Amen, just a quick disclaimer before I start preaching here, I'm extremely
fatigued this evening and I don't really know why like around noontime it kind of
hit me I don't know if it's just a change in the weather or what but I am
super tired I'm gonna do the best I can to get through the sermon if I pass out
or anything just slap me a couple times give me something sugary to drink and
just prop me up and let me finish but I'm just saying it might I might go
short tonight I don't know if that's the best news you've heard or if it's bad
but bear with me so anyway Ezekiel chapter 41 I'm just gonna just quickly
say a few words about chapter 40 because I don't want to do a bunch of review in
this series because I don't want you to feel like you're coming every week and
hearing the same thing as we go through this vision of the temple but just to
kind of orient you in literally less than 60 seconds of what we're dealing
with here is Ezekiel is in the Babylonian captivity deep into the
captivity and he's seeing this vision of a new temple and it's simply because the
old temples destroyed by the Babylonians and a new one is going to be built last
week we talked about all the false teaching out there trying to say that
this is some new temple in the millennium and that they're gonna be
animal sacrifices in the millennium and it's all this kind of Judaizing Zionist
dispensationalist garbage that we don't buy into for one second so usually the
simplest explanation is the right explanation they're in the Babylonian
captivity they don't have a temple God is getting them excited about coming
back to the land and having a new temple so I'm preach all the points I made in
that sermon I'm gonna tread some new ground tonight about this temple now
here's the thing about this temple one of the things that you'll hear from
these people who are trying to say that this is some future millennial thing
even though it's clearly situated in the Old Testament with the animal sacrifices
is they'll say oh well this temple is so incredibly big it's so incredibly huge
that there's no way it could have been built back then and the temple that they
actually built was way smaller so we know that this isn't the rubables temple
from back then because it's way too big who's ever heard something like that
if you've even discussed these passages ever which is like five people but
anyway that's what people will commonly bring up or say about this but here's
the thing about that the size of this temple has been over hyped because I've
got news for you this temple is pretty much about the same size as the one
that Solomon built and a lot of times you'll hear something over and over
again and it's really just a bunch of hype it's not actually in the Bible when
you actually look at what the Bible says you'll see that this temple is not some
incredible size and I've even seen some people saying that this temple couldn't
even be built now because the temple mount isn't big enough to build this
temple that's described in Ezekiel and they say you know what's going to be
during the tribulation that all those earthquakes happen and every mountain
and island are moved out of their place that things will be reconfigured to the
point where this thing can even be built or some people would say it's ready now
it can be built now or whatever now again approach it like an algebra
problem start with what you know and then solve for what you don't know if
there's animal sacrifices in every chapter we're in the Old Testament there
are no animal sacrifice in the New Testament nor will there ever be that's
a that's a blasphemous false doctrine I'm not going to reopen that can of worms
from last week let's look at these measurements tonight and you tell me if
this is an incredible size of a temple that we're reading about why don't you
do the math all right look down at your Bible verse 1 of chapter 41 afterward he
brought me to the temple and by the way the word temple was not used in Ezekiel
chapter 40 we ascertained that he was talking about the temple but now he's
explicitly talking about the temple itself and what does it say he brought
me the temple and measured the posts six cubits broad on the one side now how
large is a cubit foot and a half right now you could say well this is a larger
cubit because earlier in the book he talked about it being a large cubit of a
cubit and a handbread so then maybe it's 22 inches or something okay but I don't
care if it's 18 inches or 22 inches or whatever you want it to be there's six
of them are we talking about so far a gigantic size six cubits no and in fact
as we go through this you are going to see tonight that the temple described in
Ezekiel chapter 41 is smaller than the church building that you're sitting in
right now so do you feel like our church building is just this monstrous building
there's no way the Jews built this absolutely not right it's not that big
is it but yet you will see that this building we're gonna get into some
numbers like a hundred cubits by 20 cubits okay so what's that 150 feet by
30 feet so that's like 4,500 square feet this building is 11,000 square feet this
building is twice that so the size of this temple has been overhyped and I'm
going to show you where the confusion is coming from why they're getting this
gigantic size that is incorrect so let's look at the Bible here so far we have
six cubits nothing too big is it and the breadth of the door was ten cubits
what's that about 15 feet or something right the sides of the door were five
cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other side he measured the length
thereof 40 cubits that's 60 feet again we're not talking about large sizes here
and the breadth 20 cubits that's about 30 feet then when he inward and measured
the post of the door two cubits and the door six cubits the breadth of the door
seven cubits he measured the length thereof 20 cubits and the breadth 20
cubits before the temple and he said to me this is the most holy place so within
the temple itself what is the size of the most holy place or what's known as
the Holy of Holies what's the size 20 by 20 how big is that in feet 30 feet by
30 feet this is like a small one-bedroom apartment that's the Holy of Holies in
this temple that is supposedly so gigantic it's 30 feet by 30 feet is the
most holy place but then there's another component to the actual temple proper
which is the holy place but not the most holy place okay let's keep reading it
says after he measured the wall of the house okay and it says six cubits and
the breadth of every side chamber four cubits round about the house on every
side so around the house there are these other chambers or rooms that are like
connected to the house on the edges of it but they're not part of the actual
temple proper they're these other chambers on the outside of the house when
it says the house here this references to the temple because of the house of
God at that time and the side chambers were three one over another and 30 in
order so we have 30 side chambers to this thing right verse 6 and they
entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers roundabout
that they might have hold but they had not hold in the wall of the house and
there was an enlarging and a winding still upward to the side chamber for the
winding about of the house went still upward round about the house so
translation they had a spiral staircase therefore the breadth of the house was
still upward and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the
midst I saw also the height of the house roundabout and the foundations of the
side chambers were a full read of six great qubits so the foundations of the
side chambers were a full read of six great qubits this the great qubit is
again the 22 inches or whatever times six what are we talking about here
folks less than 10 feet eight or nine feet or something we're not talking
about some incredible size okay the thickness of the wall which was for the
side chamber without was five qubits and that which was left was the place of the
side chambers that were within and between the chambers was the widest of
20 qubits roundabout the house on every side bear with me I know these are a lot
of numbers but let's just jump ahead a little bit how about verse 13 so he
measured the house a hundred qubits long this is the longest measurement of the
temple this is the longest measurement of the actual house of God and it's only
a hundred qubits only 150 feet long or you could argue and quibble and say
it's a little longer than that but any way you slice it is less than 200 feet
long so is this some incredible size building no it's smaller than our church
building any way you look at it so where is all this hype coming from that says
that this temple is just so massive and so much bigger than Solomon's temple
well flip over if you would to the next chapter and I'll show you where the
misunderstanding is coming from in Ezekiel chapter 42 it says this verse
15 and went now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house now the
inner house is not the Holy of Holies the inner of house is the temple itself
the temple proper is called the inner house and the Bible said it was a hundred
qubits long and 20 qubits wide that was the size right 150 by 30 now look what
the Bible says when he had finished and made an end of measuring the the inner
house he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east
so he brings him to a gate pointing toward the east and measured it round
about he measured the east side with the hunt with the measuring read 500 reads
so this is the big number this is where the big numbers coming from he goes away
from the temple away from the inner house away from the building that we
measured in chapter 42 that was actually called the temple and he goes away from
that to a gate and measures a wall that is 500 feet long and it says it's sorry
not 500 feet 500 reads now the read is six great qubits so this is like a mile
so basically he goes out from the actual temple proper and he measures this wall
that's like a mile square like a mile this way and a mile this way
ok so what people are doing is they're basically saying oh this temple is so
big it's the size of a square mile they're saying look at that little
temple mount in Jerusalem
how you gonna put a temple on it that's a square mile how are you gonna plop
that down on that little bitty temple mount but here's the problem
the Bible never said that the temple was a square mile in size
the Bible never said that this is the size of the house or the temple or any
building the Bible is simply saying that there is a wall that is that distance
from the temple that's basically a square mile that's marked out for like a
temple complex or basically a region surrounding the temple which doesn't
just include the temple includes all kinds of other space and chambers and
things it's just an area that's considered a holy area now where does
the Bible say that this area has to be perfectly flat where does the Bible say
that this area is enclosed in a building it doesn't this area is not enclosed in
a building there is no roof over this area this is not a building whatsoever
and it is not a temple it is just a basically giant area that is set aside
as holy for the priests and for spiritual things to go on and for the
priests to do their business that's what this actually is and what you have to
understand and you might remember this from the Exodus series is that in the
book of Exodus when Moses built the tabernacle there were like these
concentric areas of holiness right so in the most holy place that is the place
that is so holy that only one person can go there once a year to do one thing
right that's a super holy place one guy once a year goes in there then the next
layer of holiness is the rest of the temple which is where you have the table
and the showbread and the candlestick the New Testament calls that the
sanctuary or the holy place and then you have the most holy place so you have
holy place most holy place but that's not the only place that's holy my
friend because then outside of the holy of holies outside of the holy place you
have the courtyard around the temple or I'm sorry around the tabernacle in
Exodus and they built hangings to basically demarcate they built
basically a fence around the tabernacle to create like an enclosed courtyard so
is the courtyard as holy as the temple no is the temple as holy as the most
holy place no so you start out in the center with the most holy and you have
these like concentric circles of holiness radiating out you go from the
most holy place to the holy place to the courtyard but then the Bible taught that
the entire camp of the Israelites is holy so that is a type of holiness
because they're a holy nation and so they weren't supposed to defecate in the
camp they have to go outside the camp to defecate because God said the camp is
holy don't just use a restroom within the camp take that out of the camp and
then once you get outside of that you have the most just unholy or not holy or
just the pro that which is profane so when the Bible says profane it's not
talking about like hey this movie is rated R because of profanity when the
Bible talks about profane it doesn't mean a cuss word or something what it
actually means is just common the opposite of holy sanctified set apart is
just profane common every day profane just means every day so everybody
understand this concept of different layers of holiness as we go up and the
reason God made such a big deal about this in the Old Testament is so that we
would appreciate in the New Testament that we can just march right into the
Holy of Holies by praying to the Father in the name of Jesus and we don't have
to go through all this rigmarole that they had to go through in the Old
Testament we just have direct access to the Father through the Son in the New
Testament so in this situation we have something similar going on okay we have
Holy of Holies 20 by 20 the inner house 20 by 100 then backing out from that we
have this area that is set apart 500 by 500 reads not cubits read so it's like a
square mile and this is considered a holy place for the Levites then you go
outside of that even further and you have another section that is 10,000 by
25,000 reads and that's the zone where the Levites are supposed to live within
that zone okay and so it's just like today we have zoning laws and it's like
okay this is zoned residential this is zoned commercial this is an Indian
reservation God is zoning this thing out and that 500 by 500 thing is a zone
okay so let's keep reading with that in mind so it says he measured the north
side verse 17 500 reads with the measuring read roundabout he measured
the south side 500 reads with the measuring read he turned about to the
west side and measured 500 reads with the measuring read he measured it by the
four sides it had a wall roundabout 500 reads long so what's he measuring a wall
there's a wall separating this area out 500 reads long and 500 reads broad now
watch this to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place so
here's the thing a lot of people are misreading this and I could see where
they're coming from why they would get this wrong because often the area
outside the Holy of Holies is called the sanctuary the holy place but what
you have to understand is that sanctuary simply means holy place and must be
right in context it could be any holy place it just means holy place so is
that area within that 500 by 500 is it holy yes now let's stop and think for a
moment if this were saying that the temple itself well it says sanctuary you
know if it were saying this the temple or that is that big why does it not say
that the building is that size why does it just say there's just a wall there
and when it talked about a building it was 100 by 20 that was the building this
is just a wall not only that this demarcation of 500 by 500 separates the
sanctuary from not a less holy courtyard but rather it separates it from a
profane place so therefore it wouldn't make sense to have the temple butted
right up against a profane place no there's another concentric layer of
holiness just like there always is in the tabernacle and the temple designs
and so this wall notice does it say that the wall is a certain height does it
give a thickness of the wall look if there were anything impressive about
this wall if it were some giant super high wall or super thick wall you know
in the last chapter in chapter 41 we saw a wall that was like five cubits thick
think about a wall that's seven and a half feet thick that's a thick wall now
I've been to a castle before that had walls that were that thick but do we see
that about this wall no this wall is kind of a nothing burger and let me tell
you why because this wall is not meant to keep the enemy out this is not a wall
of defense this is not a wall of a castle this is not a wall to wall in the
city and keep the enemy away because the Bible tells us exactly what the wall is
for the Bible tells us that the wall is to make look at the last words of verse
20 to make a separation between the sanctuary in the profane place you don't
need much to just make a separation to just draw a line I mean this wall could
be any height and any thickness and it would do the job because all you're
looking for is just a boundary this thing could be this thick it could be
this tall doesn't mean I'm not saying I know how tall was I'm not saying it was
sure but it could be any height because it's not about keeping an enemy about
it's just to show people hey buddy don't come past this line unless you are clean
because some people are in a state of uncleanness some people are in a state
of cleanness and the unclean man cannot enter past this line of demarcation now
tell me this from what we just read is there anything in this passage that says
this is all flat and it's a plateau and it's got to be flat as a pancake and
this wall has to be a perfect square because that's what all the little
computer animations are showing this little perfect flat square but folks
what does the text actually say the texture says there's a wall of some kind
just delineating a zone of holiness versus profanity now here's the thing
about that is that walls don't have to be on a flat surface have you ever seen
the Great Wall of China okay first we got a flat and everything to build this
thing is that what the Chinese said no the Great Wall of China is like this it
doesn't have to be flat it doesn't have to be the Temple Mount folks I promise
you and you telling me that they can't build walls in Jerusalem you've never
seen a picture of Jerusalem because guess what Jerusalem's filled with walls
Jerusalem has a big ol Berlin wall separating the Palestinian part from the
Jewish part and the and Palestine is filled with walls and guess what all
those walls are on hills rolling hills and they're giant 20-foot walls in some
cases 15 feet 10 feet high razor wire super thick this was probably a super
minor wall because it's just a demarcation point and so do you see how
this has been misunderstood to think that this is the size of the temple and
people go around saying well Ezekiel's temple is huge it's a mile one mile by
one mile is that really what the text says no let's go to chapter 45 it says
in chapter 45 and remember the word sanctuary just meant holy place in
chapter 42 separated from the profane it says of this verse 2 of this or let's
let's just uh yeah of this there shall be for the sanctuary in verse 1 it just
talked about the 10,000 by 25,000 verse 2 of chapter 45 of this shall be for the
sanctuary 500 in length and 500 in breadth square roundabout and 50 cubits
roundabout for the suburbs thereof so this area that's 500 by 500 what does it
have around it suburbs so what are suburbs now you know if I'm just if I
were just look at this English word I would look at this English word and say
well you know suburbs is not the herbs it's the sub or it's less urban so it's
further out like like if I said I live in suburbia I'm saying I don't live in
the inner city of Phoenix I live in a less urban a sub urban community right
I'm not urban I'm sub urban okay that's not exactly what this means here but
that's what the word means in our modern day because the Latin word for city is
herbs you are BS suburbs is less of a city it's a little bit outside now here
what this word probably means is probably an older use of the words what
would go around a city could be like what's considered like a field or kind
of a buffer zone where you would let animals be able to graze or something so
you know I don't know exactly for sure what this is it could be like a little
grazing area but it's some kind of a buffer zone because it's not that big
it's like 50 qubits or whatever around the edge could be like a little grassy
area they don't want people's houses butted right up against this thing or
something so there's like a little suburbs where it's like a little less of
the actual inner kernel and sort of like you know an outer shell if that makes
sense okay but any way you slice it it doesn't sound like the temple okay it is
a greater zone of holiness with this little suburbs around it okay and then
it says and of this measure shalt thou make the length of five and twenty
thousand and the breadth of ten thousand it shall be the sanctuary and the most
holy place the holy portion of the land shall be for the priests of the
sanctuary which shall come near to minister unto the Lord and it shall be a
place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary and the five and
twenty thousand and on and on he goes I'm not gonna be labor that okay so what
else is in this area so if we have this area that's like a square mile and the
actual temple itself is only like 150 feet long or maybe 200 feet long or
whatever what is in this area well the Bible talks about there just being tons
of chambers in this area there are all kinds of rooms and places now if we were
to look at Ezra and Nehemiah we would see that to be true because if you
remember there's a famous story in Nehemiah chapter 13 where Nehemiah is
upset because some unholy people are living in those chambers in a holy area
that's reserved for the Levites and he finds some of the enemies of Israel that
have kind of wormed their way in and while he was gone they've taken up
residence inside and the Bible talks about him taking all their stuff and
throwing it out and putting the portion for the Levites in the chambers where it
belongs so we see these chambers in Ezra and Nehemiah as actually existing okay
so I think we all get it I'm gonna move on to the next thing okay so the next
thing that I want to explain about this is the fact that what Ezekiel is seeing
here in chapters 40 through 48 is a pattern for a new temple when they come
back from the Babylonian captivity he is not seeing the future so he's not being
warped into the future and seeing a future temple and exactly what happened
he's seeing a pattern of what they're supposed to build and what they're
supposed to do because as we read this entire thing God is making provision for
all of the ten tribes to be included in this when we get later in the passage
he's gonna say you know we can have Asher over here and Gad over here and
Naphtali over here it's gonna be great now did that all happen did that all
come to fruition no but that was the plan and what we have to understand is
that Ezekiel is being given the plan for the new temple I'm not saying that what
was built in Ezra and Nehemiah and what's the rubable presided over was
exactly what we see here in Ezekiel I couldn't say how close the two matched
now when we read Exodus doesn't the Bible make a huge deal to say Moses make
sure that you make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in
the mouth God says see that they'll make all things according to pattern showed
the amount but not only does it make a big deal about that it goes on and on
saying and Moses did it just like he was told now if we were supposed to
automatically assume that when people are told to build a tabernacle they
build it exactly the way God said then tell me why we have chapter after
chapter in Ezekiel several chapters of like and Moses did as he was told over
here and then Moses did another thing he was supposed to do so when you're
reading Exodus you read through that whole tabernacle description it's some
heavy plowing it's hard to read you know but guess what in this generation of
comic books and cartoons for 40 year olds maybe we need to you know read
about this building maybe we need a book with white print and black ink on a page
with no pictures maybe some of you need to grow up and read the Word of God and
here's the thing about that when you're reading the book of Exodus I'll be
honest it can be a heavy plowing and finally you get to the end you're like
finally we're done describing the tabernacle thank God we can move on to
something else and he's like okay now here's what they did and he literally
repeats everything that you know how we said they were gonna do it that's what
they did now with this second temple here's what we have we have this
laborious Ezekiel 40 through 48 do it like this do it like this do it like
this do it like this so far we haven't really got to those imperatives but
we're going to here's what we don't have we don't have and that's what they did
and Ezra and Nehemiah executed perfectly and Zerubbabel executed perfectly there's
nothing like that and in fact both Ezra and Nehemiah the theme is failure
otherwise explain to me why the end of Ezra is so depressing explain to me why
the end of Nehemiah is so depressing at the end of Ezra everybody's getting
divorced everything's family court everything is like an episode of like
Judge Judy or something and and it's like it's like the Jerry Springer show
in Ezra chapter 10 where basically everybody's getting divorced and
everybody's got kids from other marriages it's just a nightmare okay
then at the end of Nehemiah Nehemiah leaves for a little while and comes back
and basically all the reforms that Nehemiah had brought about and got
everybody served my God when he comes back everything is falling apart and
he's chasing people he's ripping people's hair out he's cursing them he's
chasing them attacking them and saying oh God do you remember what I did for
you remember me for good because these people have ruined everything that's how
Nehemiah ends that's how Ezra ends so should I be shocked to find out that
maybe the Israelites didn't fully execute God's plan as it's delivered
here in chapters 40 through 48 this is a pattern and again he's not really doing
a lot of imperatives yet but as we get into later chapters he's gonna say this
is what the Levites are gonna do these are the clothes they're gonna wear this
is the haircut they're gonna have these are the sacrifices they're gonna do and
he's laying out a pattern and a vision for coming back it doesn't mean that
everything gets perfectly executed but it's the pattern now one thing people
will bring up is they'll say well this can't be Zerubbabel's temple and if you
would go to Ezra chapter 3 some people will say well this can't be
Zerubbabel's temple because it's so massive it's a mile by a mile well we
already debunked that it's it's a it's smaller than our church building it's
literally half the square footage of our church building okay and last time I
checked I didn't think that people thought that our church building was
just like this behemoth church building okay but go back to Ezra chapter 3
here's what they'll say they'll say well you know when the old men saw the
foundation of the temple laid in the book of Ezra they cry about it because
they were let down by it because you know the Solomon's temple was so big and
magnificent and glorious and you know Zerubbabel's temple is a small piece of
junk and so they're sad about that but you know what they're doing they're
really reading a lot into this passage why don't we actually read what it
actually says without bringing all this baggage and all this preconceived idea
it says in chapter 3 verse number 12 or you know verse 10 says when the builders
laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord they set the priests in their
peril with trumpets etc look at verse 12 but many of the priests and Levites
and chief of the fathers who were ancient men who had seen the first house
when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes wept with a loud
voice does it say why they wept it just says ancient men who had seen the old
house wept when the foundation of the house was laid does it say that they're
sad does it say that they're disappointed does it say it's the size
that bothers them is any of that actually in the Bible what does it say
they wept they're old people and they wept they're old and they cried they
saw the old one they see the new one they start crying am I missing anything
and many shouted aloud for joy now you could say well if the other people are
shouting aloud for joy then maybe these people are weeping because they're sad
but isn't that again reading into the text a little bit because it doesn't
actually say that and then it says so that the people could not discern the
noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people for the
people shouted with a loud shout and the noise was sort of far off that's it now
folks I don't see how this is conclusive or definitive of anything because of the
fact that what we see here is some people are crying and some people are
shouting for joy now let's just assume for a minute that they're crying because
they're sad because it could be that they're just crying like this is so
great some people react I mean look have you seen people get really excited and
shout for joy but have you seen other people get really happy and excited and
start crying don't people cry at weddings is it because like they're
crying because of the fact that they're so happy I'm just crying because I'm
happy so first of all you have to make the assumption that it's sadness but you
know what I'm gonna give you that I'm gonna give you that and we're just gonna
assume that they are sad why are they sad do we know for sure it's the size
I've already demonstrated to you that the size is similar because if we were
to go to Solomon's Temple we would find that it's 70 qubits in length this one's
a hundred qubits it's not and it had a porch it's like 70 qubits and a porch
or ten qubits it's it's comparable in size but I will say this one of the
characteristics of Solomon's Temple is that it has these very expensive
foundation stones that are brought from super far away these incredibly
expensive gigantic foundation costly stones that are buried underground to
just provide this incredible foundation for the temple so how about this maybe
the foundation here is not even close to that amazing foundation that Solomon's
Temple had of costly stones maybe this is a less cool foundation in quality not
size maybe it's just the quality that's different and how about this what did
the Bible say about Solomon's Temple what kind of metals were used throughout
Solomon's Temple gold everything's gold-plated the temple was made out of
wood but it was all overlaid with gold so it's made out of cedar and it was all
gold-plated guess what you're not gonna find in Ezekiel 40 through 48 you know
what you're not gonna find you're not gonna find any silver you're not gonna
find any gold so perhaps the reason why the rubables temple is less impressive
is because it's not gold-plated it's not covered in silver and gold it's maybe a
more humble building now look is our temple more magnificent than Solomon's
Temple because of the fact that our church building in in an office complex
is more than double the size it's like move over Solomon's Temple you should
check out Faithful Words building you know on the ceiling tiles thereof we're
one cubit by two cubit you know two and a half cubits by one cubit on the side
thereof yeah you know what's different between our church building and the
temple our church building smaller or sorry bigger our church building is
bigger than the temple but is it gold does it have some special but it has
some concrete foundation it doesn't have some special rock foundation so there
are so many other ways to interpret this text and people are reading into this an
assumption of well the other temple is really cool and these guys are
disappointed because this one is so much smaller or less grandiose look if you're
gonna eventually have this zone of one square mile when you're just laying the
foundation for the house do you have to already have that zone maybe when you're
laying the foundation you just lay a little foundation just for the actual
inner house the temple proper maybe you're gonna build chambers later if
you're gonna build the wall around it later so there are just so many
assumptions that people are reading in a text so here's the moral of the story
don't just go by people what people tell you about the Bible people will get up
and tell you about the Bible and they'll quote verses out of context but what you
have to do is you have to actually look up those verses and read the whole
chapter and you know what you'll often find is that what people are saying
isn't really there they're telling you it's there it's sort of like if I took
you outside and I started pointing at stuff and I start pointing out
constellations hey look don't you see it don't you see it and I could point out
stuff that isn't even there and after a while you'll be like yeah yeah I think I
do see that because you can just make people think that stuff there by
suggesting it to them well this is one of those things where everybody's like
hey see look it's right there oh yeah there it is but then when you actually
look at it it's like well where is it and that's why some of you'll ask
people hey can you show me that in the Bible and they're like well I can't
really show you in the Bible but you gotta listen to sermon if you listen to
sermon yeah you'll see what it's about but it's like well if but if it's true
shouldn't it say it in the Bible like why do I have to hear a sermon to get it
there should be a scripture that you can point me to you know obviously sermons
can expound and elucidate scripture but my point being that if you can only get
it from a sermon and you can't get it from the text maybe it just isn't there
okay so we don't want to read things into the text that aren't there okay so
back to Ezekiel quickly here and so we see in Ezekiel chapter 41 when we read
the measurements in chapter 41 which are actually about the temple they're all
small numbers the largest number is 100 cubits that's the largest number and we
only get into larger numbers in chapter 42 when we are no longer talking about
the temple because we are talking about the other court and we're talking about
this other outer zone and that zone does not have to be flat it's just it could
just be a region and it's just like okay let's just measure it and hey don't come
past this point if you're not holy enough it's that simple piece of cake so
we got to put aside some of these assumptions that we have and like I said
I can see where people I'm not saying people are dumb if they made this
mistake because I can see why when they see the word sanctuary they just
automatically are thinking boom Hebrews talks about the most holy place in the
sanctuary so they're just assuming but but remember in just the last chapter it
called the temple not the sanctuary called it the inner house and it gave a
measurement for it 100 cubits long and that wasn't the holy of holies because
that was only 20 by 20 and so sanctuary at its root simply means holy place and
so it's not as holy as you think it's a little bit less holy place but it ain't
profane either right outside of that demarcation things are totally profane
okay and that doesn't mean there's that you know the f-word is scrawled on the
outside of the building or something it just means it's everyday common it's not
reserved for the Levites or the priests or that which is holy it's profane
everyday whatever unclean people can be there and be fine so that is chapter 41
in a nutshell and I'll just give you you know a quick application here is to
understand the fact that in the Old Testament God demanded all this holiness
and he had these really strict rules about who could approach unto the Lord
and go into that most holy place and in fact some people they can't even go into
the courtyard some people came and get inside that giant one-mile fence let
alone getting into the temple the reason is because God is extremely holy God is
a consuming fire God is on such a level of us that we can't approach or come nigh
to God in our sinful condition or we would just get completely smoked but the
Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth the Son of God and he bridged the gap
between the holiness of God and sinful man by coming and dying on the cross and
through his broken body he has made a way for us to approach God the Father
through Jesus the Son and so Jesus' blood has given us an entrance into the most
holy place so therefore we can march in boldly to the throne of grace we can
come to the Father through Jesus the Son and we have access to God and listen
there's one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus there is no priest
to mediate between you and God now in the Old Testament you had the priest and
he's got to go in the most holy place once a year and do that for you he's got
to go into the inner house for you he's got to do things in the courtyard for
you and you have to stand back because you're not a priest you're not a Levite
and you have this go-between going between you and God but in the New
Testament when Jesus died on the cross that veil was ripped between the holy
place and the most holy place basically opening it all up to us and now there is
only one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus so you don't need
me to pray for you now of course I'll pray for you but but I'm saying you can
pray for yourself too and you don't have to come to me and say oh you know
forgive me pastor Anderson it's been X amount of time since my last confession
and I'm like okay what'd you do this time and it's like okay here's what I
did all right you're gonna have to say five Hail Mary's and five our fathers
put a little extra money in the plate we'll call it even your secrets safe
with me okay that's totally unbiblical it's garbage talk about the Roman
Catholic Church my friend they are they have this mediator where you got to go
through the Pope or you have to go through Mary or you have to go through
the Saints or you pray to Saint so-and-so or Mary or these people no no
there's one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus they even call Mary
the mediatrix that's what they call her no there's one mediator between God and
men the man Christ Jesus now in the Old Testament did they have another mediator
yeah I mean they had the priests they got there going through the Levitical
priest and he is making atonement for them and he is doing not saving their
soul but he is basically keeping their relationship right with God whereas in
the New Testament we do that ourselves now we can confess our faults one to
another but it's not like we all confess to one guy because he calls himself
Papa and dresses like mama and a dress but but we are all on the same footing
I'm not a priest any more or less than you're a priest now I am a priest
you're a priest every man woman boy or girl who is saved by the blood of Jesus
in the New Testament is a priest and Jesus our high priest and we have one
mediator and that's it so that's what's so cool about this now now here's the
thing a lot of people might think to themselves well what's so cool about
that oh so what I can just talk to God oh wow so cool so what if I can pray to
God and you can take that for granted right isn't it kind of a privilege to be
able to just talk to God I mean what if I just had a bat phone to the president
you know I would never use it but you know let's say the president were a
normal person you know and I just had a bat phone to the president and and he's
just like yeah yes pastor Anderson anything I can help you with right but
here's the thing I have a bat phone to the God of the universe where I can
basically just pick up the phone and call Jesus whenever I want and say all
right put me through to the Father and I can just pray straight to God the Father
in the name of Jesus and I have that direct line of communication to the most
powerful being in the universe the Creator the Lord God that's pretty cool
now maybe you still don't appreciate how cool that is then here's what you do you
go and read Exodus chapter after chapter of like how hard it is to approach to
God and how strict it is and all the steps you have to go through and you got
to build this elaborate building and you got to do all these sacrifices and you
got to have a bell and a pomegranate and a bell and a pomegranate and you got to
have six curtains on this side and five curtains on this side and 50 attaches
for the 50 hooks and you got to have the sockets and you got to have the nails
and you've got to have the tent and then you got to go in once a year and it's
just like you go through all of this and then you realize how holy God is how
hard it was to get to God how hard it would be to get to God or impossible it
would be to get to God without Jesus then now Jesus bridging that gap
suddenly means something I mean what if I said like you know you wouldn't
believe it but I have direct access to call my dad on the phone people be like
everybody calls their dad like who can't pick up the phone and call their dad I
know there's some people that have a bad relationship with dad I'm not trying to
tear open that wound tonight okay so just forget I said anything but I'm
saying like the average person could pull out their phone right now and just
call dad on speed dial am i right and say hey what's up dad and talk to dad so
if I told you I have access directly to my father it'd be like so what but if I
said I have direct access to the president 24 hours a day then you'd be
like whoa that's something why is it something because he's surrounded by all
these layers of security right so if I can penetrate that all of a sudden
that's something so all those layers that we're seeing of holiness in
Ezekiel and in Exodus that's basically showing us why it's so cool that we can
get straight to the Father in the New Testament by understanding how
unapproachable God really is by nature we're on such a different level than
that God it'd be like you know ants in an anthill trying to communicate with us
and you know if ants tried to get my attention and they came to my house and
they they come my house and they came in peace and they try to talk I would just
be like stepping on them I'm spraying them with raid I don't know what you
guys want but I want you know just leave me alone I don't want you in my house I
don't know what you're saying I don't hear anything I don't speak ant and I
just be stepping on them killing them poison I'm just like you're you're
nothing to me and I wouldn't be at night like oh man what did I do to those ants I
wouldn't even care but here's the thing God is so much higher than us you know
we're on such a lower level being able to have any kind of communion with the
God of the universe who created the whole infinite universe and knows the
number of our hairs on our head that's pretty incredible isn't it so you get an
appreciation for that maybe you don't like reading the end of Exodus or the
end of Ezekiel but it's kind of nice to know they're there isn't it I don't
necessarily wake up every morning and read it with tears in my eyes but it's
nice to know it's there because it gives me a greater appreciation for God and we
should read the whole Bible at least once a year amen even the so-called
boring parts because all scripture is is is building us up in the faith and it's
profitable for doctrine so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we
thank you so much Lord for this passage and Lord I hope that it became a little
more understandable tonight that the size of the inner house of the temple
has been overhyped and that the one square mile thing is is is not
necessarily a flat plateau that's being read into the text Lord and I pray that
we would take advantage of that direct access by speaking to you every day in
prayer help every single one of us to pray unto you every single day and in
Jesus name we pray amen