"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries
THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY, part 2 quotes
1) “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” Revelation 11:19.
2) “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool...” Daniel 7:9.
This verse stated that “the thrones were cast down”. These thrones have to be referring to all the thrones that were within the First Apartment of the heavenly Sanctuary. All these thrones were cast down, turned over and were no longer able to be sat upon by either God or these 24 elders. This indicated that the work of God the Father as well as all these common priests in this First Apartment had now been completed or finished, and that no more ministerial work was to occur within this Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary.
This truth is further backed up in the fact that the Ancient of days, or God the Father “did sit”on His throne. In order for God to sit down on His throne would mean that He first had to be standing. Since we saw last Sabbath that God was already sitting on His throne and ruling in the First Apartment of the heavenly Sanctuary, then for God to be now pictured as standing and then sitting down again reveals to us that He had to have stood up from off His throne in the First Apartment, then moved into the Second Apartment and sat down on a different throne in that Most Holy Place. God’s work of ruling in the First Apartment had been completed or finished, and He was now beginning His ruling work in the Second Apartment.
3) “...his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.” Daniel 7:9.
Something that has “wheels”, like a chariot, transported God the Father from the First Apartment and into the Second Apartment at that time. This was no ordinary chariot, since its wheels were of “burning fire”! Once God arrived in the Second Apartment, He then stepped off this flaming chariot and sat down upon a throne that “was like the fiery flame”.
4) “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened....I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Daniel 7:10-14.
These verses reveal that this Most Holy Place in the heavenly Sanctuary is huge enough to comfortably contain within it God the Father and His fiery throne; the fiery stream that issued before Him; the Ark of His Testament; the “thousand thousands” of ministering angels, and the “ten thousand times ten thousand” of those who stood before him; as well as the Son of man or Jesus Christ! In other words, this Second Apartment of the Sanctuary in heaven is also unimaginably immense in size, yet probably smaller in size than the First Apartment was with the addition of its Sea of Glass!
The immense size of the Most Holy Place is one reason why both God the Father and Jesus Christ were transported from the First Apartment to their proper places in this Second Apartment! God was transported in a fiery chariot, while Jesus Christ was brought before the Father in “the clouds of heaven” which was most likely a cloudy chariot!
5) What is the time frame in which these scenes are taking place that are depicted in Revelation 11:19 & Daniel 7:9-13 dealing with the Second Apartment of the heavenly Sanctuary?
As it was only the high priest who could enter into the Second Apartment of the earthly Sanctuary, while none of the common priests could, then this is the reason why there is no mention of the 24 human elders or the common priests being within this Second Apartment of the heavenly Sanctuary, but only our High Priest Jesus Christ. In addition, the only time that the earthly high priest could enter into the Most Holy Place was only during the Day of Atonement. This then means that since the only human Priest depicted within the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary is our High Priest Jesus Christ, then this plainly shows us that this must also be during the time of the Atonement as well.
The Day of Atonement in the earthly Sactuary occurred on “the tenth day of this seventh month”, which was in the fall season (Leviticus 23:27). All of the daily services performed in the First Apartment of the earthly Sanctuary, as well as all the daily sacrifices made for sin, all pointed forward towards this particular one day.
The Hebrew word for “atonement” is “kaphar”, and it translates and means “to cover with a coating like bitumen, to cancel, to appease, make an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, pardon, purge away, reconcile” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, word #3722). Through the Atonement, any sins which the people had committed and had confessed would be freely forgiven, removed and purged away, and then they would become completely cleansed from all these sins. Any punishment due them would be disannulled and cancelled, and thus the wrath of the Almighty against them would be appeased because they would have been reconciled back to Him. And they would also be covered over with a material like bitumen, which we saw in our very first sermon on this earthly Sanctuary represented the righteousness of Christ. This precious robe of Christ’s righteousness – like bitumen – would so fully cling to and completely cover them over so that none of their own naked and shameful self could be seen, but only His righteousness. And all of this would be freely done and provided for all of God’s truly repentant followers because of this Atonement!
6) How is it possible to know which sins have been confessed, as well as which sins have not yet been confessed, by each and every human being ever born on this earth?
“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalms 139:16.
This verse amazingly reveals that as soon as the egg becomes fertilized and conception occurs the Lord God begins documenting this new living human being in a book – even though their body form has not yet taken shape. In this heavenly book is found recorded everything about this particular individual – from the very beginning of their life and whether they were born handicapped or perfectly normal, and continues recording all the way until the end of their life. Thus in this book is found recorded all of “their works” or actions or deeds throughout life (Revelation 20:12), including “every secret thing” (Ecclesiastes 12:14), such as the thoughts and motives which led them to act the way they did. This book further indicates whether their thoughts, motives and actions were “good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14) according to the standard of God’s “commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
This personal book records more than just the good and bad thoughts and deeds of each individual. It records all of their travels and “wanderings” throughout life (Psalms 56:8). It records every one of the “tears” they shed or sorrows they suffered (Psalms 56:8). And “when He writeth up the people” God even records in their book “that this man was born there” (Psalms 87:6) in the city of “Babylon” (Psalms 87:4) – the most wickedest of places, or that this person was born there in the most godly of places, such as “Zion” (Psalms 87:5). This means that even the influences we grew up around and conditions we lived in, which helped to form our character in either a bad and crooked way, or in a good and solid way, are noted in this book. Thus this personal heavenly book records all the seen and unseen details that dealt with every minute and intricate aspect of the life of each human individual which led them towards developing the particular kind of character that made them who they are.
Since every human being on this earth has a record book that documents all their actions and life experiences, and this record book is kept secure in heaven beyond the tampering reach of mankind, then it does not matter what anyone wrongly says about you. It does not matter if your motives are misjudged, or if you are falsely accused, or even if your name is cast out as evil by the entire world. This is because, just like Job in all that he endured though innocent of any wrong doing, you can know that “my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high” (Job 16:19).
This means that there must be billions of different books. All these many record books are necessary so that an honest and just sentence of either eternal life or eternal death can be passed by the Lord God upon each human being that is based upon the undisputed facts of truth found documented in their record book. If they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord God and Saviour, and then confessed each and every one of their sins, then it is noted in their record book beside each one of these sins that they have been confessed and covered over with the blood of Christ. But if even one sin is left unconfessed to God, then it is not noted beside it in their record book that it is covered over with the blood of Christ, and thus it remains unforgiven!
This then means that part of the cleansing of the heavenly Sanctuary is to be accomplished by the removal of all the mass of confessed sins from the record books of all people who have by faith accepted and remained faithful to the Messiah and their Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. And once this cleansing has been accomplished, then all these recorded and forgiven sins from all of God’s people are then forever erased or “blotted out” of their record books (Isaiah 44:22; Acts 3:19). Since all their sins have been blotted out, the only writings that remain in their record books are those dealing with their actions of obedience to God, as well as all their good and righteous deeds done for the Lord and for others, thus making it as if they had never sinned in the first place! This means that a full and complete Atonement would have been made for them, and the heavenly Sanctuary would now be one step closer to being completely cleansed and free from all sin!
The Atonement can only occur for those who have by faith accepted the Messiah and Lord God Jesus Christ as their Sacrifice and Saviour, and who have also confessed all their sins to Him, thus transferring these sins to God and then onto the heavenly Sanctuary. Those who never accepted the Messiah or Jesus Christ as their Saviour and thus never confessed their sins unto God, never had any of their sins placed upon Jesus and thus did not have any sins to remove from their record books in heaven.
But before any confessed sins can be erased or blotted out of their record books, an examination of these books of record must take place in order to determine who, through true repentance of sin and continued faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His Atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation – a work of judgment. That is why it said that after God the Father had sat down on His fiery throne in the Second Apartment of the heavenly Sanctuary that “the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:10).
7) This work of investigation and judgement takes place prior to the coming of Christ to earth to redeem His people.
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Matthew 16:27.
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12.
8) Those who have any sins left on their record book will realize that they are lost and that it is too late to do anything about it:
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jeremiah 8:20.
But the redeemed will be most happy when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds of heaven because they know that they are saved:
“Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isaiah 25:9.
|
||