The Sanctuary and Atonement

Spiritual eyes opened never to be closed.  Truth that can't be untold. The revealing that can't be unrevealed.  Yes, doors can be shut, but no man can shut the door that our Savior has opened. This open door to the truth, this knowledge that was allowed at its proper time to come forth and change the spiritual world as well as the physical, is something amazing, this is a door that can never be shut.  Unfortunately, the narrow way is one FEW will find.  People love to stop their spiritual journey at a few favorite verses, a few nice ideas, a lovely concept here and there.  Some enjoy attending sermons, seminars, lectures and such to hear things that make their lives more meaningful. And some even do want the truth but those are FEW. I have to keep saying it over and over throughout my studies because it's what GOD'S word says! It's God's truth that the narrow way is HARD to find, that FEW will find it!

Doesn't it warrant our utmost undivided attention to study deeply a book once shut that is now open? A book of prophecy! A book that would foretell history right up until the end of our world as we know it.  It's a book that can be understood through history but only with the Holy Spirit's guidance. Many have perverted its contents in many ways to suit their own end. Many don't even try to comprehend because it's so confusing to them and they believe it to be impossible to understand. 

The truth is available to us through our Savior!  You may be wondering how I know what we are studying is the truth.  I know I believe in my Savior and through Him, I will know the truth whatever that may be.  If you believe you know the Savior and He has guided you to a different truth, that is between you and Him, just as my own beliefs are between me and my Lord. 

May He guide us all to HIM and only HIS truth!

Continuing with our study, we talked about the temple- the type and anti-type.

There is so much to this that we have to take a bit to study it once more-- 

*******

Why is it important that we study the sanctuary?

Hebrews {8:1} Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; {8:2} A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

This is why.

We have a minister of the sanctuary.

A minister of the true tabernacle.

A minister of the tabernacle the Lord pitched and not man.

We have a High Priest.

Hebrews {9:11} But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; {9:12} Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

But Christ being come an high priest.

By a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands.

Not by blood of goats and calves.

By His own blood he entered in once into the holy place.

Do you see why we should study the sanctuary? What it meant to be given the sanctuary, what it meant so that we can understand even more fully what our Lord and Savior has done in becoming a High Priest for us.

Some might think all that sanctuary stuff has been done away with and is nonsense destroyed by Jesus, but I don't think that at all. I think the old covenant with the earthly sanctuary served its purpose in being an example. Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection are all tied into the old covenant as He made a new one.

Sometimes in life we don't *have* to understand the old way of things to be part of the new way, but history is taught in all our schools because history shows us where we've been, how far we've come, it reveals the good and the bad and we constantly seek to make our present and future lives something meaningful so that one day when it to is history we'll be able to say that we progress, we learned from the old and welcomed the new.

Learning from the old can sometimes fully explain the new for those seeking a deep understanding of things more than a superficial one. Sometimes we are called to a deeper understanding, sometimes it is very necessary especially when Satan would have us give up hope and make it all a lie. The deeper rooted we are into the Word of God the harder it will be to uproot us. I pray that God through His Holy Spirit by the Grace and Mercy of His Son, our eyes and hearts are opened to the understanding He would have us find in Him through love.

*******

1981 May-- XIV 5(81) -- LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ATONEMENT - I  Author William Grotheer

*

1981 May-- XIV 5(81) -- LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ATONEMENT - I -- The word - atonement - is an English word coming from "atone," a word in Middle English meaning - at one. So we can say that atonement means simply to be at one again with a person from whom we have become estranged. When applied to theology, it indicates the reconciliation between God and man, and man and God. There is only one thing that has separated between God and man, and man and God, and that is sin.

In the case of man's alienation from God, the Scripture states it very simply - "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) Paul summarizes the condition of man by quoting from the Old Testament -    As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Rom. 3:10-12)

With God, the alienation was forced upon Him by man's actions, not by any action initiated by Him. Isaiah declared - "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." (Isa. 59:2) God is holy and righteous. The Psalmist sang that "righteousness and judgment are the basis of His throne." (Ps. 97:2 Heb.) Sin - rebellion - on the other hand had challenged the very foundations of the government of God. Justice demanded that the traitors be executed. There is, however, another aspect to the character of God. His holiness and His righteousness emanate from a heart of love. Love devised an atonement that would meet the demands of justice, and thus secure the Throne, and would provide a means for the healing and restoration of the traitor.

Before we can understand the atonement devised by God, we must understand the sickness of man. All sin represents degrees of insanity. We continue in our rebellion because "the whole head is sick." (Isa. 1:5) Sin originated with a created being whose mind became deranged. The prophet stated of Lucifer under the symbolism of the king of Tyrus - "Thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." (Eze. 28:17) How could a created being ever think that he could destroy an immortal God, and take His place? But once in the pathway of insanity, this arch-traitor led our first parents into sin by a derangement of their thought patterns, a subversion of the higher nature to the lower. The atonement must bring healing to the mind, and restoration of the glorious character lost through this deceptive derangement.

There is, however, that judicial aspect of judgment with which God had also to

p 2 -- deal so that He could be at-one-ment with sinful man, and thus effect the healing of man. "The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23) But who would be willing to die as a substitute, and who could die in such a capacity so that the demands of justice might be met? There was only One, and that was the Son of God. To Abraham who was bringing his "only son" as an offering to God, the Spirit encouraged his heart so that he could say to Isaac - "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." (Gen. 22:8) And He did! "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." (John 3:16) "The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . His soul [was made] an offering for sin." (Isa. 53:6, 10) Thus the first great question of the Atonement found an answer - How can God be just, and yet justify the sinner? (See Rom. 1:16-17; 3:24-26) We can, therefore, from the viewpoint of God - and only from that viewpoint - speak of the Cross as an atonement. The Cross is an atonement only in this phase of the relationship - God becoming at one with man. In the cross man is provided by God what could be called a "second chance," but which is in reality an opportunity to escape his corporate involvement in the first choice made for him by the father of the race, for "by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." (Rom. 5:18)

The significance of this atonement with man on the part of God is illustrated in covenant-history. Israel was assembled before Mount Sinai. They had heard the voice of God proclaim His law amid thunderings and lightenings. They listened carefully as Moses read "the book of the covenant" which he had prepared under the direction of God. To what they heard, Israel responded - "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." (Ex. 24:7) In this book of the covenant had been written as its preamble the requirement of God for singleness of worship on the part of Israel. It read - "Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." (Ex. 20:22-23) Within forty days following the ratification of this blood covenant, and the solemn commitment of Israel, they gave their adoration to the "golden calf" of Egyptian devil worship. They repeated the sin of Adam and Eve in giving their loyalty and allegiance to the enemy of God.

The reaction of God to this apostasy was swift. Moses was immediately informed by God as to what was happening in the camp below, and was told that He no longer considered them His people. (Ex. 32:7) Moses after returning to the encampment of Israel from his dialogue with God in the Mount, removed the "tabernacle" of meeting without the camp. (Ex. 33:7) Then he told the people - "Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord, peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin." (Ex. 32:30) The result of this interceding of Moses, and the exchange that took place between him and God is given in God's final answer to Moses' pleadings - "The Lord said to Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." (Ex. 34:27) Israel's commitment was not secured to this covenant. It was a covenant by which Moses stood as surety for Israel's compliance, and through which God could once more become atonement with Israel. It was a "type" covenant of the "atonement" achieved by Christ for man to effect God's reconciliation with man. God became at one again with humanity in Christ Jesus. Even, as God talked with Moses face to face (Deut. 34:10) so Christ in His glorified humanity is in the very presence of God to speak for man. (Heb. 4:14-15)

The fact should not be overlooked that at the time when Israel was forfeiting

p 3 -- their rights as God's people in the worship of the golden calf, and demonstrating the inability of man to keep any covenant to which mentally he would agree, God was giving to Moses "the plan" by which man can become at-one with God. The sanctuary and its services, which were to operate as "types" under a type-covenant, were being revealed to Moses. (See Ex. 24:18-32:1)

*******

And with that note we will pick up with the next part of our Sanctuary study tomorrow.

There is a lot of food for thought here, a lot.

The fact that we are each responsible for the slaying of the innocent Lamb of God, responsible in a REAL way, not an imagined abstract way. Our sins, our seeking to kill God, to separate ourselves from God is so real. We don't want to look at sin that way. We want to look at it as harmless little acts we are compelled to perform beyond our ability to control. We want to take ourselves, our blame out of the equation and toss it elsewhere. We want to imagine that those little defiant acts that scream selfishness and self love over God love aren't so bad as all that. Sin is horrific and when we take the true nature of sin and try to conform it into something it isn't who are we deceiving but ourselves? Yes, the heavy weight of the knowledge is grievous and we can't imagine ever being sinless, and this is where our faith has to come into play. Our faith and our belief that God is willing to guide us to the acceptable place in our lives through the mercy and grace of His slain Son, not because we deserve it, because we don't, but because He loves us with an unimaginable love.

By His Grace. By His Mercy. By His Love.

Amen.

Revelation Chapter 3 -

Verse-

7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;

These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

8 I know thy works:

 behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it:

for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name.

9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie;

behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name.

13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.