The Covenant and the Blueprint - 250310

SPEAKER 1 Hello, I'm Clive Nash. Welcome to Let God Speak. A balanced life is found in healthy relationships with people and with God. God showed his desire for closeness when he gave instructions about building a wilderness sanctuary. He wanted to be with his people. How can we in modern times grow those human and divine relationships? Our panel will begin the discussion in just a moment. Sam. On our panel today, we have John Kosmeier and Rosemary Malkiewycz. SPEAKER 2 Thank you. SPEAKER 1 Good to have you with us today, John and Rosemary. SPEAKER 2 Thank you. SPEAKER 1 I'm looking forward to our discussion. But before we get into that, let's take time to pray our wonderful God in heaven. We thank you that you have put your hand over the Bible to preserve it for our generation. And its truths are becoming increasingly more relevant as time goes by. And so we pray that as we study into these old truths today, that you will be here to bless and also with those who are listening or watching. And I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, first of all, I'd like to begin by reading from the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. And here the author to the Hebrew Christians says, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Then he makes an important point. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, Rosemi, how important is this idea of the looking unto Jesus? SPEAKER 3 Well, we're living in a world that is in a cosmic battle for the universe. And so because of that, Jesus, who was God, had to come to this earth and become a human being and die for our sins, to redeem us to himself, to. To give us a chance to live forever, which we were supposed to have done. And when he was on this earth, he became our example for overcoming sin. And we are to look to him who endured this horrible world, but looked forward to what was going to happen beyond it, the joy that was set before him. He went through everything here, including the cross, seeing the universe brought back to what God had wanted it to be. And so as we follow his example of enduring temptation and not falling to it, we can get the strength from God to do the same. And so it's very important that we look beyond ourselves and our desires and look to God, who is our strength, the God who will help us through all of our trials. So if we keep our eyes on Jesus, we can then have the strength. As we see our example and. And how he went through it and how he had the strength, we can do the same. And if we look at Revelation 3, 14:12, we see what God's end time people are like. And it says Revelation 14:12. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. So as we patiently and obediently go through this life with faith in God, we will be overcomers, keeping our eyes on Jesus. SPEAKER 1 Hmm. Now we're focusing today on the covenant and the blueprint of the blueprint of the sanctuary and so on. When I go back to Exodus, chapter 24, the heading for this chapter in my Bible says, israel affirms the covenant. John, can you just remind us what a covenant is? SPEAKER 2 A covenant is an agreement made between two groups, and one of them is usually superior to the other group, which is the lesser. But it's an agreement which was a safety mechanism. And when you read here in Exodus, chapter 24, and reading verse three, and I'm reading from the new King James Version, it says, so Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words which the Lord there's a superior has said, we the inferior will do. Mm. SPEAKER 1 So there's the agreement. SPEAKER 2 The agreement, yes. SPEAKER 1 Okay, I'm gonna just go down a little bit further to verse 7, Ezekiel 24, Exodus, rather, 24:7. And Moses took the book of the covenant. That's an interesting phrase, isn't it? And he read this book of the covenant in the hearing of the people. And again, they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do. So here's twice already, Rosemary, that they've said, we're going to keep this covenant. SPEAKER 3 Well, right. God had made a covenant with the people, and they, with their whole hearts, agreed to keep it. But they didn't know that they couldn't keep it in their own strength. That's what they were expecting. Oh, yeah, I can do that. But then to try and do it. SPEAKER 1 Do you think they have good intentions? SPEAKER 3 They had good intentions, but they didn't realize their weakness. And we can be the same. We can have good intentions in following God, but we don't realize our fault in this and our need of forgiveness. And so we need to have that power from outside ourselves. If we look at John 12:32, it says, Jesus Spoke. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. So it's the life giving power of Jesus and God through the cross that empowers us to be able to do what God wants us to do. SPEAKER 1 Now, John, I'd like your thoughts on verse verse 8 here where it says Moses took blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. So was this blood designed to cleanse from sin, like, you know, the blood of Jesus? What was its purpose? SPEAKER 2 When a covenant became very serious, it had to be sealed somehow. And here, this covenant that God made with the people, that was sealed by blood in the Old Testament, it was the blood of animals and it was sprinkled on the people and upon the people who made the agreement. And so this is where we have in the Old Testament, the covenant ratified by blood. And it's interesting how that when you come to the New Testament, there you find that there was the wine of the Lord's supper and that represented the blood. SPEAKER 1 Yeah. Verse nine goes on to say that Moses went up also Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel. So they've gone up into the mountain of God here. What privileged experience did they have? Rosemary? SPEAKER 3 Well, this group of people had the experience of actually seeing God, or at least his feet and what were under them? The blue sapphire stone. And we call this theophany, that means seeing God. But sadly, the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu forgot what was common and what was holy. And they got the two mixed up and they ended up doing the wrong thing because this, unfortunately, this experience didn't transform them in their relationship with God. SPEAKER 1 Okay, so the second part of verse 11 says that they saw God and they ate and they and drank. John, how important was this idea of eating and drinking, you know, when tied up with hospitality as far as the people of the east was concerned? SPEAKER 2 Well, it became important enough for it to become a practice. And it was set in the New Testament, where there's a scholar here that wrote something very interesting about it. And this is John Dybal, who sees ten steps in this covenant ratification process, culminating in the tenth step, namely Moses. And the leaders go up to the mountain of God and eat in his presence. And so once the covenant deal had been made, then they sat down and celebrated. And we do that every time we have the Lord's supper where we eat and drink in the presence of the Lord and We renew our baptismal covenant with him. SPEAKER 1 Yeah, yeah. I think this Dutch scholar makes a good point that you referred to there, Rosemary. Jesus was willing to die. He was to dine when he was here in his earthly ministry. And he was often criticized, wasn't he, for the company he kept? SPEAKER 3 He was. And for example, we can look at Luke, chapter 5, verses 27 to 32. I'll read them quickly after these things. He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me. So he left. All rose up and followed him. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. And the scribes and the Pharisees complained about his disciples, saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So here we have Matthew. Matthew. It was the disciple. But Levi, Levi, Matthew, Matthew, Levi. And he was a tax collector who were hated because they were expected to be working for the Romans against their own people. But not only did he make a feast for Jesus, but he called all his tax collector friends. And that made it even worse. And the Pharisees were always trying to find something to complain about Jesus. And so this occasion is what they did. They complained that he was eating with these sinners. And it's a lesson for us as well. Are we prejudiced against other people when we do things, or are we welcoming to all and not exclusive? And Paul says something about it in First Corinthians 11:33. And so we'll quickly look at that. He said, but now God has set the members. Oh, sorry, wrong one. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. Or as the Andrew Study Bible says it puts it this way, treat everyone equally, regardless of social standing. So that's how we are to treat people. Not. Not exclusive to some. And leaving others aside, James says a similar thing too. SPEAKER 1 Okay, John, let's go back to the communion service. You were referring to earlier, Matthew 26, his version of the story. And verse 26, it says, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which was Shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they'd sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. So how vital was the Lord's Supper for the believers in the early Christian church? SPEAKER 2 It was practiced continually here in the Book of Acts, chapter 2. And verse 42 is a description of what took place and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship notice. Doctrine, the teachings and fellowship. They go together in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then Paul mentions this as well in First Corinthians, chapter 11, reading from verse 23. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken, for you do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. And just like in the Old Testament, the sacrifices were continual. In the New Testament we have the ordinance service of, of the wine and the bread in remembrance of the covenant that God's people have made with Jesus. SPEAKER 1 Okay, good point there. Coming back to this idea of obedience, three times the children of Israel said, all the Lord has said we will do. And Rosemary, they said a similar thing to Joshua, didn't they? SPEAKER 3 They did, they did. Let me read in Joshua chapter 24, a wonderful book, the book of Joshua. And I'm going to read verses 19, 21 and 24. But Joshua said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. And the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. And then in verse 24 they said. And the people said to Joshua, the Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey. And here these, this next generation were making the same mistake that their parents made at Mount Sinai and believing that they could obey God with their own willpower instead of looking at the Savior to come who was going to give them the power, and the sacrifices they were doing were all pointing to the coming Messiah. But they once again just trusted in their own strength and they didn't realize their weakness and that they needed God's strength to be able to do God's will. SPEAKER 1 Now, John, Ezekiel talked about having a new heart, didn't he? SPEAKER 2 Yes. He illustrated how that it's not a matter of developing a better nature or whatever, but in Ezekiel, it says God said in verse 25 of Ezekiel 36, I will sprinkle clean water on you. You shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and. And give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them 14 times. The Bible records the eye of God doing this transforming work in our lives to give us not better, but a new heart. SPEAKER 1 So what you say is it's not just a matter of reformation, but transformation. Is that what is going on here? Transformation? Complete change? SPEAKER 2 Absolutely. SPEAKER 1 Okay, Rosemary, what then is our role in being obedient to Christ? SPEAKER 3 Okay, as John was saying, God is the one, over and over again, who's saying that he's going to help us, but we've got to choose to accept God's will. We've got to choose to accept God's grace to help us to obey Him. And. And when we recognize our weakness and his divine strength and our need of that, that's when we can change. And we'll look at Second Corinthians 12, verse 10. And Paul says this. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul knew that he had to completely depend on God for the power to be able to do the things he had to do in his life, because then he was strong. Because as a human being, he's weak. I just want to look at Philippians 2:12 and 13, and I really enjoy these verses. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. And work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for his good pleasure. Now it sounds at first like we're working at our own salvation by our own strength, but what it goes on to say is that God is the one working in us when we allow him to Help us. And through obedience to God, through he is able to will and do in us. But it is. Obedience is a gift. SPEAKER 1 He's the enabling power. SPEAKER 3 Definitely. Obedience is a gift, just like justification is. And we're told also that repentance is a gift from God, but obedience and the power to do it is a gift from God. SPEAKER 1 Now, in an earlier episode, we looked at God leading Israel with a political of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. What other way John, did he want to make his presence known to Israel? SPEAKER 2 Yes, he went beyond that. Clive. In Exodus 25:8, the author wrote, and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. And so here God said to the people, build a sanctuary. That's where I'm going to live with you. And around it, that's where the people, they camped. There's an inspired writer. He wrote something very interesting about this particular verse, commenting on John, chapter one, verse 14. And it says, so Christ set up his tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment, and he pitched his tent by the side of the tents of men, that he might dwell among us and make us familiar with his divine character. And so the command to make a sanctuary was God's doing, and it was made out of all different kind of animals, skins and so on. But God is not limited to that neither, because when we go to the book of Acts, chapter 17 and read verse 24, it says, God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. SPEAKER 1 Mm. Okay. SPEAKER 2 So he's not limited, not limited at. SPEAKER 1 All to any particular place need be. SPEAKER 2 And this goes back to the contract that was made of a superior over an inferior. SPEAKER 1 Okay. So going back to Exodus 25:9, God said, according to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. So. It's interesting to me that God actually gave a blueprint to Moses for the design of the sanctuary. What was the basis of the pattern? Rosemary? SPEAKER 3 Okay. God is a wonderful God who shows us what to do. He based the pattern that he gave to Moses on what he already had in heaven. There is a temple in heaven where the sin problem is being worked out, but he has a duplicate, a replica of it on earth. And the sanctuary on earth has different ceremonies and things, and they all foreshadow parts of Jesus ministry as our high priest. And this is shown to us in Hebrews. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 and 2. Now, this is the main point of the things we are saying, says Paul. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. So he is pointing us to an heavenly sanctuary. And let me look also, or read Hebrews 9, 11, 12. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, and that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. So Jesus went into the heavenly sanctuary when he returned to heaven after being on earth. And this is what Paul, what John saw in vision in the book of Revelation as well. SPEAKER 1 So John, in view of the fact that Jesus has died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and he is now ministering in the heavenly sanctuary, do we still need an earthly sanctuary? SPEAKER 2 The answer to that is found at the time of the cross in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 50. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Then, behold, the vial of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earthquaked and the rocks were split. And this is where, when Paul comments on that In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10, it says, by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. And so here lambs had to be sacrificed continually by Christ once. And when that was done, there was no need for the sanctuary any longer because the sacrifices had been made. SPEAKER 3 That's right. SPEAKER 2 And the death of Christ not only saved us, but it certainly saved the the lives of many, many animals. SPEAKER 1 Now, Rosemary, when I read on in the book of Exodus, we find that God gave lots of detailed instructions, not only about the construction of the sanctuary itself, but also as to what went in it, the furnishings, and all these sorts of things. And he gifted God a man called Bezalel. Bezalel, meaning in the shadow of God. And how was he gifted? SPEAKER 3 He was gifted with wisdom from God. He was gifted with amazing creative, artisan skills to be able to create everything that God had given to Moses. But he also was gifted in the ability to work with other people, to be able to teach other people, as he had also with Oholiab, who was given special gifts from God to be his assistant, and also some of the other men who were to also work with them. God gave them special gifts to be able to do the work. And the Holy Spirit is one of the gifts that he received to be able to complete his mission. SPEAKER 1 Now, John, in the short time we've got left to us, why did God actually link the Sabbath observance with sanctification? SPEAKER 2 Exodus chapter 31 and verse 17 says, it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And here is God's seal in the fourth commandment about the covenant that he's made with his people. And so there's no doubt that in the Old Testament there was a connection there because of the work that they did on the Sabbath. And then what we experience today ourselves. SPEAKER 1 Yes, thank you very much, John, for your thoughts there and Rosemary. My guests today were John Kosmeier and Rosemary Malkiewycz, and I'm Clive Nash. We've seen today that God, God was particular about the design of the earthly sanctuary. God's law, as an expression of God's character, was put in the holiest part of the sanctuary. While disobedience to the law entailed the penalty of death, above the law was divine mercy. Because of the atonement of Jesus, repentant sinners receive pardon. Now that's good news, isn't it? We're glad you joined us today on Let God Speak. If you are blessed by this program, why not tell your friends? Remember, all past programs plus teachers notes are available on our website, 3abnaustralia.org au email us if you wish on [email protected] au join us again next time. God bless.