Amazing Facts

Announcer: This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. Coming to you from New York City at the historic Manhattan Center with your host, Doug Batchelor. Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word, and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned, your Amazing Facts adventure begins now.

Doug Batchelor: Hello friends. Welcome back to Prophecy Odyssey. In our last episode, we learned about God's amazing plan of salvation as revealed in the earthly sanctuary, which is a miniature blueprint of His very real sanctuary in heaven. Today, we're going to continue our fascinating study to learn how our bodies are also a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We'll learn practical ways to live a holy and a healthy life through Christ's power.

Remember, if you'd like to deepen your Bible learning experience, then check out the Prophecy Odyssey lessons and today's free offer. I'll tell you more about how you can get those resources a little later in the program. So thank you for watching and God bless you as you continue your Prophecy Odyssey adventure.

The ark, this box, represented the container that had the holy word. Christ was the word incarnate. It was this golden box, this pure life that was lived on earth, the life of God in a sense. He was all the fullness of God in bodily form, the Bible says. And the lid on top, again we mentioned, that's the mercy seat. You shall put a mercy seat on the ark of the testimony of the most holy place. And this covering, this lid was the place where Moses would go and appear before the Lord, the high priest would go once a year. That was Aaron. Moses sort of had special access. He could go more than that.

Number six, the Bible says that God's sanctuary was holy (Leviticus 16:33) and how so was Jesus' life. How should His followers live? Why are we discussing this subject? Why? The Bible says, as he who called you is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16), you also be holy in all of your conduct because, in how much conduct? All of your conduct. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy.

Now be honest, how many of you are a little intimidated when God says be holy? I am. How many of you find it sometimes is hard to be holy? How many of you believe that God will help you do anything He asks you to do? Did Jesus say it's going to be easy? Did you know life is hard? Serving the devil is harder than serving Jesus. The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. Jesus says, my yoke, a yoke is something you use for service, there are burdens for even a Christian, but Jesus says my yoke is easy, my burden is light.

The devil is like the Pharaoh, he is a cruel taskmaster. You can walk the streets and see people who are just controlled by the devil, they don't look too happy. But Christians can have joy in their heart and peace that passes understanding. But God is calling us to lives of holiness, and holiness brings happiness. Jesus says, I have come to give you life and life more abundantly. He wants you to have joy. Friends, I lived in the world, I did it all. I know what's out there. I'm not going back. I am a lot happier now striving for holiness than I was living for the devil.

So the rest of this lesson is going to rattle you a little bit, but we're going to talk about what does it mean to be holy. The Bible says God's called us to lives of holiness. 1 Peter 2:9, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people." So now when Jesus died on the cross, the old temple, it was done. The word is kaput. Jesus said, "It is finished," and when He said that, there's an earthquake, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. We don't have to sacrifice lambs anymore. Jesus is now the Lamb of God.

The priesthood is not a special caste. The Bible says now you are His priests. We are a holy priesthood. Do you know what the job of a priest was? To be a mediator. He made atonement. You know what atonement means? At-one-ment. We're separated from God. The world is separated from God. We are to bring them back to God, to make them at one with God. We are to mediate and intercede. We are to represent God. God called the Jewish nation to be a nation of kings and priests that all other nations would flow to Israel, like the Queen of Sheba, to say your God has such wisdom, we came from the ends of the earth to find out about your God. That's why He put Israel in that land between three continents so they could be witnesses to the nations.

And then when Jesus died on the cross, that prerogative not only belongs to Jews but it belongs to Gentiles. But we are to be holy, and we are to represent our holy God. What was it, a guiding principle for the clothing that God's priests would wear? Exodus 28:42, the priests had special garments. Doesn't mean we need to wear special garments of the priest, but notice what it said. "You will make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness and they'll reach from the waist to the thighs." "Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar," God said. You know a lot of ancients, you ever seen the pyramids in Egypt? A lot of the pyramids in Egypt and the pyramids in Central America, they were steep and they'd go up the steps and you could kind of see up the dress. And He said, "You will not go up steps to my altar lest you expose your nakedness."

Does God care about modesty? Should Christians be modest? What does the Bible say? It's a guiding principle that we want to represent the Lord, and that would mean in the clothing that we wear. God doesn't want us, you don't have to dress in burlap, but the Christian's clothing should not be flamboyant and there should be a modesty in what we wear. We should not be dressing for the purpose to attract or highlight our sexuality.

Now I know a lot of ladies right now just got, they started looking at their watch because you know what, the advertising, everything you see in the advertising always has women on the cover and it says you can look sexier. And it's almost like we're being bombarded with that image. But what did Jesus say? "If a man looks on a woman and lusts in his heart, he can commit adultery in his heart." Are those my words or Jesus'? So then if a man or a woman dresses specifically for the purpose of trying to sexually arouse someone else, is that what God wants us to do?

Now you don't hear sermons like this very often, do you? But is this what the Bible said? Now I know there are some people out there, they're perverts no matter what you think, no matter what you wear, they're going to think wrong. So you know, you can take it too far. God's not saying you got to dress in a burka, are y'all with me? You understand. Karen and I were in the Middle East earlier this year and we saw the girls go down to the swimming pool and they had burkas on. You're going to drown like that. It's just not practical. And I didn't mean to be unkind, but I mean I hope you understand, you know, use just good judgment in what you wear.

The Bible says, Paul, New Testament, he says, "Be an example to the believers in word, conduct, love, and in spirit, in faith and in purity." Does the Bible discourage believers from wearing jewelry and fancy clothing? "In like manner," 1 Timothy 2:9, "that the women," and the men, "adorn themselves in modest apparel, not with braided," the word braided there doesn't mean a braid, nothing wrong with that. They used to braid gold chains in their hair, so they're specifically talking about that. "Not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing but that which becomes righteousness, good works."

Did God have gold in the temple? Was the gold on the outside or the inside? So on the inside, God wants us to have the gold on the inside. 1 Peter 3:3, "Do not let your adorning be merely outward arranging the hair, wearing the gold or putting on fine apparel." Christians ought to dress tastefully and clean. "But rather let it be the hidden person of the heart with an incorruptible beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." It needs to be the inward adorning.

Now I don't know how many of you remember a few years ago, a lot of televangelists got in trouble with immorality. It's happening again actually. They were living one life on the outside and they were living another life in private. And you know, they began to ridicule their expensive clothing. They're telling everybody to send their money to their ministries. And someone wrote a song, it said, "Would Jesus wear a Rolex?" Any of you remember that? And they began to mock Christians because of their flamboyant dress and their extravagance. We don't want to live like that. We want to be sure that we're representing Jesus in what we wear and dress with simplicity.

"In that day the Lord will take away," this in Isaiah chapter 3 talking about the daughters of Israel that were proud and puffed up, read it for yourself. "In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the jingling anklets and the pendants and the bracelets and the veils and the headdresses and the leg ornaments and the headbands and the perfumes and the charms and the rings and the nose jewels." Did you know that when God made you, He made you perfectly with the right number of holes in your body? Did you know that?

Did you know when a man was possessed by devils, he pierced himself? When the prophets of Baal wanted to get their God's attention, they jumped on the altar, they started to pierce themselves. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now I realize it, people here that are wearing jewelry and now I'm going to talk about tattoos, and there's people here that have got tattoos, but you know the Bible talks about tattoos. The Bible says, "You shall not make any markings in your flesh like the pagans do for I am the Lord. You are holy unto God."

Now Pastor Doug, what are you saying, am I lost? No. We're all lost without the blood of Jesus. I'm saying that God is calling us to a higher standard, friends. And you don't hear anybody talk about the word of God anymore because it just can get you, make you real unpopular if you preach the truth. But the Bible says we should not be riddling ourselves with holes and tattoos and jewelry as though we're going to make ourselves more valuable somehow. You are precious because the Son of God died for you, not because of your gold and your silver, not because of how you advertise on your body. Your body is the temple of God. We're a nation of kings and priests.

What common sense rule did God have for priests and kings, prophets to maintain holy conduct? Listen to this, Leviticus 10:9, "Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations." This was told after the sons of Aaron went in drunk and they offered strange fire, fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

What does the Bible say since we're a nation of kings and priests? "It is not for kings to drink wine or princes intoxicating drink lest they drink and forget the law and pervert justice of all the afflicted." Does drinking alcohol raise your perception and your IQ or does it inhibit your reflexes and your thinking? When King David wanted Uriah to go against his conscience, now David should never have done this, he tried to make him drunk. You know how many men have tried to make women drunk so they could take advantage of them? And they would go and, maybe vice versa, I don't know. Women might try to make men drunk too. It could work both ways. I'm not trying to be unfair in this.

But I think we all know that that was the drug of choice in Bible times, but there's a lot of other drugs today, right? Should we be using these things or does God want us to have our senses? There's a whole generation that the devil has taken control of because their minds are so befuddled with alcohol and drugs. God wanted John the Baptist to be filled with the Holy Spirit. What was the instruction that he was given? "For he, John the Baptist, shall drink neither wine nor strong drink," why? "He will be filled with," what? "The Holy Spirit."

Walking down the street this week, I saw a sign in front of a store: "Beer, Wine, and Spirits." It was not the Holy Spirit. It's a different spirit. People start drinking alcohol and they get a different spirit. Just let me give you some quick facts. These are facts. Over half the people that are in prison now are in prison because of crimes committed under the influence of alcohol. Over half of the domestic abuse alcohol is involved. Over half the people that die on the highway alcohol is involved. A lot, sadly, a lot of people they kill someone else who wasn't using alcohol. Over half the people that are in the emergency room of the hospital alcohol. Mental illness about 25% alcohol. How much should a Christian support that?

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Noah drank wine and walked around naked in his tent. Yeah, he drank wine and how did it end up? Lot drank wine and slept with his daughters. You say well they did it in the Bible, yeah it didn't end well, did it? Jesus, they say Jesus, he turned the water to wine. New wine. Jesus did not make booze for a party, friends, no sir. At the Last Supper, they said you've saved the best for last. He said, I will not drink it until I drink it with you new in my Father's kingdom. It was unfermented.

Number 10, did God make a distinction regarding what animals His people could sacrifice and eat? We're talking about the temple. Could they bring a skunk into the temple and offer a skunk to the Lord? Could they bring a buzzard? Could they bring a pig? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Did you know that the difference between clean and unclean animal was not just for Jews? What does the Bible say? Genesis 8:20, "Noah built an altar to the Lord and he took of every," what kind of animal? "Clean animal," and of every what kind of bird? "Clean bird," and offered a burnt offering. This is after the flood. Now if he had only taken two of them, they would have been extinct. But he took the clean animals by sevens, the unclean animals by twos. If God thought it was okay to eat pigs, they'd be extinct now because they would have had spare ribs on the ark and they'd be gone. Right? But they only ate the clean animals.

Did you know that that was not a law? How many of you are related to Noah? All of you. Some of you are not related to Noah, we need to talk later because I've been seeing all these YouTubes about UFOs and I'm just beginning to wonder. We're all related to Noah. Amen? By the way, you know what that means? We're all brothers and sisters. And if I have a car accident and I need O positive, it doesn't matter what race you are. If you've got O positive, you can save my life. Amen? The Bible says God hath made of one blood all nations. Amen? We're all brothers and sisters. And God just has got a lot of creativity in the way that the genes have worked.

So, I know some of you are thinking Pastor Doug, you telling me that we're supposed to eat clean animals? If you're going to eat animals, eat the clean ones. How do you know the difference between the clean and the unclean? God gives us real clear criteria. If it divides the hoof and it has cloven hoof and it chews the what? The cud, it's a clean animal. Clean animals, they share those two characteristics, cloven hoof they chew the cud. That's talking about, you know, sheep and goats and cows and deer and things like that. Camel were not clean. They chew the cud but they got a paw. A pig it's got a cloven hoof but it does not chew the cud. The Bible says they are an abomination. When I always look for new words to describe pigs, all I can come up with is you know, they are pigs. I know some people have pigs, they're smart. Some people have dogs, they're smart too, but I'm not eating my dog. The Bible says they are scavengers. Dogs and pigs are scavengers. God does not want us eating scavengers. You get trichinosis and some people think they got arthritis and bursitis and they got hogitis.

Among the sea life, God says it needed to have what? Fins and scales to be clean. And the rule for birds was a little simpler, it was they needed to be the foraging birds. Meaning the ones that went around like the turkeys and the chickens and the pheasant and the doves. But the buzzards and the hawks and the birds of carrion, they were unclean, they were not to be eat. Quick guide there: the unclean you're not supposed to be eating pigs and rabbits and shellfish. Shellfish live on the bottom, they're scavengers. The Bible says they're unclean.

Someone's going to say but Pastor Doug, Acts chapter 10, Peter had a vision and the sheet came down full of unclean animals and God said do not call what I have said is clean unclean. And Peter's wondering what does this vision mean, and some Gentiles knocked on the door because Peter and the Jews, they were discriminating against the Gentiles and God said do not call them unclean, I want the gospel to go to them. Peter never takes anything out of this sheet and eats it. Three times this sheet full of unclean animals comes down and God says arise kill and eat. Peter says, listen to what Peter says, "Not so, Lord, your word forbids it. I have never eaten, I have never eaten anything common unclean." This is 34 AD, after three and a half years of following Jesus they never saw Jesus eat anything unclean. Peter's wondering what the vision means. He later tells the church, God has shown me not to call any man unclean. That's how Peter interpreted that vision. Had nothing to do with food, he never took anything out and ate it. The Jews were calling the Gentiles unclean. Pigs do not become clean when you become a Christian. Skunks do not become clean.

How many of you are parents? Do you care what your kids eat? You say, "But Pastor Doug, I thought as long as I pray over it, it's okay and the God'll bless it. Because doesn't the Bible say every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused for it's sanctified by the word of God?" Yeah, some things in the Bible are sanctified as food, the clean ones. Some things are not sanctified. Otherwise, when your kids get ready for breakfast and they get their Sugar Frosted Flakes and they put in their Cocoa Puffs and then they put maple syrup on top and you go, "What in the world are you doing?" "Wait, I haven't added the ice cream yet." And you say, "You can't do that." "Oh but wait, I'm going to pray, Mom. I'm going to ask God to bless it. It will be okay." You know what that's called? Mocking your parents. Will we mock God? Do you know the Bible says what you sow you're going to reap? The idea that you can pray over cholesterol-laden food and you're not going to have heart problems is mocking God. It does matter what you eat. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Number 11, what does God say about the eating of unclean food? Is it a serious offense? But do you know that your body is the what? The temple of the Holy Spirit who you have in you, which you have from God. You are not your own, you are bought with a price. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God," (1 Corinthians 3:16) "and the Spirit of God dwells you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy." Listen to this, friends, Isaiah 66 verse 15 and verse 17. "For behold the Lord will come with fire and with His chariots like a whirlwind. Those who sanctify themselves eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse," if you're going to be eating ham sandwich, I hope you're eating a mouse burger also. Because God puts rats and pigs in the same category. "Swine's flesh and the mouse and the abomination will be consumed together," says the Lord.

When you read in the book of Daniel, book of prophecy, first chapter, you know what they're tested on? Food. The first thing that happens in this book of prophecy is they're being fed Babylonian food. They said, "We will not defile ourselves with the Babylonian food or the wine which the king drank." And he said, "Oh, but I'll get in trouble." They said, "We're not going to do it." And because they stood up, it says the king tested them and they were 10 times wiser than anyone else. Do you know why the whole world is in trouble now? God said to Adam and Eve, "Don't eat something," and they ate something they weren't supposed to eat. So don't tell me that Jesus came so you can eat anything that crawls across your plate. That is not clear thinking. I know this is shocking some of you are hearing this for the first time, but it's biblical. You need to read the lesson that goes along with this study.

It does matter. I'm 67 years old. Got nine grandchildren. Changes all the time. 10. And I am in good health. I don't do back handsprings anymore. Some of you remember I did that 25 years ago. But I play racquetball and I dive for the ball. Wait, both ways. So for an old guy, I'm in pretty good shape. You can ask Pastor Ross. I could probably outrun most of the teenagers here in 50 yards and beat them. I've been a vegetarian for 45 years. And I follow these biblical principles, and it gives you better health, longer life. By the way, if you didn't know it, 7th Day Adventists live 10 years longer than the average, and sadly most Adventists don't follow everything they should. They don't eat the unclean food, but they eat a whole lot of sugar. If we'd follow these things. We got a member of our church, 100 years old. And he's still teaching and he's still traveling.

What should a Christian choose to think about? Now we're talking about the mind. We're talking about where it all begins, holiness. Philippians 4 verse 8, "Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things." The Bible says David said, "I will set nothing wicked before my eyes." Be careful what you watch. It affects what you think. We are a society surrounded with screens in our phones, in our iPads, our computers. Everywhere you look, you can't even go to the restroom without there being a monitor there trying to sell you something. Just where gas station, pumping your gas, there's a screen.

And you've got to, as a Christian, you've got to be filling your minds with that which is good. "Set your mind on things," what? "Above, not on the things of the earth." Jesus told us that sin originates in the mind. God wants your mind. He wants your heart. The world back in the days of Noah, the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. Jesus said it would be that way in the last days because people were filling their minds and their bodies with the wrong thing. God has called us to holiness.

Question number 13, what does the Bible say about worldly behavior? "Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." You know, Jesus came into our world for three reasons. First of all, He came as our example to live a life that we might follow His steps. He came to show us the Father. He said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." And then He came as our sacrifice. He died on the cross as a substitute for all our sins. But we must come to Him. We repent of our sins, we confess. He'll receive us with loving arms. Why don't you ask Him now?

In this episode, you discovered how God's marvelous plan of salvation is revealed in the earthly sanctuary. But you might want to learn more about its many prophetic facets. If so, you're going to want a copy of Blood Behind the Veil. This Amazing Facts pocketbook reveals more stunning truth about the purpose of God's sanctuary. To get your free copy, simply follow the instructions on the screen and we're going to send it to you quickly and as I mentioned, free of charge.

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