Amen.
So tonight in Ezekiel chapter 40, we're in a brand new section in the book of Ezekiel,
and this is known as a very difficult section in the book of Ezekiel.
I think that the difficulty of this passage has been a little bit overhyped as far as
the difficulty of understanding it, because I don't think it's very difficult to understand.
It is difficult in the sense of just being kind of a boring chapter in your daily Bible
reading.
It's not exactly the story of David and Goliath here.
So it could be a little bit difficult just to plow through, because it's just a lot of
measurements and chambers and porches and doors and tables.
So it's just going into so much detail.
But there are parts of the Bible that are like this that might sort of try our patience
a little bit, like the end of Exodus is kind of like this, certain genealogies and first
chronicles or something that we could get bogged down in.
But as you read the Bible more and you learn more about the Word of God and you get a little
bit more mature in the faith, you'll have an easier time sort of grinding through these
kind of chapters.
But we know that they're all here for a reason.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine.
This chapter is obviously a rough chapter in that sense.
But I don't think it's as difficult to understand as people have made it out to be.
The reason why people believe that Ezekiel 40 and 48 are so difficult to understand sometimes
is because they're trying to jam a round peg into a square hole and they're running into
problems.
But if we put away some preconceived ideas and just sort of approach the text in its
context in the book of Ezekiel, I don't think we're going to have a very hard time going
through this.
Let me also say this before I get into the material tonight, that the worst is behind
us after tonight because this whole section chapters 40 through 48 kind of has a reputation
for being like this.
But honestly, this is the most difficult chapter.
The chapters get more and more interesting.
The next chapter is a lot shorter and then it gets more interesting and it gets into
other topics.
It's not all just about a building, okay?
But that being said, this is an interesting chapter and I'm going to explain to you a
little bit tonight of an overview of chapters 40 through 48, what's going on in these chapters,
sort of talk about the controversies about these chapters and then we'll talk about some
of the things that are specific to chapter 40.
So the first thing I want to point out, let's jump right into the beginning here of chapter
40 verse 1.
It says, in the five and 20th year of our captivity.
So this is the signal that we are starting a brand new prophecy.
Many people want to attach this to chapter 39 and sort of just roll from chapter 39 into
this, but this is a hard break here and in fact, this prophecy is given many, many years
later than what we have in chapter 39.
So if you start out at the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, it's like the fifth year
of the captivity.
You go a little further into Ezekiel, it's the sixth year, the seventh year, the ninth
year, then it's the tenth year, then it's the eleventh year, then it's back to the tenth
year.
So there's a little bit out of order, but in general, it roughly is moving forward.
You know, fifth year, sixth year, seventh year, tenth year, eleventh year.
And then now at this point, we're at the five and 20th year of the captivity.
This is kind of a big jump from the last time we checked in with Ezekiel on what year it
was.
Okay?
So this is deep into the captivity.
This is much later than everything else that we've read in Ezekiel up to this point.
This portion is written years later, okay?
Now we know the captivity is a 70-year Babylonian captivity, so this is deep into that 70 years.
It's 25 years in.
Now what is the message of chapter 40 through 48?
Well, the idea is they're deep into the captivity, Jerusalem has been destroyed, and God is giving
Ezekiel a vision of a new city being built and a new temple being built.
Now this makes perfect sense because the city of Jerusalem has been destroyed, the temple
has been destroyed, and so he's getting a vision of hope for the future of this new
setup, new city, new temple.
That's it, folks.
The end, done, okay?
So it's not really that complicated.
The problem is that most people are approaching this text assuming that this is an end times
text.
So they're talking about, you know, what is this, is this in the millennium, is this in
the new heaven, the new earth?
You know, they want it to be in the future, and that's why you'll hear a lot of independent
fundamental Baptists and evangelicals teaching that this is a temple in the millennium.
You know, they say this isn't Solomon's temple, well, obviously not because it's talking about
something in the future and Solomon's temple just got destroyed.
But they say it's not the rebuilt temple when they got back from Babylon.
It must be some future temple that hasn't been built yet, and they stick this in the
millennium.
Here's the problem with that, is that throughout this passage, there's a lot of talk about
animal sacrifices, Levites, priests, and that positions it squarely in the Old Testament,
Old Covenant.
Those are not a thing anymore in the New Testament, so don't try to put this in the future.
Let me tell you something, the Old Testament is done.
Put a fork in it, it's done, okay?
Don't try to resurrect the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, we're in the New Testament
and we always will be in the New Testament, and we're never going back to the Old Testament.
But you've always got these Judaizers, these dispensational types, these Zionists that
want to teach this regressive doctrine that basically the New Testament is this parenthesis,
and then somehow we're going to be like reverting back to Old Testament stuff in the end times.
We are not going to revert back to any of the carnal ordinances of the Old Testament.
Those things are done away in Christ.
Now, it's bizarre that anyone would actually think that the Old Testament carnal ordinances,
animal sacrifices, meats, drinks, divers, washers, would come back when the Bible's
so clear that those things were nailed to the cross with Christ, and that those things
are done away in Christ, and that those things were only imposed on them until the coming
of Christ.
I mean, the book of Hebrews is clear, the book of Colossians is clear, but there's
an agenda out there to try to Judaize and try to say, oh, in the future we're going
to go back and do those things again.
Wrong, they're done, it's over.
Jesus Christ is a once for all sacrifice.
And so there's no reason to revisit that and get back to those animal sacrifices.
They're done.
Now, look what the Bible says there in verse number one.
It says, in the five and 20th year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in
the 10th day of the month, and look at the context.
In the 14th year, after that, the city was smitten.
So the context here is Jerusalem has been smitten, Jerusalem has been destroyed, and
then 14 years thereafter, then in the selfsame day, the hand of the Lord was upon me and
brought me thither.
Now, here's the other thing we have to understand, is that Ezekiel is not literally going there.
Ezekiel is having a vision.
So Ezekiel is brought in a vision to Jerusalem.
He's not in Jerusalem, he's in the Babylonian captivity.
But he is in a vision transported spiritually, not physically or bodily.
But just as in Revelation chapter four, John is in the spirit and caught up into heaven
and sees all the events of Revelation, Ezekiel here is spiritually transported thither.
At the end of verse one, that word thither means to there.
So he's brought to there spiritually in a vision he's carried there.
Now, again, context is everything.
We've already been reading the book of Ezekiel for 39 weeks.
And in the book of Ezekiel, we've seen Ezekiel have many visions.
And he saw some visions of some pretty strange things sometimes.
And here's the thing about these visions, is that they weren't really happening.
They were visions.
That's what a vision is.
It's not real.
It's not actually Ezekiel physically going to these places and seeing these things actually
physically happening.
But this is a image or a vision that he's seeing.
The spirit of the Lord is upon him and he sees these visions and he writes these things
down and they are preached unto the house of Israel.
Does everybody understand what I mean by that, that this is a vision?
Earlier in the book of Ezekiel, he has a vision where he's preaching against these false prophets
and then one of them just falls over dead while he's preaching.
You know, sometimes, you know, I've turned to that passage kind of out of context and
thought of it as something that really happened.
But if you actually read the surrounding context, it's like a vision that he was shown of this
guy falling over dead.
Or for example, there's the visions around chapters 9 and 10 and 11 in the book of Ezekiel
where he's taken to the temple and he like digs a hole in the wall and he digs through
the wall and then he sees all the elders of the house of Israel and they're worshipping
the devil and worshipping idols and doing all those things.
That wasn't actually real but he's seeing that in a vision because God's just showing
him, hey, these people are idolaters, they're worshipping the devil and all that.
But it's a vision.
It's like a dream except he's being shown these things by the Lord so that he can preach
these things.
So we have to understand that what Ezekiel is seeing here is a vision.
It says in verse 2, in the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel.
So did he actually go to Israel?
No.
Is what he's seeing actually there?
Is it really there?
No, it's a vision that he's seeing, okay?
So in the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel and sent me upon a very
high mountain by which was as the frame of a city on the south.
So he starts out and he's on this really high mountain and he's sort of seeing like an outline
or a frame of this city.
And then it says, and he brought me thither.
So he brought me basically to that city and behold there was a man whose appearance was
like the appearance of brass with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed.
So he basically has two measuring instruments.
He has a measuring reed which would be like a stick for measuring and he has the line
of flax which would be like a measuring tape, right?
And that way he can use it to measure things that are not straight, like to measure things
that are round or curved in some way.
So he has these two measuring implements 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 art thou
brought hither.
Declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.
He's saying look let me tell you why you're here.
You're here because I'm going to measure stuff and I want you to pay attention to everything
that you see and everything that you hear and I want you to write these things down
and you're going to tell all these things to Israel.
That's why we have this book here is because Ezekiel was told write it all down and so
he sees all these things, all these measurements and you know we're going through these measurements
it's a little bit redundant maybe or monotonous or mundane to hear thing after thing after
thing being measured.
But you know that's what Ezekiel is told to do is he's writing it all down and for those
that are diligent enough to plow through this, for those that can actually get through it
there are spiritual truths embedded in these type of scriptures.
You can plow through 1 Chronicles 1-9 there are some great spiritual truths that are tucked
in there little nuggets that you have to work for a little bit and dig through the hard
stuff to get to that spiritual truth.
So you know one of the lessons we can learn right away is that good things come to those
who actually are diligent to plow through these things in the word of God and we live
in a generation with a short attention span.
The most popular social media sites now are these sites where it's like oh hey let me
upload a sermon to this site and it's like oh 60 second limit, 30 second limit, 90 second
limit, it's like whoa what am I going to upload in that time?
But that's the day that we're living in.
You know just people are just looking for just a cheap entertainment they want to spend
30 seconds on something and then go to the next thing, 60 seconds go to the next.
We as Christians we don't want to get sucked into that mentality of just having no attention
span and just kind of having these little mindless sound bites hitting us all the time,
little 60 second, 30 second, little joke, humor, whatever.
You know we need to be a little more mature and grown up and be able to sit down with
a book with white pages and black ink and no pictures and actually read the word of
God and read the Bible.
And it's not going to kill you to sit and read a difficult chapter from the Bible and
at the end of the day those who actually read these chapters they find the hidden manna.
They find the deeper spiritual truths and they actually build character right and don't
rot their brain on just things on the screen changing every five seconds or something.
So hopefully you have the attention span for the sermon tonight.
If not then well you know what I think about that.
So anyway it says here you know you're going to declare all that you see the house of Israel.
Verse five and behold a wall on the outside of the house roundabout in the man's hand
a measuring reed of six cubits long which that's like nine feet long but it's a little
longer because he adds a hand breath to it.
He measured the breadth of the building one reed, the height one reed and I'm not going
to be labor use since we already read through all this right before the sermon began.
We read through every verse of this.
I don't feel like we need to read through it again but we get into all of these different
measurements okay.
Now again context city's been destroyed.
Temple's been destroyed.
We're 25 years into a captivity.
You're wondering are we ever coming back?
Is this ever going to come back?
Is Jerusalem ever going to be a thing again?
Is the temple going to be a thing?
Is Israel going to be a thing?
What is the meaning of this vision?
As we get into this vision we're going to see that this city and this temple or house
it's called in this chapter it's called like the house.
By the time we get to the next chapter, chapter 41 verse 1 it says afterward he brought me
to the temple and we realize that what we're seeing is a vision of Jerusalem and it's a
rebuilt city and there's a temple in it.
So the idea here, the big overarching idea is the temple is going to be rebuilt.
There's going to be Jerusalem again, there's going to be Israel again, there's going to
be Levitical priests again, there's going to be animal sacrifice happening again and
there's going to be a temple.
So this doesn't have to be complicated if we actually just read it in its normal context
understanding that it's not real, it's not really happening, it's a vision for Ezekiel
showing him in the future and what is it letting him know that there's going to be a future
for Israel with the temple and Jerusalem and sacrifices and so forth.
And then there are a lot of things in this passage that aren't just descriptive, it's
not just a guy going around measuring the building and saying hey it's a cool building
but they're actually things that are prescriptive that are saying hey look I want the Levites
to do this, I don't want the Levites to do this.
He talks at one point in this passage about their haircut and how he doesn't want them
to have long hair and he doesn't want them to shave their heads completely bald but that
they're supposed to just have short hair.
So there are some things like that just giving rules and doctrines about how things should
be run at the temple, how things should go, what is the building like, what are the rituals
like, what are they supposed to do.
But the main thing I'm trying to get across to you right now is that this stuff was for
back then, it was for them back, it's not end times.
Now obviously there are always going to be in the Old Testament things that are foreshadowing
end times but that doesn't make this an end times passage.
Let me give an example, let's say I'm reading the book of Joshua and I'm reading the book
of Joshua and we get to the story of Jericho and in the story of Jericho we've got a harlot,
also known as a prostitute, right?
We've got a harlot and we've got the two spies that come in and the city eventually gets
destroyed and the Bible says it's never supposed to be rebuilt, don't ever rebuild this thing
after it's destroyed and so forth.
Well, you know, I could look at that and I could find some parallels with the end times.
I could go to the book of Revelation and say, okay, in Revelation there's the great whore
and Rahab's a whore and I've got the two spies and then in Revelation I've got two
witnesses and when Babylon's destroyed it's never going to be built again, it's never
going to be inhabited and then he's saying that Jericho should never be inhabited.
Two spies, two witnesses, you know, I could make all these parallels that could even be
legitimate and say, hey, there's a little bit of a foreshadowing or symbolism of the
end times in the book of Joshua.
But does that make Joshua a book about end times prophecy?
Of course not.
Joshua's not a book about end times prophecy.
Are there things in Joshua that could be pointing us to or symbolic of or figure it up things
in the end times?
Sure.
Absolutely.
But primarily it's a historical book.
It's a story about what happened back then, okay?
In this passage right here, Ezekiel 40 through 48, this is a passage about stuff that happened
back then and you say, well, how do you know that, Pastor Anderson?
Because we should always start with what we know and then solve for what we don't know.
It's like doing a math problem or a science problem.
You start with what you know, okay?
Here's what I know to be true.
Here's what I know to be a fact is that animal sacrifices are done away in Christ.
They are squarely in the Old Covenant, Old Testament done and they are not coming back.
It's absurd to say that they would come back when the book of Hebrews clearly says that
Christ has been slain once for all.
When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was rent and twain.
It was torn in half.
It's over, okay?
Here in the New Testament, New Covenant, we believe as Baptists in the priesthood of the
believer.
Every single believer in Christ is a priest.
What is the colossal difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant?
In the Old Covenant, Israel was that chosen people of God, the physical nation of Israel
and they had the priests that were the Levites and so forth.
In the New Testament, what does the Bible tell us in the New Testament?
First Peter 2 says that we're a holy priesthood.
We're a chosen generation.
We are the chosen people.
We are the peculiar people, the nation of priests.
God has made us kings and priests, the Bible says.
We believe in the priesthood of the believer.
In fact, a lot of people will use an acronym for Baptist where B stands for born again,
baptized membership of the church, A is autonomy of the local church and the P stands for priesthood
of the believer and people will go through and spell things out with that.
This is not an obscure doctrine.
New Testament, Evangelical Christians, Baptists, we all believe in the priesthood of the believer.
That's why you don't see a Baptist church having a priest in a confessional booth, do
you?
Do non-denom churches have a priest that you confess to?
No, they don't.
Catholics, they have a priest and you confess the priest, but do any Baptist churches have
that?
Do any non-denominational Christian churches have that?
No they don't.
Here's why, because we believe in the priesthood of the believer.
I'm a priest, you're a priest, we don't need a special guy to be the priest.
No, Jesus is the high priest, we as Christians are all priests and we can all go directly
to the Lord, God the Father, we can go to the Father through Jesus the Son and we have
no issue and there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
So in the Old Testament you have this mediator of the Levitical priest, in the New Testament
there's one mediator and it's Jesus.
So here we are, friend, in the New Testament.
Why in the world would I believe for one second that in the future it's like, oh, now we need
a mediator again, let's get out a Levitical priest again.
I know we're done with animal sacrifices because Jesus is a sacrifice once for all, hey, let's
just fire up the barbecue again and let's do some more of these animal sacrifices.
It's stupid, my friend, there's no other word for it, it's wrong.
And let me tell you something, not only is it foolish, but it is also nefarious.
It's a wicked agenda that's behind this whole Zionist, Judaizing, dispensational doctrine
and I don't say that lightly, I'm not one of these people that does every doctrine I
don't agree with, I don't just call it heresy and don't just say it's satanic or wicked,
you know, because there are some doctrines that people could have different opinions
on and it's no big deal.
The reason I say this is literally satanic, this Judaizing doctrine, is because of the
fact that the Bible literally says, who is a liar but he that denyeth that Jesus is the
Christ, he is antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son.
So the Bible says if you deny that Jesus is the Messiah, you're antichrist.
And there's a literal person called the antichrist coming.
The Bible says in 1 John chapter 2, little children, it is the last time and as you have
heard that antichrist, singular antichrist, shall come, even now are there many antichrists
whereby we know that it is the last time.
So there are lots of little antichrists but the Bible says that there shall be one capital
A singular antichrist that shall come.
Antichrist means in the place of Christ.
It's going to be an imposter.
It's going to be someone claiming to be the Messiah, claiming to be the second coming
of Jesus Christ, claiming to be the Messiah that the Jews are looking for.
He's going to bring all religions together, all nations of the earth are going to worship
him, the Muslims are going to accept him, the Hindus, the Jews, the fake Christians,
they're going to accept the antichrist as their Messiah.
The whole world is going to worship him.
Isn't this what the Bible says in the book of Revelation?
So we've got this guy coming, the antichrist in Revelation, he's called the beast from
the sea and this guy, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the antichrist is going
to come and I don't want to go into all the details of end times just because I don't
have time but for those of you that are pretty familiar with it, you know that there's going
to be basically a temple and there's going to be animal sacrifices and all the Jews are
going to think it's great and they're going to accept the antichrist and they're going
to love him.
The Jews are going to love him.
Now here's why I say that this doctrine, this doctrine that says, hey, we're going to go
back to animal sacrifices in the future, when Jesus returns there's going to be Levites
and priests and animal sacrifices and the temple and all that is because the person
who's really going to have all that is the antichrist.
So don't miss this.
When the antichrist shows up, guess what he's going to have?
Temple, sacrifices, Jews love it.
Everybody getting the picture?
Okay, guess what?
When Jesus Christ comes, it's not going to be animal sacrifices, it's not going to be
Levites, it's not going to be priests and the Jews aren't going to love it, the Jews
are going to get smoked when the real Jesus shows up.
That's what's going on.
And guess what?
Let me just give you a news flash.
There's not going to be a temple for Jesus in the millennial reign of Christ.
So basically, here's the wrong teaching that's out there is, oh, it's a millennial temple.
That's what so many people are teaching.
Why can't it be?
Because animal sacrifices cannot come back, that is garbage.
We're not going back to the old covenant, we're new covenant, I'm not going back to
a mediator, I don't need a priest, I am a priest.
I don't need a Levite or an animal sacrifice or any of those things, that's nonsense, okay?
That should be rejected out of hand.
Show me anything in the New Testament that would allude to us doing those things ever
again in the future.
You're not going to find it, okay?
You're going to find it in the Old Testament where it belongs, back in the Old Testament
where it belongs, where it needs to stay back there because it's not coming in the future.
So they say, well, Ezekiel 40 through 48 is the millennial temple.
They say it's not the temple back then, it's a temple in the millennium.
But here's why it can't be.
Look at verse number, let's see, what, 38?
And the chambers and the entries, are you there in chapter 40 verse 38?
Thereof were by the posts 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 their
on the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.
What in the world?
This is Old Testament.
Burnt offering, sin offering, trespass offering, plain as the nose on your face.
And we go back down here, four tables verse 41 were on this side, four tables on that
side.
By the side of the gate, eight tables whereupon they slew their sacrifices and the four tables
were of hewn stone for the burnt offering and on and on we go.
Look down if you would to verse number 45.
And he said unto me, this chamber whose prospect is toward the south is for the priests, 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 the Lord to minister
on him.
Folks, that is the family of priests that were running things back then, okay?
Zadok and his family were the ones running the priests when Jesus showed up the first
time.
In the Old Testament, in this period, we have the word Sadducee.
Remember there are a couple of factions when Jesus shows up, there are the Pharisees and
the Sadducees.
Well, if you study the New Testament, you'll see the Sadducees are the ones who are in
charge of the temple, okay?
The high priest is a Sadducee and the ones running the temple are Sadducees.
The word Sadducee, those consonants at the beginning S-D-C, right, Sadducee, those first
three consonants are the same three consonants of the name of Zadok, okay?
The Z-D-K and the S-D-C, basically Sadducee are basically like Zadok guys would be one
way of looking at that word Sadducee.
It's the faction of Zadok's family of the priests because that's who they were, okay?
And also, the word Zadok also comes from the three letter root meaning righteous, okay?
So basically, that's where they take that name and maybe it has like a double meaning
but there is a connection between the word Sadducee and the name Zadok and that's who
the Sadducees are.
They're the priestly people at the temple and Zadok is their guy and that's why the
Bible says here the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi which come near the Lord to minister
to him.
So when they come back from the Babylonian captivity, who's going to be ministering in
the house of God around 500 B.C. and into 400, 300, 200, all the way up to the time
of Christ, it's going to be the house of Zadok.
That's what happened back then.
This is not the millennium, it's not the future because these guys are done.
Animal sacrifice are done.
Levitical priesthood is done.
We have a new high priest, Jesus, after the order of Melchizedek, not after the order
of Levi.
Okay, we're done with that.
So this is why it cannot be the millennium.
But here's the thing, why are we even talking about a millennial temple?
They're saying like, oh, this is a millennial temple.
Why would we have a temple in the millennium anyway?
Why would we have any temple in the millennium?
What's the purpose of the temple?
What is the temple?
What do you do with the temple?
I mean, the whole point of the temple is what?
You know, the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant.
I mean, wasn't the temple built to be a house to house the Ark of the Covenant?
Isn't that what David said when he was going to build the temple?
The whole point was, well, you know, the Ark of the Covenant right now is dwelling in curtains.
It's dwelling in a tent.
Let's get it in a house.
Let's get it in a building.
Let's build a temple for it.
Okay, so do you remember the thought that I closed on at the end of my sermon on Chapter
39?
I closed on the thought where I said, hey, the Ark of the Covenant is not going to be
a thing in the second coming of Christ.
And I showed you that verse in Jeremiah 3.16 that stated that.
So here's the thing, if the Ark of the Covenant is not going to be a thing, why would the
temple be a thing?
Think about that.
If it's not going to be the Ark of the Covenant, if it's not going to be animal sacrifices,
why would you have a temple?
That's what the temple is for.
It's for that sacrificial system.
That's why once Christ died on the cross, the veil separating the most holy place from
the rest of the temple is torn, it's done, it's finished in Christ.
And so, you know, you're busy looking for a, you know, where is the millennial temple?
There isn't one.
Show me a scripture in the Bible that talks about there being a temple in the millennium.
Now, here's the thing, if you ask the dispensationalism, the Judaizers, and the pre-Trib crowd, if
you ask them, well, where is this temple in the millennium?
Here's what they're going to tell you.
Well, it's Ezekiel 40 through 48.
This is their passage.
But guess what?
There's no evidence that this is the millennium, zilch, zero.
It's ripping it out of the context where it actually is after the Babylonian captivity
when they get back.
Okay.
Now, go if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
I'm going to kind of answer some of the objections that some people would bring up about what
I'm saying and things that they would bring out to try to say that I'm wrong about this.
Okay.
So go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and the Bible says in verse number 1, now we beseech
you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto
him that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word
nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling
away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
We're talking about the anti-Christ there.
So before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him, that
day shall not come except there come a falling away first.
So people are going to apostatize.
They're going to fall away from the right faith and the man of sin is going to be revealed,
the son of perdition who opposes and exalts with himself above all that is called God
or that is worshiped so that he as God sit within the temple of God showing himself that
he is God.
Now, people will point to this passage and say, well, right there it says the temple
of God.
So if the temple that's coming in the future, the third temple, because the first temple
would be Solomon's temple, the second temple would be Ezra's temple, right, if the third
temple is not of God, then why is it called here the temple of God?
That's what they would say, right?
Well, here's my question for you.
Is the anti-Christ God?
Because the verse says right here so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing
himself that he is God.
Is he really as God?
Is he God?
Is he in the temple of God?
No, but he's being called God and he's sitting in a place that's being called the temple
of God.
Does everybody see that?
So if he's not as God and he isn't God, then why would it surprise you that the temple
of God that he's sitting in isn't really the temple of God just like he's not really
God?
I mean, do you see that?
And a lot of people, they get obsessed with capitalizations in the Bible.
They get obsessed with capitalization like they think that somehow that the capitalizations
and punctuation in the Bible, they get superstitious about it, that the capitalizations are inspired.
Well, let me explain something to you.
The capitalizations in the Bible, in our King James Bible, are inconsistent.
And they have changed dramatically since 1611 because God promised that he would preserve
his word.
His word is preserved, but don't get superstitious about whether something's capitalized or not.
That's not authoritative.
And I'll prove it to you.
How about in Daniel chapter 11 when it talks about the Antichrist or, you know, if you're
taking the view of the people back then, Antiochus Epiphanes worshiping the God of
forces, a God which his fathers knew not.
So the Antichrist worshiping a false God, and it's called the God of forces, and the
G is capitalized, God of forces.
Is that the true God up in heaven because it's capitalized, just because it has a capital
G?
How about, keep your finger here, go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3.
So we don't want to get too hung up on whether something's capitalized.
You know, lots of things are capitalized in the Bible, not capitalized.
You know, if you read the verse out loud, it should mean the same thing as when you
read it, you know, on the page.
If reading it out loud changes the meaning for you, you're interpreting it wrong.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
So look at 1 Samuel chapter number 3.
Remember I just preached on this on Sunday morning, so this should be fresh in your mind.
Sorry, it's actually 1 Samuel chapter 4, and what does the Bible say in verse 8 of 1 Samuel
4?
We just talked about this on Sunday.
Woe unto us, who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods, plural, and it's
capitalized.
God's capital G-O-D-S.
So how does that work, my friend?
With you obsessing over capitalizations, how do you have capital G with an S on the end?
Because guess what?
The capitalizations are inconsistent and they don't matter.
So quit worrying about them.
It's that simple.
Any questions?
I mean, you know, you just can't get too hung up on that.
And like I said, go back to the replica of the 1611 King James Bible back there.
We have an exact replica of the 1611 edition, and it's going to say all the same things.
If you read it out loud, it's going to be the same as this one.
If I brought that replica up here and read it out loud, it would sound exactly the same
as this one.
But guess what?
It's capitalized, way different, and have way different punctuation.
Does anybody care?
Because I don't.
Because as long as the words are the same, that's what matters.
So don't get too hung up on the capitalization.
The bottom line is he, as God, capital G, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God.
He's not really as God, he's not really God, and he's not really in the temple of God.
But that is what it's being called.
That's the perception.
Does everybody understand what I mean by that?
So he's pretending to be God, just like the temple is pretending to be the temple of God.
So just because something is called the temple of God, that doesn't mean the Bible is saying
that it's actually of God.
It's actually of the Antichrist.
It's the Jews rebuilding this temple, the Jews who deny that Jesus is the Christ, and
therefore they are in that spirit of Antichrist, who will accept and love the Antichrist, and
they are rebuilding this temple, and they're calling it the temple of God.
They could call it the temple of Elohim, or the temple of Jehovah, or the temple of God
of Abraham, and the temple of the God of Isaac and Jacob.
Does that really make it the temple of God, though?
No, it's just being called the temple of God, just like he's claiming to be God, and he's
not.
The temple is claiming to be the temple of God, and it's not.
Go to Revelation chapter 11.
These are the two places that people would point to, to try to say that there's some
good future temple coming.
I just showed you it's the temple of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians.
He goes into that temple and says that he's God.
In Revelation chapter 11, it says in verse number 1, and there was given me a reed like
unto a rod, and the angel stood saying, rise and measure the temple of God, same term we
saw in 2 Thessalonians 2, and the altar and the worship therein, but the court which is
without the temple, leave out and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles
and the holy city shall they tread underfoot forty and two months.
So at the midpoint of the seven years in Revelation, then is what's called the abomination of desolation,
and at that time, Jerusalem is going to be laid desolate.
That's the time when the Antichrist enters into the temple of God and claims to be God.
Is that temple really of God?
No, it's called the temple of God.
That's what people call it.
In this verse, we're talking about the exact same event, and again, it's calling it the
temple of God, not because it's actually of God, but because that's what it's called.
That's what it's seen as, and the Antichrist at this time is going to cause the daily sacrifice
to cease.
He's going to declare himself to be God, and he sort of double crosses and turns on the
Jews, and the Jews get smoked.
That's what's going to happen.
So this right here, when we're reading Revelation, this mention of the temple is parallel with
2 Thessalonians chapter 2, same time, same event, referring to that Antichrist temple
as the temple of God, not because it really is, but because that's what it's called.
Now look, if you would, at verse 19 of the same chapter, because the word temple, do
a search on the word temple in Revelation, and you're going to find the word temple over
and over again in Revelation, but it's not about a temple on this earth.
Primarily what you'll find is what we see in verse 19, and the temple of God was opened
in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament, and there were lightnings
and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail.
So what do we have?
Verse 1, we have the imposter and his fake temple of God on earth in Jerusalem, and the
abomination of desolation has happened, and the city's going to be desolate for 42 months.
Then at the end of the same chapter, we have the real temple of God up in heaven, ark of
the covenant in heaven up there.
So what's going on?
Flip over to chapter 15, and I'll explain it to you.
In chapter 15, we also have mention of the temple in heaven.
Verse 5, after I looked and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven
was opened.
That's Revelation 15, 5.
It says in verse 8, and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from
his power, and no man was able to enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the
seven angels were fulfilled.
This is in heaven.
Verse 1 of chapter 16, and I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven
angels, this is all in heaven.
So here's what I'm saying.
Just as there's an earthly Jerusalem that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and
that is in bondage with her children, and then there's the heavenly Jerusalem, the new
Jerusalem, the true Jerusalem up in heaven, there's also up in heaven the tabernacle of
the testimony in heaven, the temple of God in heaven, ark of the covenant in heaven,
and so forth.
The imposter down on the earth with the antichrist and his fake temple and sacrifices and all
that garbage that's trying to revert us back to like Old Testament.
Now think about this.
You say, you know, I don't get it.
Let me just boil it all down for you and help make some sense of this, okay?
Think about it this way.
That temple up in heaven and that ark of the covenant up in heaven was an animal sacrifice
ever done up there in heaven.
You think up there in heaven, bulls and goats and sheep and birds have ever been sacrificed
in that temple ever, that there's ever been a drop of animal blood shed in that temple
up in heaven.
Absolutely not, okay?
When the tabernacle was built, when Moses was being told how to build the tabernacle,
he was given instructions and he was told, see that thou build, see that thou make all
things according to the pattern which was showed thee in the mount.
And the Bible tells in Hebrews that the things on this earth, the ark of the covenant, the
tabernacle, the table with the showbread, that those are all figures of the true which
are in heaven.
And the Bible tells in Hebrews that the real ones are in heaven.
So the real ark of the covenant, the real temple, the real veil, the real showbread,
the real altar, all that stuff's up in heaven and the one on this earth was basically a
replica.
And on the replica were offered the blood of bulls and goats and calves and sheep and
so forth, but in the real temple, Jesus entered into the real temple.
After Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood, he as the high priest entered into
the holy place in heaven and he sprinkled his own blood on the mercy seat of the ark
of the covenant in heaven.
Now the temple on this earth is gone.
It was destroyed by the Romans in the first century A.D.
The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians before Ezekiel.
The second temple was destroyed by the Romans in the first century A.D.
The third temple is going to also be destroyed and gone.
These temporary temples, the first temple was legitimate because God gave Solomon permission
to build that temple.
The second temple was legitimate because God is telling Ezekiel that, yeah, you're going
to go back and have a temple.
In Ezra, we see that temple being built and God's blessing and so forth.
The third temple that's going to be built in the future around the Jews and the Antichrist,
that's going to be illegitimate.
But all of these three temples have in common the fact that they are built and they're destroyed
and they're gone and they're temporary.
Here's the thing about that temple up in heaven.
The only blood that was ever offered there at that temple in heaven is the blood of Jesus.
So wouldn't it make sense that that temple would persist forever?
Because that's a New Testament thing up there.
You see, the temple down here on this earth was an Old Testament thing where you offered
animal sacrifices.
That's Old Testament.
The temple up in heaven is a New Testament thing where Jesus took the blood of the New
Testament and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat in heaven.
And that's the only thing that was ever sprinkled on that mercy seat up in heaven.
There's no animals up there being killed in heaven.
You think animals are just dying in heaven?
No.
You're not slaughtering animals in heaven on an altar.
That happened on this earth as a picture of Jesus and Him being the Lamb of God dying
for our sins and then sprinkling the blood on the temple mercy seat in heaven.
And that's why in Revelation we have all this mention of a temple up in heaven.
That's the true godly New Testament temple.
There's not going to be a temple on this earth.
Go to Revelation chapter 21.
Revelation chapter 21.
And so Old Testament temple, that is temporary because the Old Testament's temporary, because
animal sacrifices are temporary, whereas the temple in heaven is eternal because Jesus'
blood is sprinkled on it one time and then His blood just remains there for all eternity
to be just an everlasting atonement for our sins.
It never changes.
It's eternal.
It's immutable.
That's what's going on up in heaven.
Let me just say this categorically.
Any temple that is built on this earth from here on out is not of God.
It's not like Jesus is going to come and renovate the antichrist temple and be like, now we're
going to use this for us.
It's not like the antichrist is going to be in that temple saying he's got, and then Jesus
eventually shows up and basically takes over that temple.
Because we don't need a temple.
Because why do we need a temple if there's no sacrifices?
Why do we need a temple if there's no Ark of the Covenant on this earth, if that's not
going to be a thing anymore according to Jeremiah 3.16?
Why do we need a temple if there's no mediator, there's no priesthood, except all believers
are the priesthood?
Jesus is not going to need a temple on this earth in the millennium.
There's no evidence of that.
It doesn't make any sense.
It's not biblical.
So when you see a temple being built, that's for the antichrist.
But these people who teach this false doctrine, here's why I'm not exaggerating when I say
it's nefarious, it's satanic, and I'm not saying everybody who teaches it is satanic,
but what I'm saying is they're repeating something from someone who is satanic who has influenced
them.
See a lot of Christian pastors today who are actually born again, saved children of God,
they're getting their doctrine from antichrist Jews.
So they're getting their doctrine from those who reject Jesus, and so if they're repeating
stuff that Jews are saying, or repeating stuff that Judaizers and Zionists are saying, you
know, they could inadvertently be teaching antichrist doctrine because they're listening
to people who are antichrist.
I mean when you have an independent fundamental Baptist church bringing in a rabbi to teach
the congregation and he doesn't even claim to believe in Jesus, you're bringing in an
antichrist person to bring in to teach your people, and then it's like, well, you know,
I wonder why we as evangelicals are getting sucked into this Judaizing doctrine because
we're listening to people who reject the Lord.
You know, these people are not the ones to teach us about end times or any other biblical
doctrine.
We need to get our biblical doctrine from the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and we
need to interpret it in a Christian way, not a Jewish way.
We need a Christian interpretation of the New Testament.
Let me tell you something.
This Judaizing is huge right now.
They want to Judaize the Old Testament, they want to Judaize the New Testament, and it's
wrong.
We need a Christian view of the Old Testament.
I mean, isn't this, I mean, am I in the right building?
It's a Christian church, you know.
Some of these churches are like, did I stumble into a synagogue or something?
It's like, is this a Baptist church?
See some rabbi up there?
I'm not making this up, okay.
Paul Wittenberger went to an independent fundamental Baptist church in Southern California, and
they brought in a rabbi to teach Sunday school.
And he asked, KJV, soul winning, independent fundamental Baptist, and he asked the rabbi,
he walked right up and said, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?
Well no.
You can't even make this stuff up, but it's happening.
It's real, okay.
So here's the nefarious thing, is that when you're sitting there and teaching, that when
Jesus returns, it's going to be a temple, it's going to be sacrifices, it's going to
be, you're setting people up for the Antichrist.
Because you're basically describing the Antichrist and saying, that's the second coming of Jesus.
Oh, when Jesus comes the second time, the Jews are going to believe in him.
Well, that's the Antichrist too, because that's who they're going to believe in.
Jesus said, I've come in my own name, and ye receive me not.
If another come in his own name, him you will receive.
And they will receive the Antichrist, they're going to love him.
Now, they're not going to love him when he turns around halfway through and starts wiping
him out, but they're going to be sucked in in the beginning.
And that's part of their punishment.
That's what's coming.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And so, look at Revelation chapter 21 verse 22.
This is about the new heaven and the new earth.
Look what the Bible says, and I saw no temple therein.
I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Now, last time I checked, our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Last time I checked, the church in the New Testament is God's house, God's building.
We are God's house.
We are God's building.
We are God's temple.
That's why in the new heaven and new earth, there is no temple.
Right?
I mean, the Bible says, there's no need of it.
I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
So, what we see is that in the new heaven and the new earth, there's no temple.
You say, well, what about the millennium?
Why would there be?
And why would I just read into the Bible that there's some temple in the millennium?
There's no verse that says that there's a temple in the millennium.
It makes absolutely no sense to have an earthly temple in the millennium, given every single
function that you could possibly think of for the temple.
What function did the temple fulfill?
That's not going to make any sense to have that in the New Testament.
And the New Testament doesn't stop, the New Testament doesn't end, the New Testament doesn't
go on pause during the millennium.
It's still New Testament.
And so, there is, not only is Ezekiel 40 through 48 not the millennial temple, there is no
millennial temple.
And the guy who's going to show up with the temple, that's the antichrist.
And so, that's why it's important to get this stuff right, because the wrong doctrine here
is literally prepping and priming people for the antichrist.
That's what I've been going over, over the last few weeks.
And here's why this, I'll close on this point.
Here's why this is so important, Revelation 21, saying like, I saw no temple therein.
I mean, why bring that up?
Well, because in chapters 21 and 22, we have some things described in the New Heaven and
the New Earth that are similar to things described in Ezekiel 47.
Now, we're not there yet, we're not going to be there for many weeks.
But when we get to Ezekiel 47, you're going to have this river of life and trees and things
that are going to sound familiar from Revelation 21 and 22.
God doesn't want us to be confused.
God doesn't want us to start reading about that river of life in Revelation and start
thinking like, oh, we're going back to like that temple thing of Ezekiel.
No, there's no temple, folks.
So let's keep Ezekiel's temple squarely back in the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament
where it belongs, B.C., right, 500 years or so B.C., let's keep that in its context where
it belongs.
Now, are there some foreshadowings of some things that later in the book could be applied
to end times?
Yes, there are, but very few.
There are very few things in Ezekiel 40 and 48 that really have end times relevance.
But you know what, I can find end times relevance in Genesis or in Exodus.
I could take the passage in Exodus where Moses goes up into the mount to get the Ten Commandments
and I could show you there's clouds and a trumpet and he goes up, he comes down, and
I could say that's a picture of Christ coming in the clouds and the trumpet sounds.
That's a legitimate interpretation, but does that make Exodus an end times book?
No.
You can always find foreshadowings.
So yeah, in Ezekiel, you're going to find some end times foreshadowings, but is this
an end times prophecy?
Is Ezekiel 40 through 48 end times?
The answer is no, it isn't at all.
Not at all because of the fact it's Levitical priests, animal sacrifice, Old Testament.
Back then, we're sad because the temple got destroyed.
Good news, Israel, there's going to be another one.
God's going to build you another one.
You're going to get another one in Ezra.
We'll talk more about this next week when Spirod's going to award a prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and help us to study to show ourselves
approved and not to be just sucked into all these different doctrines that are out there
that would try to Judaize us and tell us not to eat pork and try to get us to follow Jewish
holidays and get back into Old Covenant practices.
Lord, help us to be New Testament Christians and to look at everything with a Christian
point of view, not a Jewish point of view, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.