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Weimar University

What is the Faith That Was Once for All Delivered to the Saints?

Don Mackintosh

Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Jesus Christ & Revival & Reformation

Father in Heaven, Lord, bless us as we study tonight, and send your Spirit to give us something that could be of benefit.

So The greatest need of the church is revival and reformation.

We've been told that, and of course that's the greatest need ever since Adam and Eve.

It's not a new thing, It's a renewed thing, right?

And this particular idea of revival and reformation, I decided to look it up and put in revival and Donald Trump.

And sure enough, it shocked me that it was so specific.

Bring back our religion, Trump says, a second term would usher in great revival of America.

And He actually goes on to explain why this would be.

Religious faith is the biggest thing missing from America today.

With help from people of God and God's grace, people of faith and God's grace, former President Donald Trump said, defeating the Democrats would usher in the great revival of America.

So Probably every day, every night, he gets up, might get up in the middle of the morning, has a group of people thinking about revival and reformation.

They're all over the country promoting this idea of revival and reformation.

How many think this is, this is a great idea?

How many think revival and reformation is a great idea?

We have to bring back our religions, and we have to bring back Christianity.

Now you may wanna go with it, I'm not sure tonight.

I'm not promoting any, this particular plan, I'm just letting you know about it, okay?

If I get in, you're going to be using that power at a level that you've never used it before, he told this group of Christians.

Okay, you'd like to sign up for the power of Trump.

This Kamala Harris wants to revive an empire in decline.

And both she and Donald Trump have pictures taken with them with their hand on the Bible.

Which means you would think that they're basing their idea on the Bible, yes or no?

That's what they want you to think with the picture.

Why would they take a picture with the Bible?

Because they want you to think that what they're saying is from the Bible, right?

And then the same thing with Kamala Harris.

So I said revival, reformation, first of all you had Donald Trump, then we have Kamala Harris.

But then there was another 1 I mentioned, who else did I mention?

So that's what I want to spend the most of my time on, but I just thought it was interesting that the culture, in the culture today, in the political campaigns, it's pictured as good versus evil, a great controversy theme, and the call for both of them is for revival and reformation.

And they both, if you study it a little more, will point to the reason you should do that based on the what?

Some of you think you better know your Bibles.

So let's now look at the Scriptures, revive us again.

Let's look at Psalm 85, which will be our study tonight, Psalm 85.

Now Psalm 85 was written right after the children of Israel had gotten out of captivity from Babylon.

They had come out of Babylon, my people, lest you share in her sins.

They had responded to the loud cry of God, and they were returning to their land.

Lord, you have been favorable to your land.

You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.

You have forgiven the iniquity of your people.

Selah, you have taken away all your wrath.

You have turned from the fierceness of your anger.

So the first step in biblical revival and reformation is to remember the past.

And in this remembrance, and by the way, everybody that calls for revival and Reformation always remembers the past.

If you're listening to the politicians, they're talking about the past.

And they also talk about the present and the future.

But this review of the past is saying what?

Who is the major player as the psalmist looks back to the past?

You have turned from the fierceness of your anger." So the focus of a true message of a revival and reformation is not what I have done.

True revival and reformation, a message of true revival and reformation according to the Bible focuses on who?

So the past, they're brought back to Israel, iniquity is forgiven by God, God covers their sin, God takes away his wrath.

How many are like that to be your experience?

What Is the Lord’s Day and Why Does it Matter?

Father in Heaven, bless us today as we continue this journey on the themes found in the book of Revelation that are actually found throughout Scripture.

Bless us as we talk today about the Sabbath in Christ's name.

So in this series, what is the faith that was once delivered to all the saints, Jude asked that question and he was writing in AD 60.

This is before there was a Seventh-day Adventist, before there was a Muslim, before there was a Catholic, before there was a Protestant, before there was a Mormon, before there was any of the religions you have today, there is this idea that there was a faith or a belief that was delivered to the saints.

Very next chapter, Revelation chapter 1, goes through the 8 faiths and this was written in AD 90, again before there was a Seventh-day Adventist, before there was a Catholic, before there was a Protestant, before there was a Muslim, where these truths or these beliefs that were already put in place, only needed to be entered into, like we heard in that song just now, a temple made in time, already prepared to be entered into, not something that has to be created or construed or confabulated.

Our church or our beliefs should not be something our church made up.

It should be something that's already there and we enter into it.

And That's the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

We've looked at the scriptures, which are the foundation of truth, and then the major message of the scriptures.

We look next at salvation, and then we looked at the second coming, and now today, the Sabbath.

Revelation chapter 1, verse 8 through 10.

You can look it up in your Bible or read it yourself with me on the screen.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation on the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that's called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet." So in this verse we have now pictured the next subject in our book of Revelation, chapter 1, and this is the idea of the Lord's day.

Who should we ask this question, actually?

Well, in the next couple verses, right after verse 10, we have verse 11 and 12.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and what you see, write in a book and send it to the 7 churches which are in Asia, to Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.

We're gonna visit all those churches when we go on our tour to Turkey.

We already have a song that you're going to learn for each church.

Don't worry about signing up now because the bus is full.

But it's a dynamic tour that I think those going on it will really enjoy.

They were not only in that time, but then they represent churches throughout time, all the way to the time of a laos, which means laity or people, to see the judged people.

Now, here's this voice that was speaking, so let's pick it up again, verse 12.

Then I turned to see, okay, read it with me.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands, and in the midst of the 7 lampstands, 1 like the Son of Man, clothed with the garment, down to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band." So who is it that we turn to, to ask who or what the Lord's Day is in the text itself.

Now who is the Son of Man, would you say?

69 times in the synoptic Gospels Jesus is called or calls himself the Son of Man.

And what day did the Son of Man, that is Jesus especially, claim?

For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

And he said to them, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.

And I, the Son of Man, was in the Spirit on the?

So the Son of Man is Jesus and He is pointing to the Lord's Day as being something that he's in charge of.

We already read it, but let's read it again.

And he said to them, the Sabbath was, read it with me, made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.

In creation, because it was actually made for man.

This is the idea that Mark's gospel is sharing with us.

Well, let's go back then to Genesis chapter 2 verse 1 to 3 and see if that's what happened.

Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.

And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done.

Then the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made." Fairly clear then that the seventh day is the Lord's day.

Now By the way, this is not just something that I noticed, I think others have noticed it, but when I see an evangelical commentary, Erdsmunds, very famous author, James Dunn, who's written a commentary on several of the books of the New Testament, this is what he says, this opening chapter, that is Genesis 1, is more than a prologue to the book.

It's not just like a introduction you don't really read.

It's not even just an ideology for the Sabbath.

It gives the Sabbath a premier place in the divine blueprint for human life.

So in other words, this Lord's Day is a, it's important he's saying.

It's so important that not only do we see the text that we've covered already, but we see the text that were written actually with God's own hand.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

6 days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

Pretty clear that's the Lord's day, right?

In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, so the Lord's day is called the Sabbath day, the seventh day, and hallowed it.

So this little schematic I sometimes share, You have God here pictured as Elohim.

And This is the mighty relationship builder on day 1.

He formed the light, but light doesn't make sense without dark.

And there's a relationship between those 2 because God is a God of relationships.

The Sanctuary

Ministry of Music, and also for that children's story as well.

We've been in a series here in the church which has been interrupted a number of times by other very important things.

And you may not know it, but we're actually in a series on the book of Revelation, chapter 1.

And in chapter 1, There are basically 8 core teachings, which are the faith which was delivered once to the saints.

So in Jude, which was written in AD 60, It said to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

So there was a faith that was going to be delivered to all the saints.

This is before there was a Catholic, before there was a Protestant, before there was a Muslim, before there was a Lutheran, before there was a Mormon, before there was a Seventh-day Adventist.

And this faith was gonna be delivered once for all.

It's 1 faith for all, that is, to all the saints.

And we're to contend earnestly for that faith.

Very next chapter in the Bible is Revelation chapter 1, and it starts in verse 1 to 3 saying, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him and sent by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God.

So you have not only the faith mentioned, and then you have in the very next chapter, the faith actually laid out.

And it's laid out in 8 different S's, you might call them.

The scriptures, salvation, the second coming, the Sabbath, the sanctuary, what happens to people when they die, the spirit of prophecy and the saints.

So some people say that Seventh-day Adventists have come up with the Sabbath or different things and different beliefs.

They're just entering into beliefs that were already there.

And the Sabbath is also something we studied last week that we enter into already was made for man.

Before there was a Jew, before there was a Protestant, before there was anyone else, the Sabbath was made for man.

Now today we continue in our series and we look now at the sanctuary.

And the sanctuary is found here in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 12 and 13.

So let's pray again and then we'll get into our message.

Father in heaven, thank you that you can bless us today as you promised where 2 or 3 are gathered in your name that you would be there in the midst.

So you can read this with me if you'd like on the screen.

This is our text for today in Revelation chapter 1.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the 7 lampstands, 1 like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band." So you have this picture of the Son of Man 39 times in the New Testament.

He's gird about the chest with a golden band.

The 7 lampstands which you saw, Revelation 120, are the 7 what?

This May there's going to be a tour going to Turkey and they're going to look at all those 7 churches.

Ephesus, Myrna, all those different ones.

And they're going to look at all those churches.

They were not only there in time, but they also are throughout history.

And the last church is the laos, that means people, decean, the judged people, the people living in the time of judgment.

And the picture there is within a sanctuary setting, pictured here among the 7 lampstands, which was the first part of the holy place.

And then it ends up, he's gonna be in the last part during the Laodicean time period, the judge part, that's the most holy place.

So the sanctuary then, that's pictured, also reminds us of Jesus throughout.

The word became flesh, and what does it say?

Dwelt among us, and That word for dwelt means tabernacled.

And we want to look now at the sanctuary of Jesus, now among his lamps, that is, walking among the churches, you might say, throughout time and history, but we are of course living in this time.

And that lampstand was right there in the holy place as you looked at the sanctuary and you entered into it.

The sanctuary itself was actually in the middle of the camp.

You know, he wants to come down into the middle of the mess.

Do you have a mess in your work situation?

It's not an aloof God that stayed somewhere else.

He entered into the middle of the camp of Israel and the middle of society.

So now let's look, and what we're going to do with that sanctuary is we're going to take 6 short flybys.

We're going to look at the sanctuary from 6 different angles and then we'll come and make a conclusion.

Now I remember we had a life-size sanctuary once and there was a helicopter that flew by the sanctuary.

And I came out dressed in a high priest suit and made it on the evening news.

When he saw me the first time, he came back the second time.

And on the news that night, there were several flybys.

And that's what we're going to do today here at the sanctuary.

The sanctuary actually was meant to remind people of the exodus, we just sang that song.

♫ Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.

I am weak, but Thou art mighty, Guide me with Thy powerful hand.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.

Then it goes, open now the crystal fountain where the winds stay healing, stream the flow.

And this was a song that we sang, reminding us of the fact that there were people that were guided out of Egypt.

And they left Egypt in what's called the Exodus.

It's such a famous escape story that every building in the nation has exit signs.

And they left, and when they left, they went out of Egypt with a lamb at the Passover time, and they put blood on their doorposts.

And that lamb was memorialized by that altar of sacrifice where the lambs were brought.

And every time they brought it, they would remember that God passed over them and slew those who didn't have that sign.

As on the Exodus, they went through the Red Sea, so also in the sanctuary, you have that basin with the priest standing by it called the laver which was filled with water.

Saints Throughout Time & At The End Time

So the saints, haggios, are those that desire to be holy.

And they have a faith, they have a series of beliefs that was once for all delivered to the saints.

It's not a different group of beliefs for different people.

It was the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

This in other words was before there was a Catholic, before there was a Muslim, before there was a Protestant, before there were all the various denominations out there, and that group of faiths or beliefs is mentioned in Revelation chapter 1 as being the Scriptures, verse 1-3, salvation, verse 4-6, the second coming, verse 7, the Sabbath, verse 8-10, the sanctuary, verse 12, the state of the dead, verse 16 through 18, the spirit of prophecy, which we looked at last night, and today in our final message on this chapter, the saints or the church.

To me, I find it somewhat incredible that all these things are listed in this order in 1 chapter.

It's almost as if God wanted us to see just a snapshot of the beliefs of the church so we could encompass it in our mind.

How many of you've ever read a long book and you said, man, I could have, wouldn't it have helped to just have a little schematic that would help me understand where I was going?

So let's pray and then we'll look into this.

Father in heaven, where we thank you for the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to send, signified by Isaiah to his servant, John, who bore witness to the Word of God.

Thank you for the blessing that we've been promised as we hear, as we read, and as we keep these words.

So bless us today as we enter into that in Christ's name, amen.

Put up a QR code here, because I put some stuff you might want to download later, and I'll put that up at the end again.

Let's look at now this text, which is our study for today.

The mystery of the 7 stars, which you saw in my right hand, on the 7 golden lampstands.

7 stars are the angels of the 7 churches, on the 7 lampstands, which you saw are the 7 churches.

It's talking about the right hand, it's talking about stars, it's talking about churches.

Well, Revelation 1.11 in the same chapter says, Jesus speaking again, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, what you see right in a book.

So that's what we're reading right now, the book that he said to write this in.

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Series

What is the Faith That Was Once for All Delivered to the Saints?

What Is the Lord’s Day and Why Does it Matter?

Transcript

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