Construction and God's Presence

The Tabernacle — Steve Gregg

Next in this series

Garments of Priests

00:00

Construction and God's Presence

The TabernacleSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg delves into the significance of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus, highlighting its purpose as a dwelling place for God among the Israelites. Drawing parallels to the church, Gregg explains how the foundation of the church is built upon apostles and prophets, who are anointed with gifts of the Holy Spirit. He emphasizes the importance of preaching the whole counsel of God and building the church with lasting substance, stressing the reward that awaits those who faithfully serve. Gregg also explores the concept of following God's guidance and the need for believers to keep their eyes on Jesus, anticipating the glorious revelation of the Lord.

Transcript

Now this ought to be our last study in the tabernacle, not the last study in Exodus. I hope this week to finish Exodus. But we've been studying the tabernacle for the last several, I don't even remember how many tapes we've had on that, how many studies on the tabernacle.

But this will, we should be able to conclude the information. Now we've already read a description of all the furniture and the tents and the coverings and all those things that have to do with the tabernacle. And we're just going to put the finishing touches on it.

We're going to see that the things that we've seen described, now remember the description was of them before they were made, because the pattern already existed before they did. God showed to Moses a pattern of the way these things should be made, and what we've been reading was the description that God was giving to Moses while Moses was on the mount. And now comes the time for them to build those things, and we read about that.

Now we're going to skip around a few chapters here in order to avoid too much repetition and to finish up the material on the tabernacle. There are three chapters that we're going to skip today and go back to tomorrow. Those are chapters 32, 33, and 34.

We're not going to dip into those today at all. We're going to start with chapter 31 today, and then we're going to skip over to parts of 35, 36, and 40. Now the reason we're jumping around so much is that chapters 32, 33, and 34 talk about the golden calf, and that's another subject that's not really to do with the tabernacle directly.

And after the golden calf is discussed, then the discussion of that just goes back to the tabernacle. And all the things that we've read about in detail are mentioned again in the same detail, which we won't get into. We're not going to go into so much repetition.

Today we want to cover the remainder of the information about the tabernacle that has not yet been discussed. We don't want to just keep going over the same material, even though the Scripture does, and I'm sure there's good reason for it. We've spent so much time on it already, I don't think it's necessary for us to go over that whole description of every piece again.

So we'll read chapter 31 at this point, and then we'll be skipping over to parts of 35, 36, and 40, because chapters 36 through 39 are about the same information we've been studying. And then when we've covered the tabernacle completely, we'll finish up the book of Exodus, which all that will remain will be chapters 32 through 34. We'll finish that up this week, Lord willing.

OK, let's read chapter 31. It's a short chapter. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to devise cunning works, to work in gold and silver and brass and in cutting of stones to set them in stone.

And in carving of timber to work in all manner of workmanship. And I behold, I have given with him a holy man, the son of his a Mac or something like that. I guess that's how you said of the tribe of Dan.

And in the hearts of all that are wise hearted, I have I put wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee. The tabernacle of the congregation, the Ark of the Covenant, the testimony and the mercy seat that is there upon and all the furniture of the tabernacle and the table and his furniture. That's the showbread table and the pure candlestick with all its furniture and the altar of incense and the altar burnt offering the brass altar with all its furniture and the labor and his foot and the cloths of the service and the holy garments for Aaron and the priest and the garments of his sons to minister in the priest's office.

And the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place, according to all that I have commanded thee, shall they do. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak now also unto the children of Israel saying, Verily, my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am Jehovah that does sanctify you. Now, the remainder of this chapter actually talks about the Sabbath.

We've talked about the Sabbath on more than one occasion. In fact, this is a recurring exhortation throughout the book of Exodus and the rest of the penitent and even the books of the prophets again and again. God says, keep my Sabbaths a very important point, which we've discussed before and how that the Sabbath day that was kept by the Jews one day a week, which on which no work was done.

That is a type and a shadow of the rest that we come into in Christ as Hebrews 4 tells us, where we cease from our own works and trust in his work. That is to say that the work that Christ did on the cross, of which he said it is finished, after which he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That work is God's work, not ours.

We didn't do it. And it is that work that saves us. So we cease from the nervous pursuit of righteousness through our own works and we accept the righteousness of Christ and begin to live a life that is in accordance with our faith in that work.

OK, now we're going to skip over to part of chapter thirty five. And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together and said unto them, these are the words which the Lord has commanded that you should do them. Now, we've just skipped over the golden calf incident.

The golden calf was made and Moses destroyed it and the people repented. The judgment was brought on them. And now he's telling them, OK, we've got these are things you got to do again.

The Sabbath is mentioned in verse two, six days shall our work be done. But on the seventh day, there shall be unto you a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord, whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day.

And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded, saying, take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord. Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it an offering of the Lord, gold and silver and brass, blue, purple, et cetera. And it gives a list of all the things they need to make the tabernacle out of.

They were taking a collection from these people and of course, they had these substance with them because they had spoiled Egypt when they come out of Egypt. I guess short time earlier. We don't know exactly how long earlier it was, but a few days or maybe weeks earlier, they had come out of Egypt.

And they had borrowed or demanded of the Egyptians all these precious things. And now the collection was taken among the people for these things that would be needed for the making of the tabernacle. We saw that Bezalel and Aholiab were going to be where they were given special gifts from the spirit of God to engrave and to make these things.

And now they were taking the materials. If we'll skip down to verse 20 now, we just skipped the list of things I had to collect because we've been over that list before. And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.

And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone whom his spirit made willing. And they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation and for all his service and for the holy garments. They came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted and brought bracelets and earrings and rings and tablets, all jewels of gold.

And every man that had offered offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet, this means cloth of those colors and fine linen and goat's hair and red skins of rams and badger skins brought them. Everyone that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord's offering.

And every man with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service brought it. And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun, both of blue and purple and of scarlet and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goat's hair.

And the rulers brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate and spice and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense. The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses. Skip on a little further now.

I read just a few verses in verse 36. And then says now we see that all the people, their hearts stirred them and they began to take this collection and everyone began to contribute. Women were spinning the goat's hair and spinning cloth and everyone who had some purple cloth or some linen or or some badger skins would just come and bring them.

And here in chapter 36, verses five through seven, and they spake unto Moses saying, the people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, let neither man nor woman make any more work for the for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the stuff that they had was sufficient for all the work to make it and too much.

So they said their hearts were stirred and they willingly gave. Then the next three chapters are just a repetition of how they made the things, which is almost word for word exactly how they were told to make them in the previous chapters that we read. Now let's skip on up to the end of chapter thirty nine and then through chapter forty.

Chapter thirty nine, verse forty two, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work and Moses did look upon all the work because he's the one who had seen the pattern. So he had to inspect it all to see if it was all according to the pattern. Moses did look upon all the work and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded.

Even so, had they done it and Moses blessed them and the Lord spake unto Moses saying on the first day of the first month, thou shalt set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation and thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony and cover the ark with the veil that is hiding from their face by hanging the veil. And thou shalt bring in the table and then it gives all the details of how they're supposed to bring in all these things and anoint them with oil, position them. We already know pretty much how those are positioned because of our former studies in the subject.

Then we get down to verse thirty four of chapter forty and we'll read to the end of the chapter. Then a cloud covered the tent. Now, they set up the tabernacle and they put all the furniture in it.

And this is the part that gives me goosebumps. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

All right. Now let me sum up what we've just read. We're going to go back to chapter thirty one now to begin talking about it.

And we'll just cover this material. Chapter thirty one, we read that God still speaking on the mountain to Moses said, listen, there's, you know, all this stuff I told you about. I told you to make it's going to take a lot of skill.

Don't worry. I've got the man for the job. In fact, I've got two men for the job, Bezalel and Aholiab.

I've given the special skills. I've given them the spirit of God to do this. Now, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is somewhat limited compared to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

The New Testament, the Holy Spirit gives all kinds of gifts to the church. In the Old Testament, you'd primarily find the Holy Spirit moving upon people to prophesy. Usually when the spirit would come upon people, they would prophesy.

You remember when Moses was complaining in the book of Numbers that there were just too many problems for him. And God said, well, I'll tell you, I'll take part. I'll take your burden that's on you and divide it up among 70 other men.

And so they took they selected 70 elders and God put his spirit on those 70 men and they prophesy. And so it is that throughout the Old Testament, usually when the spirit of God came upon someone, they prophesy. But we see that that wasn't the only thing the Holy Spirit did, because we find also that the Holy Spirit inspired these men to do the work of the tabernacle.

So the Holy Spirit is seen as the power behind all the work of God, all the supernatural work of God. And so it is in the New Testament. Now, God was not willing to just have Moses draw up a blueprint of how this thing was to be and give it to some guys who happened to look like they had something on the ball.

They had to he had to know which guys were really raised up of God to do the work. Now, we've talked about the preparation of the tabernacle and we've talked about the various applications of it. There's more than one valid one that the New Testament even makes.

The tabernacle is a picture of our own physical bodies. It's also a picture of how we approach God. Obviously, that's one of the primary meanings of the tabernacle is that is the illustration of how God is approached by man through the various stages going into the Holy of Holies from the outer part.

And we've talked about that at great length. And one thing I've mentioned also that the tabernacle represents the body of Christ. It was the dwelling place of God.

It was God's house in the wilderness. Later on, of course, the tabernacle being old and worn out was replaced by the temple, which was made of stone. Solomon built it first.

Later on, it was destroyed by the Babylonians and then rebuilt by Zerubbabel and refurbished by Herod many hundreds of years later. And then it was destroyed by the Romans. And there's never been a temple since, at least not one in Jerusalem.

You see, there is a temple in which God dwells, and that is the body of Christ, as we shall see. And we see that God has always desired to dwell among men. When he first created man, he sought to dwell among men.

When he created man, he also created a garden for man to live in. And God would come and walk with man in the garden and commune with him in the cool of the day. And there, of course, Adam enjoyed the most intimate fellowship with God that any man has ever known, I imagine, with the possible exception of Jesus.

But I don't even know if Adam's fellowship with God was any less before the fall than the fellowship that Jesus had with his father when he was on the earth. In fact, in some ways, it could have been more, because the earth was uncursed in those days and Jesus lived in a cursed earth. But nonetheless, God has shown himself more than willing to meet with man.

And so that's what the tabernacle was for, so God could take up a dwelling place among him. And it was up to the people of God to prepare a dwelling place for him. Now, God designed it, God provided the skills, God gave the gifts to the men to do it.

But nonetheless, they had to move their hands, take their chisels, they had to do their engraving, they had to do their sewing. They had to use their own hands and prepare a habitation for God. Well, they seemed to anticipate this long before God even told them about it, because back in Exodus 15, you may recall when they had come through the Red Sea and they'd seen their enemies destroyed.

And when the waters covered the sea again, they began to sing a song. In fact, it's a song that we sometimes sing in verses one and two of chapter 15, Exodus 15. It says, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord.

And Spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider have been thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation. My Father is God, and I will exalt him. So the Jews, as they came out through the Red Sea, though they had not received any instruction concerning the tabernacle that far, nonetheless, they anticipated preparing God a habitation.

The Lord is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation. Now, when we sing that, we change that a little bit. We say, The Lord, my God, we say that he, how does it go there? It says, He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation.

We say, He is my God, and I will praise him. My Father is God, and I will exalt him. Now, there's no conflict there, because actually, Psalm 22 says that God inhabits the presence of Israel.

So to say, I will praise him, or to say, I will prepare him a habitation, is not really to say two different things at all. It means that by our praises, we prepare for him a habitation. I'd like you to look for a moment at, I think it's 2 Chronicles, I hope, chapter 5. 2 Chronicles 5, 13.

Now, we read a moment ago how that when the tabernacle was completed, the glory of the Lord came down, a cloud came upon it, and that Moses couldn't even enter the tabernacle because of the glory that was abiding there. Now, we're reading about later in Jewish history, when Solomon built the temple. We find a similar occurrence here.

Verses 13 and 14, 2 Chronicles 5, verses 13 and 14. It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, and this is very significant, to make one sound to be heard in the praising and thanking of the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and the cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud.

They fell over when they walked in there. They couldn't stand up. For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.

Now, we see that in other places in the Scripture. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 4, tells how that he saw a vision of the Lord and his train filled the temple. He says, And smoke filled the house, the temple.

That's the same thing, the cloud. And also in Revelation, I think it's chapter 15. It is in fact chapter 15 of Revelation.

It says that John saw the tabernacle in heaven opened, and the whole house was filled with smoke. And no one could enter in until these angels came out and, I think, blew the trumpets or poured out the vials or whatever it was they were doing at that time. But nonetheless, it mentions that the tabernacle in heaven was seen, and it was filled with smoke, and no one could enter in because the glory of the Lord was so brilliant that they couldn't go in.

But look at this, verse 13. It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. Then the glory of the Lord came and filled the house.

Does that say anything to us who long to see his glory as of old in the house of God in the church? We read of the exploits of the early Christians. We read how the glory of God was seen upon them, how that Stephen's face shone as the face of an angel, how that great special wonders were done by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and cloths were taken from his body, and thus were received and were healed, and demons came out, and how that Peter would walk down the street and his shadow would fall across the sick, and they'd be healed instantaneously by his mere shadow. We might see the glory of God and the power of God moving like that today in our midst.

We hear of great meetings, even currently, where miracles are done, and we rejoice in this. But even so, it seems like the glory is not quite that of the former house yet. And yet, Habakkuk tells us, or no, it's Haggai tells us in chapter 2 of Haggai, that the glory of the latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former house.

If you want to see that, we can look over there at Haggai. And we want to get back to this business of them singing and praising as one, because there's more significance in it than we have yet tapped. But Haggai, which is nearly the last book of the Old Testament, it's about the third from the end, or fourth.

Haggai chapter 2, verses 7, 8, and 9. God says, I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations, which is Jesus, shall come. And I will fill this house with glory. And this is a spiritual type of the church.

I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts.

And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. So, the glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former. In the former house, the glory of God filled it, and the priests could not even stand up to minister.

They were just overwhelmed. Their legs lost all strength when they came near the awesome presence. And yet the glory of the latter house shall be greater.

The latter reign shall be heavier than the early reign, you see. Now, when Solomon's temple was destroyed, it remained in ruins for 70 years while the Jews were in exile in Babylon. At the end of that time, Zerubbabel and others returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

The Bible tells us that when the foundation was laid by these men of the new temple, that there were some old men, maybe 90 or 100 years old, who remembered the former house. Now, they'd been away for 70 years, but there were some men old enough to remember the temple that had been destroyed. And it says when they saw the foundation that was laid, they began to weep.

There were many young people rejoicing and praising God, but the old men who remembered the former one wept because it was not as glorious as the one that they remembered. So the earthly temple was never restored to the same glory as Solomon's temple after it was destroyed. But the church will have that glory come down again.

The glory of God will be seen upon his people and shall arise upon us. Now, we long to see that glory. We long to see it come as in times past.

But at this time, it doesn't seem to be coming down in the same measure as we read in the early church. At least in this place. In some places, it seems to.

We've read of Indonesian revivals and other where things seem to be happening about the same as they used to. But this has got to happen with the whole church. And one of the problems, there probably are many to explain, but one of the problems is that we have not as a church begun to sing as one.

The church is not as one yet. Now, the church is one because Jesus said so. There's one body.

There's one spirit. One God and father of us all. There's only one body.

There's only one church. The church is one, but we are not as one. You see, we're one body, but we don't act like one body.

We're acting like we're many bodies. And so the divisions in the church keep us from behaving as one. And it was when the people of God began to take their instruments together and in a harmonious way, in an orchestrated way, began to blow their instruments together as one.

Then in that harmony of unity, God was pleased. It was pleasing to God. And he came down and he filled the house with the glory that had also been on the tabernacle.

And that was the experience in the time of Solomon. So I believe that this is one of the things that God awaits still. We say, God, why don't you come down? Why don't you show yourself as in times past? We have heard of the miracles you did in the times past.

Why don't we see it today? And I think he says, well, don't you read in the book of Acts that all the people were of one accord. And no one considered that anything that he had was his own. But as everyone had possessions, they sold them and distributed to those who had need.

And there was this oneness, this unity. The people in the early church were as one, much more than we are. And that may have a lot to do with the miracles that were going on in those days.

God could honor that. He can't honor this present divided situation, which is against his will. Now, we saw something about the men.

We didn't get a great description of them. But in chapter 31, there was a description of Bezalel and Aholia who were to do the instruments, to make the instruments of the tabernacle. And the main thing we need to recognize is that they were not just skilled.

They were filled with the spirit. God filled them with the spirit so that they could do this. We must see that the church is going to be built.

The church is being built. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19 says, You are no longer strangers and pilgrims, but fellow heirs with all saints in the household of God, and are being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building fitly framed and joined together, growing into a holy habitation in the Lord. See, the church, we're growing.

We're built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And the building is growing. It's a building under construction.

The church is certainly not fully constructed yet, but we are under construction. And of course, when the house is finished, then God will glorify the house of his glory. As he said in Isaiah chapter 60, I will glorify the house of my glory.

Isaiah 60, verse 7. Okay, now the project is being done by builders. All buildings are made by builders. It says in Hebrews, every house is made by some man, the maker of all things is God.

Well, this house is being built by men too, but not by mere men, but by men who are anointed with the spirit of God. Just as the tabernacle had to be made by men who had the gifts from the Holy Spirit, so this church has to be built by gifts of the Holy Spirit. The church is not built by men who have their qualifications on the basis of training or on the basis of natural intelligence.

Some of the mightiest and most anointed men I've known have been very unintelligent men. They couldn't even read a page in front of their face. In the early Jesus movement, the mightiest worker in the Jesus movement, who converted more people and had more miracles in his ministry, still has now, 12 years later, has a great number of miracles in his ministry.

He couldn't read a page in front of his face. When he got up to preach, he'd stumble through a few pages of living letters, and then he'd start preaching, and people would swarm to the front, and people would be healed, and they'd fall into the power of God. It doesn't take education.

It takes the power of God. On this matter of God using an anointed man to build his church, I'd like to show you a couple of passages of Scripture that will be enlightening. One of these passages you probably, if you've been a Christian very long, are familiar with, because Charismatics teach from this passage a lot, is Ephesians 4. And the other one you might not be quite as familiar with.

Ephesians 4, verse 7, But unto every one of us is given grace, and by the way, the word gifts of the Spirit, as we find it in 1 Corinthians, where it talks about the gifts of the Spirit, the Greek word is charisma, singular, charismata, plural. Charisma means gifts of grace. And here we're talking about grace being given.

To everyone is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now we're going to skip a couple of verses to verse 11 and see what those gifts were that he gave to men.

He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Now here's what he gave them for. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect or mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now, it says that the purpose of the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers, now these are the anointed men, these are the men who correspond in the New Testament to the Old Testament, men like Bezalel and Aholiot, the men anointed with the Spirit of God in order to build the house, to build the project. They are there to perfect the saints. You are the saints.

Some of you may be apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers too, for all I know, or evangelists. But at least at this point we know that we're all the saints and that the ministry of those gifts is to build you up, to perfect you so that you can do the work of the ministry with the gifts that you have and also that the whole body of Christ might be edified, a word which is from the same root as we get the word edifice, a building. To be edified means to be constructed, to be built up.

And so the purpose of the apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists is to build up the building. Paul talks about it in Ephesians 2. And it's going to be built up until we come unto a perfect man, that is until we come to maturity as a body, unto the fullness and the measure of the stature of Christ. So it's still a growing project.

It's still a growing building, a growing body. And these men with these anointed gifts are the ones who are being used for the project. Just like Bezalel and Aholam.

They're men who are gifts of God to the church. That's what it says. He gave gifts to men.

He gave some apostles and etc. So we need to see then how important it is to be in fellowship in a church that has some of these gifts functioning. It's nice to have a church that has them all, where there's many apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

But at least you've got to have some. The church in Antioch had prophets and teachers, we know. We don't know about anything else.

Later on they sent out some apostles. But if you don't have any of these anointed gifts, you're not going to be able to have the church built up. Now you can have people who are trained in seminary to be a teacher or to be an evangelist.

Or you can't train a person in seminary to be a prophet or an apostle, but you can train them to be a teacher or a pastor or an evangelist. And you don't really need the Spirit of God to complete this training or to get your papers in many denominations to be in the pulpit. And that's the shame of it, because for that reason many people who have never been called to God and never had any anointing are in the pulpits.

And they're trying to build the work of God, but they don't have the Spirit of God upon them for the work, for the cunning craftsmanship that needs to be done to construct the faith. And it's just like strange fire being offered to the Lord. It's like Moses saying, well Lord, Bezalel and Aholam, I like those guys and everything like that.

We've got these guys over here who were foremen on the pyramid project in Egypt, and they know an awful lot more about construction than these two characters. And so I appreciate your choice, God, and I know that these guys have good heart and everything like that, but we're really looking for talent. We're looking for ability.

We're looking for qualifications. And of course that would be absurd. Moses would never do that, and nor should we, and yet the church does.

The church doesn't wait to see who has the anointing. The church says, who's got the papers? Who's got the training? And I know some very anointed young men who've gone to seminary. Unfortunately, I hope they remain anointed in seminary.

Some will, no doubt, and some won't. But the reason they went to seminary is because they have a heart for the ministry, and the denomination in which they serve will not allow them to minister unless they have papers from the seminary. And unfortunately, many of them will be spoiled by seminary and destroyed, but some of them will remain, and God will have to keep them through the fire.

But nonetheless, this is not the mentality of God. The apostles never had any education. In fact, it says in, I think, the fifth chapter of Acts, that when John and Peter were brought before the Sanhedrin and forbidden to speak any more in the name of Jesus, that they, of course, said, well, we can't obey you because we have to obey God instead.

And it says that as the Sanhedrin members looked on these two men, it says they observed that they were unlearned laymen, that they were unschooled, but they perceived that they had been with Jesus. And that's really what their qualifications were, not that they had any papers, but that they had been with Jesus. And Jesus had put his spirit on them.

Now here, God has given some apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, and just for the building project, to build you up. And some will be educated, and some won't. It won't matter.

I mean, I'm not saying that educated men can't also be anointed. I know some very anointed and educated men. But we must see that it's the anointing and not the education or not any other qualifications.

It's not the ability to speak well. I would testify myself that I was a better speaker before I had the anointing to preach, to teach. In high school and all that, before I was filled with the spirit, I was in speech and I was a polished speaker.

I have trophies from speech competitions that I won. But I won them not by being anointed, but by eliminating all the uhs and you knows and slang from my vocabulary and enunciating every word so that everyone would know each letter in the word. And that's how you win those competitions, but that's not how you preach the gospel successfully.

And I actually had to, those things that were gained to me, I had to count them lost, because when I was called to the ministry, I was called to the street culture. And they didn't relate to that kind of polished speech. So I just had to throw that out.

And now I use all the uhs and you knows again. And I don't enunciate very clearly either. But you see, a man can have all those characteristics and still be anointed, but a man can be as anointed without them.

That's what we need to see. We must not judge after outward appearance and henceforth know we know man after the flesh. Let's look at 1st Corinthians chapter 3 on this point.

In 1st Corinthians chapter 3, the chapter is divided almost in half. It is roughly in half. The first eight verses are on one subject and the next 13 are on another.

Verse 9 is the turning point. Verse 9 is the summary statement of the chapter. It says, For we are laborers together with God.

And in the context, what he means is, we, the Apostle Paul and Apollos and Cephas. In the church of Corinth, as we see early in the chapter, there were some saying we are of Paul, and others saying we are of Apollos. Some were saying we are of Cephas.

They were dividing themselves in favor of various teachers or apostles and saying we like him better than the others. And therefore we will call ourselves by his name. We will favor his particular twist of doctrine.

His emphasis will be our emphasis and he is our man and we will start a denomination around Paul. And you can start yours around Apollos and another can start one around Peter. Well, Paul says, No, don't see it that way.

Verse 9, We are laborers. That is, we, Apollos and Cephas and Paul. We are not fighting.

We are not in competition. We are laborers together with God. Now you, for example, there is a contrast here between we and you.

We means the apostles and teachers that are being discussed. You is the rest of the church. You are God's husbandry, which actually means his farm.

Ye are God's building. Now, if you read the early part of the chapter before this, the first eight verses talk about the church as a farm or as a field. I have planted, Apollos came and watered it, but God gives the increase.

So you see that the illustration of a farm of the church is used. If you just read those first eight verses, you'll see that Paul talks about the church as a tillage or as a vineyard or something where seeds are planted and then they're watered and they're treated. That's what you are.

You are God's husbandry. Then the rest of the chapter is about the church as a building. And he says, So you are God's husbandry.

You are God's building. And then we get into his discussion. Sorry, with verse 10 about how the church is a building.

Now, the point to remember that Paul is emphasizing here, this whole chapter is that Paul is trying to emphasize the comparative roles of himself and Apollos, especially in the ministry of the church. Now, Peter had probably never seen this. He probably never been to Corinth.

But Apollos came there shortly after Paul had been there. So Paul came through and established the church originally. Then later, Apollos came through and did a lot of heavy teaching.

And a lot of people liked him better. And then some people said, Well, Peter is recognized in Jerusalem as the chief apostle. So we are of him instead.

So they got three denominations. And others would say, Hey, this is baloney. We're of Christ.

So they had four denominations. And so Paul says, I want you to understand the comparative value of these men. He says, When you consider the church to be a farm, you have to see that I came first and I planted seeds.

But Apollos came afterwards. He didn't plant another farm. He just watered the seeds that I planted.

And God gave the increase. So neither Paul or Apollos should get any honor for it. We just were slaves on the same plantation.

And God is the one who gave the increase. So don't align yourself with Paul or Apollos. Align yourself with God.

OK, then he talks about the building. And again, we fail to see this often and we misinterpret verses 12, especially in 13. But because of it.

But if we understand that he's talking about laborers like Bezalel and Aholia, like the apostles and prophets who were building the church, we'll see this in its proper context. Verse 10, According to the grace of God, which is given to me as a wise master builder. There you see he's building a building.

I have laid the foundation of the church in Corinth. And another builds thereon, namely Apollos. When we see it as a farm, Paul planted the seed and Apollos watered it.

Seeing it as a building, Paul laid the foundation. Apollos came and started building the superstructure on the foundation. Another built it thereon.

But let every man take heed how he built it thereon. Now what he's saying is, we're all working on the same project, but everyone better be very careful how they build the church. And he's talking primarily about ministers.

Anointed ministers. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now he's saying, of course, when I came and planted a field, Apollos didn't come and plant a different field.

He just worked on the same field. Same thing. I laid a foundation.

Apollos or no one else can come and lay any other foundation. There's only one foundation of the church, and that's Jesus Christ. I happened to get here first, and I laid the foundation.

If he had gotten here first, he would have laid it. Nonetheless, it's all the same, and we're all laborers together with God. We're just working it out on the same project.

And God's the foreman, and we're the lackeys. And we're just working together, doing our little part. But everyone ought to be careful how he works on it.

And no one can lay any other foundation than that which is already laid. It says, now, if any man, and this is not talking about the general Christian, it's talking about the minister, the man in the pulpit, the man who's building the church. If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, that's what the tabernacle was made out of, or by contrast, wood, hay and stubble, which are perishable, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, that is the day of judgment, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer a loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, or tabernacle also, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.

Now, the way this is usually taken, this part about the foundation is laid, and if you build with gold, silver, precious stones, most people like to preach it this way, they preach it to the general Christian, and they say, now look, Jesus is the foundation of your life, now you build your life, you do good deeds, you do bad deeds, if you do good deeds, if you're inspired by the Holy Spirit, if you're walking in the Spirit, the deeds will be building your life out of gold, silver and precious stones. If you do bad deeds, if you don't follow God, if you don't do things walking in the Spirit, if you're walking in flesh, then you're building with wood, hay and stubble on the judgment day, your life will be tried by fire, and the bad deeds you did will be burned up, and you know, that may be true, but that's not what Paul is saying here. People need to take the whole context.

Paul is correcting the Corinthians for a bad attitude toward their leaders, where they almost idolize certain leaders, and he says, listen, all we leaders, we're just all in the same boat, we're all just laborers together with God. Now, every one of us is going to have, now we're building God's building, Apollos and me and Cephas and others, we're working on the building, but all of us are going to have to give an account for the building. If we come in here and we preach to you things that are truly of God, we'll be building with gold and silver and precious stones, we'll be building the church with lasting substance, we'll be laying a foundation and building on something that will last through the day of trial.

But if we come in here giving you all kinds of human philosophy and giving you all kinds of book learning and everything else, instead of what God is inspiring us to say, then we're building with wood, hay and stubble, we're building the church, but it won't last. And so when the day of trial comes, when the day of fiery indignation, that shall try the hearts of all the men that dwell on the earth comes, that which we've built will not last. I think so often of the ministers who teach doctrines of men that make it easy to become a Christian, that make it easy, that downplay the cost of discipleship, that de-emphasize the need for dying to the world and forsaking all.

These people who make it easy gospel to respond to are building a church and their churches become very large sometimes, they get very big. But they're building out of something that won't last in the day of trial. They're building out of lives that are uncommitted in many cases and lives that will not count the cost and will not survive the day of trial.

So when the day declares it, they've got a church full of wood, hay and stubble. They built a grass hut for God to live in, where the ministers who are inspired by the Holy Spirit will not shrink from the whole council of God. As difficult as it may be to receive, they'll have a smaller congregation usually, because it's harder to receive the whole council of God than to receive the pabulum that most ministers like to give.

And, you know, if he doesn't shrink from living in the whole council of God, he'll have a smaller congregation, but it'll be made of precious stuff. It'll be made of committed members, people who are ready to endure the day of trial. When the fire indignation comes and the day of tribulation, that will be gold that's purified.

The house will become more pure and less, and not less pure. It won't fall apart. Now, the ministers who are building with the wrong materials, God is very gracious.

It says the day will declare it and show what kind of work they built with. But, and if their work is burned up, they'll be saved anyway. Yet it's by fire.

It's kind of a, it's talking about the rewards of the minister, of the ministry. If you're faithful to give the whole council of God and to build the church with precious and abiding substance, with truth, you see, the whole truth, then when the day will declare it, your reward will remain. In fact, your reward will be improved.

Because gold is not damaged by fire, it's only purified and made more valuable. But if you're shrinking, if you're fearful of man, if you're not really speaking out the words that God has for you to speak, you may still be a saved minister. You may still go to heaven.

You may still be with the Lord. But you'll have no reward. Your reward will have burned up in that day of trial.

Paul said that his crown before the Lord was the Christians that he had converted. He said, what is my crown? Are not ye, is it not ye in the Lord? So that the reward that Paul receives, the reward that any minister receives on the day of judgment, as it says in 1 Peter chapter 5, it says to the elders, it says, don't lord over the sheep, don't do it for money, it tells all these restrictions, it tells instructions to elders about their attitude, it says that when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall give you a reward that fades not away. He'll reward you.

Well, the reward is basically the people that have come into the kingdom through you and the work that's been done in their life through your ministry. That is your reward. That is your crown.

And many of you will be called to this kind of ministry. Some of you are already feeling called to the mission field. Some of you may be in training to be teachers or evangelists, or maybe some of you are prophets or even apostles in the making.

There's no one here who couldn't be in one of these ministries. And when and if you are, now see, it may be that you won't ever be in one of these ministries. Remember, there are people who built the tabernacle who work, bezelels and a holy observe people who just sewed the tent together.

People who just use their hands. They didn't have any special spiritual gifts. The woman just they just knitted or they just wove goat's hair.

You know, I didn't that didn't take special skills. These women didn't need the anointing to weave goats hair. They they just did all the loom, you know.

And so there are people who have natural skills to offer, which can be used as they're organized by the anointed leaders like Holy Abba and Basilio. And they you know, the leaders, the apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, look for these skills in people and they and they seek to put them to use. The purpose of these ministry gifts is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

You are being, I hope, as you go to church, as you go to Bible studies, as you go to Mario Murillo, as you as you are hearing the word of God, hopefully you are receiving equipment so that you can do the work of the ministry. And so the ministry of the church is as it has different kinds of gifts. There are those gifts that have the special anointing to to to guide and to direct and to build and to and to design the church.

And then there are those that do the manual labor. And every one is important. Well, Basilio and Holy Abba couldn't do a thing if there was no one there to weave the goats hair.

They couldn't finish the project. So I mean, all are important. Some may have less glorious functions, but all important.

That's why the Bible says what? When he was trying to decide whether he ought to run or go on the mission field, of course, he later decided to go on the mission field and run. But the elders of his church were talking to him about it. And one of them said, Eric, you can you can peel a spud to the glory of God if you peel it to perfection.

You know, and, you know, it sounds a little homey, but in fact, in fact, there's nothing that you cannot do to the glory of God. Anything you do with a rejoicing, thankful attitude and you do well because you serve not men, but God. And that's what the Bible says about servants.

You serve the good service because you're serving God and not serving men. Anything you do can be done to glorify God. If you are just working on a job and drawing a paycheck and you don't have any other spiritual side to your ministry, your paycheck can become your contribution to God.

As some of these women had nothing to offer but their ability to weave goats hair. Nonetheless, every person is involved. And but the project has to be directed by by those upon whom the spirit of God is placed.

If not, then it will be led by people on whom the spirit of God does not rest. And then there will be no fruit from it. No good fruit.

We saw that the people offered willingly from their hearts. And that's an exciting thing that whenever the people of God are willing to give Paul in Second Corinthians, Chapter eight described the same phenomenon in the Church of Macedonia. He's writing to the Corinthians about the Macedonian Christians who themselves were extremely poor.

But he says out of the abundance of their deep poverty and the abundance of their joy, they gave liberally. They gave generously because they heard that the saints in Jerusalem were poor. And even though they themselves were impoverished, they gave Paul says even beyond that which they were able.

They gave to hurt and then kept giving because they were so concerned about the work of God in Jerusalem. And he says there's an example that he said they gave so joyfully, he says they even entreated us to accept the gift because Paul apparently was reluctant to take money from people who were so poor as anyone might be a little reluctant. But he says they begged him to take the money from him.

Now, that's the joy of giving that these people have found. And so here also and later on with the Temple of Solomon, Solomon took a collection of people for the gold and everything that had to be used to make the temple. And it was the same thing.

More than enough came in. They finally said, hey, stop bringing it. This is too much.

You're giving too much. It's time to rest. I don't I don't know that we ever give too much to the Lord.

Everything is his. But it is important to know that God only accepted gifts from those who were willing. God loves a cheerful giver.

He didn't say now every one of you has to give all the gold and all the gold. Everything you have around the house, give it. You have to give everyone a reason.

No, anyone who's got a willing heart, do it. He didn't want to stain the work of God with gifts that were given with an evil motive or with anything other than a heart that God's spirit had touched. So I object strongly to fundraising gimmicks in the church, which are designed to get money out of people who don't have any heart to give, because there are a bunch of stingy people in the body of Christ for some reason.

I don't know why that is, but there's a bunch of people who just don't like to give. They're afraid to give their insecure financially or something, and they just don't know that it's a safe thing to do. And for some reason, they just don't give.

And for such people, I'm not in favor of twisting their arm or passing out envelopes and asking for pledges or anything like that or any other kind of gimmicks. I believe that we just have to ask God to move on their hearts to give them a willing heart to give. Maybe they need some teaching sometime, but nonetheless, they it has to be the Holy Spirit that motivates them or else their gifts would be worthless to them, at least, and to God's project.

And we see at the closing verses of chapter 40 how the cloud that came upon the house and filled the house, the glory of the Lord was there. That cloud would sometimes lift and move on to another location, and they'd be watching the cloud, and they'd get up and they'd move. They'd pack up the whole tabernacle and move it around to follow the glory of God wherever he went.

And this also we must see, that the church is a church in motion, a church in root. Because the Jews were not content to dwell in the wilderness. That wasn't where they were going.

They were going into the promised land. They were going to a land flowing with milk and honey, a good land and a large, where God had promised to them that would be their habitation and their eternal inheritance. And so they were in root.

Now, they took some side trips, and they had to circle around several times because of their lack of faith and mistakes they made, which we shouldn't laugh at, because if we were in their shoes, we'd probably make them anyway. In fact, we still do make the same mistakes, even though we have their example to learn from. They didn't have any examples to learn from.

They were just making the mistakes for the first time. But nonetheless, they were making progress. They were moving.

And they would sometimes camp in one place for a while, just as God, as he's bringing us into perfection, into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ, we go from stage to stage, from point to point. And we'll sometimes have a period where we're not moving very much, where the glory seems to have stopped at a certain place and the cloud hasn't lifted to move on for a while. We don't know.

We have no record of how long the cloud stayed in any one place. It may have been hours, days, months at times. There were 40 years in the wilderness.

The cloud could have stayed a year in one place without moving, or it might have moved in a week, or it might have moved in two days. You just never knew. That's why they had a watchman keeping his eye on the cloud with a trumpet ready to blow.

As soon as the cloud would lift, he'd blow the trumpet, wake up the camp and pack it up and head them out because they had to move when God moved. And so in our lives and in the history of the church, God has started with a very small church, a very immature church, though there was a great amount of power in the early church. Nonetheless, I think there's there's tremendous immaturity.

The fullness and the measure of Christ was still 2000 years away from them. And they began growing. They began to have revelations from the Holy Spirit.

They began to understand the truth of God and to grow and to mature through the ministry of the apostles and prophets and teachers. And as time went on, of course, the church lost a lot of that because of the traditionalism that they fell into in the Dark Ages. But now we live in a day where God is again.

The cloud is moving us from place to place. God will bring about a certain change in our life. It seems like we have brief periods of accelerated growth where every day we learn some new thing.

Every every time we learn so many new lessons in one week, we wonder if we'll be able to remember them. And we just seem to see so much growth and so much change. Sometimes a deliverance from an old habit is overnight, just very quick changes in our lives.

And then it seems like a period of time where we're not changing very much at all. We begin to wonder if things are really still with the Lord and yet the cloud just may not be moving at the moment. He may want you to sit down and digest some of that stuff that you took in those accelerated times.

And the point is that sometimes the cloud moves and sometimes the cloud doesn't. If the cloud is not moving, it's wrong for you to move. If the cloud is moving, it's wrong for you to stay.

And so the walk of the Christian, the walk in the spirit is nothing more or less than walking with Jesus. When he says, let's go aside for a little while and pray, then we go aside and say, but God, there's so many people out there to preach to. And when he says, let us go to Jerusalem, we don't say, but Lord, last time you were there, they sought to stone you.

Let's stay here. You go where he goes. You move when he moves.

You stay when he stays. And you it's it's not a bunch of rules. It's not a bunch of principles.

It's just following Jesus, just keeping your eyes on him. And being sensitive to which direction he's going and making sure you're going the same direction at the same speed. I think it'd be worthwhile to bring up one other point, which is found in John 14, a passage commonly misunderstood and therefore worth giving a few moments to very often quoted, very often misapplied.

Jesus is here in the upper room with his disciples, giving his last promises of the coming of the spirit and such. And he says to them, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.

And whether I go, you know, and the way, you know. All right. Jesus, I'll tell you how we usually take this.

There's reference to Jesus going to prepare a place for us and then coming again to gather us himself. There's reference to the father's house and to many mansions. We often have her teaching that indicates that the father's house is heaven and that the mansions are actual.

Either symbolically or literally, they're buildings. Of course, Jesus was a carpenter. So he's up there building houses in heaven for us.

And you hear various Christian jokes and stuff and even serious songs, serious songs that I've got a mansion over the hilltop, you know, and glory land and all that stuff. And you hear this mental image is brought forward to the mind by many preachers who take this to be that God in heaven has built houses for us to live in. As though we're going to live in houses in some ethereal outer space place.

Now, I want to say that if we would cross reference every other place in the New Testament that speaks of the father's house, it's very clear what the father's house is. The father's house is not heaven. The father's house is not heaven.

We read in Ephesians, chapter two, that we are built up a spiritual habitation for God. In first Peter, chapter two, verse five, it says that we are living stones built up a spiritual house for God. We are the house of God.

In Hebrews, chapter three, it says that Jesus has a son over his own house. Whose house are we? We are his house. If you have any questions as to what the house of God is, just look through the New Testament.

You'll find the church is the house of God. We are his dwelling place. Even the New Jerusalem and the temple that's found there is adorned as a bride for her husband.

The church is seen as the house of God. Well then, in God's house are many mansions. This word mansion means dwelling places.

It's the Greek word mone, M-O-N-E in the English transliteration. And that means literally a staying or abiding place. In the father's house, the church, there are many abiding places.

And that speaks of you. You are an abiding place. I'm an abiding place.

Each person in here, there are many of us. Many of us abiding places in God's house. The church is his house.

We are the abiding places. Now you say, how do I know that this is what this means? I'll share with you how we know. The word mansions in the Greek, mone, is found, that Greek word is found only one other place in the Holy Testament.

And that's in this chapter, another place in the same chapter. I would say that if one word is used only twice in the whole Bible, both times in the same chapter, in the same discourse by the same person, there's a good chance that it means the same thing in both places. Now look at where the second place it appears, verse 23.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words. And my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode, the word is mone, with him. Our mansion with him.

If you want to translate mone mansion as it is in verse 2, then you can. But you have to do it in both places. If you want to change it to abiding place, which is more literal, then in both places we see that the mansions, that are many mansions in the Father's house, are people.

The mansions are people. He says, we will come to you. If you love me, you'll keep my words.

I will come to you, my father will come to you, and we will make our mansion with you. We will make our abode with you. So it's clear that God's not building houses up in the clouds.

He is building people down here. Because it's not we who are going to go somewhere else, it's he that's going to come here. If I go and prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you to myself.

He's coming here. We're not going there. And so when he is preparing this place, and we are the place that he's preparing, by the way, he is preparing for each of you a place in his body.

He is preparing you to be a place, and to have a place in his body. Every stone has its place. And you are stones.

You are living stones. And in order to fit in your place between two other stones, you've got to be prepared, because a rough stone out on the hill has to be chipped and smoothed and everything so that it fits. And that's the preparation that's being done.

He's preparing a place for you between two other stones. And above and below two other stones. Because all the stones will be built together into a spiritual house.

And when that project is done, he says, I will come again and receive you. Once my house is complete, once I finish preparing this place, this church, then I will come and the glory of the Lord will fill this house also. And all flesh shall see it together, because the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, the Bible says.

So this is how this applies to us. We are the abiding place. Upon every abiding place, upon every dwelling place in Zion, and upon every assembly, shall there be a cloud in glory.