Creation & Rest In Christ

[0:00] Thank you very much. Well, this morning we are continuing in Exodus. If you have a Bible, please turn to Exodus chapter 30.

[0:14] If you don't, there are some Bibles in the pews, just where your hands are. We're going to be reading from verse 11.

[0:43] And you'll see a number of times it says, The Lord said to Moses, whenever it says the Lord in all capitals, it's a translation of God's name, which is way back in Exodus 3, Yahweh.

[1:00] Or the tetragrammaton, the four consonants. We don't really know how it was pronounced. But Y-H-W-H or something like that. But really it's talking about God's name.

[1:12] And so from verse 11, I'm going to read to the end of chapter 31. Bear with me if I mispronounce anything. Okay, let's read.

[1:25] The Lord said to Moses,

[2:27] Between the tent of meeting and the altar, you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of the meeting, or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.

[2:45] They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations. The Lord said to Moses, Take the finest spices of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon, half as much, that is two hundred and fifty, the two hundred and fifty of aromatic cane, the five hundred of casea, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.

[3:16] And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil, blended as by the perfumer, shall be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the table, and all its utensils, and the lampstand, and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering, with all its utensils, and the basin, and its stand.

[3:38] You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.

[3:49] And you shall say to the people of Israel, This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in its composition.

[4:03] It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds anything like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people. The Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, Sacke, and onica, and galbanum, sweet spices, with pure frankincense, of each there shall be an equal part, and make incense, blended, as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.

[4:30] You shall beat some of it, very small, and put part of it before the testimony, in the tent of meeting, where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you, and the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves.

[4:46] It shall be for you holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume, shall be cut off from his people. The Lord said to Moses, 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, with ability, and intelligence, with knowledge, and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, and cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.

[5:21] And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahizamuch, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to him, to all able men, ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you, the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat, that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, the pure lampstand, with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering, with all its utensils, and the basin, and its stand, and the finely worked garments, the holy garments, for Aaron the priest, the garments of his sons, for their service, as priests, and the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense, for the holy place, according to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.

[6:12] And the Lord said to Moses, You are to speak to the people of Israel, and say, Above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.

[6:27] You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it, shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, the soul shall be cut off, from among the people. Six days, shall work be done, but the seventh day, is a Sabbath, of solemn rest, holy to the Lord.

[6:46] Whoever does any work on the Sabbath, shall be put to death. Therefore, the people of Israel, shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath, throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever, between me and the people of Israel, that in six days, the Lord made the heaven, and the earth, and on the seventh day, he rested, and was refreshed.

[7:07] And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him, on the Mount of Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

[7:18] Amen. This is God's Word, and we pray that He blesses the reading of it to us. Well, as I said, this week, has been Scottish Careers Week, and I wanted to ask us, when it comes to work or career, have you made it?

[7:40] Did you, did it work out for you? Maybe looking back, to when you were in school, how has it gone? Did you get to do, what you really wanted to do in life?

[7:53] I'm not saying there's not fulfillment in many things, but did you make it? Did you get there? Or maybe, for wherever you are in life, your place in life, is it too late?

[8:05] There's quite a funny story, that Alan shared, a while back, about something a teacher said to him. I'm not going to repeat it, but if you've earned enough relationship points with him, he might just share it later on.

[8:17] It's a funny story. But I was wondering, maybe, maybe you did get to do, what you always wanted to do, or do something, that seemed worthwhile, or fulfilling, but did it last?

[8:30] Did you ever get to a point, where you were doing, your job perfectly, every day? Have you ever done it perfectly, any day? I know I haven't. Did you ever manage, to strike that balance, between work and rest?

[8:45] Do any of us, know how to rest properly? Well, you know the saying, no rest for the wicked. So many people use that saying, and they don't realize, that it comes from the Bible.

[8:56] The idea, comes from the Bible. And that's why, people put on their gravestones, R.I.P. But just because, you put it in a gravestone, doesn't mean it's going to happen, but, there's a sense of wanting rest.

[9:12] Wanting our work, to be meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling, and wanting our rest, to be actual rest. So, I was thinking about, the varied things.

[9:25] This passage is full of, loads of, different things. The census tax, the bronze basin, for ritual washing, anointing oil, incense, spirit-filled craftsmen, and the Sabbath law.

[9:38] And I was wondering, to myself, could this make any sense, to any person out there? I had the chance, to go to the rugby, the other day.

[9:49] Thousands of people, and I thought to myself, if I was to speak, on this passage, would it make sense, to any, of these people? And so, that's my task, this morning.

[10:00] It's a tall task, but I think, one thing that helps us, is having a good, connected theology. I was wondering, if this could make sense, to just about anyone, if it speaks to all of us.

[10:17] Now, obviously, we're going through, some very specific details, in Exodus, that have a context, but is this just, some strange, religious, ritualistic stuff, or does it apply, to ordinary lives?

[10:30] So, I think, if we have a working, and connected theology, it's going to help. We all have a theology, we all have thoughts, about God, but all these various things, do we connect them?

[10:44] Have we built, a working, and connected theology? Otherwise, loads of parts of the Bible, will just seem random, and unconnected. And so, we need to understand, there's a bigger picture, going on.

[10:56] And there's a bigger picture, where all the little parts, fit together. If you've ever done a jigsaw, or if you've ever seen, a tapestry, many threads, going through it, but they're all connected.

[11:07] They're not random, they're building, a bigger picture. They work together, to build a bigger picture. So, let's build, and connect some of that, theology this morning, so that we can understand, these individual threads, how they work together, to build the bigger picture.

[11:24] We've read a lot today, it's very varied, and we won't be able to cover, every part, and every detail, but the bigger theme, that connects them, will be really helpful, to understand all these parts.

[11:37] And so, broadly, the theme, that we'll be looking at today, will be looking through, the lens of creation, and rest. That's the bigger picture, creation, and rest. And the past number of weeks, we've been going through, all these details, of, we've been going through, all these details, in Exodus, of the tabernacle.

[11:57] Stephen, I wonder if you could, fling a picture up for me. In fact, I've not put the picture on, I realized, I've got a pen drive, and I've not put the picture on. If, I've not got it on, my pen drive, I realized I didn't put it on, this morning.

[12:10] If you will, use your imagination, and, and think, all these chapters, from chapter 25, all the way, to what we've read, this morning, has all just, been Moses, up the top of the mountain.

[12:24] Okay? All of that, is just God, speaking to Moses. There's been all these details, about the tabernacle, and all the different bits, and the priests, but it's just been the instruction.

[12:35] It's not been the actual outworking of it. And so, for, for six chapters, it is just Moses, up the mountain, hearing this from God.

[12:45] And it's going to be important, so, hold that in your mind. And, throughout these details, we have been hearing various links, back to Eden, whether it's the colors, whether it's the shapes of things, so, the colors of, of, red, and, blue, heaven and earth, woven together to make purple, heaven and earth coming together, like it was supposed to in Eden, gold, and these gems, that would have been present in Eden, shapes like the pomegranate, and the tree, the, the, the, the lamp sand is like a tree, the tree of life, the materials that are used, so on, so forth, all this imagery of Eden, we've heard about.

[13:29] And this morning, we've heard about God's Spirit, doing this creative work, and then it finishes with Sabbath. And so, the pattern is not accidental. Creative work, followed by rest.

[13:42] This is one of the things, that I love about the Bible. The authors of the Bible, are very deliberate, and the way they write. They're not just writing randomly. They're structuring things, in a certain way.

[13:53] We don't always notice, because we perhaps read it like a novel, or like a book. But the patterns, and repeated phrases, are literary devices, that are supposed to draw our attention, to these central themes.

[14:07] So, we've been seeing this idea, that the tabernacle, is like Eden. that Israel, coming out of Egypt, and through the water, is the birth of a new nation.

[14:18] And we see this in nature. God does not make mistakes. We see this in nature, that when a child is growing, they are growing in the darkness of the womb.

[14:30] And then the waters break, and the child is born, and that's birth, new life. And this is reflected in Genesis. And so, God parts the waters in Genesis, and creates life.

[14:42] And this whole account of Israel, and the tabernacle, is supposed to reflect Genesis, almost like Israel is a new creation. And there's this pattern. Throughout the entire Bible, you can see this pattern repeated.

[14:55] There's a pattern of creation, fall, and redemption. And you'll see this, you'll see many of the same things, in the same stories. And for instance, God parts the water of Genesis.

[15:08] He brings order, and creates life. And then there is a fall, in Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve sin. And then redemption comes in the fact, that although God said they would die, He didn't allow death, to take them immediately.

[15:23] But He covered them, with the death of an animal. The skin of an animal covered them. And then He promised one, who would come, and redeem humanity. crush the head of the serpent, the promised one.

[15:37] Fast forward to Noah, and then we see the same thing. The earth has to be cleansed, and renewed. And so the flood happens, and then out of the water, the waters part, and God creates a new creation, and Noah, the earth has literally turned back, to darkness and chaos, and then God parts the waters, and starts a new creation, and then that leads all the way, to Babylon, where the people have once again, turned from God.

[16:07] Turned away from God, and then the redemption comes. So Noah has the new creation, and then the fall, goes all the way to Babylon, and then redemption happens, when God picks out Abraham.

[16:20] Redemption again. And the question at that point is, is Abraham the one, that was promised in Genesis? Chapter 3, is he the one, that's going to crush the serpent's head?

[16:32] But he's not the promised one. Fast forward to Moses, his life is literally the same pattern. He's put into the waters, and out of the waters, where he was supposed to be killed, he is in, he is put in, what does he put in?

[16:47] What's Moses put in? A Moses basket. The word, in Exodus, is ark. And it's the only other time, the Hebrew word ark is used, is with Noah, and with Moses.

[17:00] And God is telling this story, of creation, and fall, and redemption. He's telling this story, to his people. And so this pattern, happens in Moses' life, and then it happens in Israel.

[17:13] Israel's in darkness, in Egypt, and then the waters part, Israel goes through, and this new nation is born. New life, new creation. And that's why all of this stuff, about the tabernacle, at Mount Sinai, is reminiscent of, Genesis, and Eden.

[17:31] Because God is starting, a new creation with Israel. Now, these patterns, are not the only clues, to this big theme. The whole structure, of the whole narrative, is telling us this too.

[17:47] And it's not accidental. And so, what I was saying, where Moses is up the mountain, chapter 25, you remember, at the end of chapter 24, God calls Moses up to the mountain, himself.

[17:59] He says, come up, that I might meet with you, and speak with you. And then, starting from chapter 25, flick back, if you've got a Bible, flick back to 25. Depending on what translation you have, but the very first words, of chapter 25, when Moses is up the mountain, and remember, he's up the mountain, all the way, to the point that we've read today.

[18:33] Alan, would you read the first words, of chapter 25? The Lord said to Moses. That's it. That's it. The Lord said to Moses. The Lord said.

[18:45] Right? Now, head back to our chapter. Chapter 30, verse 11. And, hopefully, your Bible will have put these into paragraphs.

[19:02] Okay? Verse 11. Right? So, hold that. 25, chapter 1. Chapter 25, verse 1. Count with one finger. The Lord said to Moses.

[19:14] Right? Chapter 30, verse 11. The Lord said to Moses. Verse 17. The Lord said to Moses. 22. The Lord said to Moses.

[19:26] 34. The Lord said to Moses. Chapter 31, verse 1. The Lord said to Moses. And then, verse 12.

[19:37] The Lord said to Moses. What's the number? And what is the last one about? The Sabbath. And so, we have six about creative work.

[19:49] And the seventh one is about the Sabbath. Is that accidental? It's absolutely not accidental. And the picture in Genesis chapter 1. The Lord said, the Lord spoke, and it happened.

[20:02] The Lord spoke. Six days, creative work. Seventh day, rest. This pattern, this whole episode up the mountain, are made up of seven speeches. Starting with God speaking, a creative work.

[20:15] With the final speech being, a work about the Sabbath, rest. Isn't that amazing? The Bible is amazing. Woven into its very structure, are all these themes and patterns, that point to something bigger.

[20:29] And the bigger thing, that God is telling us, throughout the entire Bible, God is telling His story, of creation, and rest, and how we get there. How do we get there?

[20:41] Now, spoiler alert, right? Because, we're going to see this. We've seen this pattern, in this theme of creation and rest, that it moves constantly, from creation, fall, redemption.

[20:55] Now, if all of this portion, that we've done up to today, is about creation, about six days of creation work, and then a seventh of rest, six speeches of creation work, and a seventh of rest, what do you think, next week's going to have?

[21:10] Spoiler alert, we're going to see a great fall, next week. A colossal fall. And so, these chapters are supposed to help us, think about Eden, with Israel as a new creation, and God dwelling with them, and what we will see, next week, will remind us, of a terrible fall, when man turns away from God, even when God has explicitly, told them not to.

[21:35] Same thing with Israel, God told them not to do something, and they do it. But for now, we're going to think about this theme, of creation and rest, and think about how these things, in our passage, connect, not just with creation and rest, but with creation, fall, and redemption.

[21:52] And so, what's this business, about the census tax, numbering the people? Every time the people were counted, a ransom payment was required. And one of the wonderful things, that we see, is that the rich and the poor, have to give the same amount.

[22:07] Now, you might not think that's wonderful, you might think that's cruel. Why is that good? Shouldn't the rich be taxed more? We would all say, Amen. Why are they paying the same amount?

[22:20] Well, I want you to imagine, right, it's a ransom payment, I want you to imagine, that you and another person, are in captivity, and you could only be released, if a ransom was given. And then you heard, that this other person next to you, that a ransom was offered, for this other person, a ransom of a million pounds, for this other person.

[22:43] And you're like, oh, someone's got enough, to ransom us. And then you heard, that they only offered, a ransom of ten thousand pounds, for you. This other person's, you know, getting offered a million pound ransom, probably going to get released.

[22:58] And you're being offered, ten thousand or a thousand. And you're like, I'm never going to get released. You see, the point is, that the value, is the same.

[23:10] Whether you're rich or poor, your worth, in God's eyes, are the same. Some people view their own lives, as being, higher than others.

[23:22] A great many people, value their own lives, as lower than others. But it's not true. According to Genesis, we were all created, in the image of God. And so, God sees people, with the same value.

[23:34] And He's willing to pay, the same ransom price, for each one of us, regardless of who we are, or where we've been, or what we've done. And so, no person's life, is any more valuable, or any less valuable, than the next person.

[23:48] And that is true, of everyone here today. And so, when this was done, when the people were counted, sometimes, we think, that people count, just for numbers sake.

[24:01] The world we live in, we want our privacy. We would rather, remain unlisted. If you had an old phone book, some people, would be unlisted. But the ransom attack, was a reminder, that your life, is not from you.

[24:17] Your freedom, is not from you. You have been ransomed. Think of it this way, counting lives, is because lives count. Now, why was this ransom, paid by the person, who was ransomed?

[24:31] Isn't that interesting? The purpose of this, was for the individuals, to recognize, that their lives, come from God. It was to show, that they belong to God. They were bought, with a price.

[24:43] Anything they have, is not from themselves, because they were, bought with a price. Does that sound familiar? Any folks, who read our New Testament? Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 6, you are not your own.

[24:55] You were bought, with a price. And 1 Peter 1 says, God paid a ransom, to save you, from the empty way, of life, that you inherited. It was not paid, with mere gold, or silver, which lose their value.

[25:09] It was paid, with the precious blood, of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. And so, the people of Israel, belong to God, firstly, by creation. He is their creator.

[25:20] And secondly, by redemption. And this payment, is a good example, that we owe something, to God, for our lives. Since he's not only, a redeemer, but he is a creator, in the first place.

[25:33] And so, I don't know, if you know, the great, Saint Anselm, of Canterbury, he gives a fantastic, illustration of this, in his famous work, on the incarnation, Cur Deus Homo, which means, why the God man?

[25:46] Excellent book, if you can get a copy of it, it's very accessible. He talks about, the payment to God, being in proportion, to our sin. Have you ever wondered, the crime, the time, should fit the crime?

[26:00] You know, you should pay, in proportion, to your crime? We know that, because our justice system, is broken, and people do not pay, in proportion, to their crime. And so, Anselm said, should a person, pay God, in proportion, to their sin?

[26:17] People don't have, a big problem, with the concept, of this. If you commit the crime, you do the time. The problem is, we think, that prior to sin, we owe nothing, to God.

[26:31] That's the problem. We think, that before sin, we don't owe anything, to God. And this is what, Anselm argues against, in his book, which is in the format, of a dialogue, with his student, a guy called Bozo, funnily enough.

[26:48] You see, some people think, theology is boring, but, Anselm's, chatting with this Bozo, telling him about God. And so, the payment, being proportional, to sin, Anselm asked Bozo, a great question.

[27:02] Right? He says, tell me, what will you pay God, in proportion, to your sin? And so, Bozo says, okay, what am I going to give back, to God, to make up, for all my sin?

[27:14] He says, penitence, a contrite, and humble heart, I'm going to fast, a variety, of physical toil, the mercy, of giving, and forgiving, as well as obedience, I will serve God, the rest of my life.

[27:27] And Anselm then replies, in all of these cases, what are you even giving God? And Bozo says, well, do I not honor God, when I do all these things?

[27:40] And Anselm, pulls the rug, from under our feet, and says, when you render, something, which you would owe to God, even if you had not sinned, you ought not reckon it, as a payment, of the debt, which you now owe, for your sins.

[27:57] You understand that? All these things, that Bozo said, would be a repayment, for this sin, Anselm says, you owe that to God anyway. Even if you were not a sinner, you owe all of that to God, because He is your Creator.

[28:11] And so now, that you've created this debt, what are you going to give to God? It's like a child, paying you back, with the pocket money, that you give them. It's not theirs, in the first place. By nature, we owe our very lives, to God as Creator.

[28:25] We are indebted to God, for our lives, and everything that we are able to do. And so, it's fitting that we should give these things to God anyway, not in repayment for saving us, but in the first place, because He's our Creator.

[28:40] Therefore, when we already owe everything to God, even before we sin, what could we ever use, to pay God, when now we owe Him, a debt of sin as well?

[28:51] We owe our lives to God, in the first place. And what we did not give to Him, what was due, instead we sold ourselves to sin. So, who's going to pay for that extra debt?

[29:02] Only God Himself could pay. And yet, it was a debt of humanity. No other creature, owed this debt, but humanity. Not only do we not, not only do we now have a debt needing cleared, but we also have a purpose, lying unfulfilled.

[29:18] We have not, we have not lived our intended purpose, and design. And so, we've got these two things that stand over us, a debt of sin, and an unfulfilled purpose, that God created us to live in.

[29:34] Who could both clear the debt, and also fulfill our purpose? For no man, could pay the debt, and no man has, or could now, fulfill their purpose.

[29:46] Who's to do this? And that is Anselm's whole point. God had to become man to do this. It had to be the God-man. And we see this in Psalm 49, when it says, Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price for his life.

[30:03] The ransom of their life is costly, and can never suffice, that they should live on forever, and never see the pit. Who can do it? And yet, the Psalm goes on to say, But God will ransom my soul, from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

[30:18] We belong to God as our creator. We also belong to God as our redeemer. And both of these are through Jesus. He is our ransom, because he is working to redeem and recreate us.

[30:28] And this aspect of creation, fall, and redemption, is to get us back to creation and rest. See, what we will see is how creation and rest finally come through Jesus.

[30:40] And although we don't have time to look at all these details, and time is gone, I hope that connected theology allows us to see, firstly, for Israel, the birth of a nation is not just using language of Genesis and creation, it's really a recreation, a new creation that requires redemption to get there.

[31:01] And secondly, the whole world fits into this story. And where we fit is that we need to get back to creation and rest. And in order to get back there, we need a redemption.

[31:14] And so, not only do we need ransomed, we've looked at the ransom payment, we need this bronze basin. You look at the bronze basin and see that although we have been ransomed, we need to be cleaned up.

[31:26] You ransom someone from captivity, you need to clean them up. We need to be washed if we are to approach God, and this is often called sanctification.

[31:38] And it's not once we are ransomed, we now automatically clean. Do we automatically have clean hands and clean feet? I don't. Every day I wake up, I need sanctified.

[31:51] I don't automatically serve God with clean hands and clean feet. We need this daily renewal. Ephesians 5 said, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the Word.

[32:08] The Word of God both renews you and continually renews you. And so, we see this picture of washing when Jesus literally washes the disciples' feet with his clean hands.

[32:20] Just as the Israelites had to have a high priest who was clean, yet the high priest had to continually wash his hands and feet. But Jesus, Jesus is the one with clean hands.

[32:32] Jesus can clean us up because he himself is pure before God. He does not need to be constantly cleaned. And then when we come to this oil and this incense, you'll probably have noticed the wee words, ingredients in there, such as myrrh, frankincense, and then later we'll talk about gold.

[32:54] Is that not ringing any bells of the Christmas story of the Magi coming to Jesus and offering these gifts? So, look at, in this passage, how it points to Jesus.

[33:06] You see, the oil was used for anointing. We've been ransomed. We've been washed. But we still need to be anointed.

[33:17] We still need a new fragrance. We don't quite realize what fragrance our sin gives off. Can you imagine that? I once had a person in our car who was a bit worse for wear.

[33:32] And he was a bit of a mess. And his trousers were not clean. And it left some of that on the seat. And we had the car washed. We had it valeted.

[33:45] But it wasn't enough. It had this odor. And so we had to get some very strong fragrances to clean this up. And see, without Christ, our fragrance would be horribly marred by sin.

[34:00] Imagine you were ransomed, cleaned up even, but you were still carrying about this awful smell. You would hate it. It would be terrible. We need another scent that only Christ can supply.

[34:12] You see, this oil was used for anointing, and it was not to be poured on an ordinary person. Likewise, the incense was for no ordinary use. Not only is Jesus the only one who can ransom us, not only is He the only one who can clean us up, He Himself is called the Anointed One.

[34:33] That's what Christ means. The word Christ is just a Greek word that comes from the term the Anointed One. And this is who Christ is.

[34:45] He is the Anointed One, and it is His fragrance that goes before God. Thank God. Thank God. 2 Corinthians 2, it says, We are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ, the Anointed One, to God.

[35:01] Look at it. You've got all of them in the one picture. All these things. We are being redeemed, renewed, getting back to God's design and intention.

[35:12] And then look at these two fellows, Oholaiheb and Bezalel. How can they do all of this creative work? God has given some very specific instructions for the tabernacle and all these things.

[35:25] And so He singles out these two individuals and He gives them the Spirit of God to be able to do all this craftsmanship. This is how creation is supposed to be.

[35:38] We are not supposed to be in a world where the ground is cursed. We're not supposed to be in a world where it produces thorns instead of fruit, where we toil by the sweat of our brow and work on our own strength.

[35:52] We think of these two men filled with the Spirit to do that work. Can you imagine if these two characters were not filled with the Spirit? What a mess the tabernacle would look.

[36:07] What does our work look like without the Spirit? Look at the world. Is the earth not full of talented, very talented people who use their hands to create idols, who use their gifts to glorify themselves rather than God, to glorify sin.

[36:26] Even at its best, our work is a struggle. Our efforts often fall short of their potential. The creative powers that God has given man. Think of the… Look at creation.

[36:39] Look at the things that man has made. Some incredible things. And yet we end up turning them into weapons or objects of worship. The creative power God has given us.

[36:52] But what do we do with it without His Spirit? And so going back to this pattern of creation, fall, and redemption, we might not see the full redemption yet because we've still to enter that fully.

[37:03] But God is not weak that He cannot fulfill His own purposes in creation because in Christ and in His kingdom I want to encourage you that your best days and your greatest work is still ahead of you.

[37:18] Is that not hopeful? Think of that day when we are not working by the sweat of our brow, when the fruit of your labor is not covered in thorns and thistles.

[37:28] If you are even remotely impressed by the creative achievements of humanity in this world, while we live in a world with sin and corruption, imagine what it will be like in a world without those things.

[37:42] Man, the things that we are yet to see and we are yet to do because of Christ is amazing. And so you know what it's like that you have this desire to do something, you do a piece of work and then it just doesn't turn out like you hoped.

[37:58] I did that just the other week with DIY. Well, imagine what it will be like when we're finally free from these things and finally home. So your hands just now through Christ are being set apart.

[38:12] Your feet are being set apart. You are being set apart. We are being cleaned up. We are being ransomed. We are being redeemed through Christ. And we get to see a glimpse of that just in little bits.

[38:24] In Ephesians 2 it says, for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. What a hope.

[38:37] And so let me just finish. You see, Moses himself later said in Numbers 11, I wish that all of the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon everyone.

[38:53] That was Moses' desire. Not just these two guys. Not just 70 odd elders. That God would put his spirit on everyone. Is this not exactly what God is doing through Jesus?

[39:07] This is what started in the day of Pentecost. It's happening ever since. Ezekiel foretold of what Jesus would do. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.

[39:19] I will give you a new heart. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways and you shall dwell in the land that I promised. You shall be my people and I will be your God.

[39:31] Finally, something perhaps more elusive than good work. Rest. We end with the Sabbath. How many of us know how to rest?

[39:43] See, I think the thing is we rely on ourselves for our work so we rely on ourselves for our rest. If we are meant to rely on God for our work then we should rely on God for our rest.

[39:58] The Sabbath was meant for refreshment and relationship. As one commentator said, if the tabernacle was a sacred space, different aspects where the sacred work, the people where the sacred people, then the Sabbath is the sacred time.

[40:16] While we can redeem the time by doing good works to the glory of God and by resting in ways that the Sabbath encourages, I think the point is that through Jesus God is bringing about a new creation, one in which we will actually be able to do the work in more glorious ways than the greatest works of this world and a new creation in which we will find the rest and refreshment with Christ in far greater ways than we've ever experienced yet.

[40:46] And so let me say this, God intended for you a future and a purpose that far outshines anything that you have ever experienced yet. And while Moses is up the mountain with God, the people are down the bottom growing restless.

[41:05] And we'll see where that goes, but let us know that Christ is not merely receiving instructions, but He has gone to prepare a place. And the way that we get there is not through our work, it is through the work of Christ, because it is His blood that ransoms us, it's His Word that washes us, it's His fragrance that covers us, it is His Spirit that fills us, and it is His new creation that gives us rest.

[41:34] Let me pray. God, we thank You for Your Word. It's a lot of information to take in. Please help us make sense of this.

[41:47] Please speak to us by Your Spirit. Please help our hearts understand what You are doing in Christ. Please help us see that this creation and rest was originally intended for us, and all the frustrations that we feel day to day are because of sin and because of corruption.

[42:06] Yet You are not a weak God. In Christ, You are renewing all things. And so, help us to look to Christ and help us to learn from Christ. Help us to learn from Your Word and fill us with hope in all of these things as we look to Christ.

[42:24] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.