"LET  THERE  BE  LIGHT"  Ministries
home   |   Sermon Quotes


THE  SANCTUARY  AND  TEMPLE  OF  GOD  quotes

1)     Many do not realize that the Scriptures bring out the fact that there was more than just one sanctuary or temple of God.

     “And let them make me (the Lord God) a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Exodus 25:8.

     This shows us that there was a sanctuary or temple of God on the earth in which He dwelt.


     “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament...” Revelation 11:19.

     This shows us that there is a sanctuary or temple of God in heaven in which He dwells.


     “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?” 1 Corinthians 6:19.

     This shows us that our own body is a sanctuary or temple of God in which He dwells.


     “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5.

     The Greek word for “house” used here is “oikos”, and it translates and means “a dwelling, a home, a house, a temple” (Strong’s, word #3624).  This then shows us that God’s true followers together compose a spiritual sanctuary or temple or house of God in which He dwells.

     These Scriptures plainly reveal that there are actually four different types of sanctuaries or temples for God to dwell in: 1 - the earthly; 2 - the heavenly; 3 - the body; and 4 - the spiritual which is composed of God’s true followers.  





2)    “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15.

     This verse is a prophecy for all of mankind showing that God would do something for humanity that humanity was unable to do for themselves.  Let us now dig deeper into these prophetic verses and see if we can understand better what is being said here.

     “I will put enmity between thee and the woman...”  The Hebrew word for “enmity” used here is “aybaw”, and it translates and means “hostility, enmity, hatred” (Strong’s exhaustive Concordance, word #342).  The “thee” refers to Lucifer or Satan.  The “woman” refers to God’s church which is made up of obedient people (see Jeremiah 6:2).

     “...and between thy seed and her seed...”  The word for “seed” used here in both cases is “zera”, and it translates and means “seed, fruit, posterity, child” (Strong’s, word #2233).

     “...it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  The word for “bruise” used here in both cases is “shuwph”, which translates and means “to overwhelm, to break, to bruise” (Strong’s, word #7779).  The word for “head” is “rosh”, and it translates and means “to shake the head, captain, chief, first, highest part, ruler” (Strong’s, word #7218).  And the word for “heel” used here is “iqqebah”, which translates and means “a heel, a track, the rear of an army, last” (Strong’s, word #6119).


     Let us re-read this verse and replace the words and prophetic symbols with these fuller meanings.
     “I [God] will put hostility and hatred between Lucifer/Satan and God’s church, and between Lucifer’s followers and God’s followers”.  And then God states that “it [which is singular and refers to just one of Gods’ followers] shall overwhelm, shake, break up and then take over Lucifer’s position as being the head captain, chief, first and highest ruler over the inhabitants of this world, and Lucifer shall overwhelm, break up and then take over this seed’s position of being in the rear and the last among the inhabitants of this world.”

     This glorious prophetic verse revealed that God had developed a merciful and loving plan that would provide a way for all mankind to be freed from Lucifer’s evil and sinful rulership over their lives, and to then have a new and better Ruler over them.  





3)   Who is this seed or child from the linage of God’s church of faithful obedient followers upon which the fate of all humanity rested upon?
     “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Galatians 3:16.

     “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name” Romans 1:1-5.

     This prophecy of Genesis 3:15 revealed the glorious plan of the gospel of salvation for mankind all hinged upon the Lord God Michael willingly taking the last position by coming down and being born the human Jesus Christ, then fulfilling His part of this amazing plan by living a life of perfect holiness and absolute obedience to God while living through the sinful human flesh and fallen nature of mankind which He inherited, then voluntarily spilling His blood and sacrificing His innocent and righteous life on the cross, and then being resurrected back to life by God so that He could give eternal life to as many as would accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.  All this was necessary so that Jesus Christ could successfully shake up all of Lucifer’s kingdom and then dethrone him from his position as being the supreme ruler and controller of all human beings, which then allowed Jesus to rightfully take Lucifer’s place and then reign as the supreme Captain and highest Ruler over all mankind.  By successfully accomplishing this very difficult task, Jesus could then provide all of humanity with a second chance to serve and obey God, and thus gain eternal life instead of eternal death.  This truly shows us all, that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last! – just as Christ Himself stated! (Matthew 19:30, 20:16).





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

     After the 70 “elders of Israel” had been honored by being permitted to see the Lord God Michael Himself, Michael then told Moses to “Come up to me into the mount...and Moses went up into the mount of God” (Exodus 24:12-13).  Moses “was in the mount forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 24:18) in direct communion with Michael.  It was during this time that the Lord God Michael revealed to Moses the manner of how He wanted His followers to worship Him (see Exodus 25-31).  





5)   While the Lord God Michael was still providing Moses with specifics regarding His worship, Lucifer worked upon the hearts of various key Israelite leaders to become impatient at the slowness of Moses returning back from the mount.  Soon thereafter a group of determined Israelites decided to take the reigns of control from Moses and then appointed themselves to be the leaders of God’s church and people.  These self-appointed leaders then forcefully came to Aaron and strongly convinced him to form for them a golden calf in order to represent the Lord God, which was then formed soon after (Exodus 32:1-4).  But this meant that a lot of the gold that could have been devoted towards constructing the sanctuary in which to worship the true God, was instead used up in forming and then worshiping this false god – which is just as Lucifer desired (Exodus 32:2-4).

     As this gold had been specifically devoted towards forming and worshipping this false Egyptian god depicted by the golden calf, then none of it was to be used in constructing God’s own sanctuary of worship.  What then what happened to the golden calf and all of its gold?
     “And he [Moses] took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strowed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.” Exodus 32:20.


     In consequence of their rebellion against God and so quickly breaking His law and commandments, Moses had this golden calf burnt, and then ground up into powder.  Then every bit of this powdered gold was thrown into their drinking water, which gave the water a bitter taste, and then all the Israelites were forced to drink it.  These actions plainly showed all the Israelites that since their golden calf god could so easily be burnt, ground up to powder, and then drunk down by men, women and children, then it really was not, and could never have been, a real god at all!  And since it is hard to forget tasting bitter things, then hopefully the Israelites would remember this bitter experience and avoid repeating it.





6)     After the golden calf rebellion was dealt with and now over, Moses again spent another “forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 34:28) in direct communion with the Lord God Michael.  It was at this time that Michael finished giving all the specific details to Moses regarding how to worship Him (see Exodus 34:1-27).  Moses then wrote down all this information and related it all to the Israelites (see Exodus 34:31-34).

     The worship of the Lord God Michael was to be composed of three main divisions which were all interconnected and united together: a sanctuary (Exodus, chapters 25-27), a priesthood (Exodus, chapter 28), and animal sacrifices (Exodus, chapter 29).
     Central to this worship of the Lord God Michael was this sanctuary that was to be called “the tabernacle of the congregation” (Exodus 30:18).  Connected with this sanctuary was different kinds of sacred furniture and instruments that the priesthood would use in performing various sacred services.
     The main reason why this sanctuary or tabernacle was to be built was so that the mighty Lord God Michael could “dwell among” His people (Exodus 25:8).  This meant that unlike the pagan gods who were believed to dwell in their celestial abodes and only sent messages through mediums to their followers on special occasions, but “whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Daniel 2:11), the Lord God Michael instead desired to personally make His dwelling as close to His people as it and He could possibly be.





7)    What consequence did sin cause between God and His people?
     “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2.

     Sin caused a separation or gulf to occur between God and all of mankind.  Then in order for the Lord God Michael to indeed dwell among His people, there had to be a way for all of their sins to be forgiven and this gulf removed.  This would be accomplished through the plan of redemption, and to prefigure this was the main purpose for which this sanctuary, its furnishings, its services and sacrificial offerings were designed and pointed towards!  All of these things were designed towards bringing about “an atonement” for all the sins of the Israelites (Exodus 30:10).

     The Hebrew word for “atonement” used here is “kaphar”, and it translates and means “to cover with a coating like bitumen, to cancel, to appease, make an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, pardon, purge away, reconcile” (Strong’s, word #3722).  Thus the Lord God Michael promised that He would make an atonement for each and every follower by freely forgiving and pardoning any repentant sins which they have committed, would then freely purge away and cleanse them from all these sins, would freely disannul and cancel any punishment due them, thus appeasing the wrath of Almighty God against them, bridging this gulf and reconciling them back to God, and Michael would also freely coat and cover them completely with a material like bitumen.

     The word “bitumen” refers to “any of several substances obtained as asphaltic residue in the distillation of coal tar” (Websters New World Dictionary).  Now tar is very sticky; it also has its own color which completely hides all the area it is applied to, and once it gets on you it is very difficult to get back off.  Although it can be completely and successfully removed, yet you must choose to exert a lot of determined effort in order to strip it all off.  It also has a particular odor all its own which no other material has.  So not only would the Lord God Michael completely forgive, pardon, purge and cleanse us from all our sins; not only would He disannul and cancel any punishment due; not only would He then appease God’s wrath, bridge the gulf and reconcile us back to Him, but Michael would also completely coat and cover these forgiven ones with a divine material of His own to the point that only it would be seen on us, and only its odor could be smelled, but none of our own self could be seen through it, and none of our own odor could be smelled through it.  And this divine covering was so durable and lasting that nothing except our own choice and then determined efforts could remove and strip it from off of us.
     What is this divine material and covering so freely given to us from the Lord God Michael Himself?  It is His own precious robe of righteousness!  It is this robe of light and innocence that was lost to Adam and Eve and all of their offspring when they sinned.  Yet the Lord God Michael chose to provide a way in which this precious divine robe of light – this robe of His righteousness – would again be able to cling to and completely cover us so that none of our own naked and shameful self could be seen.  All of this the Lord God Michael would freely provide for His people because of the atonement!

     "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness." Isaiah 61:10.





8)    Since the mighty and holy Lord God Michael Himself was going to dwell in this sanctuary so very close to His chosen people, then everything had to be arranged in a particular order and made as perfect as possible.  The Lord God Michael first showed Moses “the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof” (Exodus 25:9), so that he had the idea of what it all looked like.





9)    The materials to be used in building and constructing of these sacred things for the worship of Israel’s One Lord God were not to be cheap, but were to be of the finest and best of materials according to their function.  Only these specific materials were to be used: the metals of “gold, and silver, and brass”; colored fabrics of “blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen”; also “goats’ hair, And rams’ skins died red, and badgers’ skins”; as well as “shittim wood, [olive] Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense”; and various kinds of precious and semi-precious stones (Exodus 25:3-7).