A Tribulation Temple Preview

Transcript

GR 2019
10/29/2017
A Tribulation Temple Preview
Revelation 11:1-2
Gil Rugh

We’re in the Book of Revelation in your Bibles, last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, given to John to give to His churches and we are one of those churches. What a blessing it is to study and have God’s final word on what His plans for the future of His creation are and how everything is going to end. We do live in a world that seems to be characterized by uncertainty, but as we have studied prophetic matters, we realize there is no uncertainty. There is a God who is certain, who has established His plans. His purposes are being worked out and, ultimately, the final chapter will be the victory that He has accomplished in Christ, the redemption of creation and many among those of fallen humanity.

Much of the Bible is prophetic. The Book of Revelation is primarily prophetic, from chapter six on; we are talking about a final seven-year period in Israel’s history. If you’d put up the Seventy Weeks chart again--I know many of you have this memorized but this is the framework we’re working on. Come back to the Book of Daniel if you would, chapter nine, because we’re moving into material that is very closely connected to Daniel’s prophesies and we’ll be back to Daniel perhaps later so you might leave a marker. The framework for God’s program with the nation Israel--important. Much of the confusion on the Book of Revelation comes from a failure to understand the distinctions God makes when He’s unfolding truth about the future. Daniel 9:24 said, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people . . .” Daniel’s people are the Jews. Your holy city, remember that’s Jerusalem. He’s going to use that name for Jerusalem in our section in Revelation 11. Your holy city; it’s the city God had set apart for Himself, as the capitol of the nation; He had set apart for Himself.

Six things will be accomplished within this seventy seven-year period, it’s called seventy sevens, it’s a week of years not a week of days (70 x 7), 490 years and by that time God will have accomplished six things for the nation Israel and the city of Jerusalem. He will have finished the transgression, make an end of sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy and anoint the most holy place. All those things haven’t been done, even though we’ve had 483 of the 490 years done and as this chart shows 483 years brought us, right up until the first coming of Christ and shortly before His crucifixion, the 483 years came to an end. They begin in 444 B.C. We’re not going back to the reasons, we’ve done that. It carries us to the crucifixion and we’re told in verse 26 “after sixty-two weeks,” which in the previous verse are after seven weeks so after a total of 69 weeks that’s where we get the 483 years (69 x 7). “The Messiah will be cut off” and have nothing, that was the crucifixion of Christ, He had nothing. There was no kingdom established. He’s not ruling over the earth. He died on the cross and ascended to heaven.

Then we’re told “the people of the prince who is to come,” note that individual, the people of the prince who is to come so it’s the people here, they’re connected to a prince who is going to come. That prince who is going to come is yet future. We’ll talk about him specifically in Revelation chapter 13 in some detail. “The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” and we know who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. That happened in 70 A.D. that’s common knowledge, destroyed under Titus the Roman general in 70 A.D., and then you have, its end will come with a flood; and even to the end there will come war, desolations are determined and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.

Well who is the “he”? The people associated with the coming prince will destroy Jerusalem and the sanctuary but “the prince who is to come,” in verse 26, he “will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.” We’ve noted, the bible doesn’t talk about what we call the church age, this period in color right here on your map but there’s an indication. Christ was crucified after the sixty-ninth week not in the seventieth week and then there’s information that happened after, the temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed, in 70 A.D. The church begins and runs through the period of time in which we’re living and then in verse 27 “a coming prince who’s associated with the people, who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple,” and we’ll talk more about his identity when we get to Revelation chapter 13 but he seems to be connected with the Romans. The people who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. were the Romans and the prince who is to come is connected as part of those people. “He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week,” so what has happened, God’s program for Israel is put on a sidetrack. Not that God’s plan didn’t include this, but it’s not anywhere revealed in the Old Testament.

There’s nothing about the church revealed in the Old Testament. Now if you keep this in mind it will keep you from being so confused. Much of the confusion that comes from interpreting the Book of Revelation--we’re coming into chapter 11. If you read commentaries, some commentators say that chapter 11 is one of the most difficult chapters to interpret in all of the bible. You know why they say that? They put the church in chapter 11. The church is removed before this seventieth week begins and we talked about the rapture of the church. This beginning here will be when this prince who is to come, makes a firm covenant with the many, referring to the Jews, for one week, one seven, one seven-year period. Now remember, all seventy, seven year periods pertain to the nation Israel and the city of Jerusalem and God’s program with the nation Israel, the Jews, so the church is not at issue here it’s been removed. Now we are back to God’s program with the nation Israel. He’s going to bring it to completion.

You didn’t know that there would be a 2000-year break between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week and we’re not saying God’s plans changed. His plans have been settled from eternity but His revelation of what He would be doing was not made known. In fact the Apostle Paul said the truth concerning the church wasn’t clearly made known until God revealed it to him, so this is the period of time here. We are now with the seventieth week, and you’ll note the rest of this while we’re here, “in the middle of the week,” verse 27 so in the middle that’s why we divide this into two, this is where we are in Revelation 11. In the middle of the week, “he’ll put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abomination will come one who makes desolate,” so Daniel’s prophesying what’s going on here. This seven-week period, this seven-year period, one week of years is divided into two parts now. He makes a covenant for one seven-year period. In the middle of that seven-year period, this is where we are, he breaks that covenant.

Now remember, we’re going through judgments in the Book of Revelation. Chapter six we had the judgments of the seals, then in chapter seven we had an interlude, a break and he told us about some things that would help us understand what was going to take place in the future, the 144,000 Jews were sealed. We can understand why because when the judgments resume in chapters eight and nine under one of the judgments, God tells the angel that judgment is not to affect any of those who were sealed. You can understand why we had that interlude in chapter seven of Revelation because one of the reasons was God was going to seal 144,000 Jews to protect them from coming judgments and death and destruction in those judgments.

Then, in chapter eight, we picked up with the trumpet judgements and the trumpet judgments covered chapters 8 and 9. Then we have another interlude or break and this is a long one, it will cover chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13, and chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation. Then chapter 15 will be an introduction to the final series of judgments, the bowls.

All right, put up Chart 1 if you would? Chart 1 is just an elaboration or a bigger picture of this seven-year period. I think I took this chart from The Book of Charts on Prophecy by Wayne House and Randall Price which is very worthwhile for helping you. They have an abundance of material organized and categorized there. I picked this, because they’re right. It’s the way I see it! (Chuckle) We don’t always know for sure exactly where we are as we move through but I take it the flow and unfolding of the Book of Revelation is the key, so after the sixth trumpet and before the seventh trumpet, which will be the bowls, we have this break that brings us to the middle. We know we’re in the middle because we’ve noted several times we’re told that the events in these chapters I’m calling an interlude, chapters 10 through 14, there are forty-two months, 1260 days until the end so that would be the last three and a half years. This is where we are when the seventh trumpet is sounded and the judgments come out. It will be the seven bowls but there are a number of things going on you wouldn’t learn about if we just continued to talk about the judgments.

We’re getting specific information now that will help us to more clearly understand all that is taking place during this last half of the seven years. Then we’ll get to the return of Christ in chapter 19, Armageddon and then we will move into the kingdom, the first phase of which is a 1000 years, and then we move into the eternal phase of the kingdom so this is the unfolding. Incidentally, this doesn’t show how they come out. This tells where they are, the seven seals, the seven trumpets but remember the seventh seal includes everything now through chapter 22 verse five because there was only a seven sealed scroll in heaven, opened up in chapter five of Revelation. It includes everything including the coming kingdom that is a result of the redemptive work of Christ. This chart is just showing basically where these judgments occur but remember out of the seventh seal come the seven trumpets, out of the seventh trumpet come the seven bowls and everything from here on comes out of that seventh seal but this shows you basically where these judgments are taking place.

Ok, I want to talk to you about the temple. Leave a marker in Daniel; come back to Revelation chapter 11. Let me read the first two verses. If we go quickly, we can get both verses in. Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff. This is John now, remember chapter 10, there is a holding of judgments while we are given information we need to understand about coming events. John was given a little book, he was told to eat the book and the book in verse 9 and verse 10 of chapter 10 it was sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. What we’re told is verse 11, John is told, “You must prophesy again concerning many people’s, nations, tongues and kings.” Devouring this book is taking in the message God is giving him, that he is going to prophesy give out, and it will be both sweet because it’s going to talk about God’s mercy, even in judgment, and the ultimate redemption of God’s creation. But, it’s going to be bitter because there are terrible times coming for the world and particularly now, as we’re going to talk about here, for the nation Israel, so we are getting prepared for the worst of the worst times.

Keep in mind we have already seen half of the earth’s population killed by the time we get to the middle here, so we’re talking 3.5 billion people on the basis of the present population. Hard to grasp that and yet there are things going on in the world that are rather normal, that makes me think that some of these judgments are particularly focused on specific areas of the world. I don’t know, for example, read the first two verses of chapter two because John now, here we have what he has to prophesy in continuing his ministry. “There was given to me a measuring rod like a staff, someone said, ‘Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. Leave out the court which is outside the temple, do not measure it for it has been given to the nations; they will tread underfoot the holy city for forty-two months.’” We have some information here. Measure the temple. Well we’re in the middle of that last seven-year period, and there’s a temple in existence.

Let’s talk about the temple. The bible talks about a series of temples, remember we start with the tabernacle, in the Book of Exodus after Israel came out of Egypt, and God gave Moses a pattern from heaven, upon which to construct the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a temporary structure. It could be folded up, carried about as Israel journeyed but the layout is basically the same, it’s patterned after heaven. Then when Solomon comes on remember David wanted to build a temple and God said, “No” you can’t be the builder but your son Solomon can build it, so in 960 B.C. Solomon built the temple and dedicated it, so we have the first temple. That temple is basically going to function until 586 B.C. when in the third invasion of the Babylonian’s under Nebuchadnezzar the temple is destroyed, so we had Solomon’s temple, that’s the first temple, the first permanent structure.

Then, so there’s no temple for a number of years, then Zerubbabel, remember Ezra, Nehemiah and those books dealing with the rebuilding of the temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. In 516 B.C. Zerubbabel, under his leadership, the temple is rebuilt. Now it’s not like Solomon’s temple. I wrote down something from Solomon’s temple, I’ll show you a picture in a minute but there were 270 tons of gold in Solomon’s temple. Those figures are given us in connection with the building of Solomon’s temple in Kings. Two hundred and seventy tons of gold. Now we measure gold by the ounce, you think of what you have here in 270 tons of gold. There were 575 tons of silver, in Solomon’s temple. There’s so much silver, remember the Old Testament says silver wasn’t considered that valuable, in Solomon’s day. He had acquired, David remember stored up things in preparation for Solomon building the temple and then under God’s blessings Solomon became fabulously wealthy, so it was a tremendous structure.

When Zerubbabel rebuilds the temple, he didn’t have near the resources. He comes back under the permission of the Persians. He built the temple but some of the people who remembered Solomon’s temple cry. It’s not nearly as splendid but there is a second temple so that’s the second temple. Now later Herod will remodel that temple but when you read commentaries and you read the writings about this, they talk about the second temple Judaism. It’s really talking about the temple from 516 under Zerubbabel all the way down to 70 A.D., when it’s destroyed by the Romans. But I always keep in my mind that when Herod the Great comes on the scene and is given the oversight of Palestine and that whole region by the Romans, he wants to modify the temple.

In fact, Herod wanted to take it all down. It was still in existence from Zerubbabel but it had gone through deterioration and that. He wanted to do something magnificent. He wanted to take all the stones down and start over but the Jews didn’t trust him, because Herod wasn’t even a Jew so he modifies the temple. He doubled the size of the temple mount so it would be a larger area but then he builds this magnificent area and rebuilds the temple, so that’s still part of the second temple because he’s really just remodeling it, so like if you remodeled a house, you still had the same house. It’s just remodeled, but you go back sometimes, people read and say well I thought Herod’s temple was the third temple. Well it’s really just a remodeling of the second temple under Zerubbabel so that second temple goes from 516 to 70 A.D. when the Romans finally deal with it. In fact, the temple was so spectacular, it was the largest temple in the world of its time, and Herod had done such a job in building it, even when the Romans come under Titus, Titus doesn’t want to destroy it.

What Herod did was, He built this temple and He wanted to make it magnificent because the Romans liked show places that showed the might, the power, the splendor of their empire, so he’s building this and it will also please the Jews. That’s good because he has to keep the Jews in line or the Romans don’t need him, so he has two purposes here. He builds this showcase and when Titus comes in 70 A.D., 66 to 70 A.D. he doesn’t even want to destroy it but the Jews have entrenched themselves in the temple and they won’t give in so finally, in 70 A.D. he says we’re done with this. Set it on fire and destroyed it. Then they go in and that’s when they even push down the stones. Jesus said one stone won’t be left upon another as they looked at Herod’s temple, that’s 70 A.D.

Now, John’s writing in 95 A.D. and here you have in the prophetic vision, in chapter 11 of Revelation verse one, “go and measure the temple.” The temple hasn’t existed for 25 years in John’s day so obviously he can’t be talking about a present temple. Well those who don’t take the bible literally, prophecy literally, reformed theologians; covenant theologians, they say well, must be talking about the church and everything’s spiritualized. The church is the temple and you’re measuring God’s people and no wonder they say this is a difficult chapter to understand. Once you move into fantasy, it doesn’t-- it’s a prophetic scripture!

Remember John has to prophesy, about the future. Here’s what God is going to do in the future so we know when we get to the middle of that seven-year period the temple will have been rebuilt, it’s yet future. What the bible talks about are events that happened in the middle of that tribulation. John’s going to get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it. We’ll look more at that in a moment, and the outer portion of that area, they’ll “tread underfoot,” the end of verse two, “the city for forty-two months.” We’re talking about the last half of this seven year period, forty-two months so there’s going to be a temple built.

Come back to Daniel chapter nine. We read in verse 27, this coming prince will make a firm covenant with the many, with the Jews for one week, one seven-year period. That marks the beginning of those last seven years that will be concluded with the return of Christ to earth in Revelation 19. Note, in the middle of the week, the seven-year period, so that’s where we’re talking about, we’re in the middle of that seven-year period, forty-two months till the end. He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. What does that mean? It means the temple has been rebuilt and is in operation. The Jews don’t have sacrifices going on today. You know the strict Jews don’t even allow Jews to go up and walk on the temple mount because it’s such a sacred area. They don’t know exactly where the temple was situated, you might walk on holy ground, and if you’re not a priest, you weren’t allowed into the temple area there, so there’s still that recognition of it. There’s sacrifice and offering going on.

When is the temple rebuilt? Well we’ve moved along in my lifetime because what was it? In1948 the Jews finally could be back in the land and be recognized, little by little. Will the temple be rebuilt before that seven-year period? I doubt it, but it wouldn’t change anything, because all the bible says is by the middle it’s operating, but its operations are going to be put to an end. A reasonable explanation is this leader of the western world, this prince who is to come and we’ll see him in detail in Revelation chapter 13. He signs an agreement with Israel as the leader of the western world, the revived Roman Empire. Perhaps under that agreement, which brings peace to the nation Israel, they are enabled to rebuild their temple, and they are functioning.

I’ve shared with you, pulled it out of my file an article from Time magazine in 1989, so this goes back a ways, almost 30 years, so it’s not particularly a religious or spiritual publication, it’s just a news magazine. “Time for a new temple, traditionalist Jews hope to rebuild their sacred edifice, but a mosque and centuries of enmity stand in the way,” but they talk about the plans that are being made and the institute in Jerusalem that is making all the items and articles that would be necessary for use in a rebuilt temple. For example, I’ll just read you one—“they have already,” this is 1989, “reconstructed thirty-eight of the ritual implements that will be required when temple sacrifices are restored. They have sixty-five items they’ll be working on as the money comes in, and they’re doing things in addition, like the trumpets that are necessary” and all that. They’re “preparing vestments for the priests in waiting.” According to scripture, “the clothing must be painstakingly made with flax spun by hand into six stranded threads,” so they have pictures of items that have already been made. I just say the idea and the thought doesn’t go away.

I mean think about it. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and here we are 2000 years later and people are talking about its got to be--well rebuild it-- and the scripture says when you get down to that last seven year period before Christ returns, the temple will be rebuilt. Now I’m not saying it’s going to be rebuilt in my lifetime. We’re running out of time if that’s the case, but it will be rebuilt and the sacrifices will be reoffered, and this “prince who is to come” will be viewed as something of a savior for the nation Israel, but in the middle, sacrifice will be ended. You’ll note at the end of verse 27, “on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.” An abomination is something detestable that defiles, that makes something desolate. When you defile the temple, it’s unusable, so this is the person coming, that “coming person.”

Come over to chapter 12 of Daniel and we’re in the middle. Chapter 12 opens up by talking about Michael, the chief prince of Israel, standing at a time of distress, and we’ll see Michael doing this in chapter 12 of Revelation. So we’ll get more details as we move through this section. Come down to verse 11, “from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up,” so there’s going to be a specific idol, image, an abomination of desolation, something that defiles the temple and renders it unfit for proper use. There will be 1,290 days so we have an extra thirty days added to the 1,260 days that will be used in Revelation and then “blessed is the one who comes in the 1,335 days.” We’ll talk about why these additional days, we have things to be done, judgments of nations, judgment of Jews, things like this that will be taking place but at any rate you can see we’re at about the three and a half year segment that abomination of desolation.

Come over to Matthew 24. Now Jesus is speaking what’s called Olivet Discourse because He gives it on the Mount of Olives and they’re coming out, they go out past the temple buildings and Herod’s temple was magnificent! Amazing that he could have these stones cut out of the limestone, weighing twenty tons, transport them here and use them in their foundations and the construction. He was a master builder. Just an aside, he’s building this temple in Jerusalem for the Jews but Herod was not a worshipper of the God of Israel. At the same time he’s building the temple in Jerusalem, he’s building a temple in Caesarea, to the goddess Roma so he’s just building things that keep everybody happy in his kingdom. You might get the idea that Herod must have been a rather intensely religious man. No, he just liked to build buildings that were spectacular and he had an ulterior motive; keep everybody happy. I built a temple for the Jews, I built a temple for the worshipers of this goddess and the Romans think I’m great because I’m showcasing the magnificence of their empire and at the same time keeping all the people in my area happy, pacified so we come to Matthew 24.

He’s walking out past the temple with His disciples and they want to point out the temple buildings. Isn’t this magnificent what Herod’s done? And that’s when Jesus said, verse two, “Do you not see all these things? I say to you, ‘not one stone here will be left upon another, which is not thrown down.’” Some of you have traveled to Israel to the temple mount and that region and you can see some of the stones that were pushed over in the days of Titus, in 70 A.D. and lay there in ruin. He’s sitting on the Mount of Olives, which is across the valley there from the city, and He could look down on the temple mount and they want to know, “when will these things happen, what will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?” So they have pieces, they just don’t know and when He’s crucified they just all scatter. Then in Acts chapter one, they’re still not clear, “are we going to have the kingdom now but here, what’s going on? If all this is going to be destroyed and You’re going to leave, when will You come again, what will be?” so He tells them and what you have down through verse 14 is an overview of the seven years that we’re talking about, the seventieth week of Daniel and He breaks it into two halves.

After talking about some of the judgments that will come, He says in verse eight, “these are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to tribulation,” we’ve come to the middle, talking about you Jews. “They will kill you, you’ll be hated by all nations because of My name” so then then you get an overview of the last three and a half years. Then verse 15, he picks up and goes back to verse nine so I give you an overview, but what’s really important to the Jews, you know, because the first three and a half years of the tribulation they’re under the protection of the leader of the western world and his alliance. It’s in the middle there’s going to be a break, a breaking of his agreement with them and the breaking out of persecution so he says in verse 15. “Therefore, when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place.” Whoa, yeah we read about that, chapter nine then chapter 12 and there’s going to be a specific item standing in the holy place.

We had a preview of this back in Daniel chapter 11 verses 21 to 35 talks about a past ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, not a very humble man. You know what his name means, God manifest, that’s how he presented himself. They’ve found coins that he had minted with his image on it and he is Antiochus God manifest. He had a statue of the god Zeus built, and set up in the temple in Jerusalem, with his face made on that statue of Zeus. I am the god Zeus manifest in your presence. You get an image of what that was; he sacrificed a pig on the altar to defile it. You had something of a preview, so here, the abomination of desolation you’re going to see.

We’ve seen judgments in the world and you wonder how this could be. You know you’re having an agreement with Israel, they’re rebuilding their temple and already we’ve seen 3.5 billion people die in the judgments. As we noted, we don’t know how the judgments are spread out and perhaps parts of the world are destroyed. Where will North and South America be in this period of time? Maybe it won’t be, maybe it will have been destroyed in the judgments and the catastrophes. Maybe Yellowstone will erupt along with a number of other volcanos and the earthquakes that take place and most of the Americas are rubble. We don’t know but we know the judgments that are coming, we know what will be taking place and it’s going to be rather normal in some ways. This is what makes me think that a lot of judgments are focused on different parts of the world.

While you’re in Matthew 24, come down to verse 36. “The day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. For the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and swept them away.” It says people are going to be going on with life with all the judgments going on in the world, oblivious, and the coming of Christ in Revelation 19 and Armageddon will catch them totally by surprise.

You say I don’t know how, but that’s what’s going to be taking place so we shouldn’t be surprised; God’s not going to allow Israel and the land of Israel to be destroyed. The devil would like that, so the judgments being poured out that we’ve seen, the seals and the trumpet aren’t destroying Israel and evidently not the revived Roman Empire either. Perhaps those judgements facilitate that solidifying and world rule of this man. We don’t know, we know what’s going to happen but the details of how it’s arranged we don’t but you’ll note, “the abomination of desolation” in Matthew 24:15 “is standing in the holy place” and the persecution of the Jews will be instantaneously breaking out so quickly they shouldn’t even go down to pack an overnight case. They shouldn’t even go down to get a coat, that’s how quickly things will change for the Jews.

Verse 21, “then there will be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now.” We think we’ve seen a lot, 3.5 billion people have died. Jesus says, “now there’ll be great tribulation for the world.” I mean there’s nothing like the wrath of God. People think, “well my God wouldn’t do this” and you reject His love, you’re the object of His wrath, there’s no middle ground. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me.” Verse 22, “if those days were not cut short” after seven years, after the last three and a half years of those seven years, “there wouldn’t be a person alive on the face of the earth,” so it’s getting bad, this is where we are, we’re at that middle point, the Tribulation in the middle. The temple has already been built and is in operation. This coming prince will be able to set up an image as we’ll see in Revelation 13 in the very holy place and declaring himself as God and the worship of the world as Revelation 13 will make clear, must be directed toward him and his goal is to destroy the Jews.

Come over to Second Thessalonians chapter two. We’re talking about the same period of time, the day of the Lord at the end of verse two. It talks about, they thought their sufferings were so great they might be in that day and he says “nope” you’re not in that day. He tells some things that will have to happen and “it will not happen,” verse three “unless the apostasy or departure comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” You can get one of the books on prophecy that we would have in the library or the bookstore. You can see the different names; remember he was called the “prince who is coming” in Daniel 9 here he’s called the “man of lawlessness,” “the son of destruction,” all names for the same one; he’s the “beast out of the sea” in Revelation 13, “the son of destruction.”

He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship as you can see when we get to this in Revelation 13 he has to be worshiped. I am God. He takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Another indication. What? The temple has been rebuilt so we’re at the middle again because Jesus said when the abomination of desolation is set up; Daniel said we have 1,290 days when we see the abomination of desolation. “He’ll reign” down to verse 8; “the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth,” so this man will reign in sovereign power like the world has never seen. He will be brought to his end in Revelation 19 with the return of Christ.

This is where the world is going. The world’s not going to be destroyed by something from outer space crashing into the earth or the environment going, it’s all under God’s sovereign control. We believers can explain where we are, what these days are, where the world is going. We don’t get caught up in the endless empty pursuits of the world. You can’t rescue the planet, glad we have clean water and all of that, but you’re not going to rescue the planet. These scientists have fears for the future of the planet; if we don’t do this, it will destroy itself. It will be destroyed but God will do it so we have the temple rebuilt.

Come back to Revelation chapter 11 so John is given a measuring rod. This is then prophetic, a future temple, he’s going to measure it, not to give us the measurements because he’s told in verse one, “get up and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship in it.” All right, let me get my pictures here. Let’s do slide two. This is just a picture of what the temple was like. This is Solomon’s temple. I told you about all the gold in that you can see it reflected. This is a cut away obviously. You see a pillar here and there’s a pillar here, it’s cut away so you can see the inside of the temple. There’s a little portico, porch kind of thing here. I mentioned that because you’re going to see the two pillars in the next slide. This is what they did; they held up a little covering here. You come into the holy place and there’s the altar of incense, then you go into the Holy of Holies where the curtain was, behind which was the ark of the covenant where the presence of God was manifest in Israel, so the temple’s going to be rebuilt.

This is Solomon’s temple it gives you an idea, here’s the altar that he’s going to measure, the altar of sacrifice. We have the altar of incense in here but when he measures, he includes this altar because this is where the Jewish worshipers would come. You’ll note in Revelation chapter 11, verse one, he measures the temple of God, the altar and those who worship in it and here’s where they would bring their sacrifice, the priest would bring it up, it could be offered. The laver here for water, for cleansing, with the smaller lavers that could move around and provide for cleansing in areas so this would be the picture of the temple.

Now look at slide three. This is just a flat view of it. This is the bronze altar, the brazen altar was pictured here. Here are these two pillars I mentioned. It doesn’t show the cover that came out here but then you have the holy place, the Holy of Holies. Here’s the altar of incense, we’ve seen that in heaven. Remember, this earthly temple is modeled after heaven, so we had the altar of incense in heaven before the throne of God there, as you have it here, before the presence of God in the Holy of Holies. This is all, measured by John, that’s what he’s talking about measuring and the people would be the Jews in here.

Go to the next slide if you would, number four. You don’t need to be able to read this stuff because I can’t read it but this is the picture; this is the temple that would have been in existence until the Romans destroyed it, this is Herod’s temple mount. He more than doubled the size of the area so he had to have these huge stones cut and brought in so he could lay a foundation to support the expansion of the temple mount here. What I want you to note here, is along here you have a line, that’s a wall about four feet high. Out here is what is called the court of the Gentiles so Gentiles were allowed in here but Gentiles could not go any further so that’s what’s being distinguished here. John is to measure this temple area but the outer area of the temple, what he says, leave out, verse two of chapter 11, “Leave out the court which is outside the temple, do not measure it, it has been given to the nations; they will tread under foot the holy city.”

Remember the holy city Jerusalem we saw in Daniel 9, and there are other passages, we don’t have time to go look at again, so it’s making a division between the Jews and the non-Jews. The measuring has two purposes, you can be measured to be protected you can be measured to be judged. We don’t have time so we won’t go back to Zechariah chapter two but there you have a measuring of Jerusalem going on and it’s in the context of protection, it’s in the context of judgment. What God is saying, even though all this persecution is going to break out, and every attempt the world has ever seen is made to destroy every Jew, God is measuring them and protecting them, but the Gentile part of the world, there’s no protection! God will be pouring out his judgments of destruction on the world because remember, we’re back in this seven year period that is part of the seventy weeks that God has set for Israel and Jerusalem. That’s why I say, if you put the church into this seventieth week, you’re just in a world of confusion, spiritualizing, allegorizing, trying to find connections that aren’t there, but when you see, this is Israel. He’s measuring the things associated with Israel and the purpose of this seventieth week along with pouring out judgment on an unbelieving world, is to bring Israel to its knees, so that by the end of these seven years, you will have them calling out for their Messiah to come again and rescue them.

Come back to Romans chapter 11. You thought I was kidding when I told you we had to hurry to get through these two verses, didn’t you? No, you didn’t think I was kidding, you know me. Romans 11 verse 25, “I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery.” He’s writing to the church at Rome, fellow believers, primarily Gentile Christians. He says, “there’s a mystery that has been made known so that you don’t get proud--a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” When we looked at that church age, this is the age; the fullness of the Gentiles, God is saving primarily Gentiles. His focus in the world in salvation focuses in the church and among Gentiles. That doesn’t mean a Jew can’t be saved but primarily the church is comprised like us, there may be a few Jews here but primarily we’re Gentiles.

When you get to the seven-year Tribulation, things change. God is back in His focus of salvation dealing with Israel. That’s why Gentiles will think, well I’ll just wait and trust the Lord then, there’ll be Gentiles saved, but remember, He’s going to send a deluding influence so that people believe a lie. You don’t want to miss this day of salvation, this day when God is offering in a special way His salvation to Gentiles, and just like the Jews, under the judgment of God now are experiencing, a hardening, but it is a partial hardening. But when He’s done with the fullness of the Gentiles, when we enter that last seven year period, His purpose is to bring about the salvation of the nation Israel, so you read verse 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written. “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.

Right now, God is not dealing with the Jews, and we Gentiles benefit. He has set them aside, and now we have the privilege of being the focus of His saving work, but from the standpoint of God’s election, they are the called nation, beloved for the sake of the fathers; and the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable so keep in mind where we’re going with all this. God is pouring out His wrath on an unbelieving world, a Gentile world that has passed their opportunity by and large for salvation. Don’t take that to mean no Gentiles will be saved because they will, and we’ll see that when we get further along in Revelation, but just like today there are Jews saved, but they are a very small minority. This is a day of salvation. That’s why we need to be diligent about sharing the gospel, encouraging people to believe, but then God will begin to unfold His work with Israel and it will take seven years.

The first three and a half years are pretty good for Israel. The last three and a half years are like Israel has never seen, and the devil makes every attempt, as we’ll see in chapter 12 of Revelation, to destroy every Jew. I think of Hitler and something I saw on a rerun on the history channel. He’s bunkered down, Germany is destroyed and he’s sending out messages, we have to destroy the Jews! What is wrong with you? You’re within days of killing yourself and you’re worried about the Jews. There’s no rational but God will intervene in Revelation 19 so the temple will be rebuilt. When, I don’t know, it will be rebuilt in that seven-year period and God’s purposes continue to work, it’s all under control.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your word. Thank You for the clarity You’ve given. How blessed we are to have multiple copies of Your very words, to study it, to reflect upon it, think about it, give it careful consideration. Lord I pray for any who are here who have yet to respond to the offer of Your grace. They have not considered the danger, the hopelessness of their situation, may they consider carefully the privilege given to them, to turn from their sin and place their faith in Christ. For those of us who have, Lord may we not forget these truths. May we be faithful to You, be testimonies for You wherever we are, whatever we do, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

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