Ezekiel Part 47

Let's pray and then we'll get into our text Lord Jesus as we open up your word We ask you

Holy Spirit to help us to rightly understand what is revealed there so that we may properly believe Confess and do all according to your

Holy Word. We ask in Jesus name. Amen if we were to look at a map of Israel in the northern part of Israel, there's a large notable body of water and what's it called?

Oh man See the Galilee see a galley there's a river that flows from the

Sea of Galilee through down through Israel What is the name of that River? Where does it where's the terminus of that River?

The Dead Sea. Well, what a terrible name for a sea. Okay. Why do they call it the

Dead Sea? It's salty like some of my jokes, right? It's saltier than a

YouTube comment section. It's saltier than a YouTube comment section so the water from the

Sea of Galilee flows down the Jordan River picks up all of the salts and the chemicals and whatever and it dumps into the

Dead Sea and the Dead Sea dumps into nowhere and So the Dead Sea is dead

Hang on a second. It's not you. It's got to be me

No, I solved it.

So so the Dead Sea is dead and by dead I mean dead nothing living in the

Dead Sea and last week when we were looking at some of the details and you'll note

I did not walk you through the architectural minutiae of The of this temple that's being this vision of this temple

It is not a temple that will be erected in our lifetimes or in the lifetime of the

Jewish people Of any human prior to the return of Christ, that's not the point there is an aspect to this section of Ezekiel where God is calling the children of Israel who are still under the

Mosaic Covenant to Renew the covenant and get back to keeping their part of the bargain

Always and again when we talk about the different covenants, we have to keep them sorted properly So the

Mosaic Covenant which comes four hundred and thirty years after the Abrahamic Covenant Cannot annul the promises made in the

Abrahamic Covenant. That's the point that Paul makes in Galatians Chapters three and four and so we have to keep that in mind

So when we talk about the Mosaic Covenant a good way to think about covenants is that their contracts?

These are contractual obligations. And so it is a land lease contract

Some of you own your homes some of you rent your homes those of you who rent your homes. You have a rental agreement and There are certain things you are required to do and certain things

You are not allowed to do as part of the rental agreement. And so I They might have something in there

You're not allowed to burn candles because they don't want the property to burn down or something like that, you know And they have all of these different things, but most importantly

If you don't pay your rent What is in your rental contract as As recourse for your the people who own the apartment building

Well, no one here lives in California, you know you get evicted, you know so if you if you start running afoul of the of the terms and conditions of your rental contract

Then you can you will be evicted I would remind you all that the Mosaic Covenant being what it is a land lease agreement

God has promised you guys can live in this land But here are the stipulations and the stipulations come back to the

Ten Commandments They're keeping of them and they're required to do particular things and they're they're forbidden from doing other things

How did the children of Israel as a whole do in keeping their end of the bargain? They never kept it ever

Just in black and so a good way to think about prophets including

Ezekiel is they're kind of like the prosecuting attorneys of the Mosaic Covenant and but they always have stipulations that they'll throw in there that we'll talk about if there is

Repentance if you return if you do the thing then then there's promises of mercy forgiveness reconciliation with the

God whom they have offended and then ultimately you'll note that all of the prophesied and promised

Punishments they all came true including the very last ones where they were scraped out of Israel and dispersed among the nations for good

That's exactly what happened when we consider what took place You know in 70

AD with the destruction of the temple and then in 130 AD with the Jews being finally expelled from the land

I mean that the Jews were a constant problem to the Romans is the best way

I can put it is that They legitimately hated being under the

Sandal or the boot of the Roman Empire and they would not submit as God Commands them to as a result of it

God said enough is enough is enough is enough and the thing is is that the the state of Israel at the time of Christ Was in full -blown idolatry as well.

It was a sneakier form of it You know, it's pretty obvious that somebody's engaging in idolatry if they you know they they create a narrative about you know, the goddess

Shiva and and you know and her destructive powers and stuff like this and then they erect a

Statue that an image to look and represent Shiva and then they bow down and they worship

Shiva and they pray to Shiva and they expect Shiva to do good they offer offerings to Shiva and things like this

You know, I always you weirds me out when you know in Middle Eastern countries There's certain deities that the things you're supposed to offer them are booze and cigarettes

Crazy, you know just nonsense. Okay, and so if you ever visit any little shrines when you're in the in Asia Sometimes you'll see people leave like food offerings and money offerings and money offering offerings of booze and cigarettes and weird things like this

It's just crazy. That's obvious That's obvious idolatry What is the sneakier form of idolatry is the idolatry that the

Pharisees came up with where they? verbally pledged Allegiance to the

God of the Bible and then added a whole bunch of other stuff to his word okay, so and so the idea then is is that it's a type of idolatry that is

Well, it's Christ describes teachers like this as wolves in sheep's clothing

So they go through all the rigmarole of putting on the sheep's clothing and these wolves learn how to go

Yeah, right, you know and so but at the end of the day It's everything is designed to deceive to make it look like that.

They are Following the religion of the scriptures, but they're not and so the idolatry that led to the captivity of Israel in Babylon or Judah in Babylon that was overt idolatry the idolatry that led to God fully

Executing all of the eviction clauses of the Mosaic Covenant that's then resulted in the destruction of the temple and then the eviction of Jews from Judea until 1948 that that all

That was all also Idolatry, but the sneakier form think of it this way.

All right y 'all familiar with that that series of Out there called the chosen

Okay It's it's a mess It's it's annoyingly bad

It is I consider it to be the best written and best executed Fanfiction ever written about Jesus and Yeah But here's the thing up until very recently the people who've been working very closely

With the fellow who who's the executive producer for the chosen has been notable members of the

Mormon Church And so let me ask you a question Do Mormons believe in Jesus It It's the

Mormon Jesus, okay, I mean so, you know, it may as well be

Jesus Okay, it's it's that it's the name Jesus. They say they believe in Jesus the

Son of God but here's the issue is Y 'all ever seen like, you know words that are made out of glass and you can pour liquid into them and yeah

Oh, look, I have the word Jesus and I poured a liquid into it and the liquid is purple Right, and then you dump that liquid out and you look this is now

Jesus and he's blue What they've done is is that they've taken the word Jesus and they've taken the real definition of who

Jesus is and they've just poured it out and then they've poured in their own concoction and say we believe in Jesus and unfortunately the day we live in People who are

Christians or attend churches that at least proclaim Christ and say that they believe in the gospel and believe in the

Trinity and things like this they have such an aversion to doctrine and they're so biblically illiterate that they

Legitimately think that Mormons are Christians and you sit in there going do you know what

Mormons believe? Regarding who Jesus is? Yeah, no, that's kind of an interesting thing

So back when I was learning counter cold apologetics in the late 80s and the early 90s

Mormons were very were very upfront in catechizing their people as to what they believed and now in the past 1015 20ish years the

Mormon Church has pulled away from teaching the full counsel of Mormonism and will only reveal What they really believe to those who are now temple

Mormons you know the average Mormon does not know that they believe that that Mormonism teaches that people can become gods and That our

God was once a man who became a god by obedience to his God and that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer They don't they're not taught these things.

I remember before right before we came up here Barb and I talked to a

Mormon missionary in Indiana and that kid knew nothing The Mormon missionary did not know

Mormonism and I said, let me let me show you some things about what Mormonism teaches And I was able to open up The Book of Mormon I was open up Doctrine and Covenants and the

Pearl of Great Price and said this is what you got what your church teaches Well, I've never been taught any of that What?

Yeah Yeah Every time Barb and I moved to a new town or a new house

The Mormons missionaries visit us once and the Jehovah's Witnesses visit us

Once and we never hear from them again That's right

Avoid at all costs. Okay Now all of this being said all of this being said

You know, we have been dealing with the false idea that this temple in Ezekiel Chapters 40 through 48 is somehow referring to a third temple.

That's going to be erected in Israel today now, here's where I would point you guys to something interesting within the

Lutheran Confessions Are you familiar with the phrase Kili Azzam? See, okay,

James the board knows what Kili Azzam is. All right, what's Kili Azzam, sir? Yes Absolutely.

So let me see if I can find this real quick. All right Right. So and this is something that we need to we need to address but we need to address it without The weird

Nazi anti -semitism that comes with this nowadays So, hang on a second here, where's my book of Concord?

Rose bro, you're getting old. Hang on a second here. No No Hang on.

I'm just gonna do this library Book of Concord There we go.

I want Tabard. All right, so I would just do a search I'm gonna come up here to the title page I'm gonna do a find and I'm gonna work for the word look for the word

Kili Azzam. Here we go. Kili Huh, it's not in this

That's annoying Okay, hang on a second here that translation doesn't have it

Jewish that's what I look for Okay, so, all right in the

Augsburg Confession Augsburg Confession article 17 talking about the return of Christ.

Okay, so we're doing an eschatological study here Okay, so here's what we believe it is also taught among us that our

Lord Jesus Christ will return on the last day for Judgment and will raise up all the dead All right that you know

That's kind of like the theme of our sermon today to to give eternal life and everlasting joy to believers and the elect but to condemn ungodly men and the devil to hell and eternal punishment

Rejected therefore are the Anabaptists who teach the devil and the condemned men will not suffer eternal pain and torment so you'll know we reject the idea of what's called conditionalism or The idea that people are punished only for a certain amount of time and then they cease to exist.

That's called Annihilationism. No those who suffer eternally For their sins suffer eternally.

There is no end to God's punishment for them Okay, and then watch what it says here rejected to our certain

Jewish opinions now in the in the original Translation of this it's going to talk about Kili Azzam Rejected to our certain

Jewish opinions, which are even now making an appearance in which teach that before the resurrection of the dead

Saints and godly men will possess a worldly kingdom and annihilate all the godless

So when we talk about Millennialism, okay. Have you ever heard of pre millennialism?

Postmillennialism, okay, and then you know what our position is technically called all millennialism, which is the wrong name for it

But millennialism teaches that when Jesus returns He's not going to raise everybody from the dead so when

Jesus returns He's going to raise Christians from the dead and then those Christians are going to rule and reign with Christ He will set up his throne in Jerusalem and he they will rule and reign for exactly 1 ,000 years and and the idea then is is that With that reign that then

Israel will once again experience. It's it's true glory.

It's it's the ultimate glorification of Israel hmm In a sinful fallen creation, right?

Yes Well every single human being at that point born during that thousand years will be born dead in trespasses and sins

Okay, it's crazy. So here's the issue and this is something that has to be dealt with here is that Kilias and millennialism and those people within the visible church who are embracing this who are teaching that the temple that is being described

Here in Ezekiel is pointing to a third temple that would be built in Israel Ultimately, they are they have they have come under the sway of a false doctrine that has its origin not in Christianity or the scriptures but its origin in the delusions of Modern -day

Judaism and it's for the purpose of this of the finally

Israel being glorified properly and The emphasis is in the wrong place and I would note on so you think of John Hagee All right, you guys remember

John Hagee and the four blood moons Okay, when when he wrote a book that sold a bazillion copies

I mean they had they had pallets of these stupid books at like Sam's Club in Costco Things like this and people were just buying them up in droves because there were gonna be four blood moons

It was supposed to be a harbinger of the end Okay. Well That was ten years ago

Okay, and after the fourth blood moon We put out a t -shirt that says I survived the four blood moons and all

I got was this lousy t -shirt Okay, it's it's just kind of to make the point, but I've actually been in Hagee's Church So one time when

I was speaking at a higher things conference down in Texas it happened to be in the same town where Hagee's Church is and when

I Was there somebody said hey, would you want to see John Hagee's Church? I said sure I said there's nobody there

You just you just you know, we'll walk you we'll give you a little tour of the place. I said you can do that Oh, yeah, we've done it before Okay Okay, so got into the main sanctuary the place is ginormous it looks like a

UFO has landed, you know And it's got this ginormous stage and notably nowhere on the outside and on his campus or Inside inside the building or the sanctuary the big

UFO. Is there a single cross? There is no there are no crosses anywhere to be seen and What is to be seen are banners for the different 12 tribes of Israel there's a banner for Asher a banner for Judah a banner for Manasseh a bat a banner for you know, and I'm thinking

Is this a synagogue? you know and there was a menorah a

Notable menorah in this thing. I'm thinking what is going on here and I Realized at that point that that Hagee by following Kiliyazm, which has its origin not in Christianity.

It has its origin in in pharisaical Judaism that since it's this this doctrine has its its origin in Jewish opinions and thoughts that That he just took it to its logical conclusion.

And so the emphasis in his church is not about glorifying Christ, but Israel Yeah Huh That's not there.

That's not the emphasis or their focus. Yeah. Yeah so the the modern -day

Orthodox Judaism and you got to understand this that People who are just genetic descendants of Abraham.

They're not all Orthodox Jews there are some there are some branches of Judaism that that reject the

Orthodox and Recognize with their roots that that's that's the religion of the Pharisees And so after the temple is destroyed after the

Jews are kicked out of Israel In fact when Rome kicked the Jews out of Israel altogether, they changed the name of the place

It was no longer called Judea or called Israel. They officially changed the name to Syria Palestinia, that was the name that the

Roman Empire came up and that it was called Palestine from then on out So But the the religion that is today is legitimately

The same religion as the Pharisees and you're going to note if you if since we've seen this in the scripture There is an inherent racism within pharisaical

Judaism They're legitimately is like that. They are the superior

People because they are the direct descendants of Abraham And as a result of it there is a legitimate looking down on anybody who is not

Jewish so I do find that fascinating Because the the thing that ended up exterminating them during the

Holocaust is also the sin that they're guilty of themselves which is You just sit there and you go stay out of the way when

God's gonna judge because you know He judges hard is the best way I can put it but coming all of them back to this

So rejected are certain Jewish opinions Which even now are making appearance and which teach that before the resurrection of dead saints and godly men will possess a worldly kingdom and annihilate

All the godless. No, they will not Okay, that would mean they'd have to annihilate every child upon its conception

You know this and themselves, right? Exactly. It's like Yeah, it's like it's a denial of original sin.

It's and it's a complete misunderstanding of that. But all that being said This is an eschatological text and I want you to see how

Ezekiel at least as far as we're gonna take it is Is gonna end out so if you remember last week we showed

I showed a depiction of the temple complex You know, it's this perfect square it's got and there's a notable cross right in the center of this thing around the altar and It says then then he the angel who's giving him the tour of this temple complex he brought me back to the door of the temple and Behold water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east now if this were happening at your house

You'd realize that one of your toilets was overflowing and it's time to call a plumber Okay, but this isn't this isn't some kind of an accident

This is this is this is imagery that we have to kind of embrace as to what's going on here Okay, so water it comes from below the threshold of the temple toward the east from the temple then the temple faced east

The water was flowing down below the south end of the threshold of the temple south of the altar and then he brought me out by way of the

North Gate and led me around on the Outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east and behold the water was trickling out on the south side

So we're at a trickle at the moment Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand

The man measured a thousand cubits and then led me through the water and it was ankle -deep

Again, he measured a thousand and led me through the water and it was knee -deep which means it was full of frogs

Sorry, what you people? All right, so you're gonna know the water is getting deeper right

Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water and it was knee -deep again He measures houses and the water was waist -deep and again

He measured a thousand and it was a river that I could not pass through for the water had risen

It was deep enough to swim in and a river that could not be passed through and he said to me son of man

Have you seen this and then he led me back to the bank of the river as I went back

I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other where those trees come from you're gonna know this kind of has a feel to it of What?

the creation of Eden, okay, so This imagery cannot be even studied apart from kind of going back to Genesis chapter 2

Listen to how this describes Eden, okay When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the for the

Yahweh Elohim had not caused it to rain on the land There was no man to work the ground a mist was going up from the land that was watering the whole face of the ground and then the

Yahweh Elohim formed the man of the dust of the ground breathed into his nostrils the breath of life the man became a living creature

And Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed out of the ground

And Yahweh Elohim made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight So no, it's just springing up you need a tree

There it is right there, right? and good for food the tree of life was in the midst of the garden the tree of knowledge of good and evil and watch this a river flowed out of river out of Eden a river flowed from where Eden To water the garden and there divided and became four rivers

So one river coming out of Eden and after it leaves Eden, it's going to break up into four different different waters

Now the ancient church loved to allegorize this you're talking about the river of life being

Christ You know, you know and and that the river that broke into four tributaries

Then they they ascribe to the four Gospels, you know kind of a you know A type and shadow picture of that and so it gives the names of the rivers the

Pishon it It is the one that flowed around the whole of the line of Havilah where there is gold and the gold of that land is

Good, but Delium and onyx stone are there the name of the second river is Gihon It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush and the name of the third river is the

Tigris which flows East of Assyria and the fourth is the Euphrates So there's there's something of this kind of imagery showing up here by the way

Israel today Is it a lush garden II kind of place you guys are laughing at me

It's it's hot It's dry. I mean

It's kind of like Arizona Right. It's you know parts of Arizona.

Yeah, I mean It's semi -comfortable, but it's it's a hot mostly dry place.

So this picture then of this river Coming from the temple and it's the waters flowing from under the threshold of the door and now it's ankle deep now

It's waist deep now. It's a river and now all of a sudden there's trees You know on one bank of the river

Does this sound like anything that's gonna happen in our lifetime? No, this is pointing to something different right?

Yes, of course

Yeah Yeah Yeah, it comes from Christ's side. That's right.

Yep water flowed from his side. Okay, and then you'll note throughout the scriptures water is is

Notable when it comes to new creation or washing away of sins So there, you know in Genesis 1 you have the spirit of Yahweh Merica fetting hovering over the face of the deep into home over the waters and and then you have same picture with the flood and then you have the rescue through the waters of the

Red Sea and then Baptism and all this kind of stuff. So there's this there's this creative thing that goes along with water and it's happening here in this text

Yes Yeah That's absolutely correct and I would note that even if it's the imagery of when we come into the promised land we cross the

River Jordan right Right baptism. So there there's some wonderful hymns

I got to find them because I don't even think they're part of our hymnal our current hymnal, but I think in the old LW you can find them what these funeral hymns that talk about crossing the

River Jordan It's it's it's haunting imagery and you sit and go where do these Christians learn how to write stuff like that Their pastors preach the word, you know, but you get the idea

So again, so we measured it was a river. I could not pass through it. The water had risen It was deep enough to swim in a river.

I could that that could not be passed through He said to me son of man Have you seen this then he led me back to the bank of the river as I went back

I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side on the other and then he said to me this

Water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arab and enters the sea

That's the Dead Sea and when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh

So much for if you've ever been to Israel and you've gone to the Dead Sea They have resorts there where people go into the water and because it's so salty they float really high

Yeah off the water. Okay that that'd be nice You know a place where I don't displace as much water as I do now.

I mean sure Okay, wherever the river goes every living creature that swarms will live and there will be very many fish for this

Water goes there and that and that the waters of the sea may become fresh. So everything will live where the river goes

Does this sound like something that can be built today? No Okay Fishermen will stand beside the sea

Let Ethan know okay from the end Getty to N Galim it will be a place for the spreading of nets

It's fish will be a very many kinds like the fish of the Great Sea But it's swamp and marshes will not become fresh

They are to be left for salt and on the banks on both sides of the river there there They will grow all kinds of trees for food.

Their leaves will not wither Nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month

Because the water for them flows from the sanctuary their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing

That's right, what's what tree is being described as bearing its fruit every month

The tree of life Okay, so if let me see if I can revelation 22, so let's take a look at our revelation 22 text revelation 22

The angel showed me the river of the water of life brightest crystal

Flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city

Also on either side of the river the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month

The two go together Right, this is a picture of the new earth.

This is the temp and so the throne of God is the actual temple Itself sort that one out, right?

Okay The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation's no longer Will there be anything a curse but the throne of God and of the

Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and night will know will be no more

They will need no light of lamp or Sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever into the ages and When you see the connection, you can't unsee the connection

So I I am NOT a prophet. I'm not the son of a prophet I'm just a guy who was trained to exegete the scriptures and when

I was in the corporate world, I did a lot of competitive analysis and I would looked at trends and Looking at the state of the church today.

It's in a miserable state a horrible state people are

Defiantly Biblically illiterate they don't want to know the scriptures and there is this huge focus on Israel right now

Huge focus and that's not to say that what has happened to them is wrong

I am NOT pro -palestinian in any sense of the world. What those people did was reprehensible and They got everything that they deserved by having their entire region just decimated.

That's just my opinion This this is not this is not how human beings are supposed to treat each other all of that being said

When Israel and they're threatening to do this anytime now Rebuilds a temple in Jerusalem It's not going to be a good thing.

It is nothing to rejoice over and when you are invited to ladies

Bible studies and by your Evangelical friends and they're gonna be so excited because they're finally rebuilding a new temple in Jerusalem You need to be prepared and say that's not a good thing

It's not a good thing at all Because the book of Hebrews is very clear on this everything in the temple was a type and shadow pointing to Christ and Now that Christ has come the types and shadows have given way to the reality, which is

Jesus going back to the Mosaic Covenant sacrificial system is not a good thing and Unfortunately, because so many

Christians have bought into Kili Azzam, which actually has its origin in Judaism They're gonna look at you and say what is wrong with you you are you some kind of Nazi?

Are you an anti -semite? You you you you're cursing Israel and God promises to curse anybody who curses

Israel. They'll say things like this to you Why how do I know that because they say things like that to me already?

But the reality is is that it's not a good thing that they're going to rebuild that temple. It's a terrible thing and The temple being and they'll say well, what about Ezekiel Ezekiel prophesied that there would be a third temple

Take them to this passage and then take them to Revelation 22 and say you think that that's what's going to take place when they

Build this temple in Jerusalem. You got to be out of your mind Yeah, it doesn't say anybody but it builds it when

Ezekiel sees it. It's already completed It's already completed.

Oh, I know Any temple that bill is built is going to lead to mass

Apostasy and deception So keep your wits about you the temple being prophesied in Ezekiel is connected to Revelation 22 and the end of the world and the promise that we have of eternal life of seeing

God face to face the realities of that temple are eschatological and not regarding Anything in this lifetime, you know

I love to see how Israel is going to turn the Dead Sea into a living sea with the waters that are flowing from their third

Temple that this it ain't gonna happen You know They haven't got enough water in Israel to do such a thing

They they've announced that they have a refit a red heifer down, okay, I haven't I don't know if they've sacrificed it yet That is step one they can't rebuild the temple without the red heifer and they've announced they now have one

Of course, they they were able to breed it with the help of ranchers in Texas and Montana.

So Yeah Good for us, you know, but I'm just saying that what's coming a holy guacamole.

It's it's Yeah, I remember the movie Ghostbusters, you know, okay and they talked about the big

Twinkie, okay It's kind of the big Twinkie kind of thing It's this

This is going to be off the charts huge deception and So many people calling themselves

Christians are going to think that this is a great thing and it's just not because what's prophesied is has no earthly reality and the reality is this is that the

Pharisaical religion they have not repented of their of their false of their idolatry

They are still under God's condemnation For their false teaching and Christ himself is the one who condemned and panned the whole religious system of the

Pharisees so All I have to say is stay tuned it's gonna be fun

Right. All right. I'm gonna this is where I'm gonna wrap up. I'm gonna give myself a little bit extra time today next week

Since next week is going to be I I'll be gone for two weeks after that We're going to do ask a pastor next week.

Okay, we have officially finished Ezekiel. We're gonna we're gonna I Still have questions.

I didn't answer from the last one. So if you want to Contribute to the ask a pastor

Bible study for next week Send them to secretary at Congress finger church org and I will try to answer them in the order that they came in But that will be what we do next week.