The first article of “furniture” a visitor would meet entering the Mosaic sanctuary was the altar of burnt offerings. In this study we explore the early biblical history of altars, and seek to gain a better understanding of the altar’s role in the sanctuary – and its meaning for us in the plan for our salvation.

<p>The first article of “furniture” a visitor would meet entering the Mosaic sanctuary was the altar of burnt offerings. In this study we explore the early biblical history of altars, and seek to gain a better understanding of the altar’s role in the sanctuary – and its meaning for us in the plan for our salvation.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

The Sanctuary

Chester Clark

Shadows of Heavenly Things

I have a confession to make this morning.

I have a certain person that I hold in very high esteem.

In fact, you might even call it a cultish-like obsession with him.

Are you happy today to be a disciple of Jesus?

To want to live as He lived and believe as He believed and to teach as He taught and 1 day to be with Him for eternity.

As we look at the sanctuary, today we're going to just look at 3 things that we can learn from the sanctuary.

Now as I thought about this message, I thought, you know, there's just no way I can limit it.

I mean, I know I don't have a lot of time.

The sanctuary tours are starting this afternoon at what time?

And so I can't preach till 1 or 2 like I usually do.

But I have these time constraints and I could talk about 60 things I learned from the sanctuary about Jesus.

I could probably talk about 600 things we learned from the sanctuary about Jesus.

But today, Alas, we can only think about 3.

And so we're going to try to discipline our minds and just hone in on 3 things.

I hope that they are things that sort of are big picture things.

You might not think about as you think about the specifics of the sanctuary, but they are important lessons we can learn from the sanctuary nonetheless.

As we begin, I just invite you to bow your heads with me for an additional word of prayer.

Father in heaven, today we are just so thankful for Jesus.

We're thankful that we can spend this time just focusing on Him.

And as you said, through Jesus, you said that the Old Testament Scriptures testified of Him.

We think of Jesus in His Bible study on the road of Emmaus as He opened the scriptures from Moses and all the prophets and taught the things concerning himself.

Lord, what a privilege it is to have the sanctuary set up here and to be able to just spend some time thinking about Jesus in the sanctuary.

And as we turn our hearts toward your word, We just want to pray once again that You'd be with us.

Our scripture today, Psalm 77, says that, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

You have to ask the question, what way is David talking about?

When David here begins to wax eloquent, almost poetic here, and he describes the sanctuary just revealing God's way, what is that way that he's talking about?

I believe that there's more than 1 way to look at it.

I believe that there is, in 1 sense, there is the way of salvation revealed in the sanctuary.

We see the sanctuary service not as a means as some people might think today, not as a means for the Israelites to earn their way, their salvation by slaughtering animals and offering sacrifices.

No, it was a way for the Israelites to see in faith what was going to happen with the coming of the Messiah and with the plan of salvation.

And by the way, the sanctuary service not only foretold all of the life, or not all, but many of the details of the life of Jesus, and not only foretold his death, but it also foretold his further ministry in our behalf, and the eventual reconciliation of all things, the restoration of all things in the earth made new.

So the sanctuary is like a huge panoramic prophecy.

If We talk about prophecy, we usually think of the books of Daniel and Revelation, but the sanctuary is the greatest prophecy that God has ever given to mankind because it was enacted on a daily basis and people could see in living detail what was going to happen and exercise faith in the promises of God.

Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 3, made popular perhaps by Handel, but nonetheless a prophecy of the Messiah's coming.

If we look at a literal translation of it, it could read like this, in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, in the desert, make straight a highway for our God.

The sanctuary gives us a clear understanding of the ways of God, the ways in which He operates and the ways in which He seeks to bring us back into harmony and restoration with Him.

So today we're going to be looking at the sanctuary and just a few of the components or aspects of the sanctuary.

We're just going to focus on 3 things that we can learn about Jesus from the sanctuary.

The first thing that we learn about Jesus from the sanctuary is that Jesus wants to be very near to me.

I love that about Jesus, because as I understand it, Jesus is God.

God is 1, but he is 3 persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus as the creator, he says, he spoke and it was done.

The Jesus that ordered worlds and created universes wants to be close to me.

Now, if you just think about that for a minute, it will, well, for me at least, it trips some breakers.

I can start thinking about how excited I would be if certain people who I respect greatly wanted, chose to come and spend time with me.

Imagine somebody who you hold in very high esteem.

Maybe someone who's done a lot of good in their lives.

Maybe it's someone who has a lot of power, influence, because of their character and because of their choices they have made that are honorable and godly.

And suppose if you were to imagine that person says, you know what, and you can insert your name in the blank here, I just want to, you know what, I just want to come live next door to you.

I don't want the media out there, but just, I like to be close to you." Imagine how you would feel and then try to translate that, that pitiful person's value and worth, try to translate that into the Creator of the universe wanting to be near you.

The very first thing we find about the sanctuary is that God wanted to be with his people.

Exodus chapter 25 and verse 8, turn with me there in your Bibles.

Exodus chapter 25 verse 8, 1 of the first memory verses I learned as I recall as a little kid, or at least that I really remembered.

I probably had others before that I forgot.

But A short verse, but full of meaning, pregnant with meaning.

Exodus chapter 25 and verse 8, and when you're there say Amen.

And let them make me a sanctuary that I may what?

Now we might ask the question, why couldn't Jesus just be with the children of Israel in their tents where they were?

I mean, they're coming out of Egypt, they've left behind the slavery of that land, they're on their way to Canaan, the promised land, why couldn't God just be with them where they were?

Why would they have to build a sanctuary?

It seems that the reason is because sin separates us from God.

And so for God to be close to His people, He needed to help them understand His holiness and that they needed to part ways with their sins in order to be closer to Him.

And so he has a sanctuary built, and it's very interesting.

As God was traveling there with his people, as he's drawing close to his people, he has his presence represented by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

An awesome physical manifestation of the glory of God, and he would want to place himself as close to them as he possibly could.

Now I've never found, I guess it would be hard to find an illustration or to paint an illustration that really illustrated what it was like for the camp of Israel.

In fact, the tents weren't quite that close, because in reality, according to the Bible's records, the tents of Israel were placed at a distance, some 2, 000 meters away from the ark.

Now, 2, 000 meters is just over half a mile.

Here you have an illustration of the awesomeness of God, that there was to be sort of a sacred zone surrounding everything that had to do with God.

And they were to have this zone around them that they could be as close as possible to God but not so close in which they would begin to make God trivial.

Because God not only wants to be close to His people, He knows the only way that He can ultimately be 1 again with His people is if they realize the seriousness of sin and His holiness, right?

And so God created a sanctuary and gave instructions in such a way, not only that he could dwell with his people, but that he could be in among them to help separate them from their sins and draw them closer to Him.

You see, there was a way in which the people could come even closer.

How could they get closer than those 2, 000 cubits?

As if they came to the sanctuary themselves, right?

The Truth About Angels and Offerings

It is a Joy to be here with you tonight and to be able to explore more about the sanctuary we were really excited when we were able to contract with Messiah's mansion to bring their full-scale model here to Dalton And we got even more excited when someone had the idea of doing a vacation Bible school at the same time and making it sanctuary themed.

And so that's something I think is really special for the kids and also for the adults.

It's been a little confusing, so if you had some things not quite right the way you were doing it, it's understandable because we've got these meetings, we've got the kids' meetings, and we've got the tours, and They're all sort of together, but they're all a little different.

And so we would, we're just glad that we can have all this going on this week.

Now, there's 1 thing that I'm sort of assuming during our discussions here this week.

I'm going to assume that you have or will be taking the time to go through the 75-minute tour of the sanctuary over here.

I'm not going to be repeating everything that they discuss.

We're gonna be trying to go into a little more detail and to some of the themes that the sanctuary uncovers in the Bible and its teaching for us today.

So that's something that I just want to make sure that you all are aware of.

It's meant to be sort of a complementary, more in-depth, at least in some areas, study of the sanctuary, as you have the opportunity to go through that over there.

Now, tonight, we also have a little handout that Brent's going to share with you, and this is just something you can follow along as we go through the study.

It's going to be a little bit of an overview tonight of why the sanctuary anyway, if you want to call that the overview.

The Truth About Angels and Offerings, I've titled it, and we're going to be studying some basic overview themes from the Old Testament and the New Testament about how the sanctuary came into being and why it's important for us and what it means for us today.

And tomorrow night our topic is blood, bronze, and blessings, and we're gonna be looking more specifically at what took place in the first of the ceremonies in the courtyard at the altar of sacrifice and what that pointed forward to.

So we're going to be sort of following our way through the sanctuary as we go this week.

But tonight I'm just glad that we can begin, and we can begin with an overview, you might say, of the sanctuary.

So as we're going along, if you realize that I've moved too quickly and you missed some of the things you were trying to fill out, please just raise your hand.

This isn't a, there's not so many of us here that can't make this interactive, right?

And we can just go back and I can restate or we can look at the verses again, whatever it is, so that we can get all of this filled out if you'd like to.

Let's start with Exodus chapter 25 and verse 8, and I hope you brought your Bibles today, because we're going to be spending a lot of time in the Bible.

And so, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me to Exodus chapter 25, and this is sort of the classic verse that Moses up in the mount hears from God, he says in verse 8, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." And this is 1 of my favorite verses because of what it tells me about God.

It tells me that there's a God in heaven who wants to be close to His people, and that just thrills my soul.

In fact, this is 1 of the things this last weekend that I preached about from Exodus 25 and verse 8.

God wants to be near to His people, and that's just an amazing truth.

But as we continue on, we notice that there were certain instructions, very specific instructions given regarding God's dwelling among His people.

And he starts off, very interestingly, you might think he would start off with describing the courtyard, you know, and the sort of like we would think of building a house.

When we build a house, we start with the foundation, and then we, you know, we do the framing, and we do the exterior walls, and we get this roof on, the windows and doors, and then we call it dried in then, right?

But when God gives instructions to Moses to build the sanctuary, he starts with the furniture, not just any furniture.

He starts with what we would consider the last piece of furniture, all the way into the very deepest recesses of the sanctuary was the most holy place with the Ark of the Covenant.

And that's what Moses first has described to him.

Very interesting here, when we read in Exodus 25, we continue on, verse 9, verse 9, According to all that I show you, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it.

Now this has to remind us of a New Testament passage in Hebrews chapter 8.

So we're going to stop right now in Exodus chapter 25, keep your finger there, and flip over to near the end of the Bible, near the end of the New Testament, the book of Hebrews, and we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 8, and notice how Paul, or who I believe wrote the book of Hebrews, describes what happened with this building of the earthly sanctuary.

Hebrews 8 and verse 1, it says, "'Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum.

We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary.

Now when Paul would write that to, who was he writing this book to after all?

That's how we get the name of the book, is it was written, the letter to his own people.

It was written to the Jewish nation, trying to explain to them how Christ was the fulfillment of all those ceremonies and symbols and patterns that they had in the sanctuary.

A minister of the sanctuary, so when he said the sanctuary, they knew what he was talking about, and of the true tabernacle.

He makes this distinguishing word there, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man." So he's saying there's a sanctuary, it's not the 1 that Moses built, it's certainly not the 1 that Messiah's mansion built, this is 1 built by divine hands, and it's not on earth, it's in heaven.

And he goes on and he says in verse 5, who serve under the example and shadow of heavenly things as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.

For see, says he, that you make all things according to the pattern shown you in the mount.

And so if we look back in Exodus chapter 25, we continue on this story here.

We understand now from the New Testament's explanation that this sanctuary which Moses was to build was a sanctuary to be patterned after a true sanctuary in heaven, right?

And Notice he says, you shall make, verse 10, they shall make an ark of shiddim wood, 2 cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

It's amazing to me to see how God began His description of the building of the sanctuary.

He begins it by explaining how he's to make the Ark of the Covenant.

And the Ark of the Covenant, we'll be studying that more towards the end of the week, but just, if you're not aware of it, the Ark of the Covenant, in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary, was where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt.

The very presence of God was over the Ark of the Covenant.

And it's as if God says, let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them, and he begins by telling Moses how to build the very place where he's going to dwell.

And it's such a wonderful illustration of us, you know, because in a sense we are to be sanctuaries.

God doesn't begin by reforming us from the outside in.

He begins by building us from the inside out.

He changes our heart and the rest flows out of a changed heart.

We could change our outside, we could change our externals, but that doesn't change what's inside unless God makes that miraculous change first in us.

And so there's so many fascinating things we could just ponder as we look at these instructions God is giving to Moses.

But notice with me, it continues on, and we're not going to read this all, but we'll read verse 8.

And you shall make there 2 cherubims of gold.

Of beaten work you shall make them in the 2 ends of the mercy seat, and make 1 cherub on the 1 end and the other cherub on the other end.

Even of the mercy seat you should make the cherubims on the 2 ends thereof." So over this box, which God described in detail was to be built by Moses, the Ark of the Covenant, there was to be a mercy seat.

And on either side of this mercy seat were these 2 angels, or cherubs, as the Bible calls them.

And if we continue on, he gives very specific instructions about how to build these cherubs, or cherubim is plural.

And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings.

Toward the mercy seat shall be the, shall the faces of the cherubims be.

And you shall put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.

And there I will meet with you and commune with you from above the mercy seat, from between the 2 cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony, and all things which I give you in commandment unto the children of Israel." So here God's giving very specific instructions.

Inside the ark was to be the testimony or the commandments that He was going to give Him.

And We know, we can read that later, how God gave him.

Remember written the very finger of God on 2 tables of stone, the tables of his testimony, the commandments, and they were to be put in the ark.

And you might think, well, that's a very severe thing, you know, thou shalt, thou shalt, but above the commandments was the mercy seat, right?

So here you see this picture of God not just being about law, but about being about mercy, justice as well as mercy, a complete mingling of these 2, which we see fully demonstrated on the cross of Christ.

But what I want us to focus on for just a moment here are these angels, these 2 cherubs or cherubim.

They're found several places in the sanctuary.

We find them here, these 2 angels on either end of the ark, but if we look in the next chapter, in Exodus 26, in verse 1, we're going to find that angels are found elsewhere in the sanctuary also.

Exodus 26 and verse 1, it says, moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with 10 curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet.

With cherubims of cunning work, you shall make them.

Now, if we look over here at the Messiah's mansion, we can't see the bottom curtains that were perhaps used and there's lots of different artist renderings of how they might have looked but the Messiah's mansion they've used they've used different colors.

It would be pretty hard to make tarps that were mingled together or woven together, right?

So the colors are all there for representation.

Blood, Bronze, and Blessings

Abraham, have you ever woken up early in the morning?

Abraham was awakened that morning early to hear what he knew was God's voice speaking to him.

And as he awakened, he heard what was to him some very, very strange instructions.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis chapter 22, and we're going to begin reading with verse 1.

And it came to pass, Genesis chapter 22 and verse 1, it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham or test Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here am I.

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon 1 of the mountains, which I will tell you of." Can you imagine being awakened to such instructions from the voice of God?

Can you imagine how Abraham must have felt?

Abraham is not just instructed to take his son Isaac, but God reminds him through the language that he uses that he is his only son, Isaac.

And not only that he is his only son, Isaac, but it's his only son, Isaac, whom he loves.

There wasn't very many things closer to the heart of Abraham than Isaac.

Isaac was the 1 that was a miracle child.

They had tried, you remember, using their own attempts to fulfill the promise through Hagar and Ishmael, but that wasn't acceptable.

And finally, Abraham, though he was an old man and Sarah, though she was beyond the years of childbirth, miraculously had a son.

And this was the son of whom God had promised, I will make your seed great, like the stars of heaven in number.

If you can't number the stars, neither will you be able to number your descendants.

And yet God is telling him in no uncertain terms, go and offer your son for a burnt offering.

The Bible records in verse 3, Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took 2 of his young men with him and Isaac his son and claimed the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went into the place of which God had told him.

Josephus records that this was not just the land of Moriah, but what became known as Mount Moriah, a very important hill in Hebrew history.

And it says that on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place of far off.

And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together.

And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father and said, My father.

And he said, Behold, the fire and the wood.

Oh, you see, Isaac knew about offering to the Lord.

We'll look at some of this history of burnt offerings in a minute.

Ever since the days of the Garden of Eden, after they had been expelled from the gates of the Garden, those 2 cherubim with their wings spread over the gate of the garden with the light of the presence of God between them, and there an altar outside the gate where Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, or at least Abel, sacrificed their offerings of lambs.

God's people had continued the tradition.

It wasn't just a tradition, it was the instructions of God.

They were taught to offer these offerings as a sacrifice pointing forward to the Savior that would come.

And so Isaac knew about this, and he says, here's the wood and here's the fire, but where's the lamb?

And Abraham said in verse 8, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." Oh, those are prophetic words.

Abraham himself didn't even realize what he was saying when he said, God himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering.

And they went together and finally as they built the altar and laid the wood in order, the time came when Abraham had to tell Isaac, Isaac, the lamb that God has provided, the offering that God has instructed is none other than you.

Now, there's lots of ethical dilemmas that we could start to question and quandary about, but the fact is that Abraham knew God's voice and he was following it.

And Abraham was following the instructions of God, being tested and proven by God, according to the Scripture, and he was seeing the providence of God in fulfilling his prophecy that God would provide a lamb.

And if I could, could I get some help passing out these handouts once again?

We're going to look now at why Abraham and Isaac were both so familiar with this offering ritual, why they were familiar with these sacrifices, and we're going to look back at the very first altar that is specifically enumerated in the Bible record.

Series

The Sanctuary

Blood, Bronze, and Blessings

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

What Jesus Said

19. Religion and Politics

1h

Waiting for the Promise

31m

Why I Love Jesus

42m

The Mount of Blessings

Light of the World

40m

World’s Richest Beggars

34m

Plenary

Building Altars

1h 26m

Unlock Revelation

12. A Thief in the Night

1h 18m

The Greatest Christmas Gift

59m

Plenary

The Cross Connection: How Love Flowing From the Cross Changes Us and Our Patients

45m

Abraham: Father of the End-time Faithful

Father Abraham: Stranger and Pilgrim

42m

Wise Men Still Seek Him

27m

Fruitometer

51m

Sound Doctrine