The Most Holy God (03/17/2002)

Park Meadows Church

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Let's pray. Father, we ask this time that you would bring to our hearts any unconfessed sin that we might have from this day or yesterday or the week before.

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Bring it to our hearts that we might confess it to you. For we are about to enter holy ground.

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We remember, Father, that you told Moses to take his shoes off because your presence was there.

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And so, Lord, in our hearts, may we do just that. May we humble ourselves before you this morning. May you prepare our hearts.

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May we prepare our hearts. Lord, help us to be ready to come into your presence today as we speak of your holiness.

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Teach us what your holiness means. Give us understanding that you wish for us to have this day about this characteristic of you.

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Lord, we have little to compare it to in this world, if anything at all. And so, your

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Holy Spirit will have to teach us what it means that you're holy. We ask that you would do that this morning in Jesus' name and for his sake.

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Amen. Last week, we spoke about the fact that God's presence creates holy ground.

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We found that in Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 through 14, which is the place where Moses said,

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Lord, what will I tell them your name is? They won't follow me. I'm not ready for this. But he had been humbled by the

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Lord through his 50 -year walk with the sheep and the goats in the field.

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And he thought he wasn't ready, which was humility. But God knew he was ready, which was the sovereignty of God.

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And God had prepared him. And he said, just tell them that I am sent you.

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Moses stopped talking back at that point. And so, we talked about the fact that Joshua, as he began to prepare to go in and take the promised land, he met one with a sword.

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And he approached this one and he said, are you with us? Are you with our enemies? And that one was the captain of the

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Lord's host, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he told Joshua was, take your shoes off, your own holy ground.

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And then they proceeded to go in and win the battle. So that's what we spoke of last week.

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Today, there are many things we could speak of in these notes. I've asked the

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Lord to try to help me to emphasize the right part because in this study, it is quite a vast study through the scriptures of places where it speaks of God's holiness.

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This morning, I feel like what we will be hovering around is a topic called the holiness of God and the cross.

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Holiness of God and the cross. There are some things that God has separated into himself because he is a holy

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God. Now, let's remember as we proceed through this study that a good English word to use to help us understand what the word holy means is the word separate or separate.

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But God separates his people from the world unto himself because he is holy.

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And much of what we will speak of today has all to do with the fact that God first is holy.

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And secondly, he is moving his people towards his holiness. That's what this walk is about, much of it.

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That's what our maturing is all about. We're being conformed more into the holy image of the

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Lord Jesus Christ each moment. These moments together when we study God's word, when we praise the

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Lord, when we sing praises and thanksgiving unto him, I think are some of the most heightened moments in your life of God's moving us towards that holiness.

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Sometimes we learn more when we're together than we do when we're alone.

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Sometimes God reveals himself in a different way when we're together than he does when we're alone.

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And so these times are very, very important. In fact, we'll find in this study that one of the things that he has separated unto himself is the assembly of ourselves together.

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So let me sort of introduce today's message by just giving you a few things that God has separated unto himself and then we'll work our way to the most awesome exhibition of his holiness.

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And that was at the cross. Well, the first thing, and I'm going to kind of take you chronologically through the scriptures.

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The first thing I see that he has separated unto himself in Exodus chapter 12 verse 1 through 18.

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We won't have time to read these passages because I want to save our time for the main passage this morning that I want to deal with.

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But if you want to check it out later, it's Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 through about verse 18.

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And it speaks of the fact that he has made the Passover the first holy convocation in the scriptures.

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It's the first mention of a holy convocation. Now the word convocation means an assembly together, a meeting together of us before the

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Lord. And God calls that holy. Remember throughout this study what he means by that it is it separates us from the world unto himself.

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One of the things that does that is when he brings us inside these doors from out there, he brings us in here together to be alone for a few moments with just him.

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The world is not in here. The world is not in this place. Many churches make the mistake on Sunday mornings to make it an evangelistic service.

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That's not what church is primarily for. The assembly is for the brothers and the sisters to get together and sit at Jesus' feet and to be elevated into the heavenlies in Christ to the very throne of God.

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I'm not against you bringing a lost person in as long as you've witnessed to him first. You witness to him first.

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If you think he's ready, bring him in. But don't expect the preaching to win him to the Lord. Only the

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Lord can do that. Just because you bring him here and there's an altar down here doesn't mean for one second that he's going to walk down this altar and get saved.

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If he does, he probably already got saved out there before he ever got down here. So this place is for us.

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This place is for us to come before our Father and to sit at the feet of Jesus and for him to make us closer to his holiness.

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If we have some grammar teachers, you can't say that he makes us more holy. He makes us more nearly holy.

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You're either holy or you're not, and he is the only one who is. So he uses these times to make us more nearly like his son.

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You know, if you did bring a lost person in and you had the

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Lord come down on this place, one of two things would happen. If he's a goat, he'll probably go running out the door.

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If he's a lost sheep, he probably likely would get saved. If he comes into a place where God's people are already meeting in the holiness of God and in the presence of God, it will be an amazing experience for this little lost sheep.

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And he may just hear the voice of that shepherd right there in the service. That would be a good byproduct of this service.

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It's not what it's all about primarily. It's all about you growing so that you can go out there as under shepherds and bring the voice out there that the sheep will respond to.

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And that's the true master's voice, the gospel. So in Exodus chapter 12, it speaks of this first holy convocation.

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And in the first day, there shall be a holy convocation. In the seventh day, there shall be an holy convocation to you.

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No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.

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And the whole thing speaks of the Passover, the first meetings that God's people had with God.

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Secondly, in Exodus chapter 15, verses 1 through about verse 21, it speaks of the fact that God separates his people out of the world for victory in battle.

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And I'm not really going to preach on this passage this morning, though I may before this session on the holiness of God is over.

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But it's a beautiful passage. It deals with Moses himself having written a song unto

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God. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying,

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I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath been thrown into the sea.

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Verse 6 says, Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power. Thy right hand,

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O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And the whole passage speaks of the holiness of God.

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But what it shows is that God's very holiness is that which brings victory in the life of his children against Satan, against the world, which was pictured by Pharaoh and Egypt.

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And as God's people were brought through the Red Sea, the same experience that brought them through and delivered them as Pharaoh and his horses and his horsemen followed, destroyed the enemy.

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So the same cross that saved you, the same blood that saves you, destroys the enemy.

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That's an interesting topic for another day, but it's a fact. And so part of the holiness of God as we find it here in Exodus 15 deals with this beautiful song that Moses wrote.

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And Miriam was a part of this, the sister of Aaron, the prophetess, who brought timbrels in her hand.

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And all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them,

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Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

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Speaks about the fearfulness and the gloriousness and the magnificence of God in this passage in verse 11.

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Who is likened to thee, O Lord, among the gods? Now they use that phrase not to say that there are other gods.

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It just means that the world thinks there are other gods. They've just come out of a place where they have everything. Frogs are gods, flies are gods.

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In fact, half, most of the things that God brought as curses to Egypt as he was bringing them out were gods, and God was showing them that they are not true gods.

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And so in the language of those people, they say, Lord, who is like you among these, quote, gods of the

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Egyptians? Who is like thee? Glorious, which is the Hebrew word odar, which means magnificent in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders that stretches out thy right hand.

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The earth swallowed them. That's the enemy. Thou and thy mercy has led forth the people, that's

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God's people, which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

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What you'll find is your life as God's child will be a trek towards a place where God is and he is holy, and therefore that place becomes a holy place.

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And that's where you want to find yourself more and more. You want to be like young Joshua, where he went into that tent with Moses.

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Moses got his instructions and left, and Joshua just hung around because he was in the very presence of the

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Shekinah glory, which pictured part of, just part of, the holiness of God.

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Perhaps all that we could stand while we're still on this earth, but he didn't want to leave that place.

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I love this verse in verse 14. I said I wasn't going to preach this one until later, but I mean, here it is.

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The Lord, the people, shall hear and be afraid. This is talking about the enemy people,

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Satan's people. The people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine.

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That's Palestine. Where are they fighting this very week right now? In Palestine, the

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West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It says sorrow shall come upon them when they see

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God's people coming, because they will see the holiness of God, and the holiness of God, when compared to their

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God, is glorious, magnificent in His holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, wondrous works.

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So it's interesting when God is described as glorious in His holiness. His holiness is that part which makes

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Him awesome to man. It is that part which makes every man that ever confronted an appearance of the

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Lord Jesus in His glorified state as Yeshua, Jehovah, they would fall down on their faces with their face to the ground, and they would not look upon Him.

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It was the holiness of God that causes this. So this little passage in Exodus 15, 1 through 21, speaks of deliverance from Satan as pictured by Pharaoh, and deliverance from the flesh as pictured by Palestinians.

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And then the great joy that comes in the life of the believer as his life is brought more nearly to the holiness of God.

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And Miriam answered them, sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath

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He thrown into the sea. Think about that.

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This little passage, as it speaks of the sea, in verse 4 it says,

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Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea. His chosen captains, that would picture the demons, also are drowned in the

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Red Sea. The depths have covered them. They sank into the bottom as a stone.

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Did you know there's going to come a day when Satan and his demons and all of his followers, whether they be at one time human beings who chose to follow

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Satan or what, they will all be in a place called the Lake of Fire.

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And they will be chained there for all eternity from that point on, as so pictured by the enemy going to the bottom of this sea, the chosen captains being drowned, and then the depths covering them.

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And they sank into the very bottom as a stone, never to come up again. For some reason,

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God has known, I say some reason because it's difficult for me to study and understand it, but God has known that the human mind thinks by way of comparison.

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There must be evil for us to understand good. There must be a hell for us to understand heaven.

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There must be disloyalty for us to understand faithfulness. And some of God's angels chose to be disloyal.

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And there was a place created for them called hell. And what's so interesting about that is to go off into eternity future where we're with the whole family of God and with God himself.

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And I think there is a scripture that intimates anyway that he is going to wash our minds clean of the filth and the sin of the past and probably even any remembrance of those who may have been your kinfolks and friends and people who are bound in hell forever.

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I believe he will wash our minds of that. But you know what? I'm not sure God's mind will be washed of that. Because the cross of Jesus sent you to heaven and sent them to hell.

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And the fact is God himself has that aspect of it.

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That's what people today don't know about God. They talk about, you know, love everybody and God is just a

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God of love. They've not studied God's holiness. How could God be holy and answer this to me in your minds?

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If holiness means to be separate from sin completely, how could he even be holy if there were no sin?

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So people ask, well, how could God create a world where it's got rape and murder and wars and all these horrible things?

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How could a love of a God of love create these things, brother Charlie? And you're supposed to love everybody.

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That's the world's idea of God. Do they not realize that everything that they see has come forth out of God?

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It shows that God has a nature that has included evil. I'm not saying he created evil in the way that you don't want to think about it.

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But if you go deep enough, you've got to understand that before there was anything, there was God. So you tell me where it came from.

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But I'm telling you, it's there with a good purpose, not what we think of as evil. The good purpose is that for all eternity it will show forth what it means to be totally separate from evil.

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You will have experienced evil. The angels are a little puzzled by all this stuff, but we're not.

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The angels watch us and they are amazed, especially when we get out of obedience. They can't figure that out.

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But we will have experienced evil and God has shown forth evil in his creation and he is the total opposite and removed entirely away from it.

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As far as that sea is, when that rock sinks as pictured by the evil one, as they sink to the bottom as a rock, as far as that is away from the surface,

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God is far much much more far away from sin than that. And it shows forth his beautiful pure holiness and he's moving us towards that.

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In Exodus chapter 16 verse 23, moving on through the scriptures as we find the first mentions of holiness, we see another.

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And we see that it speaks of the holy Sabbath. I'm not careful.

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I'm not going to get to this cross thing I'm wanting to get to this morning. This other stuff's good too. Should have just left these notes in my study.

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The holy Sabbath. And he saith unto them, this is that which the Lord hath said, tomorrow is the rest of the holy

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Sabbath unto the Lord. Did you know that the Sabbath was created unto the Lord? Jesus puzzled the

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Pharisees when he didn't quite quote, keep it like their oral traditions had built up a laws, all laws that God never gave about how to keep it.

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It puzzled them when Jesus didn't keep it that way. He simply kept it until unto the Lord. But as you get into Hebrews chapter four, and I would like you to mark this because I don't know that I'll take time to read this whole passage.

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Hebrews chapter four, starting with verse two and going through verse 11. If you, if you, if you're puzzled by the

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Sabbath today, if you wonder why you're not keeping the Saturday Sabbath, which is not really what it is, but to us yesterday, the

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Sabbath. Hebrews chapter four, verses two through 11 will explain it to you. I've had people tell me that the early

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Christians worshiped on Saturday, not on the first day of the week, which we are doing today. And what's kind of interesting about that is

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I have a quote that dates back to about the second century here, uh, where Justin Martyr is quoted in a dialogue with the

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Jew of that day named Trifone, who taught the

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Christians with having no festivals or Sabbaths. There are still people today that do that, that will talk to you because you don't keep the

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Sabbath or you don't do this or you don't do that. Well, that was happening in the first and second century after Jesus died.

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There was a man named Justin Martyr who answered this as a Christian. Martyr clearly claims that Sunday is to them a new

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Sabbath, not in the sense of, of the same kind of Sabbath that the law had, but listen and you'll understand what he meant and that the entire mosaic law has been abrogated.

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The new law in the new Testament binding upon Christians regards every day as a

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Sabbath instead of passing one day in rest or absolute idleness.

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Now that's a quote from the second century. That's before Constantine, before the Roman Catholic church.

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That's just what the early Christians were doing. Now Hebrews chapter four, verse two and following will tell you why it says this for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

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I was thinking about that verse in Sunday school this morning. As the gospel or the word of God is preached, faith has to be mixed with it.

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God has to give that faith for we which have believed. Now listen, do enter into rest.

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The word rest in the Greek language is the same meaning as the word Sabbath. The word Sabbath means arrest.

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So we have do enter into rest as he said, and I quote those

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Christian Testament as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world,

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God gave the Jew an opportunity to have this kind of rest and he rejected it at Mount Sinai.

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He said, no, no, no, Moses, you go up there. We don't want to talk with God. God offered them to be believer priests just like we are.

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And they said, no, we don't want that. Of course, that was all part of God's sovereign plan. But from the human viewpoint, the

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Jews simply rejected it and said, we don't want to be that close to God. We want you, Moses, to go up there on our behalf.

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And so then we come into the Old Testament economy, which was an economy where they had the law, which was a physical picture of spiritual truth that we're living today.

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The Sabbath is just one of them. You say, well, wasn't the Sabbath part of the Ten Commandments? How can we get rid of it? We haven't gotten rid of any of it.

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But you know what Jesus said? He said, you think murder means to go slay someone. He says, I tell you, if you hate your brother in your heart, you've murdered him already.

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He said, you think adultery is to be with a woman who's not your wife. I said, if you look at one and lust after her, you've committed it already.

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And the same goes for the Sabbath. You think the Sabbath. Now, this is a paraphrase. I'm paraphrasing this.

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This is my interpretation. I'll grant you that. But I'll promise you, if you get into Hebrews chapter four, you'll see

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God's interpretation. And it says this, you think the Sabbath is a day on Saturday where you don't do anything.

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No, I tell you, nay, if you don't live a Sabbath every day of your life, you're in danger of hell fire.

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You know why? Because Sabbath means a rest because the works were finished from the of the world.

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We cannot work for our salvation. That's what a picture. But for us, it's not a picture.

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It is a real, true, every day, every moment rest a

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Sabbath. That's exactly what Justin Barter said. This great man of God in the second century said, listen, this

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Jew is taunting us because we don't keep we don't worship on Saturday. We're worshiping on Sunday. He's taunting us because we don't have all these things.

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And and he says, listen, we have it every day because we are in Christ.

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But God calls this kind of Sabbath, a holy Sabbath, ladies and gentlemen.

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It is a very important thing for God that we remain separated from the world unto himself and that we rest in Jesus and that we not allow anyone to bring to us a doctrine or a gospel that would cause us to think that any work that we do by and in and of ourselves brings us any closer to God or that if you backslide that you can go out and do a bunch of things and God is more pleased with you and loves you more than he does because of what

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Jesus did on the cross. Don't let anyone ever take you that direction. You have a rest and it is a continual

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Sabbath in the Lord. And if you don't have it, you're not saved. In fact, just like in the old, you might ask your friends this, if they want you to keep the

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Sabbath, say, well, you do know part of the Sabbath is that if you don't keep it, you'll be killed. You must be stoned.

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Right. So if you're going to think that still applies to you, then since you all missed yesterday, I was up here.

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I kept the Sabbath, but you weren't here. You have to be stoned. And you say, well, that can't be applied today.

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Oh, yes, it can. Here's how it can be applied to you today. If you're not keeping the holy

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Sabbath into the Lord every day at the rest, resting in his finished work, you will be killed by God.

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I don't mean you. I'm not talking about you, God's children. I'm talking about a person, a person that, you know, who is not resting in Jesus Christ will, in fact, be killed for it by God himself, and he'll be cast into the lake of fire.

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That's what the Sabbath picture. If they didn't keep the Sabbath on Saturday, they were stoned. If a human being today doesn't keep the rest every day, walking and resting in Christ, he will be killed.

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He'll have eternal death. If everything you find in the Ten Commandments and in the law is a picture of spiritual truth that we have in Christ today.

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The only difference is it's far more difficult to keep them today. Then it was one day.

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Now it's every day. Then it was if you commit adultery. Now it's if you look and lust.

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Then it was if you slay the person. Now it's if you hate a person in your heart. You see? You see the difference? So that the only way that it's possible for you at all to keep any of the

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Ten Commandments in their spiritual form is in Christ. Therefore, we must rest.

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So he calls it a holy Sabbath. The next thing I see as we move through the scriptures in Exodus chapter 19 verse 6, he speaks of a holy nation.

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This is in fact where God offered to the nation of Israel what we have and they rejected it.

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Exodus 19 6 and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel and they rejected it.

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Now we believe that during the kingdom period this will be restored to them that this that this will be offered to them again.

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I believe at the second coming of Jesus when he appears in the sky as the lightning from the east to the west at that moment those

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Jews who are still alive at the towards the end of the tribulation period as they look up and see him they will weep and they will see him as the one that was pierced and they will fall to the knee and receive him as their personal lord and Savior and now this promise will come to be for these

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Jews. They will then be established as a kingdom of priests and believe a priest just like we are.

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It's the same gospel that we have. It will be offered to them by Jesus Christ himself and they'll receive it.

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That's what Paul meant when he said all Jews shall be saved. All Israel shall be saved.

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It's that group that are still alive. They physically made it through the tribulation period. Jesus appears on the scene.

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He gives them the good news. They receive it and they are saved just like we are saved. There is no old testament economy that's restored.

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You've read that some of your commentaries. I don't believe it for a minute. I believe that this church age ends when

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Jesus comes in the sky at the second coming. Otherwise you're going back to an inferior economy.

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You see what I'm saying? It's not going to be a different gospel. It's the same gospel. It's always been the gospel of the kingdom and they will hear it and every one of them that's still alive will be saved.

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I don't know what that speaks to the gentiles that are still alive but I know not one of them will be saved. Some of them are goats and these nations are put on the left hand.

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The goats and some on the right hand but those Israelites that are still alive will be on the right hand.

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So this promise that was offered them in 1906 and they rejected.

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I believe they will have at the end of the tribulation period and then they'll move right into the millennial kingdom.

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The next thing I see is we move down to chapter 26 in exodus verse 33.

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We see a thing called a holy place. You see how God being holy he what he is doing is he is moving to restore this world to the

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Edenic state. A state of holiness where Adam and Eve were before the fall and John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son includes the entire cosmos and when

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Jesus died on the cross what he accomplished his finished work accomplished was it reconciled the world to God.

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Now this is what we're seeing as we move through this passage in Exodus as types and symbols.

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We're seeing that God is taking these things that have been destroyed by sin and Satan's goal would be to absolutely annihilate this world and God's people and but God is moving through and and he is making certain things holy and it's all because of what happened on the cross.

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That's the mechanism that makes all this possible but it's all pictured even before the cross because in God's mind he's the

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I am it's already happened. The only way the Jew in the Old Testament could be saved is because God's I am he's already seen the cross he's already seen the blood applied and so he lets them symbolize it with the blood of the animals but God's in his mind he is propitiated and so here he takes gives them the

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Passover a holy meeting for them to have every year. He gives them this holiness of that brings them to victory against the enemy.

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He talks about a holy nation the fact that they will become one someday. He's in those of us who are born into God's family already in this dispensation.

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We are already there. We're already a kingdom of priests and then in chapter 26 verse 33 talks about this holy place.

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He takes places on this earth that's already under the curse of God and he makes them holy just like the place where Moses was when

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God said take your shoes off just like the place wherever Joshua was outside of Jericho somewhere

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God said that place right there where I'm standing it's holy take your shoes off. God makes certain places holy chapter 26 verse 33 and thou shalt hang up the veil under the tax that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil the ark of the testimony and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy and thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the midst of the holy place.

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There was a place that God called the most holy place. We've studied it before this year already.

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Brother Otis has taught through Hebrews. We've had an overhead up here of the wilderness tabernacle but you move into the outer court that could picture the flesh.

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You move into the holy place that can picture that part you're talking about on the second story of the house in Sunday school.

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That's the mind and the more elevated parts of man poetry music those sorts of things.

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You move to the next story you're into the spirit realm where Jesus Christ enters your body by the holy spirit becomes one with your spirit and you are truly a spirit filled spirit and dwelt christian at that point and God had a place pictured in the wilderness tabernacle that pictures that place in your life.

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It was pictured with a tent that was placed here to separate everything else. Separate.

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That's what holy means. Separate everything else from this one place. Notice when you move into the holy place you have to move into a place where on your left is the candle stand that's the light of Jesus Christ.

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In front of you is the altar of incense which is the holy spirit taking your prayers up and on the right is the bread which pictures the body and life of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and you have to move past all of that to get into that inner holy of holies and the only thing that is in that place is the shekinah glory.

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God the father. You've entered into the place which pictures the throne in heaven but you had to get there by the candle stand.

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You had to get there by the incense and you had to get there by the body of Jesus. You can only get there in Christ.

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You can get there even now even today even right now while you're sitting on that hard old pew.

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Your heart doesn't have to be there. Your spirit doesn't have to be there. It can pass right through in Christ into that innermost holy of holies.

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Why is it called that? Because God is there. When God is there it makes it holy.

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The holy nation. The holy place. He speaks in chapter 29 if you want to move forward in the of a holy altar.

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Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar and sanctify it and it shall be an altar most holy.

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Whatsoever touches the altar shall be holy. Guess what that pictures? That picture is your

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Lord Jesus Christ. If you touch him because of his holiness you are made holy.

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He is your altar and my altar and as we touch him we are made whatever this thing is about God that we can't totally understand.

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Total complete separation from evil. From the flesh.

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From the world. From the devil. There is a place for that and it's called the most holy altar.

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If you move on down to chapter 30 verse 10 it speaks of a most holy sin offering and Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement.

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Once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generation. It is most holy unto the

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Lord. The sin offering. This is Jesus. This is a picture another picture of Jesus. The sin offering itself.

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It takes you right to the cross where he shed his blood. It is a most holy thing unto the

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Lord. It says at the end of verse 10 and then in chapter 30 verse 25 it speaks of holy oil.

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Guess who that is? That is the very holy spirit of God and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment.

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An ointment compound after the art of the apothecary. It shall be an holy anointing oil.

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So we see the holy spirit. God's very spirit that emanates from him into all of existence.

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Omni -present. And then you go into Leviticus the next book and you're going to laugh at me now.

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I'm going to be like a missionary friend that went from the vials to the bowls to the trumpets. And right at the time he thought he's through he said now we're going to talk about the trumpets in the book of Revelation.

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Now we're going to go into Leviticus for a minute. It's still not 12 o 'clock yet though because I know at 12 you leave the holy place and you come back here.

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Leviticus 10 9 says that there are certain things that have to do with us that God makes holy and that we are to keep holy.

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Let's read this Leviticus 10 9. Do not drink wine or strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation lest you die.

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See now this was not forbidden them wine and strong drink was not forbidden these priests but they were not to partake of it which pictures earthly things.

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It pictures earthly provision that God gives earthly joy even the wine pictures earthly joy.

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They were not to partake of that earthly joy when they went into this place or they would die.

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You cannot mix the flesh with this holy spirit the spiritual realm but it tells them this and it goes on and says it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

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Also this was the thing that separated the priests from the rest of God's people and the priests were separated.

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You are all priests as we just finished the series on the believer priest and therefore you are separated from all the other people of the world but look at verse 10 and that you may put difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean.

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Do you know that that's a big problem in the church today that even in church services there is not always a difference between the worldly and the unworldly between the holy and the unholy and sometimes the world is brought into the church through different ways.

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God says that as God's people especially when we come into the holy convocation there ought to be a difference between holy and unholy.

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David made instruments of music. If you read certain portions of scripture in the Old Testament it intimates that he made certain instruments that he brought into the worship the temple the place of worship and he sanctified them which means made them holy he set them apart as instruments to be used under God.

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And I don't believe for a minute that he brought Egyptian music in there. I believe he just played the instruments he may learn to play them in Egypt.

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I don't know I doubt it but thing is he brought the instruments and he sang out from his heart to God and he played 10 stringed instruments and other instruments that he created so that the people could praise

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God with music. This type of music was separate and different and holy.

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Everything that was in this place was sanctified and different and holy this place where they went to meet with God.

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Now that line of study that we just went through shows that since God is holy he moves things towards holiness that he's interested in things that he's working with and us his children he moves us towards that holiness even while we're in this world.

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There are even places that he sanctifies and makes holy it's places where his presence comes.

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But the remainder of this study goes in and addresses the very holy nature of God himself his holiness not that he strives to be holy or has to be made holy but is the very definition and essence of holiness himself.

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In the scripture this is related God's holiness is related to several things which we don't have time but I'm going to make these available where you can get them in brief if you want to read all these verses but Joshua 24 19 through 24 it relates

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God's holiness to the fact that he is jealous. Why is he jealous? Because he wants to separate us from all the quote other gods of the world.

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He wants to move us towards his holiness in the sense of removing us from idolatry.

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In 1st Samuel chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 that's 1st Samuel 2 verses 1 and 2 it says there is none holy as the

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Lord for there is none beside thee. So it relates God's holiness to his exclusiveness.

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Now this is where we find it difficult to study the holiness of God because there's nothing to compare it to.

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There are truly no other gods. The scripture in 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 2 says there is none beside thee neither is there any rock like our

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God. There is nothing he can be compared to. There is nothing that's a little less holy than God.

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There is only one who is holy. Jesus said that when they called him good master. The young man said good master what did

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Jesus say? He said why don't you call me good? There's only one and that's the rock our

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God. So his holiness is related to his exclusiveness. There are no other gods.

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As we go on through that portion of scripture in 1st Samuel he's the only all -knowing one.

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He's the only judge. He's the only sovereign omnipotent one. He's the only redeemer and preserver of the saints.

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He's the only Jehovah Shalom which means the God of our peace. He's the only Jehovah Tzitkenu which means the

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God of our righteousness and he is the only God who is our banner in war.

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He will keep the feet of his saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. He will keep the feet of his saint and the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man prevail.

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Psalm 119 says he sent redemption into his people. He hath commanded his covenant forever.

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Holy and reverent is his name. So his very name is holy. He is the only

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Jehovah Misi which means our banner in war. The only one who can protect us from the enemy and give us victory in battle.

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And I want you to turn to Psalm 22. The bible goes on to say that his holiness is related to glory and strength and power and majesty.

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That's Psalm 29 .1. Glory is related to his name in Psalm 33, Psalm 99 and other places.

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It's related to election of the saints in Psalm 65 .4. It's related to his righteousness in Psalm 71 .22,

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Psalm 145 .16. It's related to the difference between him and us which is interesting in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 2.

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It's related to the holiness of his holy spirit in Isaiah 63 verse 8. Separate from darkness in first John 1 .5

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and exclusive in holiness in Revelation 15 .4. But I don't want to talk about those right this minute. I want us to close with this thought.

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Psalm 22 verse 1. I believe that in all of the scriptures there's nothing that tells you the depth of his holiness, the breadth of his holiness, the cleanness of his holiness, the pureness of his holiness, the seriousness of his holiness, the fact that he will not be in the presence of sin more than what this talks about.

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And it would take us to the New Testament but let's look at it in Psalm 29 .1. A psalm of David, given unto the

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Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.

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Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in beauty and holiness.

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And Psalm 22 .1 says to the king. You're looking for this aren't you? I read something else first.

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I'm sorry. Psalm 22 .1 says to the chief musician, a psalm of David. Now look at this phrase and see if you've seen it somewhere in the

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New Testament. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

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Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring?

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Oh my God, I cry in the daytime but thou hearest not in the night season and I am not silent.

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But thou? Now who do you suppose this is a reference to as the

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Holy Spirit spoke through David? Who else was it or who was it in history that quoted those very words?

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Who can tell me? In Matthew chapter 27 verse 46 about the ninth hour

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Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say my

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God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he cried again with a loud voice and yielded up the ghost and the veil of the temple was rent in twain.

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Do you know that Psalm 22 and verse 3 tells us why that happened? But thou art holy.

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Oh thou that inhabits this, the praises of Israel. But I am a worm, no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people.

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Do you realize that at that moment in history God, who is the I am, swept back through all of human history, swept forward to the end of human history and he took every single sin of all of the people of God and he placed every sin you have ever done within Jesus' body.

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In first Peter 2 24 it says our sins were in his body on the tree.

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And in second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 it says he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

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We might be made the righteousness of God in him. He took all of the sin of the entire universe aside perhaps from the sin of Satan which

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I don't believe was atoned for because he's going to go to hell forever. But all of the human sin and he placed that within Jesus and Jesus at that moment said that thou art holy.

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He asked the question my God, my God why have you forsaken me? And he says but I know why.

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You are holy. He was carrying your sin in mine. God turned his back on him.

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That shows the holiness of God more than anything you'll find. He turned his back on the eternal son of God because your sins and mine were in him.

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Why have you forsaken me? But thou art holy.

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Isn't it wonderful that in that same act he provided for you the righteousness of God in him.

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So that makes you holy and he will never turn his back on you.

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Let's stand and have prayer together. Father we thank you for these scriptures.

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There are far more than we can go through if we study this every Sunday until you come back for us.

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We couldn't cover them all but thank you for the ones that you gave us this morning and you led us to. May we remember them this week.

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May we remember that you have taught us that you are holy and separate from all sin and evil and all that is of the flesh and the world and the devil in the negative sense of those terms and may you remind us this week that you are moving us towards your holiness and you are conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

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May we be in awe of that. May we be reminded that you will not forsake us or at the same moment that you turned your back on the

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Lord Jesus because he was filled with our sins at the same moment you gave us his righteousness.

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We can never thank you enough for that. We can never praise you enough for that. We cannot think about that enough but help us to think about it this week because the very thought will cause us to be holy for you are holy.

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Father I ask you to be with us during our time of fellowship, our meal, bless our meal and our time of bible study this afternoon.