Love you, Jesus, and pray.
Amen.
All right, well, we're there in Ezekiel 41.
And I'm probably going to regret asking this,
but did anybody read Ezekiel 41 in preparation for tonight?
And you know, it's fine.
Don't answer that.
I was just going to try to get some tips from you
if you have anything that I could preach about.
But we are in this section of Ezekiel.
And of course, we talked about it last week,
that it's kind of the last section.
Ezekiel's divided into several sections.
And this is the last section in the book.
And this is probably the most difficult and the most debated
section of the book.
And it deals specifically with Ezekiel's temple.
And if you remember last week, we
talked about the fact that there are some major theories
in regards to Ezekiel's temple.
And if you remember, we talked about the fact
that one theory is that the temple is symbolic,
and it's not to be taken literally.
Another theory is that this is the millennial reign temple.
And this is a temple that will be in effect
during the reign of Christ.
The problem with that theory or the issue with that theory
is that if that's true, then there will be sacrifices
during the millennial reign.
Then the third theory was that this was Ezra's temple
or Zerubbabel's temple.
After the captivity, when they came back
and they built the temple, this is the temple
that Ezekiel was predicting that they built.
And there are some issues with that as well.
And then the fourth theory is that the fact
that this is the temple of the eternal state
after the millennial reign, when we
are in what we would call the eternal state, new heaven,
new earth, new Jerusalem, that this is the temple.
And what I told you last week, because as you can tell,
this is a very difficult passages
to preach through in the sense that at very Baptist Church,
and I talk about this from time to time,
and this may not make sense to you,
but the sermons that I preach and that I
try to train the guys that preach to do
are very application driven.
We try to not only teach you the Bible,
but we teach you the Bible and then tell you
what you should do about it, what you should do
or stop doing, what you should believe or stop believing.
And when you have passages like these ones,
they're difficult to do that because there's
so much detail and so much description.
So what I told you last week we're
going to start doing this week is
as we go through these passages, I'm
going to give you, I'm going to go
through a very basic format for each one of the chapters.
The first thing we're going to do is as quickly as possible
give you a basic outline of the chapters
so that for those of you who like to take notes
and have notes, you can have that basic, that quick and basic
outline.
And then we're going to go through each one
of these theories.
So I explained the theories last week.
And if you weren't here for last week's sermon,
then I would encourage you to go back and listen to that
because I went through and explained different theories.
And then what I'm going to do is I'm
going to take one theory every week and show you
why we don't believe those theories
or why we don't agree with those theories.
And then on the fifth week, I'll give you my thoughts
or my theory.
And then I still like to be application driven.
So we'll end the night with a practical application.
We'll try to take at least one practical application away
each week from this chapter.
So let's begin with just the basic outline.
If you're writing notes down, you can write this down.
But when we get to this chapter, and again, remember,
we're talking about Ezekiel's temple.
Remember last week, Ezekiel was caught away.
He was in Babylon.
And he was brought to Jerusalem.
And he is seeing this temple.
And he begins a tour of the temple.
And it's similar to the beginning of the book
when he was brought in to see the temple with all
the defilements and with all the idolatry.
Now he's seeing a good temple, a good version of that temple.
And he's being given this tour through the temple.
And there are two main categories in this chapter.
The first one is the dimensions of the temple.
So if you're writing an outline, you
might write letter A, the dimensions of the temple.
And then the second one, letter B,
is the features of the temple.
And I'll show those to you quickly.
So you've got Roman numeral one, a basic outline.
Then you've got A, dimensions of the temple.
And under the dimensions of the temples, there are two headings.
You've got the dimensions of the tabernacle.
You find that in verses one and two.
And then you've got the dimensions of the holy place.
You find that in verses three and four.
So let's look at it real quickly.
Look at verse one.
The Bible says this.
Afterward, he brought me to the temple and measured the post.
Now the post is a long, sturdy piece of wood.
It's used for support.
He's measuring the post.
And he measures six cubits broad on one side
and six cubits broad on the other side, which
was, notice, the breadth or the width of the tabernacle.
So he's given us the dimensions of the tabernacle, the word
tabernacle, temple, the house.
These are all used interchangeably
for the same building.
And he gets the breadth of the tabernacle, notice verse two.
And the breadth of the door was 10 cubits.
And the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side
and five cubits on the other side.
And he measured, notice, the length thereof.
So in verse one, we got the breadth of the tabernacle.
Now we get the length thereof, 40 cubits,
and the breadth, 20 cubits.
So we see the dimensions of the tabernacle in verses one and two.
And then in verses three and four,
we get the dimensions of the holy place.
Now notice verse three, it says this.
Then when he inward.
And if you remember, and I've explained this before.
And you may or may not remember this.
But when we talk about the tabernacle,
whether it was the tent that Moses built
or the physical building that Solomon built,
and the temple, there's several temples mentioned
throughout the Bible.
You've got the tabernacle that Moses built.
And that's actually called a temple,
even though it was made as a tabernacle or a tent.
Then you've got Solomon's temple.
Solomon built a temple.
Of course, that temple was destroyed.
Then you have Zerubbabel's temple, or Ezra's temple,
which was built after the captivity.
Then you have what's referred to as Herod's temple, where Herod
just kind of rebuilt or remodeled the temple
that Zerubbabel and Ezra built. That's
a temple that Jesus is at the time of the New Testament.
Then, of course, you've got this temple
that Ezekiel is talking to us about.
In the New Testament, you've got the temple of New Testament
believers were called the temple.
Then, of course, in end times, you've got the Antichrist.
He's got a temple that he's going to build.
And then in the end times, you've
got the tabernacle of God when it comes down
from heaven with men.
And we'll talk about that in another sermon.
But you've got these different temples.
And in regards to all of these temples,
we're talking about the physical buildings, not necessarily
the human body of believers.
But all these temples were all designed the same way.
You had a courtyard.
You had an outer space.
Then you had the main room, which
is where the priest would minister and do sacrifices.
And then you would have this inward room.
It was called the holy place or the holy of holies.
And nobody was allowed to come into that room
except for once a year on the Day of Atonement,
the high priest was allowed to come into the holy of holies.
This is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
This is where they would treat this as the place where
God dwelled, the presence of God.
And the Ark of the Covenant would
represent the presence of God.
And once a year on the Day of Atonement,
the high priest would walk in to that holy of holies.
And he would take the blood and sprinkle it upon the seat.
You know that when Jesus died, he
rent the veil that separated the holy place from the holy
of holies.
There's a whole other sermon we could go into there.
Here in this temple, we see the same thing.
And we see that he gives us not only the measurements
for the tabernacle, but he gives us the measurements
for the holy place.
And here's what's interesting is that Ezekiel
is on this tour with this angelic being
or spiritual heavenly being or whatever it is.
And he doesn't actually walk into the holy of holies, which
is consistent with all of the tabernacles
because nobody was allowed to walk in to the holy of holies
except for the high priest on the Day of Atonement.
That's why he says in verse 3, then when he inwards.
So he tells us Ezekiel said, be sure to tell us I didn't go in.
But he went in and measured the pose of the door, two cubits,
and the door, six cubits, and the breadth of the door,
seven cubits.
So he measured, notice, the length thereof, 20 cubits,
and the breadth thereof, 20 cubits, before the temple.
And he said unto me, this is the most holy place,
or the holy of holies, the place
where they would go in to do the sacrifice on the day
or to sprinkle the blood on the Day of Atonement.
So here's what we have.
We have the dimensions of the temple.
Verses 1 and 2 is the dimensions of the tabernacle.
Verses 3 and 4 is the dimensions of the holy place.
Now for the rest of the chapter, what we have
is the features of the temple.
And he's just kind of telling us different unique things
that this temple has.
And it's kind of interesting.
The first thing is in verses 5 and 6.
And it is the fact that there are chambers.
Or these would be like rooms where the different priests
would stay and sleep and live.
And these chambers are actually in three stories.
There are three levels or three floors to this temple.
And there are 30 chambers, but they are divided into 10 rows.
And each row has three stories.
Look at verse 5.
And he measured the wall of the house, six cubits,
and the breadth of every side chamber, 40 cubits,
round about the house on every side.
Verse 6, and the side chambers were three.
Notice what it says, one over another.
So you've got three that are one over another.
That's three stories.
There's another place in the chapter that he mentions this.
We'll see that as we go on.
And 30 in order.
And they entered into the wall, which
was of the house for the side chambers round about,
that they might have hold, but they had not
hold in the wall thereof.
So in verses 5 and 6, if you want to write this down,
we are now in the features section of this chapter.
And in verses 5 or 6, we're told that there are three story
chambers.
In verses 7 through 11, he explains to us,
and it doesn't use this terminology,
but I think you'll see it when we read it,
that there is a winding staircase in this temple.
Look at verse 7.
And there was an enlarging and a winding about still
upward to the side chambers.
He just got done telling us that there are 30 rooms
in this temple, and they are divided into different stories.
And they're one above the other.
There's three stories.
Now he's telling us how you can get to these rooms
and these different stories and these different levels.
And he's telling us that there's a winding staircase.
That's what we would call it.
It says, a winding about still upward
to the side chamber for the winding about of the house
went still upward round about the house.
Therefore, the breadth of the house
was still upward and so increased from the lowest
chamber to the highest by the midst.
And I saw also the height of the house round about
and the foundation of the side chambers
were a full read of six great cubits.
I want you to notice there when it says a full read of six
great cubits.
If you remember, we talked about this last week,
that in the Bible, you've got these measurements, a cubit.
And a cubit was generally what we
would consider about 18 inches.
It would go from your elbow to your hand.
And that's what you normally find in the Bible.
Whenever you read about a cubit, you
can think of something that's about 18 inches long.
And you do the math to figure out what that would translate.
You know, when they tell us six cubits,
you can translate that into however many feet.
However, in this temple, in chapter 40,
we were told that the cubit was the regular cubit plus
a hand breadth.
So the cubit for this temple was a larger cubit
than the normal cubit you read about throughout the Bible.
So you had a cubit, which is about 18 inches.
Then you also had a hand breadth,
which is about four inches.
So the cubit for this temple is about 22 inches.
It's a larger cubit.
And that's why he says it was a full read of six great cubits.
So notice, it's not just a regular cubit.
It's a great cubit because it has that extra hand breadth.
Look at verse 9.
The thickness of the wall, which was for the side of the chamber
without, was five cubits.
And that which was left was the place of the side chambers
that were within.
And between the chambers was the wideness
of 20 cubits round about the house on every side.
And the doors of the side chamber
were toward the place that was left,
one door toward the north, another toward the south.
And the breadth of the place was left,
was five cubits round about.
Numbers 12, we are told about a building that
is to the west of the temple.
So it's a different building that's
to the west of the temple, verse 12.
Now the building that was before the separate place at the end
toward the west, 70 cubits broad,
and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about
and the length thereof 90 cubits.
Then in verses 13 through 17, we're
told that we're just told about the temple building as a whole.
It says, so he measured the house,
talking about the entire house, the entire temple,
and 100 cubits long and the separate place
and the building with the walls thereof and 100 cubits long.
So notice, he's telling us 100 cubits long, verse 14.
Also the breadth of the face of the house
and of the separate place toward the east and 100 cubits.
So he tells us it's 100 cubits long.
In verse 13, it's 100 cubits broad or wide.
In verse 14, look at verse 15, and he
measured the length of the building
over against the separate place, which was behind it
and the galleries thereof on one side or on the other side
and 100 cubits with the inner temple
and the porches of the court.
And the doorpost and the narrow windows and the galleries
round about on their, notice, three stories.
So we see again that there are three stories
for these different chambers over against the door sealed
with wood round about and from the ground up to the windows.
And the windows were covered to that above the door,
even unto the inner house and without and by all the walls
round about, within and without, by measure.
So he's saying, I'm giving you all the measurements for all
these different things.
Then in verses 18 through 20, he explains to us
the designs of the temple.
Notice, he tells us how it's decorated
and the different designs that it has, verse 18.
And it was made with cherubims and palm trees.
And this is consistent with temple designs.
If you go back and read Solomon's temple,
you'll find that he had cherubims as decorations
and palm trees as decorations.
It says that he was made with cherubims and palm trees
so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub.
And every cherub had two faces.
So he's telling us, look, the walls
were decorated with these cherubims.
And normally, we read of cherubims having four faces.
But the ones on these walls had two faces.
And there was a cherub and a palm tree
and a cherub and a palm tree, verse 19.
So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree
on one side and the face of a young lion
toward the palm tree on the other side,
it was made through all the house, roundabout,
from the ground unto above the door
were cherubims and palm trees made
and on the wall of the temple.
Then in verses 21 to 26, he tells us
about the doors of the temple.
Verse 21, and the posts of the temple were squared.
So he tells us the doors were not
rectangular like most doors we have in our buildings today.
He said, but these were big doors and they were squared.
And the face of the sanctuary, the appearance of one
as the appearance of the other, and the altar of wood
was three cubits high and the length thereof two cubits.
He's telling us about the altar and the corners thereof
and the length thereof and the walls thereof were of wood.
And he said unto me, this is a table
that is before the Lord.
Notice verse 23, and the temple and the sanctuary
had two doors.
And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves,
two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other door.
And they were made on them on the doors of the temple.
Cherubims, palm trees like as were made upon the walls.
And he's telling us that the same decoration on the walls
as there are on the doors.
And there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without.
And there were narrow windows and palm trees
on the one side and on the other side on the side of the porch
and upon the side chambers of the house and thick planks.
So he's just going through and he's giving us measurements.
He's telling us features.
He's saying this is how big it was.
This is how big the building was on the other side.
This is how big the doors are.
He's giving us measurements and then he's given us features.
He's saying there's a staircase, a winding staircase.
There's three stories.
He's telling us how he's decorated.
He's literally just going through and giving us
a view of this temple.
Now, that's the basic outline for you tonight.
And hopefully that helps you understand the chapter
a little bit and how it's broken up.
And the fact that it's not just a bunch of ramblings,
it's actually he's going through and explaining us
what this temple looks like.
And I'm not a construction guy.
I'm not a builder.
So some of these things I'm reading and I think,
I don't know.
I don't know what two leaves apiece are,
but I'm sure it'll make sense in heaven or whatever.
But what I'd like to do now is I'd
like to just focus in on this temple
and the different theories of the temple.
And tonight what I want to do is I
want to focus on the theory that this temple is symbolic.
Because there are some people who
have their heart in the right place.
And they look at this temple and they say,
well, this temple, in their opinion,
which I would agree with this opinion,
they say this temple is not anything that
was built in the Old Testament.
And if it's something that's going
to happen in the New Testament, well, we've
got problems there.
Because the New Testament makes it clear
that the sacrifices have been done away with.
So what do we do with this temple?
Because it didn't happen in the Old Testament
during sacrifice time.
And if it's going to happen in the New Testament,
we've got problems because there should be no sacrifices.
So they'll say, here's the thing about the temple.
It's symbolic.
It's not meant to be taken literally.
Everything that's in there is just symbolism.
And we can learn from it.
Now, here's the thing.
People who believe that, I don't think they're bad people.
I think their heart's in the right place.
But that is not my position, and that is not the position
I take, and that's not the position
we take here at Verity Baptist Church in regards
to this temple.
And you say, why?
And I'd like to explain that to you.
And there's a couple reasons.
Number one, the description of the temple
is too specific.
When he describes this temple, he
has given us some very specific measurements,
some very specific things.
And we just read through the whole chapter,
and I'm not going to go through and do that again.
But I want you to notice just that throughout theirs,
not only has he given us a tour of the temple,
but he's given us measurements.
In verse 1, he talks about the fact
that the posts are six cubits.
And if you remember, a normal number for six cubits
would be about nine feet.
When you add the four inches to the great cubit,
then you're looking at 11 feet.
He's talked about the fact that they're six cubits.
He talked about the fact that the side of the door
was five cubits.
And he talks about the fact that the length
of the entire tabernacle was 40 cubits.
That would be about 60 feet on a regular cubit, and 73 feet
and four inches on a other cubit, on the greater cubit.
And he just goes through the entire chapter
just telling us two cubits, six cubits, seven cubits,
20 cubits, telling us the different measurements
of this tabernacle.
Even in verse 13, when he gets to the whole building,
the entire thing, he says it's 100 cubits long,
and it's 100 cubits in breadth.
And 100 cubits would be, on a regular cubit,
would be about 150 feet.
On the great cubit, which is adding the four inches,
would be 183 feet plus four inches.
So it's a big building.
And he's giving us these measurements,
and he's given us all these descriptions.
So you say, well, Pastor Jimenez,
why is it that this could not be symbolic
with all these measurements?
And here's why.
In the Bible, and in fact, keep your place there in Ezekiel 41,
but go to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 21.
Matthew chapter 21.
In the Bible, there are actually a lot of symbolic passages.
There is a lot of passages in scripture
that are not meant to be taken literally.
And I'll just show you a few.
But it's not just in the, you know,
usually when we think of that, we think of like a parable
in the New Testament.
But it's not just in the New Testament, in the Old Testament.
In the book of Judges, you have the son of Gideon
giving a story about the trees having these conversations
among themselves.
That's not a literal story.
Those trees weren't actually talking to each other.
He's giving a parable in the same way
that Jesus would give a parable about a tree or a bird
or whatever.
And here's what you need to understand, in the Bible,
when we are given symbolic passages, when
we are given non-literal passages,
those passages are always very generic.
They're very general.
Let me just give you a few examples.
Matthew 21, verse 33.
Notice what Jesus says.
He says, hear another parable.
He says, there was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about
and digged a winepress in it and built a tower
and let it out to husband men and went into a far country.
I want you to notice, when Jesus starts this parable,
he just says, there was a certain householder.
He doesn't say there was a certain householder named Bob.
He'd owned this farm for 22 years,
and he'd got it passed down from his grandparent.
He's giving this story, which is not a literal story, not
a real story.
It's just symbolism.
He's giving us a parable in order
to make a comparison between that which is physical
and that which is spiritual.
He's given us an illustration to be able to learn from.
And notice, he always keeps it generic.
He just says, it's a certain householder.
Go to Luke chapter 8.
Look at verse 5.
Let me give you another example.
And again, there's so many of these in the New Testament
we could spend all night looking at it,
but let me just give you a couple.
Luke chapter 8 and verse 5.
Notice the Bible says this, a sower went out to sow.
In the parables of Jesus, he just
says, there is a certain householder.
A sower went out to sow.
He says, there's a woman.
He says, there's a tree.
He gives these parables, and they're always generic.
And here's what you need to understand.
When you're reading a story like this in the Bible,
and it's just kind of real generic,
and it's not very descriptive, it's
very possible that you're reading a parable or something
that is symbolic.
And by the way, let me say this.
In Luke 16, there is a story that people
like to pretend is a parable, and it's
about a man named Lazarus going down to hell.
And people say, oh, that's a parable.
That's not a real story.
Here's the problem with that.
In all the parables that Jesus ever gave,
he never gave somebody's name.
He never gave somebody's proper name or specific name.
He always says, a certain householder.
He always says, a sower.
He always says that a man was traveling
or a woman lost a coin.
He always just gives these generic ways.
You say, well, what about Luke 16?
When he talks about a guy named Lazarus going to hell,
there actually was a guy named Lazarus,
and there actually is a hell.
It's a real place.
It's a specific place.
But in the Bible, when you see these general stories,
you are probably looking at something
that is symbolic or something that is not real.
And look, it's not just the parables.
Let me give you another example.
Go to Revelation chapter 12.
In Revelation chapter 12, I'm going to show you a passage
that is a symbolic passage.
It is not a literal passage.
That doesn't mean that it's not true.
That doesn't mean that it's not scripture.
That doesn't mean that it's not giving us a real truth.
But this isn't physically literally happening.
It is the Bible using symbolism to tell us a story,
to give us a truth.
Revelation 12, look at verse 1.
Here the Bible says this.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven,
a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crowd of 12 stars.
Now look, there wasn't literally a woman
in the sky who had the sun on as a gown
and had the moon on as shoes and had 12 stars upon her head.
This is a figurative, symbolic passage.
And look, isn't it pretty obvious when you read it
that it's symbolic?
You know, when you read the Bible
and it's just kind of general and generic,
then you know you're reading something that's symbolic.
And she, being with child, cried,
travailing in birth in pain to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven.
And behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and 10
horns and seven crowns upon his head.
Now look, what the Bible's telling us here is true.
And what's being illustrated is that the Lord Jesus Christ was
born from the physical line of mankind.
He was born of a woman.
He came in through the lineage of Abraham.
And when Jesus was born, Satan tried to kill him.
Everything that's being told here, the symbolism
was all true.
But this didn't literally happen.
It's just a generic story that is being told.
So when we look at scripture and when we look at a story
that's just kind of generic, you're
probably reading a parable or something that's symbolic.
You say, well, how do we bring that into Ezekiel?
Here's a problem with Ezekiel's temple.
It is really descriptive.
In fact, it's overly descriptive.
He's telling us the size of the windows.
He's telling us the size of the doors.
He's telling us all the different decorations
and the features and all the different things.
So generally, you say, why don't we believe
and why don't we just say that Ezekiel's temple is symbolic.
There you go.
That answers the questions, and we're done with it.
Here's why we can't do that with integrity
and we can't do that as true students of the Bible
because Ezekiel's temple is way too descriptive.
It's way too specific.
And generally, when we see symbolic passages in the Bible
like a parable, we're not given specific details.
But there's another reason.
Go to Galatians chapter 4.
Galatians chapter 4.
If you've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans,
1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians.
Galatians chapter 4.
And let me just say this.
In the Bible, when you are reading the Bible,
this is just a Bible study, a rule of studying the Bible.
And I have a class that I try to train people for ministry
and things like that, and I've got a whole several weeks
of lessons that we go over on rules for Bible study.
And here's a rule for Bible study.
You might want to write this down.
When you open up the Bible, you should
assume that what you are reading is literal.
You should not open up the Bible and just assume
that something is symbolic.
You should always assume that everything,
because look, the vast majority of what you find in the Bible
is literal and literally happens.
Only when you are convinced otherwise
that it is not literal, that it is symbolic,
that those trees didn't really talk to each other,
that that woman wasn't really up in the air clothing herself
like a son.
Only when you come to passage and you
can decipher from the passage that it is not symbolic,
should you assume that it is symbolic.
But other than that, everything in the Bible,
you got to just go into it believing,
or with the mindset that it is literal,
and be convinced, and be proven to you that it is symbolic.
Because today, you've got people,
they push a lot of false doctrine
and everything's symbolic in the Bible.
I mean, every story symbolizes something, and every story.
And they can twist that, and they can just
push whatever doctrine they have.
And here's the thing.
I do believe, especially in the stories in the Old Testament,
that they were given as an example,
and that they are shadows of things.
And we can look at those stories and we can get symbolism.
But you better make sure you're staying within the context,
and that you're not just making stuff up.
You know, that you're staying within the context
of scripture, and you're understanding.
So there's a balance there.
Obviously, I'm not saying it's wrong to look at symbolism
in scripture, because it's definitely there.
But when you're reading the Bible,
you ought to assume that everything you're reading
is literal, unless it's proven to you otherwise.
You say, well, how is something proven to me
as not being literal?
Well, one way, which we already saw,
is when you're looking at a story,
and it just kind of sounds like a made up story.
And again, that's not saying that it's not true.
It's just saying that that story was made up.
Jesus made up these parables in order
to be able to give a truth.
We read about the woman in Revelation 12
in order to give us a history or the truth of how
Jesus came to be and how Satan tried to attack him.
But here's another great way to know
if something is not literal, and it's just
when the Bible tells you.
When the Bible sets itself up as being a non-literal passage.
And here's the problem.
In Ezekiel, we don't have that set up.
Ezekiel doesn't say, let me tell you a parable.
Let me tell you a story.
Let me give you an allegory.
But throughout the Bible, we see this.
Are you there in Galatians 4?
Look at verse 22.
Notice what Paul wrote.
He said, for it is written, Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bond made
and the other by a free woman.
Now, here's what's interesting.
This literally happened.
There was actually a guy named Abraham,
and he actually had two sons, and he actually
had one by a bond made, and he actually
had one by a free woman.
But what Paul's going to do is he's
going to take this Old Testament story,
and he's going to use it as symbolism,
and he's going to say, look, this is an actual story,
but I'm going to use it symbolically
to try to show you a truth.
But notice, he tells us he's doing that.
Verse 23, but he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman
was by promise.
Verse 24, which things are an allegory?
What's an allegory?
It's a story or a poem, a picture
that can be interpreted to reveal hidden meaning
or a typifying a moral truth.
And here's what Paul is saying.
Paul is saying, I'm going to take a story
from the Old Testament, and I'm going to use it symbolically
as an allegory.
You say, how do we know he's doing that?
Well, because he tells us which things
are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one
from Mount Sinai with generates a bondage, which is Agar.
Then he talks about the one from Jerusalem, which is free.
And I don't want to get into it.
I'm not preaching on that.
I'm just showing you an example that here,
Paul tells us he's going to give us an allegory
from a literal story, but he's given us symbolism.
How about this?
Jesus would often start his parables
by telling you he was going to give you a parable.
Now, I don't want you to turn to all these.
I'd like you to go to Luke, chapter 12.
But while you go to Luke 12, let me just read some of these
to you.
Matthew 13, 18, he says, hear ye therefore the parable.
Matthew 13, 24, he says, another parable put he forth.
Matthew 13, 13 says, another parable spake he unto them.
Matthew 21, 33 says, hear another parable.
Matthew 24, 32, now learn the parable of.
In Luke 5, 36, the Bible says, and he spake also a parable
unto them.
Luke 13, 6 says, he spake also this parable.
And we could go on and on.
I mean, it says, he spake also this parable,
and he put forth a parable.
And he spake this parable unto them.
And he spake this parable unto a certain witch.
And he spake a parable.
Then he began to speak to the people this parable.
So here's what I'm telling you.
Oftentimes, these symbolic stories are kind of,
they're put up as a symbolic story.
And you're told, hey, it's just a parable, it's just a story,
it's just an allegory, it's just something for you to consider.
We don't see that with Ezekiel's temple.
We don't see Ezekiel telling us, let me give you an allegory,
let me tell you a story, let me give you a parable.
And we also see a lot of description
in Ezekiel's temple, which is why
we choose to believe that this is a literal temple.
This is not a symbolic temple.
This is not a story that we're supposed
to bring symbolism out of.
Let me give you just one more thought in regards
to kind of allegories or symbolism.
You say, Pastor Jimenez, how can I know when something is not
literal in the Bible?
Here's what you should look for.
Look for the setup.
Here's a parable.
Here's an allegory.
Here's a story.
Look for just something that's extremely general.
A store went out to sew.
A woman was hanging out in space.
She clothed herself with the sun.
Or look for similes.
What's a simile?
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares
two things.
Similes explicitly use connecting words,
such as like, as, so, then, or various verbs,
such as resemble, though these specific words are not always
necessary.
Simile-type wording in the Bible is,
and here's what I'm saying, when you
read the book of Revelation, you might
be reading a literal passage that is actually
going to happen.
But there might be just one little part
where he's describing something to you,
and he says, it's like this.
So when you find those similes, realize that it's not actually
going to be that.
He's just trying to tell you it's like.
So look, you look for wording like this, like and unto,
is like to, is like unto, is as, be like unto, like unto,
or as it were.
Because people walk away from the book of Revelation.
And look, there are some very specific literal things
that are actually going to happen
in the book of Revelation.
In fact, when you read the book of Revelation,
you ought to assume that what you are reading is literal,
that those animals and those beasts
are actually going to come out of hell,
and they're actually going to have hair like women,
and they're actually going to have, you know,
be scorpions and all those things.
All those things are literal.
But when you read something in the Bible, and he says,
it's like as, then just realize that's a simile.
It's a comparison.
That part isn't literal.
He's just trying to explain to you
or help you understand what he's saying.
So how do we know if something is a literal passage
versus a symbolic passage?
Number one, you look for the setup, a parable, an allegory,
a story.
Number two, you look for something that's generic
or for something that just doesn't
seem like it's like a woman up in space, right?
And she grabbed the moon and put it on as her shoes.
That's just symbolism, trees talking to each other.
Now look, don't take this far.
When Balaam's donkey starts speaking,
that actually happened.
You understand that?
That's not a parable.
Moses isn't telling us, you know, there was a certain man.
And no, I mean, we read about Balaam for chapter
after chapter after chapter.
We read about his ministry and his death.
That actually happened.
So you have to be able to look at scripture
and realize, OK, what literally happened?
The Red Sea actually parted.
The Jordan River actually stopped.
The walls of Jericho actually fell down.
Those are not symbolic.
We can pull symbolic truths from that.
But those things actually happen.
But when the Bible tells you it's an allegory,
when it's just kind of generic, there's no specific names,
there's specific things given, or when
you see these types of terminologies like likened
or like to or is as, then know that you are probably
looking at something symbolic.
Because here's the thing.
In the Bible, there are symbolic things.
So please understand this.
In the Bible, there are symbolic things.
There is non-literal literature in the Bible.
But you ought to assume that what you read in the Bible
is always literal until it's proven otherwise.
When we get to Ezekiel, it would be easy to say,
symbolic, not literal.
Don't worry about it.
That answers all the questions.
But here's the problem with that.
We're told that, and it's super descriptive.
It's very descriptive.
So here's our position, or my position, I should say.
Very Baptist Church, or I hope you hold the same position.
And it's this.
That Ezekiel's temple is a literal temple.
It's an actual temple.
You say, well, what is it?
Well, stay tuned, all right?
You come back.
You keep coming back for the next several weeks,
and we'll figure that out, and we'll look at that.
But here's what we're dealing with tonight.
Is the temple symbolic, or is it literal?
And it is my opinion, based on how you study the Bible,
if you're being honest with yourself,
that it is a literal, specific temple.
All right, now, are you there in Luke chapter 12?
Remember, I told you I was going to give you three things
tonight.
First thing was the basic outline.
We did that.
The second thing was dismantling a theory.
We did that.
So we'll end tonight with just a practical application.
And you say, what kind of practical application
can you pull out of Ezekiel 41?
And honestly, I'll tell you this.
I spent the last three days writing this sermon
and thinking about this sermon, and this is the hardest part
in Ezekiel 41.
There's this practical application
of all these measurements and these qubits
and all these things.
But there is an application, and I want you to understand it.
And let me set it up by saying this.
Have you noticed in the Bible how much time
God spends telling us about the measurements of buildings
and how to build buildings?
I mean, it's not just Ezekiel.
I mean, Ezekiel spends, from chapter 40 to 48,
nine chapters telling us about this temple,
telling us about the measurements, telling us.
But it's not just, I mean, half of the book of Exodus
is telling us how to build the tabernacle
and then telling us that they built it up.
And it sounds like you're reading the thing,
because he's telling you, you need to do it this way.
You say, there's many qubits.
You need to do this and this and that.
And then he says, and then they did.
And then he goes back through it again.
And he spends all this time in Exodus
telling, not when Solomon's temple is built the same way,
in, what is it, 1 Kings and in 2 Chronicles,
several chapters given to the building of the temple,
the measurements of the temple, the decorations of the temple.
And it's not just the temple.
I mean, think about, if you think about all the passages
that God is just describing to you,
the building of the temple, the building of the tabernacle,
the building of these buildings, the measurements,
the decorations.
And then you throw on top of that all of the chapters
where he's giving you, so and so begat, so and so,
and so and so begat, so and so, and so and so begat, so and so.
And here's the thing.
And here's the beautiful thing about the Bible.
And one of the reasons I believe,
and this is not the application.
This is just a little subpoint on that.
But one of the reasons I believe that we can stand firm
that the Bible was written by God is this.
Because if you would have wrote the book of Ezekiel,
you would not have wrote the last eight chapters or nine
chapters of Ezekiel.
Neither would I. I would have ended Exodus at about chapter
15 and been done.
You wouldn't have added Deuteronomy.
You wouldn't have added Leviticus.
You wouldn't have added numbers.
You wouldn't have added all those so and so begat,
so and so, and so and so begat, so and so.
There is a lot of detail in the Bible.
And you say, why does God emphasize that?
Why does God give that to us?
And here's what I believe God is trying to show us.
And one of the things that he's trying to show us,
I mean, he's actually trying to show us a temple.
He's actually trying to tell Moses how to build a tabernacle.
That's why he's so descriptive.
But you know where we walk away from the Bible?
Is this, that we serve a God of detail.
We serve a God that is interested in the detail.
When I was in the Air Force, they would tell us,
pay attention to detail.
Pay attention to detail.
And sometimes it can be frustrating
when you try to work with people,
or you try to help people, especially young people,
and they're just kind of like in this daze,
and their head's in the clouds,
and they just won't pay attention to detail.
You know, but God is a God of detail.
God takes the time.
See, you would never do it.
I would never do it.
But God is more than happy to have Ezekiel
spend nine chapters.
Really?
You want me to write that?
How many cubits was that window?
Is that really needed, God?
Yeah, write it down.
How many, the door, staircase,
and I mean just chapter after chapter.
You say, why?
Because God is a God of detail.
You say, well, why does that matter?
Here's why it matters.
Here's why it's interesting.
Luke chapter 12, are you there?
Look at verse six.
Notice what the Bible says.
Are not five sparrows sold?
This is Jesus speaking.
Are not five sparrows sold for a farthing?
Here's the point that he's making.
A farthing's not a lot of money.
And five sparrows are kind of a lot of birds.
Here's what he's saying.
Sparrows are cheap birds.
Sparrows are birds that are very little value.
We're not talking about a bald eagle here.
We're not talking about some endangered species
that you're going to spend a lot of money.
Jesus says, are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?
And here's what he says.
He says, my father and your father
is so detailed in his creation that not one of them
is forgotten before God.
In Matthew, he says the same thing.
And he says that one of them doesn't fall to the earth
without God noticing.
He says, look, a sparrow is a cheap bird.
And our God, the God of detail, notices
when one falls to the ground, when one dies.
He says, and are not one of them?
He says, not one of them is forgotten before God.
And then he says this, verse seven.
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
See, God is a God of detail.
The Bible tells us that God is so detailed.
Look, people often look at this passage, they'll say, oh, God
knows the number of the hairs of your head.
And I believe that God does know the number
of the hair of your head.
And some of you, as you've gotten older,
you've made it easier to keep track of that for God.
But I don't think that's what this passage is saying.
I don't think he's saying that God has your hairs numbered,
although I do believe that God has your hairs numbered.
But he says, look, the very hairs of your head
are all numbered.
Every hair has a number assigned to it.
You take a shower and you see all that hair,
there goes number 312, there goes number 3,002,
there goes number 5 and 6.
And he says, look, God is so detailed
that he knows when a sparrow falls to the ground.
God is so detailed that he has all the hairs of your head
numbered.
God is so detailed that he would put chapter after chapter
after chapter in the Bible, telling us measurements
of things that you and I don't care about,
telling us measurements of things that most preachers don't
preach through, telling us measurements of things
that if you were honest, you probably didn't read it.
Or if you read it, you just read it out of duty.
I'm not mad at you, I'm just telling you the truth,
because we look at it and we think, good night.
But see, we survey God of detail.
Go to Matthew chapter 6, Romans 1, we'll finish up right here.
Matthew chapter 6, what's the application?
Here's the application.
We survey God of detail.
God takes the time to notice details.
And if God cares about a sparrow,
and if God cares about the hairs on your head,
and if God cares about a temple that you're never going to see,
if God cares to give us all these details,
then you ought to take some comfort in knowing
that God cares about you.
Look at verse 28, Matthew chapter 6, verse 28.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 28, the Bible says this,
and why take ye thought for raiment?
Usually we look at this passage and we
look at it in regards to prayer, and that's the application.
He says, don't worry about your raiment, your clothes.
He says, why take ye thought for raiment?
He says, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow,
they toil not, neither do they spin.
Look, how much time do you spend worrying about the lilies?
Because I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the lilies.
But here we're told, Jesus says, consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not,
neither do they spin.
And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory,
was not arrayed like one of these.
Here's what he's saying.
He's saying, God cares for sparrows.
God cares for the numbers of the hair on your head.
God cares about the cubits of every wall, every window,
every door in that temple that Ezekiel is seeing.
And then he tells us, God cares about the lilies.
He says, consider the lilies.
They don't toil, they don't spin, they don't grow,
but yet God takes care of them.
He says, Solomon, in all his glory,
was not arrayed like one of these.
Verse 30, wherefore?
He says, for that reason.
If God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
He says, therefore, take no thought, saying,
what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal
shall we be clothed?
For all these things do the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father, don't miss this,
for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things.
See, when we go to God in prayer for our needs, our cares,
isn't that what I will say, casting all your care upon Him
for He cares for you?
Look, I'll be honest with you.
I have days where I'm discouraged.
I have days where I'm upset.
In fact, if we're going to confess our false ones
to another, today I spent most of the day kind of just down.
I'll tell my wife, I don't know, do I need to go outside
or something?
Maybe I haven't been in the sun enough today or something.
I just, you know, there's just some burden, some things
going on, and trying to help people and love people.
Sometimes it can wear on you a little bit, you know?
And you spend a little time kind of worrying.
And we've all been there, and we understand that.
But look, here's what we can draw away.
We can draw away from this, that the God who cared enough
to measure the walls of the temple
and the windows of the temple, He knows what you have need of.
The God who takes notice when a sparrow falls to the ground,
He knows.
He tells us, look, our father, your father,
know it, that you have need of all these things.
So you say, so pastor, what should I do?
Should I spend my days worried about how
I'm going to pay the rent?
Well, look, go get a job.
I'm not telling you to just not do, you know,
put some feet to your actions.
But you know what you should do?
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
He says, take therefore no thought for the morrow.
You say, why?
For the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself.
Here's what He's saying.
You will always have something to worry about.
You will always have.
I had to learn in ministry a long time ago
that there will always be somebody's life falling apart.
There'll always be somebody having a health problem.
There'll always be somebody having a fight.
Even a church our size.
We've got 150 people here tonight.
Even our church our size.
My wife and I, we get connected, and people
start going through something, and we will help them,
and we'll spend time with them, and we'll pray for them,
and we'll have them over, and we'll spend time.
We'll take them out to coffee.
But here's what I've noticed.
As soon as we get that one bound up,
as soon as we get that one going,
as soon as we get that one out the door,
there'll be somebody else.
And I'm not complaining.
I'm just telling you this.
Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself.
There will always be.
There will always be something to be down about,
to be worried about, to be stressed out about.
But your heavenly Father knoweth that you
have need of all these things.
Verse 34, he says, take therefore no thought
for the morrow, for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
So here's all I'm telling you.
Next time you're reading towards the end of Exodus,
and you're like, God, why?
Why do I need to know the measurements of that curtain?
Why do I need to know the thickness of that curtain?
Next time you're reading through the book of Ezekiel,
you're wondering, why do I need to know the cubits,
and the furlongs, and the wreaths?
Why does it matter?
Why are you telling?
Why, when you're reading through the first chronicles,
and it's just chapter, after chapter, after chapter,
so and so begat so and so, and begat so and so.
Next time you read through those passages,
just take some comfort in knowing
that the God who cares for the details, cares for you.
The God who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground,
He knows you.
He cares for you.
And He's involved in you.
So the next time I read through these passages,
I'm going to think to myself, man,
thank the Lord that we have a God who cares for the details.
It's by our head that I want to pray, Heavenly Father.
Lord, thank you.
Lord, we do thank you for being a God who cares for details.
Because sometimes we may overlook people.
Sometimes we may be a little inconsiderate.
Sometimes we may be selfish and not
realize that there are people struggling with things,
or people going through things, or people dealing with things.
And when we forget them, and we get busy,
or when we get forgotten, Lord, help
us to take comfort in knowing that there is always a God who
is looking down on us, who loves us, who cares for the details.
Lord, thank you.
We don't deserve it, but we appreciate the fact
that you are involved in our lives.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray.
Amen.
Turn to Psalm 455.