voice within us because the Holy Spirit is so faithful.
He usually begins with you as a Christian in small things. Suppose you are a person who likes to talk big. You always exaggerate, and the more you exaggerate, the prouder you are.
But after you are saved, you will be talking as usual and begin to exaggerate. And when you exaggerate, you know what? You find there is within you a small, small, soft voice saying, “That is enough. That is not the truth.”
Now, have you had such an experience? I believe you did. But you usually neglect it, and you will continue to exaggerate. Now, if you do that, what will happen? You cannot pray.
In the evening, when you begin to pray, you will find there is a hindrance. Unless you confess your sin and have your sin cleansed, your communion with God is affected.
Brothers and sisters, in those small things, before you believed in the Lord, you usually went to different places as you pleased. But after you believe in God, you do the same thing. You try to go to the same place you often frequented. What happens?
A still, small voice within you says, “As a Christian, do you think it is proper for you to do that?” But you do not listen. You still go, and, as a result, you find your fellowship with Christ was interrupted.
You have to confess your sin, get rid of it by the grace of God, and then your fellowship is renewed. So usually it begins with small things.
Now, I would like to tell you my own experience. Even though I was the son of a pastor, I liked movies.
When I looked at a newspaper, the first page I looked for was the new movie page. I dared not go to see a movie on Sunday. In my whole life, I believe I did it once. But on Saturday, I was usually in the cinema.
At that time, I could go to the cinema without paying anything. My friend owned a theatre.
After I was saved, I still did that. But then, inwardly, I heard a voice: “Are you going to support, by your money, those people?”
Well, I tried to argue with myself. I said, “Lord, I promise You, I will only go to see religious movies.” I dared not tell anybody because I was not sure of myself. So I kept myself away from the cinema for a few months.
And lo and behold, a religious movie came to Shanghai. It was Noah’s Ark, and I was given a ticket to it.
So I struggled. I said, “It is a religious movie. What is wrong with that? I do not need to pay anything. I have the ticket.” So I went.
And, brothers and sisters, those two hours in that theatre, I was looking at the movie. It was a very bad movie, but I did not come out.
So, on the one hand, I sat there for two hours, struggling and still looking at the movie. But when I came out, that was the end of it. God delivered me.
So in the beginning, probably the Holy Spirit will deal with you in small things. But gradually, you find He will get deeper and deeper—not only your physical things, but even your mental things, your mind.
The Holy Spirit is to see that you are delivered from the world and filled and occupied with Christ Himself. That is the way the life of Christ begins to grow within us, if we learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
So, dear brothers and sisters, why is it that some believers, within a very short period, seem to grow spiritually, while others, who may have believed for a long time, still remain the same?
Very simple. It is because of how much you cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Do not think that after you believe in the Lord Jesus, He will leave you alone and allow you to develop whatever you want to be. You cannot be. If you do, that is a serious matter.
So, dear brothers and sisters, as Moses was given the vision of the law and the tabernacle, so we are given the vision of grace and the church. It is by the grace of God that the church is to be built, to be the household of God.
What we need is this revelation.
I think, many years ago, on my first trip to England, I remember I visited Brother Fox. One day we were talking together, and I was surprised by what he told me.
He was a pastor of the Baptist church, but the Lord began to reveal to him concerning the eternal purpose of God. So he began to speak in the Baptist church about the eternal purpose of God.
But he told me that after a whole year, he got only one brother—only one brother really heard it. That was Brother Patterson.
In other words, no matter what he said, it seemed as if this revelation was very difficult to really touch our heart and enable us to see it and respond to it.
So, brothers and sisters, sometimes I wonder. We have been meeting here for forty years. We have been talking about this for forty years. And how many brothers and sisters have really heard it?
It is not a small thing. It is the eternal purpose of God—the biggest thing. But how much have we heard?
So once again, I want to lay this matter before you, dear brothers. That is the reason for our being here, and that is the testimony we are supposed to bear.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we do confess that we are slow learners. And yet, Lord, Thou art the One Who reveals Himself.
So we just come to Thee this morning once again. We want to put ourselves under Thy light, that in Thy light we may see light.
Lord, we want to be those who not only hear about the eternal purpose of God, but by Thy grace and mercy, we want to be those who are in it.
May Thy Spirit speak and touch each and every one of us. And it is all for Thy glory. In Thy precious name. Amen.