Good morning. Happy, Happy Sabbath to each and every one of you who are tuning in this morning, our extended Sabbath school family, whether you're watching on the--watching on the radio, uh huh. We're not quite there with technology yet, so listening on the radio, watching live on our website at saccentral.org, or watching on the various television networks, however you are joining us a very, very Happy Sabbath to each and every one of you. Our first request that we are going to be singing this morning is 529, "under his wings." Those of you at home, pull out your hymnals and join with us this morning. This is from verna and denise in bahamas; kenisha in british virgin islands; ida in California; kelton, lynette and linda in Canada; ginalyn in denmark; anna, kaylia, paige, sherace and joy in england; lew and katie in Georgia; marjorie, Danielle, marlene in jamaica; carol in Maryland; hugo in Mexico; kaitlyn, louise, jong jong in the Philippines; abel in puerto rico; barbara in qatar; clarice in tennessee; and beth and nancy in Texas.
This is their favorite, and we will sing that right now. All three stanzas, 529, "under his wings..." If you have a favorite song that you would like to sing with us on an upcoming Sabbath, it is very, very simple. Go to our website at saccentral.org, and click on the contact us link. And you can request any song in the hymnal. And we will do our best to sing that for you as soon as possible on an upcoming Sabbath.
Our next song, this is a really good one, 647, "mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." Now I don't want you to sit in your seats right here and sing this with sad faces. I want you to sing this with all the gusto and life that you possibly can muster, 647. And this is from shane in australia; andrew in barbados, renato in brazil, Michael in California--oh, Michael right here in California--denise--i did know that it was this Michael--denise, carla, kathy ann and allen in Canada; valerie in england; jim, dianne, jamie, buffy and susana in florida; yvonne in Georgia; andre, sylvena, alex, shavanie, and jodi-ann in jamaica; marshall, naoko, Isaiah, Elijah, erika and elena in japan; David in kenya; tina in Montana; yemisi in nigeria; joyann in New York; rodolfo in Philippines; tommy and audrey in south korea; gillian in trinidad and tobago; Christa in Virginia; Matthew in Washington. Okay, 647, all 3 stanzas. And at the very end, watch carefully.
.. Father in Heaven, we know that your truth is Marching on this morning, because we are here and we are soldiers of the cross. And it's not just us, but around the world there are millions of people who love you and want to take your message to this dying world. And father, I pray that you will be with each of us this morning as we open up Your Word and we study together, that you would just fill us and give us that renewed energy and motivation that we need to finish the work. Thank you so much for just blessing us the way you do.
You pour out so many blessings on us. And sometimes we just, we don't even thank you like we should. And father, we're sorry for that, and we just pray that we'll be more grateful and more loving and more appreciative. Please be with us as we open up Your Word and we study together. Be with Pastor Doug in a very special way.
In Jesus' Name, amen. At this time our lesson study will be brought to us by our senior pastor here at central church, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Thank you debbie, singers, musicians. Morning everybody. Welcome.
Welcome to our friends who are studying with us. And just for our regular Sabbath school class in case you're wondering, the weekend we're recording this is the 4th of July weekend here in Sacramento. We broadcast about three weeks late. I got this tie in New York city during our net New York program. And I figure I've either got to throw it out or wear it.
And so I've been waiting for a patriotic day when I could wear it. Anyway, thus the tie. So I became self-conscious; I wasn't thinking much about it, 'cause American airline pilots wear these all the time. But I got to church and everybody commented on the tie. I said well maybe it was a bit much.
So anyway, forgive me. Today we're going to talk about flamboyant clothing in our study. No, ha, ha, ha. There is a story behind that, but I won't tell you right now. We have a free offer.
And the free offer is the book, "blood behind the veil." We're talking about worship in the sanctuary and rejoicing before the Lord. And we think this book has some things that also will help support those themes. So if you'd like a free copy, if you don't already have one, then just call that number. It's 866-study-more. That'll translate into 866-788-3966.
Ask for offer--the offer, "blood behind the veil." Want to welcome you again. Welcome to our central members that are scattered around the world. I've been at a few camp meetings in the last couple of weeks. That's why you maybe haven't seen me specifically here. And but as I meet the people at the camp meetings, sometimes I'll have them raise their hands and say how many study the lesson with us at sometime during the week through one of the various networks that broadcast this.
And about 80% of the people raise their hands. So we know we have a lot of friends that are studying with us, and that's always encouraging. Now we're continuing in our study guide dealing with the theme of worship. And I've got a broad subject to talk about today, "rejoicing before the Lord." Just rejoicing is a subject in itself. "The sanctuary" is a subject within itself and "worship in the sanctuary.
" We have a memory verse, Deuteronomy 12:12. And I'll be feeling better if you say this with me in stereo, Deuteronomy 12:12. Are you ready? Give you a moment and you can read it right there out of your lesson if you'd like. Here you go. "And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, your menservants, and your maidservants, and the levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he has no part nor inheritance with you.
" It's simply telling us that the levites in particular, they basically sacrificed a physical inheritance, but they were scattered throughout the tribes. They didn't get a territory like the other 12 tribes. And the tribe of Joseph was split in two to maintain the number 12, ephraim and manasseh, The Sons of Joseph. But the levites sort of became the priests for all the other tribes. It was a great honor because there at the mountain during the golden calf experience, they reMained loyal to the Lord during that time.
Now we're talking about rejoicing, and we're talking about rejoicing in the presence of God in his sanctuary. I'm hoping you'll give me a little liberty today, since it is independence weekend, and in the lesson presentation, and I'd like to talk to you about a conflict I sometimes see in the church when we talk about our attitudes in the sanctuary of worship. We seem to have two extremes that we labor with. One extreme is--well, let's go there. Ezekiel 9, turn in your Bibles to Ezekiel 9.
This kind of just came to me as The Song service was happening. And I was just in the back praying about this lesson, 'cause there's so much to say on this subject. You possibly--and this is a very important prophetic chapter to look at in our day and time. Ezekiel 9, it says, "then he called out in my hearing with a loud voice," I'm in verse 1, "saying, 'let those that have charge over the city draw near, each one with a deadly weapon in his hand. And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a battle ax--" that can be translated "destroying weapon;" it doesn't necessarily mean a medieval club with nails coming out of it-- "in his hand.
One man among them--" these are angels. Now there's six. One among them, that could mean a seventh, "clothed with linen had a writer's inkhorn at his side. And went in and stood beside the bronze altar." Alright, now where is this vision taking place? There's a bronze altar. It's in the sanctuary, okay? "Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, up to the threshold of the temple.
And he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side; and the Lord said to him, 'go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a Mark on the foreheads.' Does that have echoes of Revelation 13? "Put a Mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over the abominations that are done within." Alright, I just want to pause for a moment here; this vision about a Mark being placed on the forehead. Now whenever you hear about a Mark in the forehead, if someone said, "we're all going to meet next week at church and we're going to get a Mark on the forehead," you might run for cover. Or you might ask the question, "which Mark is this?" Typically in the Christian church, when they hear about a Mark on the forehead, they get the creeps. Their hair stands up and they think about what Mark? The Mark of the beast. Everybody forgets there's really two Marks in Revelation.
You've got the seal of God in the forehead, and the Mark of the beast in the forehead. It so happens in Ezekiel 9, this is the Mark you want. Now who gets the Mark that saves them from the battle ax, or the destruction of these angels of judgment? Listen to it. This is really something. And don't forget, by the altar, in the sanctuary.
It says, "go through the city, put a Mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry." Alright, count of three we're all going to sigh. You ready? No, some of you preemptively sighed. Wait a second. You were sighing about the concept of us all sighing together. Here we go.
You ready? One, two, three. [Sighs] is that a happy sound or a sad sound? It's kind of depressing, isn't it? Alright, those who cry. Shall we do that at the count of three? No, we'll spare you. Is that joy in the sanctuary? Oh wait, I'm not done reading here. "Utterly slay old and young men and maidens, little children and women, but do not come near anyone on whom is the Mark.
" Who gets the Mark? The ones who sigh and cry. "And begin at my sanctuary." So here it talks about the altar. It talks about the sanctuary. It talks about people who are going to be spared. It says begin with the ancient men.
And it says that those who sigh and cry will be saved. So the key to salvation in the last days is sigh and cry. Can you see how some might interpret it that way? Have you met some that's their theology? No one is going to answer me. Nobody has met anybody from whine-and-pine ministries before? Yeah, we all know, right? Alright, so that's one extreme. This is very important verse, because we're talking about rejoicing in the sanctuary.
And I'll suggest to you, there are some who feel guilty about being joyful in the sanctuary. Now I'm going to read you another verse. Go with me in your Bibles to Nehemiah 8, Nehemiah 8:8-12. Nehemiah 8:8-12. This is when they've come back from their Babylonian captivity.
They have been set free, liberty after 70 years of captivity. They're told they can go back to the promised land. They can rebuild the temple. Matter of fact they gather in the courtyard of what used to be the temple, and they begin to read from the Word of God. They have not been able to do this and publically worship like this in a long time.
Now I'm in Nehemiah 8, and I'm going to read verse 8 to 12, very important, talking about rejoicing, "so they read distinctly from the book, of the law of God, and they gave the sense, and they helped them understand the reading." This is what good preaching involves, not only read it, but then explain it. "And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest," here they are together, "and the levites who taught the people said to all the people, 'this day is holy to the Lord--" so begin to sigh and cry-- "this is a holy day to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep." Do you underline in your Bible? "Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law." Now he might have been reading from Deuteronomy where all the blessings and the cursings are pronounced and they realized, "we got all the curses because we disobeyed, and they're repenting and they're mourning." But here you got the religious leaders saying, "don't mourn and weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, 'go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet.
'" Now he's not talking about the fat of the animal. Fat used to mean cream. "Drink the sweet, send portions to those whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow." Is there a conflict between sorrow and holiness? "Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the levites quieted the people.
" Quieted them from what? They were crying. You ever try and quiet a baby? "Saying, 'be still, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.' For all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoiced greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them." Alright, and so here you've got one scenario where they see the wickedness done in the land and they're sighing and crying. Then you've got this other scenario where they had repented for their sins, and God, they understood the word, and now he's saying the Gospel is good news. You should rejoice. This is a holy day.
Do not be sad. So which is it? How are we supposed to act in church? Are we supposed to sigh and cry, or are we supposed to rejoice? Or both? Go to my third passage. Exodus 32. You all know that chapter? Who knows what that chapter's about? That's the golden calf chapter. Now I want to show you something here.
Verse 1, "now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down the mountain, they gathered together to aaron." Now up to this point, did they have reason to be happy? Sure. God had spoken to them. They had been liberated, saved the whole nation from slavery. Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments. He said, "I'm coming back," did not say exactly when.
They became impatient. But they had every reason to be excited about God's presence in their midst. And they said, "we don't know what happened to Moses. Come, make us Gods that will go before us; for as this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what became of him.' And aaron said, 'break off the golden earrings in your ears of your wives, and your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." They'd gotten all these from their Egyptians. "So all the people broke off the golden earrings that were in their ears, and they brought them to aaron.
And he received the gold from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. And they said, 'this is your God, o Egypt, that brought you out of the land of Egypt--" I'm sorry-- "this is your God, o Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt! So when aaron saw it, he built an altar before it." Now they're going to worship. They're going to have a worship service. "And aaron made a proclamation, saying, 'tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the next day, they burnt offerings, they brought peace offerings,'" ostensibly to the Lord, but now they're involved in idolatry.
"And the people sat down to eat and drink," they had a potluck, "then they rose up to play." And their playing got so carried away, they ultimately were naked. "And the Lord said to Moses, 'go, get down! For your people who you brought out of the land of Egypt--" that always cracks 'em up. God says--you know, whenever the kids are misbehaving, both Karen and I sort of disown 'em. And I'll say, "your boys." She'll say, "your boys." So the Lord is doing that to Moses, "you know those people you brought." "You're the one who told me to do it," Moses should have said. "I was just taking care of some sheep, happy, out in the wilderness.
You told me they're your people." Success has a thousand owners, but defeat is an orphan. Something like that. You know what quote I'm talking about? And the Lord said, "get thee up." "They have turned aside quickly from the way I commanded them. They made a molded calf, and they worshipped it and sacrificed to it, saying, 'this is your God, o Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'" And I want you to read down here. So finally Moses turned, verse 15, Moses turned and he goes down the mountain.
And he's got the two tablets of the testimony, Ten Commandments in his hand. Tablets were written on both sides, the one side and the other they were written. The tablets were the work of God. The writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. "And when Joshua heard the noise of the people--" Joshua evidently had bivouaced some way half way up, because he doesn't know what's happening down the hill, but he couldn't go all the way up into the mountain because the glory of God was there.
And so he is the apprentice. He's kind of at this half-way point. By the way, Jesus is our Joshua who was the mediator between God and man. And so I thought that's interesting. "And Joshua hears the noise of the people.
" He can hear this noise coming up from the camp. So he's so far away, he can still hear, "as they shouted, he said to Moses, 'there's the noise of war in the camp.' But he said: 'it is not the voice of those who shout in victory.'" That would have been rejoicing. Right? Victory? "Neither is it the voice of those who cry out in defeat." That would have been sighing and crying. So here you've got the two extremes. Basically Moses is saying if they're shouting because of victory, that's expected.
That's normal. If they are repenting because of defeat, that is normal. But it's the voice of those who sing that I hear. So if you're hot, the Lord says he can deal with that. You're rejoicing because of victory.
If you're cold, "I would you were hot or cold," you're on your knees repentant, God can deal with that. But if you're Lukewarm, and you do not know your need, that is the condition that God cannot save from. That is where you--it breeds the unpardonable sin. That's saying, "I'm rich increased with goods," and don't know that you might be living in disobedience and you've got golden calves in your life. That's having a potluck and celebrating when you're still in a lost, sinful condition.
So when do we rejoice before the Lord? When we hear and understand the word and we've surrendered to God's will, that's good news. We have everlasting life. That's cause for rejoicing. When do we sigh and cry? When we know that we have failed and we need revival, then you need to be in an attitude of repentance. That's when you humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
So how are we supposed to act in church? Well, it depends on where you're at. Does that make sense? To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. There is a time. At a wedding, do you want people to sigh and cry? It depends on who's getting married, but typically you want to be rejoicing. Right? And at a funeral, you know, some funerals are kinds of celebration if a person has lived a victorious full life, they die full of days, you know, you can rejoice and celebrate their life.
But sometimes you mourn their loss, right? And so it depends on the occasion. So that's sort of a long introduction to this concept of rejoicing in the presence of the Lord, because I thought that was--do you think that makes sense that we should talk about that? Because I run into a lot of people, and they're wondering, "well, how do we?" Sometimes people abuse the Scriptures about sighing and crying, and they think that every church experience is to be misery. Then you've got people who abuse the Scriptures about rejoicing in the Lord, and it turns into sort of a hootenanny charismatic service, where there's no reverence. Do you know what I'm saying? Does everyone agree? Say, "amen." I mean does this make sense? So you've got these two extremes, that there's this tension about how do we worship before the Lord? How do we rejoice in his sanctuary? Then you've got one more component about reverence in the sanctuary. And you know, as I travel, I run into churches where they don't understand you've got a building that has been dedicated to God's service and especially during the time and the day of worship, there should be a spirit of reverence there, because you've come into the presence of God.
And then you've got churches that wrestle with the situation where they are renting one room that during the week is their school. It's the gymnasium. And on Sabbath it's the worship service. And it's really hard sometimes to teach the kids the place where you are playing dodge ball during the week, is now where you're worshipping God. And they struggle with how do you do that? And so you got all these issues when we talk about worshipping in the presence of the Lord.
And then we call this the sanctuary, rightly so. But is it the same sanctuary that we have in Bible times? Do we physically sacrifice lambs? Is there a laver where the priests wash? Do we have an altar in the courtyard burning? And so there's obviously some differences, but it is still a sacred place of worship. So with that sort of as a backdrop, let's get into our lesson, "that I might dwell among them." Exodus 15:17, it says, "you will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, the Lord, which you have made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, o Lord, which your hands have established." Now up until this verse I just read, Exodus 15:17, where was the worship place for God on earth? Wherever Abraham went he built an altar. When adam and eve left the garden, what'd they do? They built an altar. Even cain and abel built altars.
They would worship at altars. Altars roamed. But now you've got a different situation. You've got a whole people. It's not just a clan.
It's not just a family. There is a people that God is saying, "when you go into the promised land, and I give it to you and you become a nation," as opposed to just Abraham migrated among many people living in the promised land, now you're going to own the promised land, "there will be a center of worship." Did you catch that? It's the first time it ever tells that when they get into the promised land, there will be a specific center of worship. Alright, please read for us Exodus 25:8-9. "And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so ye shall make it.
" Wow. This is--this is just such a powerful verse, because here God is saying, "I am going to give you some blueprints. I have not given out any blueprints since I talked to Noah. But I'm going to give you some blueprints of a building that is going to represent how you want me--how I want you to worship me. Furthermore, this sacred edifice, this geometric shape is going to teach you about me and it's going to be the place where you're going to worship me.
So this is very, very important. Now this pattern from God, and we don't have enough time to talk about it at length, but this first section talks about God dwelling among them. I'm going to take just a moment or two. Now we have a slide we're going to put up on the screen. For those who might be watching at home I think we'll have a copy of it we can maybe put up of the sanctuary.
And there you've got a very crude picture of that shape of the temple. Now there were slight variations between the three temples, meaning the tabernacle and the wilderness. It was designed with portability in mind, so it was a little different from the one that was built, partially designed by David, built by Solomon. That was destroyed and then it was rebuilt again, a little smaller scale than Solomon's during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, refurbished by herod the great for the time of Jesus, but basically the same. There were little differences between them, but they had these things in common.
There was a courtyard. There was one primary entrance, one door. Now who is the door biblically? Jesus said, "I am the door." First thing you saw when you came in was a place of sacrifice where lambs were burnt. And we'll read a little later about that fire on the altar. I'm going to jump ahead to Leviticus 6.
And it says there, "and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he'll burn the fat on it of the peace offerings. A fire shall always be burning on the altar. It shall never go out." Now just so you understand. This is very important I think.
When they first built the first tabernacle and Solomon's temple, there's no record it happened with the third temple, on the point of dedication, for God to show his approval, they put a sacrifice on the altar. They put wood underneath the sacrifice. They prayed. God sent divine fire down from heaven and burnt the sacrifice. The glory came down into the temple of Solomon.
The glory came down in the tabernacle. And it was a divinely ignited fire, just like it did in the days of Elijah. How do you think God showed his approval for abel's offering? Fire came down from heaven. But nothing happened to cain's. That fire was called sacred fire, 'cause it was kindled by God.
When they needed coals in the holy place for the incense, they didn't get their bic lighter out. They didn't get a box of diamond matches. They took coals from the original fire that God started, and they brought that in. They always used holy fire. You remember the story of nadab and abihu, The Sons of aaron? They came intoxicated into the sanctuary and decided they'd just kindle some of their own fire for this altar of incense; they were struck down.
Common fire it was called. They were supposed to have this sacred fire. Alright, so on that altar, this fire representing God's Spirit, now is there counterfeit fire in the world? Counterfeit spirit. Is there real joy that God gives? Do some churches sort of manufacture joy by just playing a little faster and a little louder and they say, "oh, it's just I feel so good inside. My heart's pounding.
That's the joy of the Lord." And it's kind of a counterfeit fire if you ask me. So there's the real fire of God's Spirit. The other thing that you see there, it's got this little cross there, sacrifice stake. You're not going to find that in the Bible, but it is understood. There was a place where they actually cut the lamb's throats.
They tied them up. They caught the blood. And so some have said, you know, there was a place. And I don't know if that's in erdersheim's writings about the sanctuary, but I've seen something about that where they tied off the lambs. They used these cords.
Remember when Jesus came into the temple, he made a whip out of cords? They had cords for tying off the lambs that were brought and they would sacrifice them, catch the blood. They didn't catch the blood when they were on the fire. Anyway, that's all that represents, so don't make too much out of that. So there's a place of sacrifice. There was a place then where there was washing, laver.
And then you've got the holy place, most holy place. There are three places in the sanctuary: courtyard, holy place, most holy place. There are three places in salvation: justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification takes place in the courtyard. You come just as you are.
Sanctification takes place in the holy place. Glorification is when you're finally in the presence of God, most holy place. Children of Israel had three places in their deliverance. They were justified. They sacrificed the lamb in Egypt.
Then they crossed the red sea. That's the laver. Once you go through the laver, then you enter the new place, the holy place. By the way, two things, two baptisms in the courtyard: fire baptism, water baptism. Jesus said, "unless you're born of the water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom.
So that represented the birth and the Spirit. Remember the pillar of fire children of Israel had? Baptism in the fire. Then they were baptized in the sea. We need both baptisms: baptism in the Spirit, baptism in the water. Then they entered the next experience.
This is your wilderness sanctification experience. You got bread there. You got a candlestick there. And you got an altar of incense there, different from the altar of sacrifice. Nothing died on the altar of incense, it was a sweet smell.
It represented prayer. That represents the three disciplines of the Christian life. The bread represents what? Word of God. That's also Christ. We need to read our Bibles every day.
The incense represents? It says in Revelation, "which is the prayer of the saints." We need to pray every day. The third thing is you have the candlestick to let your light shine, witnessing. So the three disciplines of the Christian life, every day we need to read the word, meditate on the word, pray without ceasing, let your light shine, be a witness for the Lord, do the work of discipling others, and living the life that people can look at. So there you've got that in the holy place. Then of course when the children of Israel entered into the promised land, that's like us going into heaven.
That's glorification. That's the presence of God. That's the most holy place. Now there's just so much here, I don't have time for it all in this--how much time I got left? Short lesson. Jesus is the door.
Jesus is the living water in the laver. Jesus is the lamb. Then there are some priests that administered everything happening here. Jesus is our high priest. Jesus is the bread, going into the holy place.
Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the one who makes our prayers acceptable. We pray in the name of Jesus. Inside the most holy place was the Ten Commandments. Jesus is the law incarnate.
He is the rock of ages. And just everything you see in the sanctuary is all telling about who? Jesus! Then I heard someone give a talk, and again I'm not an expert on this. I'm just kind of giving you the--evangelists really do the reader's digest version of things. So you just get the big picture. But that even your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
It even says something about the physical body. It's such a simple design, but it really says so much about life. And what you've really got there is wheels within a wheel. You know, every cell of life kind of has these centers where you got a nucleus and the nucleus there would be the most holy place. But if your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, there was a fire burning continually.
Does your body continually burn calories? Are you continually using energy in your body? Yes. There is a place of cleansing. We've got a circulatory system that cleanses all the time. Your body is mostly water actually. So there was water there.
There was storage of food there. Do our bodies store food for energy? Yeah. The light of the body is the eye, so there was illumination there. You've got the candlestick. the Spirit of man was that altar of incense.
They still don't understand how thoughts are stored and transmitted. Then you had the holy of holies, which was the dwelling place of God. Your mind is that dwelling place of God. So I've even heard people talk about the temple and done wonderful talks on it being a type of the body. So this is just a quick overview.
There's so much. That's why it said in this verse, "thy way, o God, is in the sanctuary." Actually I jumped ahead to another verse in Psalms. Now at the end of verse 25, Exodus 25:8-9, it says, "let 'em make a sanctuary, that I might dwell among them." "I might dwell among them." What was the ultimate goal of God's people? The presence of God. How does the Bible end? Well, wait. How does it start? Because of sin, man was chased out of the garden.
He was separated. The desire of the end of the Bible, Revelation 21:3. I didn't give that slip to anybody yet, so I need a volunteer cold turkey. "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 'behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them and be their God.
'" Notice the emphasis: "with them," "with them." Christ when he ascends to heaven, what were his parting words, "behold I am with you." So the ultimate goal is to be back with God. And so the whole sanctuary, notice there's one door going in. There's one direction. Everything moves in one direction. It's a straight line.
Talk about Paul was converted on straight street. They took him to straight street. And that's really how conversion is. It's a direct line. You enter, you go on this March back to God and the holy place.
And that's to bring us back in the presence of God. And that's what Paul is talking about in Hebrews when he said, "we can now through Christ come boldly into the presence." We can lay hold on the horns of the altar. Because of Christ, we can go inside the veil, right into the presence of God when we pray through Jesus. So we are restored to God, back to his presence. It's just a--it's a wonderful thought.
Alright, look with me now--well, one more verse I want to read you. Deuteronomy 12:5, and I'll read verse 6 too, "but you'll seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put his name for his dwelling place; and there you will go. There you will take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your heave offerings of your hand, that your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flocks." God said. Notice this is Deuteronomy, last book of Moses. He didn't say where it was yet.
But he said, "God is going to tell you where it's going to be. He hasn't revealed that to me yet. There'll be a future Revelation of what the specific place is supposed to be where his name is going to be." You know he ultimately revealed that to David, that Jerusalem was to be the place where the temple was to be built. Isn't that interesting that that was the place where Abraham offered Isaac? That was the place melchizedek was the King of salem, later called jeru-salem. And that was the holy spot.
And that's the place where Jesus was crucified. Wasn't it? Jerusalem. Not far, matter of fact, just within sight of that holy mount where Abraham offered his son. "Willing hearts," Exodus 25:2, does someone have that one? "Speak to the children of Israel; that they bring me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take an offering.
" Notice the emphasis in the Bible. Willingly from what? From his heart. How does God want us to give? From our hearts. What kind of giver does the Lord love? the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Exodus 35:5, "take from among you an offering to the Lord.
Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver and bronze." Now is an offering different from tithe? Yeah, that's why God says in Malachi 3, "bring you all the tithes into the storehouse." And he says, "you've robbed me in tithes and offerings." One was a specific amount, a percentage. It was God's. Everything's God's, but he says, "I've laid claim to this first tenth." Offerings are something you give beyond that. You know, a lot of the Christian world, they kind of think tithes and offerings are all mixed up together. And a lot of confusion on that subject.
Alright, you're going to read for us now 2 Corinthians 9:7. "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver." God loves a cheerful giver, but he will also take it from a grouch. And it's not that God needs it. The reason I think you should give, even if you think, "oh, I'm not cheerful, so I'm not giving today," I think you should give anyway. It's not because I'm a pastor, 'cause we here at central church don't get a penny of your offerings.
It doesn't affect our salaries. We're on a pay scale. Everyone at this church gets mad at the pastors and stops giving, we'll still get our check. The reason we tell you that is because giving starves the grouch we all have inside. So as you give, even though you may not be giving from the right attitude, you get a blessing anyway, and it helps to combat our naturally selfish natures.
But how much better to give cheerfully. the Lord loves us all, but he really loves a cheerful giver. And cheerful means giving from the heart. Alright. And then there's another verse in the lesson talking about the people that volunteered not only offerings, but they joyfully gave their service.
Exodus 36:2, "then Moses called bezaleel and aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred, to come and to do the work." So when we were talking about rejoicing in our service to God, and we're worshipping God--you know, I was just sitting here, I was standing here a few seconds ago. And because of the way our sanctuary's built, I can look out and I can see that we still have greeters that are at the doors giving the bulletins to people, and we still have ushers that are poised, ready for their position to receive the Sabbath school offering later. And they're sacrificing the benefit of having undivided attention of being in here so that they can minister. Everybody in a church is worshipping God, and we should be doing it with willing hearts using our respective gifts. And that might mean service.
It might mean some responsibility. But everybody should be using their gifts willingly in the service of God, right? Alright, Exodus 29, I'll read this one for you. And this is under, "the continual burnt offering." I read that verse to you about the fire always being kept burning. "The continual burnt offering." Here's a verse, Exodus 29:38. And I'll read through verse 40 from the lesson.
"Now this is what you shall offer on the altar; two lambs of the first year, day by day continually." Now I'm going to pause here. Why two lambs day by day? 'Cause it required two? Why not four? Why not one and a half? Couldn't you do that with a lamb? You can offer it--it's because one was for the morning offering; one was for the evening offering. Beyond that those lambs represented Christ. The Word of God, Jesus represents the word, is often done in a dual nature. You got the law and the prophets, a sword with two edges, Moses and Elijah, new and the old testament.
It's plural, the mouth of two witnesses. But more than anything it represented the morning and evening worship. Best thing is if you pray three times a day like Daniel, psalm 55. But they always had at least the morning and the evening sacrifice. And the fire was kept burning continually.
Why? Any of you ever bought a product, and it said if you have any questions you can call, not just during working hours, but 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whenever you got a problem with your phone, there'll be somebody there to answer your call. You ever? Were you thankful that they had 24-7 service available? Oh, that's great when you have that, 'cause you may not have a problem when their office is open. Your software might crash on a weekend. Well, the good thing about the Lord, he's telling us in this, salvation and forgiveness is available 24-7.
We have caller support. Caller support meaning you can pray, and he doesn't keep banker's hours. Apologies to any bankers that might be here today or studying. But you know what I mean. He's available all the time.
So there's a big emphasis on 24-7 that fire was kept burning. And you remember the--oh, I'm not going to say that right now. I don't have time. Alright, "day by day continually. One lamb shall you offer in the morning, the other lamb you'll offer at twilight.
With the one lamb shall be one-tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of pressed oil, and one-fourth part of a hin of wine as a drink offering." So on a daily basis was there just a lamb offered, or what else was offered? You catch that? Every day there was also a lamb. So you got lamb. What else was offered? You got flour being offered. What else? Oil being offered. Wine.
Alright, what does the lamb represent? Jesus. What does oil represent? Holy Spirit. What does flour represent? Word of God. What does the wine represent? The blood of the covenant, Gospel, right? Jesus said, "drink, this is--" represents his blood. On a daily basis, continually, there were certain things that were always needed, always available.
These are the elements of the Gospel really, all here. Isn't that interesting? You got the Holy Spirit. You got the blood of Christ. You got the Word of God. You got Christ's body.
And on a daily basis, the Gospel was made available. When it talks about an interruption of the daily in the book of Daniel, this is very important to understand. When it talks about that the abomination of desolation would cause the daily to cease, that there wouldn't be the availability of the entire Gospel is what's being implied in those prophesies. Okay, got more to say here. "Communion with God," Exodus 25:10-11.
Someone want to read that for us? "And they shall construct an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and you will overlay it, and you shall make gold molding around it." Alright, here it's talking about the ark. What went inside the ark? Ten Commandments. What was the center? What was the nucleus of the sanctuary? The ark of the covenant, the ark. You know, I seriously have doubts about this, but I've seen more than one program where someone tried to say because of the construction of the ark, because of the gold, and because of the stone inside, that it had the possibility of being an electrical conductor, of it being a dynamo.
And if they ever found--the reason that uzzah was killed when he touched the ark, 'cause it conducted electricity. Any of you ever heard that? I don't go for that, but it makes for a colorful talk anyway. But it was the power of God that made it a dynamo. The Word of God was inside. But it represented the place where they communed with God.
And the high priest would go in before the people and as an advocate for them to commune with God. And it says in next verse 22, it's not the next verse, go to Exodus 25:22, "and there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat." Do you remember when Moses went in before the Lord to talk to him time and time again? Moses, unlike the high priest, high priest was only supposed to go in once a year. Moses went in on several occasions to speak with the Lord. And he'd March right into the holy of holies. I mean Moses went up to the mountain; it would kill any other man.
They would even kill a donkey if he touched the mountain. But Moses could go right into the presence of God and commune with the Lord. Moses is a type of who? Of Christ. Does Jesus only have access to The Father once a year? Or through Christ can we boldly go before The Father any time? I went to southwestern adventist university for a semester. And took theology there and enjoyed it very much.
Only reason I didn't really continue, or one of the main reasons I didn't continue is I got involved in the summer doing evangelism, and I fell in love with evangelism. I never made it back to school. They were nice enough to give me an honorary degree years later. But one class I remember was when we took the "life and teachings of Jesus." And our teacher there insisted that we memorize the first three verses of John. And the first time I read it I thought why? Why these verses? And he was so passionate about those verses.
Well, I came to understand how important they are because it really, it's the essence of eternal life. So why don't you read verse 3, John 17:3-4. So you ready? "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Eternal life is in knowing God, right? And knowing specifically Jesus, God The Son. Didn't he say that when he comes to the lost, he'll say, "I don't know you." The saved, obviously he knows them. And so eternal life comes from knowing the Lord.
And this is so important. And if you know the Lord, will you rejoice? You know, the people who really have the joy of the Lord are the ones who have come. They've laid their burdens down. They know Jesus. And in his presence is joy forevermore.
Right? So if you're living in the presence of God, then you're rejoicing in his sanctuary. Oh, there's so much more I could say. We ran out of time. But we do still have that free offer. If you'd like to simply call and ask for "blood behind the veil," we'll send that to you.
It's 866-788-3966. God bless you, friends. And we'll look forward to studying lesson five together next Sabbath. In six days, God created the heavens and the earth. For thousands of years, man has worshipped God on the seventh day of the week.
Now each week millions of people worship on the first day. What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who is behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed. Visit Sabbathtruth.com.