Welcome to Whole Gospel Ministries Church website. A congregation of Sabbath-Keepers.
Join Us Here or on YouTube Every Saturday 11am
Subscribe to Whole Gospel Ministries
Music Ministry
New Achievement
Mid-Week Manna
- The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series- No. 6: THE THIRD ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’
MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 10, 2024The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series- No. 6
THE THIRD ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’
“Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Exo. 25:8, 9, KJV. (Read chapters 25-31 for more complete picture).
The first of four earthly ones was any tent or temporary dwelling place, but especially the tabernacle erected by Moses at Mt.Sinai, God’s sacred earthly dwelling place and the center of the Hebrew (ancient Israel) worship for more than four centuries. Under the first and last theocracy God was Israel’s direct Supreme Ruler, and in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle abode the visible glory symbolic of Divine Presence (Exo. 25:22; 40:34, 35), at times called the “Shekinah” glory, which is a Rabbinical, not Biblical term.
In the promised land, king David was privy to the purpose and meaning of the sanctuary and all its systems and services. God gave him all the specifications on how and what it would be built with—but forbade him from actually doing if for he had “bloody hands” as a man of war. It was his son Solomon “the wise man” whom God entrusted with this sacred task and project.
This temple, most often referred to as Solomon’s Temple was constructed on what was formerly called Mt. Moriah, scene of the offering of Isaac by Abraham. Hence, David could and did write, “Thy WAY, O God, is in the SANCTUARY” (Ps. 77:13).
Going back to the beginning:
“It was difficult for man, surrounded by sin, to understand these wonderful truths [embodied in the first promise and prophecy of Gen. 3:15]. The rays of light [of the gospel truth] which shone from the heavenly sanctuary upon the [very first] simple sacrifices [offered by Adam, Abel, Seth, etc.], were so obscured by doubt and sin, that God, in His great love and mercy, had an EARTHLY SANCTUARY built after the divine pattern [in heaven], and PRIESTS were [divinely] appointed [not people-elected], who served unto the EXAMPLE AND SHADOW of heavenly things.’ (Heb. 8:5). This was done that the man’s FAITH might lay hold of the fact that IN HEAVEN there is a SANCTUARY whose SERVICES are for the REDEMPTION of [fallen, sinful] mankind.“The prophet Jeremiah grasped this great truth, and exclaimed, ‘A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.’ (Jer. 17:12). David knew of God’s dwelling place in heaven [the ‘Father’s house,’ John 13:1-3, and when writing for the generations to come, he said, ‘He (God) had looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.’ (Ps. 102:19).The faithful ones have always understood that when they sought God with ALL THE HEART, their PRAYER came up to His holy dwelling-place, even unto heaven.’ (2 Chron. 30: 27).”
S. Haskell, The Cross and Its Shadow, pp. 21, 22, Facsimile Reproduction, Printed by Review & Herald Publishing Asso., 1914. (All emphasis and bracketed words mine)Review 1 Cor. 10:13 again with these added light that should strengthen, resolve, as it increases intelligent faith in God and the ways of escape He has made that all may successfully bear and endure, not yield to any and all of Satan’s deceptions and temptations!
Until next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.
- The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 5: THE FIRST AND SECOND ‘WAYS OF ESCAPE’ SUMMARY
MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 3, 2024The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 5
THE FIRST AND SECOND ‘WAYS OF ESCAPE’ SUMMARY
The first “way of escape” God provided for our first parents and all their children, mankind itself, was the divine “enmity” He immediately “put” between Satan disguised as a serpent, the first of all spiritualistic mediums thereafter, between the woman Eve, the mother of mankind and their respective “seed.”
This enmity had no existence prior and neither were Adam and Eve originally designed and made from the dust of the ground (never from “spirit”) physically or especially spiritually, programmed or wired so to speak with this one-off function and power, or even a special gift” as “a way of escape.”
The word itself “escape,” meaning “to break free or flee from,” “unshackle,” gives the transformed yet finite and mortal (no longer carnal) SPIRITUAL MIND of the true follower of Christ and diligent student of the Word some idea of this great “mystery of iniquity” in stark contrast to the “great mystery of godliness” as was and is manifest in the incarnated Creator Christ Jesus.
Hence the absolute indispensability of a genuine and full conversion of the sinner previously possessing a “carnal mind,” being “transformed by the renewing of that mind” into “the mind of Christ” (Rom. 12:2, 1; Phil. 2:5-2). Only such a mind can “discern spiritual things,” and “set their affections on things above” that are eternal, not temporal in value. (Col. 3:2; 2 Cor. 4:18). Paul reminds all: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.” (Rom. 8: 6-8).
The second “way of escape” God provided for man after the fall in Eden was intentionally both visceral and instructional, divinely-designed by its shock value to emphasize the exceeding sinfulness of sin and thereby cherish hatred towards it—-the killing and shedding of its blood of the very first yearling male lamb as a burnt offering on the first stone altar, set up just outside the gates of the garden of Eden.
If revealed to the fallen father and mother of mankind that indeed “sin is the transgression of the law” and that its “wages is death.” That the only hope the transgressor has is not “to do away with the law” but for someone pure and innocent of any sin to volunteer to take the place of the guilty and condemned one as his substitute and surety.
This is the only living-sacrifice, ransom and redemption price demanded by God’s immutable law of righteousness that had been transgressed: the life of the transgressor. Nothing else or less could suffice or could take its place as the only acceptable atoning sacrifice. It was only then that indeed “the law was to be magnified and made honorable” by the Law giver himself. (Isa. 32:21).
It was this first of all typical animal sacrifices, especially and specifically the lamb, in contrast to the other specified clean animals such as goats, bullocks, and doves. All were types or “shadows” of the great Antitypical Lamb of God who would offer Himself four thousand years later at Calvary’s Cross!
At this pivotal point in the plan of redemption type would meet antitype, shadow its substance when all the system of sacrifices and the system of the priesthood, instituted by Christ himself under the ceremonial law governing them, would be “nailed to the cross” with Christ.
The GOSPEL IN SYMBOLS—-with the law of Ten Commandments originally written with God’s finger on two tables of stone secreted within the ark of the covenant/testament/testimony that stood alone in the most holy apartment of the earthly tabernacle/ sanctuary on earth, that was always set in the midst of the encampment of Israel and preceded them in all their travels—-as taught in the Old Testament of the Mosaic-Levitical dispensation to and through ancient Israel as a nation—-would then transition to the GOSPEL IN CHRIST through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church of the Christian Era till Christ returns in His second advent.
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.
Donate
“Your donation to WGM will help spread the Gospel’s plan of salvation.”
FOR YOUR GIFT OF SUPPORT, please mail check to:
Whole Gospel Ministries
PO Box 90396
Long Beach, CA 90809
*Donation receipts will be mailed at the end of the year
CONTACT US
or send us an email at [email protected]