If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 8, we're going to continue our studies in the priesthood of Christ. Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 through 8. Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 through 8, reading out of the book of Hebrews, NASB. Now the main point in what has been said is this, we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched not man.

Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle.

For see he says that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father we pray for your anointing. We pray for your Holy Spirit to continue to guide and lead us and your word Lord God would cause us to be anchored in Christ and Christ alone. If our hearts and our mind Lord has been distracted in anything else but you, we pray Father that this morning you would teach us that we may hear from you and that we may follow your son and your son alone.

In Jesus name we pray, amen. You know as we study the Bible one of the most important things in understanding what the Bible says is what? Context right? You have to understand everything in context. So you have to understand the verse in the context of the passage. You have to understand the passage in the context of the letter.

And you have to understand the letter in the context of the covenant, the New Testament or the Old Testament. And you have to understand everything in the context of the redemptive history, meaning the meta narrative, the large narrative that God is giving. So when we study the details obviously we're studying the author, we're studying the recipients, we're studying the culture behind it.

But at the same time there is a larger picture that we have to learn how to connect to which we call the meta narrative. And if we don't connect it, we don't know how it belongs to God's redemptive history, you're going to miss the whole point because the true author of the Bible is the Holy Spirit.

There's only one author. Even though he used different people at different times to deal with certain specific things, the Bible was never meant to be read in sections. The sections need to be understood in the context of the larger book, the Old Testament and New Testament because they are cohesive.

The reason why I say that, without understanding the meta narrative, the book of Jonah becomes a story about a man who decides not to obey God and then he gets swallowed up by a whale. And so don't mess with God, right? Or the whale's going to come and get you.

The end. The book of Hosea is about how we need to be gracious to prostitutes. Homer is going to keep prostituting herself, but we should love people like we love prostitutes. The end. If we don't understand how this fits into the larger narrative. The book of Jonah was written as a rebuke to the nation of Israel in the context of God calling the nation of Israel to be a blessing to the rest of the nation.

His intent was always, in Genesis chapter 12, to bless them and that they would be a blessing to the rest of the world. So God's purpose was the world, was always the world. But by the time of Jonah being written, they didn't care about the rest of the world, only about themselves.

And that's why the letter ends with rebuke to Jonah. What is it to you that I show mercy to these people? The end. That's how it ends. So if you don't connect that to the meta narrative, it just becomes a good story to tell in Sunday school about don't mess with God.

Or stay away from whales if you're disobedient, right? Or something to that effect, right? Book of Hosea is, again, a rebuke to the nation of Israel. And the way that God calls Hosea to love this prostitute, Gomer, is the way that God continues to love the nation of Israel and God's people.

And he's warning them at some point, this grace is going to run out. So you need to repent. So he's trying to bring them back to repentance. Now I say all of this is because not only book of Jonah or Hosea, every part of scripture we have to keep asking what is the main point.

We've been studying the Melchizedek, the priesthood of Jesus, of Melchizedek, which Jesus came under. We started that in chapter six. We took a long break and then we picked it back up in chapter seven. We're right in the middle of things. He's going to lead to a better ministry, better covenant, and then we're going to get into chapter nine, the old and the new covenant.

And so we're going to be on this subject, even if we don't mention Melchizedek every single Sunday. We're going to be on this subject for a while. But the goal of this study isn't simply so that you can say, you know what, Melchizedek is a hard, hard to understand, but good thing we went through it.

I have some knowledge about who he is. That's not the point. If you, if that's your point, you missed the whole point, right? In fact, some, anybody who studied the book of Hebrews may be eager to jump to chapter 11 or chapter 12. Tell me what to do, right?

What is it that we're supposed to do? Chapter seven, eight, and nine is the core of the book of Hebrews. Because if you don't fully grasp who Jesus is, whatever it is that you do is going to be founded upon whatever you think he is, not who he is.

And that's the common mistake that churches make. When we get riled up into action without having a good foundation of who Jesus is and what he calls us to do, we can be well-meaning and give all our efforts and pour all our energy into things that in the end may have nothing to do with God.

So we need to make sure that we are completely anchored in Christ, that no matter what it is that we endeavor to do, that it is because this is what Christ would do. This is what Christ calls us to do. So to make it easy, chapter eight actually begins by telling us now the main point.

This is the main point. Sometimes you study the Bible and you really have to search for it, because the main point is kind of scattered everywhere. And then after you study, you say, "Oh, this is the main point." Well, he makes it easy for us. Verse one, he says, "Now the main point in what has been said is this." So what he has to say, basically we need to pay attention.

Because he says this is the main point. This is the reason what we've been studying. This is what he wants us to get, the main point. And so the next phrase that comes really is a summary of what he's going to say in the next four or five verses.

So there's three things he says. The main point is this. We have such a high priest, meaning Christ, who has taken his seat, number one. And so we're going to be talking about what does that mean for him to take his seat. Second, he's taken his seat at the right hand of the throne.

What does it mean for his seat to be at the right hand? And then third, that this throne is the majesty in heaven. So that kind of summarizes everything that he really wants to say. And then the conclusion of that, because this is who he is and this is what he has done, he concludes in verse six by saying, "But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on a better promises." That's his point.

Because remember, he's talking to a group of people who are drifting back into their old system, the Judaistic system, because it was easier and it was much more tangible. That's what their friends were in. So in order to avoid hardship in life, they were trying to blend the old life and the new life.

And so the point of all of this is, you either don't understand who Christ is, or you've drifted so far that you've forgotten. Whatever the case is, and whatever the reason you have drifted, it is important for us to be re-anchored in Christ. And it's no different today. I think, you know, either there are people in the church who really don't care.

Just tell me that I believe Jesus and I'm going to go to heaven, and everything in between really doesn't matter because all I really want from Christ is to go to heaven, not to go to hell. That's it. And there's a lot of people in the church who really believe very little, if any, of Christ and it is enough that they've been baptized and that they're going to go to heaven.

And everything in between is just not that important. They'll never say it because in the church culture you'll be rebuked for that, but in everything in their life, every thought, what they're interested in, what makes them happy, what they get excited about, really has nothing to do with Christ.

It's just a barrier. It's just a minimum thing that I need to do so that I can feel safe about not going to hell. And we may find that at the end of all of this, that they never had faith to begin with. And then there are Christians who genuinely are just entangled with things in life and they are constantly just being tempted back and forth.

And all the more why we need to constantly focus our attention on Christ so that we may be anchored. Or we have such a superficial understanding of the Savior that we sing about, that we say is the most important thing in our life, but we've never invested any time really searching, really knowing.

And it is enough to read little articles and hear sermons once a week and that's enough. And as a result of that, as a superficial understanding of who Christ is, it's caused me to be superficially anchored in Christ. So whenever there is a wind of doctrine, any cultural change, anything that's going on around us, we get tossed back and forth, back and forth because we're not anchored in Christ.

All the more why we need to be anchored in Christ. So let's begin. If this is the main point of all things, and we have such a high priest, the first thing that he says is he has taken his seat. Again, if you understand that without context, what's the big deal?

You're sitting down, so Jesus is sitting down. I was sitting down and I just stood up. What's the big deal? Well, the way that, again, a Jew would have heard this, it's very significant because in Hebrews 10-11, this is how priests are described. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. So he makes a distinction that all other priests were standing, but Jesus sat down. And there's huge significance in that because at the tabernacle, there was no seat. It was not like a place like, "Oh, I'm so tired.

I'm going to go into the tent and rest for a while." That is not where the tabernacle was. You came in, you did the job, whether you were a priest or whether you were the one who brought the sacrifice, it was a sacred place. You did your work and you get out.

There was no other seat except one. Do you know where that seat was? Some of you guys who were alive when we were doing the book of Leviticus, right? Do you remember? There's only one seat in the tabernacle. Do you remember where that was? The mercy seat. If you remember the mercy seat, it's described as the two wings of seraphim, and at the middle, there's a seat.

And nobody's able to sit there. The high priest could only go into the holy of holies, the inner chamber, and he would do his business. He would sprinkle the blood of the animals, representing cleansing of the sins. And so the mercy seat was the place where the holy God came and met the sinners.

So that's where God met Israel. And the high priest, representing the nation of Israel, God's people, met God at that mercy seat. That mercy seat was not for him. If he sat down there, he would have died. In fact, it was such a scary, terrifying thing to enter the holy of holies, God told Aaron to put a bell on him so that when he went in, people outside could hear that possibly, maybe he would die.

And that's exactly what happened. Remember the very first gift that is offered up, Neideb and Nebihu? Because they didn't do it right, they died. And that was just a regular sacrifice. The high priest was to enter into the most sacred place. So if these two offerers died giving a regular sacrifice, how much more would a high priest be in danger if he went in there nonchalantly and didn't follow the prescription that God told him?

So he actually had to put a bell on. So the significance behind when he says, "We have such a high priest who has taken his seat." It has huge theological implication because the only seat that existed at the tabernacle was at the mercy seat, meaning Christ came and he sat on that seat.

That he was the only one who was going to mediate between sinners and God. If he was a man, he would have died. If he wasn't a God, he wouldn't be able to enter. He was the perfect mediator between God and man. And that's what it means that he sat down.

In other words, he came and he never came back out. Just like every other priest, they went and did their work, they stood up and then they had to leave. But Jesus came in, he sat on his throne, and he never came out. In other words, his work of mediation was finished.

That's what he means. That only Christ, who came in the order of Melchizedek, King of righteousness, King of peace, sat down. Now again, when we read this not understanding the context, it's like, "Oh, he sat down. He must have been tired." No, it means that he was the only one who was qualified.

It meant that he sat down and never came back out. He sat down on the throne that even the most holiest of man, the high priest, could only do his work and come out. That was his throne. He sat down. That's what that means. Secondly, it says he sat down at the right hand of the throne.

Now the term right hand, we use that all the time too. Somebody says, "He's my right hand man." What we mean by that is, I have full confidence in him. He has the same authority. I've given, he's my ambassador, so he's my right hand man. Whatever I need to do, he's the guy that I rely on to get it done.

That's what we mean by right hand. The term right hand in the Bible is a very significant term because it is used at the throne of Christ repeatedly. Psalm chapter 110, Matthew 22, Ephesians 1, Romans 8, Mark 16, Acts chapter 2, and chapter 7, Hebrews chapter 10, 13. Over and over again, there's a reason why the throne of God, throne of Christ, the mercy seat is mentioned as the right hand of God.

We can get into the deep theological meaning behind that, but I just want to highlight for the sake of time this morning, that basically means it is a place of power and authority. Typically when we think of sitting down, we think of resting. But that term means something different when we're referring to the king.

When we say the king is on his throne, what do we mean by that? We don't mean, oh, the king is resting. Usually when we say the king is on his throne, it means that he is ruling. There's somebody in charge. Somebody is taking care of his kingdom. That's what we mean.

So, a regular person sitting simply just means we're sitting. But for him to sit at the right hand of God, meaning that he is sitting as the king. That's why he is described as a king of righteousness and king of mercy. He is sitting on the throne at the right hand because he is continuing to rule.

In Psalm chapter 118, verse 16, the right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. Meaning, his position at the right hand is being exalted for God's purpose, his work. Psalm 110, verse 1, the Lord says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." In other words, he's not sitting on his throne just resting.

He's not exalted and just kind of receiving the glory. He's sitting on his throne at the right hand of God to continue the work of conquering what he needs to conquer. And what does he need to conquer? First Corinthians 15, 25-26. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that will be abolished is death. Now let me stop right here to make sure that we understand. So that this doesn't just kind of go all over your head and then it's just theological mumbo-jumbo. The point that he's trying to make is the primary work of our King, who's sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, is to conquer our sins.

Which is what is causing death. Now the reason why this is so important is first of all, we recognize that we are at war. That's what the Bible tells us. One of the primary problems that Christians get into is especially because we live in a country where we're not threatened with violence, at least not right now.

We live in peace and so we have the blessing of worrying about the future of our children where many, many people around the world, that's not even on their thought. You know, mention garage sale when you travel. How many people understand what that is? You know what I mean?

Garage sale is for rich people who have extra stuff that they bought they don't need that they need to get rid of. That's what a garage sale is. That's only for rich people. Majority of the people around the world, that's not a thing. They don't have extra stuff. They're just trying to feed their kids.

And even in their faith, just to get together is a big deal. You know, I think about, you know, us because of pandemic and everybody just went and we had the luxury of going online. That's not a thing in majority of the world. Just going online, oh, we just go online.

And then when it's over, we just come back. That's not a thing. Majority of the people in the world don't have that option. If they don't get together, they don't get together. See, because you and I live in such comfort, we have a hard time understanding that there is a spiritual battle going on until something happens around us.

All of a sudden we get shocked like, oh my gosh, this is going on. This is the state of mankind. It's just that you and I live in a place where we constantly forget. See, he's on his throne. And that's why he called his disciples to go to the remotest part of the world to make disciples.

In other words, to join him in his endeavor to get the gospel out. So every Christian, every church, its primary mission is to preach the gospel. It is the character of the church to care about the poor. It is the character of the church to be concerned about injustice.

It is not the mission. The mission is not different than the mission of Christ. It is to preach the gospel and bring the lost into his kingdom. And then when they are in the kingdom, the character of the church is to get involved and help. See, he's sitting on the right throne, and that's why we have confidence to do what we need to do.

Romans 8, 33 to 35. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Why do we have this confidence?

Because he sits at the right hand of God. That's the significance behind he sitting at the right hand. Acts chapter 7, 55 to 56. Here's something interesting. This is when Stephen is being stoned, first martyr in the early church, and we see Christ at the right hand of God.

But the way he is described is interesting in verse 55. "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven." This is talking about Stephen as he is dying, he's looking into heaven. "And saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'" Now, first, there's two things I want you to observe here. One, why didn't Jesus save him? If he was standing, he was so concerned, why didn't he save him?

Why didn't he get down there and crush his enemies? Again, we'll talk about that. But secondly, you see he is standing. And his standing shows his compassion, that though he is the king, it is also the mercy seat that he's sitting in. So his throne is where he represents the righteousness and justice of God, and where sinners come to see his mercy.

And only Christ and Christ alone can carry out perfect justice and perfect mercy. See, when sinners try to carry out justice, we end up carrying out vengeance because of the sin in our hearts, because of bitterness and anger and coveting. So when we seek justice, we usually don't stop with justice.

We usually seek vengeance. We want them to get the message. You killed one of ours, we killed two of yours. That's why Jesus says the kingdom, the character of the kingdom is not to fight and destroy evil. He says turn the other cheek and represent him. We have to be careful that we do not seek justice as the world seeks justice.

Because if we seek justice as the world seeks justice, all it's going to do is to create anger on the other side. He's sitting on his throne. He is the one. That's why if there's any time where we need to come to his throne of righteousness, his throne of mercy, it is now.

Where we find wisdom with him. We say what he says. We do what he does. Especially now. I'm trying not to get political. Right now you're hearing voices from all over, extreme voices from opposite ends. And the voices that you are hearing on both sides are confident that they are representing God.

Which makes it very confusing for an average person. I respect this guy. This guy loves Christ and yet he's saying one thing. I respect this guy and he loves Christ and he's saying the other thing. There's a reason why the Bible says at the end time that delusion is going to be so great.

That even if the elect can be deceived, if it was possible, in other words, obviously it's not possible, but he's saying that delusion is going to be that strong. Because our enemy is going to come as an angel of light. So I want to warn our church again. If there's any time that you need to be sober and pay very close attention to what is going on, what the scripture says, is now.

Before you fight for any cause, ask yourself, where are you with Christ? If you're not in the word and you're not praying, if you've never fought for souls, if you've never shared the gospel, don't make the first obedience in your life fighting for injustice. The first thing that we need to make sure is that we are obedient to what he has called us to that is clear.

So that does not mean that if we're Christians and if we study the Bible and we're sharing the gospel with our neighbors, that we shouldn't care about injustice. Not at all. In the book of James, it says faith without deeds is death. If you see the suffering of the people around you and it is clear what needs to be done and you stay silent, that's not love.

That's not love either. But again, the caution is, whatever it is that we endeavor to do, we need to be sober. We need to be careful that we need to make sure that it's the word of God and his spirit that is leading and guiding us. So I want to say what I have always said and I'm going to say it again, be skeptical.

Examine everything. Examine what you're reading. Examine the statistics that you're hearing. Examine who it's coming from, why it's coming, what the verses that they're quoting, where are they quoting that from. Examine everything. That makes sure that you, your eyes are fixed upon Christ because right now, if you are not, you may have strong passions but be very deceived if you're not anchored in Christ.

Our Savior is sitting on the throne and he's actively working. This is nothing new. But the spirit of delusion and divisiveness in the church is more powerful than I've ever seen it. And I've seen it a lot. It's more powerful now than I've ever seen it. Third point that he makes is not only is he at the seat and he's at the right hand of God, he says he's sitting on the throne of majesty in heaven.

This is a heavenly throne. Hebrews 8, 2-3, "A minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched not man." The true tabernacle. Again, Hebrews 9, 24, "For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us." In other words, all this stuff that people are drifting back into, your old way of life, the old things that you were thinking, they were only to prepare you for the reality that's coming in Christ.

So there is no substance there. There is no reality there. All of it was simply to prepare you for the coming of Christ. In Hebrews 9, 11, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say not of this creation." Now, this is huge.

Again, if you just read this like if you're reading any other book, it's just like, "Okay, Jesus, that's a true, it's a shadow in the reality that's coming." But I see so many Christians who completely miss this. Even though it is very plain and obvious that Christ's kingdom and his tabernacle that he came to fulfill is not of this earth.

And that's why he says in verse 4 of chapter 8, "If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law." In other words, if Jesus came to reestablish his kingdom on earth, he would be disqualified because he's not from the Levites.

He can't even be a priest. Not only is he not a priest, he's the worst person to pick. If the goal was to have a better country, to have better laws, to have a better economy, so that if we invest and fight for justice, that we're going to have a better country next five years, Jesus is not the man to lead us in that.

He wasn't rich. He wasn't educated. He wasn't articulate. He didn't come from any particular pedigree. He had no political power. So if his fight was to establish, reestablish his kingdom on earth, Jesus would have been the worst person. He would have been disqualified just by his birth. That's what he means by that.

Look at the way he's described in Isaiah 53, 2-3. He grew up before him like a tender shoot. Tender shoot meaning weak. And like a root out of a parched ground where you wouldn't find any fruit. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.

You know what he just said? He's not a good-looking man. That's pretty offensive and it's written in his, you know, his inerrant word. So this is inerrant. There's no error in this. This is not somebody's opinion. You rate him as, you rate him seven, I rate him 36. God said he's not an attractive man.

There was nothing about him. None of his, nothing in his state, his appearance, none of it would attract a human being to him. If his goal was to be this dynamic leader to unite the world under his leadership to reestablish his kingdom, Jesus was not the man. He would have been disqualified right off the bat.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. You know, whenever we see pictures of Jesus, we see him with, you know, like a glow on his face and he's got children sitting on his lap and he's just a happy-go-lucky guy, right? It's like, oh, if you see a man like that, man, I want to be beneath that guy because that person is very inviting.

He says he was despised and forsaken, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. You ever see anybody who is sorrowful and acquainted with grief? Like I mean, we're not just talking about they just experienced something. We're talking about their life is filled with grief. You ever see somebody whose life was just that difficult?

Yeah, they're not attractive. They got a scowl on their face constantly. You know, I remember years ago I went to Romania and a lot of these guys work on the farm literally 10, 15, 16, 17 hours a day and they would come for some medical advice and so we had a different camp coming and we were sitting and interviewed them and I would ask them, how old are you?

And they would tell me their age and I was shocked because in my mind they were 70, 75 years old and some of these guys were my age. And obviously, you know, I didn't say what happened to you? You know, like I know what happened. They had a hard life.

They had a very difficult life. So they aged. So he said in every way, a human leader, whether political, Jesus would have been disqualified. You would think maybe God, you know, made a mistake. Obviously, that would be blasphemy. Why did Jesus come in that form? He could have easily, with no effort, made him an attractive man, made him an inviting man, an articulate man.

How hard would it have been for Jesus to be born in the household of Caesar? Would have been nothing for him. How hard would it have been for Jesus to be a muscular, tall, handsome, articulate, where everybody would want him as your leader? Why did he make him the exact opposite?

For the same reason why God was angry with Israel when they asked and demanded a king. You want to follow a man, but I am your king. The whole sinfulness of man is they'd rather worship a creation in their image. So they want to follow a man, a better version of themself.

That's what they want. That's what mankind wants in a leader. Somebody like me, but better. That's the idolatry in our own hearts. Jesus came to abolish all of that. The very desire that you have, even when you think it's good, is in the context of rebellion against God. And that's why he says his kingdom, his tabernacle is not of this earth.

That's why in Colossians chapter 3, 2-4, it says, "Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory." The first step of eternal life is dying to ourselves.

The first step of meeting Christ and living a new life is dying to ourselves. That's why when we get baptized, we say, "You are being buried with Christ." That's the first step. And that's what repentance is. Repentance isn't, "Oh, I had some lust. I did this and I did this." No.

The first act of repentance is repentance over who I am. My very nature is tainted, so my mind is tainted. My emotions are tainted. What makes me happy is tainted. What gives me hope is tainted. What I think is right is tainted. What I think is wrong is tainted.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So the first thing that he tells us in eternal life is that we recognize the deepest part of who I am has been tainted by sin. And that's what he is trying to deliver us from. Not simply the consequence of sin, but the power of sin.

And that's why he says the last enemy is death. That's why he says, "He who finds his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake shall find it." In our pursuit of justice, are we trying to find life on our own terms? Is Christ being exalted?

And then he says, Hebrews chapter 8, 5, "Who serve a copy in the shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle." See how he says, "That you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." So he says, not only is it heaven, the whole point of the tabernacle is to reflect what Moses saw at the mountain.

Right? So let me ask you. When he says the tabernacle was made in the pattern of what Moses saw, did Moses see a miniature version of the tabernacle? Is that what he saw? Is that what that means? Like, make it in the pattern that you saw. You know how, like, you meet architect students who are studying, and they would make a little architectural building.

You ever see that? Right? And it looks like, or maybe you are an architect, and you make a physical building to present to your client so that they can physically see, this is what we are going to build. Right? Is that what he means? That Moses saw a miniature version of the tabernacle to go back and build it exactly?

I mean, Moses must have had some fantastic memory. Because he had, you know, he had the measurements to the T. Is that what he saw? Is that what he means by pattern? I don't think so. I don't think he saw a miniature version of the tabernacle and God said, "Make sure you make it perfectly or you die." I don't think that's what happened.

In fact, when he goes up to the mountain, there's only one thing that the Bible records that he saw. Do you remember what that was? God's glory. That's what he saw. Remember? So, God's glory made such an impression on him, that even just a reflection of that, people saw that you saw God's glory.

And they were terrified. So, it doesn't spell it out, but when you put two and two together, he's not making a copy of a miniature version of the tabernacle that he saw and then making it. What he saw was an impression of his glory, what made such an impact on him.

The tabernacle was to represent God's glory. So, what did the tabernacle teach? First and foremost, that God is holy. And that sinful man cannot approach him in his natural state. That's the first thing. And this is the thing that people don't understand. The tabernacle existed at the center of the Israelite community.

And people may think, "Oh, it would have been great to have the tabernacle there." Wouldn't it have been awesome if the Ark of the Covenant was in the middle of the camp? Are you kidding? Aaron had to wear a bell, just in case he died, going into the Holy of Holies.

The first offering that was given, the two of his sons are consumed by fire. Do you think having that tabernacle in the middle of the camp had warm, fuzzy feelings? My guess is they were terrified. Can you imagine a mother with a small child and the child not understanding what's going on, started running into the tabernacle?

You think the mother would have been, "Ah, you know, let him play a little bit." You know, free babysitting. Maybe the priest will watch him. My guess is they were more terrified of a child wandering into the tabernacle than a mother would be afraid of a toddler walking on the freeway.

The tabernacle was terrifying because it was constantly taught, "You cannot come. You cannot come. There's no seat there." There were reasons why these animals were being slaughtered all day long. Every time they saw a barbecue, they didn't smell the barbecue and say, "Oh, that smells good." That barbecue reminded them that there is no atonement for sin until there is death, until there's shedding of blood.

It was a very bloody scene. There was constantly blood flowing from the tabernacle. So the first thing that Moses recognized when he saw God's glory was terror. And that's what that tabernacle represented. You cannot come to this holy God nonchalantly. And that man is utterly sinful. That you cannot appease God by your strength.

God did not require that we be good. God required perfection. Perfection. It wasn't enough to say, "Oh, that's not what I meant. Oh, I did 99 percent." No, He required perfection. So imagine that if you're an Israelite, that at the center of your camp. And God told Moses to build this in the pattern that you saw, with the impression that you got when you saw my glory, build that in that pattern.

And that's what he built. As he was terrified, as he was terrified by the glory of God, the people of God were terrified by God's presence. And it was necessary for them to be terrified. For them to understand where they stood, and the danger that they were in if they didn't take this seriously.

The constant nature of the sacrifices. That no matter how great, no matter how well-meaning, no matter how much sacrifice you made on Monday, you had to sacrifice again on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday. No matter how great a celebration of Day of Atonement, next year you had to do it again.

So the constant nature for the need of sacrifices reminded the people, no matter how much you sacrifice, you will continue to need sacrifices. You will never wash away this sin. Tomorrow you will have to do it again, and the next day you will have to do it again. And even the ones who were making the sacrifices were limited by their own sin, and their finiteness.

Which pointed to the fact that none of this was going to get them to God. None of this was going to get them to God. That's what he was patterning. That's what he was trying to point out. And it is that tabernacle, the heavenly tabernacle, that all of that pointed to, the end conclusion of all of this was, only one man can sit on that throne.

Only one man, and only one sacrifice, is perfect enough to satisfy the wrath of God. That's what that tabernacle was for. And it is that tabernacle, it is that heavenly throne, where he says he sat down at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven. And because of that, he says, he has a more excellent minister.

He has a better mediator, a better covenant, with a better promise. Now what is the application of all of this for Christians today? Instead of not just like, oh, that's great. Anything that you and I endeavor, anything, getting married, having children, starting a business, getting a college degree, getting a job, anything that we endeavor in that doesn't exalt Christ first is under the judgment of God.

It's under the judgment of God, no matter how wildly you succeed. No matter how wildly you succeed in the eyes of the world, at the end of the day, it is under the judgment of God. You cannot appease the wrath of God by human effort. You cannot. That's what the tabernacle taught.

That's what the sacrifices reminded us of. And that's why, first and foremost, we must come to Christ. First and foremost, we must come to Christ. It doesn't matter if you create a perfect government. It doesn't matter if we have the greatest economy. It doesn't matter if we have the greatest leader, the greatest laws, the greatest movement.

It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, if Christ isn't exalted, all of that is still under the judgment of God. That's why the end conclusion of all of this is to fix our eyes upon Christ, to be anchored in Christ. No matter how well-meaning we are, no matter how well-intended we are, is Christ first.

So let me conclude with this, with practical application, with what's going on around us. And I know there's a lot of conversations right now. Should we not care about what's going on? Of course we should care. Of course we should care. We should care about poverty. We should care about sex trafficking.

We should care about injustice. We should care about division. We should care about the racial injustice. We should care about all of these things. And you and I live in a free country where we have the ability to speak, ability to vote. We're not living in suppression from the government for the most part.

So the call to the gospel ministry is not a call to be passive. Because the indicatives of what the gospel teaches always leads to "therefore." Therefore. If we believe in all of this, therefore our life should reflect that love. But it must always begin with Christ. If you say, "Is that all we're going to do?" And then you've never done it.

And that's why we need to start. If you've never shared the gospel, and you're complaining, "All we're going to do is share the gospel." No. We're not only going to share the gospel. But if you've never shared the gospel, that's the first thing that the churches need to start.

If you have a church filled with people who've never shared the gospel, and then you say, "All we're going to share is the gospel." No. You have to first share the gospel. And in my opinion, that's our biggest problem right now. It's not that we're not getting involved, or we're not doing this, or we're not doing that.

For the most part, most churches are sick. They're not healthy. They're not living up to what the Bible has already plainly stated in the scripture. And you can't organize a sick church to make the society healthy. So our priority is to make the church healthy. But the reason why we need to make the church healthy is when you have a healthy church, we can help a sick world.

But you don't recruit sick people to help sick people. That's why we preach the gospel. That's why we preach the gospel first. Because until people are regenerated and meet Christ, until the work of God is working powerfully in our hearts, anything else we do in our power, in our own might, is always going to end in frustration and failure.

So let me, again, if our praise team is here, if I can ask you guys to come back up. We're going to take just a minute as we prepare to pray. And I'm going to ask you to take just a few minutes to pray before they lead us into our next worship.

And if you could just begin us. I'm really asking you guys, because there are so many voices, and maybe some of you guys just haven't been paying attention. I don't know what you're talking about. That's fine. But if that's not you, and you're hearing all these voices, you're being pulled left and right, and you don't know where to stand, and you have compassion, which is great, you want to do something, but at the same time the voices are so strong on either side, you're confused.

Don't go from that confusion and just make a leap. The Bible says if you lack wisdom to come to God, right, He will give you without finding fault, meaning first and foremost He invites us to himself. So right now, again, like I said, if there's any time where the church needs to fix our eyes upon Christ, it's right now.

So I want to invite you to take a few minutes to pray. Ask God to start with you. Before the society, before the injustice and all this, start with you. Where are you with Christ right now? And I know the pandemic has caused us to kind of -- a lot of people have drifted in their faith.

Maybe that's you, that you haven't really been paying attention, and the first emotions that you felt with, like, I've got to do something, well, I want to invite you first and foremost to come before the Lord. Ask the Lord to search your heart. Where are you? If you're not walking right with God, it's been a long time since you spent meaningful time in prayer.

It's been a while since you really diligently searched the Scriptures. Before you worry about anything else, first come before God. Ask God to bring you to him first. And so let's take some time to pray again, and after we do that, our worship team will lead us. So let me pray for us, and then I'm going to ask you guys to continue to be in that prayer as they lead us.

Heavenly Father, we want to lift up our church, lift up ourselves first and foremost, Lord God, that you would examine our hearts. Especially now, Lord, as we live in very volatile and confusing times, help us, Lord, to truly be anchored in Christ. That before we listen to any voices around us, teach us, Lord God, to search your word, to examine if anything that has been said even this morning, that if this truly is from you.

I pray, Father God, that your grace would be sufficient, that your children would hear your voice and follow you and you alone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.