Participants:
Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190005B
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00:03 It depends on that willingness, doesn't it?
00:06 Are we really willing to have the Holy Spirit? 00:08 Do we want Him controlling our life? 00:10 We have to give up control if we want the 00:11 Spirit of God controlling us. 00:13 Our author goes on here in her book from, 00:16 Acts of the Apostles, page 50. 00:18 And this is a fascinating quote. 00:21 It says, "Wherever the need of the Holy Spirit 00:25 is a matter little thought of..." 00:26 Now it doesn't say wasn't thought of. 00:28 But it says it was a matter little thought of. 00:30 And it goes on to say, "...there is seen spiritual drought, 00:35 spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and death." 00:41 The Holy Spirit is like oil to the lamp, 00:44 it's like water to a plant. 00:46 "Whenever minor matters occupy the attention..." 00:51 How many church boards have you been to 00:52 where all they talked about was the finances? 00:54 Nobody talked about winning souls. 00:56 Nobody talked about building up the spiritual 00:59 fortunes of the church. 01:01 No, they talked about minor... 01:03 Oh, finance is important. Don't get me wrong. 01:06 We have to pay the bills, we understand that. 01:08 But that's not why the church exists. 01:10 It exists because we want to win souls, 01:16 and we want to be ready for Jesus to come. 01:19 It says, "Whenever minor matters occupy the attention, 01:22 the divine power which is necessary for the growth 01:26 and the prosperity of the church..." 01:28 So if you really want to grow the church... 01:30 I mean, you can grow in numbers. 01:31 That doesn't mean you've grown anything. 01:34 You've got to grow the church spiritually. 01:38 The members must grow spiritually. 01:41 Yes, we want growth in numbers, of course. 01:44 But not growth without spiritual growth. 01:47 Not growth without power. 01:52 It goes on to say, "...the divine power 01:54 which is necessary for the growth and prosperity 01:56 of the church, which would bring," I love this one, 02:00 "all other blessings in its train, is lacking, 02:05 though offered in great plenitude." 02:09 Infinite plenitude. 02:10 So the Holy Spirit is offered. 02:13 Jesus wants to give the Spirit of God. 02:16 The devil doesn't want us to have the Spirit of God, 02:18 because he knows that if the Spirit of God 02:19 takes hold of the church, it will grow with power 02:23 and its members will be a light to the world. 02:26 Jesus reveals Himself from the heavenly sanctuary. 02:30 And this is very important because in the book of 02:32 Revelation we're going to see Jesus 02:33 moving through the heavenly sanctuary. 02:35 And He's very busy there. 02:38 He's busy because He's taking care of His churches. 02:41 So in the midst of these candlesticks, we see Jesus 02:44 walking and looking and tending to His churches. 02:48 The apostles said again and again that Jesus 02:52 sits at the right hand of God. 02:55 And the apostle Paul also sees Him not only at the 02:58 right hand of God, but also sees Him 03:01 as the heavenly High Priest. 03:04 Jesus is busy. 03:06 Some time ago I heard somebody say, 03:09 "Oh, what's Jesus doing now? 03:10 It's not very important whatever Jesus..." 03:13 I said to myself, "What!" 03:15 I didn't think that person had read the book of Revelation, 03:19 the book of Daniel. 03:21 It says that God is there with ten-thousand times ten-thousand. 03:25 That's a million personal attendants. 03:28 A million. 03:30 We don't know how many, maybe billions, 03:32 of heavenly angels that attend. 03:35 But they're all focused, they're all focused 03:39 on the whole picture of what's going on 03:43 here in planet earth in this great controversy. 03:47 Now listen to the apostle Paul in Hebrews 8:1. 03:51 He says, "Now the main point..." 03:53 Now I want to say this. 03:55 The main point is always the main point. 03:59 "The main point," he says, "of these things we are saying is 04:05 that we have a High Priest who is seated 04:09 at the right hand of God." 04:11 So Jesus is not merely at the right hand of God, 04:14 He's also the High Priest. 04:16 He intercedes for us. 04:19 And that interceding means that heaven is like a war room. 04:24 And the object of this war that's going on between 04:27 Christ and Satan that's being acted out on planet earth, 04:30 the object is you... 04:34 ...and me. 04:37 It's a busy place. 04:38 Angels are constantly reporting. 04:40 Maybe they say to Jesus, "You know, that Jay, 04:45 he needs some help right now. 04:46 The temptations of the devil are coming in. 04:48 Can you send..." 04:50 And so Jesus orders this and He orders that. 04:53 If you go and watch an American war... 04:56 And that's a horrible thing. 04:58 I hate to use that kind of illustration. 04:59 But the generals are sitting in a room 05:02 where they are watching the war in real time. 05:06 Why? So they can give orders back and forth, 05:09 "Send those tanks this way. 05:11 Send the Air Force this way. 05:12 Send the infantry that way." 05:14 Jesus is doing the same thing, except this 05:17 is a spiritual battle. 05:19 And it's being waged over you and over me, 05:22 and over every person on planet earth. 05:24 Seven billion plus people the war is being waged over. 05:30 Jesus is sending His forces to counteract 05:32 the devil and his evil angels. 05:34 He's holding back the winds of strife. 05:35 We'll talk about that at a later time. 05:38 Why? So He can save people. 05:41 That's His passion. 05:43 That's why He went to Calvary's cross, 05:44 was to save people. 05:47 And He's busy in the war room of heaven 05:50 in the heavenly sanctuary as the heavenly High Priest 05:54 directing that war to save you and me. 05:57 What a wonderful Savior that we have. 05:59 Now the whole book of Revelation is built around 06:02 the heavenly sanctuary. 06:03 It's built around Jesus as the High Priest 06:05 moving through that heavenly sanctuary. 06:09 And I want to say this, and I say it kindly, 06:11 there are no more earthly temples. 06:14 I remember on a visit many years ago 06:17 to the nation of Israel. 06:20 And we had a guide there and we went up to 06:22 what is known was the temple mount, 06:24 and today has a Muslim mosque on it. 06:27 Our guide was sitting there and he said, 06:30 he's sitting there on something as he was talking to us, 06:34 and I never will forget him, he said, 06:35 "You know, this mountain has caused us a lot of trouble." 06:40 Well that's because people are so camped around holy hills. 06:43 And I say this kindly. 06:44 There are no more holy hills, no more temples. 06:48 Yes, we have places we worship God. 06:50 We understand that. 06:51 But the real temple, the real temple, 06:55 is in heaven. 06:57 And the real Priest is Jesus. 06:59 Now the devil doesn't want people to know that. 07:01 Because if they connect to Jesus as the real Priest, 07:03 they're going to connect to power, 07:05 real true power. 07:08 So the sanctuary itself is prophetic. 07:13 And I want to take just a moment to explain that sanctuary. 07:18 And I just want to do that in a way so that you can grasp that. 07:23 Use your imagination, it's not complicated. 07:25 The sanctuary is laid out in three parts. 07:28 There's the courtyard. 07:30 It has the altar of sacrifice and the laver. 07:33 That represents Christ's earthly ministry. 07:36 Anything in that courtyard could be seen. 07:39 The second part is the Holy Place. 07:42 Now every time the priest when in there, 07:44 he disappeared from sight. 07:47 Same with Jesus. 07:48 When He went to the heavenly sanctuary in heaven 07:51 that contains the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, 07:54 He went out of our sight and we have to follow Him by faith 07:57 just like they followed them in the earthly sanctuary, 08:01 just like they followed the earthly priests. 08:03 In that first compartment is the start of Jesus' heavenly 08:07 ministry that He's in right now. 08:10 And He goes from the candlesticks, in the book of 08:12 Revelation, to the table of showbread. 08:14 We'll talk about that later. 08:16 And He also goes to the altar of incense. 08:19 And then in the end of time, or the time of the end, 08:23 as Daniel talks about, there is the final ministry of Jesus. 08:28 And that's in the Most Holy Place. 08:31 And it has only one piece of furniture there. 08:34 It's the ark of the covenant with the mercy seat 08:36 and the Ten Commandments inside. 08:40 The sanctuary is prophetic of the ministry of Jesus 08:43 and Jesus is moving in the heavenly sanctuary 08:46 through time headed for the coming, His coming 08:50 back to this earth and preparing a people 08:53 to be ready for that time. 08:55 This is why this is so important to understand. 08:59 The heavenly sanctuary is the context 09:03 of the book of Revelation. 09:05 It is the context. 09:06 And the context means everything. 09:08 Listen, if you take something out of context, 09:10 you can make something say anything. 09:11 You can give the Bible a wax nose, 09:14 you can make people say... 09:15 If you just take it out of context, they say, 09:16 you know, you see politicians do that all the time. 09:18 They all hate each other, it seems like. 09:20 I wish they'd be nice to each other. 09:21 They may have difference of opinions, 09:23 but people ought to be nice and polite. 09:26 At any rate... 09:27 And that's true for both sides of the aisle, by the way. 09:30 And some are, some are nice. 09:32 But my point is simply this: 09:34 If you take something out of context, you can make 09:37 somebody say awful things. 09:39 But it you put it back into context, 09:40 "Oh, that's what they meant." 09:42 Well the sanctuary is the context 09:46 of the book of Revelation. 09:48 And the reason there's so many wild opinions 09:51 and crazy things that you read and hear about 09:55 is because people pay no attention to the context. 10:01 The context is everything. 10:04 And the context is the heavenly sanctuary. 10:07 So when Jesus finishes His work there in the heavenly sanctuary, 10:11 He's coming back. 10:12 And that's going to be a wonderful day when He does. 10:15 But He's busy right now getting the world ready 10:19 for the final conflict. 10:20 And we'll talk about that final conflict. 10:22 It's serious business. The mark of the beast. 10:24 But before I do that, I want to talk about these 10:27 seven churches just a little bit, 10:29 because Jesus gave them some wonderful instructions. 10:33 First of all, He says to His churches, 10:35 "You know, you're going to be suffering. 10:37 But don't be afraid. 10:39 I'm the resurrection and the life. 10:41 You're going to have powerful temptations, 10:43 but you can be an overcomer." 10:45 In fact, every church is told to be an overcomer. 10:48 We don't hear much talk about that nowadays. No. 10:51 Yes, you get the blood of Jesus, covers your sins, 10:54 gives you a new birth, but Jesus now empowers you 10:56 through the Holy Spirit to be an overcomer. 10:59 I don't have time to get into the depth, 11:01 I'll just give a quick view of at least some of these churches. 11:04 We'll talk about Ephesus. 11:06 Ephesus, Jesus says in essence, "I love your works. 11:09 And I love your patience." 11:11 And there's something else that Jesus loved about Ephesus. 11:14 He says, "You're not naive. 11:16 You're not foolish. 11:18 Your test, you test these people who say they're apostles. 11:23 You test them by the Word of God." 11:24 By the way, you must test. 11:27 There's all kinds of people that say all kinds of things. 11:30 But you need to test your ministers, 11:32 you need to test speakers. 11:33 You need to test them by the Word of God. 11:36 And then He said they hate the false doctrine 11:39 of the Nicolaitans. 11:41 Well I don't have time to get into the Nicolaitans, 11:42 except the Nicolaitans said, 11:43 "Hey, everything is going to be alright. 11:45 You don't have to worry about those Ten Commandments. 11:46 At least not too much." 11:48 Sounds like our world today. 11:49 And Jesus says, "I hate the doctrine and the teachings 11:53 of the Nicolaitans." 11:56 And then there was the church of Smyrna, the suffering church. 11:59 Jesus said it would suffer for ten days, or ten years 12:02 as it were. 12:04 And He says, "You're growing in your works of love." 12:06 But He says, "There's one thing you've got going on there 12:08 that I don't like." 12:11 And He says, "You have some people claiming 12:13 to belong to Me, but they are not. 12:17 They don't belong to Me." 12:19 In other words, they're impostors. 12:21 That's another form of blasphemy. 12:23 They're putting themselves in the place of Christ. 12:26 For the sake of time, I want to go to the Laodicean church. 12:30 The Laodicean church, as we all know, is called 12:32 that lukewarm church. 12:34 It needs eye salve, it needs a lot of things. 12:37 And Jesus comes and He makes an appeal to it. 12:40 He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." 12:43 Time is running out for the Laodicean church. 12:46 Earlier in the sermon on the mount, Jesus would say, 12:49 "Ask, and it shall be given to you; 12:50 knock, knock, and it will be opened to you." 12:54 But now instead of us knocking, Jesus is now knocking 12:58 on our door. 12:59 Why is He knocking on our door? 13:02 It's because time is running out. 13:04 And He makes the most grand promise of all the promises 13:08 to the seven churches. 13:09 He says, "If you'll just open the door, I'll come in." 13:13 Let me tell you, turn off all this stuff that's going on 13:15 in your life, all this busyness. 13:17 Open the door to the Savior, invite Him in. 13:22 It's the most precious of all promises. 13:25 There's nothing so wonderful like having Jesus in your heart. |
Revised 2019-07-02