"Where is the Temple of the Lord (Part 1)" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

the message today is where is the temple of the Lord and you'll notice it says part 1 because I don't expect to be able to get through in this material today but I think it's a very important Bible study that once we understand these themes a lot of the Bible begins to make more sense you know I do amazing facts every now and then and one location in the world I'd like to see I'm not been to is in Thailand and there is an ancient city there called Angkor Wat I don't know if any of you have ever been there and it's in the Cambodia it's the largest religious site in the world it composes about 240 square miles at one time it was the largest city in the world in the middle of it there's about 500 Inc acres that are dedicated to a temple and it's considered one of the the wonders you can say really ancient world because it was built about 900 years ago for hundreds of years or is pretty well unknown to Western civilization but then in about 1859 a gentleman by the name of Henry Mohawk a French explorer while traveling up the tributaries of the Mekong River in Siam Thailand Cambodia he came upon the ruins any weren't lost or anything the people there all knew about it but it was virtually unknown to the Western world and when he saw that the central temple with a spire over 200 feet tall nestled among four other spires and he used these words he set down one of these temples arrival to that of Solomon's was erected by some ancient Michelangelo it might take an honourable place besides our most beautiful buildings it is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism which the nation is now plunged when he there they were plunged into war and things were looking pretty primitive but he could see that a very sophisticated civilization had built this great city with a central temple had a moat three miles long 600 feet across the moat and they by hand dug it 13 feet deep out there in the jungle where there's you know a lot of rain a lot of rivers to help stabilize everything more stones went into building Angkor Wat then went into building the pyramids I think it was the 500 million tons of stone and they had to transport the stone 25 miles from its location it was five million tons sorry five million tons worth of stone and to transport it 25 miles it's an incredible thing and one of the things on my bucket list some day is to go to Cambodia there and and see that incredible sight the word Angkor Wat actually means city of temples city of temples and you know technically the Bible is a book of temples all the way through the Bible you'll find reference to the temple of God and other temples it talks about the temple of Dagon and the the different pagan temples but the Bible talks a lot about the subject of the temple and I realized when I had when I felt impressed to share this really it's gonna take more than I'll be able to cover in one presentation you find the word temple found 455 times in the Bible now that's not the only word used for temple sometimes it's used as the word sanctuary you find the word sanctuary an additional 1,000 T four times in the Bible house of God is mentioned 92 times in the Bible the Lord's house 24 times and tabernacle 357 times and so there are over a thousand references to the temple of the Lord in the Bible and so I thought maybe this is something we should talk about Jesus talked about it now the first you're going to find a reference to the temple of God it's in the book of Genesis it doesn't really use the word temple calls it the house of God and you can see here in Genesis 28 verse 16 the house of God has first mentioned when Jacob he's running from his brother's wrath he's sleeping out on the field by himself he dreams of this latter this escalator heavenly bridge that connects the heavens and the earth and on this escalator he sees angels going up and down bringing up prayer requests and bringing down power and answers and when he wakes up and he realizes about the dream that he's had it says in Genesis 28 16 Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it and he was afraid and he said how awesome is this place people overuse the word awesome today alright everything's awesome well yeah man that soda was awesome I mean everything's awesome with the kids today and the word sort of loses its impact but awesome is something that inspires reverence and he said this is a place that should inspire reverence this is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven men have always wondered are there places holier than other places where you could somehow communicate with heaven and people have gone on great pilgrimages to what they think are holy places where you could get closer to heaven and ostensibly this is the reason some people climb mountains so they could get a little closer to heaven and it is true that on the top of mountains special things that happened God spoke to Moses from a mountain and he spoke to Jesus on a mountaintop when the disciples went up and many temples are built on mountains hopefully to get a little closer to the glory and so here he has this dream and the very beginning of this bridge connecting heaven and earth and he names it Bethel who knows what the name Bethel means house of God so this is the first place you're gonna find a reference to a house of God a holy place so to speak in the Bible there in the book of Genesis lots of reference in the book of Exodus matter of fact one of the first things that God does as he leads his people out of slavery in Egypt he to make them organized as a new unique people you know up until the exodus they were a tribe of family by the time they when they went to Egypt there was a family with seventy people when they left Egypt there were over a million of them and they established as a nation God says I'm giving you a calendar here's how your calendar works this is the first of months here's your ceremonies in your calendar and he said and I want you to build a place of worship now this was an unusual challenge because they were a mobile nation so they had to build a mobile temple and so you find that what did God ask his people to build you know I kind of did this in a question/answer format because I like teaching seminars Exodus 20:5 God said let them make me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them now is there any building that humans can build that would be adequate to house God I mean how big would that it need to be and so when God says let them make me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them was the idea that he was really gonna I remember as a kid I saw an unusual building I was driving with my grandmother they said what's that she said well that's a synagogue my grandmother was Jewish so synagogue she sets a house of God Wow house of God I thought even as a kid I thought I didn't know he could fit in a house but I thought that really impressed me I thought that's a house of God holy place it had these unusual stained-glass windows so he said I want to dwell among them he wanted a place where they could meet with him because we are Geographic creatures don't you all like to go home at the end of the day we have places that we want to be questioned three in case you're counting they'll be 10 but the tenth one is really long so don't get excited where did Moses obtain the blueprints for this first temple did you know they had temple designs among the Phoenicians and there were temples they saw in Egypt and so were they just a copy one of the plans from the temples they saw in Egypt where did this design come from tells you here in the Bible that God gave him the plan Exodus 20:5 40 and see to it God told Moses that you make it according to the pattern that was shown you in the mountain when he went up the mountain he received the Ten Commandments along with the statutes and ordinances he received very specific instructions about building an edifice that would be a place where he met with his people that was unique nothing God does is by accident this was a supernaturally designed piece of architecture and that God gave the plans to Moses as truly as God gave the boat design to Noah it was to be a supernatural building and so it's worth our study it's very interesting by the way you find that repeated in Hebrews five the things on earth that were built were a copy in a shadow of the heavenly things so the plans that God gave to Moses was a miniature of God's dwelling place in heaven how many of you I ostensibly men when you were boys had Matchbox cars or you had a hot wheel set and you would all collect the various designs and and it wasn't always true with hot wheels that the the Jaguar or the Ferrari would go faster than the ambulance that just had to do with the actual wheels on the car but you might be interested to know that when they make a new matchbox car everyone here know what a matchbox cars used to be air every time I went from covilhã to ucae to go shopping I had to kind of spend two dollars to buy two men's boxcars they cost the dollar magazine these little diecast cars for the boys to play with and it made him happy for ten minutes but the the Matchbox cars are actually very sophisticated miniatures of real designs when they make a new magic box car they have a warehouse where they would bring in their next model they would buy a full-size limo Ferrari Corvette whatever it was they would skin it with lasers measure it and reduce it to one hundredth the size and so they are exact miniatures as far as the dimensions go of the much bigger models they really were accurate in scale but really small so when Moses was told to build this temple on earth and he's given the plans he's given the a miniature of something that is much more glorious now you know matchbox car steer you can't reach the steering wheel it's got no engine in it I mean it is really small but it gives you an idea of what a Corvette looks like just much bigger it was designed to give an idea about the dwelling place of God for example on the wallpaper inside the holy place they were told to engrave angels and so they were as engravings of angels on the wallpaper there were engravings of angels on the veil that hung between the holy place and the most holy place is that because God has angel colored wallpaper in heaven or does he have real living moving waving walls of angels above the ark there were two golden angels is that because God sits on a throne with two golden angels kind of like you know Solomon had golden lions by his phone you remember reading that I think there are six Golden Lions on each side adding up to twelve lions on the right in the left when the Queen of Sheba saw the throne of Solomon and his golden lions she was left without breath the Bible says it was breathtaking so does God sit between two golden angels you read in Isaiah chapter six said God on his throne is flanked by living angels that say holy called him cherubim holy holy holy there right so it's real and so when I talk about the blueprints just keep in mind the scale is really small but it's to give us an idea that we can comprehend so God gave him the plans not only the plans for the building and its services he gave him the plans for the vestments of the priests what the priests were to wear and what the high priest was to wear and it's all highly symbolic to teach us things for example high priest was to wear you know pure white garments symbol of purity had a gold crown placard on there it said holiness to the Lord because he represented God high priests on his heart he had this efj on that had twelve stones all beautiful all different just like God's people are different on his heart where he was interceding for them and it's interesting that when you look at the twelve stones on the breastplate of the high priest they match up with the twelve foundation stones in the New Jerusalem that you find in Revelation chapter 22 I believe it is and so you find there's a lot of parallels anyway so the whole design the building its services the vestments of the priests were not designed by Moses Moses was not dreaming those things up it came from God and so there's a lot we can learn about these things so let's take a look inside for a moment and first let's start with the main layout you had it's a big rectangle and in the big rectangle you've got a smaller rectangle within the big rectangle it's called the courtyard then you had a rectangular building that was covered the courtyard is open the first covered building you go in is called the Holy Place then there was a veil separating the holy place from the last room the inner sanctum which was the Holy of Holies nobody could go in there except the high priest once a year and there was one thing in there so in the big courtyard when you first came through the door and I want to remind you the first tabernacle had to be portable so it had cloth walls and then a cloth roof and they could take it down and haul it around through the desert set it back up again so that's why it was often called a burn ankle because it was in a tent form there was a mobile sanctuary and what was the first what was a furniture that you would have found in the courtyard when you first walk in the first thing you do is you walk through the door how many doors were there one entrance one door didn't have a back door didn't have emergency fire exits this would never pass fire code it had one entrance first thing you saw when you came in was an altar an altar where a victim was sacrificed and burned beyond the altar they had a large bronze or brass lever it had two sections a top section of water for washing hands lower section of water for washing feet and so these were the main things that were in the first apartment you've got some pictures of them up on the screen these are just some some basic computerized ideas to help you visualize what was there then number five what was a furniture in the holy place if once you went from the courtyard into the first room of the tent the building that was covered you would find three articles of furniture in there what were they the candlestick you get the table of showbread and you got the altar of incense you go to the next set of pictures in the next slide and you'll see the three things again so when you walk in you and candlestick on your left you have table of showbread on your right and just before the veil was this altar of incense now that's important to know because on the day of atonement the altar of incense was also moved within the veil for that final service so it was a little bit portable and if you don't know that you'll get confused when you read Hebrews and it talks about the altar of incense being in the Holy of Holies well it was on the day of atonement for that final service and these articles all represent something I'll get to it I just want you to have all this in your head sick things you got alter laver showbread altar of incense you've got the candlestick and then you've got the Ark of the Covenant now I'm getting ahead of myself what furniture number six was in the most holy place I just gave it away you had the ark called the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of the Testament because it was his beautiful golden box for the two angels on top and different artists sort of render those angels differently their wings came together and they were in a praying formation and it's like they were looking down at what was under the lid and what was in the box what was the treasure and that's number seven what was inside the Ark the Ten Commandments now this is really important because you heard me say this before if I were to ask you where do people in the world think the holy land is what would you answer Israel okay and Israel the Holy Land what's the holy city Jerusalem and in the holy city they got a place called the holy mount what was that called it's called Mount Moriah temple mount Mount Zion that's because the temple was up there and all the holy mount they had the holy place they had the temple holy temple and in the holy temple you got the holy place then beyond the holy place you've got the Holy of Holies and what was in their Holy Ark right and in the Holy Ark what did you have ten commandments so this whole temple the very nucleus of the temple are these two stones why is it so important the whole temple is there to honor the stones what's unusual about these stones riding on there who wrote it the Word of God literally the Word of God because he wrote it with his finger he spoke it with his mouth and so here it's the whole temple you know one of the most well fortified museums in the world is in Israel it's called the shrine of the book it is a museum that holds their greatest national treasure which is money never been there any of you been there Israel even though I see something you've been to the shrine of a book yeah ceiling is like 3 feet reinforced concrete and it is everything is super high security because the greatest national treasure of the Hebrew people is there you know what it is the word the Dead Sea Scrolls which is the oldest copies that they've got of their scriptures and it is the national treasure well the temple was all built around the Ten Commandments long gone and so it represented the presence of God Jesus is the word right so let's get back to our study here and so we talked about the 10 commandments are inside by the way you read that Deuteronomy 10 verse 5 and I turned and I came down from the mountain and I put the tablets in the Ark that I had made and there they are just as the LORD commanded me so the Ten Commandments were placed in the Ark of the Covenant now question 8 what is meant what was the purpose for this sanctuary and its services the answer it was to teach about the sacrificial system Leviticus I'm gonna go to Leviticus 1 verse 4 and verse 11 and he will put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted for him to make atonement for him and he will kill it on its side on the side of the altar northward sacrifices were happening there that's why they had the burnt offering blood was brought into the holy place the whole sanctuary was about atonement now we can read 9 and then I'm gonna start talking he already had the question 9 what did God expect him to learn from the sanctuary answer Psalm 77 13 and it says thy way O God is in the sanctuary all right want you to notice that by way oh god isn't the way that God saves people is in the sanctuary the will of God the way of God now I need to dramatize this as well as I can because this is where to me and this is where I think it gets really interesting understanding this the subject of the temple because it's telling us about God first thing you notice is that the presence of God if you were to say God was anywhere in the sanctuary where would he be holy of holies she's God is holy by the way something I never mentioned is in the ten commandments which are in the holiest place in the world when the temple is on earth you get the holy law do you know how many times the word holy appears in the Ten Commandments once who knows what commandment Sabbath commandment Sabbath holy keep it holy God is a holy gun it's the only place that appears in the middle of the law you find the word holy it's a fourth commandment longest of the commandments so I thought that was interesting but you've got God's presence man is on the outside man is separated from God the way to God is a straight line when you first walk through the door you would go by the altar by the Laver through the veil then you walk into the holy place where you're surrounded by these three pieces of furniture you'd walk straight ahead and then you'd have gone it's a straight line from the door to the presence of God everybody can approach God he what's the shortest distance between two points a straight line and God is creating a straight line where he wants us to come to him but there's a separation you got the door of the sanctuary separating you've got the door of the holy place that separates so then the veil of the Holy of Holies we are separated from God why because of sin you got one door and the first thing you see when you come in as the altar then the Laver then you go into the holy place and we'll talk more about that just a moment how many districts were there there's three three areas get the courtyard got the holy place I've got the most holy place are you with me are we right how many phases of salvation are there three justification sanctification glorification first we are justified we come just like we are then we learn to follow the Lord sanctification then we're glorified when we're ultimately in the presence of God were no longer separated that's glorification we have our glorified new bodies you're justified in the courtyard sanctified in the holy place glorified in the holy of holies the children of Israel went through those three phases Egypt like the courtyard then they went through the Red Sea first they were baptized by pillar of fire remember that when the Egyptians came after them that's the altar then they went through the sea that's the water baptism then they went into the wilderness that God gives them bread from heaven in the wilderness and he gave them light at night from the pillar of fire and Moses was there to intercede and so you've got the three things that are in the holy place and someday they entered the promised land that was a glorification and so you got Egypt wilderness Promised Land there's three phases in salvation there were three phases and the experience of Israel so they they really identified with this but let's talk a little bit more about the building itself when you walk in how many entrances are there one Jesus said how many ways are there there's one way there's one door who is the door Christ as I am the door and the first thing you would do when you walk into the sanctuary is you would walk up you would not come alone you would bring your sacrifice and you need to enter his presence for the sacrifice if you were a Hebrew man and you sinned you had to either take a lamb or a goat from your flock or buy one you'd bring it to the priest the priest at the door would inspect it to make sure it was perfect why because who does that lamb represent Jesus Jesus is the door Jesus is lamb you with me he walks in the next thing that happens is assuming that's okay you take your hands you confess whatever you're sinner sins are on the head of that innocent victim and then you would take a sharp knife you received from the priest and you would have to slay it they did it very quickly but they were in catch some of the blood and that blood then was brought in and sprinkled before the Lord and you know it was amazing how they did this Josephus the historian said that during the Passover as many as 250,000 animals could be sacrificed in the temple but there wasn't a single fly to be found anywhere because the priests were so sanitary in the way that they did everything that's almost incomprehensible if you think about if you know anything about barn animals and what was involved in that I mean we can't even keep the flies out of moderns slaughterhouses now but somehow he says they did that back then so they were very careful very clean very methodical about the way they did it you'd confess your sins you'd sacrifice the lamb that would make you think twice about sinning if you knew to be forgiven something had to die but is that still true today I wonder if we'd be any holier today if every time you wanted forgiveness for sin you had to bring a lamb or a goat or you could bring if you're real poor they would bring a Turtledove a pigeon you had to bring a dove and every time you wanted forgiveness you have to kill something what did that make you think twice shouldn't it be harder when you think that whenever you confess your sins and you repent it costs the life of God's Son some of us since they crucify the Son of God afresh in the book of Hebrews so after the sacrifice as you're approaching God the next thing you would come to is the labor the labor had one in it water so in the court you've got you got two things you got fire and you got rain you know the story of Elijah he prays fire comes down from heaven he prays rain comes down both in the same day we need to be born of the water we need to be born of the Spirit if you were here for a Sabbath school class you heard me talk about baptized in the spirit and baptize in the water by John the Baptist Jesus said I will baptize you with the Holy Spirit with fire the children of Israel before they entered into the promised land they had the pillar of fire baptism and then they went through the Red Sea and Paul says the 1st Corinthians chapter 10 I knows a lot of verses I'm giving you 1st Corinthians chapter 10 he says they were baptized in Christ in the sea the Red Sea was a symbol of baptism I'm not making it up that's what the Apostle said you know our world is gonna be made new someday but before our world can be recreated it is gonna be baptized in the water and baptized in the finer in the days of Noah 2nd Peter chapter 3 says our world went through a baptism and before Jesus comes it won't be water next time what will it be but heavens in the earth that are now kept in store are reserved for fire and then God will make a new heavens and a new earth you and I need to go through some baptisms and we needed to be cleansed and sometimes we go through a fire baptism so you've got that in the temple there you've got the the fire you've got the water and then you would enter into the holy place and in the holy place there's three articles of furniture what are they again candlestick butcher the baker the candlestick maker no it's the candlestick you've got the Baker you've got the bread and then you had an altar of incense those three things represent the three disciplines of the Christian life the bread represents one two four save justification in the courtyard you come just like you are you bring your lamb your baptize and then you enter into sanctification there are sometimes trials after baptism children of Israel went through the Red Sea and then there were some trials in the wilderness Jesus went through baptism the spirit led him where into the wilderness where he was tempted of the devil and so you're seeing the whole plan of salvation in this sanctuary is acted out the whole story of the life of Jesus is there as well so man doesn't live by bread alone but by every word / seats from God Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven and so we need to read our Bibles and then it says there's a candlestick what does the light represent light represents Christ and Jesus also said you are the light of the world and we're to let our light shine we're to be witnesses to read our Bible share our faith and what does the altar of incense represent Bible says in Revelation that it represents the prayers of God's people you know let's admit it smoke is sort of ethereal and they would put this fragrant myrrh or frankincense which by the way they gave to Jesus when it came from the Wiseman when he was a baby they would put that on the altar and the pleasant fragrance would vaporize and smoke would rise and go across the veil and so from the holy place to the most holy place it's like it was carrying the fragrant prayers of God's people being made sweet through the Holy Spirit and the Bible says the spirit takes our prayers groanings that cannot be uttered and brings it into the presence of God and we pray in the name of Jesus so you got the altar of incense represented prayer the candlestick represented letting your light shine and the bread represented the Word of God but those things all represent Jesus as well who is the bread that came down from heaven Christ said I am the bread Moses isn't the one who really gave your father bread I am the bread of life who is the light of the world it's true Jesus said you are the light of the world let's yourse light so shine before men but he also said I am the light of the world so if we have any light we're just reflecting his light see and if we've got bread of life it's because it comes from his bread and the prayer Christ is our high priest we pray in his name and so I hope you're getting this but as you look at the ways that Jesus identified himself when he came to earth he said I am the door he is the lamb he is the high priest he is the living water what comes after the alter the labor he's a living water he is the light he is the bread he is the one who intercedes with our prayers now you get into the Holy of Holies and you've got the Ark which is a golden box but the box is the container to hold what the rocks Jesus is the word and Jesus said I am the rock he said anyone who hears these sayings of mine and does them is like a wise man who's building this house on a rock and so I are you getting that just everything about this journey through the sanctuary is talking about baptism it's talking about surrender the cross was where Christ suffered the altar the sacrifice baptism the holy place the Christian disciplines reading your Bible praying getting ready for glorification the presence of God and so the whole thing is a journey towards God now this was the first tabernacle that was built in the wilderness it was portable it lasted for several hundred years a matter of fact it was pretty pitiful by the time it went through the age of the judges in Samuel and kings Saul and even during the time of King David David said one time he's praying in the first Chronicles and he said I'm dwelling in a house made of cedar King Hiram up of tyre gave him all this beautiful cedar wood to build a palace for his own personal house and he's got this beautiful house and he looks out and the Ark of God is in a flapping ragged tent that's probably been patched and replaced over several hundred years that's a sadness this isn't right I mean all these other kingdoms they've got these beautiful temples for their gods I mean even before David during the time of Ruth Samson lived and talked about Samson remember bringing down the temple of Dagon so we know the Philistines had temples and they had the temple of Molech the Bible talks about and so all these different gods had temples but the Ark of God is in a tent and David that really bothered him the burden of David's life was to build a permanent temple he said you know the tabernacle was good when you're going through the wilderness because they had to pass get up and take it down and set it up and take it down he says but we're settled now see God told David I take that back God told Moses he says when they enter into the Promised Land there will be a place that I will choose for my name to dwell they didn't know where that was gonna be well david made a mistake one day and he numbered israel and the plague came he was bragging about how big the kingdom had become underneath him and a plague came and thousands of people were dying from this plague that was going through the land of Israel and David looked up while he's in Jerusalem and he sees a mighty angel of God with a sword drawn and he knew the plague was now sweeping down and getting ready to decimate people living in Jerusalem and David saw the angel up above Mount Moriah now you know why mountain Ryan is significant where did Abraham bring Isaac Mount Moriah where did Melchizedek live Malka Sadiq was the king of a place known as Salem later known as J mu J mu means City Salem shalom means peace Melchizedek was the king of Salem and there in the prominent mountain was the Temple Mount the Mount Zion Mount of Olives and you know who owned the real estate up there first the Jebusites own Jerusalem David chased them out David and Joab chased him out and he said I'm making Jerusalem my capital city but the best spot in the city of Jerusalem was owned by a man named Oren and he had a threshing floor up there on the hill because the breeze would come and when they were threshing wheat up on the hill you'd get the best breeze the angel was right above there it's where Isaac had been offered and David went to orna and he saw the angel I don't know warren and saw actually I think later it says he did he said I need to buy this threshing floor from you because I'm gonna offer sacrifice Ordnung I'll give it to you David said I'm not gonna offer anything to God that doesn't cost me something and so he bought the threshing floor he made an offering to God the plague stopped and the Lord said to David this the place where I met with you with the angel this was a place where you interceded this was a place where Isaac was offered and God and Isaac wasn't offered he's home Isaac was offered he wasn't killed though the angel stopped him so this is a place where I want my house David was so excited he wanted to build a house for God but God said none David you're not the one to do it you've been a man of war not only that you've got innocent blood on your hands not just a soldier but you've got innocent blood from killing Uriah and adultery he said no you're not gonna build my house God said this is first Chronicles 17 what building replace the wilderness Tabernacle that's the question we're dealing with the answer is first Chronicles 17 11 Nathan the Prophet said to David it'll be when your days are fulfilled when you must go to be with your fathers I will set up your seed after you who will be of your sons I will establish his kingdom he will build me a house and I will establish his throne forever now if you Circle in your Bible I would circle first Chronicles 17 verse 11 and 12 because that is what you call a dual prophecy you know what I mean by dual prophets there's some dual prophecies Matthew 24 Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem he's also talking about the end of the world this prophecy Nathan is talking about the son of David named Solomon that would build the temple which was what was on David's heart but don't you think it's talking about something else I will raise up your sons who will come after you he will build me a house that will last forever who is the son of David that was going to build a house that would last forever Jesus a different kind of temple we'll talk about that next week now today we're talking about the three physical temples that you find in the Bible Tabernacle temple number two now is Solomon's Temple and it was the apex of glorious temples this guy Henry Malone who's found the Angkor Wat temple he says it was more beautiful than Solomon's Temple I thought well how do you know that you have no photographs of Solomon temple Solomon's Temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world you look at how much gold literally billions of dollars of gold David had conquered all these other nations he conquered them he took their money they were all paying taxes David had mountains of gold and silver and jewels when he seceded the throne to Solomon Solomon came into power and it says silver was like stones so when they built the temple of the Lord he wanted it to be the most glorious temple in the world because it was for Jehovah it needed to outshine the temple for asteroth and Bale and Moloch and all the other pagan gods it was to be more beautiful than anything in Egypt maybe not bigger but more beautiful and it was so beautiful do you remember when the disciples are walking along with Jesus as if they live there let's go look at the stones of the temple I mean you know when I grew up in New York City people come from around the country to look at the Statue of Liberty but I saw it every day anything yeah no big deal do you think they would be you know bored with it but they were still impressed with the glory of their own building it was that impressive and so and that was the rebuilt version of Solomon's Temple and so this was a beautiful glorious building and there's such reverence when it was being built first King six verse seven and the temple when it was being built was built with stone finished at the quarry no hammer or chisel or iron tool was heard in the temple when it was being built there's such they do all the carving and the and they found the place where they got the stones for Solomon's Temple it was probably about five miles away man they had great Solomon a massive workforce thousands of thousands of people that were involved in building both his temple his house rather in the temple and they bring all the stones and they put them quietly into place and this reverent temple grew up and when Solomon prays and he dedicates the temple this doesn't happen very often but after his dedication prayer it wasn't just a building fire came down from God out of heaven on a clear sky it wasn't lightning and devoured the sacrifice showing God's approval that he had accepted their sacrifice that he had heard Solomon's prayer and the Bible says the glory of the Lord so filled the temple that the priests could not go in they tried to avail themselves like firemen with reflective gear and they tried to go in and do what they were supposed to do and they said we can't do it there's too much glory in there remember when Moses came off the mountain his face for shining said can you please cover your face because of the glory and so God had really demonstrated his approval by the way that also happened with the wilderness Tabernacle once it was inaugurated it was all built when they dedicated it fire came down from God out of heaven on the sacrifice now that's important because when they rebuilt the Solomon's Temple the Third Temple that didn't happen but I'll get to that in just a second so Solomon's Temple lasted a little more than 400 years and it was the icon of the nation in fact when the Kingdom of Israel split King Jeroboam the son of Nebat was afraid he was the king of the northern kingdoms he said we're gonna have to make our own temple and our own idols our own altars says that the people are gonna go down and sacrifice at Solomon's Temple and so he changed the religion to keep them from going down to Jerusalem because that was the place God had dedicated he had set aside for them to go and he had met with them they'd seen his presence there before so because of their unfaithfulness it's just always sad to think about Solomon's Temple being destroyed but that's what happened King Nebuchadnezzar came along and about 587 and he destroyed the Temple of Solomon and he can read this second credits because of years of their sin and the sins of Manasseh he dealt with their backslid and finally said enough is enough and he was June his presence like nicob on the glory is departed 2nd chronicles 36 18 and all of the articles from the house of God great and small the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king and his leaders all of these he took to Babylon and they burned the house of God and they broke down the wall of Jerusalem they burned all of its palaces did you get that they burnt the house of God they broke down the wall of Jerusalem burned all his palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious possessions now it lists the Articles that were carried off to Babylon and it never mentions the ark it is believed and by the way you'll find this in the book patriarchs and prophets no prophets and kings that Jeremiah who foretold the destruction of Jerusalem Jeremiah who foretold the burning of a temple he and some priests one night quietly put the ark on their shoulders they covered it they carried it to a cave there if you've ever been to Israel underneath Jerusalem it is a honeycomb of caves and tombs and so it's easy to believe they put it in a tomb they sealed and hid the entrance somehow and it has never been seen since it be wonderful if someone would find that there's all kinds of rumors after all they found the ark but you know there's no evidence that they found the Ark of the Covenant and they don't even made movies about it because they know that it is missing some say oh it went off to Ethiopia cos Solomon gave it to his girlfriend the Queen of Sheba have you heard that one that's right now people I don't want to offend you if you're from Ethiopia but that's not true because in the Bible after Queen of Sheba years after it still mentions the arts specifically being in the temple you hear of it being mentioned up past the time of Hezekiah so we have reason to believe it was still there during the time of Jeremiah but it was destroyed 70 years they have no temple then finally when they're allowed to go back to the promised land what's the first thing they want to do if you go to the book of Ezra Ezra chapter 1 we're almost done I told you question 10 would be a long one Ezra one I'm gonna read verse one through three now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom he also put it in writing saying now Cyrus was influenced by you know the the godly impact made by Shadrach Meshach Abednego in Daniel Cyrus lived during the time of Daniel and he said this in his decree thus says King Cyrus of Persia you're actually reading part of the Bible coming from Persia now thus says King Cyrus of Persia all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem isn't that interesting Cyrus believed in the Lord God Jehovah he recognized the Lord God Jehovah gave him all the kingdoms of the earth he wants me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah who is among you of all his people may his God be with him let him go to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel He is God which is in Jerusalem Wow what a declaration from the king of Persia that Jehovah is the true God so many of them went during this second Exodus they went from Babel and his people came out of Babylon into the Promised Land and you know first Nehemiah tried to help him get the walls built in the street it says in Daniel chapter 9 it would be done during trouble as times and that's what happened they had a lot of trouble during that building and it it took place over a period of about 25 years because it kept getting interrupted and then their Samaritans would fight against them and they'd get a decree to stop the building and then they got another decree to start the building again and finally under the preaching and Hagee I and you can read this in Haggai 2 verse 6 he said God's not gonna bless your house if you neglect his house they had started the building and stopped and they had this halfway built building do you know that the Washington Monument took like 40 years to build the Washington Monument went up maybe there's 20 years it went up the first I don't know 200 feet or so and then they ran out of money and they stopped and everybody in Washington had to look at this half-built monument for decades and then after the Civil War they got a group together and they said let's finish it and so then they finished building the Washington Monument but it was a long project and if you go to Washington you look at the monument you can easily see the difference between the first 150 or 200 feet and the remainder the color of the stone is different they had to go to a different quarry so the stone doesn't match you can even see in some of the photographs well that's what was happening they laid the foundation for the temple and they started building and they stopped and even after they had permission to finish Hagi I started preaching he says you need to finish building God will bless you I said but you know we don't have the same evidence of his spirit listen to what Hagee I said for thus says the Lord of Hosts once more it is a little while I will shake the heaven and the earth to see in the dry land I will shake all nations and they shall come to the desire of Nations and I will fill this temple with glory says the Lord of Hosts he said I'm gonna fill this temple this humble temple you know when they laid the foundation of Ezra temple the old men who had seen Solomon's Temple started crying the people were rejoicing the old men were crying and says you couldn't tell the difference between the crying and the rejoicing the reason the old people were crying is the temple built by Cyrus in Ezra was so much smaller in scale and glory than the one that Solomon had built the visit all what happens is they're so pitiful compared and so they were crying the old man's they remembered the good old days the being glorious temple so it was a little more humble it didn't have all the gold and materials but God said don't be discouraged the glory of this second temple is going to be greater what was gonna make the glory of the third third tenth a second temple physically third Tabernacle what was to make it greater Christ would actually enter that building and teach there and we've got some prophecies that talk about that malachi 3:1 behold i send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me the Lord who you seek will suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the Covenant in whom you delight behold he is coming says the Lord of hosts so this temple is the one that Jesus would actually preach in but Christ said it was not the final temple jesus said your house is left to you desolate he said destroy this temple and this is where we started today he said destroy this temple made with hands John chapter 2 verse 18 and in three days I will make one without hands a matter of fact when Christ hung on the cross they talked about that statement when they tried to find witnesses to agree to destroy Jesus the only two witnesses they could get to agree were the ones who said we heard him say destroy this temple made with hands and I will make one without hands which Christ probably didn't say something very close to that what was he talking about now we're transitioning from the physical temple to the spiritual temple when Jesus died on the cross what happened he said Iloilo my lama sabachthani why have you forsaken me he cried out God received my spirit he gave up the ghost there was an earthquake and you read in Matthew 27:51 then behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom after Jesus spent years teaching in their temple and they rejected his truth he died on the cross the veil was torn from top to bottom the purpose of the earthly temple was gone now he was transferring to the spiritual tempest and we're gonna be talking about that in our next presentation purpose for the earthly temple it would later be destroyed by the Romans now it's interesting Christ died on the cross they went by and they shook their heads and they said to him this is Mark 1529 those who passed by blaspheme him wagging their heads and saying ah you who destroyed the temple and build it in three days save yourself and come down but when he said he was going to destroy the temple and raise it up what was he talking about the temple of his body and what is the church call the body of Christ he was gonna build a different kind of temple now Christ when he hung on the cross he was the house of God because he was the bridge that Jacob dreamed about the connected Earth to heaven you know something years ago I remember first reading about this where I think it was Robert McCulloch he was the tycoon who built the McCulloch chain saws they're not even around anymore anyone remember the McCullough chain saws McCulloch motors a very wealthy man he got an idea he heard London Bridge is falling down you know like the song and they were gonna dismantle it and throw it away he's at that iconic bridge you're gonna throw it away says I'll buy it he bought it for a song the expensive thing was he disassembled it piece by piece and shipped it to America then he trucked it across the country because he had bought the largest single private piece of land in Arizona 26 acres near what we call Lake Havasu and he set up the London Bridge out in the middle of the desert peoples in you're a maniac he says no if I build the bridge people will come and he did he put the bridge there and the whole tourist attraction grew up around the bridge and Lake Havasu now has about 55,000 people because he put a bridge there people came people are attracted to bridges well Jesus is a bridge man is separated from God the whole temple was about reconnecting heaven and earth and Jesus is that conduit Christ said to Nathaniel hereafter you will see angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man everything that you looked at in the temple was all about Jesus because Christ is the lamb he is the priests he is the bread he's the living water he is the light of the world he's everything we need to react send us God and so have a lot of important things to share with you still on the subject of the temple we'll talk about next time but I just want you to know that Jesus it's all about him and it points us to God thy way O God is in the sanctuary we're gonna sing for our closing song about my hope is built on nothing less Christ as the foundation for that cornerstone why don't we stand together will sing 5:22 as our song leaders come up and we'll sing about the good foundation [Music] Father in heaven Lord we can just see all through the word the theme of the sanctuary the temple and it's all helping us better understand you and your mission I pray Lord that you'll just bless each person I pray that our hearts and our lives our homes can be a temple and that Jesus can dwell inside Lord I pray that each one of us will be willing to begin our journey across that bridge that stretches from Earth to heaven and know that Christ is the only way it is through Christ only that we can be reunited and glorified with you and bless us so that we all have that experience we thank you we pray you'll be with us now for this week we ask these things in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Aaron

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Id: YbmErakUckU

Length: 58min 25sec (3505 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 08 2018