Through the Bible (Ezekiel 40-41)

we're in the home stretch here of the book of ezekiel but i gotta say these last chapters are somewhat considered tedious you don't see a lot of churches go through this and there's a reason because they um they don't see it as important frankly have you ever wondered why it is that churches feel like it's okay to just skip certain scriptures um there's an attitude out there that's kind of i'm concerned about that says you know certain bible passages well that's you know who wants to hear about the dimensions of a temple that well in fact the reason i think a lot of people don't go over this is because what they think this temple is or is not that's the problem you see depending on your eschatological view that's a fancy word for end times view you know your what you think is going to happen a lot of the people that have that pre you know pre millennial pre-trib you know uh kind of you like we do you kind of have to read the whole bible and you realize everything's important there's other views out there like the millennial view or the preterist view that kind of says ah everything's just figurative or it's already happened so it doesn't really matter that's kind of the attitude that happens so you won't see a you know an amillennialist church go through ezekiel's uh section here on the the millennial temple um because some people say it's not even something that's gonna be real it's just all figurative it's some you know thing that doesn't mean anything to us today so forget it but i believe the bible every verse every chapter every book is important for us and that's why we don't skip anything paul said to the ephesus elders there in acts chapter 20 says i have not shunned to declare unto you the whole council of god the idea is every word that god teaches in his holy word and that's why we go through these these more difficult passages if you want to call them that i suppose you could call them difficult but i also think they're appropriate and important for us today so we'll take a look at this ezekiel chapter 40. in fact if you're jotting down notes you can kind of note that basically chapters 40 through 43 gives us the description of the temple and uh chapters 44 uh and uh through 46 is the worship in the temple and 47 through 48 is the land around the temple okay so the first section here that we'll look at tonight see how far we get tonight is the description of the temple now by the way there there's a few things that we need to maybe nail down there's a lot of confusion as it relates to how many temples there are in the bible does anyone even take a guess how many temples are there listed either past present or future in the bible temples anybody somebody said 4 five anybody have six times six yeah i don't know how to do where's dan is dan here i should get the auctioneer guy here up here yeah okay somebody sticks some people in fact you might even say some of the more scholarly people say there's only two temple periods or two temples um depending on who you're talking to um i'm going to give you nine but i'm going to stretch it i'll i'll admit it i'm going gonna stretch some but but maybe it's not a stretch but uh i i think these are all temples the bible does talk about and you can sort out which ones you want to delineate as real temples or temples that we can talk about but when it comes to the academic people they'll usually talk about the first temple period and the second temple period one and two and we'll kind of point those out but the first temple is not really a temple but i'm going to include it in my list so number one is the tabernacle itself right there was the tabernacle and it wasn't a temple really but it was doing the exact same thing a temple does the tabernacles where god's glory dwelt with the ark of the covenant table show bread the candlesticks the altar of incense the same the altar the the labor all the elements of the temple were there just it was portable it was a it was a tent uh there and the tabernacle was around 1500 bc uh when um you know or thereabouts when uh moses and the gang built the tabernacle on their wilderness wandering so temple number one we'll just call that the tabernacle okay number two we'll call solomon's temple now of the scholarly people this is the first temple uh they would say solomon's temple now the thing is remember david wanted to build this temple but because he was a man of war and had blood on his hands you recall that he wasn't allowed to build this temple but he but he's procured all the uh building materials and stocked up all the gold and silver and lumber and rebar and concrete or whatever they got all that stuff was stacked up ready to roll so that when solomon came along all he had to do is put it together and build it and that was about 1000 bc when david wanted to build the temple but eventually his son solomon would build the temple and this this temple do you guys remember when was the temple of solomon wiped out destroyed 586 bc right the babylonians this is the ezekiel time this happened right when ezekiel is writing this about the millennial temple that we're about to read about here um ezekiel's writing right after that glorious temple of solomon that had been around for hundreds and hundreds of years is now destroyed just recently in ezekiel's time that would be the the solomon's temple and sometimes that's called the first temple okay then you go to what we're gonna call the second temple okay and that's what scholars call the second devil it was um you know after the 70 years of captivity of the children of israel you know in about 5 16 remember the date goes backward because we're bc so 586 the solomon's temple was destroyed about 516 bc another temple was built by zerubbabel assisted by haggai and zachariah and do you remember the the response of the people when they built the the second temple after solomon's temple was destroyed seven years later they built this new temple uh in jerusalem do you remember what were the old people thinking about it they were weeping oh it's not like the solomon's temple what were the young people saying about it wow we have a temple this is awesome and the lord used that temple uh it's kind of an interesting thing i find that pattern in the church today uh just depending on who you are and where you're from and what your proclivities are some there's some people in our church oh brett you just you need to sing the hymns as they're weeping as they hear the praise music today meanwhile the young people are like oh praise the lord this is this just music touches my soul and the old verse like no it's not like the good old days just like the temple um uh or or some of you you know maybe even i've found this as ac creek has grown and stuff some of you old school lady crickets oh i remember the old days when we used to just simple praise songs brett and his guitar and and now it's so complicated and all these words on the walls and stuff and um i'm just so confused um you're weeping while other people are rejoicing people are piling in the church and we love to see what the lord's doing here but yeah it's hard it is hard that's just human nature to see the things we love and then they kind of go away in time but the lord moves in different ways in saundry times in xander's manners so the second temple was was built by as a rubbable in the gang herod's temple is the fourth one now some people don't call this a temple period or a different temple um the reason why sometimes they're they combined herod's temple with zerubbabel's temple or the second temple is because some say it wasn't a new temple at all it's a remodel um it's just a simple remodel so technicality but here's what happened if you recall zerubbabel's temple was built in 516 bc the second double but herod's temple um and i do mean ruler by the name of herod he was wanting to sort of make good with the jews but the jews always hated herod the great but herod did this anyway he was trying to make good with the jews trying to win favor of the jews so he started right around 19 bc he started building or what i say maybe better remodeling the the temple of zerubbabel the second temple um and the reason some people don't call it a remodel is because if you saw what it was after it doesn't look anything like zerubbabel's temple herod the great's temple was pretty glorious and pretty amazing um so he started it check this out in 19 bc and it wasn't completed until 64 a.d long after you know jesus came and then died on the cross and ascended into heaven like like all that happened and then the temple wasn't even finished yet when jesus saw herod's temple that was the time during christ jesus wasn't even seeing the real completed version of it totally but you remember the disciples brought hey jesus check out the temple he's like yeah not one of these stones will uh stay on on another 64 a.d when it was finished when was that one destroyed a.d just like six years later uh right after they'd spent all that time building it it was destroyed by the romans in uh by titus 70d we talked about that last sunday okay so so far if you're traveling with we've got the tabernacle might count as a temple you've got the first temple which is solomon's temple you got the second temple which was the rebuilt temple from the destruction of 586 zerubbabel and those guys and then you got herod's temple that went all the way through the life of christ and then destroyed uh in a.d 70. now some people say that's it it's all the temples we have to talk about but it's not number five jesus's body jesus's body yes do you remember john it down he wrote john chapter 2 verse 19 jesus talked about how his own body was a temple uh to the lord himself god was in his temple in fact he said if you destroy this temple in three days i'll raise it up remember jesus talked about that so jesus's body was compared to the temple of the lord that's the fifth one so see i'm being a little loose here with temples uh but technically in the bible jesus said that so i want you to be aware of that the next one number six is the body of christ the church of jesus christ um first corinthians chapter three ephesians chapter two those those chapters teach us that uh the church of jesus christ is the temple um and you're not supposed to shun the body of christ uh have you ever noticed people that uh like to say i don't really believe in organized religion i don't like going to church where the gods people are um then you are doing something the bible says not to do don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together and just because you don't like organized religion as it turns out the lord does so you have a problem uh you you are saying i don't like something that the lord actually loves and purchased with his own blood the church of jesus christ i hope you got you got to remember that when you put down the church or knock the church i find it interesting that people like to just take jabs at the church of jesus christ and it's not hard to do we're a very flawed bunch of people i find it amazing that people find it amazing that churches are flawed you know what i mean it's like oh wow there's sinners in the church oh big news flesh yeah we're all sinners we're but we're still the church of jesus christ he's the head of the church he's the one that we look to it's not about the pastor it's not about the church itself or the building it's not about the movement that's happening coming or going it really is about the church of jesus christ the body of christ very important and then number seven your own body right paul says there in first corinthians 6 19 what don't you know that your body is a temple to the holy ghost okay now let's get to number eight now we're back to literal temples uh in jerusalem are you are you still with me so far temple number eight is the tribulation temple uh it's yet to be built um but here's here's what the the cool stuff about this one the tribulation temple is going to be different than the other ones in that it's going to not include the outer courtyard we'll talk about that in a second but the reason why is it's trodden down under the gentiles the bible says which is really interesting if you look at the temple mount today where the ancient temple of you know the lord was in jerusalem you could build the temple itself on this open space near the dome of the rock shrine that i was showing you pictures of on sunday right next to it's a big open area you could build it there but there's not enough room to build the whole you know temple and the outer courtyard but the bible says the tribulation temple will not include the outer courtyard interesting kind of cool but that temple will be rebuilt when well the bible tells us and and we've talked about the timeline of the end times the the tribulation period that seven years of tribulation after the rapture of the church right after that is when i believe they'll build the temple what brett you think they can build the temple in three and a half years of course that's no sweat especially in modern times especially because of things like the temple institute in jerusalem did you know that the temple institute a bunch of jews who have said we want to rebuild the temple and they've been working on this for a long long time the jews in jerusalem in the tub i used to take our group there but the problem was i noticed our group would fall asleep during the presentation it was it was i think i was interested and everybody was like oh man they're all tired from walking around jerusalem and so they were sleeping through the president so i i don't go there as much but it is kind of a it is interesting these people have gathered they've put together all the furniture the lamp stands the candlesticks the the table of showbread the altar they've got all the gold and all the stuff they need to build the temple again and now the the jews in jerusalem they don't know they're building the tribulation temple they just want to build that temple back in jerusalem because the jews don't believe in jesus or the second coming of jesus they don't believe in the new testament account of that so they have no idea that they're building they're getting ready to build the next temple which the bible says is going to be that tribulation temple where do you remember what's going to happen three and a half years into the tribulation what's going to happen anybody right the abomination of desolation and it's not a movie coming soon to a theater near you because movies don't go to theaters anymore but but it's actually that time that daniel chapter 9 matthew chapter 24 talks about this event where this coming world leader will defile that temple and exalt himself and will demand to be worshipped there in that tribulation temple that's going to happen during the tribulation period so i believe that will be built and done by three and a half years into that seven year period called the tribulation now what's going to happen to that temple i don't know but i think it will be destroyed perhaps during the tribulation toward the end there maybe but we'll talk about that further so that's temple number eight we've got one more left uh and that is ezekiel's temple the final temple or the millennial temple uh this is the one that ezekiel is seeing in chapters 40 through 48 to the end of this book the the temple that will be rebuilt during the millennial kingdom now what's going to be unique about this temple think about it during the millennial kingdom where will jesus be ruling from jerusalem during the millennial kingdom so this is going to be the first temple where the lord himself will be a part of this temple the lord himself will rule from this place in jerusalem and so this is this is different i want you to know with me tonight as we kind of read some of this some of the things that are absent from this temple that we're about to read about that is in all the other um you know i'll call them hardware versus software so so far i gave you nine uh sort of hardware software but the tabernacle hardware solomon's temple hardware second temple hardware uh herod's temple yes jesus's body is more of a software temple if you know what i mean like where where the holy ghost fills jesus the body of christ and your body those are the ones the lord's doing during this church age we are the temple of the holy spirit right now but back to the hardware temples in the tribulation number eight and then also during the millennial kingdom it's going to be a legitimate real literal temple now the reason that the you know preterists or the all amillennialists don't like to read these chapters because it doesn't mean anything if you think it's all figurative some of them try to say well this is a description of one of the ancient temples they try to make this argument that ezekiel's just seeing a vision of you know the herod's temple hair of the greats um the only problem with that is this temple that he's going to describe looks nothing like herod the great temple zip zilch nada not even close if you're looking at the details um so i i think that argument falls away really quickly there's never been a temple in the history of the world built like the one ezekiel's about to explain uh and you know there's similarities of course but nothing even close um and this one is is bigger and kind of more impressive in some ways but uh not in other ways and so um we have to ask why is that and and um and so when people say oh it's all figurative so my question is if it's all figurative why do we spend so much time talking about the measurements and how long things are and where the windows go and you know i i believe that the lord doesn't just waste paper on the bible and say well it's all figured it doesn't mean anything no this is something this is a blueprint we're looking at a blueprint tonight of the temple so let's take a look uh oh man i'm already way behind here we go chapter 40 verse one it says in the five and twentieth year of our captivity in the beginning of the year in the tenth day of the month in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten in the self-same day the hand of the lord was upon me and brought me thither and the visions of god brought me into the land of israel and set me upon a very high mountain which was the frame of a city on the south and he brought me thither and behold there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass with a line of flex in his hand and a measuring reed and he stood in the gate and the man said unto me son of man behold with thine eyes and hear with thine ears and set thine heart upon all that i shall show thee for to the intent that i might show them unto thee thou art brought hither declare all that thou seest to the house of israel so in another vision ezekiel's going to see and and he's he's going to he's hearing this from a guy that i'm going to call measurement men who's measurement man we'll check them out it says uh verse three the only bro there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass by the way brass in the bible is a picture of a type of or you know the the type is of judgment by the way it's kind of interesting but this guy who has the appearance of brass with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed this guy is standing there with a ruler and he's going to measure out everything and we're going to see him measure how big and tall and wide and deep all these structures are of the temple measurement man now what's interesting about this guy is he also shows up in the book of revelation mr measurement man who is this guy as we get into this in ezekiel perhaps we'll talk more about some of the mysterious things about this guy who's got the tape measure i remember when i was a kid i i loved playing with my dad's tape measure um you know and i'd run around the house maybe i was a weirdo but i'd measure everything i just thought it was interesting to find out the dimensions of things and that's what this guy does he goes around measuring everything and he shows ezekiel the exact dimensions of this temple and what have you but notice i want to show you the there's kind of four things ezekiel's supposed to do that i find are good things for you and me as well check it out in verse four there's four things he says son of man number one behold with thine eyes um ezekiel was supposed to look and see what the lord was showing him to see it but then secondly here with thine ears to hear it and then and then thirdly to set thine heart upon all that i shall show thee it's almost like the lord showed him and and sounded off the the description of the temple but he wanted the ezekiel to internalize it in his heart and this is where you and i have to say lord is this something you want us to internalize and what does this mean to us well i believe this has a lot to do with us in that you and i are going to be around during this millennial period the question is do you want to be a tourist or do you want to be a tour guide when you get to heaven and and when when the millennial kingdom comes and christ returns to this earth and he's ruling from the temple here do you want to know what this temple is about or or not and i think the lord wants us to internalize it this is a real deal and we're going to be involved in this uh later on in the future you know if you've ever built a house when i was a kid we built houses so one of the ways my parents kind of you know got ahead was you know my dad worked hard all day and then he'd come home and start building and we built uh several three or four houses as a kid growing up we live in a travel trailer and he'd build at night we turned the headlights of the pickup on and worked till 11 o'clock at night and uh and then when we finish that house we'd sell it and then go build another house and that's just kind of how we did it but um but i remember you know you'd always have the blueprints and with the blueprints you could almost see how it was going to look and shape up now you have all this 3d imaging and these programs you can fly through your house now and see how it's going to look and feel in a way that's what ezekiel's getting to do he's getting to sort of do a fly-through only it's it's a little difficult for us because it's king james and it's dimensions and things that are kind of hard to picture so um i'm going to try to help us with this but but uh but it says you know take it into your heart so you got you know behold with your eyes here with your ears set in your heart and then fourthly and finally declare all that thousands to the house of israel that's what we're supposed to do hear see see hear internalize and then declare it that's something you and i should all do when we read the word and we hear god's word a lot of people leave the last one out they're afraid to talk about the word of god in this day that we live and to talk about the bible is not something that people are really brave about but i think we should be bold and declare what the lord has shown us and revealed to us and and the gospel message we shouldn't be afraid or ashamed of the gospel declare it by the way sometimes i wonder if the lord's declaring has to do with you're distributing if the have you ever felt like man i just don't get the bible i just don't understand i just don't really it doesn't mean anything to me like it used to or this or that here's the thing that i want to remind you of um remember abraham when god came with the two angels and the mysterious man that we know as a christophany and they came and and the lord asked rhetorically should i hold this thing back and declare it or should i tell abraham what i'm about to do to sodom the lord asks the rhetorical question and then he answered his own question he says i'm going to share it to abraham because i know that abraham will will pass it on to his his children and his children's children he will he'll he'll hear it and he'll communicate it in other words god's revelation what he's about to do was based on abraham's willingness to distribute what he would receive you know i heard it said once god's revelation is not based on accumulation as much as it is on distribution if you want to receive from the lord great understanding of the word the best thing you can do is distribute what you're receiving and hearing the best fastest growth i've ever had in my life i remember when i first started teaching sunday school you know by the time i was 12 i'd been through the bible with my pastor and you know you 12 year old i thought i knew everything but man as soon as i started teaching the bible i was like what a dunce i really was i don't make a dunce out of any of us when you try to teach the the holy word of god that is amazing and powerful it makes you kind of realize oh man i know nothing but the revelation god gives you or understanding about his word i think it comes faster and more readily when you're distributing what you're hearing and when you're teaching and sharing whether it be with your kids your family your co-workers your neighborhood not being obnoxious but but being willing to share the things that the lord's been showing you well that's what ezekiel's told you're going to see it you're going to hear it you're going to internalize it in your heart and then i want you to speak it out and share it to the people of israel so that's what he's going to do and that's why we're reading it today because ezekiel you know comes through now in verse 5 is where we start the description of ezekiel's temple now before we read that let me show you a little bit of a a little bit of a map of that we've got here that i want to kind of give you an overview of this ezekiel's temple the first thing i want to show you is is how massive this temple is going to be in the millennial kingdom uh because all the measurements are given but if if i kind of zoom in on this lower uh you know the black and white image there you see the american football field right there that's that's the american football field in the lower lower section there that's how big it is comparatively so it's a fairly large temple mount area for the ezekiel's temple as far as the size goes and what have you but all that to say the first thing we're going to look at here is the outer court or pardon me the east gate of the outer court we talked about the east gate of jerusalem in the second coming of christ this will be the east gate in the millennial kingdom okay so it's a little different the east gate it's going to be a rebuilt east gate so let's read about this east gate right here in in chapter 40 verse 5. it says behold a wall on the outside of the house round about and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and a hand breadth so he measured the breadth of the building one reed and the height one reed then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east and went up the stairs thereof and measured the threshold of the gate which was one reed broad and the other threshold of the gate which was one reed broad and every little chamber was one reed long and one reed brought and between the little chambers were five cubits and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed he measured also the porch of the gate within one reed the measure then measured he the porch of the gate eight cubits and the post thereof two cubits and the porch of the gate was inward and the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side and three on that side and they were of one measure and the post had one measure on this side and one on that side and he measured the breadth of the entry of the gate 10 cubits and the length of the gate 13 cubits and the space also before the little chambers was one cubit on this side and the space was one cubit on that side and the little chambers were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side there will be a test afterwards verse 13 and he measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another and the breath was 5 and 20 cubits door against door he made also post of three score cubits even unto the post of the court round about the gate and from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were 50 cubits and there were narrow windows with little chambers and to their posts within the gate round about and likewise to the arches and windows were round about inward and upon each post were palm trees now now um some of this you say brett now i know why churches aren't reading this chapter uh it's like wow this is like reading like a blueprint exactly that's what we're doing um when you're building i remember we were building this church building uh you know we had blueprints and we had to hammer through the details and it was tedious hours and hours and hours of work uh just making sure everything was right and everything's gonna fit and planning for the phase two and all the things that we were trying to you know it was a little bit like a rubik's cube trying to figure this thing out but it was worth it going through it and in the same way i think we have to kind of look at this blueprint and familiarize ourselves with kind of what this millennial temple is going to be but one thing is these gates are very different than the biblical gates the biblical gates of the of the temple and what have you had more to do with military defense where the armies couldn't just burst into the temple mount these gates are just big fancy gates and they're not really meant to keep out military arms and what have you um does anybody want to guess why this one is not as concerned about military issues jesus don't need the military anymore jesus is there he is the power he is in control so that's one of the things you see different in this it's not a bunch of walls and turrets and places for soldiers to guard and stand you don't see that in this temple as much this temple almost looks very exposed compared to uh herod's temple or solomon's temple or zerubbabel's temple those had very much defense in mind when you look at the you know the way that they took those up but this east gate is very grandiose and very tall um and you can't see it but there's little chambers inside there and we're going to talk about those in a second when it comes to those inner gates uh in just a minute so you've got this now now as we kind of look at this whole picture here um the outer court is that you know square that um that is kind of the tan color not the red color um that's called the the pavement the lower pavement but the outer court is that big square area there um and that's described in verses 17 through 19. it says in verse 17 then brought he me into the outward court and lo there were chambers and a pavement made for the court round about 30 chambers were upon the pavement and the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate into the forefront of the inner court without 100 cubits eastward and northward okay so you've got this you know this basically this whole right this this whole square right here is the outer court but notice it says the 30 chambers that's what all these little boxes are um the these corners are the uh sort of the kitchen for the priests but all these other there's actually 30 of these little chambers here uh and we'll talk about what those chambers are uh perhaps a little bit later but they're not as much the living chambers for the priests we'll talk that's coming later but they're preparatory chambers and what have you so the chambers are not on the outer courtyard now by the way in the herod temple and also solomon's temple um the the the temple was considered you know the outer courtyard all the way in as soon as you were outside of the outer courtyard you were no longer on the temple or considered at the temple this is great because do you remember when jesus came into jerusalem and he was in what was called the court of the gentiles that's sort of the equivalent to the lower pavement you weren't in the specific temple of the lord if you were a jew in jerusalem in that time but jesus goes into the court of the gentiles and remember what he saw there he found changers of money sitting and they were ripping off the people and they were selling things at exorbitant prices so people that came to worship had to spend a lot of money they were ripping off people and making tons of money well jesus comes and wipes out the tables and you know makes a scourge of salt small cords and says take these things hence and then he says something that would have blown the jews away and make not my father's house a house of merchandise why would that have blown him away because in the jewish mind the gentile court was not part of the father's house jesus was including the court of the gentiles with the father's house does anybody want to take a guess why well it's because of what jesus came to do he didn't come to die for the sins of just the jews jesus came to save the whole world from the sins of the whole world the gentiles included we would be that gentile branch grafted into the vine remember all that stuff and jesus was the one who included us in the father's house even though the jews wouldn't even have let the the gentile come on to the inner court there by the way there was a fence during that herod's herod's the greats temple and there were placards they've actually found archaeologically some of these placards that were there on the temple fence and it said if any gentile steps over this fence he has only himself to blame for his ensuing death that's what it said he's like welcome to the temple if you're a gentile you're going to die if you cross this line gentiles were not allowed onto the courtyard of the temple they could only be up as close as the court of the gentiles i love how jesus said no make not my father's house a house of merchandise speaking at the court of gentiles anyway all that to say the temple speaks of so many things we could talk about this all night i suppose but um as we kind of uh zoom in there we see that that in the outer court um and then we we start to come to the north gate here which is really the same as the east gate and let's read through this verse 20. and the gate of the outward court that looked toward the north he measured the length thereof and the breadth thereof and the little chambers thereof were three on this side and three on that side and the posts thereof were the arches um and the arches thereof were after the measure of the first gate the length thereof was 50 cubits the breadth 5 and 25 cubits and their windows and their arches their palm trees were after the measure of the gate that looks toward the east and they went up into it by seven steps and arches were uh uh before them and the the gate of the inner court was over against the gate toward the north and toward the east gate or toward the east pardon me and he measured from gate to gate 100 cubits now if you're really interested there's more to talk about on all this stuff um uh even the numbers of things uh one of the things that's interesting in solomon's temple the steps were six steps uh but on this temple in the millennial kingdom there's seven steps anybody want to take a stab at what that's talking about well if you know your the numbers of the bible six is the number of man um you also know it's the number of the mark of the beast 666 but it's actually the number of man six the number of seven in the bible is is um you know completion and perfection and i believe this temple is speaking of that time period where it's not as much human a human priest like aaron it's actually the perfect priest jesus who completes he's the perfect high priest and uh completion and perfection is what we see here in this millennial kingdom so there's little nuances that we could probably spend a lot of time talking about but um if you're interested you can you can dive do a deep dive into this and study these chapters and see the comparisons and the contrast of all these things well that brings us to the south gate there toward the southern steps there in uh in jerusalem it says here in verse 24 after that he brought me toward the south and behold the gate toward the south and he measured the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof roundabout like those windows the length was 50 cubits and the breadth 5 and 20 cubits and there were seven steps to go up to it and the arches thereof were before them and it was had palm trees one on this side and the other on that side upon the post thereof and there was a gate in the inner court toward the south and he measured from gate to gate toward the south 100 cubits so we got these measurements distances it's all detailed there basically each gate is the same east north south there is no west gate but there is a mysterious thing on the west side that we'll talk about here as we get kind of uh further into this discussion so the next thing you have is the gates to the inner court if you'll notice it looks like we've got duplications this is like legos you know you just stuck legos on the on the board you know um and these these inner court gates are seemingly pretty close to the same as the out outer gates there so a person coming in they'd go through the main gates and then they'd walk you know several hundred feet back to the next gate that would bring you to the the altar or what have you um by the way i didn't mention this a cubit you guys know how long a cubit is right we don't know exactly but it's somewhere around 18 inches that's what they believe and they believe that they generally measured a cubit from the tip of a person's finger to their elbow that was a cubit so they had hand breadths and they had a cubit of measurement that they would use to to do this but you say well how would they know maybe there was you know andre the giant measuring a cubit and then you had you know danny devito uh measuring a cubit like how do you know what's a real qubit well that's why they would have the read they would have a standard measurement of a read that would be marked and they'd use that read to make sure all their measurements were exact uh and that's what what measurement man is all about here well uh so you got the the the gates to the inner courts and starting in verse 28. and he brought me to the inner court by the south gate and he measured the southgate according to these measures and the little chambers thereof and the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures and there were windows in it uh the arch is thereof round about it and it was 50 cubits long and 5 and 20 cubits broad and the arches round about were five and 20 cubits long and five cubits brought and the arches thereof were toward the outer court and palm trees were upon the post uh thereof and the going up to it had eight steps hmm did you notice the change of numbers anybody know what the number eight is in the bible yes new beginnings six is the number of man seven is the number of completion or perfection eight in the bible is new beginnings interesting that the closer you get to the altar the closer you have to new beginnings there's some interesting numbers there that are kind of fascinating why they put these various steps in the way that they did so the new beginnings that steps up to the um the throne here and by the way six steps also on solomon's temple on this part so i went from seven to eight where i was six and six uh solomon's kind of interesting guy um the bible tells us that solomon's salary wages every year as uh king was 666 shekels uh which is kind of interesting but that's a whole other interesting number that we could talk about well verse 32 and he brought me into the inner court toward the east and he measured the gate according to these measures and the little chambers thereof and the post thereof and the arches thereof were according to these measures and there were windows therein and arches thereof round about it was 50 cubits long and 5 and 20 cubits broad the arches thereof were toward the outward court and the palm trees were upon the post thereof on this side and on that side and the going up to it had eight steps and he brought me to the north gate and measured it according to these measures the little chambers thereof the posts thereof and the arches thereof and the windows to it round about and the length was uh 50 cubits and the breadth 5 and 20 cubits and the posts thereof were toward the utter court and the palm trees were upon the post thereof on this side on that side and then going up to it had eight steps okay so basically uh we've kind of rubber stamped these big fancy gates um the thing that you might be thinking about those if you're a pilgrim coming to the jerusalem to make a sacrifice on the altar what would you do you'd have to go through one of the outer gates but then you come into the inner gate there toward the altar and some believe that's where the sacrifice would be prepared by the priest and by the person bringing the sacrifice so there's like a shaded area with little inner chambers where they can store some of their materials that they need and what have you now some of you might be saying brett why are they going to have sacrificial altar there in the millennial kingdom um we'll we'll answer that hopefully here in a bit that's a good question glad you asked now we we come to uh verse 38 which speaks of the rooms that were prepared for making sacrifice now there's a little bit of debate on where these rooms are some people say the little rooms are in the gates themselves the inner gates there others say no the rooms are uh near one of those buildings near the temple you'll see the stair step building next to the temple that's not where this would be but some of the other rooms might be where these chambers are of preparation that we read about uh here in verses 38 through 43 the the rooms for preparing sacrifice verse 38 and the chambers and the entries thereof by the post of the gates where they washed the burnt offering and in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side and two tables on that side to slay they're on the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering there's some other offerings missing here you might notice for you bible students the peace offering you you say brad i i don't understand why there's going to be any offering here why are they going to have to do this during the millennial kingdom well as it turns out there's a couple reasons i believe this this could be happening that you might want to talk about let's keep reading and i'll go into it in here in a second so uh verse 40 and on the side without as one goes up to the entry of the north gate where there were two tables and on the other side which was at the porch of the gate were two tables four tables were on this side and four tables on that side and by the side of the gate lots of slaying tables for the sacrifice eight tables whereupon they slew their sacrifices and the four tables were of hume stone for the burnt offering of a cubit and a half long and a cubit and a half broad and one cubit high whereupon they also laid the instruments when they slew the burnt offering and the sacrifice and within were hooks and hand broad fastened roundabout and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering so um interesting um will there will there be offering sacrifices during the millennial kingdom yes by the way will they be making sacrifice offerings in the tribulation temple the answer is yes daniel 9 says they're going to do that as well you might say well brad i don't get it if jesus is going to be there why would they even need sacrifice and people people debate this and i wouldn't die on this battlefield but let me give you a few possibilities question why did they sacrifice animals in the old testament was it for the remission of sin covering the old testament word for atonement is covering which is a funny word because the old testament word for atonement means to cover up um the new testament word for atonement means to do away with and i love that um so so here's let me let me ask the question that'll maybe give you a hint because it's hard you're like uh sacrifice is the old testament did they take away sins and some of you are a little nervous to answer that because it's a sketchy question but let me ask you this did the blood of bulls rams and goats actually fix this problem of sin no you know that because the book of hebrews says those bulls rams and goats that didn't take away sin there was only one jesus died the lamb of god that took away the sins of the world there was only one lamb whose blood did take away the sacrifice or take away the sins of humanity well then why did all those animals die well as it turns out the lord wanted them to use that to look forward to those sacrifices of the old testament were pointing forward in history to where jesus would ultimately make atonement for the sins of the whole world it's almost like the lord wanted them to look forward and say man there has to be bloodshed um this is something that i fear that portlanders we don't know about we go to a restaurant and have a steak and we we enjoy red meat which i do um i love it but i grew up on a farm like i was there when the butcher came and had that little you know 22 caliber i think it was a 22 magnum and put in the right place the cow with just a little round would just drop little you know you know we had we had three beef cows huey dewey and louie that's what we named them and uh i watched as our butcher came out and you know popped them and you know filleted them out and got the steaks and uh we ate hamburgers that night like seriously a lot of you portlander people get queasy me just talking about that but you see for the remission of sin there has to be blood without the shedding of blood there can be what no remission of sin and so the people of israel they needed to know the severity of their sins and to see fluffy who was once frolicking out in the flowers in the field is going to be dead now like can you imagine bringing your little lamb to the temple mount um and and they the the priest would then you know attach the lamb to the altar horn and then the person would put their you know they they give the lamb to the priest the priest then would put the the man's hand on the head of the um uh of the pr of the sacrifice and they would say we're giving this to the lord and then they would slit the lamb's throat right there and they'd watch you know as the lamb was taken off and there was a reality somehow to the sin that they were committing knowing that blood had to be shed so that's what they did in the old testament to look forward to when jesus came could it be that the millennial kingdom will be that which looks backward to what jesus did by the way in um when jesus died on the cross is there anything the lord uses today for us to look backward to the cross symbolically communion we in the new testament we don't do lambs bulls rams and goats we we go to the table of communion with the bread and the cup and that's looking backward to what jesus did on the cross for the church but after the church is raptured and taken up then the millennial kingdom will happen and there will be people on this earth who will be making sacrifice for their sins now you say brett wait a minute i thought we were gonna have our new bodies i didn't say we are gonna be making sacrifice see here's the thing when we're raptured we're going to be with the lord forevermore from that point on with the lord wherever the lord is that's where we get to be whether he's up or down or here or there we're going to be with the lord that's going to be great but we're going to be given our new bodies but who are these people that are going to be living during this time that will be caring as much about this temple it's going to be the people that live through the tribulation do you realize there's going to be real people kind of in our condition that will live through the tribulation very small group of people but they'll they'll uh be reproducing and the you know the the population will grow and they'll be using this temple where are we going to be well there's a lot we could talk about and ezekiel's going to talk about some of this stuff the jews are going to be involved with serving in the temple but we're not going to be as much using this temple as uh you know the church of jesus christ given our glorified bodies we'll talk more about this as ezekiel gets into it uh there's we're going to talk about the feast of tabernacles and all kinds of things that are going to be part of this millennial kingdom that's all coming but the idea is um to look forward to uh are part of me to look backward to the cross of jesus as they looked ahead in the old testament they'll look backward in remembrance and these tribulation survivors in their human you know bodies uh will still be uh a part of this sacrificial system of the temple during that time are you guys still with me on this good okay good now um it it brings us then to the the next part the rooms for the priest and there are several places that that really is both on the right side and the left side of the temple the stair-step building you see on the left side there we'll talk about in chapter 42 more detail but some of it's mentioned here these rooms for the priest in verse 44. it says and without the inner gate were the chambers of the singers uh in the inner court which was at the side of the north gate and their prospect was toward the south one having uh apparently one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north and he said unto me this chamber whose prospect is toward the south is for the priest the keepers of the charge of the house and the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests the keepers of the charge of the altar these are the sons of zadok among the sons of levi which come near to the lord to minister unto him so he measured the court 100 cubits long and 100 cubits broad four square and the altar that was before the house so you got the chambers of the of the priests they're numbered uh we'll we'll talk more about that in a bit verse 48 and he brought me now this is the temple itself the temple building and he brought me to the porch of the house and measured each post of the porch five cubits on this side five cubits on that side and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side and the length of the porch was 20 cubits and the breadth 11 cubits and he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it and there were pillars by the posts one on this side and one on that side anybody want to take a guess what the names of these pillars are this is only a guess but in the old testament they named these pillars of course you guys remember jacquin and boaz jacquin he will um uh uh he will what's what's the word anybody remember jakeem established thank you i couldn't remember it's good to have somebody in here who knows what they're talking about that's good he will establish and um and then boaz in him is strength uh that's the second pillar listed here and these two pillars in verse 49 might just be jakeen and boaz he will establish or he who establishes and uh and in him his strength interesting the pillars are named but those were big deals in the old testament makes you wonder if they'll be named that in the millennial kingdom now uh chapter 41 uh you know we've been through the courts now we go inside uh and and some some of you might be saying brett this is tough man last week you were talking about ezekiel 38 39 that's exciting stuff uh now we're talking about measurements measurement man and this is not as exciting but um can i remind you though you know i was just thinking about this as i was reading scripture you know it's it's interesting because paul told young timothy he said this until i come give attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine and neglect not the gift that is in the one of the things i think churches neglect is the reading of scripture in the in the um jewish you know synagogues they would often just read large chunks of scripture and let the scriptures stand for themselves and that's part of what we're doing tonight you know um we uh we don't have all the answers of all the what all this means to you and me but we do know that this temple that we're looking at here we do know that this is going to be something the lord cares about and he gives all this information to us for some reason and i don't even claim to know all the reasons why we're given such detail but we do know it's going to happen but even the fact that we're just reading through this and i'm going to kind of read through chapter 42 because or 41 because it's it's work but sometimes people say well brett i read through the bible in my personal devotion and it just goes through me like a sieve i don't get anything out of it but remember the water of the word this is the word of god is compared to water and if you run water through a sieve what do you have a clean sieve even though it goes right through you so you might say brett i don't get chapter 41 and what all this stuff about the temple and what it has to do with me and i don't get the nuances and all that stuff we'll join the club um i've not i've not met a lot of people who can make amazing stuff out of this and say wow and if you're trying to make stuff up you're probably off course anyway so you read this and understand this is the lord's word it's holy and it's all inspired so it does us well to read it amen amen let's take a look chapter 41 and afterward he brought me to the temple and measured the post six cubits brought on one side six cubits brought on the other side which was the breadth of the tabernacle and the breadth of the door was ten cubits and the sides of the door were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other side and he measured the length thereof forty cubits and the breadth twenty cubits then went he inward and measured the post of the door two cubits and the door six cubits and the breadth of the door seven cubits so he measured the length thereof twenty cubits and the breath 20 cubits before the temple and said unto me this is the most holy place and he measured the wall of the house six cubits and the breadth of every side chamber four cubits round about the house on every side and the side chambers were three one over another and um 30 in order and they entered into the wall which was of the house of the four side chambers round about that they might have hold but they had not hold in the wall of the house and there was an enlarging and a winding about still upward to the side chambers for the winding about the house went still upward round about the house thereof the breadth of the house was still upward and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst i saw also the height of the house round about the foundations of the side chambers were a full read of six great qubits the thickness of the wall which was for the side chamber without was five cubits and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within and between the chambers was the white uh the wideness of 20 cubits round about the house on every side and the doors were uh pardon me the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left one door toward the north another door toward the south and the breadth of the of the place that was left was five cubits roundabout now the building that was before the separate place um at the end of the the west was 70 cubits broad the wall of the building was five cubits thick roundabout and the length thereof was 90 cubits so he measured the house 100 cubits long and the separate place and the building with the walls thereof 100 cubits long also the breadth of the face of the house and of the separate place toward the east 100 cubits now this is a lot and i know you're kind of like oh boy this is tough but here's the thing the the the temple itself uh we'll see more about that as we get into this more into ezekiel but one of the things that i find mysterious is this verse 12 a separate place as it's called the building at the end toward the west and that that building that you see on the west side you remember the we're looking you know sort of you know north kind of nor we're actually looking uh uh northwest uh sort of but um but that building is not in any of the other temples uh there's a big building it's like a big gymnasium or something over there what is that and the answer we have no idea the lord has this big building there and we don't know what it's going to be used for at least i don't and none of the scholars that i've read know what that building's going to be but but it'll be interesting when you get to heaven and the millennial kingdom kicks into gear that'll be something you can figure out what is that building for somebody going to be playing hoops there uh is it going to be a conference center is it going to be a special place where we who knows but it is interesting it's a separate place as it's called in verse 12. um kind of mysterious the other parts we kind of know what the purpose is and what they're doing of course the holy of holies and all that we get that verse 15 and he measured measurement man he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it uh and the gallery's galleries uh thereon the one side and on the other side 100 cubits with the inner temple and the porches of the court the door posts and the narrow windows and the galleries round about on their three stories over against the door sealed with wood round about and from the ground up to the windows and the windows were covered so joanna gaines would love this got shiplap uh wood on the walls there going up the walls verse 17. to that above the door even unto the inner house and without and by all the wall round about within and without by measure and it was made with cherry bims and palm trees so that a palm tree was betray between a cherub and a cherub and every cherub had two faces so that the face of a man was on the one toward the palm tree on the one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side and it was made through all the house round about um interesting these cherubs with two faces all around the house and there's speculation what is this we know that cherubs can be angels but this is interesting that only has a face of a man and a face of a lion some say because of this it's maybe a reference to jesus himself both in his humanity but also in his royalty or deity the face of the lion jesus is the lion of the tribe of judah but he was also a hundred percent man 100 god 100 man the mystery of the trinity but some argue that that's what these cherubs all around the temple that they're they're pointing to jesus which by the way all of this stuff kind of points to jesus uh especially when you look at the you know solomon's temple or the tabernacle or any of these temples it all points to jesus in some one way or another so uh verse 20 from the ground and to the above the door were charitables and palm trees made on the wall of the temple and the posts of the temple were squared and the face of the sanctuary the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other um verse 22 now we have the uh altar of incense mentioned here in verse 22. the altar of wood was three cubits high and the length thereof two cubits and the corners thereof and the um the length thereof and the walls thereof were of wood and he said unto me this is the table that is before the lord and the table that the sanctuary and the sanctuary had two doors and the doors had two leaves a piece two turning leaves two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other door and there were made on them on the doors of the temple cherry beams and palm trees like as it were made upon the walls and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without and there were narrow windows and palm trees on this one side and on the other side on the sides of the porch and upon the side chambers of the house thick planks now i love this because i've always loved palm trees even when i was a kid i remember when i saw palm trees i was almost at grandma and grandpa's house because in oregon we didn't have very many palm trees if any but palm trees reminded me as a kid man we're going to be at the beach we're going to be at disneyland we're gonna be uh having a great time wherever there's palm trees you know i still feel good about that the bible says the righteous will flourish like the palm tree and it's interesting that the the millennial temple will have palm trees everywhere which uh i think speaking of his righteousness even as the scriptures declare it now one thing there are several things that you'll find mysteriously lacking or absent from this description of the temple itself and i'm just going to give you a few things and we'll call tonight uh the first thing number one that's missing is the veil of the temple there's no mention of a veil or a separation where the holy of holies are does anybody want to guess why jesus it's always the right answer uh remember there uh you know um hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 and 20 talk about how we enter into the holiest by a new and living way when jesus died on the cross remember what happened the veil of the temple was ripped from top to bottom there in the temple and it really was a symbol of the access that we have to god through jesus and that's why i believe the millennial temple will have no veil it's not mentioned here there's also no table of show bread bread of course speaks of jesus jesus will be there in the temple jesus said i am the bread of life so jesus the bread of life will be there in the millennial kingdom no need for that um number three there's no golden candle stick the golden candlestick spoke of jesus who said i am the light of the world and then he said like the branches of the candles like you are the lights of the world there's no need for the candlestick because the light jesus himself is there interesting that that's absent from this description there's also no ark of the covenant um by the way i i believe that there's a lot of people and for you indiana jones types that think i think i know where the ark of the covenant is and you'll hear people say you know whether it's the egyptian coptics saying we have the ark of the covenant hidden or the jews some of the jewish citics say they have the ark of the covenant buried deep in the jerusalem somewhere i don't believe them and the reason why is because you know you might jot this one down in your bible but jeremiah 3 16 talks about how the ark will be remembered no more it will be forgotten i don't think it's going to be found but but all that to say we don't need the ark of the covenant because the glory of god and the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant all is perfectly fulfilled in jesus so we don't need the ark we have jesus also um another thing you might note that's not here if you're if you were with us when we were tediously reading you know um the temple dimensions and all that stuff when solomon built the temple or even the tabernacle descriptions one of the things we read a lot about was gold and silver have we heard anything about gold or silver yet none now the jews might be saying oh this is nothing like the old temple of solomon's time but this is going to be way more glorious because gold is speaks of deity silver speaks of redemption and jesus is going to be that perfect fulfillment of deity in the temple there's no need for flashy gold because jesus is is deity he's going to be there and the redeemer of all is going to be the one in charge and the high priest serving from the temple and also prophet priest and king moving in all those roles that's what jesus will do in ezekiel's millennial temple so we'll pick up next week on more of the exciting chamber inner courts measurements uh and stuff like that but there actually are some pretty cool prophecies tucked away coming up as well in these last several chapters well lord we are thankful so much that we can look forward to um the perfect fulfillment of your word lord um this millennial kingdom is going to be something we it's almost makes our brains short circuit to try to think of what the millennial kingdom is going to be like but this temple lord we know this is something that ezekiel saw and you have plans and a purpose for it but i pray lord that until that happens that our bodies would be a temple where you're welcome where you come and serve and minister to our lives lord because you are the our great high priest lord and we thank you that we can have you filling our lives and lord we don't need gold or silver or the flashy things lord because we have you in our hearts and in our lives lord i pray that you would shine through us that your church would be on fire in these days we're living i pray that we wouldn't be shy or step away from our responsibility to know your word but i pray that you'd use these times on these wednesday nights that you might build up our faith and give us understanding of your truth so bless these people both here and online that are watching lord reward them for the work they've put into these chapters we pray this in jesus name amen you

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Length: 70min 34sec (4234 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021