Participants: Ivor Myers, Atonte Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000026
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00:14 Welcome to Battles of Faith. We're your hosts, Ivor
00:17 and Atonte Myers. Today we're going to continue 00:21 our discussion on, basically, how to have power, 00:24 how to defeat Satan. This is a battle, once again, 00:27 we're learning more about how to fight. 00:30 Today this program is entitled "The science of the tamid", 00:35 and you're probably wondering "We always hear the weirdest" 00:37 "topics on Battles of Faith. ", the names are little strange, 00:41 but the information is very powerful. So again, you're 00:44 going to want to grab your Bible, pen and paper 00:46 and join us as we study this interesting topic about 00:51 - the tamid. - That's right, our subject 00:53 today is entitled "The science of the tamid", and there are 00:57 some out there who have heard that word before; a lot 01:00 of controversy over that word in some circles, and there's 01:04 some who have never heard the word before. 01:07 We want to take a look at where this word, 01:10 this word is actually a Hebrew word, but where this word 01:14 is actually found in the Bible. We're going to go ahead 01:17 and go to the book of Daniel. Daniel 8, and the context 01:21 of Daniel 8 is a conflict that is going on between the powers 01:29 of darkness and the powers of heaven. 01:35 We read of this little horn in Daniel 8, who's doing some 01:39 really anti-God things, and in Daniel 8:11, speaking of this 01:46 little horn, in fact, we can read verse 10, it says: 01:51 [text on screen] 02:11 A couple of things, first of all, you'll notice that the word 02:15 "sacrifice" here is italicized, which means that it's not 02:18 in the original writing, it simply says the daily, 02:20 by this little horn power, the daily was to be taken away. 02:27 We want to take a look at this verse and understand its 02:30 significance for us today, especially young people, 02:35 and especially in the light of what we are facing today 02:40 as young people, and even older people, facing the very 02:44 same issues, but we want to take a look at this. 02:47 And notice again in verse 10 that this little horn, 02:50 the description of it sounds a lot like some of the things 02:53 that are described of the Devil in Revelation 12: 02:56 it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; cast down some 02:59 of the host, and of the stars to the ground and stamped 03:02 upon them. In Revelation 12 we read 03:04 the description of Satan, who cast a third of the stars down 03:08 from heaven. Now this verse, in it's primary 03:12 sense is speaking about the Antichrist, but we're going 03:16 to look behind this Antichrist and deal with the power behind 03:21 the Antichrist, which is the Devil. It is the Devil 03:24 who ultimately cast down God's people, and that's what it means 03:28 here in this context, "the host". It is the Devil 03:30 that ultimately cast down God's people to the ground, 03:33 and it is the Devil that ultimately wants to take 03:36 away the daily. So we're going to take a look 03:40 at some other places in Scripture. By the way, 03:43 this word "daily" is the word in the Hebrew "the tamid". 03:48 So the Devil wants to take away "the tamid". 03:54 We're going to take a look at a couple of verses in 03:57 the Old Testament, it's going to open up to us right away 03:59 what this "tamid" is, and why the Devil wants to take 04:03 it away so badly. So let's take a look at the book 04:07 of Exodus, your mind may automatically go to 04:12 the sanctuary service, the sanctuary itself. 04:17 This word, "tamid", is used in context in relationship 04:23 to the sanctuary in various places, and we're going to be 04:26 taking a look at those today. We're going to look at 04:29 Exodus 29, and you will remember that the sanctuary, 04:35 when it was built, God told Moses to build a sanctuary, 04:38 and inside the sanctuary there were various articles 04:40 of furniture that all had a specific role, or lesson 04:48 to teach the people in terms of the plan of salvation, 04:51 we went over this in an earlier program. 04:53 But now we're going to try and figure out, or see where 04:56 this word "daily", or "tamid" is used in relation to 05:00 the sanctuary. Again, we can already see 05:04 that there's something about the sanctuary that the Devil 05:08 wants to take away from God's people. 05:12 So let's notice in Exodus 29:42, the Bible says here: 05:22 [text on screen] 05:36 This is speaking in reference to the sacrifices that were 05:42 to take place at the altar of burnt offerings, and this 05:46 sacrifice of a lamb, morning and evening, was called 05:50 a "continual sacrifice", the Hebrew word is the word 05:54 - "tamid". - "The tamid" can be translated 05:59 - "continual" or "daily". - And in this context we 06:04 understand that the altar of sacrifice, in a spiritual 06:08 context, represents the spirit of sacrifice. 06:13 Christ came and sacrificed Himself for us, but then He 06:16 requires us to take upon this spirit of sacrifice, 06:20 that's what the sanctuary's about, it's the plan of 06:23 salvation for God's people, and the very first thing 06:26 that we need to have in our lives is the spirit of 06:28 sacrifice, "am I really willing to give this up for Jesus? " 06:32 That's the first thing, without the spirit of sacrifice we can't 06:35 go any further. The interesting thing about 06:38 this is that this word "continual burnt offering" 06:43 let's us know that God doesn't just require us to make 06:46 one decision to sacrifice, it is to be what kind of a sacrifice? 06:52 A continual, or daily, sacrifice. 06:58 Now I can begin to see what it is, ultimately, that the Devil 07:03 would want to take away from God's people, or from people 07:06 in general, a continual spirit of sacrifice, of giving up 07:12 of one's self to follow Jesus. Do you know what? 07:16 As I look at this world today and all the things that 07:20 the enemy of souls has done in order to draw our minds 07:25 away from God, I can begin to see "Oh, he is trying" 07:28 "to take away the continual", or "the tamid", "the daily", 07:34 "sacrifice, spirit of sacrifice that you and I are to have. " 07:38 And how's he doing it? Through the entertainment 07:41 industry; through the music; through the video games; 07:45 through all those things; through the environment 07:48 that he is trying to manipulate, he wants to take away 07:51 this daily experience of sacrifice from us. 07:55 That's right. Now for young people 07:57 it may be the entertainment industry, for older young people 08:01 it may just be a busy schedule, just overwhelmed and inundated 08:05 in all these many things that we have to do, that we just 08:08 can't have that spirit of sacrifice, or that communion 08:13 with God the way that we should. 08:15 That's right, he wants to take away the daily, so when we learn 08:18 this law of the tamid, this is another law in the spiritual 08:23 kingdom of God. 08:24 If we walk with God, it must be a continual walk, 08:28 we must be willing to sacrifice continually for Christ, 08:34 every day we are called to make a new decision, it's not a one 08:38 time thing, "once saved always saved", "once I've made" 08:42 "a decision for Christ, always a decision for Christ. " 08:45 No. "...that decision lasts forever". No. 08:48 Everyday we are called to renew our commitment, in fact, 08:51 morning and evening we are called to renew this spirit 08:56 of sacrifice, and through all the things that you mentioned, 08:59 the busyness of life, so many different things we can look at, 09:03 that seem to interrupt, or cut off the continual, 09:08 cut off the daily, cut off the tamid. 09:11 And really, in cutting off the tamid we are cutting off 09:15 our connection with God, because it is through that 09:19 spirit of sacrifice that we ultimately connect with God. 09:23 And you have to make a conscious decision, I remember 09:26 one morning in my worship, I think my daughter woke me 09:30 up before I could even worship and she said "I know you're" 09:33 "going to be mad about this", and I though, "Okay, she's" 09:35 "starting my day with 'I know you're going to be mad' " 09:38 and she told me something that had happened, and at that time 09:41 I actually thought "You know what, because she said" 09:44 "I'm going to be mad, I'm not going to get mad", 09:46 and then I went and had my worship and God spoke to me 09:49 and He said "You have to make a decision", and it's like a light 09:52 bulb went off, you have to make a decision to fight back today, 09:57 that Satan's not just going to have his way with you, 09:59 you have to make a decision, and we need to make 10:02 conscious decisions every single morning, spend that time 10:07 with the Lord so that we can have a continual walk with Him 10:10 throughout the day. If not, if we just think 10:13 "Well, I woke up as a Christian this morning, I'm just going" 10:15 "to get up and I'm just going to face the day", without 10:18 making that conscious decision to say "Okay Satan, I'm looking" 10:21 "for you, I know you're around the corner somewhere here" 10:23 "today, and I'm making a decision to allow God to give" 10:27 "me the grace, the power to fight you today". 10:29 That's right. Let's look at Romans 12:1 10:33 because Paul here speaking to us says: [text on screen] 10:48 We don't want to bring to God a lame sacrifice, we are 10:52 to be a pure sacrifice, and this is the sacrifice that God 10:55 calls us to make daily. So in this context we begin 10:59 to see "Okay, this is what the tamid is, it is a continual" 11:03 "sacrifice, and I can see why the Devil wants to take" 11:06 "that away", but he doesn't only want to take away that, 11:09 look at what else he wants to take away. 11:12 We're going to go back to Leviticus 24, and we're going 11:14 to read some of place else where this word is used again 11:18 in connection with the sanctuary 11:20 In Leviticus 24:2 the Bible says [text on screen] 11:55 3 times the word "continually" is used there, and it is 11:59 the word "tamid". What was the 7 branches 12:03 candle stick representing? It was representing the fact 12:07 that you and I are to be lights to a dark world. 12:12 Jesus says in Matthew 5:16: "Let your light so shine" 12:18 "that men may see your Father in your good works and glorify" 12:20 "your Father, which is in heaven. " 12:23 So here we see that we are not only are we to have a spirit 12:29 of sacrifice continually, but we are also to be letting our 12:33 lights shine continually. I remember you sharing 12:40 your experience that at some points you would let your light 12:43 shine before your real conversion experience, 12:47 your light would shine in church, but during the weekday 12:51 your light would be in club. So many people live that life 12:56 of "let the light shine when it's convenient", but then 13:02 the light goes out, as it were, because there are other things 13:07 that we want to get involved in, the Devil is trying to take 13:10 away the tamid, our responsibility to shine for 13:16 Christ at all times, and in all places. 13:19 That's right, and again, we've touched on this many times 13:22 before, but it's such a powerful force in this world that I don't 13:25 think we can talk about it enough, but the entertainment 13:28 industry, it's almost like it's set up there, and to be 13:33 everywhere we turn around, via radio, via TV, via movies, 13:37 video games, Internet, whatever, to stop the tamid, to stop 13:42 the daily, to stop that continual communion with God, 13:45 our Father, and once we make a decision to follow Christ all 13:49 the way, these things have to be cut off because Satan 13:52 is trying to use them to disconnect us from God, 13:57 so if we don't cut them off, they're going to cut something 13:59 off, and it's going to be your connection with Jesus, 14:02 and your heavenly Father, which is so needed for this Christian 14:05 - walk. - That's right. 14:07 We seeing Daniel 8:11 why the word "sacrifices" is supplied, 14:11 but it's italicized, it's not there, this is not just talking 14:15 about a daily sacrifice, it's talking about a daily shining, 14:19 a daily light that we're to have in our lives. 14:24 Take pornography for example, when pornography begins to come 14:28 into a person's heart, and especially a Christian, what 14:31 happens to that person's light? It begins to flicker and dims 14:34 until it is totally taken out. The Devil is trying to destroy, 14:40 to take away the tamid, and he is doing it through ingenious 14:46 ways, and we need to understand that we must keep our eyes 14:51 focused on Christ, continually serving Him and say that we will 14:56 allow nothing to come in and break up this continual 15:01 - connection with Him. - Nothing! You can't say that, 15:05 nothing at all because is it like oxygen to the body, 15:10 we have to have that continual connection with God. 15:13 That's right, now let's take a look at Leviticus 24, 15:17 same chapter we were in just earlier, Leviticus 24:8, 15:22 and I'd also like, Atonte, maybe you can go to Exodus 25:30. 15:26 In Leviticus 24:8, speaking of the table of shewbread it is 15:32 written here: [text on screen] 15:37 Talking about the bread upon the table of shewbread, 15:40 [continues to read] 15:50 Here you have the table of shewbread now being described, 15:55 or being spoken of, with this word "continual". 15:59 The table was to have bread upon it continually. 16:03 - Exodus 25:30. - And it says: [text on screen] 16:10 "Always", same word, "always" and "continually" are both 16:13 translated as "tamid". A very important principle here, 16:17 what did we realize, what did we see from the Word of God 16:20 that that bread represents? Matthew 4:4 tells us 16:25 "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word" 16:29 "that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. " 16:32 So God expects us to have a continual communion with Him 16:37 through the Word of God. We are to be studying the Word 16:40 of God continually, feeding upon the Word of God continually. 16:45 And now we begin to see, "I can see why the Devil would want" 16:48 "to take away the tamid". He not only wants to take 16:51 away a spirit of continual sacrifice, not only does he 16:54 want to take away our continual shining, but now he wants 16:57 to disrupt our Bible study. I'm not saying we have to walk 17:01 around every minute of the day, I've got my Bible, 17:06 and I'm studying, no, but we have to have the Word of God 17:10 flowing around in us. When we don't have the Bible 17:15 our mind should be upon the Word of God, and we don't even 17:17 necessarily have to be memorizing Scripture, but we 17:21 can be meditating upon Scripture that we know, and living 17:26 those principles of Scripture out in us, 17:29 it must be a continual principle living itself out 17:35 in us, and this is why, again, the Bible is now up against 17:45 - a lot. - It's competing. 17:47 It's competing with Hollywood, it's competing with the things 17:51 of the world, and Hollywood, for many Christians it has 17:56 successfully taken away the tamid, or rather I should say 18:00 the Devil through Hollywood has successfully taken away 18:04 the tamid so that people no longer... 18:06 And you know, we don't even have to go with Hollywood, 18:08 we can go with work. "I'm so busy, this is my job, " 18:12 "my occupation, I just don't have time to study the Bible" 18:17 "like I should. " Going back to letting your light 18:18 shine, "I don't have time to really work for God in the way" 18:22 "that I know He's calling me to work. " 18:24 God may not have called you to be a pastor, but He is 18:26 definitely calling you to help out where you can help out. 18:33 I can imagine in so many churches there's the call 18:35 for help and people are, "Hey, we're just too busy to help", 18:42 he is taking away the tamid in a very real sense. 18:48 Now, where does prayer come into this? 18:50 Because the daily is also talking about being connected 18:55 to God through prayer, spending that time in praying 18:58 and meditating, and communicating with God. 19:01 That's right. Why don't we take a look 19:03 at Exodus 30, and you're closer to that verse than I am, 19:08 we're going to look at Exodus 30:8. 19:12 [text on screen] 19:21 That word "perpetual" is the word "tamid". 19:25 Here the Bible is now describing this incense that is to be 19:32 offered up before the Lord perpetually, always. 19:37 What is God calling for in this text? 19:41 He is saying that as Christians we are to have a prayer 19:46 connection with Christ, we are to be in continual communication 19:51 with Him. How often? Always. 19:55 Now, what does that mean? That means that I'm not to be 19:58 on my knees every minute of the day, but while I'm walking, 20:01 while I'm doing my activities, the Word of God, I should be 20:05 praying, speaking to God in my mind: "Lord, guide me, " 20:08 "direct me", we should be meditating upon His word, 20:12 as I've said, but you know what? I just think, even down to this 20:17 day, I can be walking through a store 20:22 and there is some old song that I used to listen to years 20:26 and years ago, and what happens? For the next 20 minutes 20:29 here I am, wrestling, trying to get those words out of my mind. 20:34 What happens is that those words replace our prayer time 20:39 to God. So as we are allowing 20:44 the industry to fill our minds with its whisperings, with its 20:49 music, with its words, what happens is that it is like 20:52 interference You know, you turn on a radio and you try 20:55 to get a connection, it's static, and that's what 20:58 the Devil is doing, He's pouring in static so that the connection 21:01 between us and God, the tamid is taken away, is cut off. 21:07 Why does he want to cut off the tamid? 21:10 Because he knows that if we're not connected to God continually 21:14 that that's an open door for him to come in and either quickly, 21:18 or slowly, through long processes of time, through 21:22 "evolution", as it were, move us slowly away and away from 21:26 God, until one day we wake up and we go "How in the world" 21:28 - "did I get where I am today? " - You know, we're hoping that 21:34 as young people, many times we ask "what's wrong with this? " 21:37 and "what's wrong with that? ", we're hoping that some of these 21:40 principles that we're talking about here on Battles of Faith 21:42 are helping you understand that it's not just that one 21:46 thing, whether it's a TV program, that music, 21:49 or that movie, or whatever it is that you're asking about, 21:52 but it's really a whole process of what the enemy is trying 21:56 to do, he's trying to cut off, or stop, or break, or whatever, 22:01 the continual, the tamid, and your relationship with Christ. 22:05 So we're hoping that this is helping you make better 22:07 decisions when you have a choice on what you're going to listen 22:10 to, what you're going to watch, when you're going to see 22:14 as far as a movie, I don't know how many kosher movies are 22:19 out there, not that many at all, but we're hoping this is 22:21 helping you to make better decisions on what you're going 22:25 to do as far as entertainment. Is this going to stop the daily, 22:29 or is it going to enhance it? "Is it going to draw me closer" 22:32 "to the Lord, or is it going to pull me further away? " 22:35 That's right. We want to underscore 22:40 that we must have a continual connection, a sporadic 22:46 connection is not good enough, a "now and then" connection is 22:50 not going to do. This is why the Devil is focused 22:53 in on that tamid because it is the tamid, it is that endurance, 22:58 that continual communing with God, those are the ones 23:02 that the Devil hates because those are the ones that will 23:06 stand as a rebuke to him in the last days. 23:08 In fact, Revelation 14:12 says "Here is the patience", 23:13 or "the endurance", the word is, "of the saints, here are they" 23:16 "that keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony" 23:19 "of Jesus. " No matter what the Devil does 23:21 to the environment, they have a continual, they are a constant, 23:25 and the Devil doesn't like constant Christianity, he likes 23:29 sporadic Christianity, because then you've got these ups 23:32 and downs, but you have a people who say "I will be constant" 23:37 "in my prayer life, in my study, in my sacrificial" 23:41 "spirit, in allowing my light to shine", and they remain 23:45 constant. It's interesting that in 23:47 Daniel 7:25 the Bible speaks again of this little horn 23:53 and it says that this little horn will try to wear out 23:58 the saints of the Most High. In its primary sense we're 24:01 talking about physical persecution, but in its 24:04 secondary sense we're looking again: who is behind this little 24:07 horn? It is the Devil. 24:10 What is the Devil trying to do? He is trying to spiritually wear 24:14 out the saints of the Most High, through the manipulation of 24:19 the environment, through the manipulation that he uses, 24:23 through movies and music, through the manipulation of 24:26 the busyness of life, he is trying to wear out the saints. 24:29 "You coming to prayer meeting? " "Ahh, worn out. " 24:33 - Don't have time to pray. - "Don't have time. " 24:35 "Hey, let's pray. " "Worn out, too tired", as soon 24:38 as I kneel to pray I'm already asleep. 24:40 He is literally wearing out the saints, and in a way we're like 24:45 "Hey, that was the Dark Ages". No, in a physical sense, yes, 24:49 but in a spiritual sense, today he is wearing out the saints 24:55 of the Most High, he is taking away the tamid. 24:58 "I have no more time, things are so chaotic, I'm doing" 25:01 "so much that I don't have time to walk with God, " 25:05 "I don't have time to pray with God. " 25:08 Jesus said to Peter "Could you not watch with Me" 25:11 "one hour? " Then He said: "Pray always because" 25:13 "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. " 25:18 We're encouraged: pray always, because I believe Jesus knew 25:24 what was going to happen in the last days. 25:26 That's right, and God has made our minds so wonderfully, 25:30 He has made it so that I can be talking to Ivor, having 25:34 a conversation with someone, and still there's a part of my 25:37 brain that can still be communicating to God. 25:40 So even while we're walking around, taking care of all 25:43 the many things that we have to take care of, especially you 25:45 mothers out there that are very busy, taking care of children, 25:48 and doing all these things, we can still be doing that 25:51 and communicating with God, and He still has an open line 25:54 to feed into us, and an open line for us to go back to Him. 25:58 That way the connection never has to be broken, even when 26:02 we're busy, even when we're dealing with a lot of other 26:04 - people. - That's right. 26:06 In Ephesians 6:18 we're told, after it describes this list 26:09 of things, weapons, that we're to use in the fight of faith, 26:12 the last thing we're told is that we should pray always. 26:18 I think if it was in the Hebrew the word would "tamid". 26:21 Pray "always", "continually", "daily". 26:25 This is the law of the daily, this is the law of 26:29 the continual. God wants us to continually 26:33 be connected with Him, not here and there. 26:36 If we see that things are coming into our lives that are 26:40 breaking up the daily and not giving us the time that we need, 26:45 those things are to be placed on the altar of sacrifice, 26:50 continually. They are to be put 26:52 upon that altar continually, "I will always sacrifice this" 26:56 "thing, I will not allow these things to come in between my" 26:59 "relationship with God and myself. " 27:03 And you've got to be ready to persevere because what's going 27:06 to happen is you're going to say "Okay, I want to start" 27:09 "praying more, I want to have that continual relationship. " 27:12 Well, be prepared for Satan to send a whole bunch of static 27:17 into your mind, busyness, things you have to do 27:20 so you can't concentrate, you can't focus. 27:22 Persevere, you're going to have to persevere. 27:25 Or when you kneel down to pray you can't pray because 27:27 the latest movie you watched is on your mind. 27:29 The tamid is being taken away, the static is being thrown 27:32 in there, and that's why the Bible says that we ought 27:34 to dedicate our minds to Christ, this way the Devil has no 27:40 avenue to come in and to take a way our continual love for Him. 27:45 It is our prayer that the information that you hear 27:47 on Battles of Faith and in other programs that are uplifting God 27:51 that you will take it into your heart, take it into your mind, 27:54 make it a part of your life, and continue to seek God 27:58 with all of your heart. We're all out of time, 28:01 until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17