Participants: Chris Holland (Host), Karl Tsatalbasidis
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201627A
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00:00 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6
00:05 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:09 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:13 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:16 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:19 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:22 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:25 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:28 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:31 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 00:34 IIW-2016-27 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #6 01:31 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 01:35 God's book, The Bible 01:38 Still relevant in today's complex world 01:44 It Is Written 01:46 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 01:59 CHRIS: Dear friends, have you ever witnessed a tornado before? Now, I'm sure my friends in 02:03 Saskatchewan have witnessed some very powerful tornadoes. I actually had the unfortunate 02:09 experience of going through Tuscaloosa, Mississippi in the aftermath of a tornado. It was a 02:18 devastating tornado, a mile wide in some instances. Here is the amazing thing: there was a 02:28 neighbourhood that we went through, there was not one home left. But in every instance, 02:35 what was still standing was the foundation. The foundation was solid, anchored to the earth. 02:44 And you see, friends, in the spiritual life, we need a foundation that will anchor us. 02:50 We need a foundation that will not be moved. And the Bible tells us what that foundation 02:56 is: that foundation is the sanctuary. Why is it the sanctuary? Because Jesus is in 03:02 the sanctuary in heaven. The sanctuary shows us that Jesus is a very personal God, that He 03:09 wants to have interaction with you. The sanctuary teaches us of the interaction of heaven and 03:16 earth. And you know, the person that's been helping us understand that is Pastor Karl 03:20 Tsatalbasidis. Pastor Karl, I want to welcome you back to It Is Written Canada. And today, 03:27 we're going to get right into it; we have a lot to cover But I want to take just a few 03:32 moments of review. Real sanctuary, where'sthe real sanctuary? PASTOR KARL: In 03:37 heaven. CHRIS: In heaven. And that real sanctuary in heaven teaches us of the interaction 03:43 between heaven and earth; not two separate, distinct time and nature and all separated, no, 03:53 no, no. It is time and space, God wanting to meet with mankind, and the sanctuary 04:00 teaches us all about that interaction. We talked about your personal testimony in our 04:05 last show, where you talked about how your learning about the sanctuary really drew you 04:09 into personal relationship with Jesus. But what we got most is, if we reject the sanctuary, when 04:20 we reject the sanctuary, we reject, we reject the Word of God. We cannot, we must not, 04:28 reject the sanctuary. And so, Pastor Karl, let's talk about this. The sanctuary teaches us 04:35 it has a purpose, it has a function, and it reveals some very important things. So let's 04:40 get right into it, Pastor Karl: What is it that the sanctuary reveals to us? PASTOR 04:45 KARL: Chris, I think one of the broadest themes in all of the Bible, aside from the sanctuary, 04:50 that the sanctuary reveals, is that there's actually this conflict going on between good 04:57 and evil, a conflict going on between Christ and Satan. And it really reveals this. Now, the 05:04 reason why this is so revolutionary is that - if your viewers will remember, and if 05:09 they don't, they will have to go back and review what we studied before - is that under Greek 05:14 thinking, which was promulgated by the little horn power, ultimate reality wasoutside of 05:21 time and space. The great controversy between Christ and Satan is 05:26 inseparablylinkedwithhistory. And so one of the reasons why this theme has never really been 05:36 resurrected from the Bible is because, again, the eyeglasses that the Christian church was 05:42 wearing simply did not look in this direction, because ultimate reality is outside of time and 05:48 space, and God was outside of time and space and incompatible with time and space. And so 05:53 this historical theme of a controversy going on between Christ and Satan, as we see in 05:58 the scriptures, and as we're about to find out, is integrally connected with the sanctuary, 06:02 was something they were not looking for. Their previous eyeglassespresuppositions - a 06:09 fancy word - prevented them from seeing that. And so once those eyeglasses are removed and 06:15 placed in check and say, "Wait a minute, God is not this timeless, space-less God; He's 06:20 able to dwell with us, as the sanctuary tells us," then we can take a good look at the 06:26 sanctuary to find out what it reveals. So, it really reveals this great controversy between 06:31 Christ and Satan. And I want to start with the book of Isiah chapter 14. We're going to begin 06:37 at verse 12. CHRIS: Alright. So Isaiah is going to rehearse a little bitof the history. Now, 06:45 one of the things that's important, as you're pointing this out - and I'm not an expert 06:49 in this area, Pastor Karl - but as you're talking, it came to mind that Greek philosophy 06:55 actually introduces what they believed to be a concept through mythology to kind of demonstrate 07:03 some of the great controversy theme. But the interesting thing about it, good's not really 07:08 good, because good can be evil; and evil's not really evil, because sometimes evil is good. 07:15 And it's this counterfeit for what really happens. The Bible really describes where there is 07:20 a real God Who is good, and a real devil who is evil, who come into conflict with one another. 07:28 You're going to read about that conflict here in Isaiah chapter 14. PASTOR KARL: That's right, 07:57 yes. PASTOR KARL: Now, the first thing we need to do is just establish the fact that 08:00 this setting here is really a setting in the heavenly sanctuary. And the key phrase is 08:05 found in verse 13, when it says, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit 08:11 upon the mount of the congregation," that phrase "mount of the congregation" 08:16 actually refers to that heavenly sanctuary. Now, that's taken from two Hebrew words: har and 08:25 moad. And both of these words, if we do a word study on har, we'll find out that in Exodus 08:30 15:17, Isaiah 66:20, Jeremiah 26:18, that that word har is connected with the sanctuary. If 08:38 we look at the word moad, in some versions of the Bible, the sanctuary is referred to as a 08:43 tent of meeting. CHRIS: A-ha. PASTOR KARL: And the word for "meeting" there is the word for 08:49 moad. And so you can look atExodus 29 verse 4, verse 10, verse 30, verse 32, where moad 08:55 is referring to the tent of meeting. So it's basically demonstrating that the two words 09:00 are integrallyconnected with the sanctuary. So the sanctuary here reveals that there is a 09:06 great controversy. And you can see it played out here with Lucifer, whose objective was - 09:13 it says, "I will ascend into heaven: I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." We're 09:22 going to get to Revelation 4 and 5 in just a minute here, which the throne is the central aspect 09:27 in those two chapters that are couched in this heavenly sanctuary setting. And so 09:33 wherever you have a throne, you have administration, you have laws. And it's as if the enemy 09:39 was saying, "I want to exalt my throne above the stars of God, so Lord, Your throne is 09:45 insufficient. Your throne and Your laws and Your administrations have problems. 09:50 And my throne is going to be superior to Yours." And so this great controversy is started. 09:57 And the Bible pulls the curtain aside and says, "You know, he wasn't really interested in 10:02 developing a better administration; he wanted to be God." Now, he didn't want to be 10:06 like God in character; he wanted to exercise the privileges and prerogatives that only belong to 10:13 God, through aiming at His law and His administration as a major problem. CHRIS: So the 10:21 sanctuary helps us understand there is an angelic being by the name of Lucifer. Now, to the 10:27 viewer, if you've missed our previous series called "Star Wars" or the series "Noah: The 10:34 Real Story," you can go to www.itiswrittencanada.ca and there, find archives of our 10:42 program, or you can go to YouTube.com/IIWCanada. Find those archives. And when you 10:49 find those archives, look up "Noah: The Real Story," look up "Star Wars: The Battle Begins," 10:56 and you see Lucifer, this angel who attempts to dethrone God. And so that's what we're picking 11:03 up here. Lucifer exists in the sanctuary, and he's not interested in becoming like God 11:11 - becausethe Bible is quite clear: the character of God, He is our refuge, He is our 11:15 strength, He is love-Lucifer is interested in taking over. PASTOR KARL: Correct. CHRIS: He 11:22 wants all the power taken to himself. So the sanctuary helps us get a peek into the reality 11:29 that's happening there in the sanctuary in heaven where Lucifer actually tries to, for 11:37 lack of a better word, he tries to run a coup to take over. And we have insights later in the 11:43 Bible that help give us a deeper look onto that coup that the devil brings about. Where do we 11:51 find that? PASTOR KARL: Well, I wanted to mention something in connection with this, because in 11:57 Isaiah 14, it says, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." And it sounds like a 12:01 nice little, "Well, I've got a better way than God does." If you go to Revelation 12:7, the 12:06 Bible actually says that there was war in heaven. And it says Michael and his angels fought 12:12 against the dragon and his angels, and they were kicked out. The interesting thing is, 12:16 that word for war, in Revelation 12:7, is the Greek word polemos from which we get the English 12:23 word "polemic." And so again - and you can't fight a successful war without a successful 12:31 disinformation and deception campaign. And what Lucifer basically challenged God was 12:38 with this: he didn't say, "God, I'm stronger than You are." That contest would've been over 12:42 before it even began. But he basically said, "I'm more right than You are." And so how was 12:49 God going to deal with that? Was He just going to take out His bazooka and then blow him away 12:54 and say, "Well, that'll teach anybody else to challenge My authority"? When he challenged 12:59 Him and said, "No, I'm more right than you are," that meant that the longsuffering of God 13:05 now had to be put into effect, and God had to actually demonstrate, throughout 13:10 ceaseless ages, Who He actually was, so that you and I could behold it and not be beguiled by 13:17 the enemy's deceptions. And so this sanctuary reveals that, really, at the heart of it, this 13:24 is an ideological warfare. I used to teach my students that, you know, the devil, just like 13:29 animals, they do divide and conquer; well, with the Greek thinking, that's exactly what 13:35 the enemy does. He dichotomizes and separates things and says, "This is essential and this is 13:39 not essential, and you know, heaven is like this, and earth is like that," and there's all 13:45 these dichotomies. And so there's an ideological warfare going on. So this is a great 13:51 controversy going on over the character ofGod, over right versus wrong, over whether 13:56 there's an absolute truth or not, and so forth and so on. It's really a devastating attack 14:01 here that we find. CHRIS: You know, and what's fascinating, when you look at history, and 14:06 when you look at the course of history, the devil is waging this attack and certainly is 14:14 winning battles. But along the way - and we talked about this in some of our previous shows - 14:18 there seems to be,amongst God's people, a time of restoration, a time of revival; a time where 14:25 they stray away, a time of revival; a time of straying away, a time of revival. 14:29 Something happens, when Jesus exits this scene, when Jesus leaves this earth, returns to 14:38 the sanctuary, the church seems stable for a bit, but then the devil changes his tactic. You 14:46 know, in the first century, the devil attacked Christians through persecution of Rome. And 14:53 during these great persecutions, the churchhistorianTertullian wrote that the blood of the 15:00 martyrs was as seed to the church. The church exploded in growth. But the devil, because 15:09 he's a tactician, realized he had to change the game up a little bit. He had to distract 15:13 people. And one of the distractions is, you have to turn people away from the 15:20 sanctuary. You have to crush the sanctuary underfoot, because that's what establishes absolute 15:27 truth. And so we've seen already in Daniel 8 that he crushes, he trampled the sanctuary 15:35 underfoot. And you've used the word - and I like it so much - that through the little horn 15:39 power, he eclipses the light shining forth from the sanctuary, and he removes this. 15:49 What else is happening there, Pastor Karl? PASTOR KARL: Yeah, I want to go to Revelation 15:53 chapter 4 and 5, because in Isiah, we read about the fact that the enemy, he said, "I want 15:59 to exalt my throne above the stars of God." In Ezekiel - I'll just kind of allude to it for 16:06 the sake of time here - in Ezekiel 28:14, he's the anointed cherub, the enemy of souls. 16:12 CHRIS: Yes, we're speaking of Lucifer, who eventually becomes Satan. He was the anointed 16:16 cherub. PASTOR KARL: Yes, and he is there in the midst of the stones of fire, it says. So this 16:22 phrase "in the midst of the stones of fire," you also find that in Ezekiel 1:4-5 to refer 16:28 to the living creatures that are right around the throne and thepresence of God. So he's 16:32 making his accusations from the very presence of God there in the sanctuary. When we get to 16:38 Revelation chapters 4 and 5, the throne is mentioned about 17 times, just in those two 16:45 chapters. I mean, let's take a cursory glance here, and I want you to notice who is 16:51 conspicuously absent this time from the midst of the throne. So in Revelation 4:2, it says: 17:42 PASTOR KARL: And there are many other references that talk about. or in Revelation 5:6, it 17:47 also talks about being in the midst of the throne. And it finallyintroduces the Lamb of 17:54 God. So in chapter 4, you have this scene of, it's basically the Father seated on the throne. 18:01 In Revelation chapter 5, there's this strong angel who says, "Who's worthy to open the book 18:07 and to loose the seals" that he has in his hand? John looks in every direction, he can't find 18:10 anyone. And finally, someone says, "Hey, there's the Lamb of God." In verse 6, it says: 18:29 PASTOR KARL: The one who is conspicuously absent here is the one who made all those charges 18:34 in the beginning, who said, "I'm going to exalt my throne above the stars of God," or in Ezekiel 18:40 28, who was in the midst of the stones of fire as the anointed cherub. In other words, as a 18:43 result of the sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, He has overcome the enemy, and 18:51 now, he is not there. He's completely vanquished his arguments through His sacrifice. 18:57 CHRIS: And this is powerful imagery here, because what it's demonstrating to us - because 19:01 you know, the Bible calls the devil the accuser of the brethren - and you know, 19:05 something I've talked about when I talk about the sanctuary is, so often, we play this scene of 19:10 judgement, that God is upon the throne, doing all He can to keep us out of heaven. The sanctuary 19:20 actually teaches us first that it's actually Jesus Who is the Judge; second, that it's 19:28 actually Jesus Who is our Advocate, the One Who is on our behalf; and then third, Jesus is 19:34 the One Who has paid the penalty, paid the price. But what's fascinating is, the devil 19:41 is even absent. So his accusations actually don't even have a place in the sanctuary 19:52 any longer. This is powerful, powerful imagery, as Satan is absent from the sanctuary. The 20:03 sanctuary continues to teach us about this interaction of heaven and earth, and that God is not 20:10 doing everything He can to keep us out of heaven, but rather, God is doing everything - 20:15 because the very foundation of His throne, the sanctuary upon which where His throne sits, is 20:22 fundamentally operating on the principle of connecting heaven and earth. PASTOR KARL: Correct, 20:28 yeah. CHRIS: So let's talk a little bit more about that. We get the picture of the great 20:34 controversy. We get a picture of good versus evil. So let's be done talking about the evil one, 20:42 and let's move to the presence of God, because this is where the sanctuary really draws out 20:45 some really powerful imagery and some very powerful promises of hope for us. Talk to me about 20:52 the presence of God in the sanctuary. PASTOR KARL: Very good. Actually, Chris, I want to 20:56 begin, if we can go back to Exodus 3.Let's begin there, and we're going to connect Moses' 21:01 experience with God at the burning bush later with the sanctuary. But let's go there 21:05 first. So Exodus 3, and we can begin with verse 1, as we seek to talk about the presence of 21:14 God, something else that the sanctuary reveals. CHRIS: And the reason that the presence of 21:18 God is so important, as we're turning to Exodus 3, Pastor Karl, is, we want to experience 21:24 the presence of God. And so when we talked about the presence of God, we're not talking about 21:28 some kind of mystical experience; we're talking about a genuine, personal encounter 21:34 with God. PASTOR KARL: Absolutely. CHRIS: So let's talk about this. PASTOR 22:21 KARL: Okay. PASTOR KARL: I want to stop just there for a minute. It's important to note 22:25 that when Moses first saw the burning bush, he didn't automatically equate that with 22:30 the presence of God. So he sees this out-of-the-ordinary sight, something that doesn't happen 22:36 all the time, and you know, that just alerts me, Chris, that you and I have to be alert to when 22:41 God is trying to make an entrance into our lives. And sometimes we get so caught up in 22:45 the things of the world, that we don't see when He's trying to catch our attention. 22:50 CHRIS: That's right. PASTOR KARL: And so, Moses was alert here, and he said, "You know, 22:53 this is an extraordinary sight. I need to go check it out." What he didn't do was, hey, he sees 22:59 the burning bush, all of a sudden, he starts to take off his shoes, and pretends like 23:02 he's on holy ground. He didn't do that. It was only when God called to him out of the midst 23:09 of the bush. It was only when he heard the voice of God and the word of God that he 23:14 automatically realized that he was in the presence of God at that point. So the presence of 23:19 God comes to us. It is revealed to us through His Word. And that is the method that God uses in 23:27 order to speak to us. And this foundation is very important. As Moses and God continue to talk 23:32 on, Moses is wondering, you know, God tells him to go rescue the Israelites. Well, what's 23:38 Your name, you know? Who am I going to tell them is sending me? And God says in verse 14, 24:07 PASTOR KARL: So, the presence of God is not to be equated with the material creation, not with 24:12 the bush itself, but with the words of God that were spoken to Moses. That was the indicator 24:17 that Moses was actually in His presence. That place isn't holy right now; God's presence, He 24:23 didn't choose. He doesn't choose to reveal Himself that way. He's actually in the heavenly 24:27 sanctuary at this time. So that's the name of God, that's the presence of God. God wanted 24:34 to meet the Israelites in a certain location. Now, God is omnipresent, okay, a difficult 24:41 concept to grasp, admittedly. CHRIS: And just to help everybody, "omnipresent" means 24:46 God can be everywhere at the same time. PASTOR KARL: Yeah, at the same time. Not just 24:52 everywhere, but everywhere at the same time. But, just because God is omnipresent, doesn't mean 24:56 that He reveals His presence. Let me give you just a quick illustration of that. Like, take 25:01 the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. God is omnipresent, but He told them that He would not be 25:08 at the forbidden fruit. He says, you know, "Don't go near that tree." He was not going to be 25:16 there. In light of the great controversy, God even allows in the enemy in order to make His 25:22 case. And so, as Eve ventured on that ground, it was the enemy that occupied that space, and 25:29 his presence began to speak to her. So God basically says that He's not going to manifest 25:35 Himself in every location, even though He's omnipresent. And He told the children of Israel - 25:40 this is in Deuteronomy 12:5 - that you are to meet Me in this place. In Deuteronomy chapter 25:45 16, He said the same thing. In First Kings chapter 8, as Solomon was dedicating the 25:50 temple - just to mention a few texts there - He said that He was going to place His Name 25:56 there. First Kings 8:16: 26:11 PASTOR KARL: Verse 17, verse 18 verse 19, verse 20, verse 21, He says, "I'm putting My Name 26:15 there." That meant that He wasgoing to reveal Himself there, 'cause His name is 26:20 associated with His presence. And this is what made the sin of Jeroboam so great, is that God 26:24 was now confused with all of creation, so allegedly, the presence of God is now revealing 26:32 Himself everywhere. But that's the counterfeit. God said, "Yes, I'm omnipresent, but I'm going 26:37 to reveal Myself here. If you want to have a relationship with Me, you're going to meet Me 26:41 here," okay? CHRIS: And this becomes so important, because we see this, as we studied 26:46 Jeroboam, that God's not in Dan and Bethel; He's not in the golden calf; He's not in the 26:52 golden calf of the Exodus. Although God is omnipresent, He is not everywhere. What happens, 26:59 unfortunately, is. PASTOR KARL: God doesn't reveal Himself everywhere. 27:04 CHRIS: Unfortunately, what happens, is that people culturally condition where they 27:09 believe God will reveal Himself. And what is essential for us to understand - and it's really 27:18 unbelievable, we only have about a minute left - is that God doesn't reveal Himself in the 27:24 creation itself. PASTOR KARL: It's not synonymous with Himself, yes. CHRIS: He reveals 27:30 Himself through His Word. And we must never lose sight of that: the sanctuary demonstrates that 27:37 God resides in the sanctuary, revealing Himself through His Word. PASTOR KARL: Correct. 27:43 CHRIS: Pastor Karl, will you pray for us as we end today? PASTOR KARL: Let's pray. Our 27:47 Father in heaven, Lord, You want to have a relationship with us. And that happens through Your 27:53 Word. And we pray that we would study Your Word each and every day, that You would speak to our 27:58 minds and to our hearts. Thank You, Father, for giving us the sanctuary. Thank You for giving 28:04 us Your Words. May You bless us, lead us, and guide us, in Jesus' name, we pray, amen. 28:07 CHRIS: Amen. 28:11 CHRIS: I hope you've enjoyed this series of programs. Our offer today is to receive the 28:15 DVD of this series. If you'd like this DVD, that you can watch these episodes again, or 28:22 share them with your friends, here's the information you need to receive today's offer. 29:16 CHRIS: Dear friends, the God of heaven desires a personal relationship with you. I invite 29:21 you to go to our website, www.itiswrittencanada.ca. There you'll find resources to help 29:28 you deepen that relationship with Jesus, have a personal encounter with Him in His Word. 29:36 Pastor Karl, I thank you so much for being with us once again to see the desire of God's heart in 29:43 the sanctuary. PASTOR KARL: It's been great to be with you, Chris. CHRIS: Friend, I hope 29:47 that through the program today, you've found Jesus Christ. Please join us again next week. 29:53 Until then, remember, it is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 30:00 that proceeds from the mouth of God." |
Revised 2017-05-13