Pillars in the Church: The Tabernacle – God’s Pattern – Spiritual Maturity/Responsibility

See, take the word and just kind of go down it, and whatever impression you get, don’t just say, “Oh, that’s great, “then go a little further. Don’t sit there and grab a notebook and say, “Boy, that’ll preach.” But just think, oh Lord, hallelujah, then tell Him what He has just shown you, and this is a sweet incense to the Father. The Father smells the incense rise and rejoices, because what you’re offering up there is something of the light of Christ Himself.

Now then, after the enlightenment and the offering of incense, what do you do then? What happens then? There is the enlargement of the Lord within us. More gold, more of His nature, and more of that, then the veil just rips. Then what happens? The light pours out from there. Praise the Lord. The light pours out of there. Okay, you go in. The self, the flesh, is dealt with. It’s ripped. Now, this is something deeper than the outer altar, but you go in, and brother, what do you receive? What do you have there? The fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ; the fullness of God. We get the testimony of the Lord…His name, His very name. You get the law of the Spirit not only given to you but something you daily live by.

Do you remember the first time I was ever here? We talked about three lives, the three highest life forms. What’s the highest life? God. What’s the second-highest life? Angelic. And what was the third-highest life? Man. And when the first life comes into the third life, what does that first life give us? Alright, and what is the outworking of that?

Remember that we found this in Romans 8. When we come to receive the highest life form, God puts something in us. What does the highest life have? The highest life has the ten commandments. The second to the highest life, fallen, has the law of sin. You remember that? And the third to the highest life has what law? The law of good and evil. But when the highest life comes and impregnates itself into the third highest life, which lifts that life above the second highest life, what does the third highest life receive? There is a whole new something added. You get the law of Life, the law of the Spirit of Life. And when we are in the Holy of Holies, we are living by the law of Life…the law of the Spirit of Life. And how do we sense that life and know that life? By the sense of life and peace.

We live not by ten old, cold, dead, stony commandments, but by a constant regulation, by truth and life. In the ark is Life, the law of Life, the testimony, the very name of God. There is also the hidden living, living by Christ, the hidden manna, and then, there is the authority, the resurrection life, with its authority. Now, if we come from the cities, if we come to the altar, if we drive through the laver, if we go into the holy place, we eat the bread, we light the light, we offer the incense, and the self is rent. We go deep into something of the Lord. Then tell me, out of all this, what comes forth? Out of it comes: the tabernacle. The very last thing. All of these experiences bring us to the building. It brings us to the building.

Brothers and sisters, this afternoon, as someone put it, we came to the nitty-gritty. Now that was all of you. We have some new people here, and we needed it. Praise the Lord. There was one other thing I wanted to touch on before we go any further. Now, what did we look at in the building? What was the first thing we saw this morning? The top. And what is the top? Christ. And what does that mean? He’s the head. And what does that mean? Headship. Who are we? The body, and make that practical. But much more than that. In the corporate meeting together of the church, He is the Head. When we are together, being built up, we’re being built up by Him as our Head.

Now then, what was the second thing that comes in the building? All that’s the head, brother; let’s go down below the head now. What’s below? What are they called? The boards. They are the boards in the tabernacle; what are they in the temple? And what does Peter tell us the boards and the stones are? The priests. And what are the priests? The living stones. And what happens to the living stones? Praise the Lord. They’re built together. Now, what are you going to be? Living stones. What? A stone over here and a stone over there? No. An eyeball over here and a toenail over there? No. Built how? Together. There are boards on this side, there are boards on this side, and there are boards on that side, and they are all built together under headship. But that’s three sides; what’s on the fourth? Exodus 27:10. In the front, there are some boards…but also pillars.

The church also has to have pillars, and I don’t want to start a class distinction here; there’s not any, but God would love to have a tabernacle, a temple, made out of us all, but the church has got to have pillars, and the pillars also come out of the building. I want to impress upon the church here that you are now beginning to be built up together, and the way you are built up together, as the twig is bent, you know the old saying: so grows the tree. The way you build now will determine the future—the character of the church, not its disposition. Praise God for the disposition here. May it just keep on being your own personality and disposition, but the quality is the key.

Brothers and sisters, do you realize you have such a wonderful, unique opportunity? You are in the foundation building process. I don’t know if you have ever stopped to think about this, but we will be so selfish if you are thinking in terms of, hallelujah, praise God for 25 or 30 collegiates. God is far more interested in what’s going on here than that. If you have come so far, and I believe, I truly believe, that you’ve got a heart for the Lord to build. You have come so far. Then, brothers and sisters…go on, all the way. Don’t stop with boards; you’ve got to have some pillars. You need to see the vision of what God wants right here in this city. He doesn’t just want some college students, some young people. God doesn’t look at you as a bunch of young people. God looks at you as stones to build a house for Him to dwell in, but He wants to bring in more stones. And brothers and sisters, if there are no pillars, the building will just collapse. Those front pillars hold the whole thing here together, along with the golden rods.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever considered the awesome responsibility God has put on you? “Oh, praise the Lord, hallelujah, we’ve got the Life, Life, Life down in our hearts.” If you’re living by the Life, say amen. Now that is great, but there is responsibility. Real deep responsibility. There will come a time, there will be a time when there will be children to be cared for. Children to be cared for. What if a family comes in now with a four or five-year-old? Are you ready? Are you willing to take on the responsibility of a little child? What if there are three or four babies? Will you say, “Oh, praise the Lord. God will take care of it.” Oh, haven’t you noticed what they do? That is sloppy.

No, the church has got to have pillars that bear the weight; pillars that bear the weight. They’re going to be older adults. If the church is going to be the church, they’re going to be adults. I’m not picking on you, but I’m telling you something: older adults don’t like to sit on the floor. Well, we’ve got a few chairs, let’s go get some more. What if some unexpected guests come in? Well, we all move over. That’s sloppy. Where’s the provision? Where’s the provision? There has to be responsibility, and there must be pillars to bear that weight. It has to be 10 to the wall. Does anybody want to get up and leave? Does anybody want to hand back their membership card? Praise the Lord.

Listen, there’s so much more. Let me just fellowship with you. I’m going to change the subject a little bit and finish what we didn’t finish this morning. We were talking about how we can be built together practically. What are two or three things we could do practically? When you come before the Lord, ask the Lord to show you someone, sister. Two somebodies. What else? You are kind of a stone here, and a stone here, idealistically, somebody above you, somebody beneath you, and two boards helping to hold you up. Find two people in the church with whom you can be totally, fully, practically linked. You bear one another’s burden, you experience the Lord together, and you try to find someone you don’t like all that much. Alright, in other words, don’t keep…we got a brother over here who always agrees with me, so I go to him. That’s cheating. That’s not being built; that’s friendship, and we’re through friendship. Okay. Praise the Lord.