Anchors of Truth

Spirituality

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000012


00:12 Welcome to Anchors of Truth
00:14 live from the 3 ABN Worship Center,
00:17 the sanctuary series with John Bradshaw.
00:23 Hello and welcome to what is volume
00:25 3 chapter 2 in our Anchors of Faith series
00:29 and this particular set of meetings
00:31 deals with the sanctuary.
00:34 There is a word that we use couple of words that
00:38 we call systematic theology,
00:41 it's a term that people who go to college use.
00:44 But when you boil it down, that basically
00:46 means doctrines, systematic theology are
00:49 the doctrines, or the belief systems of
00:50 any group or organization.
00:53 When we talk about systematic theology,
00:56 these meetings are very, very important because
00:59 the subject matter that is the sanctuary is the one
01:03 part of systematic theology that is solely
01:07 Seventh-day Adventist. When we look at the
01:11 stew of doctrines, there are many,
01:14 many organizations, many believes
01:17 it says they can bring in the carrot and the
01:19 potatoes, Sabbath, state of the dead, salvation.
01:24 We do not hold those alone, there are many
01:26 churches that preaches these things, but when it
01:29 comes to the sanctuary that is the
01:32 one dare I say ingredient.
01:35 That is solely Seventh-day Adventist;
01:38 no one else is preaching the sanctuary
01:40 quite like we preach it. So, you're not gonna hear
01:43 what you will hear tonight in any other place,
01:46 because nobody preaches the sanctuary like we do.
01:50 The sanctuary is crucially important for a number of
01:52 reasons, one, it tells you who you are,
01:57 it tells you where you came from,
01:59 it tells you why you are here,
02:01 it explains how you got here,
02:03 it tells you where you're going
02:05 and it tells you how to get there.
02:08 That's why the study of the sanctuary is so crucial,
02:12 because it pinpoints you in time and space
02:16 and eschatology and prophecy and lets you
02:19 know precisely where you are
02:22 and where you are going. Many, many years ago
02:24 when the Adventist church got it's start,
02:26 we got our start coalescing around three
02:28 doctrines that we called the "S" doctrines,
02:31 Sabbath, Sanctuary, and State of the dead.
02:35 And those are the three main doctrines that began
02:38 to pull the Seventh-day Adventist church
02:40 together; together that is Sabbath, Sanctuary,
02:43 and State of the dead. And then of course we
02:45 grew from there, so these meetings are very, very
02:48 crucial because you are not gonna hear this stuff
02:51 any place else in the world because nobody
02:53 teaches the sanctuary like the Seventh-day
02:56 Adventist church teaches the sanctuary.
02:58 So, that is our one ingredient to the,
03:02 the stew of, of systematic theology and no one else
03:06 has it quite like we do. So it is my privilege
03:08 and pleasure to welcome you to the second night of
03:10 these meetings as our speaker
03:13 talks to us about the sanctuary.
03:15 He's of course John Bradshaw;
03:17 he is the speaker/ director for It Is Written.
03:20 And as those mentioned last night by our President
03:22 Jim Gilley, he follows in the long line of
03:25 very wonderful godly man who headed that
03:28 ministry George Vandeman, Mark Finley,
03:31 Shawn Boonstra and now John Bradshaw,
03:33 so we are very, very pleased to have him here
03:35 for these several nights. And I ask that you take
03:38 out pen and pencil here in our audience and home
03:41 and give ear to these messages.
03:43 This is sanctuary 101 dare I say, as we learn about
03:47 the things that God will teach us in the sanctuary,
03:51 before he comes to us tonight our Pastor,
03:53 our friend John Lomacang is gonna bring
03:55 us our music, he's going to be singing
03:57 "Wonderful Merciful Savior,"
03:59 I'm sure you'll be blessed.
04:16 Wonderful, merciful Savior
04:22 Precious Redeemer and Friend
04:28 Who would have thought that a Lamb
04:33 Could rescue the souls of men
04:39 Oh you rescue the souls of men
04:51 Counselor, Comforter, Keeper
04:57 Spirit we long to embrace
05:03 You offer hope when our hearts have
05:09 Hopelessly lost our way
05:14 Oh, we've hopelessly lost our way
05:22 You are the One that we praise
05:29 You are the One we adore
05:35 You give the healing and grace
05:40 Our hearts always hunger for
05:46 Oh, our hearts always hunger for
05:54 You are the One that I praise
06:00 You are the One I adore
06:06 You give the healing and grace
06:11 My hearts always hungers for
06:18 Oh, my hearts always hungers for
06:29 Almighty, infinite Father Faithfully loving Your own
06:41 Here in our weakness You find us
06:47 Falling before Your throne
06:52 Oh, we're falling before Your throne
07:00 You are the One that we praise
07:06 You are the One we adore
07:13 You give the healing and grace
07:17 Our hearts always hunger for
07:24 Oh, our hearts always hunger for
07:32 You are the One that we praise
07:38 And you are the One we adore
07:44 You give the healing and grace
07:50 That our hearts always hunger for
07:56 Oh, our hearts always hunger for.
08:18 Well, thank the Lord for that,
08:19 can you say amen? Amen.
08:21 Great to see you this evening.
08:23 We are gathering here tonight,
08:26 to gather around the Bible the holy word of God.
08:30 I believe that God has blessed us richly,
08:34 by giving us subjects in the Bible that we can go
08:38 to and mind deep, deep, deep, deep and still really
08:43 never get to the bottom of.
08:45 The sanctuary is one of those subjects,
08:48 here I am presuming to talk about the sanctuary
08:51 several times and rings have been written on the
08:54 subject and encyclopedic books and a whole sets of
08:59 books have been written about
09:00 this subject by experts.
09:03 But one wonderful thing about the Bible,
09:05 Jesus whose theology was incredibly deep,
09:11 very deep, was able to be understood by
09:14 boys and girls, the young, the old,
09:17 the highly educated, the ignorant.
09:20 The Bible is one of those books; there is something
09:22 there for every one of us, so not to be intimidated,
09:25 not to be presumptuous. We go back to the Bible
09:29 tonight and study part 2 of our Anchors of Truth
09:35 series on the sanctuary. I'm gonna pray as we
09:37 begin, if you would bow your head with me
09:40 I would be glad, let us pray.
09:43 Our Father in heaven, we thank you that
09:45 we can gather around your word,
09:48 we come to you tonight in the name of Jesus,
09:51 not presumptuously I pray but humbly asking
09:56 that your spirit would guide our spiritual steps.
10:01 And open the eyes of our understanding;
10:05 I pray that you would be merciful to this
10:09 frail, faulty human instrument.
10:13 That in spite of what you have to work with,
10:17 your voice would still be heard and we would still
10:19 see Jesus clearly and beautifully.
10:22 Bless us please to your glory,
10:26 we ask in Jesus name, amen.
10:34 In 1985, an event took place maybe I should say
10:40 a series of events took place that had a very,
10:45 very big effect on these United States.
10:50 It wasn't an election, it wasn't a death,
10:57 it wasn't a sporting event,
11:01 it wasn't an natural disaster.
11:06 The truth of the matter is that many
11:07 people thought it was way more important
11:09 than any of those things.
11:12 I tell you what had been taking place.
11:14 Sometime before that Coca cola had been losing
11:18 market share to Pepsi cola in fact I believe
11:22 I am right and saying that now there was
11:24 more Pepsi cola being sold in supermarkets
11:27 then there was Coca cola. And so the marketing
11:30 geniuses that Coca cola decided that they would
11:32 use their MBA's to good effect and they
11:35 would do something whatever it took to claw
11:38 their way back to first place in the cola wars.
11:42 See their tests reveal that people preferred
11:45 Pepsi because it was a little sweeter than
11:49 Coca cola and so they went to the lab and they
11:53 can concocted something they thought was going
11:57 to have a superior taste to the pretender Pepsi cola.
12:02 And so on a given day what everybody had,
12:06 I shouldn't say everybody, but what
12:07 America had been drinking as their
12:10 Coca cola beverage was pulled from the market
12:13 and new coke was rolled out in its place.
12:19 Now, to begin with sales of new coke were
12:22 good, but over a period of time and when I say
12:26 a period of time I mean a very short period of time.
12:31 Sales of the new coke tanked
12:34 and people were not happy.
12:36 In fact psychologists employed by the
12:39 Coca cola company said that people who called
12:42 Coca cola to talk about the ouster of old coke
12:45 and the introduction of new coke sounded
12:47 just like people who were mourning the
12:50 death of a close friend or a family member.
12:54 People who worked for Coca cola bottling
12:56 plants were reporting that they now had
12:58 friends who wouldn't even talk to them
13:00 anymore, talk show hosts and comedians
13:04 lambasted the new coke. At supporting events
13:08 like baseball games when advertisements
13:10 would appear advertising new coke, fans would boo.
13:13 They were even protests in some parts of the
13:15 United States, in the South, in many
13:18 Southern States people went to the streets and
13:21 they took their cans and their bottles of new
13:23 coke and poured them out in the streets,
13:26 that had to be a sticky mess, poured them out
13:28 in the streets in protests that the Atlanta based
13:32 Coca cola company would dare to do
13:34 something so terrible, as take away their old coke.
13:41 Well, Coca cola announced less then
13:44 three months after the introduction of
13:45 new coke that old coke was coming back,
13:49 that announcement was so important that Peter
13:52 Jennings interrupted ABC's nightly news to
13:55 make the announcement, one senator
13:58 it seems funny now doesn't it?
14:00 Arkansas Senator Pryor,
14:02 David Pryor believe his name was.
14:04 He said and I wrote down what he said,
14:06 he said that, that the reintroduction of old
14:08 coke was a meaningful moment in U.S. history.
14:13 Seventy seven days after being taken off the
14:15 market classic coke was reintroduced and before
14:18 along new coke was a relic of the past.
14:22 The simple fact of the matter was that
14:26 the withdrawal of old coke and the
14:30 introduction of new coke was a
14:33 monumental categorical failure.
14:39 They tried and they got it wrong, they reached
14:43 for the stars and they came up dreadfully
14:47 short, nobody likes to fail.
14:51 And there are millions of ways that we can
14:53 fail, basketball player takes a last minute
14:57 attempt at a game winning shot makes the
14:59 basket and he's a hero, tries the same thing
15:02 tomorrow night he misses
15:03 and he's a goat he failed.
15:08 Yours kids birthday is coming up and you
15:10 gonna make the mother of all birthday cakes
15:11 and it's gonna be great and on the afternoon of
15:14 the birthday party, you take the cake out of the
15:15 oven and there is a big crater where the cake is
15:18 supposed to be rising up like a lovely hill top.
15:22 And you don't feel good about that and you're
15:24 not even sure where to go now, because what
15:26 I'm gonna do replace junior's birthday cake,
15:30 you might have try to fix,
15:31 I'm gonna tell you about this.
15:34 What was it, that's right it was just recently we
15:35 were getting ready move and the dryer packed up.
15:39 Melissa said, the dryer is not working anymore,
15:41 I've had that problem before I can fix it.
15:43 You just, you just turn it back on it will go,
15:46 I had a very sophisticated method of fixing things,
15:48 you just turn it back on it will go.
15:50 Went down dryer I turn it on wasn't going,
15:53 I reached it I turned the little barrel around,
15:55 and I said well maybe something stuck,
15:57 try it again it wasn't going and then I realize
16:00 no doubt a belt around the dryer tumble
16:03 is broken that happens
16:05 after a few years you know.
16:06 And so I said I know what to do,
16:08 I will take the back off the
16:09 dryer and I will fix it up.
16:12 There was something telling me,
16:14 Google how to fix a broken dryer,
16:17 Google that, I said man I don't have time for
16:19 Google right now. And then something,
16:21 someone told me your ought to flip off the
16:24 power, before you mess around
16:26 the back of the appliance.
16:28 I said I am only taking off the back,
16:29 I am not gonna mess with anything,
16:31 it was later on I found out that if you wanna
16:33 fix the thing you take the top up, not the back off.
16:37 I found that out too late, I took the back off
16:39 I said there I looked I said well how in the
16:41 world, well I get to the what do you call I think
16:44 the belt I didn't know. So I had to take this
16:48 thing off, Google and in this ear unplug it,
16:55 Google, un, I said I don't have time for that.
16:58 And next minute there was, and there was a
17:00 spark and there was pop. Thankfully I didn't pop,
17:04 and the light that was shinning inside the
17:07 dryer went up and I had to go back upstairs with
17:11 my tail between my legs and announced to
17:14 my wife that heroic, wise all-knowing,
17:20 all fixing husband had failed.
17:25 And it was a spectacular failed,
17:27 a failure, at least I wasn't dead.
17:33 You know, other ways you can fail,
17:34 you can fail to find the perfect anniversary gift,
17:37 you can fail to remember your anniversary,
17:39 I wouldn't recommend that, that's not good,
17:41 you can fail an exam, you can fail just to get
17:45 everything done on a given day that you
17:46 wanna get done. A failure doesn't feel
17:49 good, nobody likes to fail, nobody wants to
17:53 fail, its not good, but the failures I'm talking
17:57 about, belts can be replaced you know what?
18:00 I Googled how to replace a belt,
18:04 then I called a place do you have a belt for this
18:07 model, I got the belt and did in twenty minutes
18:13 what had ended up costing me a couple
18:16 of weeks into the movement all of that.
18:19 But those things really inconsequential,
18:21 you can get over not being able to get a stain
18:26 out of your children's clothing.
18:27 You can get over that, but the failures that
18:30 really eat at you, that really nor at you,
18:33 really the ones that matter
18:34 most are spiritual failures.
18:38 What do you do at the end of the day when
18:41 you realize that you have failed spiritually
18:44 or you might think you are a failure spiritually.
18:52 Now, the truth of the matter is the word of
18:53 God says that we have all failed spiritually,
18:56 all of us, that's me, that's you, that's Mother
18:59 Theresa, that's the Pop, that's the General
19:02 Conference President, all, because I read in the
19:04 Bible that all have sinned, and come short
19:09 of the glory of God. It's an ugly reality
19:12 of our spiritual lives, but it's a reality
19:15 nonetheless, all have sinned and that's not
19:19 such a good thing. Because as we talked
19:21 about last night, sin separates between
19:24 us and God and the wages of sin is what?
19:27 Its death, the wages of sin is death.
19:32 We failed spiritually, and nobody feels
19:35 good about that. Do you know you lose
19:38 your temper with the kids?
19:39 Now, of course I wouldn't do that
19:40 but I mean you might lose your temper with
19:42 the kids and you say something you know
19:45 you shouldn't say, you manifest an angry spirit
19:48 like you know you should manifest and for
19:51 a brief moment you feel it's almost accelerating
19:54 because that's what anger is like you know
19:56 and then, and then you go away saying oh!
19:59 How could I do that, how could I speak to
20:00 my spouse, so unkindly? How could I slam the
20:05 door on the way out of my, my employee's
20:08 office and leave the office in a huff.
20:11 How could I, how could I do those things?
20:13 How could I, now that's a bad feeling,
20:16 a bad feeling? Every so often we feel
20:19 wrong spiritually and there was a tendency,
20:20 it's not a total bad tendency because a
20:24 little guilt will take you a long way.
20:28 But you can feel like a spiritual failure,
20:31 no one likes that, nobody.
20:35 Well, I have good news for you,
20:37 and that is that God has a remedy, a sure fire,
20:43 fail safe, full proof remedy for our spiritual
20:49 failings, and that's good news.
20:53 Last time we begin our Anchors of Truth
20:57 study series on the subject of the sanctuary
21:00 sanctuary reality, we discover there really is
21:07 a real sanctuary in a real heaven.
21:11 A real God is there and His very real Son,
21:15 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is there in
21:19 heaven's sanctuary, it's a glorious structure,
21:23 no earthly structure could ever come close
21:25 to representing it's vastness, it's majesty
21:29 and it's glory. Revelation talks about it,
21:32 the book of Hebrews is all over it of course
21:34 because Paul is writing to the very believers
21:38 who have a temple in their very midst.
21:41 Christ, our High Priest does minister for us,
21:46 real people, real sinners, in a real sanctuary
21:50 ministering the real benefits of His very real
21:53 sacrifice for us. Now, this time around
21:56 we're calling our presentation the
21:58 presentation the sanctuary spirituality
22:01 it's one thing to know that there is a sanctuary,
22:03 but how does that effect our lives spiritually,
22:06 we talked last time about having an
22:08 High Priest praise the Lord.
22:10 There's a spiritual reality, but what is it
22:14 about the sanctuary or what about the
22:17 sanctuary it takes us deeper into the mind
22:19 and into the heart of God, it gives us deeper
22:22 insights into the plan of salvation and God's
22:25 working for us and his grace for us
22:27 and his goodness to us. Now, first let's remember
22:31 some things its good nail some things down
22:33 and have them establish,
22:35 the Bible says that God is what?
22:39 Love, John wrote that in First John and he was
22:42 so impressed by that idea he repeated it
22:45 8 verses later in First John 4 and verse 16.
22:49 God is love Peter said that God is not willing
22:53 that any should perish but that
22:56 all should come to what?
22:59 Repentance, that's God's desire for us,
23:01 it's not to say that everybody will come to
23:03 repentance but if God had it His way or if God
23:08 had what He really wanted His will would
23:11 be that everybody would choose to come
23:14 to repentance. Now, remember this
23:16 verse, Matthew 1 and verse 21:
23:18 Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
23:20 For he shall do what? Save His people from what?
23:24 Alright now that's a reality you understand,
23:27 when Adam and Eve sinned what was it that
23:29 God do, let's remember that God is love it will
23:31 help us understand the sanctuary.
23:34 What did God do when Adam and Eve sinned?
23:36 The Bible says that God came down to the
23:39 Garden of Eden, now I don't know if you've
23:43 ever had maybe the noisy kids playing in
23:46 your front yard, you went out to see them
23:47 alright, you run them off. Amen.
23:50 The God had some noisy kids playing in
23:52 His front yard they had sinned,
23:54 God came down to the Garden of Eden to see
23:57 Adam and Eve and when He did He was
23:59 not coming down to run them off.
24:02 He was not coming down to read them
24:04 the right act, God was not coming down so He
24:06 could look at them sternly, to rebuke them
24:09 sharply, turn His back on them and walk away.
24:12 The Bible says that when God came down
24:14 to the Garden of Eden He called out to Adam,
24:16 He said Adam, where are you?
24:20 Which is a curious thing for God to say?
24:24 God who created the universe,
24:27 God whom the Bible says the heaven of
24:30 heavens cannot contain, God came down to a
24:33 garden can't have been the biggest garden in
24:35 the universe I would have thought.
24:36 And He said Adam, where are you?
24:38 As though he had lost him?
24:39 No, God had not lost him. God wasn't saying
24:42 Adam, where are you geographically,
24:44 God was saying Adam where are you spiritually?
24:48 Adam where is your heart, I have come
24:50 down here to do something about the
24:52 separation between me and you.
24:54 God is love, He could have nuked Adam and
24:58 Eve the moment they had their first crooked
25:02 thought, but He didn't and when sin had
25:05 happened God came down here seeking the sinners.
25:09 As they draw them back to His heart of love,
25:11 I say praise the Lord. Amen. That's the God
25:15 we serve, let me make a statement in the hope
25:18 that you will understand it, in the way I wish for
25:20 it to be understood. Our problem isn't sin,
25:24 now we could have a whole series of sermons
25:26 pointing out that the problem is sin.
25:28 But let me make my point our problem isn't
25:31 sin, God has got a remedy for that,
25:36 just take a look at Calvary that will show
25:39 you that when it comes to sin God has done
25:42 everything necessary, everything imaginable,
25:48 everything possible to get us back
25:51 over the hump of sin. No sin's not our
25:54 problem, now I mean I'm not recommending
25:57 sin by the way don't think for a second that
25:59 I am saying sin's not a problem,
26:01 massive problem. My suggestion tonight
26:04 is that sin is not The problem,
26:06 I want you to think about a sinner his name
26:08 we don't know, but he's referred too in the Bible
26:10 as the prodigal son. The prodigal son said to
26:14 his dad it's time for me to go, I would like my
26:16 share of the farm one third,
26:19 wait was he the older brother
26:20 or the younger brother?
26:22 Alright, one third because the older
26:24 brother would have taken double portion,
26:26 give me my share of the farm dad I am out of here,
26:28 and the boy takes a bag full of money and goes
26:32 to a far country and squanders it,
26:35 just like he went the Vegas and run around
26:37 in limousines and went to the fancy casinos.
26:40 Now, there is a oxymoron for you,
26:42 and a fancy night clubs that was another one
26:44 and he blow it all and he made a fool of himself.
26:48 While he was sitting in the mud of the pigs
26:50 stall, he said in his heart, man what an idiot
26:53 I've been, I got to go back to dad,
26:55 but I'm gonna go back and I will say dad if you
26:57 would take me back as a slave,
26:59 that's what I'm asking for.
27:01 And so he's going back home somehow dad
27:04 sees him coming from a great way off, dad said,
27:07 man, my son is back he leaps the fence and runs
27:11 up the road to meet the boy what would you
27:12 thought you were the boy.
27:16 He is dad, well that's not what God was
27:19 thinking, the dad runs up to the boy he hugs
27:24 and he kisses him and he says come on now,
27:26 let's kill the fatted calf and get a new robe on
27:28 you and that signet ring that that
27:30 shows that you have authority.
27:32 You know that's the only place in the Bible
27:34 at least that I am aware off that shows God
27:36 running, you know that the dad represents God
27:40 we know that. And here the dad representing
27:43 God runs, the only time in the Bible God runs
27:47 what he is running to do? He's running towards
27:50 the sinner not to chase the sinner away,
27:53 but to grab hold of the sinner and draw him
27:55 back to God's great heart of love,
27:57 that's the God we serve friends. Amen.
27:59 The Bible says that God is love,
28:02 no sin is not the problem, the problem is
28:05 our unwillingness to come to God,
28:07 so that He can do something about the sin problem.
28:11 You understand what I mean, right I don't
28:12 want to leave the wrong impression on you here.
28:14 It's the not the sin, sin is a reality now a man
28:17 we've all sinned let's get over that.
28:20 Now, let's deal with the solution,
28:22 the solution run to God, here is my heart Lord,
28:25 you've got to do something about it.
28:28 And when you pray a prayer like that
28:30 you know that God is gonna do something
28:31 about it, God wishes for us to run to Him.
28:35 So, that he can clean us up and make us whole.
28:37 The word of God says in Psalms 77 and verse 13:
28:41 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary,
28:45 who is so greater God as our God remember
28:48 the big picture. God creates a world,
28:51 populates it with two people very happy,
28:54 very holy people, Adam and Eve his wife.
28:58 And then inexplicably there is no,
29:00 there is no excuse for it, there is no real
29:05 satisfactory explanation for it,
29:07 Adam and Eve fell into sin.
29:09 Sin separated between God and Adam and Eve
29:13 that was terrible but God had thought of
29:17 that ahead of time. Because we know that
29:18 as soon as there was sin, there was a savior.
29:22 But God now could not dwell in
29:24 the midst of his people. He was unable to do
29:27 that as he once did, his great grand holy
29:31 presence would be just too much for sinful
29:34 human beings to bear. God had a plan then,
29:38 after his people were free from Egyptian
29:39 slavery He said to Moses: And let them
29:42 make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
29:44 As a matter of fact, I'm gonna read you a
29:46 couple of verses here from Exodus chapter
29:48 25, Exodus and chapter 25 verse 1:
29:53 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
29:55 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they will
29:57 bring me an offering: of every man that gives
30:00 willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.
30:03 And you know they did go to the place Moses
30:05 said enough don't bring anymore wouldn't that
30:07 be great, next time there's a church
30:09 building project, building many he had to
30:12 say, don't bring anymore money
30:13 we had enough, what a privilege they consider
30:17 it to be, to support the building of the
30:20 sanctuary of God. And it is a privilege
30:23 to support God's word can you say amen?
30:24 Amen. There is no question about it,
30:26 alright verse 8: Let them make me a
30:28 sanctuary, that I may dwell among them,
30:30 verse 9: According to all that I show you,
30:33 after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the
30:34 pattern of all the instruments thereof,
30:37 even so shall you make it. Moses have me make
30:40 a sanctuary I want to dwell in the midst of
30:43 my people and he did, God's visible presence
30:46 was there, the Shekinah glory was manifest there.
30:49 It filled the sanctuary to overflowing,
30:52 God wanted to dwell in the midst of His people.
30:57 Another reason for having the sanctuary
30:59 it would be a teaching tool, it would be to
31:02 reveal to the people what God was really
31:04 like hundreds of years now, and they've been
31:06 dwelling in the midst of, of abject hedonism.
31:10 And they may have come out, there were
31:11 some strange ideas is to what God was really like,
31:14 God wanted to show them what he was like,
31:17 what he would do for them in the present and
31:19 what he would do for them in the future.
31:21 He also wanted them to understand and future
31:24 generations to understand that one day
31:27 a Messiah would come; he would deal with the
31:30 problem of sin. And usher in a forever
31:34 with no sin and no curse. Stephen Haskell book
31:39 The Cross and It's Shadow, called the
31:41 Sanctuary the most wonderful object lesson
31:44 ever given to mankind that's what he called it.
31:49 So, God was gonna help them understand what
31:50 the plan of salvation was all about,
31:52 what is mercy and graceful like?
31:54 What his unfailing love was all about?
31:57 The people surrounded by darkness,
31:59 we're gonna see a great light and light would
32:02 shine out of the sanctuary and so they
32:04 build a sanctuary a dwelling place for God,
32:07 a beautiful two room structure.
32:09 First room holy place, second room most holy
32:11 place it was grand, inside there the walls
32:15 were lined with Gold there
32:17 were fabulous rich curtains,
32:20 some of them had angels embroiled on there.
32:23 God was telling them the angels look on and
32:26 the angels are part of the plan of salvation,
32:29 I will send you hope that half of the time
32:32 not hope, help. I will send you and hope,
32:34 I'll send you hope, and I'll send you help
32:38 that half of the time you won't even know who's
32:40 there, you thought you got lucky crossing the
32:44 street and you didn't get hit by that bus.
32:46 Wait a minute I had an angel run up there and
32:48 slow it down, God said there are gonna be
32:51 angels helping you through all of this.
32:54 God had the roof made out of four different
32:56 cloths or skins inside the sanctuary varying
33:00 items of furniture. Now, that first room
33:04 I mentioned was a room called the holy place
33:06 and what was inside there, inside the holy
33:09 place was the table of Shewbread on the
33:11 North side and the seven branch
33:14 candlestick lamp-stand on the South side and
33:17 straight your head was the altar of incense.
33:22 Now, these were wonderful pieces of
33:24 furniture, but even in the furniture God
33:28 poured meaning and blessing and representation
33:33 and lessons and opportunity for learning.
33:38 The table of Shewbread, now that was a meal
33:42 offering to the Lord. I wrote down what
33:45 M.L. Andreasen said about it,
33:47 he said it was an ever- present testimony that
33:50 Israel was dependent upon God for sustenance,
33:54 and a constant promise from God that
33:57 He would sustain them. The bread of the
34:01 presence is symbolic of the one who ever lives
34:03 to make intersection for us, Jesus said,
34:07 I am the bread of life, He was the living bread
34:12 who came down from heaven, that Shewbread
34:16 represented Jesus and further than that.
34:21 Remember what Jesus said in John 6 and verse
34:23 33, no John 6 and verse 63, He said the flesh
34:27 profits nothing, He said the words that I speak
34:31 to you they are spirit and they are life.
34:36 So the bread in the sanctuary takes us in
34:40 our thoughts to Jesus, the bread of life and to
34:44 His word which for us is truly bread.
34:49 Matthew 4 and verse 4: Jesus said, it is written;
34:54 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by what?
34:58 By every word that proceeds from the mouth,
35:00 of the mouth of God." That bread inside
35:03 the sanctuary reminds us and reminded them,
35:06 that just like we are dependent upon food
35:11 to live physically, we are absolutely
35:16 completely totally 100 percent dependent upon
35:20 God's word to exist and to live spiritually.
35:26 We can't survive without the word of God,
35:32 what did Jeremiah write: Thy words were found,
35:36 and I did eat them. In Revelation chapter 10,
35:40 a chapter that is, that is, can I say,
35:43 I think I can, a chapter that is pregnant
35:45 with meaningful believers today?
35:49 Daniel took a little book, it wasn't Daniel,
35:54 John took a little book but it was Daniel's book
35:57 and he ate it and it was sweet in his mouth,
36:02 bitter in his belly. God's word is like food for us
36:07 today and so friend if we're not reading,
36:10 if we're not opening the Bible, if we're not doing
36:13 more than just glazing over the surface,
36:16 grazing at the surface. We are not growing and
36:19 benefiting spiritually like God wants us to,
36:23 now keep something in mind when you come to
36:24 the Bible and you think about us being bread.
36:28 You know that there was bread and then
36:31 there is bread you knew that right.
36:34 Not a bread you make at home with the whole
36:37 wheat and maybe you get extra fancy and you
36:41 make it out of little sprouts
36:43 or something like that. Oh! That's good
36:45 now there is, there is some substance to that.
36:48 If you drop that I mean you get your foot out of
36:50 the way I mean there is something in there.
36:54 I'm not talking about the real bad bread that,
36:56 that healthy bread that really taste super
36:59 healthy, I don't mean that. But I mean that good,
37:02 good bread there's some substance to it right,
37:04 there is something in it, but long ago somebody
37:07 got a bright idea. If we take a grain of
37:10 wheat and take out everything that's good
37:15 and then make bread out of the fluff that's
37:18 left, maybe we'll sell and sell it did like,
37:23 that stuff I mean if you put on your plate,
37:26 if you don't put enough peanut butter on it,
37:29 it will levitate right up off the plate,
37:30 how many of you have ever seen that.
37:32 It will levitate, right up you see there is bread
37:38 and bread someone said is not an original thought.
37:41 But somebody said, there is some bread you
37:44 would get more nutritional benefit if
37:46 you threw the bread out and ate the wrapper that
37:48 the bread came in. You know what I'm
37:50 talking about, if you just had a diet of just
37:55 that white bread no whole wheat in there,
38:00 if that's all you have you would ended up
38:04 probably sick, end up unwell.
38:06 Little bit of that, that's okay but that's what you
38:09 majored in, you wouldn't do well.
38:12 If got to get some refuge into your diet,
38:18 isn't that right? You've got to get
38:21 when we come to the Bible there is a
38:24 tendency for some people to have a white
38:26 bread religion and they graze through the Bible
38:31 like, a buffet, you know buffet is great.
38:34 When you were a child your mother said
38:36 eat that and eat that and eat that and so.
38:40 My brother, I never did tell you this did I,
38:43 my brother I didn't go back even further
38:47 my mother had a, had a way of cooking cabbage
38:51 when I was a child and she would put in the pot
38:55 and, and murder the cabbage,
38:59 torture the cabbage, when it came out it was,
39:02 it was, it was white and it was nasty.
39:07 And she would say now eat that cabbage
39:09 and there were times that we just,
39:11 we would sit there till 8 O'clock at night looking
39:14 at the cabbage, being a good boy I would eat
39:18 the cabbage, my brother would take the plate
39:20 over to the trash can. And he would now this
39:23 is an education for any child wanting to sneak
39:27 around behind the parents back and he
39:29 would lift up the trash and the trash can put his
39:32 cabbage in there and then covered it back up
39:33 and say I have done because my father
39:35 would go look in the trash can.
39:37 Well, where I was going with this,
39:41 the cabbage would be cooked to death.
39:43 There was a reason I was telling you this
39:45 and a very good reason, the Lord might even
39:48 help me remember what the reason was.
39:55 You got to get some refuge in your diet,
39:58 you had to eat the cabbage but when you
40:00 went to buffet when you were older you saw.
40:02 I don't know if anyone put boiled cabbage on
40:04 the buffet, but you saw some of that and said
40:05 I am not eating that my mother
40:07 is not here to make me.
40:10 Some people do that with the Bible,
40:12 they skip through the Bible and they say
40:14 well I take a little loaf, I think little graze,
40:17 a little of the gospel of John and I kind of like a
40:20 proverbs, some of them I like the Psalms
40:23 that's my Bible. That's no way to take
40:27 the word of God is it? God gave it all for us
40:30 it all good, it's all in our favor, sometimes it will
40:34 rub your further wrong way, sometimes it will
40:37 step on yours toes. But that's okay if it's
40:41 the word of God we need it and we need it
40:45 all, every time I turn around today,
40:47 I am hearing about somebody down on the
40:49 word of God I just read today about a popular
40:52 young evangelical pastor who has got
40:55 tongues wagging in the evangelical world.
40:58 By writing a book in which he suggests that
41:01 there might possibly be no hell and that maybe
41:04 at the end of the day everybody is gonna saved.
41:09 Now, where in the world are you coming
41:12 from with an idea like that, you've got a want
41:16 to reject parts of the Bible in order to write
41:19 something like that? Somebody told me
41:21 recently that his pastor, pastor of a great big
41:23 church made it clear. Oh no, no there were never
41:27 come a time when anyone of God's people
41:30 could possibly give up sinning
41:32 and give up disobeying God.
41:34 By the way if you think like that it certainly
41:39 won't happen but if that would true what are we
41:41 gonna do with Revelation chapter 14
41:43 and verse 12: Here are they that keep the
41:46 commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
41:50 I know there is always room for honest
41:53 disagreement among people who look at a
41:55 verse, you're looking at from this angle and
41:57 I am looking at from that angle and because
41:59 we are different. And we are in different
42:01 places we don't see everything alike,
42:03 there is room for honest disagreement but
42:05 friends there is no room for rejecting the word
42:08 of God, taking what you like
42:11 rejecting what you are don't.
42:13 We are to live by every word that proceeds
42:16 from out of the mouth of God, could you say amen?
42:18 Amen. Well, I thank God for that, that bread
42:20 was there to remind people that Christ the
42:22 Messiah was the bread of life it was made by
42:25 flour that had been beaten down Jesus had
42:28 been bruised or would be bruised for our iniquity
42:31 and there is something I like about this.
42:34 The bread was in there every day of the week,
42:37 but they were two little piles of six loafs twelve
42:41 in each and they replaced the old bread
42:44 with fresh bread you know what other day of
42:47 the week they did that on, on the Sabbath,
42:50 which says to me that if God's people want fresh
42:53 bread they ought to get themselves down to the
42:56 sanctuary on the Sabbath day.
42:59 So, it's also a challenge to the preachers,
43:01 the preachers in the sanctuary on the
43:03 Sabbath ought to be serving up fresh bread
43:05 for the people of God. That's true we've got to
43:08 remember that, now there was a Lamp-stand
43:11 in the sanctuary, the table of Shewbread told
43:13 us about Jesus, the bread of life.
43:18 Jesus essential for our daily lives,
43:21 Jesus essential for our spiritual well being then
43:25 the Lamp-stand, made from beaten gold,
43:28 interesting each branch of the seven branch
43:32 candlestick had beautiful ornaments
43:34 carved on to it or designed into it on each
43:37 of those seven branches there were almonds
43:39 which is fascinating that God
43:41 chose to put almonds there.
43:44 What do they called, what do they called the
43:45 almond tree back in Jewish days now I write
43:49 it down here I think I did yes the awakener,
43:53 the awakener. I have driven through
43:54 California in the early, early before is this right
43:58 before spring or early spring?
44:00 Early in the session and everything else was
44:03 dead as anything. And there these beautiful
44:05 trees covered in white blossoms.
44:08 The almond tree is the awakener;
44:11 it's the first one back from the dead,
44:14 if you like at points that Jesus the
44:17 first born of the dead. Now, the first fruits of
44:19 them that sleep in the grave, the almond tree,
44:24 the almonds on the seven branch
44:25 candlestick speak about Jesus the one who is the
44:29 resurrection and the life. And that candlestick
44:32 was in the sanctuary for a reason,
44:34 it was there to defuse light.
44:38 And what is Jesus? He is the light of the world
44:42 and then Jesus said you are the light of the world.
44:48 Now, how in the world can we
44:49 be the light of the world.
44:51 When Jesus is the light of the world,
44:53 Colossians 1 and verse 27 tells us about the
44:55 mystery of the gospel, it is Christ in you the
44:59 hope of glory. When Christ gets in you
45:03 He shines out of you when my boy was little
45:06 and it was just getting on a solid fruits first he
45:09 give that little what is that the little corn or
45:11 wheat or something around that, instead of
45:13 cereal you give him. Now then when he was
45:15 getting bigger and more adventures,
45:18 we discovered that he likes sweet potato,
45:20 the more he like more we gave hi, the more
45:22 we gave him, the more he like it until there was
45:24 this incredible transformation,
45:25 his nose turned orange and, and really his
45:28 whole face not his whole face but his
45:30 whole face was orange. The sweet potato got in
45:34 and the sweet potato was shinning out,
45:37 it was making a difference when Jesus
45:39 gets in to you and me, he is gonna shine out,
45:43 we won't be what we used to be.
45:45 Christ changes us powerfully and now
45:48 with Christ in us Jesus can save us you are the
45:52 light of the world, thank the Lord for that.
45:56 Now, keep in mind Jesus wants us to be
45:58 light, the light makes a difference if we turned
46:03 the lights up where would we be.
46:06 We will be in the dark, turned the lights on,
46:08 what happens to the darkness?
46:11 It just runs away, the darkness flees,
46:14 light scatters before the light of the morning
46:17 sunrise you understand. Now, Jesus said I want
46:21 you to make a difference in this world.
46:23 Now we are to be light but you know that light
46:25 is simply a form of energy.
46:28 Electromagnetic energy.
46:30 It's energy that people can see.
46:33 Now I believe that when the energy of
46:35 Jesus gets into us. He wants us to make
46:39 a difference, so I will not just light but also
46:43 salt, salt is tasty, makes a
46:47 difference when you add salt.
46:49 Salt can't be present without making
46:52 a difference that's just what it's like.
46:54 Now, I'm gonna tell you what God is saying go
46:56 and be what my persuasion leads me
47:00 to what saying is that, what God is saying
47:02 here's what I will do in your life.
47:07 Now, in His book The Apocalyptic Vision
47:09 and the Neutering of Adventism,
47:11 George Knight talked about people who were
47:14 guilty of committing the sin of Bible study.
47:19 Now, I'm faithfully reproducing what he is
47:21 said and I may just mangle it a little bit but
47:24 he is hopping I get it right.
47:26 He said the sin of Bible study as when people
47:28 study and study and study and study the
47:30 Bible, but that's it instead of putting that
47:33 in use and sharing that with others and going
47:36 and showing and sharing Christ with the
47:37 world, they just study and it's
47:39 like you know, it's like a kind of
47:41 spiritual gluttony, spiritual obesity.
47:45 Jesus wants to come into our lives so that
47:47 He can get out of our lives, somebody writing
47:49 in the Review and Herald long time ago
47:52 said, there is a constant tendency among the
47:56 trees of the Lord to be more
48:00 profuse in foliage then in fruit.
48:03 When Christ gets into the life fruit will be
48:05 there, the fruit of the spirit must be where
48:08 Christ Holy Spirit is and we can go and bear
48:10 fruit for God's glory by His grace.
48:15 You see what God is doing, he's saying to the
48:17 sinner come to the sanctuary.
48:19 Now that sinner would make the walk of shame
48:21 from the camp of Israel out there, a cross that
48:23 open space and inside into the courtyard of the
48:26 sanctuary complex. And there was walk of
48:29 shame because his neighbors were saying
48:31 ooh ooh guess who's being up the something
48:35 and of course it was gonna cost
48:36 his family something. Maybe they priced
48:39 lamb, maybe even a pet lamb, cost them some
48:43 money, cost them some shame and he might
48:45 even be embarrassed. But God was saying
48:49 when you come down here and the lamb dies
48:51 there is a way back to the throne room for you.
48:54 There is a way back to my heart, there's a way
48:57 back to oneness with me you know we call
49:01 the last day, the Hebrew here the Day of
49:03 Atonement, the Day of Atonement.
49:05 The sanctuary was designed so that a
49:07 rotten, weak, lazy, wretched, sinner could
49:12 through the mercy and the grace of God be
49:15 connected with God and made to be at one with
49:19 God in spite of his or her failings.
49:23 The alter of incense, it was called the altar of
49:25 continual and decision, it represented the
49:28 prayers of God's people ascending
49:30 continually, continually.
49:32 Oh! I need to say, the altar of
49:36 the seven branch candlestick was fed by
49:38 olive oil, that's a symbol of the Holy Spirit
49:41 we'll only be bright for the Lord when the
49:43 Holy Spirit comes into our lives what the Jesus
49:46 say he will give the Holy Spirit to us when
49:49 we ask for the Holy Spirit.
49:51 Now, let me jump over here again, that altar of
49:55 incense the prayer is going, now Paul said what?
49:57 Pray without ceasing, I got to tell you I know
50:00 its busy, life is busy you have a late night,
50:03 early morning you jump out of the bed
50:06 we will talk later and that could happen days
50:10 all in, if you led it and you can get out of the
50:12 grove and pray can become a hit and midst thing.
50:16 Someone said to me recently God bless him,
50:18 he said you know in the morning well I take like
50:20 five minutes to pray, brother, five minutes,
50:24 I am barely done saying hello to
50:26 God after five minutes. You got to take time
50:29 to pray, pray without ceasing, no don't live on
50:32 your knees but spiritually keep the
50:34 communication open between us and God.
50:37 God says in the sanctuary, there's bread,
50:43 Christ, there is the seven branch
50:47 candlestick Christ, there's the prayers of
50:51 God's people going up. The spirit of God
50:53 intercedes for us with groaning which cannot
50:56 be uttered, this sanctuary is about what
50:59 God will do in the life of an individual to bring
51:02 her, to bring him back to oneness with God,
51:05 we'll talk more about the most holy place
51:07 another time. But if you get in there, there is the
51:10 Ten Commandments you stand before the
51:12 Ten Commandments and look at them and
51:14 you will see that you have broken them,
51:17 that you have sinned, that you are guilty
51:20 before God, but thank the Lord on top of the
51:23 Ark of the Covenant was something called
51:26 the mercy seat. So, when you come
51:29 face to face with your sinfulness and your sin
51:32 and you're failing, look up just a little bit and
51:36 see mercy attached to law.
51:41 The Bible says right mercy and truth have
51:43 met together righteousness
51:45 and peace has kissed each other,
51:48 you've got to love that verse.
51:50 And you see that absolutely happening in
51:52 the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary,
51:55 who is, who is the stern God?
51:58 Who is the God of Malice and vindictiveness?
52:02 I don't know that God, I got to tell you I knew
52:05 them once, but then I started reading the
52:08 Bible, then I discovered God ways in the
52:11 sanctuary and then in the sanctuary God
52:13 would reveal himself as a kind God, as a now a
52:17 just God, sure a just God. If at the end of the
52:21 day I say thanks but no thanks God will say
52:23 well you know that's up to you.
52:26 Might say that with a tear in his eye,
52:29 but that would be up to us.
52:31 You read in the sanctuary about a God
52:33 who bids us come the sanctuary shows yeah,
52:37 God is good and God is merciful,
52:40 you ought to read Psalm 136 sometime soon,
52:44 26 times it says his mercy endures forever.
52:52 Twenty six times the Lord is merciful and
52:57 gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy.
53:00 David wrote, David was somebody who
53:02 understand a person's need for mercy.
53:06 Hebrews 9 verse 24 Jesus is in heaven,
53:11 appearing in the presence of God for us,
53:18 Hebrews 7 and verse 25 Jesus ever lives to make
53:21 intersection for us, yes God wants
53:27 to sanctify His church. He says He will have a
53:31 church without spot or wrinkle or any such
53:35 thing, I've read the end of the story.
53:37 They can read the end of the story and various
53:39 parts of the story, but if you read in Song of
53:42 Solomon 6 and verse 10: the Bible write us
53:44 says: "Who is this that looks forth as the
53:46 morning, clear as the moon, fair as the Sun
53:51 and terrible as an army with banners."
53:55 He is talking about His church, he's faulty,
54:00 feeble, frail church made new because they
54:05 have met the God of the sanctuary.
54:09 What are you gonna do about
54:10 your spiritual failings? Thomas Edison said,
54:15 "Many of life's failures are people who do not
54:17 realize how close they were to
54:18 success when they gave up."
54:23 That might be that like that spiritually for some
54:26 of us, you wanna throw in the towel but wait a,
54:29 wait a second, wait a second, you might be
54:33 on the verge of spiritual breakthrough the lights
54:35 might come on. We might learn what
54:36 faith is, we might yield fully to God
54:42 without place for giving up Edison said,
54:44 I haven't failed, I just found
54:46 ten thousands ways that work.
54:49 I might have found ten thousand ways that
54:50 don't work for me spiritually.
54:52 But I found a way that works tonight,
54:55 God's way in the sanctuary it works.
54:58 Faith in this great God, someone said mishaps
55:02 are like knives, they can either serve us or cut us,
55:05 depends if we grab the blade or the handle.
55:08 When the spiritual failing comes along
55:09 as somebody once wrote, we can by the grace of
55:13 God turn our defeat into victory,
55:19 man who worked five year and made a
55:21 mistake cost his company $10 millions.
55:23 He went to the boss he said I quit boss said,
55:25 you can't quit we just spend $10 millions
55:27 on your education, we spend too much money
55:30 on you for you to quit. Michael Jordan got
55:33 kicked off or cut from his high school
55:35 basketball team. Did you ever hear of
55:38 company called Traf O Data; it was a failure,
55:42 man it was a, it was a terrible company?
55:46 It was the company Bill Gates began
55:48 not long before he began Microsoft.
55:51 And then somebody saying I lost my temp
55:52 again, I went and looked at something
55:54 I shouldn't have looked at again.
55:55 I am not playing with that that's a serious
55:57 business, but if you will get inside that sanctuary
56:00 with Jesus if you will look to God
56:03 have faith in God, God will do great,
56:05 great, great, great things.
56:07 The sanctuary shows us. God separates us
56:10 from our sin and reunite us with his heart of love.
56:15 I heard a radio interview when I was
56:17 living in Lexington, Kentucky with a fellow
56:19 name John Bishop, he had amnesia, and he
56:21 had a real amnesia. He had, had aseptic
56:25 meningitis, comatose for seven days,
56:29 when it came to he couldn't remember
56:30 anything, nothing. Didn't know how to walk,
56:35 he couldn't talk, he didn't remember
56:38 who his wife was, even to this day old
56:42 photographs don't help him.
56:43 He said that his wife even had teaching
56:45 how to kiss again. He said that part was
56:47 okay but the rest he didn't like, it wasn't any good.
56:53 You know what he said? He said this man is our
56:56 pastor, now an evangelist he said that,
56:59 that learning over this again was like being reborn.
57:05 Now friend, you can come to God with all of
57:06 your lack of capacity, all your faults, all your
57:11 failings, all your mess, you know what God
57:13 would do, he will take, he hold you close,
57:16 he will clean you up and you'll be able to say
57:19 you know what? Through the grace of
57:21 Jesus, I have been reborn and we
57:25 praise God tonight for giving us that great
57:26 object lesson, the sanctuary.


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Revised 2014-12-17