The Character of the Victorious Saint.

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We focused this morning on Revelation 11:19: "Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm." You might think of this as a somewhat abstract passage, not related to our daily behavior at the present time, when the believers are having so many "practical" problems. The truth is, the passage above provides the reason for our tribulations.

3/12/2006) Notice the three major elements in the passage: the opening of God’s Temple in Heaven; the Ark of His Covenant; and the rumblings, peals of thunder and so forth.

The purpose of the lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder is to draw our attention to the other two elements, God’s Temple and the Ark of the Covenant. When I say something significant during my sermon I like to have Sandi bang on the cymbals to show that I have quit talking and now am going to say something.

First let me point out that God’s Temple is the Church. God created man to be His living Temple (Check out Ephesians 4:21.)

I realize it says "God’s Temple in Heaven." This is because God’s Temple always is in Heaven. When the Lord Jesus was on earth He also was at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. When we are in Christ we also are at the right hand of the Father. Our new born-again nature is now in Christ at the right hand of God. Heaven is not a far distant place. Heaven is another dimension that we enter at physical death, not a far-off land that people can visit in a spacecraft! The Bible says we already have come to Mount Zion.

After the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, God is not interested any longer in a temple that shuts Him off from His creatures. Christ is the living Temple of God, and each true Christian is a room in that living Temple. Thus God through us can bless people and give them eternal life. In fact, Christ, who Himself is the Tree of Life, is making us trees of life, provided we are learning to live by His body and blood.

The Temple is opened and what is seen is the Ark of the Covenant. Since Christ rose from the dead, the Ark of the Covenant is just a gold-covered box. The Lord Jesus Christ, and those in whom He is being formed, are the true, eternal Ark of the Covenant.

In case you are wondering if it is true that God no longer has use for a gold-covered box, or if His Throne is to be located in His people rather than far away somewhere, let’s hear what Jeremiah says:

In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the LORD, "men will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. (Jeremiah 3:16,17—NIV)

What is this? Jerusalem is to be God’s Throne? The Ark of the Covenant will be forgotten and not missed? Hey, I didn’t say this. Jeremiah did!

So we see Jeremiah’s prophecy fulfilled when the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

Actually, I believe our passage is referring to the revealing of the sons of God, an event that will take place when Christ returns to earth with His victorious saints to establish His Kingdom by force.

Didn’t the Lord say that when we are one in Him and the Father the world would believe that it is the Father who has sent Christ to us? Didn’t the Apostle Paul write that the material creation is eagerly waiting for the sons of God to be revealed?

Thus we can state that the opening of God’s Temple and the revealing of the Ark of the Covenant is referring symbolically to the time when Christ appears and we appear with Him.

But before we can occupy the role of the Ark of the Covenant, Jesus Christ must work certain changes in our character.

The changes are symbolized by the three articles placed in the Ark of the Covenant: the golden jar of manna; Aaron’s rod that budded, and finally, and most importantly the two tables of stone, the Ten Commandments, God’s righteous covenant with man.

The reason we have tribulation while we are in the world, as Jesus warned us, is that tribulation is necessary if the jar of manna, Aaron’s rod, and the righteous covenant are to be formed in our character.

The battles you are having each day, if you are living as a victorious saint, have to do with the manna, Aaron’s rod, and the Divine covenant of righteousness.

The manna in us means that we are being compelled to trust God each day for our survival and safety. We like to hedge ourselves against disaster as much as we are able. Finally God sweeps away all our protection and we are forced to look to Him alone for daily health, safety, and survival. Has this happened to you? Probably!

The expression "the just shall live by faith," which often is used to mean we do not have to live righteously, just believe correct doctrine, actually means the righteous live by trusting God rather than their own resources. Check it out. the expression appears four times in the Bible.

Aaron’s rod that budded is found in the 16th and 17th chapters of Numbers. The message is that God chooses who is holy; who he is drawing to Himself.

There is so much envy in the churches! Christ was not murdered by the Jews or the Romans. Christ was murdered by the spirit of envy in the rulers of Israel who were spiritually ambitious.

If we are to accept patiently the role God has assigned to us, and be content with the circumstances in which God places us, we must be free from the desire to be preeminent in the Kingdom. We are going to see ordinary people ("no better than we are!") exalted to positions of unbelievable glory, authority, and power. We will see them chosen by the Lord, while we ourselves can only look at such majesty.

Here comes the royal parade. Some of your acquaintances are in the front chariot with the Lord Jesus. An angel hands you a shovel and tells you to clean up behind the horses.

How do you feel about this? Is there a little twinge maybe? Take it to the Lord and tell Him to just give you a broom and you will sweep up manure while you are singing praises in the Spirit.

I’m not kidding! We have to get this religious envy out of us. Pilate realized that the leaders of Israel had murdered Christ out of envy.

And now we come to the most important aspect of our character, and that is righteous behavior. When the Ark of the Covenant was moved from David’s city of Zion to Solomon’s newly constructed Temple, there was no golden jar of manna in the Ark. There was no stick that had buds, blossoms, and almonds. There was only the stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments.

What does this fact tell us? It informs us that after the game has been played to the end, and the new Jerusalem has descended to the earth. what remains is righteousness. Righteous behavior is of total importance in the Kingdom of God.

A grievous error has entered Christian thinking. It is that God has given us grace as an alternative to righteous behavior. Any intelligent person who reads Paul’s writings carefully can see at once that such a definition of Divine grace is totally opposite to God’s intention under the new covenant.

I wonder how long it will be before Christian leaders decide that Paul was arguing against the works of the Law of Moses, not against righteous behavior. We have destroyed the testimony of the Christian churches by our teaching that since grace has come, we enter Heaven by professing faith in Christ rather than by interacting with the living Jesus until we become a new creation of righteous behavior.

The fruit of the maturing of the born-again experience is a character in the moral image of the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants righteous behavior on the part of all people. God demands righteous behavior, and when He doesn’t get it, judgment soon follows.

Righteous behavior is possible only as we have power. Other religions may teach righteous behavior, but they cannot furnish the power. The power to live righteously comes only from the Divine Life that flows from the Lord Jesus, from nowhere else!

So we see that Revelation 11:19 has practical application to what happened to us last week and what will happen to us this coming week. We will respond to our tribulations by interacting with the Lord Jesus, or we will groan about how we are being treated unjustly and continue interacting with the American culture.

Do you, as a Christian, choose to die spiritually? Then ignore Jesus and pursue money and pleasure.

Do you choose to live spiritually? Then pay attention to the Lord. He is dealing with you. He wants you to live, to enlist His help until you are making righteous choices.

The choice is before you, Christian believer. Will you choose death or life?

You can hear the sermon at listen. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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