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January 14, 28; Feb. 11, 2006 Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Deuteronomy 31: 24-26 Pastor Tom Hughes

SANCTUARY LAWS
(Parts I, II, and III)

PART I
(Jan. 28, 2006)

The entire worldly sanctuary system of the Jews was centered on God’s Law. It was centered in God’s character as reflected in the Ten Commandments. It was also put in place to deal with the sins of God’s people. Its purpose was to teach the people about God’s law, the awfulness of sin, the forgiveness and removal of their sins, and about the coming Messiah who would be sacrificed for the sins of God’s people. The entire ceremonial system was instituted to teach them that God loves them and has made provision through Jesus Christ for their redemption.

As Christians study the Sanctuary, and the Laws that were part of sanctuary system, they inevitably turn to the Apostle Paul. For Christians, he is the main architect of New Testament theology. Paul was a Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin the ruling council in Jerusalem. He was a Roman citizen and spoke in several languages. As an elder and leader of the Jewish people he understood the Law and claimed to be a Pharisee among Pharisees. Paul wrote seventy percent of the New Testament including Romans, Galatians, Colossians and Ephesians as well as the book of Hebrews.

Paul’s treatise on the relationship of the Ten Commandments to the gospel is found in the first eight chapters of Romans and is dealt with throughout his works. The book of Hebrews spells out the relationship of the old covenant system with its two main Laws to the heavenly sanctuary, and the ministry of Jesus the Great High Priest. We will look at the Pauline system of theology concerning the law and the gospel, the law under the old covenant, and the law in the new covenant. We will examine the ceremonial Law of Moses and the Ten

Commandments, called the covenant “of the Lord” or “His testament.”

One of the main lessons we can learn from this sacrificial system is this: what sin is, and how God revealed to the human race the evil of sin and its consequences. From the creation of the human race God’s moral law has been known and understood. This is evidenced by the suffering and pain sin caused (and causes). The Bible says that where there is no law, there is no sin.

Romans 3:20
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

If by the law we receive the knowledge of sin, you can’t do away with it or there is no sin. Where there is no law there is no sin. When Adam sinned the Ten Commandments were, obviously, present and binding or Adam could not have sinned. No law, no sin. There had to be a law that said, “Do no murder” or Cain could not have been held accountable for his actions.

“…by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Romans 7:7 
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”

That’s why God says in Romans 2 that he writes his law in the hearts of the heathen “by nature.”
Romans 2:14
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.”

No law, no sin. No sin, no need for a sacrifice. No salvation, and in the final analysis, no God. God’s law is Holy, Just, and Good. God is Holy, Just, and Good. So any gospel that does away with God’s law, does away with sin, does away with salvation, and attacks the very nature of God. Anyone who tells you the Ten Commandments are done away with is preaching a false gospel.

Now please keep in mind that the book of Romans was written around 58 AD. That’s over 25 years after Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven. Decades later, Paul says God’s Law, the Ten Commandments are still in place and he is keeping them. There is no mention anywhere in Paul’s writings of keeping any day but the Sabbath, nor is there any mention of the Ten Commandments being obsolete or unnecessary. At the end of Romans, he exhorts his disciples to continue in the “obedience of faith.”

For Paul, The Law of God was the foundation of God’s sanctuary system, in both the old and new covenant. The Arc of the Covenant was part of both tabernacles. The copy or model made according to the pattern in the old covenant and the Arc of the Covenant in heaven where God reigns. Let’s listen to what Paul, the Apostle writes:

Romans 7:12
“Wherefore the law IS holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”

Romans 7:22
“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”

Romans 7:25
“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Romans 3:31
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

And then Paul uses the words, mh genoito! (transliterated: gionomai or Ginomai; pronounced: ghin'-om-ahee!


Greek (English pronunciation): nomon oun katargoumen dia thv pistewv mh genoito alla nomon istwmen


That is the strongest negative in the Greek language and Paul used it on purpose because he wanted to denote absolutely not. It means in our language; today we would say, “Do we then make void the law [or do away with the law] through faith? No way José! Don’t even go there. Don’t even think about it!…” That’s what Paul was saying. So do we do away with God’s law? Paul says, “by faith…God forbid! Yea we establish the law.” This was written 25 years after Christ ascended into heaven. And he said the law of God is established!

Now what astounds me is how people come along and they take Colossians 2:14, and Ephesians 2:15, and they say that Paul says the exact opposite of what he taught here and says to do away with it. It’s absurd.

So as you can see, Paul teaches that the Spirit uses the Law to convict a person of their sins and then leads them to repentance. The Law “kills” them by convincing them of their sinfulness; thus, making them “guilty before God.” God’s Spirit then uses the law of God to convict you of sin and then He turns you to repentance. Once the sinner has knowledge of sin through the law and repents, the Holy Spirit convicts all men of “righteousness” (John 16: 9, 10) which is “right doing” or Law keeping. God’s Spirit convicts you of sin by putting “enmity” in your heart between you and Satan writing the principles of law in your heart.

So, only the carnal mind, the enmity, is not subject to God’s Law. We all have a carnal nature but God’s Spirit gives us a new nature to wrestle against the old one. Paul writes, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” It is only the carnal mind, or the “enmity” or worldly mindset that does not honor God’s law.

Romans 8:7
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

So the only mind in the universe that is not subject to God’s Ten-Commandment law is a carnal mind.

James 4:4
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

So friendship with the world is enmity; so if someone is telling you that the Ten Commandments have been done away with, they have a carnal mind. They have a mind that is friendly with the world. What’s more important to you? Holy-wood or Hollywood? Well, Hollywood has a very worldly mindset and the Bible says, “therefore they are enmity against God.” Now they’re just like anybody else, there’s good and there’s bad and you have to choose carefully what you watch, what you see, and what you participate in.

But I know this, if you are friends with the world—if everybody in the world loves you and thinks you’re great—you’re not much of a Christian because people in the world reject true Christians. They don’t like true Christians. They persecute true Christians. Hollywood hates true Christians. They despise Christ and everything He stands for. So if a person who hates Jesus has no problem at all with you and they’re patting you on the back telling you you’re a great guy or a great gal, you’d better check yourself out!

They have a mind that is not subject to God and they are telling you to do something that is against God. Remember, Paul said the Carnal mind IS ENMITY, and is not subject to God’s Law. So if someone is telling you to not be subject to God’s Law, they are at enmity, or carnal in their viewpoint. Are they safe to follow? Are they safe to listen to? Paul never taught the Ten Commandments were done away with. He wrote that the Ten-Commandment Law IS, present tense, Holy, Just, and Good. He said, “I delight in God’s law.” He said with his mind that he “serves the law of God.” And he said that grace or “faith does not make the law void but that it establishes God’s law that says, “Thou shalt not covet.”

We are not saved by them but neither are they done away with in the new covenant. What Paul meant when he said that the carnal enmity was abolished in his flesh and nailed to the cross was that he died a carnal sinner’s death. He bore in his own body all the sins of mankind.

Paul never taught, beloved, that the Ten Commandments were done away with. He wrote that the Ten-Commandment Law, is in the present tense, holy, just, and good. Paul said, I delight in God’s law. He said he serves the law. He said that grace or faith does not make void the law but it establishes the law. We’re not saved by the law but neither are they done away with in the new covenant. It’s the everlasting covenant. What Paul said was that the carnal mind was enmity against God. And he said in Eph. 2:15 that he abolished that in the flesh and nailed it to the cross, he died a carnal sinner’s death. Christ bore in his body the sins of all mankind.

Ephesians 2:15
“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity [the carnal mind, the carnal mindset], even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”

The law that Jesus did away with on the cross were the carnal commandments that had to do with carnality, that had to do with sin and that had to do with the carnal mind.


PART II:
Sanctuary Laws in the Old Covenant
(Jan. 28, 2006)

I want to talk to you about the carnality of the sanctuary service in the Old Testament. In the Sanctuary in the wilderness, Christ’s body was symbolized by all the sacrifices and ordinances that had to do with God forgiving and removing the sins of his people.

There’s a startling verse in Hebrews 9:10 Paul writes, “…which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation [when Jesus came].”

So the sacrifices of the Old Testament sanctuary service are called carnal ordinances. Did you know that? The reason they are called carnal is because the entire earthly sanctuary system was soaked in blood and covered in sin. It was foul from the top of its head to the bottom of its feet; the entire sanctuary was filthy and polluted. Well, the holy and the most holy were the type of the great anti-typical place, which is the throne room of God.

The holy and most holy types were covered with sin. Sin was everywhere. Blood was everywhere. The curtain between the holy and the most holy was soaked in blood so bad that it had to be taken out and thrown away once a year. And there was nothing but blood everywhere. It was a filthy, foul place. Why? Because of the sins of God’s people. That blood represented sin. It was carnal. It was enmity. The carnal nature is symbolized by the carnal ordinances, the law of sacrifices— meat and drink offerings that were all symbolic of Jesus Christ. And in Christ’s body, on the cross, he bore the sins of the carnal man and he was also the perfect second Adam. So that’s why it says in Christ’s own body you have the perfect Jesus who never sinned and you have the carnal man who is symbolic of all of you and I and all our sins. And both persons are in one body, in Jesus, and they both bring about peace in Ephesians 2:15-17.

That’s why Paul said in Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

The body of sin might be destroyed. Our old man is crucified with him. Did you know that your carnal nature, your carnal mind, your enmity against God was nailed to the cross when Jesus was crucified? When Jesus died on the cross, he reconciled the carnal man and the second Adam in one body. He killed our carnal nature—the enmity, the carnal mind, friendship with the world, sin—and he reconciled us to God by his death. And also in Ephesians 2:16 “And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.”

When Jesus died on the cross, he reconciled the carnal man and the new man in one body. He killed our carnal nature, the enmity, the carnal mind, friendship with the world, or sin, and reconciled us to God.

So when Paul writes about the ceremonial law being done away with in Col. 2:14 or Romans chapter 14 he is not doing away with the Ten Commandment law. All through the first eight chapters of Romans, Paul establishes the validity of God’s law as the whole basis for the existence of sin, the rightness of the Law in condemning it, and the foundation for the gospel Paul preached.

God’s law is right; sin is wrong. God is just to condemn it. Christ’s perfect obedience to that law is our ticket to forgiveness for breaking it. We are saved by Christ’s good works, by Christ’s keeping of the law. By his perfect obedience to God’s law, he proved that Adam was wrong for sinning; that Satan’s claim that obedience was impossible was a lie.

For Paul to argue so eloquently that God’s Law is holy, just, and good; for Paul to say he delights in God’s law, serves God’s law, establishes God’s law, he does not make it void! That only the carnal mind is not subject to God’s Ten Commandments—for Paul to say that for eight chapters of Romans and then six short chapters later totally contradict himself and say in Romans 14 that now you don’t have to worry about the Sabbath is ridiculous! Paul never says that.

We shall leave God’s Sabbath for another day, but suffice it to say that Paul’s theology on the law of God is clear, do we make void the law of God through faith? No! God Forbid! Do we make void the law through grace? God Forbid! You cannot void even one of the Ten Commandments or you violate Paul’s entire system of theology, law, and salvation. The law is the foundation of the gospel. If you do away with even one commandment, even one, you violate the entire system of Paul’s plan of salvation.

That’s why our understanding of grace is different that other Christians. We’re different than the Calvinists. We’re different than the Baptists. We’re different than the Nazarenes. We’re different than the Catholics. We’re different from the Wesleyans. We fully preach the law as part of the New Covenant. We don’t preach the nine Commandments and the one suggestion. We do not get our chisel out and try to take the Ten Commandments chiseled into stone and take our chisel and chisel out the fourth the fourth commandment and where God said “Remember,” Oh, we’ll just chisel that word out. No!—No, no, no! That Sabbath commandment is as valid today as it was in the Garden of Eden and as it will be ten million years from now! It has never been done away with and it never, never will! And I can prove that. In Isaiah 66:22, 23 it says we’re going to keep the seventh day Sabbath in the new heavens and the new earth.

The ceremonial Law of Moses was a carnal law by nature. It was comprised of bloody sacrifices and offerings pointing toward Christ’s death on the cross. They were shadows, or representations of the heavenly. A shadow always mirrors the real thing that is casting it. These Laws were shadows of Jesus Christ, who would come and give his life as the Lamb of God. The ceremonial system stood squarely under the shadow of the cross.

Colossians 2:14- 17
“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross…”

Now there’s a handwriting of ordinances, laws, that was against us, which contrary to us it was taken out of the way nailed to the cross. Therefore 16Let no man judge you…” Now by the way this text doesn’t say to do away with the Sabbath. It simply says don’t let anyone judge you. Don’t be judgmental. “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days (plural—and notice it [sabbath] has a small “s.”):
17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Now Paul says that whatever this is, it comes from a handwriting, it was against them, it had meat and drink offerings, holydays, new moons, and sabbath days.

Let me ask you a question. In the Ten Commandments, do you have anything to do with meat or drink offerings or new moons? Do you have anything to do with shadows? No. The shadow is coming from the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Notice verse 17, “Which are a shadow of things to come…”

These laws pointed forward to Christ. Christ’s cross cast a shadow back into history and these shadows were cast by Jesus. And these sabbaths, these offerings, and these new moons—these are all part of the ceremonial law. They had eight yearly sabbaths: the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles, and the passover—these were all new moons or you know, special holy days that are called sabbath days—plural, small “s” and they are all part of Moses’ law. They were not contained in the Ten Commandments.

Now we’re going to show you that.

Hebrews 8:5
“Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle…” Now the sanctuary system, it says Moses made “…according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”

God showed Moses the tabernacle that he wanted him to build. He showed him everything in heaven and Moses came back and he made everything according to the pattern that God showed him on Mt. Sinai.

Hebrews 10:1
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”

Let me ask you a question. It says this law that Paul is talking about that’s a shadow of good things to come had sacrifices in it. Do the Ten Commandments have anything to do with sacrifice? No. Do they have any sacrifices contained in them? No. Is the Ten Commandments a shadow things to come pointing forward to Christ? No. It’s not. The Ten Commandments point back to the Garden of Eden when God made the Sabbath. “Remember the Sabbath day for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth.”
The Ten Commandments point you back to Creation when God created the Sabbath. They do not point you forward. Now that’s why the Ten Commandments were never nailed to the cross; unless you say because Jesus was embodiment of the Ten Commandments, because Jesus lived the Ten Commandments in a sense the character of God was nailed to the cross in Christ. So he kept the Ten Commandments. Everything about him demonstrated that he was a commandment-keeping Savior. So HE was nailed to the cross, yes, but the Ten Commandments were never nailed to the cross and they were never taken out of the way or done away with.

Now God showed Moses, in the heavenly throne room, what he should make, and everything in the worldly sanctuary were according to the pattern.

Moses made it very clear, as did the priests who administered the sanctuary services that God’s Covenant, that the Ten Commandments and the Law Moses that wrote with his own hand were two different Laws that had two totally different purposes.

We will compare Deut. with Col. 2:14-17.

Deuteronomy 31:24-26
24And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished.”

The ceremonial law was written by Moses in a book with his own hand; then, it was rolled up in a scroll, and there was a leather pouch in the side of the Ark of God and they slid that scroll into the Ark, again I say, it was in the side of the Ark.

25That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD…”
Did you notice that? It doesn’t say “of the Jews.” The Ten Commandments were the covenant “of the LORD.”

26Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.”

So the Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten-Commandment covenant, which was God’s law and they took Moses’ law and put it in the side of the Ark on a scroll. So Moses’ law on the side of the Ark was different from the Ten Commandments that were in the Ark.

And then it says “…the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.”

What was the witness against them? The Law of Moses that was slid into the side of the ark. Notice in Col. 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting and the ordinances that was against us.” The law of Moses, the covenant that Moses wrote with his own hands, his ordinances about the sacrificial system were nailed to the cross because the great anti-typical Lamb of God did away with all the little symbolic lambs that represented him and the glory of that Old Testament earthly sanctuary faded and the New Testament glory of Christ reached its pinnacle.

Paul made a clear distinction between the ceremonial Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments, which he said, were delightful and in the present tense still in existence, holy, just and good. They were a law that he still served with his mind and he makes it clear that the ceremonial law was a “carnal ordinance” (Heb. 9: 10) that was a Shadow of heavenly things, a shadow of good things to come, and that they were sacrifices offered yearly that were imperfect.

Paul says that “IT” was “nailed to the cross.” The “IT” that was nailed to the cross is the enmity (Eph. 2:15). Now what is the enmity? We already established the enmity is the carnal mind, friendship with the world. The lawbreaking, ten commandment hating sinner, symbolized in the ceremonial system. The “IT” is the “handwriting of ordinances” that Moses wrote with his own hand and put in the side of the Ark. The “IT” was the Law of Moses written a “witness against thee,” and Paul called it “against us.” A lot of theology here. But you say, “what’s it matter to me?” In Christ’s body, the entire earthly sanctuary system of sacrifices and the sins of the carnal man that the “IT” represented were “crucified,” “done away with” and “taken out of the way.”

The stone tablets of the worldly Ark were only passing away in the sense that their glory was fading away because the earthly sanctuary system was reaching its culmination. Those small tablets made after the pattern in heaven were only models and only reflected a small amount of the glory that the original tablets in heaven reflected.

That’s why in Corinthians some people get all upset because it says the glory of those tables written in stone is fading. Paul was writing about the fact that when Jesus died on the cross the priest was ready to make the sacrifice and an unseen hand of God ripped the veil of the temple in two.

Now, under the new covenant, we have the Ten Commandments in heaven in the very throne room of God, an immense, glorious, beyond any scale or grandeur that man can even imagine! The Everlasting Covenant is now being conducted in heaven and that’s why it’s called everlasting! Those principles in the Ten Commandments will endure for eternity! The former earthly model was grand, but nothing in comparison with the real anti-type found in the center of God’s throne room in heaven.

The sacrifices of the lambs in the earthly tabernacle were mere symbols of Jesus sacrifice on Calvary. He took our sins into his body. He became sin for us. He reconciled in his body the sinner and the perfect second Adam. He made the sacrifice; he killed the enmity, or carnal, worldly mind upon the cross. The earthly sanctuary system passed into history. The veil in the temple was ripped in two! God’s tore that thick curtain in half. The knife fell out of the priest’s hand at the time of the evening sacrifice, at three o’clock, the lamb ran away and the shadow met reality, the type of the earthly system met the anti-type in heaven!

That’s why in Revelation 11:18 and 19 it says (that) right before Jesus comes—while the world is raging and God’s law is being exalted by his true people—right at that very time they will look through an open door in heaven, they will see the Ark of his covenant and inside the Ark of his covenant: his Testament, the Ten Commandments. And no man can reach up there and take those stone tablets out of the glory room and chisel “Remember the Sabbath day” out of it!

Notice Moses wrote the Law and put it in the pocket in the side of the Ark of the Covenant OF THE LORD. The purpose of the Ark was to house the sacred covenant that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments were written by God with his own finger, they weren’t written by Moses and put in the side, they were written by God on stone and then he gave them to Moses.

Moses walks down, he sees the children of Israel cavorting below and in the glory that he had just beheld in his purity and holiness from communing with God, he was so taken aback and affronted by the worldly carnal mindset of the dancing writhing apostates that he took the Ten Commandment law and threw it down off the mountain, and it hit the rocks, and broke symbolizing the broken covenant and the children of Israel and how they had lost their way because of their worldliness and their carnality.

And so Moses had to pick up that broken law, and according to the Jewish tradition that broken set of Ten Commandments and the new set that Moses made and took to God, and God was very gracious, he understood why Moses got so angry. And he with his own finger once again had to rewrite it! J He had to do it over for Moses. Moses took that Ten Commandments; put it in the ark.

Now in the Spirit of Prophecy they talk about how the Ark of the Covenant would be found just before Jesus comes. There are many signs that will be fulfilled, and many won’t even know it because they are asleep. That’s why Jesus said, “Be ye therefore ready for in such a time when you think not I will come.

The Ten Commandments had nothing to do with the sacrifices or shadows. It had nothing to do with things to come. The Sabbath was not a yearly sacrifice. What Paul was talking about that was done away with was a yearly sacrifice that was a shadow of “things to come.” Now the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, these yearly Sabbaths were yearly sacrifices, so they were done away with when Jesus died on the cross. But the Ten Commandments were not a shadow. They did not point forward to Jesus; they pointed back to creation. They are the foundation of the eternal government of God.

When we discuss the Sabbath, I’ll return to this line of thought, I will once again say this, God’s commandments are in force and binding upon Christians today. Paul never taught they were done away with he made a clear distinction that was very specific about what he meant. His system of theology is clear for all to see. The Old Testament sanctuary service, the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross and taken out of the way. But the Ten Commandments are holy, just, and good. They are established. Paul said, “I delight in the law of God.”

If people are preaching to you that you should no longer keep the Ten Commandments or no longer honor them you have to be no longer be subject to the Ten Commandments, what kind of a mind are they: they are a carnal mind. Anybody who’s telling you to do away with or abolish one of God’s commandments is carnally reasoning. And you pray for them! Hopefully they’re just misguided and they’ll see the light someday.

When God says remember I don’t care who says, “Forget it.” I’m not going to forget, I’m going to remember. And I don’t care if it’s some fancy television evangelist in an expensive suit living in a million-dollar mansion and driving a Rolls Royce. I don’t care. If God says to “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy,” and he says that Sabbath is the seventh day, and Jesus says he’s Lord of it, and Jesus says that we need to honor it, and we need to keep it, and we need to remember it, and we need to obey it—I have to say I’m going to go with Jesus and I’m going to ignore the evangelist.

I’m going to ignore every church that teaches that you can violate one of God’s commandments. If you’re not a Sabbath-keeping church, I’m not going there. Sorry, that’s just the way I feel. Now I might go and fellowship with you once in awhile, I might go hear a good Christian singer sometime, but I am not going to keep the Papal sabbath. I am going to keep God’s Bible Sabbath that God commanded to be kept. The other sabbath is not a sabbath at all.

The Bible says, “six days shalt thou work.” That makes Sunday just another workday to me. And I hope that if there’s anyone hearing this for the first time, don’t be offended. Don’t be like I was. I was so offended that I was ready to hit the guy when I first heard it. But I apologize if it’s new to you. But we are doing a series and we have been going through this over the last several months. So I’m not just deliberately being blunt. I’ve already qualified and said nice things along the way so I could get to the point where I could say these straightforward things, so I hope you’ll put them in context.

How many of you feel that since the law points out what sin is, if you do away with the law you do away with sin, and if you do away with sin, then you do away with the Savior? Do you agree with me on that? How many of you feel that you have broken God’s Ten Commandment Law and you need to repent of your lawbreaking? I hope every hand’s up. J How many of you are willing to admit that you’re a sinner and a lawbreaker, and that you want Jesus to forgive you for your sins and to help you by his grace to no longer be in rebellion but like Paul to delight in God’s law? How many of you want to receive Jesus today, repent of your lawbreaking and be filled with the Spirit of the living God?

Father in Heaven, Your law is holy, just, and good. It’s never been done away with and it never will. May we be obedient to you and honor the Sabbath day from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, to keep your holy law and to be obedient. And may we always, Lord, delight in your law and serve you because you are God’s law! You are the epitome of God’s law! You are loving, and kind, and unselfish, and the law teaches us to love you more. David said he delights in the law of God, Paul said he delights in the law of God, and Jesus said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” And then he says to us, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and Amen.



Part III: The New Covenant Sanctuary (Pathfinder Sabbath – Feb. 11, 2006)

Father in heaven we have been studying about the Sanctuary and we have been looking at and looking at Your Ten Commandment law. As we pray and study, Lord, and think about these things, we just ask, Lord, that you would help us to truly understand what your law has to say to us today. So many in the world trample your law underfoot and how important it is that we exalt you and that we magnify your law and not diminish it. Bless us today as we study these things. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We’ve been learning about the old covenant and the commandments of stone in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and that Moses made everything according to the pattern that he saw in the heavenly sanctuary. And God showed him these things on Mt. Sinai. The first set of commandments, God gave Moses, carved out with his own finger. But when Moses came down from the mountain, he beheld a horrible spectacle. He beheld the children of Israel engaged in moral dissipation at the base of the mountain committing fornication and engaging in other sins as well. And he became so angry with them for what they had done he saw such a contrast between the purity and holiness of God’s presence that he had experienced on Mt. Sinai, that he took the Ten Commandments and threw them down and they broke into several pieces. God instructed him to make another set of tablets, and he brought them back to God and God once again with his finger carved the Ten Commandments into the stone. And both sets were modeled after the commandments that he saw in heaven.

Do you get the impression that God wanted them to be exact—that God wanted them to be correct? He made Moses bring the blank slates back to Him so He could personally rewrite them on the new slate. I think God wanted His law to be unalterable. Don’t you? I think God wanted His law to be unchangeable. Stone is very permanent. Would you not agree that stone makes it very hard to change?

So Moses saw the Ark of the Covenant in heaven, he made the model after the pattern, and so we know the Ten Commandments are enshrined in the Heavenly Sanctuary, in God’s Throne room beneath the Mercy Seat. God is seated upon his throne, and as he looks down at the Ark, he looks through the mercy seat, and the blood of Jesus protects us from the law. The mercy and justice of God have kissed each other!

In the Ark of the Covenant we see the Ten Commandments, God’s moral laws, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” “Thou shalt not kill.” We see that law there immutable, unchangeable. And then above that law we see the mercy seat and then God is enthroned above that. And as he looks at his law, he looks through the blood of Jesus. And as we come to Christ, he gives us Christ’s righteousness and then he sees us as if we had not sinned.

What a beautiful picture of the love of God. What a beautiful picture of God’s grace! On the mercy seat, the blood had to be applied because the law had been broken.

We also know the Ten Commandments are in heaven because of what the Apostle John saw in the book of Revelation. In verse 18 and 19, it says while the nations were angry and while God was getting ready to come and destroy them for their sins, it says while they were angry they would be judged and that the temple of God would be opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.

Revelation 11:18, 19
18And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
19And 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.”

There in heaven is the Ten-Commandment law in the Ark of the Covenant. So if anyone tells you today “It’s not important to keep the Sabbath day,” the fourth Commandment, tell them “If it’s not important, why does God keep a copy of it in his most precious place?” “Well it’s not important which day you go on.” “Well if it’s not important, why are the Ten Commandments, the very foundation of God’s throne, why did God write them in stone, why does he have them in heaven? Notice that at the end of the world, this judgment is taking place in heaven. Just before Jesus comes, in the Temple of God, right there under the mercy seat, right under the Shekinah glory, right there in the Father’s presence is the Ten Commandments in the very center of God’s throne room! I love it! There they are untouched by human hands. You cannot corrupt them. You cannot do away with them.

Does that sound like the Ten Commandments have been done away with to you? I think not! They are right where God wants them! Up in heaven, written in stone, woven into the foundation of his throne, his government and his Kingdom. Right where men cannot touch them, change them, or alter them. No preacher can preach them out of the throne room in heaven! No false church can strip God’s law from the Ark in heaven! They are there for all to see right where God put them—written with his own finger! The judgment is going on today, and the God’s law is the standard he uses in that judgment.

And that’s why I think it’s important that Pathfinders understand God’s law, that they understand the Ten Commandments. And I want the Pathfinders to find the path right up through outer space into the very throne room of God, right into the Ark of the Covenant, and I want those Pathfinders to find that path right to the throne of Jesus and the mercy seat. Because that’s what you need most of all, Pathfinders! You need a good character but most important you need to know God who is character itself.

That’s why the Apostle James writes: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ said also, ‘Do not kill.’ Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:10-12
The Ten Commandments aren’t done away with. It says if you break one you break them all. It’s obvious from this verse (James 2:11) that he is talking about what the bible refers to as the “Royal Law” of the Ten Commandments and the “Law of Liberty.” This is what Paul refers to in Romans 8 when he urges us not to use our freedom in the spirit for sinful purposes, but to fulfill the law by walking in the Spirit.

Romans 8:4
“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Notice this verse makes it clear that fulfilling the Law means to walk in the law. It means to walk in the Spirit. It means to keep the law by doing what’s right. It does not mean to get rid of it. It does not mean to make it void or do away with it. The obedience of faith is the duty of every Christian; not as a means of salvation, but as a way to show love and devotion to our Savior who loves us. Jesus said, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.”

Now it always amazes me when you read that verse and the sermon on the mount where he said I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it,” and then people turn right around and say “Now that means we don’t have to worry about it anymore.” Fulfill does not mean “do away with it!” If I fulfill the contract, I didn’t do away with the contract. I honored it by keeping its provisions. How do you honor the Ten Commandments? By keeping their provisions and by obeying God’s law!

Jesus said, in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Love fulfills the law. No one will be turned away from the heavenly gates for being too loving. “I’m sorry; you’re just too Christ-like. You can’t come in.” “I’m sorry; you’re just too kind and loving with those who disagree with you. You can’t come in.” I don’t think there’s any fear of that ever happening!

Now, just before Jesus comes, we are told God’s judgment was taking place, and that the Ark of the Testimony is in the heavenly sanctuary and that in the Ark are the 10 Stone Commandments of the “Lord thy God.” There they are in the throne.

Now how old is God’s throne? Well, Psalm 93:2 tells you how old it is.

Psalm 93:2
“Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.”

So I don’t know if God’s throne is eternal. I don’t know. I don’t know if back in the eons of time he existed before any matter and that he made the throne. I don’t know if it’s trying to say the actual throne he sits on is from everlasting, because sometimes Hebrew poetry will rhyme the thought and so this is saying God’s throne is very old and he is from everlasting. So probably, the first thing he made was his throne I would imagine. I mean if it was me, and I was God, and there was nothing, I might make a chair to sit on first. I don’t know.

But his throne is very, very old. Can we all agree on that? So the New Covenant is not only the Ten Commandments written in stone, in the Old Testament tabernacle, but God’s Throne was “established of old.” When the Ancient of Days made his first piece of furniture, The Ark of the Covenant, when he made that Ark—way back in the eons of time, a very long time ago— and he put his Ten Commandment law in it. Right there in his Throne was his Everlasting Covenant, God’s Law. God put his Law in His throne to reflect his character. That’s why God’s covenant is everlasting.

Isaiah 24:5
“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.”

What kind of covenant: The everlasting covenant!

Now there’s a difference between eternal and everlasting. You understand that, right? God’s character is eternal; God’s covenant is everlasting. There was a time when he made a covenant. Now to make a covenant, you have to make a covenant with someone; so he needed to make the covenant with the universe in some way. The covenant is everlasting in the sense that God made that covenant at some point in time and from the day he made it; it never will be done away with. It will be everlasting. And he calls the Ten Commandments part of that everlasting covenant.

Now I want you to notice something here. In Hebrew poetry, they use a lot of parallelism. And Isaiah uses it. He says in Isaiah 24 that God is coming to “shake the earth like a leaf,” and he is coming to punish the inhabitants of the earth for defiling it. In Hebrew poetry, you express the same thought, by “rhyming” the thought or expressing the thought in parallel ways.

Isaiah writes that they defiled the earth in three ways by:
Transgressing God’s Law
Changing God’s Law and finally
Breaking God’s Law, the Everlasting Covenant

It says they’ve transgressed, changed, and broken God’s law.

Now let me ask you a question. Do people today have any problem with the other nine (Commandments) besides the Sabbath? No. So they’re obviously not too worried about any of the rest of them but that one. That’s the one that bothers people today and they break it. They try to change it and say that you should go on another day, don’t they. But God says the he is coming to punish the people on the earth who have transgressed his law, who have tried to change his law, and who are breaking God’s law.

Moses symbolically illustrated that when he broke the Ten Commandments. They were breaking God’s law. And people today are breaking the law of God. They are lying, and murdering, and raping, and committing adultery; and you name it! They’re killing themselves and everyone else around them. Okay? There are people everywhere breaking God’s law. There are churches that are teaching people that it’s okay to break God’s law, and there are many churches – most churches as a matter-of-fact – that are breaking God’s law.

Now as we studied last week, there are false religious systems in the world, and the beast power would seek to “change times and laws.” We studied about the little horn that would transgress, and change, and break God’s Ten Commandment Law, the Everlasting Covenant, and it says that all the world is going to wonder after the beast in the end time. Now before NAFTA and a few other changes in the economic system, we couldn’t figure out how there could be a worldwide economy. We had a hard time visualizing a worldwide deception. Do you have a hard time still? Everything is interconnected.

On our church web site Mike Riebel (webmaster) tells me there are people from hundreds of countries and thousands of them coming and spending hour after hour on our web site from all over the world! People from China, France…I’m E-mailing with a girl from France who wants to talk to a pastor and to a youth group. And she E-mails me, and I E-mail her, and I’ve given her E-mail address to all the young people on the Internet and they’re all talking to her.

Can you see now how when the Bible says all the world will wonder after the beast and receive the mark of the beast how it can be a worldwide deception?

He that is “lawless,” we studied about, is one who sits in a temple, who exalts himself above all that is called God. He instituted a “new time, and a new law” in opposition to God’s Law. He defiled God’s sanctuary. We talked about how he taught the inhabitants of earth to defile God’s law and God’s planet. Don’t forsake the Everlasting Covenant for this imposter’s “new law.”

Don’t believe the Roman church that takes great pride in the fact that she instituted the first day of the week as the new day to worship God. It is a counterfeit and it must be rejected. And it is a deception and a lie at its worst, and people are making a mistake at the very least. Be kind to your relatives and friends and people who don’t understand. They’re just making a mistake. And someday they will learn the truth about it and then they will have to make a decision. But be kind to them, they’re just making a mistake now, and help them to see this mistake and do what God says to do in his word.

The principles of God’s character and his gospel are all reflected in His law, and enshrined in His throne.

God’s Law and his plan of salvation have been in the mind and heart of God for all eternity, and that makes them everlasting. Hasn’t God always been balanced? Hasn’t God always worked and rested? I’m certain the divine Sabbath fellowship Jesus had with his Father and the Holy Ghost in the early days of eternity was just as sweet as it is today. I’m certain that Jesus and his Father, and the Holy Spirit, kept the Sabbath; had Sabbath rest. I’m certain they fellowshipped and spent time in communion with each other. And I’m certain that God has the sweetest fellowship of all in their relationship and interaction with each other – eternal oneness.

Can you imagine it? Eternal oneness, eternal fellowship, eternal Sabbath rest. That’s why I believe the Sabbath is eternal. Remember God made the Sabbath for all mankind. He said he created the earth and he rested and the blessed the Sabbath because it was good. So I believe when God made the Sabbath he made it before sin. He blessed it and made it a special day for this planet. I’m certain he shared with us a blessing he himself had long enjoyed. The new covenant does not do away with the Ten Commandments. In the new covenant, God takes the Law contained in stone, and the Bible says he writes them into our hearts.

Have you ever heard of the Scofield Bible? Have you ever heard of the Dispensationalists’ interpretation where they interpret the Old Testament as the law and the New Testament as the era of grace? And in the Old Testament, they had the law but now they have the New Testament era of grace and the law is done away with.

Well there is no doing away with God’s law and there is no dispensationalism. According to the Dispensationalists the law just isn’t there in the New Testament—it’s been done away with. But what does God say in Hebrews 8:10?

Hebrews 8:10
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”

Hebrews 8:13
“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

Hebrews 10:16-17
16“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

Isn’t that beautiful! God wants to put his law in our hearts and minds. His new covenant is one where he not only gives us Ten Commandments in stone, but he takes them through the Holy Spirit and writes them into our hearts and minds! God forgives us for our sins, and he remembers them no more. He writes his Law in our hearts and in our minds! God’s Law becomes part of our very nature. The sinner is transformed miraculously by the Spirit of God into a new creature in Christ and is born again! The caterpillar crawling around in the dirt is metamorphasized into a beautiful butterfly! Not only is God’s Law in the sanctuary in heaven, but it is written in the hearts and minds of his people and that beautiful butterfly is formed in the chrysalis of God’s law! The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be! But the born again Christian has the mind of Christ! Jesus’ mind was always obedient to His father’s commandments.

Philippians 2:5
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

John 15:10
10“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”

The earthly sanctuary was purified with animal sacrifices, but the heavenly sanctuary will be cleansed and purified with a better sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:23-28
23“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
25Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
26For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

After a man dies he will someday have to face Christ in the Judgment. The Judgment is the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary from sin. It is the great anti-typical Day of Atonement, when sin is put away from the sinner forever. The Christian is separated from their sins forever. They are blotted out in the times of refreshing and the Christian is pronounced “Not guilty” in the heavenly courtroom. It’s so wonderful to know that the whole purpose of the Judgment is to now, once, at the “end of the world” have Jesus appear in the presence of God to put away our sins for all eternity. The beauty of the Judgment is that we are pronounced “Not guilty” and it sets us free for all eternity from our sins. The Judgement takes place in heaven, while the nations are angry, before the Ark of His Testament.

Paul teaches that men die and then they are judged. Jesus pleads on our behalf, presenting the sacrifice of himself to put away our sins forever! Christ will appear a second time, he’ll be sinless, and he’ll bring salvation to his church.

Would you like the great High Priest in heaven to plead your case today? Would you like Jesus to lift his bloodstained hands—the nail prints in his hands—and raise them up before the Ark of the Covenant and say to the God of the universe, “Father, forgive them for breaking your law contained in that Ark. Wash away their sins in my blood.” Would you like the great High Priest to mediate in your behalf right now? Would you like to be given eternal life based on his sinless life, based on his sacrifice for you on the cross? If you would like Christ to represent you in the Judgment and be your great High Priest and mediate your case, and plead his blood in your behalf, would you raise your hand this morning?

God’s Law us upheld as “holy, just and good.” Jesus declares “whoever is righteous let them be righteous still.” When he returns a second time to rescue his people, they will be the people according to Revelation 14:12 that “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.”

Revelation 14:12
12Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The true church on earth when Jesus comes will be preaching righteousness by faith, and teaching Paul’s view of the Law. They will be keeping the commandments of God by walking in them through the Holy Spirit. The Law of God will be written in their hearts and minds “that the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4)

Romans 8:4
“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Summing up the ceremonial law and the decreasing importance of the moral law’s continuing relevance, the Apostle Paul gets the last word in. He says:

1 Corinthians 7:19
“Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.”

The ceremonial law, when the high priest was making the sacrifice and God ripped that veil in half, that ceremonial law came to an end and Paul says “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” Paul said that’s what’s important! And when we say we keep it, please, dear friend, understand God wants you to be obedient children. The obedience of faith is very important. He wants you to come to Jesus just as you are, but dear brother or sister; he will not leave you that way! He forgives you for every lie you’ve ever told but he does not give you permission to tell one more! He forgives you for every single sin of the flesh. He forgives you! He’ll wash you, he’ll accept you just as you are “without one plea (but that his blood was shed for me)!”

I’ve seen homosexuals come to the altar. I’ve seen drunks come to the altar. I’ve seen “pot-heads” come to the altar. I’ve seen fornicators come to the altar. I’ve seen prideful church elders and even pastors come to the altar. I’ve seen Seventh-Day Adventists who’ve been members of the church for 50 years come to the altar and place their pride on the altar. And they come just as they are. And I’ve seen them come and ask forgiveness for their judgmental attitude, for their sinful, carnal way of life. And I’ve seen Jesus come into their heart and transform and change them. And I will tell you this, when they walk away from that altar, they’re changed! There’s a difference!

Faith without works is dead, dear brother/sister. The purpose of the law is to teach you your sinfulness, to show you how lost you are and to show you how worldly your lifestyle is and how evil the things you are doing are. And it’s to convince you that you are incapable of changing yourself. It’s to convince you that you can’t keep that law apart from Christ and that the only way you’ll ever be perfect is by coming to the altar and accepting Jesus as your personal Savior!

So, once you’re saved by grace through faith, then God comes in, and he changes you, and you quit wallowing in your sins. Failure is not falling down in the mud, brother. It is not falling down in the mud, dear sister—it’s lying there and wallowing in it! Get up, go to Jesus. He’ll wash you off, he’ll clean you up, he’ll put a new robe on you, and he’ll turn you around and get you going in the right direction. And if you fall eight times, get up and rise again. If you fall eight times, fall toward the Lord, not away from him! Every Christian has bad days. Every Christian sometimes does dumb, stupid stuff. It doesn’t mean you’re not converted just because you have a problem. You need to come to Jesus. You need to be cleansed, and you need to be changed.

If you would like to say this morning, “I need to be converted! I want you, God, to convert me from the top of my head to bottom of my feet. I want you to come in and take control of my soul and wash my impure thoughts, wash my carnal desires, crucify my carnal nature to that cross. I want you to nail me to the cross, Lord. I want you to forgive me for my sins, and I want you to change me and transform me from the inside out so I don’t have to do the evil things that Satan keeps trying to make me do. I want victory by faith today!

If you want to pray that prayer with me, would you stand?

Dear Lord, We are saved by grace through faith to work. Save us through faith alone. We accept your offer of grace, and through no merit or works of our own, shower your grace upon us. May we learn the lessons of the schoolmaster of the Law. The lessons that we are sinners, and lost; that we need deliverance! We need rescue! We need saving through your amazing grace. Then once you justify us, you can sanctify us and make us holy through your Holy Spirit. Your transforming power can come in and do for us what we can’t do for ourselves because we’re weak but you are strong. Your strength is made perfect in weakness!

Father, help us do the works of God prepared for us before the foundations of the world and then glorify us with a new body and save us when you come. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.



All Scriptural References: New King James Version / New American Standard Bible

Transcription: Wendy J. Riebel

This sermon is also available on cassette tape.

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