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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

David Shin

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Back to the Father’s House

Father in heaven, we thank You so much for this opportunity to study the sanctuary for the next several weeks.

We pray that You would bless us in our study.

You've told us Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

So, we ask for the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and our minds this morning.

Speak to us, we pray, for we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

If you could ask God for anything, what would you ask Him for?

New car, new house, health perhaps, wisdom?

Well, David indicates what he would ask of God, and this is actually Psalms 27, 4, not Psalms 24, 4.

Psalms 27, 4, this is what David's request to God would be.

He says, 1 thing I have desired of the Lord, and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." In your bulletin, you should have a study guide, which is an outline with the key text from today's study.

David says, if I can have 1 thing that I asked of God, it would be to live in God's house.

To actually live in God's house, not be a neighbor, but to live in God's house.

And he says, all the days of my life, not just for a few months or days, but my whole life, I want to live in God's house.

And that's my 1 request I wish I could have of God.

If I could ask God for anything, it'd be to live in God's house.

He says, first, I would behold the beauty of the Lord.

We're talking about an actual aesthetic beauty.

I praise the Lord that it's not just about left brain analysis.

But there's an aesthetic beauty that comes from the inner beauty of who God is.

And David says, I want to live in your house forever that I can look at your beauty.

And the other thing is to inquire in His temple.

I was reading about Warren Buffett, and he has this charity that takes place every year where people bid to have lunch with Warren Buffett.

And these couple individuals won, and they had the opportunity to have lunch with Warren Buffett for $600, 000.

$600, 000 to have lunch with Warren Buffett.

And they asked afterwards, these 2 individuals, was it worth it?

And they said it was worth every penny of that half a million dollars.

Well, evidently having to ask Warren Buffett anything is worth a lot of money to some people, but can you imagine having lunch with God in His house?

What would you ask him if you can ask him of anything?

And this word here for inquire indicates that this is an intellectual inquiry.

So found in God's house is beauty and truth.

And David says, I want to live in God's house.

The Bible indicates that God's house is synonymous with his temple, and we have a scene in Revelation 11, verse 19.

We have a picture of what God's house is like, the temple.

He says the temple of God was opened in heaven and the Ark of his covenant was seen in his temple Another article of furniture in God's house in God's temple and from the throne Preceded lightnings thunderings and voices 7 lamps of fire were burning before the throne." Another piece of furniture in God's house, you have the Ark of the Covenant, you have the lampstand, this article of furniture is seen in God's house in heaven, and then you have Revelation 8, verse 3, he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before his throne.

So this is another piece of furniture in God's house You have the lampstand and then you have this altar of incense that John saw envision in God's house Now Moses was given the blueprint to what God's house looked like, and you find it in Exodus 25, verse 8.

God told Moses, make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

There were very specific aspects of the earthly tabernacle that Moses was to build, and it was to be specifically according to God's blueprint.

And God told him that this was to be after the pattern.

Notice it's not just the tabernacle, it's all of the furniture inside the tabernacle as well.

And you see Paul in Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 through 5, he says, "'Now the main point of what we are saying is this, we do have a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, of the majesty, where does it say?

In heaven, in heaven, who serves in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.

Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this 1 also to have something to offer.

They serve as a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.

This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle, see that you do it according to everything, according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

So God told Moses to build a tabernacle, and this tabernacle was to be a copy or a shadow of a heavenly tabernacle.

So 1 way that you can get a picture of what God's house looks like is to look at the Old Testament sanctuary.

This is the model that was given to Moses, and he was to design it specifically as God commanded, specifically according to the dimensions that God gave, and said, look, this is a replica of what is in heaven.

So there it is, on the screen you have, on your left, the Ark of the Covenant, which John saw in heaven.

Ark of the Covenant, inside the ark was the law of God, Aaron's rod which budded, and manna.

Here you have the angels that are hovering above the Shekinah glory.

This represented the throne room of God and this compartment is known as the most holy place.

Here you have another compartment and it is the holy place.

Now remember when we just read in the book of Revelation, you saw what in heaven?

You saw the golden candlesticks before the throne of God.

You also have the altar of incense, which we also saw in Revelation before the throne of room of God as well.

And then there is the table of showbread.

Outside in the courtyard, you have the laver, and then you have the brazen altar there.

And this gives us a model of what God's house, his tabernacle, his sanctuary looked like.

Now a question that people have asked is, did the sanctuary exist before sin?

We often look at the sanctuary as being instituted at the time of Moses, but when you look at the Bible you will see that the sanctuary pre-existed Even the inception of sin.

How do we know that we read about Lucifer in Ezekiel chapter 28 verse 14?

The Bible says you were the anointed cherub who covers I Established you you were on the holy mountain of God Lucifer stood right next to God.

He was the covering angel that covered the Shekinah glory of God.

No 1 knew God more as a created being than Lucifer.

And it was from this place that sin was conceived in Lucifer's heart.

I wonder what it must have been in the presence of God to be Lucifer, to be 1 of the covering cherubs.

He was the highest among all the angels, and the Bible says that he was the covering cherub.

This is the throne room of God, And this is indicated from the Ark of the Covenant.

And notice what the Bible says about the mountain in Isaiah 14, verse 13, another passage that talks about Lucifer.

It says, I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly." So, God's sanctuary, God's house was a place where His created beings would assemble.

Also, The Bible indicates in Ezekiel 28, verse 13, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes.

According to Richard Davison, the timbrels and pipes remind us of the music of the sanctuary.

According to 2 Samuel 6, verse 5, 1 Chronicles 13, verse 8, and Psalms 81, verse 2, the sanctuary of God before sin was a place of worship.

Scholars believe, and the biblical evidence supports this idea, that the house of God, the sanctuary of God, the throne of God was a place of praise and worship prior to the inception of sin.

It was also the command center of the universe and the home of God.

Richard Davidson says that it's kind of like the White House.

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: It’s All About Jesus

We're continuing in our series entitled Sanctuary, Salvation, and Our Savior.

And let's do a brief review from last Sabbath.

We studied about how Moses was given a blueprint of the sanctuary in heaven.

This was to be a miniature replica of God's house in heaven.

And Moses was given the exact dimensions and the materials as to how he was to build this earthly sanctuary.

And there were 3 compartments in the sanctuary that Moses was to build.

You had the courtyard, which had 2 articles of furniture, the brazen altar, and the laver.

You had the holy place, which had 3 articles of furniture, the candlesticks, the altar of incense, and the table of showbread.

And then you had the most holy place, which had 1 article of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant.

And God's plan was to bring humanity back to the Father's house.

We studied last Sabbath how the sanctuary was used as a place where it was the command center of the universe, kind of like the White House, which is the residence of the President and also his command center.

It was a place of gathering and a place of worship.

And after sin, this place, the command center, took on the additional functions of the plan of salvation.

And Adam and Eve, back in Eden, before sin, were able to have face-to-face communion with God right here, signified by the most holy place experience, face-to-face conversation with God.

After sin, we were not able to have that face-to-face encounter anymore, so we were outside of the sanctuary and God's plan is to bring us all the way back, to bring us home, into the courtyard, into the holy place, and into the most holy place.

And in the book of Revelation 22, when it's all said and done, the Bible says, and we shall see his face.

Let's take a look at the structure of the sanctuary.

The sanctuary was not a big structure, at least the 1 that was given to Moses, the tent tabernacle.

It was a hundred and 50 feet long and seventy-five feet wide, a rectangle, And the wall around the sanctuary was not an iron wall made of stones and bricks.

It was made of linen, all the way around the sanctuary.

And there was 1 way into the sanctuary, 1 way into the courtyard, 1 way into the holy place, and 1 way into the most holy place.

And at the entrances of Each compartment was not a gate of iron with a padlock.

There was a veil over each 1 of the entrances.

The courtyard was surrounded by a linen fence.

There were actually 3 veils, and here are the references.

The veil to the holy place, Exodus 26.37, referred to as the hanging.

And the veil to the most holy place, those 3 veils, and this implied an invitation to enter.

There was no barrier between the tabernacle and the earth, and the same ground that the Ark of the Covenant, which had the Shekinah glory and the presence of God, was standing on the same ground as the Israelites.

The Shekinah Glory sat on the same ground as everybody else, but it was packaged in a veil.

And we come to our first point in your study guide.

If you want to follow along, there is a study guide in your bulletin.

And this is point number 1 from our study today.

The sanctuary reveals the incarnation of Jesus.

Jesus did not become physically like the nature of Adam before the fall.

He took on the nature of humanity after the fall.

Physically, he took on our humanity, and heaven came all the way down.

The Bible declares that the heavens itself cannot contain the glory of God, and it's a wonderful thing to contemplate and a mystery how the God of heaven could put himself into a human being.

And yet, that glory was packaged in humanity so that we could interact with God.

Just like the sanctuary came all the way down, Jesus came all the way down, yet he was packaged in human flesh.

And the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that the veil is his flesh.

The sanctuary reveals the incarnation, and look at this in Exodus chapter 25, verse 8, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

The Shekinah glory, dwelling with the people of God.

In John chapter 1 in verse 14, talking about Jesus and the word Jesus was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

That is a direct reference to Exodus 25 verse 8, a direct reference to the sanctuary.

In other words, Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, was symbolized in the structure of the sanctuary itself.

The Shekinah glory came all the way down, yet it was packaged.

It was in the package of humanity so that we could behold the glory and the character of God.

Mind-boggling accommodation of the transcendent God of the universe becoming human so that we could behold his glory.

I have this quotation in your study guide in these words is announced the fulfillment of the Purpose that has been hidden from eternal ages Christ was about to visit our world and become incarnate.

He says, a body thou has prepared for me.

Had he appeared with the glory that was his before the father, with the Father before the world was, we could not have endured the light of His presence.

That we might behold it and not be destroyed, the manifestation of His glory, " and listen to this, was shrouded.

And look at the language that Desire of Ages uses.

His divinity was veiled with humanity, the invisible glory in the visible human form.

God became man and the glory was shrouded, was veiled.

The invisible God in the visible human form.

Leslie Harding says this, "'Christ took human nature as a screen through which to display God's character to the universe praise his name We come to our point number 2 in your study guide.

The sanctuary reveals the plan of salvation.

He came all the way down and The glory of God was packaged, unveiled in human flesh, and the sanctuary reveals the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.

When you look at the sanctuary, there were not 5 or 10 entrances into the sanctuary.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus' claim is a claim of exclusivity, not plurality.

And when you look at the sanctuary, this indicates through the veils that God is not trying to keep us out of heaven.

We come to our first point of the plan of salvation.

We come into the sanctuary through Jesus and because of Jesus, and the entire sanctuary structure is all about Jesus.

He is the embodiment of the sanctuary, and the first point of access is because of Jesus.

John chapter 10, verse 9 says, I am the door.

Then we come to our first article of furniture and that is the brazen altar And this altar of sacrifice represents Jesus as our Savior.

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Justified in the Courtyard

Today we are continuing in our series of messages entitled Sanctuary Salvation and Our Savior.

And Psalm 7713 says, Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary and in the New Testament.

The way that Jesus was introduced was as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The only way to understand this introduction of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist is through the lens of the sanctuary.

And because the Jews were using a different hermeneutic, they were using a different interpretive key, not from the sanctuary, but from popular culture, they missed the Son of God.

We come to the New Testament, and in the book of Hebrews, we have another way of viewing Jesus after he went to heaven in Hebrews chapter 8 verses 1 through 5.

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying.

We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.

So the interpretive key of the sanctuary, John uses to define the mission of Jesus as the lamb, and then Paul uses the interpretive key of the sanctuary to define Jesus, or to describe Jesus' work as our high priest even in the heavenly sanctuary.

In other words, the sanctuary is still a relevant interpretive key for understanding Christ after he has risen and gone to heaven.

And then we have the Book of Great Controversy, page 423.

The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844.

It opened to view a complete system of truth connected and harmonious, showing that God's hand had directed the great advent movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position and work of his people.

John uses the sanctuary to interpret Jesus' work on earth up until the time he went to heaven.

Paul uses the sanctuary as the interpretive key to understanding Christ after he went to heaven as our high priest, and here in the book Great Controversy, the great discovery of Seventh-day Adventist is using the sanctuary as the interpretive key to understand Christ's work in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.

The sanctuary message, the sanctuary interpretive key is uniquely Seventh-day Adventist, Amen?

There are other denominations that believe in the Sabbath.

There are other denominations that believe in the state of the dead, but the sanctuary message and using the sanctuary as the interpretive key is what makes us uniquely Seventh-day Adventists.

And we are following in the lineage of John the Baptist, in the lineage of Paul, we are using the sanctuary as our reference point for understanding the work of Christ.

If you hear something and it sounds good, put it to the litmus test of the sanctuary.

If it contradicts the sanctuary message, it is a false gospel.

There are many philosophies and theologies that are out there, and there is 1 for everyone.

It's tailor-made for every individual, and it's just a little bit off.

Sometimes I've listened to a message or a presentation, and I say, it sounds so good, but there's something that's a little bit off, and I take it to the framework of the sanctuary, and I see, Oh, it doesn't fit.

You see, the Jews believed in the sanctuary.

They would die for the sanctuary, but they had limited the sanctuary to just a doctrine and not as an interpretive key for understanding the work of Christ.

There's a fundamental difference between the 2.

And as Seventh-day Adventists, we need to be careful not to minimize the sanctuary to just a doctrine, but to an interpretive key for understanding the work of Christ, past, present, and future.

Some people are orientationally challenged, And it takes skill to understand a map.

First of all, you need to know what the map is of.

You're in a mall and you get lost, you look for a map, okay?

And it says you are here, Praise God for that.

X, that's the first thing I look for at the mall.

Now, what if I was in Paris and I was lost and someone gave me a map of London, except it says Paris on the top of it?

Through that lens of the map of London, you try to navigate Paris.

God gives us the map of the sanctuary, And we say, you know what?

I want to use a popular map from culture that meets our needs in a unique way that sounds good, and it's being replaced by different ideas and philosophies.

And that's exactly what happened with the Jews, and we need to be careful that we're not doing the same thing.

Everyone has their own guru, their person that they follow today.

But we need to make sure that we're following a biblical theology.

Are you willing to entrust your eternal salvation to a man, to a man's spin on the Bible, to a man's interpretation of Scripture?

We need to go to Scripture for ourselves and see whether these things are true.

It is the lens through which we need to understand the work of Christ and this is from Fernando Canelli, a professor emeritus of theology at Andrews Theological Seminary.

And he says, leaders, administrators, pastors, and scholars should be going back to scripture and using the sanctuary doctrine as the hermeneutical key to understand the complete and harmonious system of biblical truth.

The hermeneutical key, simply put, that is the interpretive key for understanding scripture.

John used it, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Paul used it, he is our high priest in heaven.

Seventh-day Adventist, we used it to understand Christ's work for us right now in the most holy place.

It is impossible to understand the work and ministry of Jesus Christ apart from the heavenly sanctuary.

Now here is a bird's eye view of the sanctuary.

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Series

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: The Law in the Ark

Transcript

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