What God Really Wants: True Biblical Sacrifice– Sermon Audio 2625

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 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, Terry Preston. SPEAKER B 00:00:37 - 00:05:24 Let's have a prayer. Heavenly Father, I just wanna thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us. And as we contemplate your goodness now in these few words that I will share from, from scripture, Lord, I ask that we'll be lifted up to exalted heights to see new things about you and how we can fall in love with you all over again. I thank you, and I pray this in your name. Amen. So, as you— if you were to read through Scripture, as I know that you do, and it won't be any revelation to you that you cannot help But observe the exceedingly significant role of the sanctuary in sacred history, which is why it's always surprised me that that Christian religions seem to say very little to almost nothing on that subject. And one of the exceptions, of course, is the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as our understanding of Scripture has led to a theology that is saturated. with the ministry of the sanctuary, and for a supremely good reason. And that is, the sanctuary, with its associated fittings, and furniture, and animal sacrifices, and the priesthood, it was God's appointed means of illustrating and demonstrating what God would do with the problem of sin. And the sanctuary is really more than an illustration or roadmap. That Jesus in the sanctuary is the roadmap, the road as well as the vehicle that takes us from Eden fallen to Eden restored. And the sacrificial system ultimately points to the means, the methods, the processes by which God redeems fallen humanity to himself and rids this universe of sin and evil. So, how could I possibly dismiss a doctrine which is so dominant throughout Scripture and interwoven through the entire fabric of Scripture? Indeed, the sanctuary language is God's accommodation to teach us real heavenly ministry in categories that we can grasp and without shrinking God's cosmic lordship. But I want to go so far as to say this, that the profound significance of Jesus' death on the cross, I believe, is diminished without the greater context in which that sacrifice took place. That what occurred in the lead-up to the cross, as well as what Jesus has been doing in heaven since the cross, cannot be dismissed as not relevant or not essential. And which is the reason why the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that the atonement is in fact a process rather than a singular event. And don't misunderstand this point, that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was absolutely perfect and complete. We cannot add to it, nor can we take away from it. But the reality is that the atonement is not limited to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but extends into now Christ's current high priestly intercessory ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. Before we open up Scripture, which we'll do in just a moment, I want you to look at this particular statement, which is pretty profound on that point. That the work of Christ in the sanctuary above, presenting his own blood before the Father in behalf of sinners, Is as essential to the plan of salvation as was his death upon the cross. You know, let's not fall into the trap that some have done, who say that, well, what we're trying to do is to confine Jesus into some little box in heaven. That's what I hear. More on that, maybe on a future sermon, but suffice it to say, No earthly structure comes even close to comparing, could actually even represent the vastness and the glory of the heavenly sanctuary. I gave some instructions to AI saying, you know, make me a sanctuary, you know, in heaven, build something like enormous, you know, and I tried to get it to do more and more and more, but it just didn't do it very well. This is like the best that I could sort of come up with. SPEAKER A 00:05:25 - 00:05:26 Wow. SPEAKER B 00:05:26 - 00:06:21 I mean, even if it was that, I mean, that's pretty amazing, but it's beyond that, it's beyond that. But today, as much as I'd like to get excited about the sanctuary and focus our attention on the sanctuary, I'm actually gonna move a little aside and deal with the subject of sacrifice and how sacrifice fits into the schema. 'Cause God's people in every age have been taught about sacrifice, have been called to sacrifice, and what we're gonna discover now is that not all sacrifices are equal, and in fact, not all sacrifices were or are pleasing to God. In fact, many were rejected. Why is that? Well, Scripture answers with sobering clarity, and we're gonna consider 3 scenes where sacrifices failed, not because God was unclear. SPEAKER A 00:06:21 - 00:06:21 Amen. SPEAKER B 00:06:23 - 00:08:11 But because hearts were. And we're going to start right at the beginning, and I'd ask you to take out your Bibles, and we're going to go to the book of Genesis, and we're going to look at Genesis chapter 4. And if you might even recognise where that chapter is taking us, Genesis chapter 4, and just verses 1 to 8, we're not going to be reading through those, But there's where the story is, and this is about Cain and Abel. And we don't see any explicit instructions given here as to what constituted the sacrifice that Cain and Abel were to bring and to present before the Lord, but we can be reassured that God was not going to play any games with them. I can't imagine that God was saying, look, guess what I'm thinking of and I'll tell you if you get it right or not. I don't think so. It would have been absolutely clear what God was trying to demonstrate with that offering. You see, Cain and Abel were not all that far removed from the time when their parents had just come from the hand of the Creator. And as children, they would have heard the stories, the stories of what life was like in Eden, just prior to the fateful choices of their parents. And they were told the reason for a sacrifice was an expression of worship to the one who was going to deliver them from this mess. They learned that a sacrifice must demonstrate substitutionary atonement and that there is no place for fig leaves in their redemption. But Cain rejected that history, and he decided to bring an offering of fruit from his garden, his equivalent of fig leaves. The sacrifice was devoid, though, of a vital ingredient. And what was that? SPEAKER A 00:08:11 - 00:08:13 Blood. Blood. SPEAKER B 00:08:13 - 00:12:54 Blood. Cain worshipped God as a ritual. To him, it was all about appearances and what human works could bring to the table. His was a sacrifice that centred upon self. On the other hand, Abel brought an animal sacrifice and God accepted it, at the wild displeasure of Cain, and we know what happened there, but it illustrated what God would one day do, that He would shed His blood as a sacrifice for us. And so, Abel worshipped God from the heart. His was a sacrifice that demonstrated the essence of atonement, one's life as a substitution for another. Look at this statement here. Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. And with His stripes we are healed. Look at this from Christ's Object Lessons. Cain thought himself righteous and he came to God with a thank offering only. He made no confession of sin and acknowledged no need of mercy, but Abel came with the blood that pointed to the Lamb of God. He came as a sinner, confessing himself lost. His only hope was the unmerited love of God. The Lord had respect to his offering, but to Cain and his offering, He had not respect. The sense of need, the recognition of our poverty and sin, is the very first condition of acceptance with God. And so it leads me to the point to ask this question. And the question is this: when we bring a sacrifice to God, are we bringing what we choose, or are we bringing What He has requested. Say it in a slightly different way. When we worship God, are we doing it in a manner that we find pleasing, or how He has instructed us to worship Him? I came across this quote, and then we're going to do a deep dive. The reason many in this age of the world make no greater advancement in the divine life is because they interpret the will of God to be just what they will to do. While following their own desires, they flatter themselves they are conforming to God's will. These have no conflicts with self. There are others who, for a time, are successful in the struggle against their selfish desire for pleasure and ease. They are sincere in earnest but grow weary of protracted effort, of daily death, of ceaseless turmoil, indolence seems inviting, death to self repulsive, and they close their drowsy eyes and fall under the power of temptation, instead of resisting it. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 15. And look, it's an interesting chapter, I must admit, and no doubt it raises a number of questions, but I'm sure that there are questions for which there are good answers. 1 Samuel chapter 15. Samuel comes along to King Saul and says, Saul, he says, the Amalekites have done damage and evil to Israel. 1 Samuel chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, he says, I want you to wipe out the Amalekites. But we know that Saul kept the king alive and he also kept the best of the livestock alive. And we see in verse 13 where Samuel— Saul returns from the, uh, the campaign, and he comes to Saul and he says, well, blessed are you of the Lord. He says, I've performed the commandment of the Lord. Well then, Samuel asked, well, well then, what then is the, is the bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Well, he says, I've spared the best of the animals to sacrifice them to the Lord. Well, why did you not obey the commandment of the Lord? And then he says this in verse 22: To obey is better than sacrifice. And then he goes on to say rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. At that point, Saul says, I've sinned. I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. What story can you think of that sounds similar to that? SPEAKER A 00:12:55 - 00:12:56 Solomon. SPEAKER B 00:12:56 - 00:14:50 Yep. I was thinking of Aaron at the base of Mount Sinai. Remember how they'd just entered into a covenant with the Lord? You know, all that you've said, we're gonna do. And within moments, there they are, in probably a drunken orgy dance around this golden calf because Aaron feared the people. You know, I've gotta say, we've gotta say that often leadership can err and make, can make some missteps, but often they will do that because they're Dare I say it, that's what the constituents desire. And, and the Lord says this time and time again. We could go to many places, but just one. Jeremiah says, the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it so. So I guess before we start looking at any leaders that might be seeming to lose, sort of, the way, I think it would be a good thing for us to look at our own hearts and say, have I pushed the leader that direction? Saul claimed that he was obeying the word of the prophet, but in reality, he wasn't. Like Cain, in his heart of hearts, he knew that he was disobeying, but he attempted to cover it with a cloak of religiosity. In effect, Saul was saying, I have a good reason to have disobeyed the Lord, and that reason was, I wanted to offer these animals as a sacrifice to Him. In other words, I'm disobeying God in order that I might honour Him. Does that make any sense? SPEAKER A 00:14:50 - 00:14:51 No. SPEAKER B 00:14:51 - 00:19:49 It makes no sense, but it's amazing how we will go to such justification to take care of our disobedience. Try as we may, we can't actually cover rebellion with spiritual activity. Of course, we try, and yes, there's a good chance that we may get away with it and fool others around us, but of course, we can never fool God. And so, are we hiding disobedience and frank rebellion behind church work, church attendance, church office, giving of tithes and offerings, or in some other way or activity that is seen and interpreted by others as upright and legitimate. Then I'd like you to turn to the New Testament. We're going to go to the book of Acts. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then we see Acts, and we're going to look at Acts chapter 5. And here is an interesting story of a husband and wife team. You will know them, Ananias and Sapphira. And then Ananias and Sapphira had vowed to give their goods to the church, sale of a property. They were going to be generous and they had vowed publicly to give the proceeds to the Lord. They ended up colluding with each other and with the devil. There was this appearance of piety. They partially withheld what they had vowed to God to give in full. And they sacrificed a portion of their property to the work of God and not the entire amount. And we know that Ananias went in and, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? And, you know, he falls to the ground dead and they carry him off. And then sometime later, unawares, his wife Sapphira comes into the room and says, yes, have you given your money as you— Yes, yes, I've done all that. Why? Why are you lying that way? And she meets the same fate. Did God need this dollar value in order to see his work advance on planet Earth? Absolutely not. God has always been and is only interested in the full commitment of the giver's heart. I recall I was at an educational institution a number of years ago, it wasn't in this country, And there was sometimes a call publicly for, you know, donation of time and of means, and this individual who was one of, sort of, the founding fathers there would often stand up, brethren, give largely, give generously, what I'm planning on, what I'm going to give right now is, and he would say X amount, which was like enormous, And he had sort of this cult following, like, wow, you would not believe how generous this man is. If only I could be like him. Someone told me a little bit later, it was always just hot air. He never once gave to the cause. Did that to spur others along, but for him, his pockets remained full. You know, let's summarise those 3 points. Cain, who we've just seen, has offered a bloodless sacrifice, making a mockery of Jesus' intended atonement. We see Saul, who wanted to offer a blood sacrifice, but to do it using animals acquired through rebellion and disobedience. And then we see Ananias and Sapphira, who, well, their sacrifice is purely a mirage, intended to to fool the fledgling church. God spoke to Isaiah, and he said to Isaiah— these are God's words— he said in Isaiah 1:13, he said, stop bringing me your meaningless gifts. The incense of your offerings disgusts me. As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting, they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings. God spoke to Amos and He said this, I hate, I despise your religious festivals. Your assemblies are a stench to Me. In contrast to those 3 sad stories, I want to share 3 notable examples where sacrifices were accepted, And there happens to be a common thread that runs through these 3 stories, which is one of the reasons why I selected these 3, and I want to see if you can figure out what the common thread is. And I'm going to ask you when we hit the end of the 3rd example, and I want to see if you've got it, because it's, I think, it's pretty amazing. I want you to turn with me back to Genesis, Genesis chapter 22. SPEAKER A 00:19:49 - 00:19:49 Genesis 22. SPEAKER B 00:19:49 - 00:20:46 So we're going to go to Genesis chapter 22, and here is an incredible story that we all know so well, and that is of Abraham. Genesis chapter 22 and, and verse 2, where it says, take now your son, your only son whom you love. He says, I want you to offer him as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I'm going to tell you about. You know, you'd want to know the voice of God pretty clearly, wouldn't you, in order to to follow that request. He would want to be able to recognise and trust that voice of God. You know, I've acted, I've got to say, on things where you think it's the voice of God, but no, it's just my own selfish heart, and I'm just kind of wanting— SPEAKER A 00:20:46 - 00:20:46 I'm just SPEAKER B 00:20:46 - 00:23:44 a little bit of a stamp of approval, and I, I'm going to put it down to, yep, I think God's prompted me on that one. No, he hasn't. You'd want to be pretty certain of this, wouldn't you, to go and sacrifice your son? But he does it. He obeys. He takes Isaac to the mountaintop where Isaac becomes a willing sacrifice, and he puts him onto a makeshift altar, and there Abraham lifts the knife to do the deed until God stops him. And now God knew that he had Abraham's heart. He didn't withhold his only son of promise, but I suspect that there was probably a greater thing than a test going on here. I also suspect that there may have been a teaching moment. Yes. For Abraham. He obeyed God fully. He trusted God's goodness even when it didn't make any sense or where he couldn't see the end from the beginning. And when God provided a substitute, when he looked over and he saw that ram in the thicket, right at that instance Abraham saw the significance of the event. We're told that in the ram divinely appointed, divinely provided in place of Isaac, Abraham saw a symbol of him who was to die for the sins of men. Abraham got it, and he saw where God was going with all of this. I've got to ask you, I've got to ask myself, is there something God is asking us to place on the altar, even if it hurts. And you don't see the end from the beginning, but we've just got to trust him. You know, Abraham's story is a symbol of faith, obedience, complete and ultimate surrender. But of course, it directly pointed towards the Son of Promise that, that would deliver us. Now I want you to come over to 2 Samuel chapter 24. This is an interesting, this is an interesting chapter, 2 Samuel chapter 24. You'll remember the story, I don't think any of these stories will be new to you this morning. David sins by numbering Israel, that is, David wanted to take a census to see how he compared in strength to the surrounding nations. I mean, even his commander-in-chief, Joab, 2 Samuel 24:3, at the end of verse 3, he says to David, but my lord, why are you doing this thing? Even Joab saw it was absolutely inappropriate for David to be doing what he's doing, and God punishes David in an effort to teach him that it is not. SPEAKER A 00:23:44 - 00:23:45 Amen. SPEAKER B 00:23:45 - 00:27:27 about the number of institutions that we have. It's not about our distinguished pedigrees. It is not about our exceptional education. It is not about the size of our churches and the number of people who come along in those churches. It's not about the number of, sort of the number of baptisms that one experiences in a given year. David should have known from Gideon's example that God can save by many as by few. That we—that God rather—is not reliant upon humanity for anything at any time for any reason. God doesn't need our help. He then tells David, "I want you to go and see Ornan because I want I want you to build a an altar." on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And so David goes to Ornan and he says, look, I need to buy your threshing floor, I need to build an altar here. Well, what an honour it was to Ornan. My lord, please, just take it. I'm not going to sell you my threshing floor, just take it. Now, if there's one point in the entire sermon where you want to bring out, like, a little highlight pen and say, this is the point, I'll give you a hint. Here it is. 2 Samuel 24:24, because David's response was this. I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. That was perhaps another reason why Saul's intended sacrifice there with the Amalekites was not going to be accepted by God. Not only was— were the animals brought out of rebellion and disobedience, but the fact that it didn't cost Saul anything to bring those animals to the Lord. You know, true sacrifice costs us. Worship that costs nothing is worth nothing. Friendships and relationships that cost nothing are worth nothing. What do our offerings of time, energy, money say about what God is worth to us? Then I want you to come over to 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 7. In fact, let's start in 2 Chronicles. We'll begin, for starters, in chapter 2. 2 Chronicles chapter 2 and verse 1. 2 Chronicles chapter 2 and verse 1. It says here that, that then Solomon determined to build a temple for the name of the Lord. and a royal house for himself. Now, you know what the sad thing in this whole saga, in this whole— this, this story, is that exactly that, that Solomon was to build a temple for the name of the Lord. You see that again in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 12, and we see it again in verse 16. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever. Let me ask you a question. Since that sanctuary was built way back, what do we call the name of that edifice? What do we know it as? SPEAKER A 00:27:27 - 00:27:30 Solomon's Temple. SPEAKER B 00:27:32 - 00:28:19 Solomon's Temple. Isn't that a shame? Solomon's Temple. The thing that we associate with, that structure, Solomon. No, it was meant to be God. I was visiting another educational institution and looked at this edifice. It was like, whoa, that's impressive. Tell me about that. Well, we had this very generous benefactor come and said, I will give you whatever money it takes to put that building up. On one condition. What do you think that condition might've been? SPEAKER A 00:28:19 - 00:28:19 Name. SPEAKER B 00:28:19 - 00:29:58 I want that building with my name on it. And guess what happened? That building has his name on it. Is that the kind of sacrifice that God is looking for that somehow We benefit from the sacrifice and offering in that direct way. I would say maybe not. And so there was the dedication of this amazing temple. And in fact, we we know that everything was accepted because it says in second Chronicles seven and verse one, when came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Wow, this was amazing, and there had been a lot of animal sacrifices already, but there was more to come. In fact, you'll see there in verse 5, 2 Chronicles 7:5, that there were going to be 22,000 bulls that were going to be sacrificed, and there was going to be 120,000 sheep. I had a patient come in a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out that he works over at the abattoir just near the airport over here, and And I said, oh, just out of curiosity, how many animals do you process through your facility each day? He said, oh, about 300 cows and about 4,500 sheep every day. I think there might be a break on the weekends, I'm not sure. Certainly Monday to Friday. And now that's a lot of animals, and that's a lot of meat people are consuming because I'm not one of them, but— SPEAKER A 00:29:58 - 00:29:58 Amen. SPEAKER B 00:30:00 - 00:30:44 But that's a— that was a lot of animals to, to be, to be, uh, to be sacrificed there at the dedication of this new temple. And God accepted it. God accepted it. Now, there is a, a common thread that is running through these 3 stories. Has anyone landed on it? There's a common thread. There is something common to each of those 3 stories. Anyone want to hazard a guess? Go again, nice and loud. SPEAKER A 00:30:45 - 00:30:45 God. SPEAKER B 00:30:45 - 00:32:33 Yep, that's good, I like that, and in fact, to be honest, thank you, Daniel, there would be a lot of common threads. And this is gonna be one of those of guess what I'm thinking, okay? So that's never easy. I'll take you to a part of the answer. Go back if you're in 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 3:1, here it is. Can't overlook this. This is just absolutely amazing. Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. Where the Lord had appeared to his father David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. It's like, no, you're kidding me. So Solomon built his, the temple that was to be dedicated to the Lord on the very spot where David had built his altar. On Mount Moriah. Now go back, go back to Genesis again. Genesis chapter 22. Catch this. Genesis 22, which we read before. Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. Now, biblical scholars are pretty well unified in their thinking on this one, and that is that mountain of which I shall tell you was none other than Mount Moriah. The same site, Moriah, the threshing floor, the altar becomes the very location of the temple where millions of sacrifices would one day point to the cross. SPEAKER A 00:32:33 - 00:32:34 And friends, SPEAKER B 00:32:35 - 00:35:15 The reality is this, that God takes us over the same ground time and time again until we can understand the true meaning of sacrifice. Abraham's altar prefigured the sacrifice of Christ, the, the Father offering the Son. David's altar represents repentance, atonement, and the cost of obedience. And then Solomon's Temple became the center of Israel's worship and the sacrificial system, ultimately pointing to the Lamb of God, with all 3 events centered on sacrifice, worship, obedience, and God's mercy meeting human surrender. Now I want you to fast forward to 2025. Here we are. We've gone past the point where type met antitype on the cross. We no longer live in the era or dispensation of animal sacrifices. Type met antitype on Calvary, and priestly shadows met their substance in Christ. So, so how do God's people sacrifice now? God has always asked his people to sacrifice, and Paul introduces a whole new way of looking at this subject. And I'd encourage you to turn over to Romans chapter 12. It's amazing. Romans chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2, where he says this. He says, I beseech you, brethren, By the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. A living sacrifice? That's pretty radical. I mean, normally sacrifices, you You know, we get them onto the altar and then they're dead. In fact, really, it's more than radical. It's quite paradoxical because here we find a sacrifice that's alive and yet surrendered. It's breathing and yet burning. It's existing but entirely at God's disposal. A living sacrifice. Placed at God's disposal without negotiation, and so we don't offer lambs anymore, we offer ourselves, but here's the problem. Here's the problem with that scenario. A living sacrifice can crawl off the altar. You get what I'm saying? SPEAKER A 00:35:15 - 00:35:16 Yes. SPEAKER B 00:35:18 - 00:37:28 And therefore, God is calling us to climb back on the altar daily. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, not a dead lamb, but a living life, surrendered, obedient, holy. And today, sacrifice can mean obedience in the small, quiet choices, letting go of sin and selfish ambition. Loving others when it costs us, standing for truth when it's unpopular, worshipping not just with lips but life. Look at this statement here: The surrender of all our powers to God greatly simplifies the problem of life. It weakens and cuts short a thousand struggles with the passions of the natural heart. You know, sacrifice then is giving up something valuable for something greater. It's letting go of something you could keep to honor someone greater than you. It's a death to self, either literal as in an animal sacrifice, or symbolic as in obedience, or service, or suffering, or surrender. But why is sacrifice so hard? Because it strikes at the core of sinful human nature. It's so hard because we've got this thing called self-preservation. We want comfort, we want safety and ease. It's hard because of self-interest, that is, we seek pleasure and recognition and control. It's difficult because of self-will, we like our way, our timing, our plans. You know, notice that Paul didn't say, give a sacrifice. He said, be a sacrifice. So how can we block that living sacrifice from crawling off the altar? By daily and constant surrender to our great High Priest. Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and then do what? Take up the cross, and then? SPEAKER A 00:37:29 - 00:37:30 Follow me. SPEAKER B 00:37:30 - 00:41:25 Follow me. Paul said, I die daily, and that's interestingly a corollary to being a living sacrifice. One cannot be a living sacrifice without having died to self today. And Jesus said, and is recorded by John, he says, first that seed must die, it must go in the ground and die before it can germinate and give rise To life. You know, so what does a living sacrifice look like Monday to Friday, and well, maybe Sabbath and Sunday as well? Well, here are 6 everyday altars that you may want to consider, often unnoticed by others, but very much noticed by God. Forgiving when it hurts. Someone has wounded you deeply. Your pride wants revenge, or you just want to just give off some cold silence. And sacrifice is choosing to forgive, to release the debt, not because they deserve it, but because Christ forgave you and forgave me. And we didn't deserve to be forgiven. Nothing, never did we deserve to be forgiven. Number 2, giving when it costs. There's financial strain, time pressures, competing needs, but you still give to support gospel work and missions and someone in crisis. The widow's 2 mites were more valuable than all of those humongous big donations. Why? They cost her everything. Number 3, standing for truth in a compromised world. You're offered a promotion at work, or perhaps even, not even a promotion, just maybe the retention of your job, but it would require you working on the Sabbath. What will you do? Do you go for financial security? Or do you trust God that he's got your back? And if you decide to obey and follow him the whole way, it's all right, he's got you sorted. You lose relationships or status because of your convictions, like Daniel. You choose the lion's den over compromise because sacrifice is the altar where integrity is tested. Number 4, obeying God's call when it's inconvenient. You know, Abraham left his country, Moses left Pharaoh's palace. Today, it might be leaving a job to serve in ministry, perhaps moving to care for an ageing parent, or maybe giving up a personal dream for the sake of the Gospel. Number 5, choosing purity in a world of pleasure. There's no doubt that our world is given over to pleasure-seeking, hedonism. Temptations abound, online, in relationships, in the media, it's everywhere. But a living sacrifice says, I will not defile my body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And then number 6, enduring hardship with joy. Chronic illness, loneliness, unjust treatment, but you keep trusting and praising God. And here is the sacrifice, offering your suffering to God as worship. So, I entitled my sermon this morning, What Does God Really Want? God, what do you want of me? What do you really want? What I really want is this, thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. SPEAKER A 00:41:25 - 00:41:25 Amen. SPEAKER B 00:41:26 - 00:49:00 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Lord, what do you really want? Well, I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. God, what do you really want? Well, by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. God, what do you want of me? Well, ye also, you're built up a spiritual house to offer a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus, You know, recall right at the beginning I said that Jesus, via the sanctuary, is the roadmap, the road, and the vehicle that takes us from Eden fallen to Eden restored. You know, those animal sacrifices were intended to be a powerful recurring lesson to teach us the consequences of sin and the need of a Saviour. But in time, it all disintegrated into a hollow show, a mockery of of true worship. The sacred rites became a scandal before heaven and men, and eventually they lost their meaning, became mere form and ritual. And eventually their hollow roadmap, devoid of Jesus, became the destination. A coming Redeemer was no longer in view, just rules, just regulations, lots of them, and we're going to circle the wagon and we're going to prevent an outsider from disrupting our plans. Friends, we're in the same danger today of overlooking what God really wants. You know, today our Jewish brothers and sisters are still waiting for the first advent of the Messiah. And in fact, Orthodox Jews today look forward to the construction of a Third Temple in Jerusalem, that would usher in a Messianic era. The First Temple being, okay, not the mobile structure that Moses set up in the wilderness, but the First Temple being built by Solomon, and then destroyed by the Babylonians. The Second Temple, we know, was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, and then added to and improved by Herod the Great, And then that was destroyed in AD 70 by Titus. And now we're looking at a Third Temple, and that Third Temple, by many, catch this, they're looking at resuming animal sacrifices. And our Jewish friends profoundly prize the temple promises, but from an Adventist reading of Scripture, we believe those promises reached their fulfilment in Christ, And now that he's our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary, we definitely do not look for a return to animal sacrifices. The boat has sailed. The Lord has come and gone. And when he returns the second time, it will no longer be as high priest. There will be no more forgiveness of sin. there'll be no hope of salvation for those who have not already made the choice to be saved. Instead, He's going to return triumphant, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and He will come to take us home to heaven for a period of 1,000 years, and at the conclusion of that time, and it's all in the book of Revelation, the Holy City and its descendants will return to earth, and every last evidence, every last vestige of sin, Will be eradicated, and the Lord will create a new heaven and a new earth on which dwelleth righteousness. And then I can't help but concluding with these few sentences because I just love them. The final paragraph. In the final book, the final paragraph in the final chapter of the final book of the Conflict of the Ages series—that's that book called *The Great Controversy*—ends with this. In fact, I've got to say that the that the way in which it opened up the first sentence of the The first paragraph of the first book begins by saying, God is love, and it concludes with that same expression, God is love. But I just want to share this, these few verses. It says this. So everything's all sorted now. We're now occupying planet Earth remade. It's just all now settled. The pain's all gone. And I think for us as well, probably the memories, I suspect, will be gone. Probably not for God. I can't see how God can forget, but in that regard, but— It says this, the great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. Amen. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From him who created all flow life and light and gladness throughout the realms of illimitable space. And from the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare Dear Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your greatness. And everything that you have done is not with you in mind, but with us. Lord, you've stooped to the greatest depths to deliver us, and the least that we can do is to acknowledge what you've done and said, Lord, Lord, just take my choices. They're pretty hopeless. I'm pretty weak. I'm pretty faltering. But Lord, I choose to serve you again today. So Lord, you know the hearts of the hearers here this morning. You know the issues at stake. You know the difficult times that some may be experiencing with personal health or finances or difficult relationships or tough times at work or whatever it may be. Lord, you understand all of that and you're willing to do what it takes to smooth the way and have us to spend an eternity with you. Lord, I just want to thank you. So with, uh, heads bowed and with eyes closed, Lord, just may we just individually raise our hands to you if we say, Lord, I just accept what you've done for me. SPEAKER A 00:49:00 - 00:49:00 Amen. SPEAKER B 00:49:01 - 00:49:21 Thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. And thank you for your living atonement that is now happening right now in the heavenly sanctuary for us. Lord, we thank you. We embrace you. And I thank you for wanting to give us a pure and a clean heart today. And I pray this in your wonderful name. Amen. Amen. SPEAKER A 00:49:36 - 00:49:51 This message was made available by the Bunbury Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page, Adventist Bunbury, WA. SPEAKER B 00:49:51 - 00:50:19 This program has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia Radio. To listen to our Australian programs on demand, visit both of our YouTube channels, 3ABN Australia Radio and Creation Conversations, or search for us on your favorite podcast directory.