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Somebody cut that heat The heat cut the heat All you're freezing How could you be freezing? I guess freezing who else is freezing raise your hand All right besides kids. I don't care about you right now. I'm mad at you still As a matter of fact while I'm getting this microphone working here. I Don't normally say this but I'm encouraging you to snitch on your brother and sister tell Your mom and dad exactly who it was There's a code of honor that you shouldn't break sometimes, but You know when it's things at church. You better just get it right anyway Alright, thank you so I Have it on you guys hear me, okay? All right, so we're in Ezra chapter number three and That's how the sermon tonight is the house of the Lord restored And so let's kind of recap back on chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 1 of course we had Cyrus gives the proclamation to build the house of the Lord and We saw that Cyrus is actually called by the Lord by his name 150 years before he was even born in the book of Isaiah chapter 44 and chapter 45 and So then we also saw that Daniels kind of interprets that Jeremiah's time of 70 years is up and So Jeremiah prophesied that after 70 years after the temple is destroyed that the children of Israel go back to the land and so That's kind of a lot of what this book is covering just how all that Took place and some of the different things that and different people and places that these things happen Chapter 2 we saw the actual return of the captivity to the cities of Israel and of course I was 70 verses and It just kind of explained what cities they were and then sometimes it was explaining the priests and the names of the priests and Levites and the and the Nethanim's and the sons of Saul are the servants of Solomon and all those different things And it kind of just gave a list of people, but it said that only about four I think it was forty two thousand. I want to say six hundred or all that came back into the land I mean when they left Egypt there was millions of people that left and when they came back from being dispersed into Babylon It's only 42,000 people left so God really whittled it down because he was very angry and destroyed had Babylon destroy their temples so now we're in the time of the Medes and the Persians and so So last week like I said they all went back to their cities So let's take a look at verse number one and point number one is rebuilding the altar and Verse number one says and when the seventh month was come and the children of Israel were in the cities the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem and Then stood up, Jeshua the son of Jezodak and his brethren the priest and Zerubbabel the son of Sheltiel and his brethren and builded the altar of The God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God, so So they get all the people are in their cities the seventh month when they were come They all gather together themselves as one man towards Jerusalem And why are they going there because that's where God has called them to play that his name is to be placed there obviously History it wasn't always like that, but ultimately God wanted his Tabernacle to be in Jerusalem They built the first temple at the time of Solomon David stored up all the stuff for them and so now here the people are gathered together in the city and Then it's and then Jeshua now. He is the he is the high priest so This Jeshua, and he's also called Joshua in the book of Zechariah So basically it's the same same name just different spelling there, and it says his brother the priest and Zerubbabel He is the like the governor. He's in the lineage of Christ He's in the genealogy of Christ And I think that as we go through we're going to study more about him Later on and probably do a little more in-depth about him and Ezra himself But right now we're kind of just you know going through the motions of how they redid everything so and and then so They builded the altar of the God of Israel So it doesn't necessarily say how they built that what they built it with and it doesn't really say it in this chapter But I want to do kind of just a little mini study Just even about the name, Jeshua before I get any further so because a lot of people will say Yeshua that that's Jesus's real name and this and that and they'll say it because and There's a controversy about it now There's just like this big movement of people that want to go back to you know to the messianic and Judy and they kind of want to judy eyes everything and you know the Holy Scriptures and the New Testament were written in Greek they weren't written in Hebrew They were written in Greek and so when they're written in Greek That's different than Hebrew. It's a different language and so names are pronounced differently names are said differently Certain sounds in their language are different so when you see like you'll see like Isaiah in the Old Testament, and then you'll see him called Esaias in the New Testament, it's because of Transliteration so and I'll explain through that that to you in a minute here But I want you to turn to Zechariah chapter 6 verse number 11 Zechariah chapter 6 verse number 11. I'll show you Where it says that? Let's talk about the same guy, so it's even spelling the name different of Josedek It's like Jose deck know Josedek, but it's spelled with an S instead of a Z Zechariah 611 it says then take silver and gold to make crowns and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest so he is the high priest that's you know clear Zechariah as a counter You know he's around at the same time as all this is kind of going on and so Joshua is the same name as Joshua, so and You see the different spellings in the different books here. It's just like Nebuchadnezzar and never They it's said differently Nebuchadnezzar and never never never could Kedrezer I think is how it said in other books so just because a name is spelled a little bit differently. That's not The biggest deal in the world so now turn to Acts chapter 7 verse 45, so It is a little bit of a controversy and people will really try to push this Yeshua thing to Say hey, you're not saying his name right his name isn't Jesus as Yeshua. This is like well my Bible says Jesus, and I speak English and And the King James Bible It calls him Jesus doesn't it so and when we see the word J. It's with a J sound right Now some people like in Spanish his name is Jesus And that it's still spelled the same, but they just don't say the J like we do so you see how there could be The same name, but it's just said differently depending upon the tongue in which it's spoken with So Acts 7 45 it says which also our fathers that came after Brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles Whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David now when you read this This is not talking about Jesus our Jesus the Savior Jesus is talking about Joshua so They they translate it the same way because You know it's in English, it's Jesus, okay, that's how We pronounce it in English, so this is again not talking about Jesus Christ, so All we know in our language is that his name is Jesus Why would we change it to something that it's not saying so in our language? That's what it is so we don't need to go back and Look at the Hebrew language of how you know jesh, so like maybe they don't pronounce Maybe they do pronounce it yeshua as in Joshua in Hebrew But that's just not how we pronounce it because we're not here. We're not we don't we're not Hebrew We don't speak that language, so I'm not saying like if you if you're an Israeli and you speak is you know you speak Hebrew Then they probably would call them that I don't even think that they'd pronounce the J Actually, they might call them yeshua. Yeah, they call me yeshua right so but it's you know here It's jeshua even in you know, but they probably wouldn't pronounce it like that so hopefully you understand that but in the Old Testament Joshua actually has you know Joshua the servant of Moses the one that took the children of Israel into the Promised Land He his name is spelled differently in multiple in multiple books, and I'm just like I don't understand why that is Maybe it's just helping us prove the point for later. I don't know but but he is pronounced as Joshua or Joshua or Ocea, and what is it in the new test does it say his name in the New Testament or yes, Jesus? But but oh so Ocea, and then Joshua is also another pronunciation of it in the Old Testament So Jesus is Joshua translated or transliterated into English does that make sense? So and it's and I'm not trying to go back to the Greek so don't sit there and accuse me of it But the Greek word that's used for his name is Iesous and It's pronounced Iesous and so that I that's in the front there You know over time in English that became the J, and so we pronounce that jaw G. You know Jesus and I was kind of wondering like you know why it's it sounds so different, but It doesn't really I mean it probably just again depends on what tongue you have what tongue you were born with of how it's said but from what I saw and I looked this up on a couple different sources, but Greek letters are spelled out exactly how they're pronounced in written form I think is that is that true of anybody that kind of has any background at all and there are no silent letters or or Shh sounds or Sounds is that true does anybody know that that's true. I mean I found on the internet. It must be true, right? Abraham Lincoln said it so no. I'm just kidding but uh But if there's no shh sounds wouldn't that make sense that in English if they translated it Jesus that there it's not Joshua or Joshua there's no sound in the Greek language so when they transliterate it they translated or transliterate it because There's no sound in in that language, so So when translated from Hebrew to the Greek names It is really like a transliteration, and there's a lot of words in the Bible that you probably just don't even realize are just transliterations of the Greek words like baptism Like I mean even Christ you know Christ and Messiah don't sound anything alike, but they mean the same thing right and so there's also the word angel apostle Passover and Passovers like posh key or some other kind of you know and so they had to make it You know so that we could kind of you know use those words correctly or whatever baptism All those types of words and some of them are just kind of words that weren't really necessarily in English I don't know that they had an English word for the word baptism so I think that's just why they that's why they'll transliterate something like if if Passover was not in the English language Then they kind of had to make that based upon the the words that they found when they interpret You know when they translated these these things so John 141 says he first findeth his own Brother Simon, and he saith unto him we have found the Messiah's which is being interpreted the Christ so again they don't sound the same and I think they're like when I've heard Jews say that it's like they say Mashiach or something like that, but it's Jesus you know John it helps us interpret it. He said you know he's because he's a he's a Jew obviously But he also speaks Greek and so they're they're helping us to interpret it as we would interpret it today He's the Christ so when people try to say you know yeah, it's yeshua you got to say his name right they're wrong They're just you know they're referring You know they're they're referring to his name that's not sure it if now if The the New Testament was translated in Hebrew then that might be his name in Hebrew or whatever But they weren't and if you want to this is funny these people that love to go back to the original languages Then they want to try to use something from the original language. It's not in the text. You know what I mean because They're using things that aren't like Jehovah the word Jehovah is not in the New Testament So and yet the Jehovah's Witnesses will put Jehovah after every instance of the time that it puts God or the Lord God or something Like that so they like to break their own little rules Because they're hypocrites and these people that want to use the word yeshua Just want to try to judaize us in one way that they can So that's just kind of like a little a little time out there, but I just think it's important to kind of To say that because people will say that you're like well Why do they think that why why do they think that we as English speakers should call him that it's like You know it's just it doesn't make sense, but his name is Joshua or yeshua in Hebrew or whatever but I mean, that's not what it is in English pretty pretty simple right now Let's go back to verse number two again and check out the rest of this verse Says instead of jeshua the son of joseph Josadak man I can't pronounce it when it's spelled that way and his brethren the priest and his rubable the son of Sheltiel and his Brethren and builded the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings They're on as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God so They're doing it the way God said it that's important for them when they go back into the land to do things the way God Said it this is where they got into trouble in the first place, and why God ended up having to Wipe them like a dinner plate off the face of the planet and just save a few remnant because they stopped doing what the Bible Said they stopped doing things that as God told them to do them So I think it's really important that they start off on the right foot and here They are they're in the land like God told them to go back to and they're meeting in this place Where God told them to meet they're meeting in where Jerusalem right, and they're all as one people and then now they are building the altar And we know that part of this main story is what is rubables main job and duty what he's been asked to do is do What to rebuild the temple right? So why is he doing this first? Well because they're in the Old Testament. They're on the old covenant and they must resume the sacrifices Okay, and it's gonna take some time to build this building So the first right thing that they've done is they've gone to that place that they're supposed to go and now they're gonna Reinstitute the atonement system that God set up now We know in the New Testament that that the that the blood of animals cannot really atone for sin It's a picture. It's something that God made them or told them to do and it really didn't It's like a picture of what in Christ retroactively forgave everybody's sins in the Old Testament when that were saved Obviously covered all those sins to the back and everything to the future so So, but anyway these these guys are Making the altar here by the by how it's written in the law of Moses And like I said, I don't know if they've made a brass one. It doesn't really say that but let's go ahead and turn to Exodus chapter 27 look at Exodus chapter 27 and There are a few different ways that God has told them to make the altar now Everything that they make the altar out of though has to do with the earth and You when you get brass, how do you get brass you dig it out of the earth? So the brazen altar is is actually really made out of Rock and out of the earth look at Exodus 27 the one says it says now shall make an altar of Shittim wood Five cubits long and five cubits broad the altar shall be four square and the height thereof shall be three cubits Now shall make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof his horns shall be of the of the same Now shall overlay it with brass So So now keep in mind that even This altar as laid out by Moses was not like the previous one that was destroyed in the temple they built it bigger in the temple because You know Solomon just like to do everything bigger and better. You know. I mean he it was a it was a gigantic It was like a 16-foot huge altar and They had to cut it in chunks Because they couldn't get it all out the door so they had to cut that thing in chunks and get it out So that altar is gone But that wasn't the first altar so this is the one that the God told them to make for the tabernacle But you got to understand that people have been sacrificing to God for Thousands of years already you know Abraham sacrificed to God, and he didn't have a temple you know Jacob sacrificed to God he didn't have a temple and So but both, but the way that they were told to do things after Moses took over when they agreed to this covenant is That they're gonna do it this way, and it's gonna be part of that tabernacle setup now Let's turn to Exodus chapter 20 verse 24, and God's gonna tell us like If you don't you know obviously if you don't have this setup And you need to make some sort of a sacrifice obviously he wants you to sacrifice where he told you to but it wasn't necessarily You know forbidden for them to make a sacrifice in a different way or with a different With with different different things here, so look at what it says in Exodus 20 24 it says an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, so what is that earth is dirt right and Shalt sacrifice there on thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings and thy sheep and thine oxen in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and blood and I will bless thee so He says in all places where he records his name so and it says in verse 25 And if thou will make me an altar of stone, so there's another way of doing it It's also part of the earth, but it's stone thou shalt not build it of hewn stone for if thou lift thy tool upon it Thou has polluted it So he says don't don't chip out the rocks with some kind of cutting tool and then build it like some ornate kind of Thing he says once you put the tool upon it you've defiled it You know so but here's three ways so one way was wood overlaid with brass and then you had the altar of earth, that's the you know if you just have to make it do a makeshift one and Also an altar of stone you could take stones, and you could do that so I feel like it was Samson's Parents that I'll actually made a they made an altar in the book of Judges, and it was of rock so Anyway, those are the rules for making altars now Verse 26 says neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar that thy nakedness not be be not discovered They're on so there wasn't supposed to be steps on it So you know I like to beat kick this dog when I walk past it, but you know there's no steps There's no altar up here. You know why because we're not in the Old Testament and And Because every church that you see with with like what they call an altar is literally like steps it's like literally what God said not to do and Then people go up and cry on it and the book of Malachi says you know quit You know it's upsetting God that they're weeping on the altar with their tears Because in reality I mean we've gone through the book of Exodus with the fine-toothed comb And and if you touch and mess with the altar You know it's or anything that's God's its holy There was like a big cleansing that had to take place and all this stuff So if you got a bunch of people doing some big emotional cry up on the altar That God has said you know you're not supposed to pollute and then a bunch of people are weeping all over I mean you're getting your fluids all over it, and you're making it on unclean You're making it unholy And it's just you're just angering God by doing not doing things the way you said to do them there's some things that God's really particular about and you know because a lot of times it it'll ruin the picture that it's meant to have and Sometimes just because he said don't do it this way or do it this way and God wants you to obey He wants obedience over sacrifice He wants someone that's going to obey rather than someone's going to give a gift And I think that even parents or you know wives are like that too. Not that you have to obey Then I'm not saying that but sometimes they want the affection instead of like you bringing them flowers or something they want you to actually be sorry for being a big brute and You know love them and not just bring a present to appease them So I think that's kind of the idea that God is like you know it's it's not just a sacrifice But it's your motive behind it. You know and so God would say like I'm sick of your sacrifices I'm tired of your your new men's and your Sabbaths. You know wait. I want I want to take these away so He gets kind of sick of that stuff so anyway, so My question is is so why are the Jews today not doing animal sacrifices? If they're under the law of Moses like they say that they are like they claim they are Then why aren't they doing them? Why are they not doing them right now? Every morning every night every time someone has a free will offering every single feast Every single Sabbath or whatever whatever holiday. It's supposed to be why are they not doing it? That's a good question isn't it and they haven't been doing it since 70 AD when Titus came in and wrecked the place because Jesus died for our sins and God said he was going to destroy that place so not want not one stone was gonna be left upon another so if they Believe in Moses like they say they do and they want to follow God's law and they follow the Torah And they do this kind of stuff with their funny hats and their weird outfits on and they just think that you know They're they're right with God, and they're the they're God's chosen people well. How come you're not doing what God said? So the funny thing about this these guys they're coming back kind of with a little bit of shame you know they're it's they're coming back to a Shadow of the former glory of what Israel was like and yet they have a right heart because what are they doing? They're setting themselves to go in and be one people at Jerusalem To set up the the offerings the way God said and notice it It's not an accident that it says that they did it the way. It's written They did it the way the law of Moses said so why aren't the Jews today doing that? And they here's here's their excuse we don't have a temple anymore Well did Abraham have a temple did Jacob have a temple? They didn't even have a temple when Moses was was enacting all this stuff That's why he said here's here's your other makeshift ways. You can do it. Here's how people have always sacrificed unto me But yet they're like oh we can't do it we don't have the temple When did when where does it say in the Bible you can't sacrifice burnt sacrifices unless you have a temple? Unless it's at Jerusalem unless it's where the mosque is that's on top of it right now And if you know that's really their place. Why aren't they bulldozing that mosque and building the temple? Because they're scared Because they know it's probably not right deep down inside Or God's just not letting them do it. I mean You know he's withholding He's withholding them from being able to do it because it's an abomination to continue to just chop up animals And pretend like that's gonna atone for them when Jesus has already done it for them so the original temple didn't exist until Solomon built it many years after Moses had the tabernacle erected and that was at the command of God And you'll notice in the book of Hebrews When it's doing all the comparisons between the New Testament and why those things were instituted in the book of Hebrews You know so it's always talking about the tabernacle and the things of the tabernacle That's the original thing that God set up. He doesn't say the temple he talked about the tabernacle and those things were patterned after what's in heaven right now and God told Moses to build them after the pattern that I showed you and that's what they built But you know David wanted to build the temple for the Lord and God allowed him to do it But that wasn't the original plan so In Hebrews it clearly lays out for Us that it's the temple. That's the tabernacle is what it's comparing everything to but here's another Excuse verse for them. This is one that they like to use why they don't currently sacrifice Hosea 6 6 says for I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings So they'll take it a verse and obviously that's true But it doesn't mean that they're not supposed to do the sacrifices if they're under the Covenant He's just saying that these things are better than the burnt offerings You know people just lose track and want to To they want to geek out on the details of things that aren't as important as the other. It's like judgment mercy love All these types of things and they and they just want to stick to the letter of the law so much that they're you Know the Savior has come to them and they're and they're yelling at him because he healed a man's arm. That was withered And They're they're murdering him over picking some grain off of off of a stock because they're hungry I mean and raising people from the dead, you know, I mentioned this last week in my sermon I just just mind-boggling to me, you know the level of hypocrisy That's why he said well into these scribes and Pharisees hypocrites and he's just like telling them why they're all hypocrites and they're just May get them even they're even more mad after that but He really gets them worked up a lot of times if you just read through you've read the New Testament just recently he really likes to just You know toy with them. Sometimes it seems like to me he'll answer their questions But then after a while he just like then he'll just like not say anything And he just leaves them hanging Well, where is he going is he gonna kill himself, you know, it's like where I'm going you can't come then He I felt like he just kind of walks off a lot They're really gonna go spinning after this And they do so anyway, but So the fact remains though they if they're truly observing the Old Testament then that requires a sacrifice That requires them keeping the feast that's as it's written in the law of Moses and Right today they still keep the Passover, but you know what? They don't do they don't sacrifice a lamb They might cook one in the oven. They might buy one at the store But you know what? They're not doing they're not taking a lamb without blemish and cutting its throat draining out all the blood and Then cooking it the way the Bible says with the certain bitter herbs and all those things. They're not doing all that So What's atoning for their sin? Under their covenant that they think that they still live under That that covenants gone and it drives me crazy When Christians try to still say that God is is still allowing that covenant to exist He's not it's it's waxed old. It's done away with and They're not even observing it and and it seems like the more Orthodox they get the weirder they get and we might think oh, yeah Well, they're really close, you know, they're probably more close to getting saved than anybody. I actually think it's probably the opposite of that They're even more they're just weird. They're like the Pharisees they're probably a bunch of perverts and pedophiles and weirdos these Orthodox People that are rocking back and forth like they're autistic or something And I'm not trying to make fun of autistic people I'm just saying that they're doing it You know the autistic people do it because they can't help it But the Jews are doing it for who knows what reason because they're possessed with Devils or something. I Mean, that's how they act You're like, well you're getting kind of mean about the Jews Well, I'm I'm cool about these Jews these guys came back and started doing things the way God said to do it But the ones today the fakers over in the land of Israel, they're phonies They are They're white They're white as bread Isn't it funny how like they're all white and everybody that surrounds them is brown. I Mean, how did that happen? But anyway So, I mean the Bible is very clear that you still can do these different you can put an Earth you could put an altar of earth an altar of stone So what's stopping you? What's stopping you from making the dimensions of? What Moses said in the tabernacle and making that and doing it? Well, Peter would be all over them. I Think that people would be really mad about it I mean you see how freaky people are over any animal being put to sleep or anything like that Imagine if it's just full-on slaughterhouse every day It's gonna free people are gonna get mad it is gonna happen though. It's gonna happen someday it's gonna come back for a short time, I believe but Let's look at an instance where it's actually done when the temple is in play. Let's look at first Kings chapter 18 So Elijah, of course, I don't have time to go into the whole story. It's a great story though, but Elijah is Having this showdown with the prophets of Baal and he's on Mount Carmel. Is that Jerusalem? No is Jerusalem There at this time. Yes. Is there a temple in Jerusalem at this time? Yes but Elijah's coming out against the Wicked King Ahab and his witch wife and against all these prophets of Baal So look at verse 30 It says and Elijah said unto all the people come near unto me and all the people came near unto him and he repaired the Altar of the Lord that was broken down So he repaired one that was broken down and Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob unto whom the word of the Lord came saying Israel shall be thy name and with the stones He built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed So we know that he built an altar, right? He built an altar and of course, you know the rest of the story Did God burn his sacrifice with fire? I mean the the prophets of Baal were cutting themselves and jumping up and down and you know muttering and peeping and whatever they do And Elijah's mocking them by the way. We're not supposed to make fun of people but Elijah was and then He poured all this water on top of the sacrifice all over the wood So it's so drenched that there's no way you're gonna start a fire and then God just goes During the time that the temple is in a different place in a different location So don't tell me you can't make the sacrifices without having a temple because that's just not true so Now we have Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest reinstating the altar before the temple is rebuilt Isn't that the context of the of the where we're at here? How is the temple built yet? No, it's not built They just went back to it. They just went back to the place Where it's supposed to be built. So again, the Jews have no covering for their sacrifices They have nothing and people are like, there's still God's chosen people. Okay, and they're all going to hell. How does that work? How does that work? Well, there's a remnant There's a remnant and Just like there's a remnant of Ammonites. There's a remnant of the children of Esau. There's a there's a remnant in every place They're just like that remnant, but they're blinded even there. They're so severely blinded though Because they rejected Christ because they should have known They should have known Out of all the people in the world that Jesus comes to he comes to his own people and they should have known They Knew what the Bible said and so that's why as a people as a whole they're rejected And so people are just like and yet we have Christians just just giving to the temple foundation Just trying to get the Antichrist to come faster. I Mean, that's bizarre So, let's go back to Ezra chapter 3 Ezra chapter 3 Verse number 3 it says and they set the altar upon its bases for fear was caught What was upon them because of the people of the countries and they offered burnt offerings thereon Unto the Lord even burnt offerings morning and evening. Were they supposed to do one morning evening? yes, they were every day and they kept also the Feast of Tabernacles as it is written and Offer the daily burnt offerings by number according to the custom as the duty of every day required Now that certain feast they had to have a certain amount of sacrifices each day and then it Decreased or I can't remember if the decrease It's it was a certain number a day. So what it's saying though is that they kept this to the T and The Feast of Tabernacle wasn't kept the way it was supposed to be for many many years from the time of Joshua wasn't kept Right, but they did it like they were supposed to now keep in mind though that this is without the temple being built yet They're keeping this feast, aren't they? Does the temple have to be kept or be built for them to keep the feast today? No, it doesn't look at verse 5 Afterwards offered the continual burnt offering both of the new moons and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated of everyone will that willingly offered a free will offering unto the Lord so Everything that was supposed to be offered including people just coming up and saying hey, this is my free will offering This is above the tie. This is above what I'm supposed to do This is above my duty and it's called a free will offering checkmate Calvinist Free will offering that means they give it out of their own free will wasn't preordained It wasn't pre suppose those out of their own free will not because God made them not because God told them to It's because they wanted to do it because they wanted to do it All right, which flies in the face of Calvin is Calvinistic teachings, but I'm not going to preach about that I just wanted to kind of throw that in for free. So Now in the New Testament though in the book of Colossians, you don't have to turn there I'll just read it for you All this talk about new moons and continual feasts and all this other stuff in the New Testament That's done away in Christ Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or the new moon or of the Sabbath Days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ So in the New Testament, we don't have to keep all this stuff. Praise God for that Jesus is good enough. His blood is good enough one time One death one time put it on the the altar up in heaven and that's a that's good enough to where we don't have to Do all this Extra religious stuff. That's nice, isn't it? You know, praise God that we're in the New Testament So look at Ezra 3 6 it says from the first day of the seventh month begin They to do burnt offerings unto the Lord But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. Are they doing it before the temples built? Because they are So and that says they gave money also unto the masons to the carpenter carpenters and meat and drink and oil Unto them of Zidane and to them of Tyre to bring cedar trees and Lebanon trees Excuse me Lebanon to the Sea of Joppa according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia, so The they're making a point here to tell us that they're doing all this stuff. They're keeping these feasts They're doing these sacrifices without the temple being built. I think it's a good point It's a it's a point that we you know to look at what we're seeing today. It helps us know that they're wrong and they have to know that they're wrong and it's proof that the sacrifice can be done without the temple and So that's that so let's move on to verse number eight and number two The rebuilding of the temple so now it says in the second year of the coming of the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month began Zerubbabel the son of Sheltiel and Joshua the son of Josadak and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites and and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem and Appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward to set forward the work of the house of the Lord So here we're in the second year. They still haven't done They still haven't built anything yet They just built in the altar and they're still just doing the things in there They're gathering everybody up to do what they're supposed to do and getting ready to do the work because a work of this this Magnitude you can't just like say okay go build it and then like two weeks later. It's built I mean it takes time to get all the materials and get all the workers and pay everybody and You know, but the point I want to make here is that we're two years in they still don't have a temple But yet they're doing everything they're supposed to do Because in reality the building really means nothing And I think this helps us to see the picture for the New Testament that the building means nothing You know, we're meeting here because it's comfortable and and obviously, you know There's probably been times and in the past where believers weren't able to be in this much comfort You know just sitting in the building or whatever and there might be a time when we're not in that much comfort We're hiding in some cave with Flashlights reading the Bible or something. Who knows? Not being able to have church openly You know, we say we'd like to stand up and be tough and do this But when your head's about to get lopped off you might feel different When your whole family's gonna get killed in front of you, you might feel different I'm not saying that we shouldn't be bold. We should be I'm not saying we shouldn't go to church I'm just saying that there might come a time when you know, because there comes a time where we're supposed to run right So what are we gonna do during that time when we run you're gonna have open church Well, you're gonna run and be done. I mean, why is Jesus telling you to run so you can get away Right. So, I mean, I think a certain degree of hiding is gonna be okay I'm not saying don't do great works and exploits. I'm just saying that You know if he's telling you to run that's when you run. It's not now it's not go build a bunker now and go build a you know, a place on a mountaintop someplace and You know store up all your food and I'm not saying all sort of food. It's not a bad idea I mean an earthquake could happen and you're without food for Two three weeks and might be nice to have some our MREs laying around the house I mean you got to use them up at some time because they go bad, right? But Then maybe one of those little filters that you can put fresh water through to get gallons You know if it's if the water is bad and you have one of those that's nice to have those little straws or what? You know I'm talking about where you can yeah, I've seen people just like drinking right of a pond with those things like oh, man I just I don't even know if I can I mean, but if you're thirsty And it's the tribulation, you know You're like dang it. Why didn't I get one of those straws? But So verse 9 so they're they're they're going for they're set forward to the work of the house of the Lord But isn't it funny how the house of the Lord isn't there yet? But yet they're talking about the work of the house of the Lord. They're at Jerusalem They're doing all the things that they're supposed to and and remember at the beginning They went to Jerusalem as what as one and so they gathered themselves together there And what do we do when we go to church we gather ourselves together don't we? So they're doing basically everything But they don't have the building some people just think the building is everything and they just worse You know if they don't have a building if like our building is an old bank building It's like people will drive by I'm not gonna go to church in an old bank building I'm not gonna go to church in some window. You know some some retail storefront or something. It's like why? Well what difference does it make they're doing it apparently outside I'm sure they probably had tents for when it rained or something like that, but they probably didn't erect the tabernacle They're building a temple. They haven't even started yet. We're two years in So in in the very first the beginning of this chapter though It says the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem now turn to Acts chapter 7 Acts chapter number 7 verse 37 Acts 7 37 Gotta hurry up here Acts 7 37 says this is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel a prophet shall Shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear? this is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai and With our fathers who receive the lively oracles to give unto us, so you see how it says the church in the wilderness Well the word church means congregation So in the Old Testament they did have church, so that's just one another one of those words That's transliterated for us from the from the Greek so in the Greek it translates out to us as a church And I think it's in Acts 19 when the Ephesians freaked out he says the Paul that I think that they say that Paul is not a blasphemer of your churches or a robber of your churches or so I can't remember exactly what it is, but They say church, and that's not talking about a church a New Testament church is talking about like an assembly of people so But the ascent you know the church You know this is a church here and the fact that we're here together gathered in the name of the Lord Filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what makes it a church believers Worshipping and praising God like these people were here. They were here trying to do what the Bible says to do What's the does the Bible say to to assemble together yes, it does so that's why we're here tonight I mean, I'm sure there's other things you could be doing tonight But there's an assembly here and the building doesn't make it the assembly does it? Regardless of whether we have a building or not it's still a church and back then it was the church of the wilderness It was a mobile church It was like a tent that they rolled up and and packed up and moved to a different spot. It wasn't even in one place So let's look back in our text there in verse 10 It says when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites the sons of Asaph assembles and prayed to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David king of Israel now David's is the one that set up that after he was king But the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord so now just after two years are finally putting that foundation in there from the seventh month and so but So there is a physical place that they were supposed to meet wasn't there and it was in Jerusalem All right, we know that they were there but the building wasn't there. So were they still a church? So even without the building they were yeah, and they were still Gathered together and doing what God had put forth to them at this time in the Old Testament Now of course in the New Testament things are different But we're still a church this is still the house of the Lord and Would you say that when they were at Jerusalem without the temple being built that where they were at was still the house of the? Lord I think it was It's talking about building the house of the Lord But it's also, you know the in the New Testament The house of the Lord is referred to as the church, right? in first Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 It says but if I Terry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God Which is the church of the Living God the pillar and ground of the truth Is that because we're in a building or is it because we're gathered together? It's because we're in a building. I don't know. I mean, it's cuz we're gathered together. Good night confusing myself up here but we're in the house of God when we're all together here is my point and This place where they're at is called the house of God too and the building doesn't matter as far as You know, obviously the temple did have significance there was different, you know, the tabernacle had significance I'm not saying it didn't but just because that wasn't there didn't mean that they weren't going to do What God told them to do so now Let's see. So there are certain things were changed. Of course in the New Testament. There's no Levitical priesthood I don't have time to go to those verses but Hebrews 7 and 11 and 12 talk about the priesthood being changed because Christ is is the the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and There was a necessity of change because we don't have a priesthood after the we don't have altars anymore We don't have all that stuff we don't need it and Then the meats and drinks and diverse washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation Hebrews 9 10 and 11 and There's a greater and perfect tabernacle not made with hands and that is the Lord Jesus Christ That picture of the tabernacle really was the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and when the veil was rent then you know that That was a picture of you know us Not being separated from God anymore in the way that we were before where we had to have priests where we had to have All this blood of bulls and goats and all that kind of stuff Now let's move on to the last point. I had to kind of rush through that. I'm sorry, but but verse number 11 Then point three is relaying the foundation stone so they relayed the foundation stone Look at verse 11 it says and they sang together by course and praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good and his mercy endureth forever toward Israel and all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid and It's interesting because in the New Testament talks about how Jesus Christ and even in the Psalms how he is that foundation stone And of course the builders rejected that the Pharisees rejected Christ the people as a whole rejected Christ But he you know this foundation stone that they're shouting for joy about You know really is representing what it's representing Christ. That's what everything is built upon. That's what our whole faith is built upon That's why we're saved and so they're shouting for great joy, and these people love the Lord obviously I'm sure a lot of these people here were saved They're not just shouting for joy because they're a bunch of heathens they're shouting for joy because the foundation stone is set again, and you know they can begin building this temple and You know everything that we do should be built upon Christ all of our works Everything that we do if it's not built upon Christ, and it means nothing The fact that we're gathering here tonight is built upon what Christ set forth and That foundation stone was set. We're sure foundation Baptist Church. What is that representing? It's talking about Jesus Christ being the foundation of Our faith and So I there's some other verses a bunch of verses here. I don't have time to go to but when in job when it talks about how the sons of God shouted for joy when the foundation was laid of the earth and then There's a there's some good stuff in there if you want to check that out job chapter 38 1st Peter chapter 119 talks about how Christ is foreordained before the foundation of the world Revelation chapter 13 8 I'll have you turn to that one revelation 13 8 It says if you have time go ahead and actually just go under Matthew 21 42. I'm going to read revelation 13 8 Revelation 13 8 says and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world So the plan was always that Jesus Christ was going to die And he was slain from the foundation of the world, but in time in our time He died at a specific time about 2,000 years ago on the Passover, right? So Christ died at a certain time and he came at a certain time You know to this wicked generation Matthew 21 look at verse so we verse 42 I'm gonna have us read from there But Jesus is telling this parable about how he sends prophets and he sends these people and they kill them so some of them they kill some of them they stone and Then they're like, he's like wall send my son. Sure. They're gonna listen to my son I'm paraphrasing by the way, and then they say let's kill him and take his inheritance And that's what that Jesus is talking about himself here and so verse 42 says Jesus and so they basically You know they he says what is he gonna do when he comes back? And they said he's gonna miserably destroy those those wicked people and like they're talking about themselves and they don't realize it at this point Verse 42 he says Jesus saith unto them Did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected the same has become the head of the corner? This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore say I unto you the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder so He is that Stone that was rejected by the builders. He's this he's he's that chief cornerstone and They didn't like him. They didn't want him. He's too. Ugly. He's too. This he's too. That whatever whatever their problem was He's not what we expected You know and really they just didn't know the Bible and you know in reality They're just evil wicked men that were sons of the devil a lot of these people such children of Belial But what I think what I find interesting there is that he said whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken And I kind of take that to mean that if you will fall upon Christ for mercy And you're broken in your sins then God you know he's he's going to have mercy on you He's gonna read he's gonna. You know you might be broken, but he's gonna fix you. He's gonna put you back together He's gonna help you But it's because there's a but there, so I'm thinking that that's actually even though it seems like it's a negative thing You fall on a rock, and it hurts you break things you know things skin comes off You know I've seen some pretty nasty Falls on rocks that were pretty you know grotesque And it hurts It looks like it hurts anyway I'd never really had a bad one, but I've seen people with some pretty nasty wounds from falling on rocks, and it's bad But he says the but here is but on whosoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder So that's the negative part of the verse and who's he talking to he's talking to these people that rejected that chief cornerstone They rejected the the whole reason why they're even existing in the first place in this religious capacity at all is They're waiting for their Messiah. Who's there right now, and they're rejecting him. He's the head of the corner he's become the head of the corner and When you get ground to powder guess what there ain't no coming back from that You know If you're one so like really you're gonna get the rock no matter what You're gonna get the rock whether you like it or not You know it's just like those people that will bow Anyway, even though they never wanted to bow while they were here But at some point they're gonna bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ and proclaim that he is Lord Every knee shall bow that's right now But everybody's gonna get that rock and whether you're gonna be the one that gets broken on it and And and you know he can fix you when you're broken that's great But if it grinds you into powder, I think it's talking about the not so great part of it You just you're done. He's gonna blow you away. You know so If that rock falls on you in judgment, you're done. There's no fixing that Now in Acts chapter 4 this this is mentioned also About him being the head of corner, and if you want to turn there you can I know I'm almost out of time here, so I think I'm out of time I'm close, but anyway It says in Acts 4 10 be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ And Nazareth whom he crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand here before you whole So I mean it's just really interesting that they make him whole but see he fell upon that rock and he fixed him didn't he? But see the people that don't want to accept them he's gonna grind them into powder, but look at verse 11 It says this is the stone which was set it not of you builders Which has become the head of the corner neither is there salvation in the other for there is none other name under heaven given among men Whereby we must be saved and guess what that it says there Jesus Christ of Nazareth It's not Yeshua. It's not Yahushua or Any other kind of name or you know that you want to come up with obviously the Lord has many names But the name that we're supposed to be saved by is the Lord Jesus Christ He has a name that's that's better than any other and he earned it first Peter chapter 2 verse 4 first Peter chapter 2 verse 4 says to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious He also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house So you see how he's that he's that chief Cornerstone and then we're built upon that spiritual house It's a spiritual thing in the New Testament's a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold. I lay in Sion a chief Cornerstone Elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be Confounded unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient The stone which the builders disallow the same has made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling People be tripping over this rock, right? And a rock of offense people are offended by the Lord Jesus Christ are offended by the idea of Christianity That they're accountable to God and they're accountable for their sins and they won't fall upon the rock for mercy and they won't be broken by his word and They're so there's two different types of people. We fit we find him precious. He's like the best stone that ever was He's better than the most polished diamond or the most valuable Stone on the face of the planet, but to them he's just a rock that they trip on And you know when they trip on it, they're gonna break And they're gonna be sorry that someday when they could have had everything that we're gonna have in the afterlife Well, it's not gonna be the afterlife for us to be the afterlife for them It's gonna be the after dead for them. But for us it's life everlasting But in verse 9 it says but you're a chosen Generation a royal priesthood and holy nation of peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his Marvelous life, so there's just two different types of people out there We find him precious the rock, you know, and maybe maybe in looks he doesn't look like a polished diamond He looks you know It's an ugly, you know, if you think about the cross the picture of the cross is not a pretty picture And there was nothing beautiful about him himself that people desired to have Jesus. He was just an average probably looking person and When people see well, this is what I have to accept to be saved that he was beaten beyond belief and You wouldn't even look at him if you had a chance to if you looked at his face if you looked at Jesus on the cross, you would probably turn your head in horror and So the rock isn't necessarily pretty But it's but it is precious to us, isn't it? Because what came from that cross is our salvation What came from his death burial and resurrection was our salvation and you know to other people it's a stone of stumbling How can you believe all that stuff? How can you believe in a book written by men? How could you you know, it's offensive. He's homophobic Look what he says to kill all these homos so The world would be a better place Wouldn't it? Thou shalt not suffer a wish to live world be a better place. I Mean just all the things that God puts in his law that are offensive to people, you know They're good for a lot of people though You know for the people that are victims of these freaks and predators all over the world. It would be good for them They're probably like I wish that people would kill them. Why doesn't why doesn't God intervene? Well, because mankind won't listen to what he says That's why it's not that God didn't intervene. He wrote a book for us and told us what to do It's like oh, why is it God intervene? Why does he allow these things to happen? You're letting it happen You're the one that's soft and sorry on things like this and just want to give these mass murderers a second chance And you're you know going around protesting and stuff. Oh, they shouldn't put this person up Oh, they put this new type of death gas and it might have hurt him when he died or something So what they used to fry people in the electric chair? That was even worse and I don't even really think that's a great method I think what the Bible says is a good method And really a bullet through the head is probably the most merciful thing. You could probably do in reality And the but the Bible talks about stoning people I mean that's rocks thrown at high capacity But you know a bullet is a lot. I would take the bullet by bullet or stone to death. I'll take the bullet. Thanks New Testament, you know It doesn't say I have to do that I'm just saying that look people, you know, they trip over God they trip over, you know It's a fence and all that they stumble over the Word of God. They say it's not true It's not real but you know unto us we're gonna show forth the praises of him that called us out of darkness to his marvelous light and Verse 12. Let's finish off here It says but many of the priests and the Levites and the chief of the fathers who were ancient men That had seen the first house When the foundation of the house was laid before their eyes Wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy. So this is a joyous moment in Their lives. I mean they're old men. So 70 years has passed plus two and however old they were before it says they're ancient man They're pretty old guys And when they see the they knew what the first house looked like but yet they still you know Some of them wept out loud, but many of them shouted for joy But I think that you know when we see Jesus when that foundation stone comes back to us there's probably a lot of people weeping and Shouting for joy at the same time weeping with probably tears of joy of the fact that we're finally off this crazy roller coaster called life and in a in a sin dark world but You know also praising God for his salvation because then our salvation will be with a glorified body and never to hurt again and Then we know that everything's on the the positive side going From there at so now look at verse 13 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 heard afar off So I'm looking forward to the actual foundation stone coming back someday is obviously not a real stone I'm not saying that but he's kept Jesus characterized by a lot of different things But the rock is a good picture because we can trust it we can count on it's not sinking sand It's something solid that we can trust in his mercies last. You know his mercies are everlasting They said they praise him because you know he's good and his mercy endure forever So we're saved forevermore folks. There's nothing you can do about now once you're in the family. There ain't no get now No matter if you even if you want to you can't leave It's like the good mafia, but anyway all right. Let's pray Lord to thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible pray that you just Help us to see the spiritual truths from the Old Testament and and Lord We're so thankful that you laid the the foundation stone for us and Lord to pray that you just Help us to be thankful for our heritage Lord to be thankful for the place We get to meet and Lord not everybody has a great place like this and I pray that you just keep continuing to bring us your people here and The thirst for your word and want to offer praises and thanks to you Lord you pray You take us home safely tonight, and Jesus name we pray amen It's a new prayer letter from brother Stuckey by the way too if you guys want to look at it's up here