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Khotbah-Khotbah

Subject 11 : The Tabernacle

[11-25] The Altar of Incense Is the Place Where God Grants His Grace (Exodus 30:1-10)

The Altar of Incense Is the Place Where God Grants His Grace
(Exodus 30:1-10)
“You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it. You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it. And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
 
 
If we were to step inside the Holy Place, the House of God, we would first see the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense. The altar of incense was put in front of the entrance to the Most Holy, where the mercy seat was located, past the lampstand and the table of showbread. The length and width of this altar of incense were both one cubit, while its height was two cubits. In the Bible, a cubit is approximately 45-50 cm in today’s measurement. So the altar of incense was a rather small square, measuring around 50 cm in length and width and 100 cm in height. And like the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense also had horns on its four upper corners. Made of acacia wood, the altar of incense was completely overlaid with gold.
 
 
The Altar of Incense inside the Sanctuary Had Four Horns
 
When the High Priest offered the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement once every year, he had to put the blood of the sacrificial animal that bore the yearly sins of the people of Israel on the horns of the altar of burnt offering located in the court of the Tabernacle. In the same way, the High Priest also had to put this blood on the horns of the altar of incense. As this blood was offered to God, it solved the problem of sin that was blocking the people of Israel from God. All of us have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and in the present age of the New Testament, this faith of ours is what enables us to remove all obstacles when we come into the presence of God to pray. Even the righteous commit sin while living in this world. However, because we believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood of sacrifice foreshadowed by the Old Testament’s sacrificial system, we can still come before God and pray to Him boldly.
Even the righteous may feel hesitant to come into the presence of God because of the sins that they commit in this world, but in times like this, they can still come out to God boldly by trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As we believe in Jesus Christ’s gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can come out to God boldly even though our bodies and minds may be still weak. That’s because we have already become righteous by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and the Lord has already delivered us once and for all from all our transgressions through the Truth of salvation which is manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread of the Tabernacle door. We must therefore always ruminate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus has accomplished our perfect salvation once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, and there is a fundamental difference of faith between those who believe in this salvation and those who don’t. The righteous believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That’s why they can pray to God without any hesitation, for they believe that Jesus accepted all their sins once and for all through His baptism and shed His blood for them. Everyone therefore must also believe that Jesus bore all their sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He was condemned for all their sins by shedding His blood on the Cross. Only then can one become a priest of faith before God and pray for both himself and other sinners. Believing that God has saved us from all the sins of this world is what the real Christian faith is all about, and the basis of this faith is the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all of us can discover the Truth of salvation manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven line of the Tabernacle door. And all of us can enter the Kingdom of God by believing in this gospel Truth. So I ask you to believe that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is your salvation, that He bore all your sins, and that He was condemned for all your sins on the Cross. You will then be freed from all your sins forever. It’s only by believing in the gospel of the covenant of God, in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, that you can receive the remission of sins, become a righteous saint, and obtains God’s approval for having the right faith. Once you reach your salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the very first thing to do is praying to God for His work of salvation, that is, for the spread of the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world. The righteous believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit pray to God like this so that they may shine the bright light of the gospel on this world through God’s Church, the lampstand of the Holy Place of God. Faith is all the more necessary for us to support the ministry of God’s Church and bring the gospel to full bloom all over the world. It’s by hearing and believing in the precious Word of God preached by His servants that everyone throughout the whole world can receive the remission of sins and grow in faith.
Your faith in Jesus as your Savior must be grounded in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And as a righteous saint saved from all your sins, you must come out to the altar of incense and stand before the mercy seat in the Holy Place. Why is this so necessary? It’s because you need God’s grace continuously. The altar of incense is the place where we offer prayers to God, for the incense here implies the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8). We put on God’s grace whenever we come out to the altar of incense and pray to God. The altar of incense in the Holy Place shows us that praying to God by faith is the path to finding God’s grace. That’s why we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must continue to come out to the altar of incense and pray to God ceaselessly by faith, so that we may put on God’s grace time after time.
 
 

The Altar of Incense Is the Place Where We Ask God for His Help

 
Although we have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we still need God’s help for the rest of our lives. For us to unite ourselves with God’s Church and bear spiritual fruit as the light of this world, God’s grace is always indispensable. So it’s very important for all of us to pray to God ceaselessly, asking Him, “Lord, please help me. Hold me steadfast. Give me faith. Strengthen me in both body and spirit. Strengthen my faith so that it may never waver. Cut off all my heart’s desires to follow the world. Remove all my ungodly wishes.” God wants us the righteous to come out to the altar of incense, kneel before it, and pray to Him like this so that we would find His grace in all things and receive His blessings in both body and in spirit. That’s why it’s so imperative for every righteous saint who has received the remission of sins to continue to lead a prayerful life at the altar of incense.
Although we the righteous have been born again and saved from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it’s still necessary for us to pray to God to bestow His grace on us in our everyday lives. That’s because even though we the righteous have received the remission of sins, unless we continue to be clothed in God’s grace, we cannot walk on the narrow way of life that the Lord wants all of us to follow. It’s when the righteous pray to God that He bestows grace upon grace on them. And this is possible only when we abide in God’s Church and obey His Word. Put differently, the righteous put on God’s grace when they carry out His good work in unity with His Church. As mentioned, the High Priest put the blood of the sacrificial animal on the horns of the altar of incense once a year. This implies that whenever we the righteous come before God, we ought to confess our faith and say to Him, “Lord, You are my Savior. You forsook Your divine glory and came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man; You bore all my sins by being baptized; and You shed Your own blood in my place, all to save me.” Only when we have this kind of unwavering faith that God is our own God and Savior can we put on His abundant grace. No matter how hard the circumstances of our lives may be, Jesus Christ is still our God and our Savior. He is the very God who has saved us from all our sins and all our condemnation. It’s when we pray to God by this unwavering faith that we are clothed in God’s grace.
 
 

We Can Affirm Our Salvation Once Again in Our Every Prayer

 
It’s in our prayer that we can affirm once again that God is our own God. And this faith is what brings God’s blessings to us. Put differently, we are compelled to kneel before God’s throne of grace because we are absolutely convinced that God will bless us for sure. Our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit guarantees that God will surely answer our every prayer whenever we pray to God. God listens to each and every prayer of the righteous and blesses them all. So, whenever we pray to God, we should first ruminate on His grace as follows: “Lord, I believe in Your righteousness. I know that my life is full of shortcomings. Even though I want to live according to Your will, I have too many shortcomings. But Lord, I also know that You came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, that You bore all my sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, that You were crucified to death in my place, and that you have thereby become my Savior. You are my Messiah and my God of salvation. So I believe with all my heart that You will bestow Your grace on me, for You are my Lord.”
Like this, whenever we pray to God to bestow His grace on us, we ought to ruminate on this grace of God first and put all our trust in it. We can then have the boldness to ask God for all our needs, and He will say to us, “Yes, you are indeed My own child. As unwavering as your faith is, I am truly your God and you are truly one of My own people. So I will answer your prayer and bless you always. I will meet you on the mercy seat. I can see from your prayer that your faith in Me is unwavering, that you have put all your trust in Me alone, and that you believe with all your heart that I am your God. So I will answer your prayer for all the people of this world to know that I am indeed your God.”
Like this, it’s when we believe in our Lord’s Truth of salvation that God clothes us in His grace and showers us with His blessings. That we have been saved from all our sins is not the end of the whole story; on the contrary, if we have indeed been delivered from all our sins, then we ought to believe that God’s blessings are about to begin. It is therefore by trusting in the righteousness of God that we put on His grace every day. Only then are we able to lead a godly life. That is why we pray to God whenever there is anything that worries us in our minds, saying to Him, “Lord, please help us. Please help Your Church. Your Church needs Your help desperately to carry out Your work right now.” Even when it comes to worldly affairs, if any worries or prayer subjects come to our minds, we ought to come to the altar of incense and pray before the throne of grace with faith. We will then see the Lord clothing us in His grace in all things.
You should remember here that the altar of incense is the place where we find grace from God. We the saints should pray to God for no other reason than to put on all His grace. In other words, it is to receive God’s blessings that we pray to Him. Now that we have been saved by faith, it’s absolutely indispensable for all of us to pray to God ceaselessly if we really want to live the rest of our lives by trusting in God’s Word of promise and receive all His blessings. Like this, the altar of incense is there for us to put on God’s grace.
The biggest obstacle that we face when praying to God is sin. There is no one in this world that is living a flawless life. So, when we try to come out to God and pray to Him, the very first source of hesitation is our sins. That is why it is so important for us to ruminate on the Truth of salvation again and renew our belief that our Lord has already blotted out all our sins with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread of the Tabernacle door. In other words, we must believe unwaveringly that Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to this earth as our Savior, bore all our sins by being baptized, and was condemned for all these sins; and that thanks to our God and Savior, we have already been absolved from all our sins. Only when we have this faith can we ask God for His grace and blessings. Only then can we pray to God to bless us. It is to teach us this lesson, to remind us of the Lord’s work of salvation, that the blood of the sacrificial animal was put on the horns of the altar of incense once a year.
 
 

Only Someone Who Is Assured of the Remission of All His Sins Can Pray to God Boldly

 
When we pray to God, we can ask Him for all our needs without any hesitation, calling Him our Father or our Savior. We are free to call Him in this manner because God is indeed our Father, our Lord, and our Savior. In other words, we have no hesitation to call upon God by various titles and pray to Him because He is not only our Creator but also our Savior.
This is how all of us ought to pray to the Lord: “Lord, thank You for saving me from all my sins. I really need Your blessings and Your help. So help me Lord and watch over me every step of the way. I’ve done some things well, but I’ve also made many mistakes, and I still have some worries. I entrust them all to You, Lord. I ask you to Help me and guide my path. Lead me to lost souls so that I may preach Your gospel to them and bear abundant spiritual fruit for You. Open up their hearts and plow their hearts’ fields so that I can sow the seed of the gospel upon them. I ask You to also hold Your Church steadfast and watch over Your servants. Bless them all so that the gospel of the water and the Spirit may be preached fruitfully. Let this gospel spread all over the face of the earth. Your servants need Your protection, and so I ask you to keep them under Your watchful eyes. Bless me Lord, and bless my family. Bless my children. Bless the saints as well. Bless all my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Let Your blessings abound so that even the unbelievers standing outside Your Church would all be saved.” When we pray and entrust all our hopes and dream to God like this, He will surely answer our prayers and bless us. That is how we can all receive God’s abundant blessings through prayer. And that is how we can find grace upon grace every day.
God is the God of all those who believe in His righteousness. He is the God of those who believe in the gospel of water and the Spirit unwaveringly. God therefore never fails to bestow His grace on all His believers who boldly approach the throne of grace by their unwavering faith and ask for His grace and blessings, saying, “Lord, I believe that You are my God. I believe that You are My Savior. Help me, Lord!”
My fellow believers, I cannot emphasize just how important it is for all of us to realize that our salvation from the sins of the world is not the end of the story, but we ought to pray to the Lord ceaselessly. If your prayer is not answered by the Lord or if you don’t even know how to pray, you should then examine your faith step by step and think about who the Lord really is to you. A clear understanding of your relationship with the Lord is absolutely indispensable. In other words, you must make sure that your faith is on a sound footing, realizing and believing wholeheartedly that the Lord is the Creator of the heavens and the earth; that He came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man to save you; that He bore all your sins by being baptized by John the Baptist; that He was condemned on the Cross in your place; that He rose from the dead again in three days; and that He is still alive as your living Savior. Now that you have been saved, the Lord has become your Shepherd and you are His sheep. You should therefore have no doubt whatsoever that the Lord will answer you every time you ask Him for His help.
 
 
We Ought to Pray Day and Night
 
Those of us who have accepted the Lord as their Savior by faith and faithfully pray to God day and night will receive His abundant grace and blessings throughout their entire lifetime in this world. In contrast, those of us who don’t pray diligently for whatever reason, whether it’s because they think pompously that the Lord would provide for all their needs even if they don’t pray, or they lack faith in the Word of God, cannot receive God’s blessings, for the altar of incense is missing from their faith. If you think that God would give you everything you want even if you don’t pray just because you believe that He is your God, then your faith is misplaced. If this were true, then there should have been no altar of incense in the Holy Place. Do you think that God made the altar of incense just out of boredom? No, of course not! Aaron the High Priest lit the altar of incense with four kinds of incense every morning and every evening. Sweet aroma then filled the Holy Place as the smell of the burning incense spread all around it. This is a truly wonderful aroma that enables us to come out to God boldly. This incense also has the effect of covering our shortcomings before God. For example, the High Priest had to make the Most Holy Place full of incense before he entered it once a year, ensuring that the cloud of incense would cover the mercy seat that was on the Ark of Testimony, or otherwise he would have been put to death (Leviticus 16:12-13).
My fellow believers, whenever we approach God, we must have the full conviction of the fact that we have already received the remission of sins, that God is now our God, and that He will bestow His grace on us whenever we pray to Him. When we thus come into the presence of God by this unwavering faith and stand boldly before His throne of grace, we will not only face no condemnation, but we will put on God’s grace. God is the God of mercy whose abundant grace is granted to all of us.
 
 
The Rings Attached to the Altar of Incense Were Also Made of Gold
 
The altar of incense in God’s Sanctuary was a rectangular parallelepiped (a polyhedron with six faces) measuring around 50 cm in its length and width and 100 cm in its height, and two pairs of golden rings were also attached on both sides of the altar. Two poles were then inserted through these golden rings. These poles were also made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. Although the altar of incense was relatively small, it had to be lifted by two men. Since its length and width were only about 50 cm and its height 100 cm at most, it could have been easily lifted and carried by just one man, but like all the other utensils of the Tabernacle, that was never allowed. This implies that we the righteous ought to pray to God in unity as the Lord Jesus said, “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).
These poles of the altar of incense also show us that we the born-again ought to serve God with our prayers. Our prayers of faith are also a way for us to serve the Lord. Now that we have been born again from all our sins, we can serve God and His Church in various ways, whether it is by praying or volunteering our services. When we pray to God, we don’t pray just for ourselves, but we pray for God’s work, His Church, its members, and especially for the spreading of the gospel. In other words, our prayers not only allow us to stand before God’s throne of grace and find His mercy, but they also enable us to serve the ministry of God’s righteousness. It’s by praying in unity that we can serve the Kingdom of God. When we pray for our fellow brothers and sisters, for the Church, for the lost souls, for the expansion of the Kingdom of God, and for the ministry of God’s righteousness, we do so to serve God. That is why it is so important for us to grasp the implications of the priests serving God at the altar of incense in the Holy Place. We must pray to God earnestly by this faith. Just as we preach the Word of God in order to serve God and His people, so do we also pray to God to serve Him and His people. All of us have this duty to serve God in every way possible.
The most important thing you need to do to lead a godly Christian life and serve the will of God is faith in God and His righteousness. It’s by faith alone that you can preach the Word of God, pray to Him, spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and serve God and His righteousness. Everything we do to serve God is done by faith. You can never lead a godly life of faith unless you accept the will of God. I can’t emphasize enough just how important it is that we pray to serve God. Whenever the saints are gathered together at their respective churches, from our brothers to our sisters and even our kids at the Sunday school, they must all serve God first of all. We ought to get together to share the bread of the Word of God. And we ought to serve the righteousness of God also. Our prayers ascend to God as a sweet aroma when we the born-again pray to Him in unity, saying, “Lord, hold fast and bless Your Church, Your servants, and Your saints in the Church all over the world. Bless their souls and hearts, and give them blessed faith. Save all the souls that still remain lost.” Enjoying this sweet aroma of prayer, God then answers us and blesses us. He answers everything we ask of Him in our prayers. This is what it means to serve God with prayer, and I admonish you all to remember God’s work in your prayers rather than just praying for your needs.
While every saint in the Church ought to pray, if you can afford more time than everyone else for whatever reason, whether it is because you are retired or even sick, you ought to pray even more for God’s Church, His servants, and His saints. This is particularly more important for the housewives. It is not because of any lack of money that we can’t serve the Lord. You are more than able to serve the Lord without any money. You can serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit as much as you want with your faith. Just as two poles were put into the rings of the altar of incense to be carried by two men on their shoulders, those who are poor can still serve the Lord with their prayers of faith if only they are united with God’s Church. Those who are rich can also likewise serve the Lord with their material possessions. Don’t just say, “I’m way too busy with my job to set aside any time to serve the Lord. I just don’t have any time.” Each and every righteous saint can serve the Lord and His will by faith, whether it is with his offerings, prayers, or gospel preaching. All of us are more than able to serve the will of the Lord if only we have the desire to do so. And we the born-again can all receive God’s blessings if only we yearn for them.
 
 

God Blesses All of Us Who Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit

 
The Lord is our Shepherd. Our relationship with the Lord is so close that nothing and no one can ever separate us from Him.
Let’s turn to Matthew 26:26-28 here: “And 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 is shed for many for the remission of sins.’”
The name “Jesus” means the Savior or the Messiah, and we call Him our Lord to denote that He is our God and our Master. Our Lord Jesus came to this earth as our own Savior to deliver us all. God Himself had come to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man. And just before dying on the Cross, our Lord prepared the Last Supper, gathered together His disciples, and gave them bread and wine, saying to them, “Take the bread and eat it; this is My body. Take this cup and drink from it. This is My blood of covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” This means that God has saved us by coming to this earth as our own Savior and personally fulfilling His Word of promise through the water and the Spirit exactly as prophesied in the Old Testament. Having thus come to this earth as our Savior, our Lord accepted all the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. He then gave up His body on the Cross, and thereby bore all the condemnation of everyone in this world. And He has given us new life by rising from the dead again.
That the blood of the sacrificial animal was put on the altar of incense refers to the physical death of Jesus Christ. In a similar vein, after bearing all our sins through His baptism, Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself and shed His own blood on the Cross for us. It is thanks to this sacrifice that we have been saved. It’s on account of our faith in this gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have reached our salvation. It’s not by any blind or arbitrary faith that we have been saved from all our sins, but it’s only because Jesus, God Himself, came to this earth as our Savior, bore all our sins on His own body by being baptized, and shed His precious blood for all of us.
That is how God has accomplished our salvation, which is implied in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen of the screen door of the Tabernacle. The color purple here denotes that the King of kings became a Man. It teaches us that Jesus accepted all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and paid off all the wages of our sins by shedding His blood in our place. This is how the Lord became our own Savior. Faith in this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the very faith that enables us to partake in Holy Communion. When Jesus prepared for the Last Supper, He did not prepare just bread but also wine; and He told His disciples to drink and eat them both. The bread here refers to the body of Jesus, implying that God Himself became a Man in order to save us sinners. The bread also implies that by being baptized in the Jordan River, Jesus bore all our sins on His own body. The wine, on the other hand, refers to the blood of life and of salvation that Jesus shed on the Cross in our place.
Therefore, whenever we participate in Holy Communion, it’s absolutely indispensable for all of us to have this unwavering faith that God Himself came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man to save us, that He bore all our sins on His own body by being baptized, that He was condemned on the Cross in our place, and that He has thereby saved us and become our personal Savior. Sadly, however, most Christians do not know the exact reason why Jesus Christ has established this ritual of Holy Communion and ordered us to keep it until His return. You should never take your life of faith too lightly. If you still are not sure that Jesus is your Savior, then you should think long and hard about your faith before taking the bread and wine of Jesus in Holy Communion. Rather than getting all emotional, think carefully and ask yourself solemnly whether the Lord is indeed your Lord or not.
God is your God and mine. He made your ancestors and mine. And He allowed us to be born on this earth. This God is none other than Jesus. And Jesus, God Himself, came to this earth as our own Savior. Having come to this earth as our Savior in order to save us, He bore all our sins on His body through His baptism. He then faithfully took each and every one of these sins of ours to the Cross, never relieving Himself from any of them, and bore the punishment of the Cross that only the accursed should bear, so that we would not be condemned for our sins. This is how the Lord has saved us from all our condemnation.
You can easily understand this Truth of salvation if you just think about the gospel of the water and the Spirit even for a moment. To be saved from all the sins of the world is to accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into your heart. I believe that the Lord has saved me from all my sins through His water and blood. There is nothing that I myself have done for my salvation. When Jesus came to this earth, when He was born in a tiny stable in Bethlehem, I was not there, nor did I intervene in any shape or form, far less did I ask God to save me. But the Lord had come to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man irrespective of my intentions, all to save me. I am absolutely convinced that it was to save me that Jesus had come to this earth, was baptized, and shed His blood on the Cross.
God the Father loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son. God Himself came to this earth to save each and every human being. And He has indeed saved you and me from all our sins, and He has become your Savior and mine. All that we have to do to reach our salvation is to trust in Jesus Christ, who is God Himself, and accept into our hearts the work of salvation that He has done for us. Only those who are completely exhausted of their own strength, who have given up their own efforts realizing its futility, and who have entrusted their remission of sins and their salvation entirely to God—such people alone can find grace from God. Although this may seem incomprehensible to you in your thoughts, God Himself has actually fulfilled our salvation perfectly to deliver us all. There is therefore nothing else for us to do but believe in God’s work of salvation.
 
 
Entrust Yourself to God Completely
 
It’s absolutely imperative for you to entrust yourself to God. Think about what God has done for you. God Himself had become a man. And God did this just to save you and me. Moreover, Jesus, who is God Himself, was baptized for us in order to bear all our sins and to blot them all out. Jesus was also crucified to death, shedding His precious blood for us on the Cross. He was thus condemned in our place, all to pay off each and every one of our sins, to deliver us from our condemnation, and to make it possible for us to escape from our judgment. He then rose from the dead again in three days to bring us back to new and everlasting life.
And now, He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father and watching over all of us. He is watching out to see who is willing to entrust his everything to Him, God Himself and the Savior, and who believes in Him wholeheartedly. Those who have received Jesus are those who have entrusted their everything to God. They believe that the Lord has saved them perfectly. They know that they have done nothing on their own for their salvation. They are certain that it’s only out of His love that God has saved them through the Truth of salvation revealed in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread of the Tabernacle door. And to all such people who have entrusted themselves to God completely, and who have accepted God and His Word into their hearts, God has given the right to become His own children.
So I ask you all to have a clear understanding of this Truth of salvation before you partake in Holy Communion. The baptism that Jesus received was to bear all our sins and make atonement for them. The physical death that Jesus suffered was to save you and me from all our sins. Having thus borne all our sins, Jesus was crucified to death, shedding all His blood in our place, and was condemned like this in order to release us from the judgment of sin and to make us righteous.
To all of us abiding and praying in the Holy Place, God has given the altar of incense in order to clothe us in His grace. This is where we can find grace from God. So I admonish each and every one of you to completely entrust yourself to the Lord.
Hallelujah!
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
The TABERNACLE (III) : A Prefiguration of The Gospel of The Water and the Spirit