Sanctuary, Salvation, & Our Savior

The Altar of Incense

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: SSOS

Program Code: SSOS190009A


00:01 Music...
00:25 Welcome to: The Sanctuary, Salvation and our Savior,
00:29 my name is David Shin
00:31 and thank you for joining us today
00:33 in another installment in our Series
00:35 of the study of the sanctuary
00:38 where we're looking at the significance and the relevance
00:41 of the sanctuary to our practical Christian lives.
00:45 I want to go to the screen here
00:47 because the focus of today's presentation
00:51 is another article of furniture in the sanctuary,
00:54 it is the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place.
00:58 In the Holy Place, there are three articles of furniture:
01:02 The Table of Shewbread,
01:03 the Candlesticks
01:05 and the Altar of Incense.
01:08 In a brief review from our earlier presentations,
01:11 we noted that the sanctuary is a model
01:16 of God's plan of restoration to bring us back
01:20 to that relationship with Him.
01:22 Adam and Eve... before the fall,
01:24 were in the Most-Holy-Place experience,
01:26 they were in an intimate face-to-face encounter with God.
01:30 They could have a conversation with God as with a friend
01:34 but because of sin, this relational dynamic changed
01:39 and the entire human race was placed outside of the sanctuary
01:43 and God's plan is a plan of restoration...
01:47 it's a plan to bring us back...
01:49 to bring us into the Courtyard...
01:52 into the Holy Place
01:54 and into the Most-Holy-Place Experience.
01:58 The sanctuary is a model in Kindergarten form...
02:02 illustrating how God will restore Eden
02:06 back to the place that it was as in the book of Genesis.
02:10 So, you have the book of Genesis where Eden is lost...
02:14 you have the book of Revelation where Eden is restored.
02:18 So, God brings us into the Courtyard
02:21 and as we noted, the Courtyard experience
02:24 is where we receive the gift of God...
02:27 the gift of justification by faith.
02:30 We accept Jesus as our Savior and then we are baptized
02:35 and we can have the assurance of salvation in the Courtyard
02:41 and then God says, "I want you to walk with me,
02:44 I want you to grow with me,
02:45 I want you to journey with me into the Holy-Place experience
02:49 and as we noted in an earlier presentation,
02:52 it's not about how far you get,
02:54 it's about being in the process...
02:56 being in the journey...
02:58 He brings us to the Table
02:59 and gives us our spiritual nourishment.
03:03 He gives us what we need to grow in grace
03:06 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
03:09 He brings us to the table.
03:10 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life... "
03:13 we feed on the Word of God
03:14 and then we come to the Altar of Incense
03:18 and there are three elements that are essential
03:21 for healthy Christian experience
03:24 after we have been made alive,
03:26 we stay alive by these three important entities
03:31 represented in the Holy-Place Experience.
03:34 We have the Table of Shewbread, we have the Altar of Incense
03:37 and the candlesticks...
03:38 the Table of Shewbread represents Bible Study,
03:42 the Altar of Incense represents our prayer life
03:45 and candlesticks represent our witness
03:48 and the sharing of the love of God with others.
03:51 Now, this experience is not meritorious,
03:55 in other words, I don't study my Bible
03:58 in order to earn my salvation,
04:00 I don't spend time in prayer in order to earn my way to heaven,
04:05 or I don't witness to get points with God
04:08 that is meritorious towards salvation,
04:10 no, these are all grace elements that God has provided
04:15 and made provision for us
04:16 to grow in our spiritual experience with Him.
04:19 Now, here's a tip...
04:21 and I want to mention this again,
04:23 because if you are noticing in your Christian experience,
04:27 after you've accepted Jesus,
04:29 that you're growing weak...
04:30 that you've lost your first love...
04:33 you can do a very quick diagnostic... a quick assessment
04:36 and ask yourself the question, "How's my prayer life?"
04:39 "How's my Bible Study?"
04:41 "Am I sharing my faith?"
04:43 and what you'll usually find
04:44 is at least in one of those areas... if not more...
04:47 you have begun to wane in one of those elements
04:50 and what you can do is say,
04:51 "Lord, create in me a deeper desire for you. "
04:56 You can ask God and say,
04:57 "Lord, help me to desire to spend time in prayer...
05:00 help me to desire to spend time in your Word
05:02 and help me to desire to share my faith with others
05:05 and give me that opportunity. "
05:07 In other words, we don't have to fabricate
05:09 this element of trying to... to manifest these...
05:15 these elements of the Christian, ah, Christian disciplines
05:19 as something that we need to do
05:20 by pulling ourselves by our own bootstraps,
05:22 God has given us everything including the desire to desire
05:27 to have Bible-Study time,
05:29 to pray and to share our faith.
05:32 We're focusing on the Altar of Incense
05:35 and the Altar of Incense represents our prayer life
05:39 mingled with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
05:41 In Psalm 141 verse 2, the Bible says,
05:43 "And let my prayer be set forth as incense
05:48 and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. "
05:54 Here the Psalmist says, "Let my prayer be as incense
05:59 and as we pray in the name
06:02 and in the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
06:05 our prayers are acceptable to God.
06:08 We pray to the Father in the name of Jesus
06:13 and it doesn't matter how long
06:15 we may or may not have been a Christian,
06:18 we never come to God in our own name...
06:21 in our own merits...
06:23 in our own works.
06:25 We come to God because of the merits
06:27 and the blood of Jesus Christ
06:30 and mingled with the sweet aroma
06:33 of Christ's righteousness,
06:34 our prayers ascend like incense to God.
06:40 We never come to God because of our own works,
06:43 and the Holy-Place experience
06:45 specifically the incense is a reminder
06:49 that it doesn't matter how much you may have grown
06:52 as a Christian,
06:53 you may have come far in your journey,
06:55 but you can never come to the place where you say,
06:59 "I've arrived... and I come to God in my own name. "
07:03 No, no, no, you always come in the sweet aroma
07:08 in the incense of the name and the righteousness
07:12 of Jesus Christ
07:14 and that's why it's sweet to God...
07:16 it's not sweet to God because of my own works
07:18 and my own merits,
07:19 it's sweet to God because of the righteousness of Christ.
07:23 A sweet aroma to the Lord.
07:26 We're told that...
07:27 that prayer is the breath of the soul...
07:32 the secret of spiritual power.
07:37 Now, think about the implications of this metaphor.
07:40 Prayer is the breath of the soul.
07:44 In other words, the same way that we are dependent
07:49 on breathing physically,
07:52 is the same way that we are dependent
07:55 on prayer spiritually.
07:57 We need to pray as just as much as we need to breath.
08:02 Now, think about the implications of this,
08:03 you can go weeks without food,
08:07 you can go for a period of days without water,
08:12 but you can go only minutes without breathing.
08:16 Now, in my early adolescent years,
08:21 I... I had this ailment of asthma
08:25 and I would struggle to breath
08:29 when I would have these asthma attacks,
08:31 it was a terrible thing.
08:32 One time, I had an asthma attack
08:35 that lasted a whole week,
08:38 can you imagine, a whole week
08:39 where I'm just wheezing and struggling for every breath
08:42 and every time I would... huuuuuuhhhh...
08:44 try to get all my energies to get this breath into my body
08:48 just straining...
08:49 it made me realize how dependent I am as a human being on air
08:56 and my fear is that in our Christian experience
09:01 after we have been born again,
09:02 after we've praised God and said,
09:04 "Oh, I've accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord... "
09:06 and we come to Him just the way we are,
09:07 we're baptized... and afterwards we hold our breaths.
09:10 We don't breath anymore after birth,
09:13 Now, I remember distinctly the moment that my son was born,
09:19 praise God... successful birth...
09:23 he... he came out and your first concern
09:27 after birth is that first breath.
09:31 Not only in that first breath
09:32 but that... that baby continues to breath.
09:36 My son was born into this world
09:38 and he took that breath... ahuuuhhh...
09:40 and I just shudder to think
09:45 if my son would not have taken his first breath
09:49 after a successful birth.
09:52 In other words, Friends, it's one thing to be born
09:57 and birth is essential...
10:00 if there is no birth, there is no life
10:02 but breathing after birth
10:06 is as essential as being born.
10:10 In other words, you can be born again as a Christian,
10:13 but if you're not breathing... if you are not praying...
10:18 as prayer is the breath of the soul,
10:20 the secret of spiritual power,
10:22 it's like holding your breath after birth.
10:26 prayer is the breath of the soul,
10:29 we are dependent on prayer just as much
10:33 as we are dependent on air.
10:36 How's your prayer life today?
10:38 How is your breathing today?
10:41 Spiritually, God is calling us to pray
10:43 and here in the book, "Steps to Christ"
10:45 one of my favorite books and by the way,
10:47 if you have not read the book, "Steps to Christ"
10:49 I highly encourage you to read this book.
10:51 There's a whole chapter here on prayer
10:54 and it says, "Prayer is talking to God
10:56 as to a friend. "
10:58 In other words, prayer is not like this formal exercise,
11:04 now, there's a time for formal prayer
11:06 like in the worship service,
11:07 but prayer is not to be this formal conversation with God,
11:13 prayer is to be like a talking...
11:16 a conversation with your most intimate friend...
11:19 your most intimate person in the world.
11:23 Now, when I talk to my parents,
11:25 I don't go to my dad and mom and say,
11:28 "Oh thou that providest for my food...
11:31 thou that bore me into this world...
11:34 thou that providest my education. "
11:36 My parents would be like,
11:37 "What's the matter with you, son?
11:39 This is Mom and Dad. "
11:40 Now, this is not to say that we should be disrespectful
11:44 in our prayer life,
11:45 but we should be vulnerable...
11:48 we should be authentic...
11:50 we should be real in our prayer life.
11:54 Prayer is talking to God as to a friend.
11:57 Your most intimate conversations...
12:00 the bearing of your soul to God should be your prayer life.
12:04 You should tell God everything that is on your heart
12:07 and on your mind.
12:08 It is the epitome... the quintessential example
12:13 of what intimacy and connection with another being should be
12:19 and that is your prayer life...
12:21 talking to God as to a friend.
12:24 not a formal, sterile exercise where you're fake and not real,
12:28 and not showing a person your real needs.
12:30 If you talk to a person on the street and say,
12:32 "What's it like?"
12:33 And he'll say, "How are you doing?"
12:35 "Fine... "
12:36 "Beautiful day isn't it? Wonderful weather... "
12:39 it's all superficial
12:40 but there was intimate people in our lives...
12:43 you ask them... or they ask you...
12:48 "How are you doing?"
12:49 And they tell you...
12:50 or you tell them... "I'm not doing well at all,
12:54 terrible, as a matter of fact,
12:56 I've really been struggling today. "
12:59 And this is what our prayer life can be.
13:02 You can go to God and say, "Lord, I'm struggling today,
13:07 I'm having a hard time...
13:09 as a matter of fact, Lord, ah hmmm...
13:13 I don't even want to pray today,
13:16 I'm struggling with my Bible Study,
13:18 I'm struggling with sharing my faith,
13:20 this is who I am... help me...
13:23 help me to be willing to be made willing.
13:26 Give me the desire to desire. "
13:30 You can come to God in your prayer life
13:32 as who you really are,
13:35 and it's the safest place you can be
13:37 because God will never reject your prayers.
13:41 I want to encourage you as we continue in our study
13:45 to... to reflect on how prayer is the breath of the soul...
13:50 the secret of spiritual power.
13:51 We're going to take a short break,
13:52 we'll be right back,
13:54 stay with us as we continue our study
13:56 on prayer.


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Revised 2019-10-08