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Sutherlin SDA Church

War of Thrones

Daniel Pel

Revealing the War Behind All Wars

What Does the Future Hold?

Prophecy’s Signs of the Times

The Ultimate King

The Map to the Throne Room

The Battle of Faith

What Went Wrong with the Christian Religion?

A Moral Compass to Navigate Life

Finding Rest in Today’s Society

Can the Dead Speak To Us?

What is the Mark of the Beast in the Book of Revelation?

How Can I Have a New Start in Life?

Does God Really Burn People in Hell Forever?

The Rise of Mystery Babylon

A People of Prophecy

Home at Last!

You know, I've always been very fascinated by maps.

It's just something that I had from a young age.

I love Google Maps, I love real maps, and I can just sometimes just use time to just look at a map.

That's maybe awkward for some of you, you think, you know, that's not interesting, but it interests me a lot.

I like to know how the world is, you know, how it all fits together and different places and different areas.

And when I think about the Bible, the Bible is almost like a map in many ways, providing us with instruction about where we are in the scope of time.

You know, if you've ever been in 1 of these malls where you can get lost, it's always good to have a map, right?

And then you have that little sign that says, you are here, and you think to yourself, I've always been here.

But these maps, they are given us for a reason.

And the Bible is indeed like a kind of map.

It's a map that leads us from creation all the way to the final recreation in the end of time.

It's a map that provides us with where people have been in history and where we are today and where we are heading.

But also the Bible provides us with a map to find our way to God, to find our way to the heavenly throne room, the very place where Jesus Christ is enthroned, where God the Father is enthroned.

It's the control center of the universe, so to speak.

And as we talk about this subject of war of thrones, which is our overall theme, Tonight we're going to spend some time in looking at the throne room of God.

How can we have access to the throne room of God?

And this is a subject that I believe will be very helpful when you study Bible prophecy.

In many ways, Bible prophecy, there's a key to unlock it, and the key to unlock Bible prophecy is the sanctuary.

Now, when I say the sanctuary, maybe for some of you that's kind of a new phrase.

Well, just hang in tonight, and we'll examine this together, what this sanctuary and scripture is all about.

In Psalms chapter 11 and verse 4 we read the following, the Lord is in his holy temple and actually when I talk about sanctuary and temple, this is basically the same thing.

The sanctuary was the place where the people of God would gather, and it was the place where God would manifest his presence, and they had a sanctuary while they were dwelling in the wilderness, the people of God, and later when they came into the promised land of Canaan, they built this temple, the temple in Jerusalem, and this was a place where God literally manifested his presence.

And the psalm writer here says the Lord is in his holy temple.

But the fascinating thing is that the earthly temple was only a type of a heavenly temple.

So though there was a temple here on earth, it was really only a picture, a shadow, a type of something far greater and grander, and that is the very temple or sanctuary that is in heaven where God controls the universe, where his throne room is.

And the psalm writer says the Lord is in his holy temple.

Listen to this, the Lord's, what word is that?

We're talking here about the war of thrones We we have examined already in Scripture that there's a conflict going on between good and evil but as we now focus on the throne of God the throne where all goodness comes from where is that throne?

Well, it's in heaven, but to be more specific It's in the temple in heaven the sanctuary in heaven his eyes behold It says his eyes behold his eyelids test the sons of man This is for the place from where God beholds everything that happens and from where he controls the universe.

In Psalms chapter 80 in verse 1 it says, give ear O shepherd of Israel you who lead Joseph like a flock and listen to this you who dwell between the cherubim shine forth.'" This is also interesting language.

It says that God, which is here referred to as the shepherd of Israel, the 1 that leads his people, that he dwells between the cherubim.

The cherubim, it's interesting, it is mentioned a couple of times in Scripture and it's actually referring to an angel.

And there were 2 special cherubims that we read about in the Old Testament and they were placed on what we call the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, inside the Ark of the Covenant was the place where the 10 Commandments were stored, where the 10 Commandments were placed.

And when you look at the sanctuary in the Old Testament that they first built there during their wilderness dwellings after they came out of Egypt and the people of God were moving, the Hebrews were moving through the desert for 40 years, they would have this portable tent structure that they called the sanctuary and it had basically 3 compartments.

You had the outer court where they would sacrifice, which was a symbol of the Lamb of God, Jesus, that would die for our sins.

It was like a prophecy of the coming Messiah.

Then you would have the holy place where the priest would officiate during the year.

And then you had what they called the most holy place where no 1 was allowed to enter except the high priest once a year and inside the most holy place was only 1 object and that 1 object in the most holy place was the Ark of the Covenant.

Here you have a picture of the Ark of the Covenant.

And on top of the Ark of the Covenant was what was called the mercy seat.

And this was basically the lid and you had 2 cherubim angels that were carved out and overlaid with gold.

And between those 2 angels, God would literally represent himself through what was called the Shekinah glory.

That's where he would dwell when he dwelt with his ancient people of Israel.

He would dwell between the cherubims and he would shine forth there, And so this was a magnificent manifestation of God's presence in their midst.

And right in the Ark of the Covenant, you have the 10 commandments of God.

So when the psalm writer says, shine forth from between the cherubims, if we understand that language from a biblical perspective, then what he's actually saying is, God, you dwell in the sanctuary, you dwell in the temple, you dwell between those cherubims in the most holy place.

You are right there above the Ark of the Covenant.

We have a map to the throne room of God and we need your help.

So God's people, they knew where to go when they were in need of help.

As a matter of fact, there's this fascinating story in the Old Testament, and there's a book in the Old Testament called the Kings.

You have first kings and second kings, and it's basically going through the story of the history of Israel.

And there's lots of amazing stories there about good kings and bad kings and wars between different and various kings.

And a lot of these earthly historic stories about these kingdoms, They represent something about a bigger picture about the war of thrones and the great controversy between good and evil.

And in 1 instance, there's a king, which was relatively, quite a good king actually, his name was Hezekiah, and he was a king over Judah, and while he was king, Jerusalem was invaded by the king of the Assyrians and Sennacherib was his name and they had surrounded the city and they had already destroyed other nations on their way and it seemed as if there was no hope for Those that were dwelling there in Jerusalem It was just a matter of time and they would also be conquered by the Assyrian King And so what Hezekiah does is he approaches God in prayer, and I'm just I want to share with you tonight the prayer that he prays Because in the prayer of Hezekiah, it's very obvious that Hezekiah knows where his help is going to come from He has a map to the throne room of God.

It's recorded in the book of Isaiah chapter 37 and reading from verse 15.

And the Bible reads, Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, listen to this, the 1 who dwells between the cherubim, that's the God that I serve, that's my God, that's the God, the Creator God, the all-powerful God, the magnificent, omniscient, almighty, all-powerful God.

He dwells between the cherubim and he refers to God as being right there.

And then he says, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth.

He's referring to the very Creator God, not a God that is made by hands, Not a God that is made by hands, not a God that is made of stone or wood or carved out in wood or gold or silver.

No, this is the real God, the heavenly God, the Almighty God.

And he's referring to that God as the 1 that dwells between the cherubim.

He goes on in his prayer and he says, incline your ear, O Lord, and hear.

Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear all the words of Sancara.

That was the enemy king that had surrounded the city.

Hezekiah is saying, you see what he's doing.

Which he has sent to approach the living God.

Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and all their lands and have cast their gods into the fire.

For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone.

Now, therefore, oh Lord, our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, you alone." Well, God honored that prayer, and it was shortly after that, and you can read the whole story in the book of Kings, but God sent a mighty angel down from heaven to defeat the army of Sennacherib, and he had to go back to his country, and they were saved.

Hezekiah humbly prayed to the God that dwelt between the cherubims, to the living God, the Creator God, the Almighty God.

And I believe that just as God's people in the past had a map to the throne room of God.

They knew where their help was coming from.

So it is important for you and I in 2019 to know where to go when we are facing struggles and temptations and trials and difficulties.

We also need to know the way into God's sanctuary.

We also need to know the way to the throne room of heaven.

The question is, where do we go when we face obstacles and trials?

Because we might not be in a city that is surrounded by an army, but we certainly are in circumstances in our life where there seems to be no way out.

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Series

War of Thrones

The Map to the Throne Room

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

War of Thrones

A People of Prophecy

1h 1m

The Relevance of Revelation 4 and 5

50m

Plenary

Final Charge

26m

Don’t Lose Heart

50m

GYC SE 2012 Seminar: The Purpose of the Sanctuary

The Sanctuary Message and the Last Generation

49m

For Us

34m

What is Righteousness by Faith?

The Answer to Our Deficiencies

57m

There’s No Thief Like Fear

46m

My Dream and His Dream - A Story of Dependence

56m

The Truth about Temptation - Self control in an out of control world!

44m

Breakout Session A

Addicted to Affection

1h 11m

Operation BluePrint

25m

Sound Doctrine