Sex, Sin, and The Sanctuary
From the Garden to Golgotha God is Gracious
Judah is a Lion's Whelp
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall dwell in his Holy Place?
The Holy Sanctuary
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Let's delve into the word of God and see what sanctuary means especially the earliest references. In Exodus 25:8 God says to Moses: And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. What we see here is that in it's earliest mention a sanctuary was to be a place where God lives. But it is important to note it was not just a place where God lived because God already lived somewhere. God lived in heaven, but it was to be a place for God to dwell among them in other words, they would be close to God. God would be as it were a neighbor or a roommate, knowing, witnessing and experiencing all there troubles and travails. This was going to be ethnographical, an exposure to a group of people, their habits and customs. He said make me a sanctuary that I may dwell amongst them. We can deduce from this, that a sanctuary is a place where God dwelt, where God can be reached where God can be accessed. That's what the sanctuary was.
Moses built the sanctuary and there were workers assigned to overlook the sanctuary, bare the sanctuary and guard against unauthorized uses and mishandling of the sanctuary vessels. The sanctuary was the place where God dwelt and therefore require absolute care not to transgress any procedure that dealt with the handling of the sanctuary. This included the Ark of the Lord and the furniture and vessels of the sanctuary,
There were three particular incidents where men died for unauthorized services. Nadab and Abihu offered false fire before the Lord, Uzza perished for holding the Ark of the Lord and the men of Beth Shemesh were slain for peeping inside the ark. In the days of Samuel and Elii the priest this dwelling place of the Lord came to be known as the Temple of the Lord. 1 Sam. 1:9. 1 Sam. 3:3. But this was apparently a tentlike structure.
But the time came when God would change his dwelling place from a Tent to a House which was called a Temple. In 2 Sam. 7:7 he Says: 6 I haven’t lived in a house from the day I took Israel out of Egypt to this day. Instead, I moved around in a tent, the tent ⌞of meeting⌟. 7 In all the places I’ve moved with all the Israelites, did I ever ask any of the judges [a] of Israel whom I ordered to be shepherds of my people Israel why they didn’t build me a house of cedar?’ 12 “ ‘When the time comes for you to lie down in death with your ancestors, I will send one of your descendants, ⌞one⌟ who will come from you. I will establish his kingdom. 13 He will build a house for my name.
So David when he was about to die charged Solomon:
Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.
And so God’s 2nd dwelling place was the Temple which Solomon built but was also called the Sanctuary. And so the second temple which Solomon built was a sanctuary. But Nebuchadnezzar desecrated the temple, plundered it and carried it away to Babylon. It was rebuilt by Ezra and desecrated by Antiochus IV in 167 BC when he offered pig’s blood on the altar. It was finally destroyed by the Romans under Titus in AD 70. Since AD70 there has been no physical temple. In John 14:23 Christ debunked the idea of the temple and change the script when he said If any man loves me he will keep my commandments, and my father will love him and we will come in unto him and make our abode with him.
Christ paved the way for the Apostle Pauls’
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1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Where is the sanctuary now. We are the Sanctuary. The Holy Ghost dwells in us.
Sex, Sin and the Sanctuary examines the compatibility between Sex, Sin, and the Sanctuary.
What is the Holy Sanctuary? The Sanctuary is the Holy place where God dwells. Man's quest is to be where God is. God's quest is for man to be where he is. Hence the question of the psalmist. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord. In this book the sanctuary is not a physical place. The sanctuary is where God is. For he is God and where he is holy. Thus he told Moses."Take off your shoe from off your feet for the place where you are standing is Holy. The presence of God sanctifies the place. No sin can stand in the presence of God.
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The sanctuary is that Holy Place where God dwells. That's any place where God chooses to dwell. Those who serve in Gods's sanctuary are called ministers of the sanctuary. But all sanctuaries were figures of the True Sanctuary which is Gods eternal dwelling place. For thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and humble spririt, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So Christ was called: Hebrews 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
​​​God will finally bring all things to dwell eternally in his divine presence. God's work right now is to sanctify us and make us fit for his divine presence.
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So sin has no place in the Sanctuary of God. The ministera of the Sanctuary must be always clean, the vessels of the sanctuary must be clean and the Sanctuary must be clean.
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​Thus Isaiah cautons:
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.
19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth;
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.
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The Psalmist sees the sanctuary as the dwelling place of God himself but speaking by the mouth of he Prophet Isaiah in chap 66 God says :
Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
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But Solomon is more Bold, Direct and Specific 1 Kings 8
27 Will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
28 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:
29 That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.
30 And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
31 If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:
32 Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
34 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.
35 When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:
36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
41 Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake;
42 (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;
43 Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.
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Solomon knows that God really doesn't need to live in a manmade house. So Hebrews 8 says
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum:
We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man,
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So that all other dwelling places of God are representations of the True Tabernacle and Sanctuary where Christ is at the Right Hand of God the Father.
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Thats where we come when we are bidden in Heb, 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
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So what is the Sanctuary? It is God;s meeting place for his children who can come to him in penitence and contriteness, and find forgiveness, mercy, grace and healing from the brokenness of this life. The sanctuary invites us to come and turns no one back.
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44 If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name:
45 Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
46 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
47 Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;
48 And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:
49 Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,
50 And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:
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Solomon knows thst
if there is no God in heaven there can be no God on the earth
If there is no God in heaven there can be no God in the temple
if there is no God in heaven there can be no God in the tabernacle
If there is no God in heaven there can be no God in your heart
Jesus knew it too when he says:
If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
​We are the temple of the living God, the Holy Spirit Dwells in us. By him we are sealed unto the day of redemption when we will join God in his heavenly sanctuary. In the meantime, we are a sanctuary on earth for God and to those who need him. A sanctuary is a place of safety, security and assurance. Isn't it remarkable that God wants to reach the world through us,
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Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy Tried and true
With thanks giving
Ill be a living. Sanctuary for you,
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1 Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is the love of God flowing through you?
Are you telling the lost of the Savior?
Are you ready His service to do?
​ We cannot be channels of blessing
If our lives are not free from known sin;
We will barriers be and a hindrance
To those we are trying to win.
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The Presence of God in Heaven authenticates his presence everywhere else that he chooses to be