By John Thiel

As you consider yourself and the normal human heart, do you find it natural to be united with God in all his ways? When you find the challenge of being in unity with God, do you find it all too much? To be all for God is not naturally in the natural man. God is too great, he’s too distant.

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 55:9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Can you reach to heaven right now? Impossible. There is none that understand him. When I submitted to that thought, the Lord began to help me. I submitted to the thought that I do not understand, that I am ignorant. No matter how much I imagine that I have Gods ways, I haven’t. There is something about us, our natural man;

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

The word carnal means the fleshy mind. The natural flesh responses are enmity with God. This we need to understand and acknowledge about ourselves. How can Gods priority be attained? His priority of coming close to me that I may be one with him. The initiative and the action has to come from him because it’s not in me. This is illustrated in Adam and Eves fall. What did Adam and Eve do about their condition? Did they go to God after they fell? No, they ran away and God came to them. The initiative came from God, he reached out to them. This element is portrayed in the subject of this study. The doctrine of the sanctuary. What did God say in giving the sanctuary to the Hebrews? Why did he want them to have that sanctuary in the wilderness?

Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

The sanctuary that the Hebrews were told to build was for a purpose and that was the priority of Gods intent for the human race. That I may dwell among them. Let it register, sinful Adam and Eve, sinful children of Israel murmuring and complaining all the way through. God wants to dwell with them? Are you being able to understand Gods nature? They want to run away from him.  They are so sinful, so obnoxious to him but he says, I want to dwell with you. Scared human beings and he says I want to dwell with them. God is interested in dwelling close with even the rebellious.

Psalms 68:18. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, [for] the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell [among them].

Can you see the same mind pattern here of Gods mind character? What did he do? He gave gifts unto men. Who did he give it to? The rebellious also that he may dwell among them. Ponder it. God wants to dwell with sinners. What sort of sinners? Even the rebellious. Doesn’t God abhor sinners? God loves the sinful rebellious person. The Sanctuary that God asked them to build shows us this principle. We may say, I’m so corrupt, so sinful God doesn’t want to dwell with me.

Leviticus 26:11. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

Straight from the Lords inspired words. You’re wicked, rebellious as the Hebrews were but I want to dwell with you. When you study the doctrines of the bible it doesn’t mean much if you don’t know what it’s for. There are people that study the doctrine and they do not know how precious it is for them. In the subject of the Sanctuary God is demonstrating it to us. Can you see how important doctrine is? Not just for information that I can gloat I know better than other churches. That is self glorification. The only purpose for doctrine is to know and understand God. If you have false doctrine, you have a false understanding. In the doctrine of the sanctuary is a demonstration God does not abhor his people. Marvel at it. The almighty holy pure God stoops into intimacy with sinful polluted unholy man. When I have shared this with people, they have said why would he want to do that? It’s too shameful. Some people don’t like that. They run away from God even more. They say they can’t accept that.

Hebrews 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified [are] all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

2:12 Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.

The God who wants to make us holy is in a position of such closeness to us he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Who is this speaking about? Is this not Jesus Christ? That is part of the sanctuary message. The sanctuary that was built was a demonstration of Gods plan to restore and sanctify Gods people and finally bring them back to himself. A careful study of the Old Testament will reveal this. God’s way of restoring humanity is in this picture.

Psalms 77:13. Thy way, O God, [is] in the sanctuary: who [is so] great a God as [our] God?

What a wonderful God he is. If I want to study all about him and his way, it is found right here. Thy way is in the sanctuary. Are you waiting for some magical inspiration? There are a lot of Christians who build their faith on their perceptions on their own outlook. They are dreaming and imagining. No. That’s not where you’ll get the correct way and you’ll get a shock. What you imagined was Gods way will be completely eroded. When we use the word ‘thy way’, what does your mind immediately pick up? The way. I am the way, the truth and the life. Who said that? Jesus. Jesus says, I am the way. What do you see immediately connects? Gods way is in the sanctuary. Jesus says no man cometh unto the father but by me. Jesus is the way to the Father. Where is the Father in the sanctuary? The Shekinah glory. Look at the apartments of the sanctuary. There are three curtains.

Where is the sinner? Outside. He has to go through each court/curtain until finally he’s arrived where the Father sits. What does the curtain represent? The flesh of Jesus, his experience in human flesh. Then there is the altar of sacrifice. What is the altar of sacrifice? Jesus. There is the laver which is baptism, washed in the water of life and the blood of the lamb. Then to the next veil are the candlesticks which are the light of the world. The bread of life, Jesus.  The altar of Incense – his ministry and intercessory prayer. Then another veil – the flesh is still active that we work through. Finally, we arrive at the Shekinah glory. What does the white linen represent? The righteousness of Christ. Everything in the sanctuary is to bring us to God, he does not abhor us. Here is the way to the father, Jesus is the way. Everything you study in the sanctuary must be studied in the light of Jesus. We must see Jesus. If the Hebrews engaged intelligently in all their ceremonial services, they would have found their way with Jesus. Everything that the sanctuary demonstrated they didn’t understand.

Luke 24:25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

24:26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

There are a lot of Christian churches who say we don’t need the Old Testament anymore only the New Testament. They miss out as a lot of things as in the New Testament they are not as detailed. Jesus showed them things in the Old Testament pointing to himself.

Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These [are] the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and [in] the prophets, and [in] the psalms, concerning me.

24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.

This was life to the believers as they were most disappointed that Jesus had let them down. Their conclusion of reading the bible was wrong. We need to know the doctrine as Jesus wants us to know it. My ways God says. Jesus showed them in the law of Moses. Where is the law of Moses? In the sanctuary. Jesus said everything you have learnt in the Hebrew is to do with me. We are living in the time of the Elijah message. We need to know what is coming.

Psalms 63:1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou [art] my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

63:2 To see thy power and thy glory, so [as] I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

63:3 Because thy lovingkindness [is] better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

Here was a man who was enraptured over the glory of God. How important is the sanctuary doctrine for those who are thirsting for the true living God in their life? Those who are confused. It’s the doctrine of salvation found in the sanctuary. You can hear people claim great revival.  The glory that Christians claim today. What does God say is the power?

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

What people call power and what God calls power are two different things. What is glory? Moses said show me thy glory? What did God show him. His character. Gods character. Isn’t it glorious? When you look at it the aspect of me, such a dreadful sinner. God brings himself close to me. You are overwhelmed in your mind you can hardly contain it in your mind. God says I can only show you so much.  God says I’ll let you in slowly. Gently until we see his full glory. Slowly, slowly until we can handle the glory of God very slowly. These days he is working faster. It is a suffering to get close to God. It’s a suffering because the glory of God is too great for me to appreciate Gods ways that are a suffering to humanity. We have to become changed to Gods ways. Many have experienced that change. The glory that I had with thee I want them to have.

John 17:22-23. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Prophetically the sanctuary displayed this glory. That existence that he displayed when he was on earth. What did Jesus say was going to say was going to happen to the temple?

John 2:18-21. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

What does Jesus suddenly do to our minds? That temple would be destroyed ultimately. He connects the mind with the temple which would be destroyed and raised again. This takes us into another dimension. Do we discern the lesson of Jesus here? The Hebrew sanctuary was a type of something higher. It was being phased out and Christ’s real temple was being brought into focus. The destruction of his physical body and resurrection is here identified. It was supplied by whom? Who made the sanctuary? Where did the goods come from? They gave offerings, jewellery. They produced the materials of the temple. Did Jesus receive a human provision for his body? Did we provide his body for him?

Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

How did you get your body? From your mum and dad didn’t you. Where did they get their body? Their mum and dad. The law of hereditary produced each one us. I exist because of all my forebears. Jesus existed as a man, how? Let them make me a sanctuary. The body of Jesus was provided by whom? Mary.  Did it come from her ovary? According to the flesh it’s written in Acts. Jesus came from the fathers, the hereditary line. According to the spirit he came from God. Mary contributed the human. God contributed the divine. Let them make me a sanctuary. The contributions came from man. Jesus was the body temple of God and man. There was Jesus, the temple.

Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss. {DA 49.1}

The human flesh had weaknesses. God wants to dwell inside of that. I will not abhor that. I will dwell in their sinful flesh. That is the story.  That is the doctrine. God dwelt among us in the human body of Jesus. So much is his desire to dwell with humanity, he ventured into our body so that he may dwell among us. Here is the doctrine of the sanctuary. Christ in the sanctuary did not complete his work on this earth. When he died and was resurrected, what sort of a body did he have now? Was it sinful flesh? No, it was a glorious body. With that flesh, he went to heaven. Where did he go in heaven? Follow me.

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

That statement is often quoted, he just went into heaven.

Hebrews 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Where does this turn your mind to if you know the scriptures? The physical body of Jesus was a body that could be destroyed by death. Now Jesus is in heaven

Exodus 25:9 According to all that I show thee after the pattern the tabernacle of all the instruments thereof.

Notice that this earthly sanctuary was a living copy an inanimate copy of the real one? General Christianity doesn’t understand this today.

Exodus 25:40 And look that thou make [them] after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.

The sanctuary that Moses was to build with all the contributions of man, was a copy of the one in the mount.

Hebrews 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

When Jesus went to heaven, where did he go? The earthly temple was built according to what God had shown Moses of the one in heaven. This is the scriptural doctrinal outlay which we come to the conclusion that Jesus is labouring for our salvation in the heavenly sanctuary. Therefore, that little miniature is a picture of the real. It is a living sanctuary. There in that sanctuary, you don’t have a court yard because the court yard is earth. There he worked in the two apartments.

Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

Who is speaking? Alpha and Omega. Here is John the revelator. Where is he looking? He is looking into heaven where Jesus is. Where is Jesus? Walking in the heavenly sanctuary among the golden candle sticks. The heavenly sanctuary is a huge complex.  Like there was a time in the Hebrew sanctuary where the high priest would move from one apartment to the other, likewise Jesus in heaven would move from the holy to the most holy apartment. There came a point in time when Jesus opened the most holy place.

Revelation 15:5. After that I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.

What’s in heaven? There is a separate temple from the other temple. In heaven there is a two apartment tabernacle. This is where the scripture teaches the work of Jesus for us living in the last days, this is what is seen.

Revelation 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

What is there in heaven? The arch of the covenant just as it was in the Hebrew Sanctuary but in a far more grand living reality. Here it is written in the word of God. The true doctrine.

Revelation 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

That is what Jesus did. He is the one who opens up one part of the sanctuary. As Jesus opens the ministry of the most holy place, no one can say I want to stay in the holy place. Jesus says no, it moves on. I am finishing the work of Gods way so that there can be a people who can be with him forever. That was the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17. Where is he going to prepare a place for us? The sanctuary. That is a study that takes some research. The message of Elijah involves this very thing. As Jesus is working in the most holy place, we are to learn all the ways. This is our responsibility, this is our privilege. We need to keep our hearts open to the doctrine of Gods word. Many will be lost as they do not have this doctrine. Behold I stand at the door knock. Your body is also a temple. We also have a holy place and a most holy place in our vessel, the brain. Jesus wants to dwell in the frontal lobe.

Amen.