Prophecy Countdown _ Restoring the Temple _ Doug Batchelor

Good evening, friends, welcome to Prophecy Countdown. I want to

welcome those joining us again across the country and around

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Also the lesson for tonight, it's less number twelve. It's

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song that we sing every night. It's beautiful, beautiful. We

only invite you to stand. I hope you friends but home,

will join us as we sing together.

Beautiful beautiful.

Jesus is beautiful, and Jesus spakes beautiful things. Are my

love judging me, causing my mines to see? And Gesus

spakes beautiful.

Things of my love.

Check your eyes a pauncheesus.

Look for.

Wander Ball.

And the thing child Lord will.

Stray ANGELI.

In the line of His.

And Christ.

Our previous evening is going to be brought to us

by Pastor David Reynolds. Let's just bow a heads for.

Pregnant, our kind, loving, gracious and merciful Father in heaven. Lord,

what a blessing it is for us to be here,

those of us that are here live, but also all

the people that are watching via technology. Lord, we just

thank you for the privilege being able to worship you

in spirit and truth. Lord, We didn't come here just

to hear words. We came here to encounter you the

living Word. So in the name of Jesus, I asked

Lord that you were open our ears so that we

will listen. And then Lord, we asked that you'll prick

our hearts to be in tune with you as well. Lord,

we asked that you bless your manservant as he prepares

to share from your holy word, thus said the Lord.

Then Lord, we asked that when it's all said and done,

that will look back on tonight and know that you

have been with us and it was good to have

been here. In Jesus' name, that all God's children say together, aymen, at.

Least be seated. We've got a group that will be

sharing a special musical item with us this evening that

entitled the Empty Room, and they'll be singing the song.

He touched me, m.

Checobye the bird me a lot of kids and h

then the hands of cheese.

Sus touched me, and.

Longer the same.

He touched me. He touched me.

And oh.

The choice that floods.

My something pen and not no.

He touched me and made me since I've met this blessed.

Say you. Since he's cleanse and made me.

Will never see to praise.

To praise a shot in why Geo he touched me.

He touched me, He touched me and the.

Joy that loves my soul.

Something will happen, and he touched me and.

Me hey man, thank you beautiful song. Well, friends, it's

time for your Bible questions. And you know how this works.

If you'd like to give us a Bible question, seezy,

just scan the QR code again. We're putting it up

on the screen. Those here and also those who are

watching at home, just scan that with your phone. It'll

take you to the app where you can post your

Bible question. Thank you for the more than a thousand

questions that have been posted, and we've tried to collect

them in different categories and pass it up tonight. We've

got some great questions that are coming.

Okay, pastor us, all right.

Question number one. The Catholic Church believes that Peter was

the first pope because of Matthew sixteen eighteen. Can you

please explain matt I will sixteen verse eighteen.

I'll do my best. Let's read this together. So Jesus

is talking to the apostles and he says, who do

men say that I am? And they said, well, some

say this is Matthew fourteen. Some say you're John the Baptist,

some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. I

think that one of them had come back, and he said,

but who do you say that I am? Simon. Peter

answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of

the Living God. And Jesus answered and said to him,

blessed are you Simon Barjona, For flesh and blood has

not revealed this to you, but my Father who is

in heaven. And I also say to you that you

are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church,

and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

And so some interpret that to mean that Jesus was

saying I'm going to build my church on Peter. That's

not what he's saying. Christ is saying, you're Peter. And

the word Peter there is petros. Petro says a rolling

stone that gets moved around in the waves of the creek.

He said, on this petra, I will build my church.

What is the petra? The statement of Peter that thou

art the Christ, the son of the Living God. Now

was Jesus saying he was going to build the church

on Peter. Keep reading here, it says that Jesus says,

I'm going to go now, same chapter, I'm going down

to verse twenty two or twenty one. Jesus said, I'm

going to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from

the scribes and elders. I'm going to be killed al

rise the third day, and Peter took him aside and said.

Peter began to rebuke. Jesus said, Lord, far be it

from you. This is not going to happen to you.

But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.

So which is it? Is he the first popers? He satan?

Jesus was not saying the church is built on Peter.

Later Paul had to rebuke Peter for hypocrisy, because when

the Jews were there, he acted like a Jew, and

when they left, he acted like a gentile. So the

gospel the church is built on Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.

This is what Peter said Peter. No one else ever

said the church is built on Peter's one of twelve apostles.

All right, very good. Next question that we have is

Mary Magdalene the same as Mary the sister of Lazarus.

You cannot prove it definitively, but we have a lot

of good reasons to believe. So. For one thing, both

Mary the sister of Lazarus is also called Mary of

Bethany because Lazarus and Martha lived in Bethany. Magdalene or

Magdala was a seacoast town up by Galilee where the

Romans with vacation the Roman soldiers, and it was like

saying Mary of Vegas and Martha and Lazarus had a

younger sister named Mary who got off track. She moved

to Magdala. She had a bad reputation. The Bible says

regarding both of them that they were considered women who

were sinners. Simon said, if he knew, if Jesus knew

who it was that's touching him, he wouldn't let that happen,

for she is a great sinner. You never hear their

names mentioned together. They both appear to be women of substance,

and so we believe it's just Mary of Bethany, Mary

Magdalen are the same Mary.

Okay, next question that we have, what is the best

way that I can pray for physical healing.

Well, pray first of all for God's will. When you

when you're a believer and you pray for healing, you're

going to be healed. Now that healing might come with

the glorified body, but you will be healed now. We'd

like to be healed in this life. You realize that

everybody that Jesus healed in this life eventually got old

and died. So pray for healing and then cooperate. Sometimes

our sickness is because of sin. Some people are sick

not because of what they're eating, but what's eating them.

It could be your attitude. Some people are unforgiving. Paul says,

some of you are sick because when they have the

Lord's Supper, they're not forgiving others, and they're eating the

bread and drinking the grape cheese with an unworthy heart.

So have a forgiving spirit, forgive others. In the Book

of James is to pray for your sins to be forgiven.

It might be a sickness that has laid you low,

and you may want to call for the church elders

to come and pray over you. Ask others to join

you in prayer. Anointing you with oil. You might have

a serious sickness, and that's not for a toothache. It

talks about if any of you is stricken, that means

you're laid out with sickness. You might call for the

elders to come pray for you and anoint you with

oil and so and pray in faith. Believe God has

healed me many times through prayer, and I've seen many miracles.

Taster Ross and I have participated in anointing some praying

for people that literally had stage four cancer and they're

still alive today is miraculous healing. So pray in faith

and God does still heal.

Amen.

All right.

Another practical question, Can we ask of God a sign

like Gideon to know what we need to do?

Well? Yes, you don't want to make it a habit

of every time you're trying to make a decision casting

a fleece or flipping a coin. There are times when

you must choose between two good options before you get

to asking for a sign. Do these things. See if

there's any guidance in the Word of God that would

give you direction and follow that. You might want to

ask Christian counsel. The Bible says, in the multitude of counsel,

there's safety. So find believers that you have a relationship

with God that have wisdom and good judgment, ask for

counsel from them. And finally, if you get to the

place where you've got two good options and you just

really don't know what to do, and you want to

make sure you're doing the will of God, then you

might say, Lord, give me some providential sign. And God

will then often open a door, he will close the door,

something happens. I'll tell you an interesting story. The first

official call I had to be a pastor. I felt

God was calling me to ministry. I had finished raising

up a church in LaVita Mission in Waterflow, New Mexico.

Once I raised the church up, I was not ordained.

They said, we're bringing in a conference pastor from the

Rocky Mountain Conference and I didn't know what to do.

We had to move out for the pastor. And the

day that we were moving, I just had no peace.

We're moving back to California, and some of you have

heard of the Heritage Singers. I had worked with him before.

I was going back to work with the Heritage Singers,

and I just the day the truck is loading and

we are pulling away. I got a phone call from

Cyril Miller, Doug, would you have any interest in coming

to Texas and pastoring a church. It wasn't until the

last minute. Sometimes you don't know what to do until

the last minute. And so God opens doors and I

knew right away. I said yes, And instead of going west,

we went east. And God has opened a whole life

of ministry from there on. So you know, God will

guide you if you're willing to do his will, he

will direct your paths.

All right, Next question that we have. Some people use

Luke seventeen, beginning verse thirty four to support the idea

of a secret rapture. Can you please explain this passage

Luke seventeen, verse thirty four.

Yeah. I saw this coming, so I marked it in

my Bible. Jesus is talking about signs of his coming,

and he said, I tell you, and this is verse

thirty four, that in that night they'll be let me see.

In that night there'll be two men in one bed.

One will be taken, the other will be left. Two

women will be grinding together, one will be taken, the

other left. Two men will be in the field one

will be taken the other left. And they answered and

said to him where Lord? He said, wherever the body

is there the eagles and those are vultures will be

gathered together. So they're saying, where are they taken? He says,

where the dead body is. For the Jewish people to

be taken was not always a good thing. He said,

when you obey, I will let you stay in the

Promised Land. When you disobey, you will be carried off.

The speaking of Noah, it says the wicked the flood

came and took them away. So sometimes we get the

whole wrong idea and they build this whole secret rapture

idea out of this. Now there's also a spiritual meaning

to this. What does a woman represent? In Bible prophecy? Analogy?

A church? Two women grinding the meal? They're grinding grain.

What is the bread? Hint? Hint, Man doesn't live by

bread alone, but by every word? Is the bread of life? Right,

So you got two women they're working outwardly doing the

same thing. One is lost, one is saved. Two men

sleeping in a bed. How many people are what does

sleep represent death? Our friend Lazarus is asleep. How many

kinds of people are dead right now. Two the saved

and the lost, Resurrection of life, resurrection of damnation. So

you got he's just saying outwardly looking the same. One

is saved, one is lost. It says, two men working

in the field. What is the field in the parable

of the sower, it's the world. They're out harvesting, doing

mission work. You got the true and you got the false.

That's all Jesus is saying there. So it has nothing

to do with a secret rapture.

All right, Next question, how does Islam playing to Bible prophecy?

I really feel like I how to hand this over

to you. But in Revelation chapters.

Yeah, we talk about the fifth and the sixth company.

Yeah, you see Islam, and I believe Islam may also

play another role later in Last Day prophecy. I don't

want to get too deep in this right now, but

the principal religions in the world today is Christianity. Well,

there's eight billion people in the world. Two point two

billion approximately are Christians, meaning Protestants and Catholics. You've got

one point seven billion Muslims. Those are the biggest religions.

Then you've got Hindus and Animists and all the other

religions fill in the rest. The two biggest religions have

been at war four years, going back to the Crusades

to the present day. I mean, what's going on in

Israel right now. It's not a battle between just Israel

and Gaza. There's a philosophy behind it that is religious based,

and so I think it's going to play a role

in the Last Day prophecy. But it certainly did in

Revelation five and six in the trumpets.

Crusae tem real of that. So, the fifth trumpet talks

about the rise of Islam during the time of Mohammad.

The sixth trumpet talks about the expansion of Islam under

the Ottoman Empire, which came to an end in eighteen

forty they surrender to the Protestant nations of Western Europe.

There's actually a time prophecy in the sixth trumpet that

points to eighteen forty to the exact date.

If it gives the exact date when it would happen,

and it happened.

All right. Next question, this is a fun one passed

ug Why did Jesus allow the demons to go into

the pigs when he cast them out of the man.

Yeah, that's a good question, you know. Uh, everywhere Jesus went,

things lived, he healed, he gave life. But there's two

occasions where he did something and something died. One is

he cursed the fig tree, which seems really strange, but

that's another question asked that later. The other time, he

cast this legion of demons out of a man, and

they say, don't cast us into the abusos. Then nothingness

cast us into that herd of pigs on the hill,

and he said go. And so this herd of pigs

was filled with the demons. They went berserk. It was

a high hill and a steep precipice, and they ran

off the cliff like an avalanche of bacon, and they

went crashing off into the water. This is the Sea

of Galilee, that is not that big. And so if

you get two thousand bloated pig carcasses floating around and

washing up on the shore in a Jewish lake, that's

called a toxic spill. And everybody around Israel was going

what happened? And they all heard the story that Jesus

cares more about people than pigs. And he casts the

demon and by the way, they were not raising those

pigs as pets. They're raising them as food. And God said,

did you know they're unclean? All right?

Another practical question, how can I keep my mind from

drifting when I'm praying?

Well, you're not alone. How many of you will confess

that sometimes you're praying and your mind wanders. Sometimes it's

the Holy Spirit guiding you to something while you're praying

that he wants you to think about a lot of

times it's not. Sometimes my mind is wandering and I'm

thinking about things while I'm praying, and say, Lord, forgive me,

why am I thinking of that? You know, when children

are young, they have problems with concentration. As they get older,

they become more disciplined. They learn how to study, they

learn how to focus. It's a sign of maturity. It's

the same in Christianity. When your mind wanders, bring it back,

bring it back. You'll get better at staying focused in

your prayers. Do not get discouraged. First of all, does

the devil want you to pray? Can the devil put

thoughts in your minds? Is he going to try to

distract you when you pray? Yeah? So, when you pray

and you see your mind wandering. The Lord is not

going to say, well, I'm not going to listen to

you anymore. Say Lord, forgive me and bring it back.

He understands what we're dealing with. But sometimes it's God

that's speaking to you in those quiet moments.

What did Jesus mean when he said the Kingdom of

God is within you in Luke chapter seventeen, verse two.

Yeah, when Jesus began preaching, he said, the Kingdom of

Heaven is at hand, the Kingdom of God is at hand.

And for the Kingdom of God is at hand. You

have two aspects to God's kingdom. You have a spiritual

kingdom that begins at the moment that you invite Jesus

into your heart to be your Lord, savior and King.

He reigns within us, he's our master. Then you have

a literal kingdom. When we pray in the Lord's prayer,

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth. Ultimately,

Christ is going to come back and he will reign

as king of kings. That's one of the central themes

in the prophecies of Daniel is this world will ultimately

be led by the Kingdom of God. So there's a

spiritual kingdom. When you become a Christian, you become an

ambassador of another government. Now, you know, we kind of

have dual citizenship in this world. If you're a Christian,

you want to be responsible citizens, but our primary allegiance

is as citizens of His kingdom. Amen, we'll talk a

quick one.

Maybe maybe, yes, I think we do. Does the scriptures

indicate that there are other worlds besides Earth?

Yes, we don't believe that humans are the only other

creatures in the universe. The Bible says in Hebrews Chapter

one that the Father through Christ made the worlds. Then

you read in Revelation about all these other creatures in

the heavens that are glorifying God, and so space is infinite.

It's I think strange to believe that, through limitless time,

that the only creatures that God made were here on

this planet. I think right now we are quarantined because

of sin, and that after we are cleansed from sin,

we'll be ambassadors going through the universe telling all of

God's unfallen worlds of his goodness, love and redemption.

All right, again, we want to thank you for all

of your great Bible Christians. We're going to put up

that QR code one more time. If you'd like to

post the Bible question, scan that QR code and you

can just type in your Bible question. You can actually

read some of the other Bible questions that have already

been posted. And as you mentioned past the Dog, we

try to group the ques by different topics so we

can answer as many of these questions as possible. Well,

right now we're gonna have another beautiful musical item. Jackie

and Shame is bringing us the song before the Throne

of God above, Before the.

Throne of God above.

I have a strong and perfect please, a great.

High priest whose name is Love, whoever lives and pleads

for me.

My name is great on his hands, my name is

ritin on his old.

I know that all.

Heaven he stands. No tongue can bid me. Then d part,

No tongue can.

Bid me than depart, satantempt me to despair, and tells

me of the guilt.

Within a word.

I can see him there made.

An and to all my sin, becausemus lest save you're

did my sin fal soul counted free for God.

But justice sad is fine to look on him and

part and me to look.

On him and Baron hold him there the risen Lamb,

my perfect spotless righteousness, the great Unchange all lie Am

the King of Lorrient of grace.

One with himself, fight he cannot die. My soul is

purchased Highest Blive. My life is hed.

With Christ on high, Christ my Savior, Rent my God,

one with himself, fight he cannot die.

My soul is purching Bier's mind, my life visit.

With Christ on High, with Christ my save your end,

my God, with Christ my Savior, end my God, with

Christ my Savior your end, mind God.

And thank you Shana Jackie.

We want to.

Remind our friends if you've just joined us our free

off of tonight. He's a magazine entitled A Divine Design.

If you'd like to receive this, all you need to

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about well the Temple and its significance both in the

Old Testament, the Heavenly Temple that we're going to be

studying about today and the work that Jesus is doing

as our high priest. We also have our study guide

that goes along with the presentation tonight. It's less than

number twelve. And if you don't have a copy of

the study guide, go to the website that's Prophecycountdown dot

tv and you'll be able to download the lesson you

can follow along for our friends also watching in Spanish,

we do have a Spanish version available that you can

download as well and fill it out and study together

a very important topic. We're talking about a sanctuary in

heaven that were shattered here on the earth, and how

does that teach us about the Gospel even today? That's

our study this evening.

Welcome once again to Prophecy Countdown. Friends. We're so thankful

for each of you that have been coming so faithfully

every night here in Crowley, Texas. I know people that

are watching and going Crowley, Texas just think the suburbs

of Fort Worth, but just a wonderful community. And we're

just really thankful for your faithfulness in coming. And I've

got some exciting news, more exciting for me than you. Missus.

Bachelor is coming tomorrow. She's going to join us. She

didn't know she's going to be able to make it,

and so she'll be with me at the door following

the program tomorrow night and tonight Passer Ross he got

homesick and he brought Ruth. Ruth Ross is here tonight,

and so we're glad to have our wives join us

for the big finale weekend. I hope you're not going

to miss anything. Now we have a meeting tonight, We

have a meeting tomorrow night talking about the longest time Prophecy.

It's going to kind of narrow down where we are.

You don't want to miss that. And then we're going

to be hitting some of the biggest, hardest, most interesting

subjects Friday and Sabbath morning, and we have a special

presentation Sabbath afternoon called the Unsinkable Ship. So I hope

that you're going to stay with us and endure to

the end. Those will be saved through the rest of

the program. Tonight's study is very important, dealing with the

restoring the Temple, and you'll understand this we proceed why

this is such an important subject in our day and age. Well,

I like to always begin with an amazing fact. You've

maybe heard the expression a clean room, a clean room

is a meticulously controlled environment that filters out pollutants like

dust and air borne microbes and aerosol particles to provide

a space with some of the purest air on Earth.

Many companies have clean rooms to protect the production of

products like semiconductors and antobots, medicine and medical equipment. In

these virtually particle free rooms, outside air passes through a

powerful system that decontaminates the air sometimes even adjusts the

ozone level in the rooms while also controlling the pressure, temperature,

and humidity. This is a big job because a human

body in motion generates about I don't know who measured this,

five million particles per minute. You're leaving pieces of you

all over the place as you go around. This is

why workers in clean rooms must wear special lind free jumpsuits, booties,

fate face masks, and goggles, and is becoming more and

more common in the places where they're making these very

sophisticated computer chips that are almost the transistors are so

small they're almost on the atomic level, and so they

need to keep everything and all the equipment super clean

and particle free. Now you know the first idea of

a clean room came from a doctor Joseph Lister from

Scotland back in the eighteen sixties, building on the work

and experiments and discoveries of Lewis Pasteur. He was one

of the first ones that realized the reason so many

people were dying in hospitals was not so much because

of the surgery, but because of bacteria and infection. Do

you realize that the people that died during the Civil War,

the fatalities could have been cut in half if they

had incorporated some of the principles of lister Infection was

just a plague. But he started realizing that you need

to sanitize things. By the way, yes, he's the one

who invented listerine. Joseph Lister. Now, when the Lord brought

the children of Israel out of Egypt, he took what

was originally a family with seventy people, the Clan of Jacob.

They grew. The Bible says they multiplied, They multiplied greatly,

They multiplied exceedingly greatly. They turned into a nation during

that two hundred year period of time they were there

in Egypt, and he needed to prepare them to be

his holy people. He said, I want you to be

a nation of kings and priests. I want you to

be a light to the world. I want all nations

to come to Israel and learn about the true God,

like when the Queen of Sheba came to learn from Solomon.

That was God's plan. The reason Israel is in the

place where they are as God picked that land because

it's the intersection of three continents. It's the crossroads of

the world, and he wanted them to let their lights shine.

So when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,

they needed to learn some new things and they needed

to unlearn. And it's still true of you when we

become Christians, we need to learn some new things and

we need to unlearn some things. After two hundred years

of living as slaves in Egypt, surrounded by all the

paganism and the weird ceremonies and the worship of the

dead in Egypt, God did not bring them directly from

Egypt to the Promised Land. Instead of going north, they

went south to Mount Sinai. Moses went up the mountain

there and he was up there for forty days and

forty nights, not just getting the Ten Commandments, but he

got a whole group of instructions on how they were

to operate as a nation. There were health laws, there

were civil laws, and they were given designs for building

a sanctuary. And that's going to be the subject of

our talk tonight. You might wonder, or how does this

fit into prophecy? Stay with me, and I think you'll understand.

After saving them from slavery, he needed to do something

vital before he could take them into the Promised Land.

Teach them how to be forgiven of their sins and

how to maintain holy lives. Question number one, What did

God ask Moses to build and why? Exodus twenty five,

verse eight. God said, and you'll see it on the screen.

You can say it with me. Let them make me

a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. God wants

to dwell among his people. We are going to dwell

with the God through eternity in heaven, and this is

a good practice place for that to start. And so

the sanctuary. There are three temples in the Old Testament.

In the Bible. You had one that was a portable sanctuary,

sometimes called the tabernacle. Then you had the permanent one

built by David. It was certainly the most glorious, No sorry.

It was built by Solomon. David is the one who

saved up the money and gave the design to his

son Solomon. But it would have been classified as one

of the wonders of the ancient world if Herodotus the

historian had ever seen it. It was a magnificent facility.

Queen of Sheba said it was breath taking. You ever

use the expression breathtaking comes from the Queen of Sheba.

There was no more breath in her when she saw

what God had done with Israel. He wants to dwell

with his people. Now, don't forget this verse Psalm seventy seven,

verse thirteen. Your way, oh God, is in the sanctuary,

the way of God, the way he saves us, the

path of life is in the Sanctuary. In this simple

building he illustrated the plan of salvation. And it is

even a picture of Jesus. It's even a picture of

the Church, in even the human body. I'll explain as

we perceee the Bible, says one Peter one eighteen nineteen,

knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like

silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition

from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ

as a lamb without blemish and without spot. The sanctuary

is where they brought their lands. It was the place

of sacrifice, and through that whole system he taught the

plan of salvation and the whole process of redemption. Now,

Pastor Doug, this is a prophecy countdown program. Why are

we talking about the sanctuary because many of the prophecies

in the Bible took place in the context of the sanctuary.

Jesus in Revelation chapter one, he appears among seven candlesticks.

Where do you see that? That was in the holy

place of the sanctuary. It talks about the altar of incense.

In Revelation that was in the same pad, talks about

the ark of Covenant. That's in the sanctuary. In Ezekiel,

read the last three chapters, it's all about the sanctuary.

Isaiah chapter six, he has a vision. He sees God

on his throne in his temple. It's in the sanctuary.

And I could go on and talk about Exodus and Leviticus,

and I could talk about Zachariah and other prophets. So

much happens in the teachings of Jesus in the context

of the sanctuary, and it plays out in prophecy in

the last days. Don't miss tomorrow night. There's a big

time prophecy that has to do with the sanctuary. A

lot of people misunderstand the role of the sanctuary. A

lot of my evangelical friends, they're waiting for the Jews

to rebuild the Temple Sanctuary. You realize it's called Temple Sanctuary, tabernacle,

same thing. They're waiting for the Jews to rebuild it

because the Antichrist is going to reign there for three

and a half years. And that's what many believe. I

respectfully disagree. I think that's that they misunderstand. Let's find

out what the Bible says. But before we go to

the Word of God, it's fun to go out on

the street. See what do people know about what do

they think about sanctuary. The worst sanctuary means to me

is probably something very sacred in my life.

Not something that is not I don't want to say

like secret, but genuine.

Your family could be a safe sanctuary, or your home

could be a safe sanctuary from like the outside elements

from the outside world.

Sanctuary just means like a safe haven where people can

go and be with other people who need support.

Not much because I'm not really religious, but I know

for some people it means a lot, so I'm fine

with that. The word sanctuary to me means a special

place where I can come in closeness with Jesus.

I'm just gonna say, I don't know for right now.

I don't know that one.

If I remember correctly, the Levites to go before God

do sacrifices for atonement for the Israelites.

Well, actually I don't know.

Yeah, I believe that's what the sanctuary is, is where

the ark of the Covenant was kept, because that's what

was where God physically manifested on the earth, or something

along those lines. Personally, I believe that if you are

in a sanctuary, well, first of all, if you have

a specific place of worship, it kind of helps you

enter that worshipful mode, if I can use that term.

Personally, I find worship easier when there's not people around

me trying to dictate or feeling like I have to perform.

First of all, I think it's a community of people

who believe in the same thing, and it's really important.

It shouldn't know, I don't think it should, but some

people probably believe that it does.

I would say, no, I don't do so. I don't

think so.

I don't think it's not affect people's fate.

I think it's going to increase it.

Maybe. Well, I want you to know that I did

not pick the people that our media people. They went

out and they just went to a couple of campuses

and asked random people that were willing to participate, what

are your thoughts. The one thing we learned from this

is that the ideas again are all over the place,

and people really don't understand, which is sad because the

subject of the sanctuary is in the Bible from Exodus,

which is the second book to Revelation, and yet people

know so little about this. Now, how many of you

have heard the term in recent times in the news

sanctuary city. You know where that came from the Bible,

Because in Bible times they had what they called cities

of refuge that if a person accidentally committed manslaughter unintentional killing,

that rather than the family come and the avenger of blood,

a family member would then say I'm going to get venge,

they would go and they could flee to one of

these six started out with six sanctuary cities ended up

seven because Jerusalem became one, and they'd flee to one

of these sanctuary cities, and the priests in the cities,

the levines, would protect them until there was a fair trial.

You didn't get away with murder, but you would be

protected until the priest could give a fair trial, and

you might have to stay there until the death of

the high priest. They also had a law that you

could flee to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, and if you

got into the courtyard and you got a hold of

the horns of the altar, you were pleading for mercy.

And it was like, and if you ever play you know,

what do you call it? The hide and seek where

you go to home base, And it was like, if

you could get to homebase, you were safe. And you

can see we're ada Niger. When he thought Solomon, his brother,

was going to kill him, he fled to the sanctuary.

He got a hold of the horns of the altar,

and Solomon said, okay, we'll spare him if he proves

himself a worthy man. So sanctuary cities the way they're

using that now. It used to be that if you

were in a church and you had not committed any

federal crime that you had certain protection. The churches were

to be places of sanctuary, and then they expanded it

to cities of sanctuary. But they totally misunderstand what the

Bible is talking about. When we study the subject of

the sanctuary. Our question number two, let's get right into it.

Where did Moses obtain the blueprints for the sanctuary? God

told him there on Mount Sina. I see to it

that you make them according to the pattern which was

shown you on the mountain. The sanctuary, the tabernacle that

Moses built there on earth was a pattern of a

very real dwelling place of God in heaven. If you

read the Book of Hebrews, it's very clear that Christ

is our high priest that has entered into the presence

of God. He has served in a heavenly sanctuary not

made with man's hands. It's a miniature of picture of

the dwelling place of God and the inner sanctum. On earth,

the Holy of Holies had golden wallpaper, and there are

angels all over the walls engraved. Now in heaven, does

God have golden wallpaper or are they real angels? The

earthly sanctuary you had the ark of the Covenant, which

the mercy seat was like the throne of God. There

were two cherubs there. They're called the covering cherubs. When

Isaiah has a vision of God on his throne, are

they golden or are they real angels? Real seraphim? And

so it is a miniature picture. Any of you when

you were kids, get one of these matchbox cars, you

play with little matchbox cars. You know the company that

makes those, They actually are very meticulous about making them.

They are one fiftieth the size of the original. They

scan the original car. Now they do it with lasers

and they reduce it down to the size. So they

are scale, but they're greatly reduced. So when you think

about God's dwelling place in heaven, it's nothing like this

building that you could fit on a football field. It

is light years in size. It's much much bigger because

God is much much bigger. The Bible says the earth

is his footstool, So you got a thing big when

you think about the creator of the cosmos. But this

miniature was to teach them about the planet of salvation.

The Bible says, which is a copy This is Hebrews

eight five, which is a copy and a shadow of

the heavenly things. As Moses was divinely instructed when he

was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, see

that you make it all things according to the pattern

shown you on the mountain. So was the sanctuary moses

idea or God's? Did Noah design the ark or did

God give him the design? God designed it? The God

designed the sanctuary. So we've got to pay careful attention.

There's a lot of detail here that teaches us things.

So this is here an artist's concept. It gives you

an idea, sort of a three D view. You can

look inside the sanctuary. You really had three parts. You

had what you called the courtyard. There was one door

in Jesus said, I am the door. How many ways

to life are there one? How many entrances to the ark?

One door? Chause that I am the way, the truth

and the life. There was The first thing you saw

then was the altar of sacrifice, where the lamb or

the goat was sacrifice. Then there was a laver of water.

Then you entered into the holy place where you had

the candlestick and the bread and the altar of incense.

Then you had the final room, the inner Sanctum, the

Holy of Holies, which was where the ark of the

Covenant was, that had the ten commandments. Now these three things,

it's almost like a cell of life that contains these

three parts. There there are three parts to salvation. Salvation

is composed of three or big theological words we call justification, sanctification, glorification.

Justification means you come to the Lord just like you are.

You're not saying God, if I'm good enough, will you

accept me? You come just like you are, okay. Justification

means you come to him and He looks at you

just as if you had not sin, just as effication

if that helps you remember, So you come to Him

through the blood of the Lamb. You are forgiven. Then

you enter the second phase is the Holy Place, and

that's called sanctification. There were three things in there. There

are three rules if you want to be sanctified, if

you want to grow as a Christian. It's not that complicated.

There was the light, There was the bread. There was

the altar of incense. The light be a witness. Let

your light shine, the bread, read the Bible, the altar

of incident us prayer, and I'll show you the scriptures

that tells us what these things represent. If you want

to know what are the secret weapons to growing as

a Christian? Eat the bread of life. Pray, let your

light shine. If you want a baby to grow, feed them,

make sure they don't stop breathing. That's prayer, and they

get exercise. That's sharing your faith. That's witnessing. Baby doesn't

worry about growing. They need occasional cleansing, and so do we.

They do those things, they will grow, right, you will

grow as a Christian. So you've got the Christian disciplines

in the first apartment, that's what you call the holy place.

But then you get into the Holy of Holies. That

would be this is your Holy of Holies. This is

how God speaks to us. And that's where the presence

of God was. That's where the law of God was.

And ultimately we go into the third phase called glorification.

So the children of Israel, they were justified by sacrificing

a lamb in Egypt. God taught them how to be

holy in the wilderness. Then they entered the promised land

glorification in Israel. See, you got Egypt justification, sanctification, wilderness glorification.

You've got the promised lamp. So you've got these three phases.

It's all outlined here in the sanctuary. We're not done.

Wait this more. Get your credit card out. We'll double

your offer. Number three. What furniture was in the courtyard.

It says you shall burn the whole ram on the altar.

It is a burnt offering to the Lord. So when

someone came into the sanctuary, they would take their sacrificial victim,

if a goat, it could be a lamb, the most expensive.

We lack an oxen, but it had to be a

clean animal. They placed their hands on the head of

that animal. They would confess their sins, symbolically transferring their

sins to the goat or the lamb or the sheep.

Now do you realize this is a symbol. A goat

can't take away your sin, or a lamb? What can

wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

They all knew it was a symbol of the Messiah

that would come. That's why John the Baptist pointed to Jesus, said,

this is the lamb of God that takes away the

sin of the world. They all understood the sacrificial system

was pointing forward to when God would send the Messiah. Okay,

so first thing was the altar, and this is a

symbol for the cross. The altar burnt offering was where

animals were sacrificed just inside the courtyard. It represented the

sacrifice of Christ where he went through his fiery trials

for us. Then the next thing is they had a

lab with water, and this symbolizes the cleansing baptism. You know,

after Jesus died, they pierced his side and blood and

water came out, and the children of Israel, after they

had the pillar of fire that appeared. Then they went

through the red sea. Jesus said, you must be born

of the water and born of the fire. We're born

of the spirit, and we're born through baptism. It's through

a choice you make to come to God and a

choice God makes to fill you with his spirit. So

you need both baptisms. That was in the courtyard, that

water the priest would cleanse there. You know. Josephus, the

Jewish historian, he said, the most amazing thing that was

a constant miracle. In spite of the fact they had

sacrifices and blood and animals, there were never any flies

in the sanctuary. I'm just telling you what he said

that if it's true, it's quite a miracle. So they

had a bronze labor with the water in it where

the priest would wash. This is a symbol for baptism.

And again as you come to the Lord, first you

accept Jesus and you learn the teachings, and then it

says you go teach all nations, baptizing them. You got

the altar, the sacrifice, the labor symboling a washing from sin.

Now you enter a new phase in the Christian life, sanctification.

You're learning how to be a saint. You know. Paul

calls the church members saints. You know in the Catholic Church,

they say the saints or canonize, our special group of

people that we pray to. That's not what the New

Testament teaches. The New Testament says that when you are

washed from your sin, you repent of your sins, you're cleanse,

you become one of the saints of God. In spite

of occasional failings, you are still referred to. Paul refers

to the church members as the saints. That's because Christ

has forgiven us. He's washed us. So you get the sanctification.

What three items of furniture were in the Holy Place. Well,

first you had this table of they call it showbread,

twelve loaves, one for each of the twelve tribes. And

on the table of showbread they shall spread a blue cloth,

and the show bread will be on it. What does

that bread represent. It represents Christ said, I am the

bread that came down from Heaven. And it represents the

word of God. Jesus said, man shall not live by

bread alone, but by every word. And when we pray

the Lord's prayer, give us this day our daily bread.

We're not just talking about food. Most of you don't

worry from day to day about food, but I hope

you're getting your daily bread. We need the word of

God every day. Amen. The Bible says Daniel morning, evening

and at noon while I pray. I actually just quoted

Psalm fifty five seventeen. But in Daniel chapter six, verse ten,

three times a day he would pray, we should have

regular times of communion with God. That's what it means

to walk with God. Jesus is the bread of life.

And then you have the lamb stand with seven candlesticks,

and that's seven represent God gives you light every day

of Amen? And who does it represent? The seven branch

candlestick represented Jesus, who is the light of the world.

But notice each one of these things not only represents Christ,

it represents the Church. Jesus not only said I am

the light of the world. But what does he say

in Matthew chapter five, You are the light of the world. Now,

you and I don't have any light of our own.

But like the moon reflects the light of the sun,

we in our lives should reflect the light of Jesus. Amen.

We ought to be mirrors that are reflecting his light.

I remember hearing a story one time about this boy

that was on streets in one of the projects in

New York City, and he had one of these little

hand mirrors and he was taking the sun and he

was shining up in the window. And the policeman went

by and he said, that's cute, he says, but you

really shouldn't be irritating people like that. He said, oh, sir,

I'm not trying to irritate anybody. He says, I've got

a brother that lives up there. He's crippled, and because

there's buildings all around, he never sees the sun. So

I come down every now and then and I shine

the sun up into the window for him. Some people

never see the Son of God, and the only way

they're going to see him is in you. We need

to reflect Jesus in our lives. You and I are

the light of the world, reflecting Christ, or where I

should say, we are reflecting the light of the world.

And then you got oil that went through the lamp

pipes that kept the candlestick burning. What is that oil?

Now you notice there's scriptures for all of these. Pastor

Doug is not just making these things up. Scriptures tell

us what these things represent. Revelation chapter four, verse five,

Zachariah four to one through six. The oil in the

lamp symbolizes what the Holy Spirit. And when a pastor

or elders anoint a person because they're sick, they anoint

them with olive oil supposed to peak. Don't use lard.

That totally misses the picture. There should be pure olive

oil that they're anointed with, and it's a symbol for

the Holy Spirit. That and Christ is called the anointed.

That's what the word Christ christal. When you christen a ship,

the needs the splash Champagne on it. But the word

Christian means to annoint something. When you go to the

beach as a kid and your parents slather you with sunscreen,

they are anointing you. That's what that means, to annoint.

The Hebrew word is Messiah messieur. The Greek word is Cristos.

And so Jesus is the anointed. And when he was baptized,

he came out of the water. What happened The Holy

Spirit came down. But dinn't Jesus also say he promised

the Holy Spirit to come upon us. John the Baptist said,

I baptize you with water, But the one who's coming

after me, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit

and with fire. We need that oil as well. Amen.

It's the most important thing we should pray for. Jesus said,

if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts

to your children, And how much more will your Father

in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Every day? We should be asking for the Holy Spirit.

Before I come out here and talk to you, I

know I have no business talk to you unless God

is speaking. I get on my knees and I say, Lord,

speak to your people, give me the Holy Spirit. Then

you have the altar of incense. Now, if you're a

Bible student, you might wonder the altar of incense most

of the year was inside the Holy Place on the

day because and they would put incense on it, and

this beautiful frank and sense or murrh, the smell would

waft over into the presence of God, representing the prayers

of the people going before God. And it's the death

of Jesus that makes our prayers acceptable when we pray

in his name, it's like this incense. But on the

day of Atonement once a year, when the high priest

went in, he also brought a censer with incense that

he would take and some scholars say they would then

move the altar into the Holy of Holies just during

that time. So he was interceding with the prayers of

God's people. If you've noticed that, that could be the

explanation for that confusion. It represents the prayers of God's people.

Exodus thirty one through eight, Revelation five, verse eight. Those

are the Christian disciplines. Number five. Fasten your seat. Well,

this is going to get interesting. I might even lose

some of you before I'm done. That always gets people's attention.

But it's true. What special article was in the most

holy place he wrote on the tablets according to the

first writing, the Ten Commandments, this is the contents of

the Old Covenant, and it is the contents of the

New Covenant. That contents of the old Covenant is a

ten commandments written on stone. The new Covenant is he

writes his law in our heart. The ten Commandments are

summarized in love. First four commandments talk about our love

for God. The last six commandments talk about our love

for our fellow man. The two great commandments are love

the Lord with all your heart, Love your neighbor as yourself.

It's a cross. It's this love relationship, and it's this

love relationship. And always have fun doing that because I

feel like the pope talking about it's the vertical love

relationship and it's the horizontal love relationship. So that was

in the Holy of holies. This is the word of

God written by the finger of God. Is the holiest

of all. What is a foundation for all we believe.

It's the word of God. And the ultimate expression of

God's word is the Ten Commandments that he wrote. If

you can't remember any of the Bible, but you remember

to keep the law of love, then you've got it made.

And you know what sin is. Sin is our problem

breaking the law. Sin is the transgression of the law.

So the fact that we could someday come back into

the presence of God. You notice the whole sanctuary is

it's a straight line. You go through the door, you

got the altar, you've got the labor. You walk into

the holy place, one door in, go through sanctification. Then

you walk into the presence of God, and someday we

will see him face to face. Amen, And Jesus is

the Lamb. It is only the blood of the Lamb

that they brought all the way in. It is through

the blood of Christ that we go in. And the

Bible says you shall put the mercy seat. This is

the lid. This was a symbol for like the Throne

of God, where those two angels, this chicina shining glory

would appear. Moses would talk to God, he'd come out

from the Holy of Holies. His face was shining so

bright they had to put a veil over him because

no one could even look at him. Can you imagine

that talk about a movie star. He was shining so

bright they couldn't even look at him us it were

sunglasses or he veiled his face, and on top of

the chest of the mercy seat was covering those two

angels face each other, desiring to look within at the

word of God. It symbolized the throne of God in heaven,

the presence of God. You'll find that in Isaiah chapter six,

in his vision number six. The Bible says God's sanctuary

was holy Leviticus sixteen thirty three, And so was Jesus life.

How should his followers live? All right, here's where it

gets interesting. First, Peter, this is New Testament. First Peter,

Chapter one, verse fifteen and sixteen. As he who called

you is holy, you also be holy in all of

your conduct, because it is written, be holy, for I

am holy. Now you don't hear a lot of sermons

on this, friends, but Jesus not only saves you from

the sin v occasion. We need to go into the

second phase and allow Him to make us holy in

the wilderness. In this life. After you come to Christ,

we need to learn to live a different kind of life.

We need to forsake the old way, forsake the old heart,

and it's a battle. Sometimes you need to unlearn the

things of Egypt. I need to learn a new economy

of what it means to live a holy life. You know,

Jesus said, destroy this temple made with hands, and in

three days I will make one without hands. What was

he talking about? The Church? The body of Christ. The

Bible says you and I are the temple today. Peter says,

we are living stones in that temple. Actually, Paul says

that in Ephesians, the Bible tells us that Jesus is

the cornerstone that we build upon through the writings of

the apostles and the prophets, and so God has a

temple in the world today. The Church is that temple,

and we are a nation of kings and priests. And

He has called us to holiness, to living differently. And

I'll tell you, friends, if ever we need it, we

need it now because the world is the devil's been

practicing wickedness for six thousand years. The good news is

where sin abounds, grace abounds much more so. It is

possible for us to live differently even in a wicked world. Amen.

The Bible says you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,

a what all holy nation, his own special people. He

has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We should not be living lives of darkness when Jesus

calls us. Don't be discouraged. If you fall short and

you sin, you get back up and you keep following

the way. The children of Israel made it to the

Promised Land. They made a lot of mistakes on the way.

They had to keep following Number seven. What was to

be the guiding principle for the clothing God's priests would wear. Now,

since we're a nation of priests, was there something different

about how the priest dressed? Notice what it says you

shall not. It says you shall make for them linen

trousers to cover their what nakedness. They shall reach from

the waist to the thigh. Nor shall you go up

by steps to my altar? You know, like in some

of the ancient religions, the pyramids, and you look at

the steps in the Inca Pyramids, they'd walk up these

steps and people could kind of look up their skirts.

And God said, that's not how you approach my altar.

It was on level ground it's less their nakedness be

exposed on it. Now, where did nakedness first become a problem.

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned. Now,

they were not streaking around the garden blissfully naked and

just oblivious. It says they were naked and unashamed because

they had garments of light. They had robes of glory,

just like Adam. When Moses talked to God, he was glowing.

And when Jesus talked with Moses and Elija in the mountain,

they were glowing. And the Bible tells us that when

they sinned, the light faded, and suddenly they felt the chill,

and they became ashamed. They knew something was wrong, and

they tried to cover their nakedness with what fig leaves,

And the Bible says they made aprons. I made this

picture in Ai. It's not accurate. I can't show you

an accurate picture and a g rated audience. The Bible

says they made aprons of fig leaves. They were wearing bikinis.

God said, for one thing, you've got the wrong material,

and you don't have nearly enough material. Says God then

instituted the sacrificial system. He killed some innocent lambs, and

that nothing had ever died before, even before Cain a

lamb died. It says he covered them with skins, and

it says he gave them tunics, and the word tunic

there is a robe he cover their nakedness, and that's

when the sacrificial system was begun. Now I'm comfortable. Now

we've tried to control the temperature in here. How many

of you comfortable? You're not too hot, not too cold.

Not that we want you lukewarm. That's a whole different

Bible sermon. Well, why don't you take off your clothes? Now?

I'm not asking you to, but because of modesty, right,

don't we all agree if someone should start walking around

in your stark naked, would we call the authorities? We'd

say they need help. There was this man running around naked,

a demoniac, and after Jesus cast off the devils, he

says he was sitting in a the feet of Jesus clothes.

Before Jesus he was naked. The devil made him naked.

The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve, after they

encountered the devil, they were naked. You can read in

the Bible about these this man that fell among thieves,

the story of the Good Samaritan, and that's the devil

robbed them, stripped them, beat him, and left him naked.

You can read about these seven sons of one of

the Jewish priests. They wanted to cast out devils in

the name of Jesus. So they went to this demon

possessed man. Seven young men. They went to one demon

possessed man, and they said, in the name of Jesus,

who Paul preaches. They didn't know Paul, They didn't know Jesus.

They just wanted to be exorcists, and so they said,

in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches, come out,

and the demon laughed at him and said, I know Jesus,

and I know Paul, but I don't know you. And

the devil jumped on them, beat all seven of them,

and they left wounded and naked. You ever catch that part.

The devil wants to shame us. So many people don't

come to church because they're a shame. Jesus wants to

take away your guilt and shame because you become a

new creature. Old things are passed away. But there's a

reason that we wear clothes, and I don't want to

make anyone self conscious. We want you to come to

this meeting to come in your work clothes. You're welcome.

But when we gather together before God to worship Him

on the Sabbath day, we ought to remember we're worshiping

a holy God, and we ought to make sure that

whatever we're wearing is long enough and high enough and

loose enough to cover business. Amen. And the church does

not issue measurements. The Holy Spirit. You got it. Your

mirror is going to tell you what to do. You

realize that men and women, men probably more than women

based on statistics, are attracted to the figures of the

opposite sex. Do you know that? Don't act like you

don't know what it means to dress sexy? I mean,

you know, so all this advertising talks about dressing and

being sexy. Should Christians try to dress sexy? Does Jesus

say if a man looks on a woman to lust

after her in his heart, he's committed adultery with her.

So and especially young girls, they kind of know that

all of a sudden something's happened to the boys around them,

and they start to exploit that. And it might be

one sin for them, But how many are they causing

to sin through the day by the way they dress?

And it works both ways. Men need to be careful too.

But you don't hear this very often, do you. Christians

should be modest, doesn't mean you need to dress in

a burka, but use common sense. Amen number eight. Does

the Bible discourage believers from wearing jewelry and fancy clothing?

I told you I'm going to get specific. But if

it's not in the Bible, don't listen to Pastor Doug. Okay,

if it's in the Bible, pay attention first Timothy two

verse nine, in like manner, also that the women and men,

of course, adorn themselves in modest apparel, not with braided hair.

And there's nothing wrong with braiding your hair. It's very practical.

When they would braid their hair there and he's talking

about they would braid gold chains in their hair, it

was very exotic, says, not with broidered hair or gold

or pearls or costly clothing. I don't know if you

remember a few years ago a lot of televangelists got

into trouble because of their attire and that everything was gilded.

And someone wrote a song. Would Jesus wear ro Lix?

And they used to make fun of the televangelists begging

for everybody's money. And they're driving in fancy cars and

flying jets here and there, and Christians should be modest.

How did Jesus dress? They didn't even recognize him, because

you look like a normal carpenter. Do not let your

adorning be it a mere outward adorning, the arranging of

the hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on

a fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person

of the heart, with an incorruptible beauty, of a gentle

and a quiet spirit, which is very precious in the

sight of God. The children of Israel they made a

golden calf? What did they make it out of their jewelry?

And they have the same problem then we have today.

It says they broke off the ear rings from their

sons and their daughters and they made a golden calf. Now,

I'm not trying to condemn anybody here, but I play

it safe. I just don't wear any and I know

that in judgment, dey, Jesus is not going to say

to me, Doug, I can't let you in. Why Lord

you didn't wear nearly enough jewelry. Oh, but Lord, it

was a cross. Did Jesus say to wear the cross

or to bear the cross? All right, I'll stop right there.

In that day Isaiah three eighteen. The Lord will take

away the finery, the jingling anklets, the pendents, the bracelets.

He's talking about the daughters of Israel that are proud,

and the veils and the headdresses, and the leg ornaments,

and the headbands, and the perfume boxes, and the charms,

and the rings and the nose jewels. A lot of

this ancient jewelry was associated with paganism, and did Adam

and even the Garden of Eden. Do you think they

were wearing that stuff? In heaven? The streets are made

out of gold. Right now, the angels look down and

wonder why people are wearing asphalt. Now, gold is beautiful.

Jewels are beautiful, But do we want to advertise that

by wearing it? Number nine? What, by the way, when

Jacob went to meet before the Lord at Bethel, it

says they buried the pagan gods and the jewelry that

was in their tribe. It buried it. And so when

God said to the Israelites, break off your ornaments that

I can know what to do with you. God's people

become proud, and we start to look like the world.

There should be a difference, you know, Revelation I told

you it's prophecy. Revelation chapter twelve. You've got God's church.

What is she wearing light? In Revelation seventeen? The counterfeit church?

What is she wearing gold pearls, costly array? There's a difference. Amen.

Oh wait, I'm jumping too fast. Number nine, What common

sense rule did God have for priests? Where a nation

of kings and priests and kings and prophets to maintain

holy conduct, do not drink wine or intoxicating drink. God

is calling his people to holiness. You know your sons

with you when you go into the tabernacle of meeting,

lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout

your generations. And two of the sons of Aarons went

in intoxicated before the Lord Fire came down from God

out of heaven and destroyed them. So is that a

serious offense? It is not for kings, not only priests,

but kings. And you are a nation of kings and priests.

It's not for kings, Oh Emmanuel to drink wine or

for princes intoxicating drink unless they drink and forget the

law and pervert justice of all the afflicted. And what

does it say about John the Baptist. It says he

shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, so he shall

be filled with what the Holy spirit. You drive down

the street, you'll see stores and it'll say beer, wine

and spirits. That isn't the Holy spirit. It's the other

spirit that comes in alcohol. It causes a lot of misery.

Now I had to update my statistics. It used to

be outlcohol caused fifty percent of the traffic fatalities, not

to mention people in jail and the crimes and the

birth defects and their domestic violence. Alcohol is often connected

with that. But then I found out that now alcohol

only accounts for thirty percent. The other is texting distracted driving.

Now I have no scripture on that, but don't do it.

So Christians should not drink. You know, it lowers your

resistance to temptation. God communicates through your brain he wants

you to have all of your faculties. Amen. By the way,

the Mother of John the Baptist. The angel said, do

not drink any strong drink. You're going to have the

strongest child that ever lived. It actually has some physiological reaction.

I guess number ten. Did God make a distinction regarding

which animals they talked about drinking? Let's talk about eating.

Does God make a discinction regarding what animals his people

could or could not sacrifice and or eat? Noah when

he built the ark. By the way, how many here

related to Noah? About half of you. I want to

find out where the other half come from. We've heard

a lot about aliens lately. Noah built the arc. He

took of every clean animal and the birds and offerings.

They were brought by seven. In the arc, he made

an offering of the clean animals. They unclean came two

by two. The clean animals came by sevens. What made

an animal a mammal clean? Two laws? It needed a

cloven hoof, and it chewed the cud. Those two things,

and so these are the two categories two rules among

the mammals. If you're going to eat them, cloven hoof,

chew the cud. Can't be one without the other. Because

the camel choose the cud, but it's got a paw.

That's why Jesus said. The hypocrites were the scribes and

Pharisees that were straining their water so they got no gnats,

no bugs in their water. Then they'd have camel steak.

They said, you're straining thent and you're swallowing a camel

which is unclean in the water. It needed fins and scales,

two criteria, and I'll make it very quick for you.

Among the mammals needed hove, clothing, hoof and chew the cud.

Among the birds, they need to be the foraging birds.

That would be your chickens, your quail, your turkey. You know,

they go around, they scratch, they peck all of the

birds of carrying the raptors, the crows unclean. The fish

needed fins and scales. So what would be forbidden for food? Pigs? Now,

most of you don't have skunks in your freezer or camels.

Most of you don't have most of the things that

are unclean, but boy, pork is a very popular food.

Bible Christians, Jews, Muslims, they know the Bible clearly forbids it.

If you didn't know it. Pigs are scavengers. They're in

the same category of dogs. They can be cute, they

can be smart. They can also be a minute, I

know that you've got a plague of pigs in Texas,

don't you. Of hogs it's come to California. Have just

started appearing on our land too, and they're just rooting

up and wrecking the ground. But you realize, pigs will

eat anything. That's why they call them pigs. They're garbage cans.

They're not to be food how much If you remember,

this little piggy went to the market, this little piggy

stayed home. This little piggy had roast beef. A pig

will not even eat pork. They eat roast beef. Rabbits

are unclean. In the waters, you would have your shell fish,

your shark, the scavengers, the animals that live in the bottom.

They're unclean. Fins and scales, and there were certain insects.

You could eat, grasshoppers. But I don't think any If

you have a problem, some of you are going to say,

wait a second. Peter had a vision. God declared all

foods clean. He said that sheet came down full of

creepy crawleys. God said arise and eat. Peter said, not

so Lord, this is Acts Chapter ten. Not so Lord,

I've never eaten anything common or unclean. That ought to

settle it for you. Three times this vision, this sheet

comes down, God says to Peter, arise and eat three times.

Peter says, not so Lord, Your word forbids it. I've

never eaten anything common or unclean. Jesus had never told

him he could do it. Then the sheet goes up

to heaven. He never takes anything from the sheet and

eats it and eats it. While Peter is wondering what

does the vision mean, some gentiles come to his house

and say, will you preach the gospel to us? Well

up till then the Jews thought the gentiles were unclean. Peter,

recounting the vision, later says, God has shown me not

to call any mia n unclean. That's a strange way

to spell pig. He said, God has told me not

to call any man unclean. The vision had nothing to

do with food, and yet I've heard so many preachers

abuse this vision. He never ate anything unclean. It's he

was saying the gospel should go to the gentiles. Amen.

Now you might have a question about What about when

God says in Timothy in the last days, some will

arise saying certain foods shouldn't be eaten. Write it down,

will answer it tomorrow or whenever you send it. In

number eleven, why does God say that eating unclean food

is a serious offense? Do you not know that your

body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is

in you, whom you have from God. God wants us

to be holy. He wants us to be healthy. A

lot of disease is because people are not eating what

is good. Do you not know that you are the

temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells

in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God him,

will God do what? Destroy it? And you think, no,

it can't be that serious. I mean, as long as

you pray over it, it shouldn't matter. By the way. That's

first Corinthians three, sixteen and seventeen. How many of your parents,

how many of you care what your kids eat? But

as long as they pray over it, they should be

able to eat. You know, sugar frosted flakes and cocoa puts,

count dracula and chocolate chips with ice cream for breakfast.

And if you said, oh, no, no, that's not good,

they'll say, but I'm gonna pray. Would you accept that? No,

because you know God is not mocked. What you sew,

you're going to reap. And if you sow pork chops,

you're gonna reap a heart attack. If you sow a

lot of cholesterol, you're gonna reap it. You can get

triconosis and all kinds of disease from these unclean animals.

And now I'm a vegetarian. I have been for forty

five years, and I'm in pretty good shape. For nine grandchildren.

I used to be able to do a back handspring

on stage straight that I don't know if I'm going

to do that because I don't know what the ambulance

response time is here in Crawley, Texas. But let's see,

I'll do that. I can both both ladies. I can

go back and forth. So that's sixty nine years old.

Pastor Ross and I. We still play racquetball in the morning.

He'll tell you I moved pretty quick for a grandfather.

So the idea that you can't be healthy and be

a vegetarian, it's a myth. Friends. Now some of you

ought to look on YouTube. I did a YouTube it's

got over a million views with one of our members,

doctor Scharfenberg. He's over one hundred years old, going strong

right now, he's probably over one hundred and two. And

he'll tell you following the Bible principles. Here, you've got

a skeleton smoking. Do you realize that is smoking is

the number one avoidable cause of death in the world.

It's just in vaping. Now. Tobacco is deadly and it's dangerous.

Does it matter? Look at what it says Isaiah sixty six,

verse fifteen. Does God care for? Behold, the Lord will

come with fire and with chariots like a whirlwind. Those

who sanctify themselves, they say, oh, well, we're going to

sanctify ourselves eating swines flesh. You realize that's pork in

the abomination in the mouth. So next time you think

about pork, think about rats. They're in the same category Biblically.

They will be consumed together, says the Lord. Your body

is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not bring

unclean offerings into God's temple, not only because you want

to honor God. You know, if you read in Daniel

chapter one, a Book of Prophecy. The first thing it

establishes in Daniel chapter one, they refuse to eat the

Babylonian diet and be defiled, and they were risking being killed.

The king says, I'm allowing you to be part of

the Babylonian university and eat from our cafeteria, and you

are turning down. They said, give us ten days, and

you see if we are not healthier than the people

that are eating the Babylonian food. Ten days later, it

says they were not only fair and fatter of flesh.

That meant that you're not going to get fatter. It

meant they had just come across the desert. They were

healthier looking, and when Nebu Kinezer interviewed them, they were

ten times wiser. And that chapter closed us by saying

Daniel lived until the time of Cyrus. Daniel lived to

about one hundred years of age. It begins with their

choosing to treat their bodies like the Holy Spirit or

like a temple of God, and God filled them with

the spirit. If you don't think it makes a difference

what you eat, why are we in all the trouble

we're in today? Because God told Adam and Eve, don't

eat that, and they did. So. If you think that

your heavenly Father doesn't care what you eat, just pray

over it and it doesn't matter what crawls across your plate.

That's not what the Bible teaches Number twelve what Christian

cheese to think about. Whatever things are true, it's not

just what comes into our mouths, it's what comes into

our minds. That's what makes for holiness. Friends, Amen, whatever

things are true, noble, pure, good, virtuous, think on these things.

King David said, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.

God is calling us to be careful about what we

allow to come into our minds. Set your minds on

things above, not on things of the earth. There should

be a holiness. Sin originates not just with an action,

it's an attitude in our minds and our hearts. In

the days of Noah, the entire world was destroyed because

the men, the thoughts of men's hearts were only evil. Continually,

it can begin in your thinking, what does the Bible

say about worldly behavior? Where for my friend, whoever rather

wherefo're therefore, who wants to be a friend of the world,

makes himself an enemy of God? Come out from among

them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch

what is unclean, and I will receive you. God wants

us to live holy and pure lives. Come out from

what is unclean and impure. And I hope you'll choose

now to come to Jesus. Say, Lord, I accept your justification.

Will you now sanctify me? Teach me how to live

a holy life? Is that your desire? Friends, Lord, I

want to be pure. Father in Heaven, give us purity

of heart, you said, the pure in heart will see you.

We want to be with you in that kingdom. Lord,

help us make these practical changes in our lives that

we might have more abundant lives and be better witnesses

for you living temples. We ask in Christ's name. Amen, God,

Let's when is our next meeting? Friends? Tomorrow night decoding

the longest Bible prophecy, come bring you friends. You'll be

glad you did. Thank you and God bless