IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:00.96\00:00:03.83 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:04.30\00:00:08.47 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:08.87\00:00:12.84 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:13.21\00:00:17.08 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:17.45\00:00:21.45 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:21.85\00:00:25.79 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:26.19\00:00:30.09 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:30.43\00:00:33.93 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:34.30\00:00:37.83 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:38.20\00:00:41.60 IIW-2016-28 --- THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK #7 00:00:42.04\00:00:45.44 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 00:01:31.62\00:01:34.46 God's book, The Bible 00:01:35.46\00:01:38.06 Still relevant in today's complex world 00:01:38.89\00:01:42.60 It Is Written 00:01:44.87\00:01:45.90 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 00:01:46.40\00:01:50.91 CHRIS: My dear friends, for the past six weeks, we have studied the essential nature of building 00:01:59.38\00:02:06.45 a solid spiritual foundation; that solid foundation is found in the sanctuary which is in 00:02:06.55\00:02:14.56 heaven. For those six weeks, Pastor Karl Tsatalbasidis has been along to help understand 00:02:14.66\00:02:22.07 the sanctuary. You're an expert in the sanctuary. You've been studying in your Ph.D. on these 00:02:22.17\00:02:28.14 things. And so we're going to get right into this. We left off in our last show talking about 00:02:28.24\00:02:33.68 the presence of God. Now, to our viewers, to our listeners, if you missed any of this series on 00:02:33.78\00:02:40.52 solid foundations, I would encourage you to go to our 00:02:40.62\00:02:44.66 YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/iiwcanada. There you'll find archives of the 00:02:44.76\00:02:54.57 program, and you can understand the context of the things we're talking about today. So where we 00:02:54.67\00:03:00.24 left off, presence of God, His divine presence is revealed in His Word. But throughout 00:03:00.34\00:03:08.45 history, it would seem to me, as we look at that history, that there have been great debates in 00:03:08.55\00:03:13.76 the church about the divine presence of God. Let's talk about that. What are some of 00:03:13.86\00:03:19.06 those debates and how can we avoid some of the pitfalls we've seen in that history? PASTOR 00:03:19.16\00:03:25.33 KARL: We're reminded, in Exodus chapter 3, that when Moses saw the burning bush, he didn't 00:03:25.43\00:03:29.90 automatically begin to worship it, that he only recognized the presence of God when God spoke 00:03:30.01\00:03:34.84 to him from the midst of the bush. Just like in the ten commandments, God spoke out of 00:03:34.94\00:03:39.85 the midst of the fire, and He says, in Deuteronomy 4:12-15, "You didn't see any form, so 00:03:39.95\00:03:45.65 don't construct anything material in order to equate that with My presence." So His 00:03:45.75\00:03:52.33 presence comes through the Word. Interestingly enough, after the death of the disciples, you know 00:03:52.43\00:03:58.43 that Jesus had instituted the Lord's Supper. And then He began to initiate that, the Lord's 00:03:58.53\00:04:06.84 Supper, with His disciples, and He said that He would not partake of this until the 00:04:06.94\00:04:11.05 kingdom would be restored again. And in Paul'swritings in First Corinthians 11, it says, you 00:04:11.15\00:04:15.82 know, "As often as you do this, you do proclaim the Lord's death 'til He comes." When the 00:04:15.92\00:04:21.69 disciples had passed off the scene of action, in a very short time, the presence of God began 00:04:21.79\00:04:29.63 to be kind of equated with the emblems themselves, so in other words, with the bread and with 00:04:29.73\00:04:36.81 the wine. There were actually two views as history was progressing: one, that they were 00:04:36.91\00:04:41.41 becoming more and more associated with the bread and the wine, so that there was a 00:04:41.51\00:04:46.82 real presence in the bread and the wine; and others thought that perhaps it was just a 00:04:46.92\00:04:53.15 memorial. Augustine, 5th century theologian, was kind of ambivalent about this, or I 00:04:53.25\00:04:58.79 should say, you'd look at some of his writings, and some of his writings seemed to say memorial, 00:04:58.89\00:05:02.10 but others are very strongly indicating that there's a real presence kind of in the bread 00:05:02.20\00:05:07.27 Then you get to the 9th and 10thcenturies, this had been debated for so long, they begin 00:05:07.37\00:05:13.94 to settle the issue. And it was actually ThomasAquinas, the famousCatholic theologian, that 00:05:14.04\00:05:21.05 really settled the issue by stating that the presence of God was actually inside the wafer. 00:05:21.15\00:05:30.89 And it was based on the ideas of Aristotle. Aristotle taught that there was form and that there 00:05:30.99\00:05:37.63 was matter in everything. That form was interpreted on the basis of Greek thinking. 00:05:37.73\00:05:43.14 Youcouldn't tell what's inside the form. Some Christians would say that the form is your 00:05:43.24\00:05:48.91 eternal soul, just to kind of switch the metaphors or analogies. So the form is your 00:05:49.01\00:05:53.88 soul, and then your body is matter. So when you think of the emblems, the form of the bread 00:05:53.98\00:05:59.49 is the part of the bread that you can't see. It's the substance of the bread that is 00:05:59.59\00:06:05.76 interpreted on the basis of Greek philosophy, which we studied a little bit earlier in 00:06:05.86\00:06:10.67 our presentations. And so, Aquinas asserted that when the priest pronounces the words, 00:06:10.77\00:06:17.57 "This is my body," that the substance of the bread and the substance of the wine is 00:06:17.67\00:06:23.55 allegedly transformed into the substance of the Divine Son of God, Divine human Son of God, 00:06:23.65\00:06:29.68 which is understood in Aristotelian terms. And so yes, the substance of God, the 00:06:29.78\00:06:39.73 essence of God, the being of God, was associated with the emblems there, and that carried 00:06:39.83\00:06:45.70 on for a long time, and it led to certain problems whereby, okay, if the presence of God is 00:06:45.80\00:06:52.24 actually in the materials, well, we don't want to hand out the wine to the parishioners, 00:06:52.34\00:06:57.61 because if we spill some of it, we would be spilling part of the presence of God. And so for many 00:06:57.71\00:07:03.75 years, the wine was withheld from the people. And then whenLuther came along, he went 00:07:03.85\00:07:09.42 and had restored some of those things. And so just to summarize, it morphed into a 00:07:09.52\00:07:17.30 real presence being associated with the emblems themselves in the CatholicChurch, in the 00:07:17.40\00:07:23.17 medievalchurch. And these concepts even had penetrated into the Reformation, when we 00:07:23.27\00:07:28.81 get into Luther and Zwingli. CHRIS: And so what you're saying - just so we're very clear - 00:07:28.91\00:07:34.88 iswe see that Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper where the bread and the wine are actually 00:07:34.98\00:07:42.12 symbolic, a memorial for our personal reflection. PASTOR KARL: Correct. CHRIS: And 00:07:42.22\00:07:48.30 really, if we get to the heart of it, as we partake of those emblems, they drive us to the 00:07:48.40\00:07:53.03 Word, that we might experience the presence of God through the Word. PASTOR KARL: Correct. 00:07:53.13\00:07:56.50 CHRIS: But others developed the idea that the actual bread and the wine, for lack of a better 00:07:56.60\00:08:03.81 word, become the very presence of God. PASTOR KARL: Yeah. CHRIS: And so, what we need to 00:08:03.91\00:08:08.92 then look at, is that really what happens? Does it become the presence of God? Or have we 00:08:09.02\00:08:13.56 already established where God's presence is? PASTOR KARL: Mmhmm. CHRIS: So where is God's 00:08:13.66\00:08:18.06 presence? Is God's presence in the bread and wine? Or is it somewhere else? PASTOR KARL: 00:08:18.16\00:08:21.93 Let's pick this up with Luther versus Zwingli. One of the saddest aspects of the 00:08:22.03\00:08:26.33 Reformation was the Marburg Colloquy of 1529 in which Luther debated with Zwingli about the 00:08:26.43\00:08:33.48 nature of the presence. For Luther, he believed that there was actually a real presence in 00:08:33.58\00:08:38.41 the emblems. Some people called it consubstantiation, whether that was a term that Luther had 00:08:38.51\00:08:45.45 invented or associated with, you know, I don't know at this point. But for sure he did 00:08:45.55\00:08:50.09 believe in a real presence. Whether it was in the bread or around the bread or somewhere 00:08:50.19\00:08:53.76 associated with the bread, he believed that based on the words of Jesus, "This is my body." 00:08:53.86\00:08:59.37 Zwingli would counter and say, "Well, in John chapter 6, you know, 'the words that I speak,' 00:08:59.47\00:09:05.91 verse 63, 'they are spirit and they are life.' Besides, Luther, the presence can't be in the 00:09:06.01\00:09:12.68 bread, because Jesus is in heaven. So how can the presence be in the bread if Christ is in 00:09:12.78\00:09:18.69 heaven?" Therefore Zwingli opted for a memorial. Now, Zwingli didn't really develop this whole 00:09:18.79\00:09:24.33 idea or a theology of the presence of God based on the sanctuary, and this is what I'm 00:09:24.43\00:09:29.56 studying right now, with the doctoral dissertation, is I'm looking at the interpretation of 00:09:29.66\00:09:35.40 the presence of God in greater worship. And so, even though Luther rejected the philosophy 00:09:35.50\00:09:43.75 of the church, he was still associating the presence of God with the emblems themselves in 00:09:43.85\00:09:49.48 some way. So Zwingli was correct; he just has not developed his theology of the 00:09:49.58\00:09:54.09 presence of God from the sanctuary, from that picture. Now, if we go to the sanctuary, 00:09:54.19\00:10:01.50 in Revelation chapter 4 and 5, there's One seated on the throne there in Revelation chapter 4. 00:10:01.60\00:10:05.63 And they actually end up worshipping Him. They cast their crowns at a specific location. 00:10:05.73\00:10:11.34 So they're not casting their crowns in every direction, as if God was ubiquitous in such a 00:10:11.44\00:10:18.58 way. No. There is One seated on the throne; He is there in a specific location. The Lamb 00:10:18.68\00:10:23.39 later comes in, in Revelation chapter 5, and there is a magnificent worship service 00:10:23.49\00:10:28.19 there in praise and honour to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb. So the presence 00:10:28.29\00:10:33.86 of God is there in that sanctuary. Now, is there a real presence here as well? Yeah, 00:10:33.96\00:10:39.70 it's called the Holy Spirit. And if you remember, in Revelation 5:6, as John sees the Lamb 00:10:39.80\00:10:47.71 there, in verse 6, When the Holy Spirit comes into the earth, how does He manifest Himself? We 00:10:59.45\00:11:04.89 covered this previously in another session, but in the letters to the churches, it was 00:11:04.99\00:11:07.36 Jesus that originated the message, and then at the end of themessage, we need to take heed 00:11:07.46\00:11:11.20 and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And the book of Hebrews is the same 00:11:11.30\00:11:15.50 thing; in Hebrews 3:7-9, it quotes Psalm 97 and it says: The Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you 00:11:15.60\00:11:24.01 hear his voice, harden not your hearts." PASTOR KARL: So the Holy Spirit, His presence is 00:11:24.11\00:11:29.62 here. It's an invisiblepresence. We cannot detect Him. Where two are more are gathered together, 00:11:29.72\00:11:34.86 Jesus says, "I am here in the midst." So He is among us. So God talks to us in a personal 00:11:34.96\00:11:42.70 way. And this is what the sanctuary brings out. When He created Adam and Eve, He spoke 00:11:42.80\00:11:47.37 with them face to face. When Jesus was here with His disciples, how did He speak with 00:11:47.47\00:11:52.77 them? He spoke face to face in the same way. And when He comes again, and we get to behold Him 00:11:52.87\00:11:59.48 face to face, will He not be speaking with us face to face? And so the reason I mention this 00:11:59.58\00:12:05.85 is because there are all kinds of methods of spirituality today which say that we can kind of 00:12:05.95\00:12:10.79 recite things over and over and over and over and over again as methods of prayer or methods of 00:12:10.89\00:12:17.33 spirituality, and those all assume that the presence of God is within you. And by basically 00:12:17.43\00:12:23.57 going through those rituals and those routines, you are making room for basically the enemy to 00:12:23.67\00:12:30.28 speak to you there, because God doesn't speak to you in that manner. He speaks very clearly 00:12:30.38\00:12:34.12 in His Word in a very personable way. The whole idea of Christ being in us - Paul talks about 00:12:34.22\00:12:41.12 Christ in you, the hope of glory - the issue of the presence of God is central to that, because 00:12:41.22\00:12:47.36 if the presence of God is equated with nature, then you read these passages and you say, 00:12:47.46\00:12:53.27 "Hey, Christ in you. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean that I'm a chip off the old 00:12:53.37\00:12:58.61 block, and that I have parts of the divine nature that only belong to God alone?" No. Along 00:12:58.71\00:13:06.18 with the sanctuary, there's another very important theme that helps us in this area of 00:13:06.28\00:13:10.09 spirituality that is associated with the presence of God, and that is the covenant. And it is 00:13:10.19\00:13:13.99 the covenant that helps to answer the question as to how God relates to us. For instance, 00:13:14.09\00:13:18.69 if we go back to Hebrews chapter 8, you find the new covenant there. And it answers the 00:13:18.79\00:13:24.53 question as to what it really means for me to know God, to have a relationship with Him, 00:13:24.63\00:13:31.07 and to have Him in me. In verse 10, it says: 00:13:31.17\00:13:37.05 PASTOR KARL: How is it that we can know Him? It is when we allow God to place His Words in 00:13:57.87\00:14:03.20 our minds and in our hearts, when we become transformed, and then we become like Him. It is 00:14:03.30\00:14:10.05 in that way that He then becomes. comes to live inside of us. So the issue of the presence 00:14:10.15\00:14:15.98 of God is really broad and deep and has a very large effect on corporate worship, on 00:14:16.08\00:14:20.92 spirituality, and a whole ton of other issues. CHRIS: So God's presence clearly in sanctuary 00:14:21.02\00:14:26.80 revealed in His Word, which is interesting, 'cause Hebrews chapter 4 talks about the Word 00:14:26.90\00:14:32.57 of God being living and active and powerful. It is revealed to us in His Word. How does the 00:14:32.67\00:14:42.31 sanctuary reveal the character of God? And you alluded to something, because we've talked 00:14:42.41\00:14:47.92 about the Father, we've talked about the Son, we've talked about the Holy Spirit. How does 00:14:48.02\00:14:52.19 the sanctuary reveal that character of God, this three in one and one in three? PASTOR 00:14:52.29\00:14:57.46 KARL: I want to focus on Jesus just for a moment, because I don't want to let this point go. 00:14:57.56\00:15:02.16 I remember reading the Bible for the first time, and in John 1:29, John the Baptist looks at 00:15:02.26\00:15:09.34 Jesus and he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." And I 00:15:09.44\00:15:14.61 hadn't had any Bible training before, and I'm wondering, "Why is he calling Him a Lamb?" And 00:15:14.71\00:15:20.72 of course, within the backdrop of the sanctuary, it makes sense, because those lambs were 00:15:20.82\00:15:25.35 offered, you know; the burnt offering was going on every day, morning and evening. They 00:15:25.45\00:15:30.36 typified the fact that someone would come. And so, the imagery of the lamb represents the 00:15:30.46\00:15:37.83 humanity of Christ. And of course, He had to become human before He could ultimately die 00:15:37.93\00:15:41.44 on the cross. We were in Revelation 5:6, so He was born into this world; he is the Lamb 00:15:41.54\00:15:49.04 of God. And after His ascension, He became our High Priest. And in Revelation 5:6, John sees a 00:15:49.14\00:15:57.62 Lamb as it had been slain. And He's our Great High Priest there in the heavenly sanctuary. So in 00:15:57.72\00:16:04.09 this dispensation of time - and the imagery of the Lamb is replete in the book of 00:16:04.19\00:16:10.20 Revelation, I think, 27 or 28 times that it's mentioned - and so here you have Jesus in this 00:16:10.30\00:16:16.77 period of earth's history, where He is our Mediator, which means that He's still human at this 00:16:16.87\00:16:22.04 point. Now, the thing that really struck me was, in Revelation 22:3, and maybe we'll 00:16:22.14\00:16:32.89 read the first three verses, because Revelation 22 is after the sin problem has all been 00:16:32.99\00:16:37.89 dealt with. It's all said and done. CHRIS: The earth is made new again, we're dwelling with 00:16:37.99\00:16:43.90 God. PASTOR KARL: Correct. Yeah, actually, let me just read verse 00:16:44.00\00:16:47.14 3. It says: PASTOR KARL: So after the sin problem has all been taken care of, it still 00:16:59.75\00:17:04.99 mentions Him as a Lamb. But in the Old Testament passages, the lambs were sacrificed, pointing 00:17:05.09\00:17:10.66 forward to the death of Christ on the cross, and also His High Priestly ministry, but now it 00:17:10.76\00:17:15.30 still refers to Him as a Lamb. And what that tells me is that when Jesus chose to become 00:17:15.40\00:17:22.64 incarnated, that this was not something that was just going to happen for time, but that this 00:17:22.74\00:17:29.34 was something that was going to happen for eternity, if you can wrap your brain around that. So 00:17:29.44\00:17:34.85 this is the Great I Am. He is the Great I Am Who has existed from the days of eternity, as 00:17:34.95\00:17:40.82 Micah 5:2 tells us, in fellowship with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. I mean, we 00:17:40.92\00:17:45.56 can't even comprehend what that means, in fellowship with eternity, way before the earth 00:17:45.66\00:17:49.46 was ever created. The complexity of that relationship. And then the introduction of the 00:17:49.56\00:17:54.24 universe, you know, by the Word of God, the heavens were made. And then He creates you and I, 00:17:54.34\00:17:59.21 and then all of a sudden, we fall into sin. And this God decides to become incarnated not 00:17:59.31\00:18:05.85 just for time, but for eternity. That's an amazing thought. You know, there are some people that 00:18:05.95\00:18:12.32 are wondering, "Do I have any value?" Or,"Do I have any worth?" Perhaps, you know, some 00:18:12.42\00:18:16.36 people have been told, you know, "You're no good, you're worthless." Tell me, what kind 00:18:16.46\00:18:20.33 of being would do that? What kind of being would do that? CHRIS: And just so we don't - 00:18:20.43\00:18:26.53 and let's dwell on that for just a few moments longer; let's linger here. To the person who 00:18:26.63\00:18:32.47 has been told that, "You're worthless, you have no value," maybe someone has been told 00:18:32.57\00:18:39.75 they're an accident. Christ says you're no accident, and Christ says you're so worthy, that 00:18:39.85\00:18:50.76 Christ incarnated Himself, became the Lamb for not just a moment of time and then stepped 00:18:50.86\00:19:00.20 back into His role, but actually will be the Lamb for eternity in the future, and in fact, was for 00:19:00.30\00:19:10.38 eternity in the past, because the book of Revelation says he was the Lamb of God, slain from 00:19:10.48\00:19:15.55 the foundation of the world. And so the sanctuary teaches us this 00:19:15.65\00:19:21.16 interaction. It is difficult to understand, but a powerful interaction where you have the 00:19:21.26\00:19:27.36 Father on the throne. You have the Son, the Lamb, on the throne. You have the Spirit Who 00:19:27.46\00:19:34.04 is interacting personally with humanity through the delivery of God's Word through convicting 00:19:34.14\00:19:39.71 hearts and leading them along. And it all leads us to the church. How does the sanctuary 00:19:39.81\00:19:49.92 teach us about the church? That word "church" in the Greek is the word ekklésia, "the 00:19:50.02\00:19:55.39 called-out ones." God's calling us out of this confusion. And in fact, the book of Revelation 00:19:55.49\00:20:01.96 talks about it being Babylon, the wine of Babylon, religious confusion. God is calling people 00:20:02.06\00:20:08.77 out into His church. How does the sanctuary help explain the nature of the church, salvation, 00:20:08.87\00:20:15.58 sin, spirituality? How does that all come together in the sanctuary? PASTOR KARL: Chris, 00:20:15.68\00:20:21.82 there wasa text that we had talked about in the Old Testament in Isaiah 14:13, where 00:20:21.92\00:20:27.02 the enemy said that: 00:20:27.12\00:20:28.66 I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also in 00:20:31.16\00:20:34.56 the mouth of the congregation in the sides of the north. 00:20:34.63\00:20:37.00 PASTOR KARL: Now, in that mount of the congregation - this is Isaiah 1:13 - we discovered that 00:20:37.50\00:20:42.64 that's talking about the sanctuary, through the Hebrewwordshar moad [ph] which 00:20:42.74\00:20:45.64 are associated with the sanctuary in various places. And so, in the sanctuary, you have a 00:20:45.74\00:20:52.41 connection between heaven and earth. So what I'm going to do is, as I think the scriptures do 00:20:52.51\00:20:58.22 to me, is expand our vison of what the church is to include the church in heaven. So the 00:20:58.32\00:21:05.03 church, you mentioned ekklésia being called out. Well, you know, there was war in heaven, 00:21:05.13\00:21:08.73 and so this is where this whole thing began up there, and they had to make a stand, they had to 00:21:08.83\00:21:13.80 be called out, who's on the Lord's side, and they went ahead and took their stand. And so 00:21:13.90\00:21:20.01 here, the enemy is trying to sell his version of the great controversy in the mouth of the 00:21:20.11\00:21:25.31 congregation. Look at Hebrews 12 for a moment, because you have further integration between 00:21:25.41\00:21:32.55 the church in heaven and the church on earth, in Hebrews 12, In verse 22, it says: 00:21:32.55\00:21:37.69 They're part of the church, actually. They're part of the church. That's where you're 00:21:48.20\00:21:53.54 coming. You're coming to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn, in other 00:21:53.54\00:21:57.45 words, the firstborn ones, whose names are not written on the church books necessarily here on 00:21:57.45\00:22:01.88 earth, but the ones that are written in heaven. So the sanctuary is combining earth and 00:22:01.88\00:22:07.49 heaven, which means I think we ought to expand our concept of what the church is to include 00:22:07.59\00:22:11.83 the church in heaven as well. Let me share some other principles here. In the book of 00:22:11.93\00:22:18.17 Ephesians, chapter 3. Galatians, Ephesians. chapter 3, verse 14 00:22:18.27\00:22:27.31 and 15. PASTOR KARL: So the church is not just one family here on earth; it says that 00:22:38.85\00:22:44.59 there is a family in heaven. And so we're part of the family in heaven as well, the angelic host 00:22:44.59\00:22:49.96 in heaven. Something interesting in the book of Revelation - and I've read this text so often, I 00:22:50.07\00:22:55.87 couldn't believe that it got by me - do you remember when John was about to worship the angel 00:22:55.97\00:23:01.01 and sit at his feet? It's mentioned once in Revelation 19, but then also Revelation 22. 00:23:01.11\00:23:05.71 Let's go to that one, Revelation 22. It says. 00:23:05.81\00:23:08.92 PASTOR KARL: He says, "Look, John, you and I are brethren." An amazing thought. So the 00:23:19.53\00:23:26.03 church is not just the church on earth, but the church in heaven as well. And this has an impact 00:23:26.13\00:23:31.27 on our definition of sin, you know. The Bible talks about, that sin is the transgression of 00:23:31.37\00:23:37.81 the law. That's the only definition of sin that will work, you know, because angels 00:23:37.91\00:23:42.38 didn't sin because God had predestined sin; angels didn't sin because there was some 00:23:42.48\00:23:48.02 defect in the programing; they sinned because they deliberately chose to go in the opposite 00:23:48.12\00:23:53.50 direction. CHRIS: Lucifer, those that followed Lucifer, what you're talking about, they made 00:23:53.60\00:23:58.83 an active choice, which is, by the way, a side note, gives us great hope, because God has 00:23:58.93\00:24:03.37 created us with the same free will that the angels had. PASTOR KARL: Correct. CHRIS: And so 00:24:03.47\00:24:08.44 you have the universal church, which includes heaven, which includes the angels of heaven, 00:24:08.54\00:24:16.65 helps us understand that the universal nature of sin is that it is the transgression of God's 00:24:16.75\00:24:22.39 law, which ultimately leads us away from a sanctuary foundation, a sanctuary 00:24:22.49\00:24:27.66 framework. PASTOR KARL: Correct, right. This means that I can't 00:24:27.76\00:24:31.73 blame Adam. Even Adam, I mean, well, he sinned because he deliberately chose to go in the 00:24:31.83\00:24:36.97 wrong direction. Now, you and I have inherited tendencies that lead us in the wrong direction. 00:24:37.07\00:24:41.21 However, the grace of God is sufficient for us, and I'm glad for the fact that God doesn't 00:24:41.31\00:24:45.65 condemn us simply for being born, that He sends information. And Jesus says, "This is the 00:24:45.75\00:24:50.92 condemnation, that light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than 00:24:51.02\00:24:56.32 light." And so He holds us accountable when we are sufficiently illuminated and we 00:24:56.42\00:25:01.33 choose, in the face of that evidence, to go in the wrong direction. CHRIS: Which is why, 00:25:01.43\00:25:05.40 of course, Proverbs 4 says, "The path of the just is as the shining light that shines 00:25:05.50\00:25:08.80 brighter and brighter unto a perfect day." God expects us to live up to His presence, which 00:25:08.90\00:25:18.98 has been revealed in His Word, which illuminates us to help get us on that path of coming into a 00:25:19.08\00:25:26.62 personal relationship with Him. PASTOR KARL: Yes, absolutely. CHRIS: Now, Karl, we could spend 00:25:26.72\00:25:31.36 a lot of time talking about that. We have just a few minutes left, and I want to head towards 00:25:31.46\00:25:36.73 something that's very important. When we talk about someone's personal worship, whether that 00:25:36.83\00:25:43.61 be in a corporate setting, in a church, or whether that be in a devotional time sitting in their 00:25:43.71\00:25:50.48 living room, how does the sanctuary inform that worship? PASTOR KARL: The sanctuary 00:25:50.58\00:25:57.59 informs that worship by telling us that the main vehicle of God's presence is His Word. 00:25:57.69\00:26:04.13 Historically, as we covered earlier, the presence of God was associated with the wafer. You 00:26:04.23\00:26:09.03 know, today, with the charismatic movement, it's associated with music. And so 00:26:09.13\00:26:13.94 they even call it "musical transubstantiation." So when people hear the music, they 00:26:14.04\00:26:19.57 automatically equate the experience of that with the presence of God. So the 00:26:19.67\00:26:24.55 sanctuary actually helps us by helping us to realize that it's really God's Words that are 00:26:24.65\00:26:29.22 central. You know, in that scene, in Revelation 4 and 5, John was so anxious, and he was 00:26:29.32\00:26:35.09 so troubled, he was weeping, because he wanted to know what was in that book. Yes, there was 00:26:35.19\00:26:39.26 music up there, yes, it was a great scene, yes, there were a lot of things going on, but he 00:26:39.36\00:26:45.23 wanted to know what was in that book. CHRIS: And that brings us right down to our conclusion 00:26:45.33\00:26:54.34 that cannot be missed: the presence of God is in the sanctuary. That presence is 00:26:54.44\00:27:00.82 revealed in His Word. Our personal worship in our home and in our devotional life should be 00:27:00.92\00:27:06.89 founded on the Word. When we go to our church to gather with God's people, that church should 00:27:06.99\00:27:15.40 be founded on the Word. We cannot drum up the presence of God. We can't call down the 00:27:15.50\00:27:20.37 presence of God. God has revealed Himself in His Word, and has given this Word as our 00:27:20.47\00:27:26.14 gift to us. PASTOR KARL: And preaching should have the central place, because that's 00:27:26.24\00:27:31.08 how God reveals Himself. CHRIS: The proclamation of the Word. PASTOR KARL: Amen. CHRIS: 00:27:31.18\00:27:34.25 Building our spiritual house on a solid foundation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You've given us 00:27:34.35\00:27:41.29 the solid foundation, the solid foundation of Your Word where Your presence is revealed from 00:27:41.39\00:27:51.17 the sanctuary. May we found everything on it. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. PASTOR 00:27:51.27\00:27:57.97 KARL: Amen. CHRIS: My dear friend, a journey with Jesus is founded on His Word. The 00:28:02.61\00:28:11.52 sanctuary is where God's presence is, and His presence is revealed through the Word. 00:28:11.62\00:28:17.26 Today, I want to offer you the DVD set of this series, that it might help you to dive deep in 00:28:17.36\00:28:25.13 God's Word, to draw close to Jesus, and be ready for Him when He comes again. Here's the 00:28:25.23\00:28:30.97 information you need to receive today's offer. 00:28:31.07\00:28:32.64 CHRIS: My dear friend, you are of infinite worth in the eyes of God. Jesus, whose presence is in 00:29:16.08\00:29:25.03 the sanctuary for eternity as the Lamb Who was slain from the foundation of the world, slain 00:29:25.13\00:29:32.33 for your sin and for mine. Pastor Karl, thank you very much for being with us and for 00:29:32.43\00:29:38.31 helping us see God's presence in the sanctuary. PASTOR KARL: It's 00:29:38.41\00:29:43.51 been great, Chris. CHRIS: Friend, I hope you've entered into that relationship with 00:29:43.61\00:29:48.72 Jesus. I ask that you join us again next week. Until then, remember, it is written, "Man 00:29:48.82\00:29:53.99 shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." 00:29:54.09\00:30:00.83