Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28, verse 19, go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Pastor Aymond Burdett.
This last six, eight weeks, I've hardly seen my grandchildren, my twin grandchildren, girls. Life had been so busy and Nicky and I had Covid for a couple of weeks, so it's been a pretty tough two weeks. But the day came when we had to babysit our little twins and I was lying on the floor like a dead horse and I was tired and they like to play horsey and they ride on my back, two of them sometimes.
And I was on the backside and Gabriella's on my neck and she fills up my ear with twisties and I didn't really notice, but I realised, man, I got twisties in my know, and I just laid there because I just wanted to spend some time with, you know, have that quality time with them. They would even step on me because they're too short to step over me. So they stand on me and I walk over me, but I don't care because I love them so much.
So we had a few hours of that quality time. Saints, when we think about the fall, when we think about sin coming into this world, it separated God from Adam and Eve. And the Bible says that in the Lord, the Lord used to what used to walk with them in the garden of Eden.
In Isaiah 59, verse two, it says, your iniquities has separated you from God. Your sins has hidden his face from you. And in Genesis we see this promise in the third chapter that there would be enmity, there would be war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, that God was going to put tension in there to war against each other.
As soon as there was sin, there was a saviour. Amen. Christ was willing to be man's ransom, humanity's substitute.
The gospel was first preached by Christ in the Garden of Eden. When we think about Jerusalem, the city of God, for 830 years, the first and second temples stood on that same holy mountain in Jerusalem. Every sacrifice pointed to Jesus Christ in that temple.
Jerusalem is known as a city of peace. But I don't know if you realise. It's been attacked 55 times in history.
It has been captured 44 times in history. It has been besieged, it has been surrounded for 23 times, it has been destroyed twice. And for the jewish people, it is their holy city.
And the most sacred part for them today is the western wall. Because this area here, this western wall is the closest that the jewish people can get to the temple of God where it originally used to stand. This was the closest place to get back to that former glory of Israel, the temple in Jerusalem.
The second one was destroyed during the roman occupation of ad 70. This temple was the second one, the original one before that was Solomon's temple that was built by King Solomon, who's much more glorious than the second Temple but destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Solomon's temple was based upon a portable sanctuary in the wilderness that God instructed Moses to build.
So what is the purpose of this sanctuary in the wilderness that was there for nearly 500 years, 487 years in the wilderness. It was a place that was set apart for the forgiveness of sins. It was showing a way of salvation.
In psalm 77, the verse 13, the Bible says, your way, o God, is in the sanctuary. In other words, the way of salvation is right there in a sanctuary system. Jesus said in the New Testament, I am the way, I am the truth and I am the life.
For nearly 2500 years, God and fallen humanity, when you think about this, had mostly been separated since paradise loss, sin had separated them. And then God said to Moses, let them make me sanctuary. That I might what? That I might dwell among them.
This was the closest that God could get to his people. Do you get the picture? He couldn't get any closer. The sanctuary was built according to the pattern in heaven.
In Hebrews eight, verses one and two. The true sanctuary of the Lord. So all these sanctuaries were modelled after this one that's in heaven.
The word sanctuary means a place that is set apart for Israel, is very visual. They could smell the blood, they could smell the fat burning, they could see the priest taking a life of the lamb. It was very confronting for the people.
The wages of sin, the cost of sin. The sinner would lay their hand upon that innocent lamb or the animal and confess their sins over that animal. Symbolically it was contaminated with sin.
It would then be taken into the holy place by the priest and the blood represented that the evidence of the lamb had been sacrificed. Likewise, when Jesus ascended to heaven after his glory on the calvary and his resurrection, he entered into the temple of God in heaven. And he presented the evidence of his sacrifice as payment for guilty sinners.
Hebrews eight seven, verse 25 says therefore, he is also talking about Jesus, able to save to the uttermost those who come to God. What through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus, our great high priest in heaven, makes intercession for us each day.
The outer courtyard, when you look at this system, represents Jesus'ministry upon earth. The altar represents his sacrifice of love, Calvary, the cross. And as we go towards the holy place, we see the labour where the priest used to wash themselves.
The labour represents the cleansing or baptism. And then if you go into the sanctuary to look at the whole part, you see the outer courtyard out here. Then you see the most holy place.
And then you see the holy place. Sorry. And then the most holy place, where the ark of the of covenant is.
Jesus intercedes for his people in the most holy place. We see in the holy place, I should say we see that there is this table of showbread representing the twelve tribes, but more representing that Jesus is the bread of life that came down from heaven. Then if we go to the other side of the room, we see this lampstand, this seven branch lampstand, like Christ, this ever burning, shedding its holy light.
And then if we head towards the most holy part, we see the altar of incense, where the prayers of the saints that Dahlia send towards heaven, representing that Jesus is our intercessor. Then if we go into this interceding power, we need to remember that he is also able to save to the utmost those who come to God through him, since he always makes intercession for them. Do we believe and know that Jesus is our interceder? Amen.
That's the question today that we need to ask ourselves. Do we believe it? Then on the last day of the jewish religious calendar, there was a day called Yom Kippur, which is the day of atonement, just once per year, where the high priest would go into that most holy part, where the Ark of the covenant was containing the ten Commandments. And James, as he points to this day of atonement, as he points to this judgement, this second coming, James says to us, so speak and do as those who will be what? Who will be judged by the laws of liberty.
The ten Commandments. Once a year, the sanctuary had to be cleaned. We find this in Leviticus 16, where it says, then he shall make atonement for the sanctuary and he shall make atonement for the taberNacle, for the meeting, and for the altar.
He shall make atonement for the priest and for all the people of Gethsemane. This was a very visual, powerful day. People were repenting of their sins.
People were confessing their sins. They had washed themselves up this was a great day of atonement. And then it goes in.
He lays both his hand on the scapegoat on the head of this live goat, confessing all the sins over it and all the wickedness and rebellions of the IsraElites and put them on the goat's head. He shall send a goat away into the wilderness, and someone's appointed for this task. The gate will carry on itself all the sins of the people to a remote place, and a man shall release into the wilderness.
This is the thousand years, symbolic of the thousand years. A gate represents Satan, where God puts all the sins upon him in order to cleanse the sanctuary of sin. Beloved, when we look at the sanctuary, we see the cross running right through it in that order.
In fact, people weren't allowed to go past this point. This is the closest they could go to it. Then Christ does the rest of it.
The sanctuary to look at was a very plain building. On the outside it had very plain curtains. But inside the sanctuary was the glory of God.
Inside the sanctuary was a presence of God. Inside the sanctuary was the Shakina glory. You get the picture.
When Jesus came, when Isaiah saw Jesus coming during his ministry in Isaiah 53, he said that there is no beauty that we should desire him. It doesn't mean that Jesus wasn't beautiful to look at, but the message wasn't so powerful to be attracted to. He looked very plain on the outside.
But inside, Jesus was the glory of God. Amen. Inside, Jesus was a father, dwelling him.
It's very clearly in the gospel of John. The sanctuary was in the midst of the twelve tribes. Jesus was in the midst of the jewish people, amongst the twelve disciples.
It's all pointing to each other. It's incredible when you look at it. The ministry of Jesus in the courtyard on earth was 27 AD to 31 AD.
This whole system was pointing to Jesus future ministry. But I want to take you to Daniel eight, which is a very important message here, because remember, Daniel two teaches us a bit, and Daniel seven teaches us more. Daniel eight continues the story.
We go to Daniel eight, and it starts with Metapurga. He deletes Babylon, the first empire. He goes straight to Metapurza.
And he mostly repeats Daniel two and seven. But he enlarges this prophecy, particularly when it comes to the little horn. The Bible here is interpreting itself.
This is classic interpreting itself. I'm not saying what it means. Somebody's not making up what it means.
The Bible is interpreting itself. The ram which he saw having the two horns, they are the kings of Metapurza. Very, very clear.
The Bible is interpreting itself. And there's Daniel is watching this ram with the two horns he was considering. Suddenly he sees a male goat coming across from the west.
It is going rapidly, fast, like the leopard with four wings and four heads, and it has a great big horn in the middle of it. And then he came to the ram that had two horns, and he sees it standing there beside the river and it runs at him with a few as power. I saw him confronting the ram, who would move with raise against him.
He attacked the ram and broke his two horns, and there was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him to the ground and trampled over him. There was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore the male goat grew very great.
But when he became strong at his peak, the big horn was broken. In place of that, the four notable horns come up towards the four winds of heaven. And so the first king we know very clearly from history is Alexander the Great.
Remember, he starts at 16, and his idea, his dream was to conquer the world, and by 32 he's accomplished it. But in the middle of his programme, when he's peaking, as he swepts across the world, he dies, just like the Bible predicted. And as he is dying, remember we learned last week he gave his kingdom, or he promised his kingdom, to the greatest or to the strongest.
And so four generals, four greek generals, tried to take all of Greece, but none of them could actually do it. And so they end up breaking four Greece into four parts. And that's why we had four notable horns come up after the large horn was broken.
History tells us that this fourth power is the empire of Rome. And sometimes, especially in Daniel eight, Rome is called pagan Rome is called the little horn because it has two stages, pagan Rome and then church of Rome. Then out of one of them came a what? A little horn.
It's the same language of Daniel seven, which grew exceedingly great towards the south, towards the east and towards a glorious land. Roman empire went for nearly 600 years, spread across most of the then part known world. Then it grows incredibly powerfully, and I want you to remember, it moves across the world, horizontally across the world.
It's just smashing everything to pieces. Pagan Rome later gives its power to the church of Rome. Remember that, the little horn power.
Now what I notice here, it grew up to the host of heaven. So here it talks about, it's a seedingly great, this is talking about Empire Rome or pagan Rome, but here we have this vertical procedure happening. This is the little horn itself.
And it grew up to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them. He even indulged himself as high as a prince of hosts. And by him, the what? The daily sacrifices were taken away, and a place of his sanctuary was cast down.
So we see this vertical direction. Now it's not just crushing everything across the earth. Now it's vertically towards heaven.
God's truth, God's throne, God's glory. This is what we need to pick up here. And because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices.
And he cast what to the ground? Truth. He cast truth to the ground. This is very, very important.
He cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered. And so the Bible's predicting that this empire, that this little horn power, would go against God's truth.
It would do all this and it would prosper. It would get away of it. It continues the story of Daniel seven.
Very important. Then I heard a holy one speaking to another one, to that certain one who is speaking, and how long will this go on for? How long would this vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgressions of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host, be trampled on a foot? How long would this heresy go on for? How long would this corruption go on for? They were asking each other, how long is this going to go for? And the Bible says, and he said unto me, daniel eight, verse 14, for 2300 days, and then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. This is 2300 prophetic days.
Then the sanctuary will be cleansed. Now, we could look at that verse and we don't quite get what they're saying, but if I took into the ESV, you'll get it. And he said to me, for 2300 evenings and mornings or prophetic days or 2300 years, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful place.
So the ESV is telling us that these truths that have been cast to the ground are going to be restored to its right state after 2300 years. Beloved, when we think about this verse here, which sanctuary was God talking about? Which sanctuary is God's word talking about? The wilderness sanctuary was gone. The first temple, Solomon's temple, was gone.
The second temple that Herod built is gone. There is only one temple left, and that's the heavenly sanctuary in heaven, because we know that there's empire, Rome. And then it breaks up into ten parts.
And the little horn comes up after them and amongst them we know that in history. So this is well after ad 70. Well after this morning I want to ask the question, why 2300 years? To restore the truth.
Why so long to cleanse the sanctuary? To restore the truth. Remember last year? Last week we saw the dark age church took over 1260 years casting the truth to the ground. Revelation 13 says it receives a deadly wound.
And I want to remind of last week that this little horn power starts with mandating a son of law. We're just skipping it over many other things they do, but we're just noting a few of the things that they did over the 1260 years. This is just a little bit of what they've done.
Saints. It starts with mandating a Sunday law that history will close the same way. Do we bow to the commandments of men or do we obey the living God? That's the question by remember the 7th day Sabbath and keeping it holy.
And then a little bit later we see that religious freedom beginning to be taken away from God's people or from people in general. You go a bit further down the track and then later you couldn't have the beautiful baby dedication that we had this morning, that you were forced to sprinkle your baby. You were forced to join this dark age church.
You go a bit further down the track, the 1787, and you see that worshipping of image images and becomes common and dead saints are now being worshipped. And it's interesting when you do the Reformation tour, you see more statues of Mary and of the saints that you do of Jesus in Europe. That's a fact.
And then 1229 AD, you're not allowed to read the word of God anymore. In fact, if you had the word of God, you could go to jail, you could be put to death. You are not allowed to read the word of God for yourself anymore.
Only the clergy were allowed to read the word of God and explain what it means. The Bibles were basically chained up to the churches. And then at the council of Trent in the 15th century, tradition was declared equal with the Bible.
That's a problem for seven day Adventists. Protestants cannot accept this heresy that is taught saints. So how does God restore this truth? And it's fascinating when you look at history and see what God does in the 14th century, he raises up John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, away with this Latin, he says.
He begins to translate God's word into the english language, the language of the common people. Amen. And so Wycliffe comes along and he starts to restore the breach in the table of showbread.
Amen. People could read the word of God in their own language. And then God raised up Martin Luther.
He said, away with this penance and selling indulgences. We can't pay for our sins. We can't cleanse ourselves by paying for our sins.
The just shall live by faith. Amen. In Christ alone is found our salvation.
He died once and for all, all of us. And so Martin Luther comes along and he restores the breach that's been made at the altar of sacrifice. Amen.
And then John Calvin comes along. He says, we don't have to pray for the saints, we don't have to pray to images. Or before Mary, we can pray directly to Jesus Christ and John Kelvin, who restores the breach that was made at the altar of incense.
Then along comes John Smith and Roger Williams, founders of the Baptist Church. They say, we don't have to do this infant baptism. A baby can't confess their sins nor repent of their sins.
We need to be baptised just like Jesus. Full immersion, bearing our old lives and coming up in the new life. The resurrection that Jesus can have in our life, in our lives.
And so the labour was restored in the courtyard. Then along comes John Wesley. He restored modern evangelism.
And so there was great preachers back in his day, but John Wesley stood out because he not only organised his churches, he not only taught the truth, there was a method for everything. That's why they're called Methodists, because there was a method for this and there was a method for that, and was a method for that. He organised churches everywhere.
And so John Wesley, he got that seven branch lampstand, that seven branch lampstand, burning ever so brightly. Could he champion modern evangelism. Amen.
D l Moody done the exactly same thing. He was one of the founders of modern evangelism. And so that lampstand began to burn much more brightly across the world.
But in the 16th century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation, came the twin heresies, the desert heresies of predatorism and futurism. Because the Daniel prophecies were putting too much heat on a little horn, people were able to read these prophecies and they're able to narrow down who this little horn was, who this power was. And so they said, no, no, let's do preterism.
The prophecies are all way back down there. No futurism, the prophecies are way down there. And so the heat was taken off the little horn power.
That was the whole idea of this heresy. But God raised up a man called William Miller. And guess what his key Bible verse was? It was Daniel eight, verse 14.
And unto 2300 days and then the sanctuary shall be cleansed or restored. God was restoring that this coming atonement, this coming day of judgement was coming, that the second coming will be nearer than what we think. And it's interesting as the Millerites, the Adventists, not the 7th day Adventists, the Adventists, the Millerites, as their light began to go dim, as their light began to flicker lowly after 22 October 1844, the great disappointment there was these people who grabbed the lamped, who were willing to get the baton and run the rally further forward.
God started the last movement. He raised up a movement. Who takes this baton, this lamp, restoring the breach that has been made in the most holy place.
Restoring all of God's commandments, especially the fourth commandment, to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy, restoring all the truth that had been cast to the ground. These people, this movement, was raised up to restore all the truth that was been lost. Amen for John Calvin.
Amen for Martin Luther, amen for John Wesley. But these organisations, these people, stopped seeing the truth. They couldn't be led no more further.
So God had to raise up another movement, preparing the world for Yom Kippur. There are the seven s's. You probably know that if you're a long term member.
Stripsa became a big part of our church. It was a Bible and a Bible alone. When it comes to our faith and our understanding, there's no tradition at all.
The sanctuary was a big thing. It helped us to understand the disappointment. Jesus was shifting from the holy place to the most holy place.
Salvation is in Christ alone. The 7th day, Sabbath was restored, the second coming was restored, and the state of dead was rightly understood. And we might think the state of dead is fairly boring.
We might think. Yeah, well, yeah, it does say that the dead sleep more than 53 times in the Bible. But I'm telling you now that spiritualism is going to be big on this one.
The state of a dead is a very, very important truth because we have seen nothing yet when it comes to this spiritualism. We're going to see a lot more of this before Jesus comes. And then, of course, there's a gift of the spirit, of prophecy given to the last remnant fold.
The key year beloved. We're only scratching the surface. We're not even on the tip of the iceberg.
We're going very fast this morning. The key year, its beginning date is the command to rebuild Jerusalem, 457 BC. The command goes to rebuild Jerusalem, 457 BC.
The beginning of the 2300 year prophecy. So you see, what we see in this one here is a 490 years probation given to the israelite nation. Okay? And so Jesus comes in the middle of the last week, the last seven years, he's cut off in the middle of it, just like Daniel says.
And he dies on the cross. He's baptised on time. He dies on time.
And Stephen was stained right on time. And the gospel goes for gentiles. So when you look at 2300 days, this is a gospel.
This is the probation for us. When you think about the whole world, this is the beginning of the investigative judgement. The same starting date, 457 BC.
It ends in 18, 1844, the great disappointment, and begins the investigative judgement. 70 weeks are cut off from this 2300 prophecy. Cut off, taken out for the people of Israel, for thy people to forget, to finish the transgressions of thy people from the 2300 year prophecy.
Now, when we think about revelation, it talks about the temple is where the temple end in heaven. Then the temple of God was open in heaven and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple. Jesus is right now in heaven, interceding as our advocate, as our great high priest, our judge in the heavenly sanctuary.
Soon he will finish his ministry in heaven. So when we look at this, Daniel two gives us a great layer of the prophetic prophecies. And then we see Daniel seven does it as well and ends in judgement.
Remember, little horn down the bottom here. Then you see Daniel seven, who deletes Babylon, but he goes free and concentrates mainly on the little horn power. But after 2300 days and years, that will be restored and then extane ending, we end up with a judgement.
So when we think about this, that judgement is made in favour of the saints. The judgement is clearly after the cross. It is a specific time.
It is well after 1798, but it's before Jesus returns. And there we see the 2300 years, 457 BC, down to 1844, the time of 2300 years and years. And so here's the last message that God has for the world, particularly these verses here, this time of judgement that we live in.
Then I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, saying, having an everlasting gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth, to every what, to every nation, to every tribe, to every tongue. And people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgement has come or begun. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
So when we look at Jesus ministry, the courtyard was 27 ad to 31. The holy place was 31 ad after it sent it back to heaven to 1844. Today, he is presently in the most holy part, ministering for his people in the day of atonement.
Remember, Daniel seven finishes. That judgement was made in favour of the saints. Amen.
This final judgement is made in favour of the saints. It was a time had come for the saints to possess this kingdom that God wants to give us. The Bible says, like we saw last week, that there is no more condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
I don't know if you can see here, but we went to this church, and there's a set of stairs there. And the story goes that by a miracle, these steps came from Jerusalem. I want you to notice there they're on their knees.
You notice that they're all on their knees climbing up these stairs. I pray for every one of them. And I don't do this to belittle people.
I look at this from the point of view that when we look at how God saves us, how beautiful it is. Amen. That we can't earn our way to salvation.
There's nothing that we can do to earn salvation. Amen. Can you imagine? Martin Luther.
Martin Luther done this over and over again. He taught himself to be right with God. In fact, he taught himself so much that he suffered for the rest of his life.
But one day he opened up the Bible and he saw that the just shall live by faith. Amen. By faith.
What Jesus Christ has done for me personally, and I think as 7th day Adventists, we don't appreciate as much as what we have as truth. Amen. We don't appreciate enough what God has given us, the salvation that God has given us, the beautiful truth, that Jesus is our great high priest, that Jesus is our great lawyer, that Jesus is our great advocate, who intercedes for his people, who loves his people.
Let them make a sanctuary, that I might dwell among them, that I may be among them. This morning it really touched me when I read that verse. Let them make a sanctuary, that I might dwell among them.
And that Jesus wants to be right here in our hearts. He wants to write those laws in our hearts and our minds. Amen.
He wants to write those hearts, those laws in our hearts and minds. He wants the laws to be fortified in our minds. May God bless you as you appreciate how much God loves you and how much he wants to do for you this morning.
I pray that you want to accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour every morning. We should do this even if we've already done it, even if we're already baptised. I want Jesus Christ to represent me in the heavenly judgement.
Amen. I never want to go to court without a lawyer. Thirdly, I would like to follow Jesus and prepare for baptism and be ready for his scene to return.
May God bless his people. In Jesus name. Amen.
This message was made available by the Victoira Park Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page. Vic Park Sda church. This programme has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio.
