Episode Transcript
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Well, feel free to re main
seated as I read tonight from First Chronicles,
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Chapter Twenty three. I'm going to
read this passage and it's going to
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stand as something of a placeholders,
not the word I want, but it's
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going to to be a sampling,
we might say, of this chapter,
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as well as the following chapters,
which I'll have all together in my mind
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tonight, twenty three through twenty six
actually, and even a little bit of
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twenty seven. But I'll just be
reading twenty three tonight and I'll explain a
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little bit more in a minute.
Well, let's give our attention to God's
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word. Here we read and we
hear of David. I'm not only preparing
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the materials for the temple, but
also the servants for the temple. When
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David was old and full of days, he made Solomnon his son King over
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Israel. David assembled all the leaders
of Israel and the priests and the Levites.
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The Levites thirty years old and upward
were numbered, and the total was
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thirty eight thousand men. Twenty four
thousand of these, David said, shall
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have charge of the work in the
House of the Lord. Six thousand shall
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be officers and judges, four thousand
gatekeepers and four thousand shall offer praises to
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the Lord with instruments that I've made
for praise and David organized them in divisions
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corresponding to the sons of Levi,
Gershawn, Kohath and Mera marry Mary.
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The sons of Gershon were Leiden and
Shemai, the sons of Leyden J Yel,
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the chief and Zetham and Joel Three. The sons of Shemai shellamoth,
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Haziel and Harun three. These were
the heads of their father's houses. Of
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Leiden, and the sons of Shemai, Jay Haf, Zinnah and Jet Joush
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and Beriah. These four were the
sons of Shemay Jay half was. Jay
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Haf was the chief and Zizza the
second, but Jush and Beaa did not
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have many sons. Therefore they became
counted as a single father's house. The
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sons of Kowaf, Amram is,
Har Hebron Uzel, for the sons of
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Amram Aaron and Moses, Aaron was
set apart to dedicate the most holy things
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that he and his sons forever should
make offerings before the Lord and Minister to
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him and pronounced blessings in his name
forever. The Sons of Moses, the
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man of God, were named among
the tribe of Levi. The Sons of
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Moses, Gersham and Eliezer. The
sons of Gersham Shebu well, the chief,
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the sons of Eliezar Reyabia. The
chief. Eliezar had no other sons,
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but the sons of Yabia were very
many. The sons of Ishar,
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Shell am if, the chief,
the sons of Hebron, Jarahjeria, the
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chief, a Mariah the second,
Jahasil the third and Jechamm the fourth.
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The sons of Uziel, Mike of
the chief, and is Sheia the second.
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The sons of Merari, Moli and
Mushi, the sons of Molli,
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Eliezar and Kiss Eliezar died having no
sons, but only daughters, their kinsmen,
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the sons of Kish married them.
The sons of Mushi, Molli,
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edder and jeremoth three. These were
the sons of Levin by their father's houses,
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the heads of father's houses, as
they were listed according to the number
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of the names of the individuals,
from twenty years old and upward, who
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were to work or who were to
do the work for the service of the
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House of Jehovah, the House of
the Lord. For David said, Jehovah,
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the God of Israel, has given
rest to his people and he dwells
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in Jerusalem forever. And so the
Levites no longer needed to carry the tabernacle
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or any of the things for its
service. For, by the last words
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of David, the sons of Levi
were numbered from twenty years old and up,
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were for their duty was to assist
the sons of Erin for the service
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of the House of the Lord,
having the care of the courts and the
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chambers, the cleansing of all that
is holy and any work for the service
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of the House of God. Their
duty was also to assist with the showbread,
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the flower for the grain offering,
the wafers of unlove and bread,
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the baked offering, the offering mixed
with oil and all measures of quantity or
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size. And they were to stand
every morning thanking and praising the Lord,
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and likewise at evening and whenever burnt
offerings were offered to the Lord, on
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Sabbaths, new moons and feast days, according to the number required of them,
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regularly before the Lord. Thus they
were to keep charge of the tent
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of meeting and the sanctuary and to
attend the sons of Aaron their brothers for
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the service of the House of the
Lord. May God bless his word to
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us. Well, I'm going to
do the opposite of what I did this
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morning. This morning I took a
rather large passage and zero down on a
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single word and spent a whole sermon
focusing on on that word, and will
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do so in some following words in
there in Romans nine. Here I'm doing
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the opposite, it were, zooming
up to thirtyzero feet to look at the
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whole I'm not just a few sentences
or chat or or paragraphs, but even
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several chapters. I'm here in Chapter
Twenty three, twenty four, twenty five,
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twenty six, and also a little
bit in twenty seven. We see
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a David really organizing the servants for
the temple and we have this listing of
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the tribe of Levi's duties. Now, why would David single out the tribe
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of Levi? Why not talk about
Judah or someone else? Well, it's
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because the temple is what he's very
concerned about right this is what he's been
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concerned about, what he's been focusing
on for several chapters now. As the
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king has gone in a statin been
established by God on His throne. So,
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to the Ark of God, the
king of kings is to have his
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place established and he has promised that
God, that is, has promised that
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Solomon David Son would build a temple. And so in the last chapter,
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I'm we focused on David's preparations of
those materials. We talked about the vast
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quantities of gold and and silver and
and all the rest. Here we have
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this vast quantity of people. I'm
not just King Solomon watching over the project,
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ruling over the people, but Levites
and priests, priests and Levites.
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If you imagined yourself as having a
large stadium or something like that, think
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about what it would be required to
keep it running, to service it.
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What would you need? Well,
you'd need people in charge of lighting,
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security, the lawn, if,
let's say it's a football field or a
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baseball field or something like that.
You have maintenance repairs, you'd have scheduling
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issues, you'd have all kinds of
things and you probably have departments of people.
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Right so big as this building and
so so much traffic comes into it,
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so many people are involved in the
process that you're going to put a
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lot of energy into the service of
that work. Everything would fall apart really
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quickly if you built a beautiful stadium
and then you know you just tried to
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do your best to keep it up. You you wouldn't stand a chance right
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well, it's a similar thing with
the service I'm here with the temple,
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except instead of building a stadium for
play, God is building a temple for
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worship, for communion with his people, and so he has these these this
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group of people, one of the
tribes leave, devoted to caring for these
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things, and that's what we read
about here. A basic understanding about the
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Levites and the priests is probably not
the most important thing on your priority list,
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but let me assure you that understanding
who these people were, what this
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tribe is, actually does make a
difference, not only for our general understanding
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of the Old Testament and understanding what
we might call our own family history,
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but in understanding something about Jesus,
about who we are, who God wants
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us to be. So let's consider
this group, the tribe of Levi,
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the priests and the Levites. This
in the evening. I want to begin
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by just thinking about these basic terms, priest and levite. Now in the
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Bible they can be used in a
variety of ways. In fact, you'll
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probably get yourself into trouble if you
can give definitions that are more narrow than
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the Bible has. You'll find yourself
a creating all kinds of endless puzzles and
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contradictions and it can be rather confusing. But if you will have a broader
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definition of these a broader definition which
includes generally how these things work, you'll
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find that it all sorts out fairly
neatly. Essentially, what you have is
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one of the tribes of God's people, Levi, one of the sons.
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Believe he was the third son,
and under this group you have essentially two
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groups of people, Blood Division within
this tribe, the priests and the Levites.
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And I realize that can be a
little confusing because Levi is the tribe
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and then you have a group of
people within the group called the Levites,
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but there it is, deal with
it. So you have Levi and then
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under that you have this division between
the priests and the Levites. The division
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is expressed in verse thirteen of this
chapter. The sons of Amrm Aaron and
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Moses. Aaron was set apart to
dedicate the most holy things, that he
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and his son's should ever make offerings
before Jehovah and Minister to him and pronounce
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blessings in his name forever. But
the sons of Moses, the man of
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God, were named among the tribe
of Levi. So you have this division
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of Labor. Well, how does
the Labor work out? The priests are
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of a higher order than the Levites
and they're devoted in particular to dealing with
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the altar. They are the ones
who deal with the blood, who are
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doing the sprinkling, who are offering
these things up to God. Now,
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sometimes we are a little confused and
we think that it's the priests that are
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offering the sacrifices. In a sense, not true. It was the worshippers
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responsibility to sacrifice the animal. You'll
say you, as the head of your
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household, would bring an animal to
come and have it sacrificed. You would
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be doing the one that would be
doing the cutting. Now, the priest
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would take that blood and would applied
in certain ways and would deal with it.
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He was in charge. He was
in charge of that altar in particular,
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the sacrifice is the offerings and those
kinds of things. But in order
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for that to happen there was this
whole complex of other duties that were required,
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and those went to the Levites.
You follow me so far, priests
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and the Levites. This group of
Levites could be divided up into about four
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categories. There are temple servants and
people most directly in the temple. There
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are musicians that are described in chapter
twenty five, there are gatekeepers that are
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described in chapter twenty six, and
then also various kinds of officials. This
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is a list that's given to us
at the beginning of Chapter Twenty three,
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when we read in verse four,
of those who help charge of the work
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in the House of God. There
will be officers and judges, gatekeepers and
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those who offer praises to the Lord
with instruments that I have made for praise.
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Well, that list that's given there
in verse twenty or in the beginning
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of twenty three, gets reversed a
little bit. The last three get reversed
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and essentially what you have is a
progression from the center of the temple,
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the holiest place, outward to let
places that are less and less holy.
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So you have the temple servants,
and then the musicians and connection with them,
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and the gatekeepers in connection with them, and then finally, the officials.
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Now, when you take these general
titles and begin to dig into the
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text to look at their duties,
you find out that there's an awful lot.
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Again, think back to your stadium, example, and all the things
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that would be required just for,
let's say, keeping the lights on.
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Well, imagine, for example,
what would be required to take care of
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the accounting at the temple. Imagine
all of the money that's being brought in
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on a regular basis. Imagine the
kind of security that would be needed to
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protect that. Imagine the kind of
things that would be necessary to account for
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it and watch over it. Then
you have, on top of of all
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of this, not just a general
accounting of these things, but there's a
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ceremonial process on top of it.
All things must be kept holy in the
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temple, and so there were all
kinds of rules and regulations that these men
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had to watch carefully over, had
to be careful about. There were various
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cleansings and furniture that had to be
watched. That's all within the temple.
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Then, as we saw in an
earlier tap chapter. There were musicians.
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These musicians were divided up and all
kinds of categories, choirs and trumpeters and
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all kinds of things that had to
specialize in their particular area. Then there
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were the gatekeepers, people in charge
of making sure that the people who came
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in were properly clean and those who
weren't were properly kept out. There were
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people that Levites, who are in
charge of teaching the word of God,
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almost like pastors in a sense.
I'm teaching and training. There were officials
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who are a charge of money and
accounting and people who are in charge of
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even making judgments about decisions. There
was a very big job because this,
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this was the center of Israel,
this was her capital, the main building
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aside from the king's palace. This
is the most important thing, even above
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the king's palace. This is the
center, the heart of the people.
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So just as the capitals of our
cities and states and countries are busy places
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with all kinds of departments and people, so too would be the temple.
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The priests would be particularly devoted to
the arc and manipulating the blood. The
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Levites would be supporting that work and
cleansing and purity and accounting and prophesying and
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all kinds of other things. And
that's essentially what we have in these chapters,
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is David's organizing of these people,
of these groups. What are we
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to observe from all of this?
What difference does this make to us?
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I think there are a lot of
things we could think about and reflect on,
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but let me mention a three.
The first thing we see is that
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the temple is about worship. God
could have built another kind of building,
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right, you could have built a
stadium if you wanted. The Nation of
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Israel could have all been about sports, right. Or God could have built
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them all. He could have filled
it with all kinds of shop and commerce,
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of various kinds of Sandal shop over
here, get your wine over here,
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vineyard supplies, what you name it, a big mall properly devoted to
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making a lot of money. That's
not the center of Israel either. The
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center of Israel, the point of
communion between God and his people, is
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not a stadium, it's not a
mall, it's not a park, it's
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a temple. That's significant, isn't
it? Because God is there not just
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to rule, but it is about
worship. Israel is about worship. When
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our connection with God, our communion
with God, our relationship with God,
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is defined in this way, it's
about worship. Sometimes I meet people who
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seem to have this idea that one
might have a relationship with God and even
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believe in him, in a sense, trust in him, or something like
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that, and yet worship has no
part of their lives. Worship is unimportant,
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whether that's the formal, corporate worship
that we are enjoying right now,
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or whether that's private worship, Bible
reading, prayer, devoting oneselfs and it
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oneself and in good works to God. Some people seem to believe that we
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can have a relationship with God,
that worship is a thing on the periphery,
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a thing you might do if you
have time, a thing that might
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be important if you get around to
it. Yeah, sure, a helpful
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thing, something that's good for encouraging
our hearts, but this is something that
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God demands in relationship to him.
He places the Temple and at the center
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of Israel, because Israel is a
kingdom of worshippers, and the same is
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true in the New Testament when God
constitutes us us a people. You remember
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what we considered last time from passages
like a first Peter where he describes us
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as being living stones being built up
into a Holy Temple. Your relationship with
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God, in Jesus Christ, is
about worship, isn't it? If we
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are a temple, if the Holy
Spirit is dwelling in us, then that's
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what God wants. He doesn't build
us up living stones into a stadium or
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a mall or big open space or
hiking trail, all nice things. God
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wants our worship. What is that
worship? Well, it of all several
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things. Involves humbling ourselves. Worship
as an act of submission, isn't it?
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Worship is an act of going before
God and saying you deserve worship,
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you deserve my praise, you deserve
my thanksgiving. It's to treat him not
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as a business partner or a plaything
or someone or a therapist, but it's
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to treat God as a God,
as the God, as our God.
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Worship also involves sacrifice, and we
see that in the priesthood, don't we?
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To go before God, to have
communion with God, to worship God
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requires something of us, and that
is a clean heart. The Psalm say
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who shall send the hill of the
Lord? WHO shall come up to Mount
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Zion. Who shall worship God,
and it's the one who's holy, the
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one who does what is right,
the one who obeys God's Commandments. That's
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what God requires. But in order
for that, for that to happen,
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because of our sinfulness, there has
to be a sacrifice, and that's why
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the temple, in addition to being
a very magnificent and beautiful place, with
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all of its architecture and columns and
and paintings and and carvings and gold and
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silver and Cedar, was also a
place that was very bloody. I wish
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I could see what it looked like. I try to imagine it sometimes,
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what years of blood caked onto the
altar would look like, what it smell
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like. I don't know. As
beautiful as a place it was, it
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was also a bloody place, but
the bloody was it was grotesque in the
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sense that there was sin that was
being dealt with, but it's also beautiful
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in the sense that sin is being
dealt with, God's grace being given to
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us, atonement for our sins,
forgiveness in such an to such a degree
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that God would say that he is
pleased with us and desires to meet with
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us and be with us and accept
us as pleasing in his sight. The
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temple is about worship. Worship is
about sacrifice for sin. Worship is about
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humbling oneself. Worship is about giving
God his due, and the same is
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true for us today. When we
come to worship, we come with humility,
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we come giving God what is rightfully
his praise and honor and glory,
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but we come with sacrifice. None
of you showed up this evening, I
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see, with any animals. But
there's a reason for that, isn't there?
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Because the blood of Jesus covers the
need for every sacrifice once and for
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all perfectly. He takes care of
it so that you don't have to throw
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lambs in the back of the minivan
on the way to church, so that
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you don't have to come and slaughter
an animal and think about your sins again
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and again, and so that the
priesthood wouldn't have to continually offer up these
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sacrifices again and again and again.
Hebrews Chapter Ten tells us that Jesus offered
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his perfect sacrifice once and for all. We come with our bibles and praises
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on our tongues, knowing that Jesus
is sacrifice is complete and we have forgiveness
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in him. It's in that spirit
and on that ground that we worship.
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A second thing we can notice about
the importance of this chapter and these priests
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and the leavines is that, instead
of just an empty temple, it was
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Phil with these people that God desired
to serve a serve him, and not
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just serve him, but serve the
people. They were really there on behalf
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of the people. In other words, the priests and the Levites were not
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just there for themselves and not just
therefore God, but they were God's tool
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to be there for all the rest
of Israel. Here's another way to think
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about it. The priests and the
Levites is really read about them and all
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their divisions and specialties and all whatnot. We're not a specialized worshiping class in
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which you could belong to some other
tribe and say, well, I don't
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need to worry about worship, leave
eyes got it. Levies. Taking that
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part of our taking care of that
part of the Kingdom. Not So.
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Levi. I was not there to
take care of worship for everyone else.
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Leave. I was there to assist
in worship, to serve the people in
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worship. So, for example,
those that played instruments were given, we're
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commanded to play these instruments so that
those who would come and worship could be
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assisted in the singing. Unto God, the priests and the Levites were there
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to sacrifice, yes, but there
were worshippers who had to come and sacrifice.
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It's similar for us in the New
Testament as Christians. We have a
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levitical class, so to speak.
We have servants in the temple that are
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devoted full time or by vocationally,
sometimes too, the worship of God.
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We have ministers, we have elders, we have deacons, we have these
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offices that God has especially appointed people
that God is especially called to serve in
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this way. But just like the
Levites of old, they serve in the
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temple of the Lord not as a
specialized worshiping class, but as servants to
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us all, as worshipers. They
are extensions of what we might call the
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General Office of the believer. We
are all prayers, we are all singers,
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we are all preachers, we are
all elders and deacons. And a
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very real sense, are not all
of us called to minister to the needs
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of one another? Are Not each
of us given gifts so that we might
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use them in the service to God
in his church. Are Not all of
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us given the word of God that
we might share it with others? We
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are, and this means just like
Israel couldn't never come to the temple or
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never show up with their sacrifice because, well, the Levites have it covered,
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you also have a responsibility of they
to God as a worshiper, to
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come before him and to worship him. There is a distinction, of course,
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there are those that are called particularly
to serve, to lead, direct
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command a teach, but this is
something we're all called to do and to
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build one another up in. You
get both the distinction and the calling in
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an important verse in Ephesians. Let
me read it to you. It's Ephesians
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for a verse eleven, speaking of
Jesus, the Apostle says, and he
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gave the apostles, the prophets,
the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers.
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These are the gifts that Paul says. He pours out on the churches.
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But notice what their job is.
To equip the saints for the work
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of Ministry, FOR BUILDING UP The
body of Christ, until we all attain
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the unity of faith in the knowledge
of the son of God, to mature
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manhood, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. You
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see, where as a calling that
God has on each of our lives,
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a gifting that he has given each
of us. In Our last Membership Vale,
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for those of you who have taken
it or have heard it, you
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remember it says, do you promise
to participate faithfully in this Church's worship and
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service? That's a vow that it's
not just for ministers to take, but
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it's for all of us to take. The temple of the Lord that he
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is building up with us, these
living stones on the foundation of Jesus Christ,
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are great sacrifice, is one in
which he calls us all to think
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about the gifts that we've been given, to consider what it is God has
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given us, in particular how we
might serve the body, how we might
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worship the Lord. So this effects
how we live and worship in the Kingdom
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of God, doesn't it? The
facts how we think about ourselves in relation
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to the temple. There's a reason
that Peter says of the Church in general
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that they are the Christians. We
are a royal priesthood, one third thing
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I'll draw your attention to us we
close, is, as we think about
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our duties as Christians, we have
to go back again think about the foundation
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of Jesus as that foundation of the
temple are great sacrifice. This is very
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important because it means that there has
been a chain inge and in fact it
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is Jesus and his sacrifice that has
created this change. You see this in
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Colossians and then you see it again
in Hebrews. Let me explain. Do
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you remember what the Levites were in
charge of before this temple was put into
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process or was being built? What
were the Levites in charge of before?
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They were musicians and accountants and keepers
of the vessels and all these kinds of
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things. Yeah, they had to
carry the ARC. That's what they had
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to do. They were in charge
of putting the tent up, taking it
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down, rolling it, putting it
together, constructing it and moving it from
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place to place. This was their
job. But their job changes, doesn't
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it? There's a change in the
priesthood a little bit little bit, when
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the chant, when when the place
of worship changes from the tent or the
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Tabernacle to the temple? I bring
this point up because there it's similar to
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what happens in the New Testament,
only too much to greater degree. If
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there was a change in the priesthood
as we moved from Tabernacle to temple.
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Can you imagine what would happen if
the temple, this building, this physical
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building in a particular place, became
a spiritual building that is worldwide and made
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of people? You might expect a
change in the priesthood, wouldn't you?
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It's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is
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through the sacrifices, and this is
what the author of Hebrews says. So,
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for example, in ten four,
he says, for it is impossible
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for the blood of bulls and goats
to take away sins. Consequently, when
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Christ came into the world, he
said, sacrifices and offerings you have not
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desired, but a body have you
prepared for me? In Burns offerings and
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Sin Offerings? You've taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I
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have come to do your willow God, as it is written in me of
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me in the scroll of the book
of life. And then again, going
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for a little further down, we
read in Verse Ten, I'm very sorry,
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in verse nine he does away with
the first order in order to establish
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the second. You hear the change. there. Jesus comes and offers his
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body on the cross to do away
with the old order. This means that
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those people who desire to go back
to the temple, to go back to
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the sacrifices, are entirely out of
order, because Jesus came to do away
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with the first order. Why?
In order to establish the second. And
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then there's a conclusion, and by
that will we have been sanctified through the
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offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once and for all. This tells us
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that when we live in this world, we don't live in a templess world.
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We don't live in a godless world, a worshipless world, a communionless
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world. We don't need to read
about the temple in First Chronicles and go,
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oh, how awesome that would have
been, how wonderful it would have
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been to see all that and to
participate on all that. Boy, I
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wish we could do that. I
wish we could be that close to God.
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I wish we could have this great
priesthood and all of these levites.
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We don't need to long and look
back, because God has given us something
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even better. He's given us something
that is eternal, something that's imperishable,
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something that the author to Hebrews will
go on to say later, is unshakable.
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It can't be shaken, it can't
be destroyed. The centrality of the
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priesthood and the sacrifice and the blood
and all of the Levites is they attend
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around that, serving to the needs
of their brothers in Arin. All reminds
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us and points us to the eternal
priesthood and effectual sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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When Jesus Christ went to the Cross, and other words he died to forgive
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us of our sins, yes,
but to US establish something new. The
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temple was a it's not gone just
because that's gone, I don't know.
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It's gone because Jesus removed it,
and that should be significant for us as
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Christians. It should be a significant
that he removed it, that he did
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away with the priesthood, that he
did away with the offerings and instead rose
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again from the dead and establishes us
in him. So it means when we
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go to worship, when we seek
holiness, we don't do it through the
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sacrifices and various washings and sacrifices and
feasts to make us holy. Instead,
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we do it in Jesus, and
everything that we do, whether you're a
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full time minister or not, is
focused in on that thing, is focused
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in on the worship of God,
preaching the Cross, serving in accord with
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the cross, suffering under the Cross, celebrating the Cross. Just as the
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Levites all were surrounded and devoted to
serving Aaron, and so do to disserving
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so those sacrifices could take place in
the temple. We all do the same,
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except not around Arin, around Jesus. That's why we're always talking about
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him, that's why we're always devoted
to him. That's why we, as
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a holy pre stood that are called
by God to serve him, are devoted
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to Jesus Christ, the role of
the temple and the servants. It's all
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expanded, it's all better, it's
all more permanent, and this is what
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God has done for us. Knowing
that, I'll ask you a personal question.
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Will that affect the way you think
about your worship? Well, that
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affect the way you think and sort
through things in your mind. When you
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say, how can I serve my
brother this Sunday? How can I serve
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my sister over the course of this
week. How might I offer myself to
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do good? How might I offer
myself to do God as a pleasing sacrifice?
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You are priests. You are priests. God has called you to serve
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him and to worship him, but
not after the old order, after a
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new one, a permanent one and
imperishable one. Let us pray, then,
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and ask that God would help us
to serve him and to worship him
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as he deserves.
