Bible Study - Isaiah 66 - Part 1

[Music] [Music] welcome back to bible study uh the study of isaiah if you haven't been with us for the last two year two and a half years nearly and we have reached isaiah chapter 66 i'm here with reverend dr alan tunne hi tim and and um just ordinary joe ian bell no you should have you should have been given a a doctorate for all your years an honorary doctorate the reverend ian bell i'd rather be blessed by god very good yeah yeah okay and i'm i'm the sort of the wild card in the mix um and we're ian's going to read and i just want to as we're getting near to the end of the chapter i'll just show my hand that's um ian by ian reading it gives alan um a little bit more time to sort of prepare for his opening statements when we start the bible study and then alan prays and that gives me time just to collect my thoughts so ian would you like to open it open with i think you're going to read the first 13 verses we're looking at isaiah 66 and we're beginning beginning at verse 1 and i'm reading in the new king james version of the bible thus says the lord heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool where is the house that you will build me and where is the place of my rest for all those things my hand has made and all those things exist says the lord but on this one will i look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word he who kills a bull as if he slays a man he who sacrifices alarm as if he breaks a dog's neck he who offers a grain offering as if he offers swine's blood he who burns incense as if he blesses an idol just as they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations so i will choose their delusions and bring their fears on them because when i called no one answered when i spoke they did not hear but they did evil before my eyes and chose that which i do not delight hear the word of the lord you who tremble at his word you brethren who hated you who cast you out for my name's sake said let the lord be glorified that we may see your joy but they shall be ashamed the sound of noise from the city a voice from the temple of the voice of the lord who fully repays his enemies before she was in labor she gave birth before her pain came she delivered a male child who has heard such a thing who has seen such things shall the earth be made to give birth in one day or shall a nation be born at once for as soon as zion was in labor she gave birth to her children shall i bring to the time of birth and not cause delivery says the lord shall i who cause delivery shut up the womb says your god rejoice with jerusalem and be glad with her all you who love her rejoice for joy with her for all you who mourn for her that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory for thus says the lord behold i extend peace to her like a river and the glory of the gentiles like a flowing stream then you shall feed on her sides shall you be carried and be dandeled on her knees as one whom his mother comforts so i will comfort you and you shall be comforted in jerusalem amen amen let us pray heavenly father we come before you this evening again and we just put ourselves into your hands lord for many of us we're going through turbulent times and times of challenge but we also know that we can rest in you because you give us peace so for all those who are watching this evening and for ourselves may we receive your peace your shalom tonight as we settle down and study your word and may we receive from you that touch of your hand which only you our creator can bestow upon us we thank you and we bless you we worship your glorious name amen um so you know my exp this is a classic isaiah passage where you are on what i i can only say is like a roller coaster you're you're swung in this direction and then you're lurching back in another and then you know up down and you know you don't know whether it's hard or soft and then and then you come to rest at the end that's for me where where we're at and you really need to read into it you know is it who's he speaking to you know is it is it a rebuke is it a commendation and um and it starts with this you know heaven and my house which is the house of god is the theme throughout scripture and yet it's it's obviously a house where things are going wrong yeah i mean for those of us um well for those of the viewers who sort of started watching our bible study in on isaiah for the you know from the very beginning or who sort of caught up on youtube right at the beginning we said isaiah reflects the whole of the bible in more ways than one and numerically we said you know i'm not suggesting that we map one chapter per book but there are 66 chapters in isaiah and there are 66 books in the bible and many people have sort of commented on that and so i see chapter 66 as isaiah sort of he knows that he's stopping either coming to the end of his ministry or his life or his writings or whatever and he's desperately trying to put pen to paper and perhaps summarize everything he's been saying through four kings of judah and therefore he has to bring lots of themes together and encapsulate a lot of things in one chapter what we know as one chapter it's also reflective of the the book of revelation which again in god's plan is the last book of the bible as as we know it now and again revelation has many themes that god draws together and says right one last time this is it and this is all you're gonna get and in that respect i fully agree with you that it can seem like a roller coaster it can seem like a bit disparate and yet i think that there is a theme there is a unifying uh sense in isaiah 66 if you read it although it may seem as if this is scattered and there's there's lots of different ideas so ian let's go for it um verse one well evan is my throne yeah i i would say that uh press the button on the roller coaster yeah this the starting point of this chapter as throughout the the book of isaiah is an understanding of who god is and that's the notion that underpins actually those of people who are sound in doctrine and those who are as it were a little woolly in their doctrine and before the bible study alan and i were were talking about various things which are going on in the church and i think a lot of what goes on in the church these days is to do with what we call parochialism you know where literally god is limited to the boundaries of my church building or the group of people i worship with or the group of people with whom i identify with the doctrine and we have those of us within there that group and those of uh those outside are basically our threat and this is this parochialism which is causing division in the church now what we have here at the very beginning of isaiah is god is saying i am not going to be restrained within the walls of this church now you might have a clear view of all your doctrine and what you believe about me right but all i want to say is i'm bigger than your thoughts i'm bigger than the boundaries and and i think once we have that understanding of god so the scale is heaven is my throne yeah that once we have that understanding that god is bigger than the boundaries yeah or or we it it begins to then help us to listen to other people and say i don't know everything as as the old puritans used to say there's much more light to shed forth from your word and a lot of people these days says i've got it all worked out and it's not just the church is it i mean the whole of society things yes yeah and that's what we were actually discussing al and i we're just saying that we've instead of leading society we've actually imported much of the ills of society into the church you know in other words you know this parochialism that goes on the other thing about this is that and there's a tension throughout the old testament between what we call the prophetic and the priestly now the priestly will say we'll build a building and then god is within the walls of this building and you come to god and then it gets corrupted they get they get this corrupted by saying you come to god through us the priests and so they they begin to control god now what it's actually saying here is that god can't be uh contained within the walls of even a temple who will who will build the house that you where's the house that you will build in other words it's so vast it covers the whole that you can't do it you can't contain me and and you see this parochialism and incidentally that's why is there another way of looking for that that this is this longing of god to have this dwelling place with man and we you know so he has this vastness but he's just saying well what are you doing are you hiding something you know this is in eden for us to fellowship there's a theological discussion which goes on which might be good to explore whether the building of the temple was really a a a good thing or a or a bad thing for the fact well i would say the rebuilding so i would say there's an issue now in rebuilding when you have a tabernacle you had you you had a a tent a sacred place but a sacred tent a place which moved and it was an illustration that the people of god are to be at a pilgrim people that's a good point very good moving on all the time and once you build a temple the people of god become very stable and and we see this in church life today that you know we have a people who who who go on with god then they say we need a building but isn't it the tension between prophet and priests absolutely it goes right through i mean we'll explore it more just give alan a few words and then we'll go because i love what you're saying and i think this is the essence of what the scriptures is about yeah what i wanted to do was just to um quote some um uh statistics uh from you know about the about the temple itself because obviously isaiah is talking about the temple um it says that during its long history jerusalem has been attacked 52 times well captured and recaptured 42 times besieged 23 times and destroyed twice that's very interesting look at that history and god was looking over this on every single occasion 52 times is like one 52 weeks in a year and the temple itself you know destroyed and rebuilt yeah okay and you i i know you tim you're itching to talk about the third temple yeah not yet because i'm yeah i'm very interested in what we're saying about the about the fact of the importance there's another aspect of walls there's another aspect of the first couple of uh verses um which we've sort of touched on and i don't want to dwell on it but just so that you know people are aware that we're aware of what other people say which is that isaiah couldn't have been written by one man because chapter 66 was obviously written after during the captivity because the temple is in the future's tense i.e the second temple is in the future tense and if it wasn't written in the sec during the captivity all right then who could have written it and i say well this is the word of god and god is outside of time and i want to leave it at that i don't want to get into this debate because there's tons written about that and we don't want to go into it because there's a bible study and we're studying the text and and okay but the future temple was was rebuilt but herod's temple is still part of the second temple isn't it it's the second temple period yes yes yes it will get confused yeah okay when you come to jerusalem and you say oh you know where where does this fit in you had solomon's temple then obviously it was it was destroyed at the time of nebuchadnezzar when yeah okay then then there was a rebuilding of 70 years later yes of the temple but um that's called the second temple period during which time it was rebuilt by herod the great yeah and and this is the point you know even solomon you know he david of course was the man of war so he just collected the materials for the building of the temple solomon wasn't the most spiritual i mean he was a wise man but he wasn't the most spiritual so had had there already been a concession i mean the lord had conceded that there could be a king in israel that wasn't the ideal was it um if we go back to samuel and it looks as though yes that is is it a compromise to have this sort of grand structure instead of instead of actually uh a tabernacle because the key thing is god's presence isn't it well there's one other factor and i don't want to yeah no i want to explore it because this place in jerusalem is still in contention the temple itself is built on a piece of land that david bought that's it and the circumstances in which he bought it was that he was tempted to count israel and his nephew his right-hand man said don't do it okay don't do it and david said no and overruled wise counsel and said count they counted and they left the levites out because they really couldn't even go that far right they just sort of said right we're gonna draw the line here and then god punished israel and as part of that punishment uh david repented and approached god and said i want to you know atone for this mistake for this sin yeah and so he bought this land and that land is where the temple and that land significantly was the threshing floor of a roofner the prophet that's right it was a place of you know as as it were threshing between what was of good and what is chaff in a sense the temple not only is a place of sacrifice for man's sin and israel's sin and individual sin and the priest that the levites in all right it actually occupies a piece of land which is significant in the redemption in the sense that god's judgment was on israel because david numbered the people yeah it was on a piece of land that was part of the redemption process of israel at that point in history even goes back to abraham so he can go right back because it's called abraham's rock but you know the tradition is that it was where abraham took isaac and the name of the mountain is mariah god is my teacher it's as though there is something significant about what it is about that place in a way is where man and god meet yes it's a physical representation of somewhere geographic on earth where a meeting of man and god took place and takes place so it has spiritual and physical and historic significance and yeah and yeah whilst i i don't deny that and i accept that and there are places which are sacred you know where god meets a people meets individuals and there's a sense of the presence of god i mean the western wall yeah in jerusalem the remnants of the retaining wall and there's a central amount of the presence of god there there's a there's there's something of the presence of god the issue is and this is the issue being addressed in these first few verses of isaiah 66 is that there is a temptation when people build the temple and remember the the solomon's temple exists at that particular time and the northern kingdom had been taken into captivity and the southern kingdom of judah including jerusalem and the temple was surrounded by enemies and the threat was that they were going to come and and destroy jerusalem in the temple so isaiah is talking about the the temp implies that those people sort of say you know we won't get destroyed the temple of the lord the temple of the lord they cried out you know god won't allow this to destroy destroy and and god's judgment came upon jerusalem and the temple was destroyed the sacred places were defiled in 586 bc when nebuchadnezzar came in and destroyed that now the problem with building a sacred place is the way that we look upon it absolutely is that we we then and i was trying to intimate that you know when churches move on as a pilgrim people and they move on and go from strength to center and then they said well we need we need a building you know everyone else has a building we need a building you know so they build a building and they invest millions of pounds in that building which used to go into mission and outreach and and that it goes into that building and then what happens is you spend time and i'm saying eventually the building becomes a karate club or you know well i i would actually yes that's that's one one thing one but but what i would say and and i'm speaking from experience here as someone who has been the pastor of churches um sort of built that which where we had very vast amounts of buildings i mean we had the last church i passed it in britain we had buildings worth about 20 million pounds so you know it was a it was probably more than that probably more than that and and we we spent all our time maintaining those buildings and in the end a little bit of pride comes involved in there as well in that in that you know we we you know and i just the church used to call it the cathedral of the south yeah i i totally agree because when when they said to the lord jesus look at these great stones of the temple yeah he said i tell you the truth not one stone will be left on another so that is part of this theme that you're saying that actually we get too taken up with this with the stones and then and then something else happens is that you actually then and this is what i was talking about that those of us within the building become the people of god and those outside of the building become a little bit of outsiders they may you know we they they may be believers but they're not quite right yeah you know and and and what it is is you're trying to contain god and so when god starts to move over there our initial reaction is to say is to be suspicious of what god is doing over there even jealous of what god is doing over there instead of celebrating and as a consequence you know the the work of god is sometimes hindered through the building a building so is this what the lord is saying in this verse okay where where is at this most obvious level you will build god is saying this is how big i am yeah and therefore whatever you build with stones and brick on earth is never going to contain me which is ian's but never going to contain me so that's his primary point then he goes on to say i'm not looking for a building i'm not looking for something you've built i'm looking for a contrite heart yes object and that goes too yeah you've got it you've got sermon on the map only interjecting because we will move on from this and this is my little anecdote here my my dad was a builder so he he built you know owned restored properties in richmond twickenham uh he had a vision for um christian conference center so our home in sussex pilgrim hall became a christian center used to go there for conferences and then he he built and developed other conference centers for young people and he had about five and the largest one in north wales you know could accommodate 800 people so you know you can imagine how the pride builds up and when when my dad took on this project in northwest 1978 79 he had a heart attack and he should have died when he was 45 years old he survived for another 25 years uh during that time he lost everything he he got he got he built up so such a large business which was valued at over 20 million in the 80s and then the whole thing just imploded um during the um you know you could call it the shadowing of the deutsche mark with with nigel lawson but the point is was it a disaster that all of this property empire just contracted to nothing uh if during that 25 years the lord was able to humble him and prepare him for eternity and so i i would when i look back because those christians we have to rationalize all of this and you know you come to the conclusion wow if dad had died you know in 1979 um he wouldn't have gone through all of the trauma of losing everything why did the lord keep him alive for 25 years to lose everything he had built up this is coming back to your point what what is the lord looking for yeah and i do want to read from matthew 24 which tim uh you cited before so if i can just read this out and then go back to what ian said about the difference between the tabernacle and the temple yeah and is that is the temple part of god's concession to mankind in the same vein as giving them a king he gave them a temple he gave them this and that okay so it says here matthew 24 starting from verse one then jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple and jesus said to them do you not see all these things assuredly i say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down now as he sat on the mount of olives the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age so his disciples immediately associated jesus prediction of the destruction of the temple with jesus second coming and the end of the age and yet we know that the destruction of the temple took place in a.d 70 and we're nearly 000 years later yeah and he still hasn't come back yet yeah all right so i'm not talking about the time scale i'm talking about the concept of in the disciples mind the destruction of the temple is associated with something what is it associated with and i'd like to go back to what ian brought up earlier about the difference between the tabernacle and the temple and i think what jesus is doing is that he's aside the concept of temple and reestablishing concept of tabernacle where we are the tabernacle because what he wants is he said i will build my church and the gates of haiti shall not prevail against it and what is the church the church is that individual believers are god's tabernacles without walls without walls that's why i mean i don't know when howard came up with that idea but it's a genius concept because that is what we are that's right when you build the walls then you are becoming parochial that's right and until we recognize that the destruction of the temple which is symbolic of our being the tabernacle all right the tent for the god's holy spirit in philippians he says christ emptied himself what is his purpose of emptying himself he emptied himself so that he can receive the holy spirit and john the baptist said i saw a dove i saw the holy spirit as a dove descend upon him so jesus received the holy spirit having emptied himself and gone through the baptism yeah all right or which symbolizes his death so having emptied himself he received the holy spirit and that is a picture of us being a tabernacle we are a receptacle for the holy spirit and that is the picture and it is inherent in jesus work you know we talk about christianity being salvation jesus died for us that is true but part and parcel of it is we jesus has replaced a building with a tent symbolically speaking now i i'm not saying i i don't want to spoil people because they're probably writing emails at this moment in time giving illustrations of the benefits of building now buildings do have benefits because they're used for the mission of god it's when our pride becomes invested in a particular building and it becomes an absolute substitute the other thing is what i would say particularly in this country in britain and probably united states america as well is that we tend to use the term church for a building instead of the people of god in the bible the church are the people of god uh the word literally means those who are caused called of god and the elect of god the call of god and and that's why incidentally um people like baptists and that used to call call their buildings chapel or tabernacle to distinguish between the church and the building and it was an important theological principle we're not saying that buildings are unimportant but they should never ever be totally identified as this is the church so these ephesians end of ephesians um that that the we the gods people the church we are members of god's household and then it says built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets well they're not laid in the foundations of a building um it's their teaching it's the insights and then it says with jesus himself um christ jesus being the chief cornerstone and um in him the whole building is fitly framed together and rises to become a holy temple in the lord and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling place in which god lives which is what you were saying that's right and peter himself says we are living stones yes of you know the temple of god and isaiah 66 verse 2 now this is the one i will look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word yes all right god is more interested in people studying the bible than he is in a building so for me this is the roller coaster we're going we've reached up to this wonderful view that's set out in verse one and the first half of or verse two and then suddenly boom you know where we're going down to those who are who are breaking a dog's neck and it's as though we're plunged into a completely different scenario okay okay we finished first one and two maybe not what you know what one just one thing i'd like to emphasize is the linking of faith and the concept of tabernacle yeah i intimated earlier on what about the tabernacle was built in a way which was portable and it was designed by god to be a portable moving and this was to actually illustrate that the people of god were to move on and people said well they're moving on with a purpose but actually there were 40 years in the wilderness and god was teaching them a lesson about the nature of their relationship with god that he is to be central but he they are to be a pilgrim people and i think this is an important point that we need to understand the nature of faith and the way that we can want to put down roots and contain god and the nature of faith is that we're constantly moving on and whether we've been a christian for a year or 50 years we're still moving on on a journey of guardians that this is exactly and and we have to actually if if we are not if if god is not challenging us to do something different and something new in the christian faith then we've got to question whether we're walking with the lord if we've got everything stable and together and you know we can be very predictable then we've got to question whether we're actually following the lord as he wishes us to follow him absolutely right absolutely when it says all day long we face death as cheap to be slaughtered it's like a continuous process of challenges and your threats and and you know challenges to trust in the lord yeah uh uh from a personal story i mean i mean my personal no no i mean as an example was that i i was a pastor of a senior pastor with a big staff of a church and now you're just stuck with us no no and what i'm saying is that god took me out of that and it was very uncomfortable i didn't want to go i'll be quite frank i was i was resistant to that and god took me out of that where i had a a good income one of a great income a pension book allowance housing lounge pants and everything and he took me into a situation where i was literally living by faith each and every day where i just didn't know yeah now i didn't want to do that but i tell you this what it i'd been preaching on this for years and god said look i'll call you bluff and he did and to be quite frank it was a wonderful experience and janice and i look back at the last five years five or six years where god was blessing and he was faithful in every aspect and we were never without but god had to take us out of that stable situation could i just say something yes there's we perhaps we should actually have a catalogue of all of your anecdotes and and one one thing that we before we finish isaiah you know the epic life story of alan and sarah tan has to come in somewhere ellen i mean to be there when you when nick gleason was gambling with the assets of bearings bank to be in charge of or involved in the compliance department and there must be so many spiritual parallels in your some of your life in business but well i won't be able to call you on that absolutely because god takes everybody through situations yeah and there's always lessons yeah and this is here you know he who trembles at my word yeah and you know what preserved me was i trembled at god's word more than i trembled at the collapse of various banks and things yes and the financial system because people were talking about the debt mountain and the collapse of lehman brothers and things and people i don't chose they were they were trembling they were trembling because that's where their security lay yeah my security lay in word of god yes you see and that that is a lesson it's not comfortable as you say when this transition happens it's not comfortable and we've probably got another one around the corner but you know just wait absolutely my words absolutely the next six months should we move on yep um yes so i i'm i'm intrigued by first three because it's suddenly you know okay i think what your point i take the point about the differentiating between the temple you know solid building and and the tabernacle but it was still a place where god's presence where there was a sacrifice which was sensified but here yeah it's not i think the context here is that moses said i mean moses uh gave or received the law and gave the law at a time when the temple hadn't been built but he knew it would get built he knew that god would show them a place at some point in the future and they will convert this tent into a building yeah but he's moses said right this is what's going to happen according to the design of the tabernacle as the court and the inner court and the holy of holies and you're going to sacrifice here you're going to do this you're going to kill the bull you're going to and he did all of that what isaiah is talking about is that at this point in history it had become routine for the jewish people at this point in history they were going through the motions but their heart was not in it he just said he's looking for somebody who trembles at god's word and yet he's finding people here doing everything moses said yes behaviorally externally and then god says but i can see what's in your heart as you perform these sacrifices as you perform these ceremonies that moses instituted so he's saying he who kills a bull in other words who sacrifices according to the law of moses so externally he's doing everything that the law requires as if he slays a man so what's in his heart he's doing it with a dark heart he who sacrifices a lamb as if he breaks a dog's neck so their heart isn't in it they're not seeing the symbolism and applying it to their and that's a lesson today absolutely i see this in the more extreme but i will eventually get it i i i actually see it as a reality it's not a description of a as it were an attitude i think it's a reali if you remember back when king josiah brought the reforms in second kings chapter 23 in verse 4 we read these then josiah ordered the high priest hilkiah his assistant priests and the gods on duty at the entrance to the temple to bring out of the temple all the objects used for the worship of baal and of the goddess asherah and of the stars and the king burned all these objects outside the city near the kidron valley so what we have here is actually a picture of the temple being used for the worship of baal and the objects coming in now it's not unreasonable therefore to actually say that these verses in isaiah 66 and remember that isaiah is talking to a people who who are far away from god and is warning them that they need to reform their ways or else they're going to be destroyed and it's not unreasonable to say that that that what is happening here is a this actual description of what is happening if not in the temple gates certainly in the area in the area and by the way you mentioned that with josiah when antiochus came in we've mentioned matthew 24 we didn't read quite far enough um to to the abomination that causes desolation you had a situation there where uh antiochus not only did he sacrifice a pig you know in in the temple to try and desecrate the you know and obviously destroy the the temple worship but he also erected a temple the temple of zeus and zeus you've mentioned baal well the the roots of of the greek god zeus is bold hate to say you know in present company but that statue of zeus outside um the strasbourg parliament is also symbolic of baal because um the the moon and and the moon guard um you know it goes right the way back from zeus so you can draw a line not going into revelation and all of those arguments but just the facts that there is this symbolism of of zeus you know in that was brought into berlin with by um the actual altar of zeus that was built by antiochus is now at the pergamon museum in i think and so therefore there there is this alternative this this pagan but but i would say almost demonic um attempt to destroy the true sacrifice and the true worship of god that that's right and it actually happened you know under a pagan rule in order to desecrate the the temple swine's blood was brought in and substituted for lamb's blood yeah okay but to me that is only a physical manifestation of that have been there for generations yeah okay so yes it's both it's both an attitude thing as well as a physical event that actually that actualized and so when the lord jesus said and they said what with the signs of your coming and he said i think probably the most specific thing he said actually was learn from the prophet daniel in what was in recent memory um when you see the abomination that causes desolation now if you look at that specific instance which would have been traumatic for the people of israel and in this regard most traumatic the antiochus allied with um assimilated hellenized jews to slaughter fellow god-fearing bible-believing jews so if we're going to learn something even today in the church we do have a tension between those who want to assimilate with the culture of the day and and those who say no this is god's word and i'm afraid that some of the most vicious attacks on us and on god fearing bible-believing christians actually come from those who once grew up in the church so this this is the warning absolutely and that i think was what was most traumatic to the people of israel the time of the maccabees where you actually had your own fellow jews conspiring with the tyrant to destroy you i mean the the thing about buildings which you need which we we see working out here and i'm not against building please don't get me i'm not against buildings but what we have to be very very careful of is the buildings themselves become a means by which you know basically the buildings have to be maintained more than what they actually were created for i mean i'll give an example a couple of weeks ago we went to a concert in ely cathedral and as we were walking in uh janice and i said it's like walking into the temple when jesus walked in all the different stalls selling all their cr not even christian ways christmas wares all the different rudolphs and all sorts of things all these stalls going around and i'm thinking my goodness me why has this happened it's because you've got this vast building and they've got to maintain it and so what happens is you end up compromising compromising what what you actually believe and and and buildings can because people aren't giving are they and it's the symbol it's the symbolism i mean i i i you know i went i visited the the the chapel at uh united states air force base at mildenhall and it's a remarkable well the the guy who was the senior chaplain at that time was a baptist a lieutenant colonel or lieutenant colonel as he would call himself and he chilled me around and he told me and he showed me the the this building and he he said right watch this and he pressed a button and a cross just went by a mechanism and it was a church he pressed another button the cross went out and the symbol of islam came in and he pressed another button and the symbol of israel and a jewish star came in and then a crucifix and it was all ultimate it was i mean it was a credit to the ingenuity of the united states airports but it's a it it's really now what would happen is what are we actually saying for example to people we're actually saying we're all a mishmash we're all the same there's there's nothing there's no difference between this it's it's peoples of faith peoples of faith and we're all the same now and the the uniqueness of the christian faith now that's what's going on here as well you know that that the uniqueness of a pilgrim people who are called by god is literally being watered down here yeah and god's reaction or god's response to that is just as they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations so will i choose their delusions and bring their fears on them you've got to notice that it is it starts with our delighting in something yes yeah there is i mean the alarm bell should be going sirens should be going off just ask yourself what do you delight in when you got a bit of time to yourself with a downtime what do you do well you may just switch on the tv and flick channels you may all sorts of things but really what do you delight in yeah yeah and these people were delighting in their abominations so god's response is i will choose their delusions and bring their fears on them because that's the path we've carved out for ourselves god won't get in our way and he will let us effectively stew in our own juice because we've turned our back on him you know and as you say it's a roller coaster thing so so okay so i'm throwing it and maybe i'm sort of pulling the brake or pushing the button to go faster but the um you mentioned earlier i i know you want to go on to the third temple you said what did you mean by that alan well no the second temple was destroyed nearly 2 000 years ago in 70 a.d right so we're coming up in another uh 50 years or so yeah uh it'll be 2 000 years uh there are there's a movement to uh build a third temple i think i'm not going to you know say whether this is of god or not but we do have to examine whether it's of god or not because it's i don't think it's an automatic answer because we've we've taken a journey through the very quick journey through the new testament where the lord jesus is the lamb who who's who who's slain and where where he's the high priest and where as it were the type has been fulfilled in the lord jesus that's right so you've got a question where is the need where is the need for a third temple because the only purpose a third temple will serve is to reinstitute animal sacrifice that's it and to re-establish the levitical priesthood now first of all and to light the menorah again like the menorah which has been not lit since actually i don't know this may be folklore or something but in the last 40 years of the temple before it was destroyed in 1870 i.e from the time of jesus the uh the western lamps which never went out or you know and was used to light the other lamps did go out so it's almost like god is saying now it's not in the bible so i'm not going to push it as doctrine it isn't all right but this is an external thing that from the time of jesus to the destruction of the temple that lamp which was kept lit by god's intervention it was a miracle didn't stay lit for those 40 years think of that you see so it's all part of our consideration that if people start talking about making plans to build the third temple it's not i don't think it's an automatic thing for us to support that no well i i i agree with that and i agree actually as generally that we shouldn't be running on bandwagons for the fulfillment of prophecy because they it will be fulfilled it's not actually us engineering anything it's like they say oh well it's the christian zionists who engineered you know balfour the balfour declaration and the modern state of israel absolutely rubbish i mean it's a miracle that these people came back from the four corners of the earth you know in fulfillment of prophecy but putting that aside you can look at certain passages and you say well as christians we believe that the actual the type has been fulfilled in jesus but that doesn't mean that the prophecy of it being rebuilt won't happen but it won't be a place that can be blessed of god but it's saying that you know there is this this abomination that causes desolation that jesus warned something of that scale that would happen in the holy place that's all you can say but i totally agree i mean you can get completely caught up with you know trying to blow up the um dome of the rock or something you know and how can we manage to get you know this gershon solomon to get his foundation stone in i don't think we're going to pull it off to be honest i'm not sure i'm sure we've got time to examine this because we've got very little because but i'd like to introduce it and maybe what and maybe we need this concept of delusion yes because i i think we're living in an age of delusion which is actually being exacerbated uh by you know internet internet facebook or all youtube and all sorts of things conspiracy theories all sorts of things like that and for example in in second thessalonians 2 the apostle paul says one of the signs of the times before the lord comes back is where there will be a time of delusion and for this reason 2 corinthians 2 verse 11 ii thessalonians 2 verse 11. and for this reason god will send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who do not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and there's there seems to be an age these days where there is delusion and truth are held up as equal as equal as equal and you know the old saying you you you're welcome to your own opinion but you're not welcome to your own facts and and i think that that that is really so true that that we we had an age which has come to an end which was called the age of enlightenment where we had 200 years of great scientific progress and general progress because it was the age of enlightenment where where facts prevailed and evidence-based uh judgments prevailed now we're getting to the stage where where delusions you know where you can see something on the internet and and you believe it like you know as a you know and conspiracy theories pervade the whole of western christianity at this moment in time and we have a secular world and the second no no but i'm not i'm the last man i'm not interested i'm not interested but that's why i think we need to talk about delusions and i'd like us to think we'll do that next week you know do that next week because we're running out i i when i think of the enlightenment i think of in the national gallery the painting of holbein where you have these grand scientific proud ambassadors um who have ignored the cross that's hidden in the corner tiny little cross behind the curtain and i suppose our role today is is not a as a unit have alternative facts you know we've got the evidence that speaks of god's glory it does fit in with god's word and we have to bring the cross back from behind the curtain so that people can understand the state of man's hearts and the real solution to the problems of the modern world and we'll see you next week and discuss more you

Channel: Revelation TV

Views: 10,108

Keywords: Bible Study, Studying, Bibles, Isaiah, 66, Chapters, Verses, Part 1, Series, Ministry, Deliver, Message, God, Generations, Heaven, Hell, Earth, Footstool, Discussion, Learning, Teaching, Preaching, Gospel, Revelation TV, UK, London

Id: o9dwJ2Iocto

Length: 55min 0sec (3300 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 25 2019