David Asscherick Ablazing Grace- 25 The Sanctuary Part One SecondComing.org

so what we're gonna do today and next Sabbath is talk about the big picture of what's taking place in the sanctuary and it fits in right at the tail end of our 3rd chapter Exodus here we're in sort of exodus chapters 25 to 40 and then right into the Book of Leviticus and so today and the next Sabbath will have two parts big-picture overview of this great truth of the sanctuary and so a little bit of a heads up about what's coming let's pray together father you've already been with us in a beautiful way in the singing and in that beautiful children's story where we learned that when when we give up something there's always something greater in return and father you've ministered to us in the offering and we turn our attention out to you in Scripture and we know that you have revealed yourself in Scripture and we ask that you will now come through the foolishness of preaching and reveal yourself in this room we love you and thank you in Jesus name let everyone say Amen somebody alluded to it might have been Paul and the introduction the preamble to the last worship service that set there there are a great many things that people who are not seventh-day Adventist and this is a 7th avenues Church I recognize that not everybody who's here is the seventh evidence but I want to speak now a little bit of in-house information about what it means to be a seventh-day Adventist there are a great many Christians of other stripes and flavors and persuasions that would regard many things that seventh-day Adventist do and believe as strange and unusual and idiosyncratic and that's probably true in fairness that there are a great many things that we believe in that we hold to that the wider Christian world and the wider unbelieving world would regard as unusual however most of the sort of unique or idiosyncratic things of seventh-day Adventist are held by some other religious groups or denominations for example one of the things that people would sort of regard as unusual or peculiarly seventh-day Adventist would be the Sabbath but of course there are many groups of people that keep Sabbath including but not limited to the Jews and so even though that in some sense is peculiar to us it's not unique to us we also eat in a certain way and while that is peculiar to us it's not unique to us 7-day Adventist believe that when you die you sleep the sleep of death and you await the resurrection at the return of Jesus here again that is peculiar to seventh-day Adventism but it's not unique to seventh-day Adventism there are other denominational groups and individuals within those denominations that believe the biblical doctrine of when you die you sleep and await the resurrection however when it comes to the set the corpus of 7th avenues teaching there is something that seventh day having us uniquely hold and that is the sanctuary not that we're the only ones who believe in the sanctuary because of course the sanctuary is taught both in the new and the Old Testaments but the unique prophetic significance and the salvific significance of the sanctuary is something that is uniquely seventh-day Adventist and and I'll go right out on a limb here I will go so far as to say that I think a an unfortunate number of people who would identify as self as seventh-day Adventist could actually articulate why we believe what we believe about the sanctuary and why it matters and so it's quite fascinating that this is the thing that sort of uniquely set seventh-day Adventist apart from other denominations various stripes of the Christian world but even within the Adventist community I would say that general biblical literacy probably tends to be reasonably high compared to other churches denominations but when it comes to that unique thing that sets us apart my experience as an evangelist of two decades has been that literacy about this is actually very low and I've not seen anything yet in this congregation that has persuaded me that you are exceptions to the rule right now there are certainly some people here that could give great Studies on the sanctuary that understand it very well however there's a very good chance that most of us here in this congregation like most seventh-day Evans congregations in Australia would have some general awareness oh yeah yeah yeah that's sang sure that's pretty Fortin but if it really came down to the brass tacks that the task of explaining it and saying why it's important or even giving some sort of vague articulation of it I think many of us would be hard-pressed to do that and so what we're gonna do today and next Sabbath is talk about the big picture of what's going on in the sanctuary in the larger flow of what's happening in Exodus if you think about the book of Exodus it's basically largely the story of of course the exit from Israel up to Mount Sinai right that's the story of the Exodus experience and Jared and Daniel have done an excellent job of preaching us up to the point that we are now at in Scripture but when you get to Exodus chapter 25 and extending all the way to the end of Exodus 40 chapters in Exodus I believe let me just double check that for the most part beginning in chapter 25 right down to the end chapter 40 it largely dwells around God giving very specific instructions about the sanctuary about the tabernacle and how it should be set up and what the priest is to do and what sacrifices should be offered and and where it's to be built and how its to be arranged how the individual pieces of furniture should be put together I mean it's really like reading an instruction manual thing frankly and then you get into the Book of Leviticus and it's the same kind of thing most of us I think would really struggle to articulate why these instructions are so detailed so important and beyond that some of us might be thinking what's the big deal man Jesus has come now all of that stuff was Jewish it was theirs it's you know uniquely an idiosyncratically Jewish we're now Christians this is the New Covenant this is the New Testament Jesus is come and who cares about you know bring this and bring that and in certain kinds of offerings and certain arrangements of no no no no so here's the thing I want you to try and understand if you're sitting here today is the Seventh day Adventist or if you're sitting here today as somebody who is wondering about seventh-day Adventism let me say this I have heard some well-meaning but I think ultimately at well-meaning seventh-day Adventist even in this church you have said man we need to be hearing more about the end times Jesus is coming soon how come we're not hearing more about the end times we need to be hearing more about Jesus is coming soon okay sure enough that is a part of Scripture however funnily enough fascinatingly enough if we don't understand the undergirding structure of why we believe that Jesus is coming soon and why we believe what we believe about daniel and revelation what does it matter if you have a pastor that stands up front and gets you all frost up and hyped up about the soon return of Jesus and none of us understand the actual biblical basis for why we believe what we believe are you with me yes or no which is why we started in this church I envision that we'll be here for a number of years with a systematic walkthrough of well let's start with where the Bible starts the Old Testament etc now let me just give it to you very simply here you have up on the screen that this is a matter that is a very very big deal let me just break it down for you here if seventh-day Adventists are wrong about Exodus and wrong about Leviticus okay then we are wrong about the sanctuary okay we have a particular perspective on the sanctuary we have a particular understanding of the centrality of the sanctuary and the prophetic nature of the saying sure but here's an interesting thing if we're wrong about Leviticus we're wrong about the sanctuary but it gets even more amazing if we're wrong about the sanctuary we are wrong about the Book of Daniel now if we're wrong about the Book of Daniel then we are wrong about what's the next book on there we're wrong about the book of Revelation and if we're wrong about the Book of Daniel the book of Revelation and the sanctuary then we are wrong about basically everything so the stakes are very high right it's not just like oh yeah that's just a little thing that seventh-day Adventist believe it's kind of cute son usual and talk now about the soon return of Jesus let me tell you the only reason that we have something to say about the soon return of Jesus is because we believe we have something unique to say about Exodus and Leviticus which leads us to have something unique to say about the sanctuary which leads us to have something unique to say about the prophecies of Daniel which leads us to have something unique to say about the prophecies of Revelation and only when I am satisfied that we as a congregation understand why we believe Jesus is coming soon will we start to hear lengthy sermons about that that make sense okay I know that there are a whole lot of seventh evidence that believe that Jesus is coming soon and I get that and yet when you put the pressure to them why do you believe that how can we be so certain well you know the Pope is doing this and the United States is doing this and all of this sort of you know it's like getting your understanding of the Bible from the newspapers or worse yet from the internet right we're like we're just sure that Jesus is coming soon well just forgive me for saying this I would much rather prefer my convictions about the return of Jesus and the Ministry of Jesus to come from Scripture than from what the media is saying or whatever happens to be contemporaneously happening right now are you with me on that so this is hugely important for us hugely important for us to get this right because if we get this wrong we get basically everything wrong now having said that let me begin by saying this there are several things in the Bible that I find really disturbing and probably if you were being frank you would agree one of the things that I find most disturbing is the insistence on animal sacrifice right I don't know how many of you have paid attention to this giant story that has swept through at least the United States the killing of Cecil the lion right have you heard about this and just massive outrage when this wealthy dentist from Minnesota went over and killed a beloved lion from I think it's the Hawaii National Park there in Zimbabwe people all upset hugely frustrated and frankly I resonate with a disconnectedness from trophy hunting and yeah we are confronted with the reality that in the Bible there like the whole infrastructure of the Bible revolves around animal sacrifices I find this uncomfortable right the idea I would never expect you to bring some sort of an animal into this building and slay it as an act of worship right that would we would call the police on you we'd be like yeah we got this person he's here with a goat in a knife can you just cut it's really disturbing can you come get him and yet the whole of Scripture is built the whole of the sort of infrastructure of Scripture is built around this idea of sacrifice and it's always up until the time of Jesus animal sacrifice now I want to introduce you to what I regard as one of the central paradoxes of the entire of all of Scripture the entire Bible and that is that God sets up a whole elaborate system called the sanctuary he sets up a priesthood he sets up an altar and he says these are the offerings that have to be given and they have to be given in just this way for just this purpose at just this time and yes that same God who's very particular about the nature of these animal sacrifices actually says over and over again in the same Bible that he doesn't want these animal sacrifices now let me just show you a few of them this is Samuel and he's speaking to Saul and he says verse 22 has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams okay short version God wants obedience not sacrifice okay come with me now to Psalm 50 right in the middle of your Bible Psalm 50 and we'll read another one here quite remarkable Psalm 50 we'll pick it up in verse 7 it says here o my people and I will speak O Israel and I will testify against you I am God your God I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings which are continually before me I will not take a bull from your house nor goats out of your folds for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a Thousand Hills I know all the birds of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine if I were hungry I wouldn't tell you for the world is mined and all the fullness well I eat the flesh of bulls or will I drink the blood of goats okay here's a passage where God is basically saying your your sacrifices and your offerings are continually before me but maybe you thought about the fact that I own the cattle on a Thousand Hills and I own all the wild beasts of the forest right so so you're not giving me something that I don't already have access to I'm the creator why are you bringing these things before me in fact I love what he says here will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats now go to Psalm 51 very next chapter and the Psalms this is a well-known Psalm too many and verse 16 is just as plain as the noonday Sun Psalm 51 verse 16 for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it you do not delight in burnt offerings the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart these are God you will not despise language cannot be plainer you do not want bloody animal sacrifices that's not what you're after okay let's go to another Isaiah chapter 1 join me here in Psalms there move forward just ever so slightly to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me says the Lord I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats can you give me the next one great things when you come to appear before me who has required this from your hand to trample my courts bring no more futile sacrifices okay and then the last one here next one mate I think it's our last one Micah chapter 6 with what shall I come before the Lord the Prophet asks and bow down myself before the exalted God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves a year old next line will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams with ten thousand rivers of oil shall I offer my first my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of body the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul okay now just keep that up there Nate for a bit several passages here Isaiah the Psalms Samuel Micah in every passage we find God saying in each of these passages and this isn't all of them this is just a representative sample God is essentially saying I don't want sacrifices well you think I'm gonna drink the blood of goats and bulls and eat the flesh of lambs are you kidding if I was hungry I wouldn't tell you anyway the the cattle on a Thousand Hills belong to me and so what's going on here where is this this paradox where God says if there and the end of chapter of the end of Exodus and the whole of Leviticus this is the sanctuary this is the sacrifices this is what the priest does these are the systems and I'm really particular about it and then that same God who sets this whole sacrificial system up has the temerity to then say to us well I don't really want the sacrifices I I don't know I don't really want you to bring me bloody sacrifices what I rather have is obedience what I'd rather have us humility what I'd rather have is a contrite spirit now what's going on here why the paradox well right at the end of my cat chapter 6 verse 7 this passage here is a huge insight and it says my mic is exasperated here right he basically says okay if I'm gonna bring my best bull I'm gonna bring my best goat I'm gonna bring the best out of my flock well the next logical progression if that's the kind of God that we serve who wants the best and who takes the best Micah then asks a very problematic question he says okay well maybe if I just moved out of this whole animal thing move beyond the Bulls beyond the goats beyond the Rams I'll bring my own son all right should I offer my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul and frankly there's a very logical progression because if God is the kind of God that's looking for you to bring him the best to show your faithfulness to show your devotion to show that you recognize that he is God well then the next level of commitment the next level of devotion the next level of your faithfulness would be hey bring not just an animal but bring your very child's here's a fascinating thing about the sacrificial system we're now up to the Exodus we've been through basically Genesis and now we're into around Exodus chapter 25 and beyond but here's a remarkable thing the author of Exodus Moses assumes a basic understanding about the sacrificial system and never explains it okay the book of Genesis does not tell us anything about the origination or even the meaning behind the sacrificial system not a word not a whisper it just assumes it now what I've put together for you here is just a simple recap of the sacrificial system in the book of Genesis this is every text that I'm aware of in the entire book of Genesis that tells us about what's happening in terms of the sacrificial system the first is right in Genesis chapter 3 where God made them coats of skins all right it doesn't take a cyst to figure out that in order to get coats of skins an animal had to die this is the first implicit reference to the sacrifice of an animal okay then we come right to Genesis chapter 4 and we have Cain and Abel again no backstory we're not told why God requested the particular offering or what the particular offerings meant or why Cain's offering was unacceptable and Abel's was Moses just assumes literacy he assumes awareness so here's the sacrificial system right in Genesis chapter 4 we're confronted with it then we get to Genesis chapter 8 Noah comes off of the ark the dry land has appeared and Noah offers sacrifices to God on an altar okay offers sacrifices then Genesis chapter 15 this is after the call of Abraham God's covenant man and remember Abraham says God how do I know that you'll keep this covenant that you say you will keep and God says go get me five animals a ram and a goat and forget the other one a heifer and cut them in two sacrifice them and then we come to Genesis 22 the offering of Isaac so I want you to feel the flow of Genesis here what's going on at the sanctuary the primary purpose of the sanctuary was to bring your offerings to whether it was a guilt offering or a sin offering or a thank offering or a whatever there is various kinds of offerings and God is saying here's the system here's the priest here's the arrangement here's the offerings it has to be done in this very particular way and yet we are also confronted with the reality that God says I don't want these sacrifices I don't desire these sacrifices should I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats so in understanding sort of what's happening in the sacrificial system moses introduces this to us and tells us basically nothing about the origin of the sacrificial system but for me and i hope for you as well the key hinges on the story in genesis 22 so we're gonna do an unusual thing here in studying exodus we're gonna go back to genesis so join me in genesis 22 this is a story that we've already actually preached on nathan renner you might recall preached on Anzac Day on the offering of Isaac but we need to remind ourselves of what's going on here because recall that as we just read a moment ago at the end of my catch after 6 verses 6 and 7 micah takes the next logical progression right if god wants the best bowl and the best go without blemish and without fault well then maybe i'll just make the next step and i'll bring my own son my own daughter and sacrifice them well we're confronted with that very reality in Genesis 22 where God says to Abraham take your son and offer him as a burnt offering let's remind ourselves of what's happening here we'll pick it up in Genesis chapter 22 verse 1 now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and he said to him Abraham and he said Here I am then he said take now your son your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering whoa here we are we're confronted with the very thing that we're discussing on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you so Abraham rose early in the morning and he saddled his donkey and he took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and he split the wood for the burnt offering and he arose and he went to the place that God had told him then on the third day it was a long journey to get there so they arrived at the place third day Abraham lifted his eyes up and he saw the place afar off lengthy journey several days and he's still not quite there yet verse five and Abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you by this time Abraham is 120 years old Isaac would have been we don't know exactly how well but he would have been in his late teens he was a young man he would certainly be in the throes of early manhood and Abraham even though he's gonna live to be a hundred and seventy five years old it's certainly an old man by this point and so he's brought some helpers with him to bring the wood or whatever else might have been necessary the food and provisions and he says to them hey guys wait here the lad and I are gonna go and worship and we will come back now Abraham knows something that nobody else knows not even Isaac that part of what it's going to mean to worship God on this day is to offer his son as a sacrifice Abraham is hugely confused right but he's going through with it I mean it already doesn't make sense to Abraham because first he had said to God God how am I gonna be the father of many nations and have children and descendants as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky if I don't have any descendants well now God has given a promised son he has a descendant and God in what can only be described as a counterintuitive command and a wild command says hey take your son and go kill him your promised son your only son the one through whom all of your descendants will come so Abraham would have been a bundle of confusion a bundle of emotions but he senses that this is the same God who was speaking in the same way and so he goes along with it okay let me ask you this question if you have the sense I'm asking honestly if you had the sense that God was asking you to sacrifice one of your children to kill them would you do it this is a very easily answered question let me answer ask it again if you have the sense that God was asking you to kill one of your children as a sacrifice would you do it of course you would not no way you would not do it Abraham however feels compelled at some level to öbut why might that be why might it be that Abraham is here not only considering but actually going through with something that you and I would never do we would say no way I can't offer my son and here's part of the reason why Abraham's culture is a culture in which child sacrifice is part of the way that you worship certain gods in certain deities this is this is the way that gods roll men you know what the god over on that side of the mountain or the god from that nation of the god from that culture or whatever child sacrifices one way to show your supreme devotion or perhaps to assuage the guilt of an angry god in other words this isn't happening in a vacuum this is a part of abraham's culture this is there are nations that have historically I did just a little bit of reading on it again last night to remind myself the child sacrifice as repugnant and as grotesque and as disgusting and as insane as that sounds to us this has been a part of sort of human reality and human religious systems for millennia and so when God says to Abraham hey Abraham take your son bring him to the top of the mountain and plunge a knife through his chest Abraham is confused he doesn't understand how this can be the god that will then enable him to fulfill the promise to have descendants as the stars of the sky but he goes along with it how why because at some level and listen carefully Abraham has bought into the larger or his at least willing to go along with the larger cultural dynamic of his day that that's the way that God's work the gods are taking the gods want and if they need to be pleased or their wrath needs to be ass waged or otherwise placated maybe a bull would do maybe a ram would do or maybe if there's a really particularly difficult situation or God is really keyed up you bring your son and so Abraham this is not something that would have been totally foreign to him you would have heard of this before and now he's thinking okay well you know I guess this is the way that God operates this God that I've been serving now for the better part of twenty five or more years verse six so Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and he laid it on Isaac his son and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and the two of them went together but Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and he said hey Dad and he said Here I am my son hanged with guilt the story is flat on the page you know we just read it it's a pretty flat story but the emotional and intellectual anguish through which Abraham would have been going would have been palpable I mean Abraham is just devastated he loved this boy remember God even said take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and offer him hey Dad Isaac says innocently and he says Here I am my son and he said hey look here's the fire for the here's the fire in the wood and but where's the lamb for the burnt offering and Abraham said and the whole gospel is contained in verse 8 the whole gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is contained in verse a and he doesn't even yet know that it's the gospel he says my son God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering so the two of them went together God will provide the lamb now Abraham thinks that he's just saying this to sort of side skirt the question that's been put directly to him hey Dad where's the lamb we got all the accoutrements we got all this stuff but where's the lamb and Abraham is just sort of sidestepping it all God will take care of the lamb in other words I'm not ready to reveal to you yet that you're the lamb Abraham doesn't even know he's just preached the gospel God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering verse 8 and Abraham said my verse 9 then they came to the place of which God had told him and Abraham built an altar there and he placed the wood in order you can see him he's delaying right like okay let's get the altar ready okay let's arrange the wood he's delaying to the last possible moment but at some point you have to have that conversation at some point there has to be disclosure at some point you have to say okay Isaac here's the deal bro it's you you're the guy and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar and again the story is quite flat on the page one thing we can be certain of is that Isaac as a young man would have been fully capable of escaping the overtures of his father had he desired there's there's a mutuality here in the sacrifice not only is God not only as Abraham requesting but Isaac is agreeing he's acquiescing to it and so he binds him and this is so awesome Abraham stretched out his hand and he took the knife to slay his son now just pause right there let me just read you this very quickly here this is a point I made earlier sacrifice belongs to the very infrastructure of biblical theology and religion this is from on hill Rodriguez in the handbook of 7th Avenue ST ology interestingly the origin of sacrifice is not explicitly stated anywhere in the Old Testament it's just not there nobody's talking about the origin of it as we've already mentioned in Genesis it just appears the first time one is mentioned in open no particular reason is given for it and that's the the issue of the origin is not addressed that's Genesis for with Cain and Abel in subsequent records the meaning of sacrifice is implied but never openly discussed okay and now we end up in Genesis chapter 22 we've been moving sort of logically yep Genesis three coats of skins Genesis 4 Cain and Abel Genesis eight Noah offers this thing Genesis 15 Abraham cuts some animals in half as an animal sacrifice to confirm the Covenant and then we come to this wild and woolly story of Abraham being asked commanded required kill your son now and Abraham goes along with it he's like okay well I guess I guess that's the kind of God that I'm serving I guess I want to show my devotion he's been good to me up to this point I'm following him I've been doing this for decades now and again I want to say that the white-noise of abraham's culture would have been familiar with this idea of child sacrifice and so he's like okay let's do it let's go along with it and a remarkable thing happens it'll be really clear for those of us that have been studying here at Kings Cliff verse 11 but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham and he said Here I am now for those of us that have been through the book of Acts and I've already mentioned this point once before when this sort of dual name is used in Scripture it appears to be used in a situation where God is arresting the attention of the person and saying this is not the way reality works in each of these instances that are up here Moses Moses hey Moses I didn't call you to have you wandering around the desert like a shepherd Moses Moses what you think is the nature of reality is all wrong Moses Moses Martha Martha all Martha was whinging and whining that Mary was sitting at Jesus feet says hey Jesus tell him Mary to help me out and Jesus protests and says actually Martha Mary has got reality right Martha Martha you are mistaken about the nature of reality Jerusalem Jerusalem you think you're the awesome City the one that sits atop the pinnacle of the revelation of God but you're actually the one who stones the prophets and kills those that are Center what you think the nature of reality is is nothing like that Oh Simon Simon I hear you saying that though all men deny me you will not deny me Simon Simon what you think is the nature of reality is not before the crows three times Simon you will deny me and finally Saul saw we went through this in Acts chapter 9 Saul was just sure he was doing the will of God he was doing the work of God he was taking Christians and placing them in jail and when God appears to him he doesn't just say saw saw saw that's a biblical marker to let you know hit the brakes u-turn you are misunderstanding fundamentally the nature of the situation in which you are now engaged in every instance so when God goes to interrupt by the way this is the first occurrence of the double name when God goes to speak to Abraham he doesn't just say hey Abraham stop no no no the the initiation of the biblical marker Abraham Abraham you are in the midst of a colossal misunderstanding about the nature of reality and the nature of God don't even think of putting your hand on the boy and just at that moment a remarkable thing happens check this out Abraham Abraham he said here am I and he said do not put your hand on the boy or do anything to him for I now know that you fear God since you have not withheld from me your only your son your only son for me that Abraham lifted up his eyes and he looked and there was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns so Abraham went and he took the RAM and he offered it up for a bird offering instead of his son Wow come on this is a theme now this is an inescapable theme back in back in Genesis chapter 3 God made them coats of skins he had said Adam and Eve you will die but they didn't die right a biblical theme has now emerged in which God is saying someone or something is going to die and here's a remarkable point in this story not only is it an actual event an actual history of two actual people Abraham and Isaac it's also a metaphor and analogy a symbol of something and it's not easy to it's not it's not hard to miss it's very it's hard to miss it's not easy it's not difficult to see in this sort of story Abraham clearly represents God the Father right there's God the Father and then he's about ready to so if Abraham is God the Father then who would Isaac be who would Isaac me yeah Jesus everybody says Jesus but of course that's exactly the wrong answer yeah Isaac can't represent Jesus because Isaac doesn't die Isaac does represent somebody Isaac represents us there is something in the story that represents Jesus who's that that's RAM and by the way there's huge symbolism here and just follow this very briefly in ancient Jewish times agriscience built around animals not only domestic animals but also wild animals they would notice that whether it was an ibex and the on the rocky cliffs or a ram in their own herds that when two animals got into a fight two males that generally it was the one with the larger horns that prevailed right so like he got the bigger horns and it's fighting against the animal with the slightly smaller horns and they're bashing their heads and they noticed hey men the one with the bigger horns tends to win so horns come to be representative of power or strength you find this again and again in scripture where God says things like I have exalted the horn of my salvation the power of my salvation horn horns as we get back to the sanctuary actually we're on the corners of alters power but here's a remarkable thing this Ram I mean God could have just put the RAM there and been caught up in any old willy-nilly way no no how is the ram caught by its horns check this out now as a symbol of Jesus the very source of its power is bound up with thorns and thistles and in the context of Genesis this is sin thorns and thistles the world will bring forth now after the sin of Adam and Eve so here's God here's the RAM right cut we're coming to that in just a second here's the RAM symbolic of Christ wrapped up by his power in the sinfulness of the world and Abraham goes and takes this RAM that God has provided and he offers it there as a sacrifice what's the message there's a lot of them the first is God is saying to Abraham Abraham I'm not the kind of God that would require you to sacrifice your son I know there's other gods the God on the other side of that River the God on the other side of that hill the gods of the amorite the Canaanites the amount whatever there are gods that ask this and require this I use God's and parentheses here I'm not one of them now with this in mind I want to show you a couple things here Abraham names the place Yahweh Yahweh yeah he calls the name of the place where God has come through a marvelous deliverance a miraculous deliverance were just at the moment when he was ready to plunge the knife into his son and animal comes he's like whoa man God has provided well that's what he had just said a few verses before hey Dad where's the RAM where's the lamb Oh son God will provide himself a lamb we could even translate that this way God will prove us provide a lamb himself God is saying to Abraham Abraham I'm not like those other gods why was Abraham willing to offer his son and you wouldn't because you now know that's not the kind of God we serve Abraham up to this point knew that God was good he knew that God was kind he knew a lot of things about God but he was still hearing the larger cultural white noise in which there were gods that requested hey kill your son that would bring me a lot of pleasure this story we all often tell this story about how faithful Abraham was and man Abraham really to the end of the man he was so faithful that is not really the story Abraham was going along with something that he was hugely confused by certainly it required faith but the real story is not so much about Abraham's faith as of God's faithfulness God comes through in a pinch in fact God says Abraham I was never ever ever now I want to take you to a passage of Scripture mind blowing go to Jeremiah 19 Jeremiah 19 if we're gonna understand the sanctuary we're gonna have to understand the nature of sacrifice go to Jeremiah 19 because remarkably the very mountain of on which Isaac is offered is the very mountain upon which the temple will be built Mount Moriah is the very place that the temple will eventually be built and here the first ever the primordial sacrifice that's offered is the sacrifice in which God says hey look Abraham it's not about what you give up it's about what I give up it's not about what you bring it's about what I bring and in Jeremiah 19 you got to see this this is mind-blowing stuff here verse 1 thus says the Lord go to the Potters earth and flasks and take some of the elders of the people some of the elders of the priests go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom that was the jerusalem city dump which is by the entry to the potsherd gate and proclaim there the words of the Lord that I will tell you and say now this is God saying to God saying to Jeremiah Jeremiah gather up the elders of Israel bring him out to the city dump and say this to them here are the word of the Lord o kings of Judah and of Jerusalem thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel behold I will bring such a catastrophe on this place that whoever hears of it their ears will tingle I'm gonna wreck this place I'm gonna wreck this temple I'm gonna wreck this city in fact it's gonna be such a thorough devastation that when people hear about the thoroughness of this devastation their ears are gonna tingle why what's up God verse 4 because they have forsaken me and made this an alien place some translations say a foreign place and I just let this sink in Jerusalem is God's City the temple is God's temple and God here has the audacity to say Jeremiah you say to those people you say to them that I'm gonna wreak a massive catastrophe here in my city in my temple and here's why I'm an alien in my own City I'm a foreigner in my own temple why why would you be a foreigner or an alien because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom they neither neither their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known they have filled this place with the blood of innocents verse 5 they have built high places of bail and burnt their sons in the fire as a burnt offering to bail now watch this which I did not command or speak and which never came in to my mind ok God says you too what's going on here because we have we got a problem God says this idea that somebody would offer their child and that I would be pleased with that that I would say what a great act of devotion what a great act of worship what a great act of loyalty ah thank you for being so willing God says you have turned me into a foreigner into an alien in my own City and in my own place because you would do this repugnant disgusting perverse satanic thing I can't even show up here God says I never asked you to offer your sons and then he says this never even came into my mind I'm not the idea what do you think I am Moloch one of the kings of Israel a guy by the name of a has is hugely condemned in Scripture because it says a has made his son walk through the fire to Moloch God says this this never even breached my mind now here's a problem the best known most quoted best-loved verse in the whole Bible is John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him wouldn't perish but have everlasting life well what's going on here out of one side of his mouth God says child sacrifice never even came into my mind and out of the other side of his mouth mouth he says the gospel is that I gave my son well which is it which is it is it Jeremiah 19 or is it John 3:16 is it that God never even imagined child sacrifice or is it that the good news is child sacrifice the good news is that God gave his son look at this Jeremiah 19 verse 5 in the NLT they have built pagan shrines to bail and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to bail I have never commanded such a horrible deed it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing which raises the question what's going on here if we're ever gonna understand the sanctuary beloved we're gonna have to understand this point it was never about us bringing an offering us bringing a sacrifice us appeasing or placating Oris waging the wrath of an angry god who demands our best and our brightest ah come on of course that is exactly what the children of Israel thought because by the time we get to the New Testament Jesus shows up he's like hey you guys have sort of turned this thing upside down take this stuff out of here you made my father's house a den of thieves you've missed the point and the point clearly because God as we started off I don't want your sacrifices keep him at home if I was hungry I wouldn't tell you I already own the cattle on a Thousand Hills okay well what's going on here then God were confused how can you say out of one side of your mouth please bring sack of now the other side of your mouth please don't we're confused well it all comes together when we understand that God does not desire sacrifice he provides it can someone say Amen Yahweh Yahweh the Lord will provide the Lord is not the one who asks for us to make a great sacrifice he is the one who himself provides the great sacrifice and right on this point I need you to give me the last few minutes of your attention here because this is giant the gospel is not a three-party arrangement yeah well you lost me there okay we'll keep you so which is the gospel here is this the gospel or is this the gospel is the gospel that there's three parties God sinners and Jesus and God was really wanting to pour his wrath out on sinners but Jesus stepped in and said no no I will do it instead and God's like alright well I really want to take my wrath out on those sinners but instead I'll take my wrath out on you and so Jesus becomes the equivalent of God's whipping boy and he whips Jesus up until he's tired and so we can let the sinners go free is that the gospel I'm telling you right now beloved if that's the gospel that's not good news if that's what the Bible is teaching man that is not good news in any way shape or form or is the gospel of two party arrangement there's just God and sinners well look at what I did here just so you could be crystal clear how can we harmonize I never even thought of child sacrifice and God so loved the world how can we harmonize that with God's saying to Abraham hey coming off for your boy cuz that's the kind of God I am no God says I'm not that way beloved listen Jesus is God do you get it you see that's not just like some godlike figure hanging on the cross that's not like and this is huge by the way and I want to respectfully say that I know that there are a number of people who are persuaded by the nontrinitarian position to come to this church and we're happy to have you here as long as you don't agitate but I want to say this you got a problem a major problem right here because as our well-meaning but I think ultimately mistaken nontrinitarian friends say Oh at some point in eternity past Jesus came forth from the Father Jesus came forth so now what do you have you have God the Father and the begotten Son okay so who's dying on the cross well it's not God the Father it's the begotten son and the moment you introduce a distinction between these two that's not God paying the price that's God putting up somebody else that's child sacrifice but if it's God in the most full and complete and and superlative sense if that's God hanging on the tree this isn't God pouring out his wrath on some third party or some second party so that he can acquit the third party this is God himself taking upon himself the consequence of sin taking him on himself the penalty for sin this isn't God requiring sacrifice this is God becoming the sacrifice and that's good news in fact that is the greatest good news conceivable I leave you with one of my favorite statements from the pen of Ellen White man this is a great one look at this had God the Father come to our world okay so just reverse it here we're gonna reverse the whole story Jesus doesn't come God the Father comes instead and Jesus remains in heaven so you got the story right instead of Jesus coming God the Father comes to earth and he becomes a man okay so the father becomes a man Jesus remains in heaven what would change look at what she says had the father come to our world and dwelt among us humbling himself veiling his glory that his that humanity might look upon him the history that we have of the life of Christ would not have been changed in other words the Gospels would read exactly like they do now every word would be the same every sentence would be the same every parable would be the same because my friends Jesus is just as much God as the father is and Jesus is God hanging on the cross not asking us to give up our children not asking us you gotta bring me cuz I'm a bloodthirsty God bring me lots of stuff I need I lust for more no no no no God is saying I provide the sacrifice I become the sacrifice I'm not the great taker I'm the great giver in every act of Jesus in every lesson of his instruction we are to see and to hear and to recognize God in sight in hearing in effect it is the movements of the Father if Jesus would have remained in heaven and the father had come the Gospels would not be one bit different and the reason is Jesus is fully and completely God and if God is hanging on the cross if God is bearing the penalty of our sin beloved that is hugely good news can you say Amen the god of scripture is not a bloodthirsty God but a bleeding God night and day he doesn't require blood the god of scripture gives it and so as we come to the sanctuary if we're gonna ever understand what's happening in the sanctuary we will have to disabuse our mind of every possible residual idea that God needs to be a swage that God needs to be placated that God needs to be one over and we show how sincere and serious we are by intensifying the level of our sacrifice God says you don't get it the gospel is not and never has been about the level of your sacrifice it's always been about my sacrifice my willingness to take upon myself the consequence and penalty of the sin can the church say Amen beloved I want to tell you you don't need to come to Matthew Mark Luke or John to hear the gospel I had several people say to me man we're gonna say the Old Testament for a year for a year we're gonna be in the Old Testament for a year man we're gonna need grace we're gonna need the gospel we're gonna need the beloved we're in we're in Genesis we're in Exodus and we are being flooded we are being saturated with the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God Father in Heaven the response of worship the response of surrender it is the appropriate response and it is the response that we feel compelled to give not compelled by some external requirement that you force upon us father we are compelled by our own heart we are compelled by the reality of seeing who you really are and the kind of God that you are and father we are aware now that every demand that you have on us every requirement every request every seeming sacrifice is only but a faint reflection of the great sacrifice that you have already offered in yourself father help us to live lives worthy of the high calling to which we have been called and of the God who has called us to it father Hammett father at a time in our experiences we might have to hear David David Abraham Abraham Moses Moses when we are misunderstanding the nature of the situation but father let us ever and eternally look to Calvary and to see there that we have not secured salvation for ourselves but you have secured it for us Yahweh Jireh the Lord has provided and it is in his name that we pray let everyone say Amen

Channel: SecondComing.org

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Keywords: David Asscherick Ablazing Grace- 25 The Sanctuary Part One SecondComing.org, SecondComing.org, second coming, david asscherick, christian videos, ty gibson, david asscherick sermons youtube, jesus christ is risen today, holy spirit, second coming of jesus christ, true church, end of time, holy spirit you are welcome here, god's love, david asscherick sermons, kingscliff sda church, light bearers, jesus christ, second coming of christ, 5 good reasons david asscherick

Id: iSN6ADKa8gA

Length: 52min 6sec (3126 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019