Mystical Tents of Meeting or The Objective Tent of Meeting

you those of us are here live just saw an excerpt from a DVD entitled be still and know that I am God the excerpt was from Beth Moore speaking about Moses's tent of meeting in the Old Testament and she made the claim that God intended that all of the people of Israel could have gone into the tent of meeting and not just Moses now that's a claim that I'm going to disagree with but she also makes this further claim and let me quote this is from the DVD Beth Moore said this oh this is my favorite part the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend that's part of contemplative prayer when we sit back and realize that it's not just that we have something to say to God is that God has something he wants to say to us and it doesn't say we read it with a very human kind of mind it says Moses spoke to God as his friend that's not what it says it says God spoke to Moses as his friend someone that shared common interest with him I want to be in that tent of meeting I want to be in that place where the cloud pillar of God's glory falls and I want to sit back and listen long enough that perhaps the God of all creation just might speak to me unquote now what we're going to do this morning is trace this idea of the tent of meeting through the Old Testament and through the New Testament and show that the tent of meeting was not for everybody it was only for Moses because God had ordained that Moses would be the mediator of the Old Covenant and thereby we're going to show that Beth Moore's interpretation of this in which we can have our own personal tent Amin to hear from God in the same way Moses did is a false claim and I would say it's even a dangerous claim now I did this presentation a couple years ago over in st. Paul fact I see a couple of you here that were there then and after I did the presentation I wrote an article for Christian worldview Network kind of summarizing the issue about the tense of meeting of personal words from God and that article that they had ways for people to respond back I got the most negative and virile virulent responses that I've ever got from anything of people were just livid and angry with me because I suggested that bethe Mars claim that we could have our own personal tent of meeting even though probably a figurative one and have God speak to us in the manner that God spoke to Moses I said I just disputed that claim and said that it was unbiblical well these people were just livid with me and I don't I don't I don't understand why they were so angry can't we have a disagreement and look to the scripture to see what the truth is but evidently this bethmoora so popular that she's got the status that she can't be disagreed with but nobody has that status and I'm not saying she's a bad person I'm not saying everything that Beth Moore has ever taught is wrong I'm not saying that I'm only disputing this one point about the issue of the tent of meeting and I'm going to suggest that she misinterpreted the scripture and that it wasn't true that everybody could have gone in there with Moses and got their own words in fact we'll see that had they gone in there they would have died okay and that Joshua was actually left there to guard the tent to make sure nobody could go there because Moses was God's designated mediator of the Old Covenant okay so the the speaking face of face was a unique thing to Moses not something everybody should do but I want you to understand I'm not here today to attack anybody's personality I'm not here to attack anybody's motives but I'm here to help us understand how God has spoken to us and how we could know what God has said and I'm going to make a claim and I'm going to deal with that in several different lectures today my claim is this that as far as authoritative binding revelation that's certainly from God that is only found in Scripture that's the only name we absolutely is God's word that he spoke now we have ideas in our mind that may or may not be from God but they are never certainly God's authoritative binding revelation all right in fact ideas in our mind or dreams or visions or any sort of thing that might happen like that are part of God's providence and Providence contains good and evil okay and Providence is everything that happens including things that come into our mind and so we're free to have ideas so we think wow that's a great idea maybe God put that in my mind but we never know for certain it's not binding revelation in fact one of my teachers at northcentral Bible Bible College dr. a la Banque called that a sanctified thought that's as far as he would go because they taught me at northcentral Bible College there are no new revelations but a lot of dr. Levin said sometimes we have a sanctified thought like a good sermon to preach or some action to take those things were free to act on but we can't see God talked to me like he did Moses and I'm some sort of a mediator of divine revelation that's the claim I'm claiming that there's no more authoritative binding revelation coming to the church after the closing of the can in the scripture all right and so now today we're going to address several versions of this we're gonna first of all deal with this tent of meeting issue from the scripture and then we're going to look at practices that I'm going to call divination that people use techniques in order to get revelations from God and I'm going to dispute whether that's valid and then thirdly we're going to look at the New Apostolic Reformation this New Apostolic Reformation claims that there are still authoritative apostles and prophets that speak for God today and I'm going to dispute that and then we're going to look at the emergent church in our fourth lecture and in that one I'm going to show how certain postmodern individuals really don't believe we can even know what the Bible means so all revelation is sort of cloudy and uncertain as far as they're concerned so then we really don't have a clear word from God in any regard so let's start here with the tent of meeting with the caveat that I'm not claiming Beth Moore always teaches air but I am claiming that she is not correct in this claim that the tent of meeting is designed for everyone to get their own personal revelations let's go into the book of Deuteronomy welcome to Tirana me Deuteronomy 18 verses 9 and 10 it says here when you enter the land which the larger God gives you you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire or one who uses divination or one who practices witchcraft or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer now these are techniques that the pagans use seeking information from the spirit world they're wanting to know information that they can't get by any ordinary means and so divination is an attempt to gain secret information from the spirit world and the reason that people throughout the centuries that this is still true today anytime you have a pagan society you will always have divination I went to a conference out in this cândido California about neo-paganism and it was a think-tank and we were talking about that and the pagans will always practice divination because they have no certain word from God they don't know what God has said through his ordained mediators of the Covenant and the Old Covenant it was Moses and so having no sure word from God and not even a sure understanding of who God is pagans know that the spirit world is real they know that we aren't just in some materialistic world with no spirits and they believe that there are or gods but they need information they're afraid they might have bad fate they want to manipulate the the spirit world to protect themselves from damage so they have charms and they have magical practices and they have incantations and so the divination is a way to try to find information and therefore this is forbidden for the people of God why because they have a God who is known through his ordained means they have a God who has spoken to the fathers and now to Moses they have a God who is revealing himself through authoritative words not mystical words mined out of the spirit realm by processes of divination now let's go to Deuteronomy 18 11 through 13 and says or one who casts a spell or a medium or a Spiritist or one who calls up the dead for whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you you also you shall be blameless before the Lord your God so these mediums spiritists witches necromancer's they've been around they're still around okay the people are still doing this and they don't do it because it doesn't work they do it because they actually do get information some of it accurate and if you've ever heard the testimony of someone who was in the spirit spiritism and and saved out of it they say that they got information and that was accurate and that's why people would keep coming back to them so but this information is not coming from God it's coming from sources of spiritual evil these spirit beings that have the information that promises to make us powerful or wealthy or find out the secrets of the universe they've been around for thousands and thousands of years the spirit world is their realm and they're good at what they do and what they do is Seve humans okay and so if you or I purposely go into that realm in a way that God has not ordained what is awaiting us is deception now let's define divination because the next session I'll be spending the whole time giving you examples of Christian divination which by the way is an oxymoron but Christians are indeed practicing and teaching divination but today this morning we're going to start by seeing what the Bible says about this whole matter Eugene Merrill an Old Testament scholar says the phrase practices practices of divination refers generally to the whole complex of means of gaining insight from the gods regardless of any particular technique now that's important and that's a correct definition as I've studied this the possible means of divination are so many that you could never define them all because somebody could dream up another one they did many different things they used to cut open an animal and examine its liver and the pattern of the liver liver would tell them information from the gods they take a bunch of arrows and throw them in the air in a way they fall a stick in the ground would tell them where to go in the battle that was a means of divination there are unending numbers of possible ways of divination so basically you need to know this it's an attempt to use some means or technique to gain secret or unrevealed information from the spirit world okay and it's forbidden for Christians it's forbidden for the people of God now back to Deuteronomy 18 it's very very important section of Scripture that everybody should well know it says in Deuteronomy 18 14 for those nations which you shall dispossessed listen to those who practice witchcraft and diviners but as for you the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so now what's God going to do the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me that is like Moses from among you and from from your countrymen you shall listen to him now before this lecture is done everybody here is gonna know who that is all right you're probably already thinking ahead aren't you but we want to know who is the prophet like Moses that would come and have binding an authoritative revelation beyond even what Moses received from God we're going to look at that later Deuteronomy 18 let's continue verse 16 this is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly saying let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God let me not see his great fire any more lest I die now look at this last phrase and the Lord said to me they have spoken well get that point firmly in your heart of mine because this is going to refute the claim that Beth Moore made on the DVD by the way on that DVD an interesting thing I told you all those people that were just livid because I wrote an article just contesting that whether that was a correct interpretation well the install Brannen house from the Christian worldview net were asked me to write something he said you got he said I'm glad you get all this feedback me you're right something they're really mad at you so I got the transcripts of the entire be still DVD I got the transcripts of the entire DVD okay and I thought okay it says be still and know that I am God so the DVD is being sold at Walmart under the claim that it was to show you how to know God so I haven't got the Scranton transcripts in Word document I was able to search them so I searched for blood atonement cross gospel repentance almost all that's it nothing there okay so the gospel was nowhere I'm the DVD the terms of the gospel are nowhere on the DVD so I wrote a follow-up article and you can still read these they're on there's a link on our site that you to my articles on the Christian worldview Network but anyhow I wrote a follow up our article proving that the entire be still and know that I am God DVD has no gospel so how can you know God without the gospel it's that you're delivering what it claims to say that you're gonna know God you don't need the gospel or know God so I wrote that article and the nobody had anything to say they they couldn't refute it all those people that are livid and angry with me after I prove that there's no gospel on the entire DVD that that claims its gonna tell us how to know God they went silent because what are they gonna argue that you can know God without the gospel beloved we're being sold a bill of goods alright you go down to your local Kmart plunk down fifteen dollars or whatever it is and you got a DVD that tells you how to know God and you listen to the whole thing and all you'd learn is how to get revelations and personal words from God but you don't know how to know God and the whole thing is predicated on a mystery or a misinterpretation of the scripture when it says to be still and know that I'm God it means quit running around to places you're now supposed to go and start trusting God okay that's that's all it means it doesn't mean get your own personal revelations and that becomes the Word of God to you that's not how it works notice it says they have spoken well God was pleased only to speak through Moses as the mediator of the Old Covenant and not have everybody get their own personal revelations from God look at verses 18 and 19 here's what it says I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you and I will put my words in his mouth he shall speak to them all that I command him and it should come about that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name I myself well require it of him so God is going to raise up an authoritative prophet who's going to speak authoritative Lee for God and everybody is going to have to listen to that authoritative prophet his words are going to be binding and anyone refusing to listen to those words shall be coming under God's judgment God does not bind us to the voice of the spirits God doesn't take his people and send them out into this dangerous world of spirits and say work on learning how to hear what these things are saying and that's where you'll find me no God speaks to his people objectively he spoke to Moses face to face objectively and so that they knew that the words that Moses wrote the Pentateuch were directly from God they were in there at authoritative in binding they don't have to fish around in the spirit world trying to get words from God and dear ones as people say well you're taking something away from me well whatever I what is it that you're going to lose you're going to lose words from the spirit world that may or may not be from God even the people that are really into this when I've had conversations with them I try to pin them into the corner say do you know that these thoughts coming into your mind are certainly God they're inerrant and authoritative and they say well no I don't I'm not saying that well then there didn't God doesn't bind us to air God doesn't bind us to uncertainty he only binds us to what God has actually said that we know is from God now let's look at job 12:48 it's about time I tell you who this prophet is ok I know you've been waiting to hear that it turns out that the prophet like Moses is going to speak for God is Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant Moses mediated the Old Covenant Jesus the new John 12:48 here's jesus's claim he who rejects me does not receive my and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day see God only judges us based on our willingness to listen to his binding word and to believe it and to do it all right so Jesus is claiming that his words have that equality the very words of Jesus are authoritative and binding and if somebody says well I don't want to listen to that I don't what he's saying I have some other way then Anna in the last day at the judgment the Lord will require that because they refuse to listen to God's ordained mediator so now we know who the other prophet is who God would raise up and it was going to speak for God and that's Jesus Christ Jesus Christ came in the flesh he came in the flesh in other words they when he wasn't just a spirit they didn't get revelations from spirits and John said in first John one that we taught we heard him we touched him he was tangible the real Jesus come in the flesh who spoke words that they heard with their real ears and they and they knew what he said and God ordained that these apostles the that he appeared to including pause one born out of time would be the ones who would write down the the completed New Testament that would be the binding authoritative words of Jesus Christ even if the Apostles do it I'll show you this in Hebrews is filled the words of Jesus he is the mediator of the New Covenant let's go back to Deuteronomy 18 it says here but the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or which he shall speak in the name of other gods that prophet shall die so it wasn't a good idea under the Old Covenant to volunteer for the office of Prophet okay it could be a short lifespan and as you can see actually the actual true prophets were often reluctant like Jeremiah and it's and some of the if you look at the call narratives in the prophets but they were the true prophets and they God spoke to them and threw them but you didn't want to just come out and start talking say well that I'm talking for God no but it's interesting that in our day and age people are willing to do that continually and they seem to have no fear of God about it so I will talk about that this afternoon Deuteronomy 18 21 and 22 and you may say in your heart how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the thing does not come about or come true that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken how many of you know God cannot lie yeah right and so God doesn't like God doesn't speak here and somebody says in the name of God doesn't so and the other thing and it's wrong they should not be speaking of profaning the name of the Lord by using his name in their speaking that's that's too profane God's name because God doesn't speak err it doesn't speak lies he only speaks truth so the Lord the prophet has spoken it presumptuously notice you shall not be afraid of him boy you will see this afternoon when we talk about the New Apostolic Reformation the only thing these modern-day apostles and prophets have the pedal is fear and the way they keep control over their followers is through fear because the people that believe them think that if they don't listen to those people God's going to be angry with them and they're afraid of coming under a curse or coming under the wrath of God so that's how they sell fear and we'll see that and I'll show you that from some citations but it says here you don't have to be afraid I have been cursed more times than I can remember I've been cursed by prophets I've been told that I'm going to die I was full once that I was going to die within seven months and thankfully that was back in 89 so I'm still kicking around here I said okay we'll wait and you know if I do die the worst thing that happens I'm gonna go be with the Lord but the Lord kept me here I'm not afraid the reason I'm not afraid as I know they don't speak for God and they can't you can't do what they claim to do now there's another test there's another test your prophets draw me thirteen one through three if a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or Wonder look at and the sign or Wonder comes true know you might think wow now we've got a test now we know this is the guy to listen to don't don't get don't jump the gun keep reading and the sign of wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you saying let us go after other gods whom you not known let us serve them I'll point out this afternoon there was a man named William Branham who gave true words that came true consistently and people in the prophetic movement think he's the best prophet that's ever lived in a toy in the latter days but he told us to go after other gods we haven't known he taught us to go after a God who's not Trinitarian am odourless God and so we know he was false even though he did true signs and wonders valid was that happened because he taught us to go after our God we haven't known so he failed that test okay there's a doctrinal test not just did it come true you shall not listen don't listen we where you have marching orders here false teachers don't listen to them why because they will harm you you shall not listen to the words of that prophet that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul you see if you love the Lord you won't listen to these guys but there's a lot of people that don't love the Lord they're more in love with an experience but they're more in love with the hopeful outcome that maybe this is the key maybe I'll never be sick again or maybe I'll buy the right stocks and get wealthy or maybe some good outcome will happen but they love the possibility of the good outcome that the prophets are offering more than they love the Lord so a prophet may arise and Dutra in fact the ultimate false prophet the one that comes during the tribulation will do signs and wonders that actually happen but it'll lead people away from God now here's a bunch of passages and I'm not going to read all of these you can take note of them but I need to save some time but these passages show that well let me just do the first two anyhow Deuteronomy 5 30 31 go Satan and return to your tents death more misinterpreted this when he's when when she claimed that everybody could have gone into the tent of meeting with Moses and spoke to God face to face it's not true return to your tents 5:31 but as for you Moses stand here by me that I may speak to you all the commandments and statues and judgments which you shall teach them that they may observe them in the land I would possess God spoke to Moses Moses spoke to the people remember Deuteronomy 18 when they said Moses you speak to God because we don't want to die what did God say they spoke well God approved of that that's his plan that he'd speak through the one mediator all right now we have some cases later where people challenge this but if you look at Exodus 19 21 to 23 Exodus 20 19 to 21 Deuteronomy 34 10 for let me just read that one it's just one verse 34 10 since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant and God spoke to him and that's what the tent of meeting was for now let's look at Exodus 33 salad now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp a good distance from the camp and he called it the tent of meaning that came about that everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meaning not into it which is outside the camp into verse 8 that came about whenever Moses went out to the tent that all the people would arise and stand each at the entrance of his tent not in Moses's and gaze after Moses until he entered it 10 verse 9 and 10 and it came about whenever Moses entered the tent the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses and when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent all the people would arise in worship at the entrance of his tent I'm just doing this to correct that statement that was made on that DVD verse 11 thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend now notice this when Moses returned to the camp a servant Joshua the son of nun a young man would not depart from the tent now I looked up in numerous sources Kyle and delecia and other Bible scholars of the Old Testament and they say that Joshua's role was to guard 210 to make sure nobody went into it okay Joshua was the guard of the tent so the claim that everyone could go into the tent of meeting and get their own unmediated revelations from God is patently unbiblical according to the Old Testament okay so I'm not saying Beth Moore hasn't taught some good Bible teachings I'm not haven't really followed her but she's definitely wrong on this particular point now let's go to just some summary of what happens now we don't have to guess about what would happen if people decide to go in there and get their own revelation from God in one incident Miriam and Aaron decide that it wasn't right that Moses was speaking for God and what happened this is in numbers 12 1 through 10 Miriam was called to the to the tent of meeting and she got leprosy as a rebuke for her thinking she could supplant Moses's role as the mediator of the Covenant in Leviticus 10 1 and 2 made abotu by hew decided they could do things their way you know Moses the mediator had told them how to do the sacrifices and it had to be according to specification that Moses received directly from God so these guys said I'll let's do it our own way so they so they offered strange fire what happened to them they didn't do that twice okay numbers 16 and this one through 33 and you've probably know about this but remember korah's rebellion Korah and some others decided why shouldn't my us be the one that God speaks to why should Moses be the mediator we're going to supplant his role and it's going to be us who mediates the covenant to the people and what happened to them the earth opened up and swallowed them directly in - she all that's it right just like that now after a while they got the idea that maybe we better just listen to Moses okay there's this idea of supplanting Moses all is just not panning out for anybody we're going to stick with Moses and listen to him but then they did rebel against Moses and then you know what happened they died in the wilderness so when God speaks he speaks trees ordain spokespersons and the words that God speaks through his ordained spokespersons are words that are inerrant authoritative binding all other words are uncertain and don't have the quality of those sort of words that we have in the scripture now it says in John 1:14 we're gonna go now into the New Testament so we seen very clearly the God spoke definitively through the mediator of the Old Covenant that being Moses and that the tent of meeting was where God spoke to Moses not anybody in everybody else now there's an interesting passage in John 1 and verse 14 and it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glory the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth this is an allusion to the Old Covenant this is an allusion to Moses because the word dwelt in the Greek means pitched his tent or tabernacled and grace and truth or an allusion to what Moses heard when he was up on Sinai when God passed him by said that the God was full of a loving-kindness and truth has said in a myth and biblical scholars see that the this term has said loving-kindness is the theological equivalent of the term grace in the New Testament in a lot of ways they're not identical but very much the same so when when when John told us that the eternal logos who existed as God and with God from all eternity came into history that God had pitched his tent among us and the glory it was remember reminiscent of Sinai and the grace of truth is reminiscent of Sinai so we know this is the new greater Moses the Prophet that God said that he would raise up and so he tabernacles see the tent of meeting was Jesus yes Jesus in the flesh when when it came time to institute the new covenant God didn't just send somebody he said okay I'm gonna teach you techniques of divination so you can hear from God he didn't do it that way he didn't say try to try to think about what I'm saying no he said Jesus in the flesh who spoke audible words to people that he chose who were given the New Covenant and they wrote it for us okay they wrote it for so we have the very authoritative abiding words of the mediator of the New Covenant a better covenant Jesus Christ who tabernacled and he's the prophet Moses predicted notice in John 2:19 through 21 jesus answered and said to them destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up and the Jews therefore said it took 46 years to build this temple and he'll raise it up in three days but he was speaking of the temple of his body you know when I preach the gospel every Sunday I vary the words but I don't vary the basic outline who was Jesus what did he do why did he why did why do we need him what does he expect of us those four points get preached every Sunday tomorrow I'm going to have a special sermon called seven benefits of preaching the gospel to the church so as part of this frankly because I had four lectures today I didn't have time for our posit or II sermon so I'm going to indulge myself and have a topical one because it's a lot quicker but I think it'll be very beneficial seven benefits the gospel preaching all right so you can see this in the Gospels themselves John starts with the pre-incarnate christ eternally with the father face to face in fact that and the greek would indicate that in John 1:1 so as Moses spoke face to face in the tent of meeting Jesus existed forever face to face with the father pearls is the Greek word their price now one of the things I often say when I'm preaching the gospel and I've already told you who Jesus is that's what I'm preaching on right now and one of the things that he did that proves that he is God incarnate as he predicted his own resurrection from the dead that's that true of Buddha that true of Muhammad not true of Joseph Smith not true of any other person who ever deemed to be the founder of a religion only Jesus in fact his critics his critics before the authorities said that he said he was going to do this so so Jesus so Jesus here is predicting his own resurrection and he accomplished it so thereby we know he is everything he claimed to be and he claimed to be God incarnate and he claimed to be the savior and his blood was shed over God's wrath against our sin that's why we need him we need him only Jesus's blood can wash away our sins and we need to repent and believe the gospel that's the gospel of Jesus Christ mark 9 two and three it gets better wait until you see this I just got to get to the good part here mark nine two and three let's go to the Mount of Transfiguration and six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them and his garments became radiant and exceedingly white there's no longer on earth can whiten them and Elijah appeared to them along with Moses and they were talking with Jesus and Peter answered and said to Jesus rabbi is good for us to be here let us make three Tabernacles one for you one for Moses one for Elijah now Peter now the text of the Gospels makes it clear that Peter wasn't thinking right here there wasn't a good idea he wanted to have three tenths of meeting it's in a tabernacle is a tent of meeting the terms used in usually in the Old Testament so he was going to have three places where you could come because Moses was somebody who spoke for God did he not Elijah spoke for God did he not and so Peter at least realized that Jesus does too so he was thinking we'd have free options we could ask Moses what God had to say or we could ask Elijah 'got had to say or we could ask Jesus but why was that a bad idea because now that prophet had come that God said through Moses would be like Moses and he would speak beyond what Moses said and we'd have to listen to him he is the mediator of a better covenant a new covenant in the book of Hebrews tells us how much better it is nellis it's not done look at this more evidence six through eight for eat it up know what to answer so in other words the mark was telling us Peter probably wasn't thinking too straight okay he didn't know what the answer for the became terrified then a cloud form now where did we read about a cloud in the Exodus right and didn't come over the tent of meeting so we're back there again thinking about Moses there - has to be going Moses's there the cloud reminds us of Moses the grace of truths reminds us of Moses the glory reminds us of Moses and here it says the cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud this is my beloved son listen to him now what did Moses say God would raise up a prophet like me into the realm 18 when he does what it Moses say listen to him do we have any problem knowing who he's talking about it has to be Jesus all of the evidence points that this is the one and even God from heaven said this is the one I speak through you must listen to him not even Moses and Elijah they're not gonna have a tabernacle here there's only gonna be one the tabernacle of God is Jesus come in the flesh now let's just nail this one down so that nobody miss here's what it says John 5:45 47 do not think that I will accuse you before the father the one who accuses you is Moses in whom you have set your hope for if you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote of me so jesus himself said that he was the prophet and that Moses wrote about him in Deuteronomy 18 but if you do not believe his writings how will you believe my words see if you believe Jesus I mean if you believe Moses and you took Moses for what he said then you'd have to listen to Jesus and you could go nowhere else once God chooses a mediator for a covenant there's no where else to go these guys in the Old Testament or Miriam and and Korah and all these other people they wanted to go somewhere else boom there's apt there's no where else to go this is definitive Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant now let's see what it says in Hebrews the fact the whole book of Hebrews is a commentary on this by the way yeah and if you have never done a careful study of the book of Hebrews since you've become a Christian I think you owe it to yourself to do so do a study of Hebrews and it will show you what's wrong in the church today as a matter of fact Hebrews 1:1 and to God after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world notice has spoken 80 Robertson the great Greek scholar and his word pitchers in the New Testament commenting on this verse says this means in fall and final revelation he didn't say he started to speak to us in his son and now we have to see where else this is going to go now we're gonna see here in Hebrews that even in Hebrews they understood that the Apostles were still speaking the words of Jesus that's something of their of their own that was different but their words came from Jesus so Jesus is still the mediator verse 3 says this and he is the radiance of his glory the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power when he had made purification of sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high that's the mediator the mediator now has moved his mediatorial role to heaven so Jesus is still the mediator of the new covenant his words are still the binding authoritative words that are inherent for the church but now Jesus is in heaven so there's no place on earth you can come and find a tent of meeting figurative or literal that's going to change the fact that the tent moved to heaven all right Hebrews one to one and three I want to show that the words of the New Testament are also considered of Jesus's it's considered authoritative words from Jesus here's what it says for this reason for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we've heard lest we drift away from it for if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after it was at the first spoken through the Lord then it was confirmed to us by those who heard remember Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance that wish I spoken to you he said that to the apostles and so when we're reading the the New Testament we're reading words confirmed by people who heard it from Jesus himself or heard it from someone who did hear from Jesus like Luke for example he investigated and talked to the people who were the eyewitnesses and he got the words okay verse 4 says this excuse me hereis 4:14 were going to Hebrews 4:14 since then we have a great high priest who has through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin that is therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we might receive new revelations no no I read that wrong did that was the wrong version what do we get into throne of grace we receive mercy and grace to hell okay we know the Lord loves you he cares for you and this throne of grace is there for every born-again Christian where you can draw near to God and it's not a place on earth it's in heaven so you draw near by faith and you can bring all of your needs all your problems all your concerns to the Lord and he will hear you and He will give you mercy and grace okay and thank God for that but see people are not satisfied they're not satisfied they say Oh give me some new words we're not satisfied Hebrews a 1 and 2 he was a what a 2 now the main point ok case you weren't listening the author of Hebrews is going to tell you the main point means it's important the main point in what has been said is this we have such a high priest taking his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens now notice a minister in the sanctuary and in what the true tabernacle which the Lord pitch not men where is the tent of meeting in heaven you got it right it's in heaven is that in your kitchen all right now you can be in your kitchen and go to the throne of grace and not disputing that and unless feuding that you when you read the Bible you're reading the words of God but I am disputing that we can go become conduits of new revelation personally ourselves we're not mediators of the Covenant Jesus is we're recipients now it's another interesting thing now I've been contending about this for some years written many articles and had plenty of chance for feedback from critics who don't agree with me and let me just interact with some of that today because maybe this is something you've been thinking one here's one criticism I got well then you're saying prayer is us talking to God that God talking to us I said yeah that's what I'm saying well then isn't that sterile isn't that kind of impersonal isn't that impersonal how can you say you have a personal relationship with God if he's not talking to us well my response is look this is absolutely personal the throne of grace is personal God hears me personally all right and it says that we have the Holy Spirit who prays and within us for us and groanings too deep for words yeah and it says that we can and he's saying Abba Father that's personal okay and you can have you don't have to be getting worse let's let's say you were just married this happened to people in World War two you were just married and your husband was sent to World War two and there were no and he was sent somewhere where there was no communication able to come back and and he was isolated in the war for a year would you therefore not have a personal husband well no your husband would still be your husband you'd still have a relationship with him it's just that for a time for a time you're not getting the communication back other than what he had already said before he left now isn't that the way it is we're going to get personal communication from God starting at the marriage supper of the lamb or when we go to be with him okay and so the yes we long for him we say even so come quickly Lord Jesus we want to see we believe him in him we haven't seen but one of these days our faith will become sight so that's my response that it's just absolutely not true that you have to be getting new revelations or you don't have anything personal and then they say well you all you are is just rational and logical that's that's all you want rational and logical well you know you're not talking about experiences you're talking about logic like if some Greek thinker well let me respond to that the fact is that if we remove reason and logic words written to us can't be understood all right logic is what what was true because we're created in God's image so when God says to a man or a woman you shall not steal it takes a rational mind to contemplate the meaning of the word steal and not and then to logically connect it to real life this doesn't belong to me if I take it that is stealing and therefore I'm disobeying God's law now that's rational that's logical you take that away and you have no law you can't say that to a dog you can say to a dog don't steal the dog goes over the neighbor's yard takes the other dog's ball comes back I told you not to do that well unreasoning beasts can't process ideas so people that are trying to remove logic and we'll talk about that in our fourth session today are trying to remove from us our connection to the words of God in their binding application in our lives now does that mean we don't have any experiences there's that's another fallacy okay people say if I become mystical or if I go to this meeting where people are being slain under the power and they're laughing and all these things are happening then I had an expiry yes but have I come to your church all I heard was logic well let me respond to that we're all experiencing our relationship with God if we have one day by day moment by moment and we're experiencing his love and his Providence and his care in ways that we can't even know beyond what we can know and see and it's somebody says that unless you have some extraordinary thing happening like a prophet speaking for God you're not having any experience it's just flat-out not true it's not true and it's not that we don't have emotion and all these things but our experience and our emotions and our life in Christ is controlled by the parameters laid out in the Bible so we're staying between the boundaries of the lines where it's safe I don't have to go outside of the boundary to have an experience because Cora had an experience I'm sure I'm sure dropping into Sheol was very exciting until he hit the bottom Hebrews 9 and thought of that before today nice experience I'm not gonna sign up for her all right Hebrews 9 11 and 12 but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come he entered through the greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands it's a better one this is the greatest one yes not me with hands all right that is the same out of this creation that's through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood he entered the holy place was for all having obtained eternal Redemption hallelujah you know the once for all's by the way in the Bible are very very important the faith was delivered to the Saints once for all okay right there that's the end of new revelations okay and the blood was shed once for all okay so if we don't know that we're gonna look for some other mediator and not come to Jesus himself Hebrews 10 through 12 and 13 but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet for by one offering he has protected perfected for all time those who are sanctified this is positional sanctification this is something you received when you are converted if you believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you believe God raised him from the dead and you have turned from sin and self and you're serving him then you are sanctified forever now there's still progressive sanctification I'll talk about this tomorrow but it's been done you are holy because you're his that he is holy and he's cleansed your sins one tree is one sacrifice Hebrews 11:1 now this was important let's make an application Hebrews 11:1 faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen what was wrong with the Hebrew Christians that prompted the author of Hebrews to warn them there's five warnings against apostasy why well because see these people were still alive or they were alive when the temple was still in operation I believe before 70 AD and they were not able to see that the Temple of the New Covenant it's in heaven can you see that no Jesus is the right hand of God can you see him no can you see the blood that was shed once for all no but these people could go to Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement and they could see literal blood shed of the the sacrificial victims they can see the high priests all decked out and glorious attire they could see the pomp and the ceremony in the literal temple you could see the priests going into the holiest place and that was tangible it was more more of a real experience but if they're going to serve Jesus they've got to believe because can't see now remember this this is what happened in their history and that's why hebrews goes back to the wilderness wanderings as a warning in their history when Moses went up to talk to God about sigh and I they said to Aaron we don't know what happened to Moses we don't see him so why don't we make a golden calf here here's their earrings and all the gold and we'll have a tangible god one we can party around and see and this tangible one we make is not a threat to us and when up on the mountains got all this fire and smoke and if we even go out there he'll kill us this this calf is very safe it's not these not a threat okay so now dear ones we have a crisis in the evangelical movement our movement has lost its faith we can no longer be satisfied apparently serving a god we cannot see and believing the words that have already been spoken or hearing about the blood that was shed once for all and so the seminars and how to hear God's voice how to have a more tangible experience how to do this and how to do that are all over the place whereas the hearing of the words of God is becoming our cake so I give you a choice you can believe in the high priest who's seated at the right hand of God and you can draw near to God by the means God ordained by faith come to the throne of grace or you can go down to their seminars right here in the city just recently there was one where they say we're going to teach you how to hear God's voice guaranteed okay and you can hear voices in your mind and have another experience but you got to decide whether these voices in your mind are the God of the Bible they mean not very well not be and I'd say they are not 1 Peter 1:8 and though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not see him now you believe in him now is he speaking there said I'm gonna show you something people say well you're the way you're talking you're saying God is mute that's another criticism I've heard God's mute God can't talk no guy's capable of doing anything but what we want to know is what he did do and what he did say and he is speaking here it is right here see to it that you do now refuse him who is speaking but who is it so once speaking through the words of the New Testament prophets and apostles he's speaking to us from heaven and and he's warning us he's warning us don't go into this divination don't go after other gods don't listen the prophets that have been proven false don't listen the ones who are defining for you a God you haven't known but listen to the one who is speaking from heaven he is warning us don't go there and if those who did not escape when they refused him a ward on earth how much less shall we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven therefore verse 28 of 29 Hebrews 12 since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God that acceptable service with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire we might think well kaikora a DAB these guys in the Old Testament who were consumed that God was only like that in an Old Testament now the god of the New Testament in fact this is an old heresy from the early church Marcion but they're the god of the New Testament is a harmless God whose only love and he doesn't have any threats toward anybody but it's not true the God who was a consuming fire in Moses day is God who's a consuming fire in our day and though his judgment is delayed because of his mercy to give time for repentance he's still the same God and he's warning us so we don't end up in that consuming fire Deuteronomy 13 one more time one more time back there don't go after other gods and serve them don't listen to the Prophet the dreamer you're being tested today in the evangelical movement that we've known this began in early 20th century across denominational lies I haven't heard of a denomination that hasn't been affected I haven't heard of a single one this lot been unscathed by this movement toward mysticism new revelations new prophets new signs and wonders new everything okay we are being tested the false prophets have a role the role is to lead the apostates out of the true church so they can all go gather together somewhere okay but we gotta have decide who do we want to gather with the remnant who loves God and His Word or the people who are going after other gods we have not known Hebrews 7:25 our last slide hence also he's able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them dear brothers and sisters in Christ you have a sacred and holy privilege and responsibility to draw near to God through Jesus Christ the means are our deigned in the scripture is by faith now by sight it's not through some technique that somebody dreamed up it's through the words that God has spoken to us in these last days through his son let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for the clear teaching of the Bible and this truly breaks our heart that some have just not understood this or maybe they have been satisfied with it the Lord may we come to you through the mediator of the New Covenant Jesus Christ and draw near to you by the terms you've laid out in the Bible and dudes soul until you come to bring us to yourself and we say even so come quickly Lord Jesus in your Holy Name Amen

Channel: Critical Issues Commentary

Views: 4,772

Rating: 4.8974357 out of 5

Keywords: Bob DeWaay, CIC, Critical Issues Commentary, Hearing from God, Personal messages from God, Tent of Meeting, How Do We Really Hear from God Conference

Id: 4Jju7xhdYCw

Length: 62min 36sec (3756 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 05 2016