Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proclaimer of our faith. In ancient Israel, sacrifices were made every day at the temple in Jerusalem. The Bible says that one day those sacrifices will resume. That means a temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem on the most sacred ground on earth, and that won't be easy. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Irwin Lutzer is in a series on seven signs of Christ's return.

Today we turn to sign number five, the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Let's take a little tour today. Doesn't cost you anything. Now that the offering plates have been passed, it's going to be free from here on. We're standing on the Mount of Olives. As you stand on the Mount of Olives, if you were to look to the left within the city walls, you would see the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It's that silver domed building. But if you looked to the right, in fact, practically in front of you, you would see the dome of the rock, that golden domed building. Now can you imagine that that building has been standing there for 1,300 years?

It's amazing how well they knew how to build even way back then. But let's go into the Dome of the Rock. Let's go through and let's take our shoes off as we have to. And those of us who have been tourists there, we have complied, of course, to go into the Dome of the Rock. And let's walk around. There isn't that much to see. There's a railing and behind the railing there is a rock, an outcropping of rock. I'm going to estimate that it's about 150 ft in diameter, and the circumference would be 3.14 multiplied by that, as many of you know from your early days in geometry.

And And we're just simply walking around it and there are a couple of other things that I won't describe. A little hair actually in a little glass case that supposedly belongs to Muhammad and a number of other artifacts. But why is this little piece of real estate, these few thousand square feet so important? Why is it the most sacred site in all the world, the most fought over? And why is it that it elicits the deepest emotions? Well, Genesis chapter 22, one day God said to Abraham, he said, "Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son and I want you to take him onto Moriah and there offer him for a sacrifice." Abraham gets up early in the morning and he goes according to the command of God and he gets to Mount Moriah and he is willing to sacrifice Isaac on the altar and actually prepares to and God interrupts him and says, "No, you don't have to do that.

Now I know that you really love me." God was saying, Abraham, could it be that Isaac has so warmed his way into your heart that he means more to you than I do? That was a test and Abraham proved that the answer was no. He said, God means more than my son. Now we wouldn't know where Mount Moriah really was. I mean, where is Mount Moriah? Except that in the Bible in 2 Chronicles chapter 3 verse 1, it says that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah. The very spot that David had purchased from Araunah the Jebusite who had used it as a threshing floor and David bought that site and that's where the temple was built.

So when you go into the Dome of the Rock, scholars disagree as to whether or not that rock actually is the place where the burnt altar stood or whether it was where the Holy of Holies stood or some people even suggested that actually the Holy of Holies and the temple was about 200 ft north of that area. Whatever, that's the significance of the spot. Now while all this in a series on prophecy, well as you know, we're doing a series entitled seven signs of Christ's return and some of us actually believe that a temple is going to be built there before the Lord Jesus Christ comes in glory.

Now before that time, there's going to be the rapture of the church and as we're going to see at the end of this message, it could well be that that temple might be quite quickly built under certain political circumstances. Though of course right now it seems so unlikely and even impossible. But I want you to stay with me because what we're going to do is to tour the first two temples and then talk about the possibility of a third and how that might fulfill biblical prophecy. That's the agenda. But first of all, I want to begin with Solomon's temple, the first temple.

The date is about 950 years before the time of Jesus Christ. David wants to build the temple, but God says, no, you've been a man of bloodshed. He said, Solomon is going to build the temple. So Solomon does. So let's take a tour of Solomon's temple. It was about 10 ft high on a platform. Now we're actually talking about the inner shrines, the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. And what we have to do is go up 10 stairs. So we take our time going up those 10 stairs and we notice that on either side of us there are bronze pillars, something like 40 ft in the air.

This is indeed an amazing, amazing spectacle. We come into the porch and then we walk into what is known as the Holy Place. Once in the Holy Place, we notice that in addition to the gorgeous, gorgeous various jewels and stones that Solomon had there, there is a table of showbread that has to be changed regularly. There is also the menorah, the seven-branch candlestick. And then we look ahead of ourselves and there, wouldn't you know it, there is an altar of incense. And the incense was continually burned upon that altar and the reason was because the stench of the sacrifices which were being offered to God outside were so continuous and it smelled so awful that that masked the smell.

We'd like to continue on because there's a curtain before us and we wonder whether or not we can go behind that curtain, but the answer is no because behind those double curtains is really the Holy of Holies. That's the place where the high priest could go only one day a year. So we're forbidden to go into that room which would be about 35 ft by 35 ft in terms of its area. So we turn around and we go back out and we're going back the stairs again and this time we notice that there is the brazen altar where sacrifices are continually offered.

Off to the right there is a basin that holds about 15,000 gallons of water. And that basin was used for the purification of the priests and so forth. An amazing spectacle that Solomon built. Well, we can't be there physically, but at least let's read about the dedication. The dedication is found in 1 Kings chapter 8. 1 Kings chapter 8 and you may turn to that in the scriptures and let me simply say that people say, well, isn't this just like the pagans? They used to build altars and temples to their gods too. Two very big differences.

Number one, there is no representation of God in the tabernacle or in the temple. The ark was not a representation of God. The ark is where God was going to come in the Holy Place there, but the ark does not represent God because God had said very clearly in the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not make unto thee any any image or any likeness of God. So that is not that is different from the pagan temples. Another difference is this, that the pagans were there to help their God. They were supposed to bring their God food and water and so forth.

You do have to wonder what kind of a God there would be that needed to be fed, but nevertheless the pagans believe that in this case the purpose of the tabernacle and then the temple, which is what we're talking about, the purpose of the temple was really that God might do something for his people. It is there that he is going to meet with them. It is there that he is going to bless them. So it's a different conception. But you'll notice it says in 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 8, there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

And it came about when the priests came from the Holy Place. Now they are bringing actually the ark. The ark had been somewhere else and now the building was finished and somebody had to carry the ark and there were certain restrictions as to how it might be carried and they bring it in. They came from the Holy Place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. What an experience that was.

This cloud of glory, God was saying, this is indeed where I'm going to dwell. Now God of course dwells everywhere. Solomon says this in his prayer. You'll notice in verse 27 he says, but will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Behold the heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built. Of course God can't be all put into that building, into that temple. But God says, I'm going to manifest myself there even though the heavens and the heavens cannot possibly contain me. But this will be the meeting point between God and man.

By the way, another characteristic of this temple is it was to be a house of prayer. You'll notice that Solomon said in verse 28, yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer of thy servants and what they pray before thee today. Verse 41 also concerning the foreigner who is not of thy people Israel when he comes from a far country for thy name's sake, for they will hear of thy great name and thy great mighty hand and thine outstretched arm.

When he comes and prays toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to thee in order that all the people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee as do thy people Israel and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. What an amazing prayer. And this is why Jesus is going to say later in the second temple, my temple is supposed to be a house of prayer and you have made it a den of thieves.

We sometimes think, well, you know, God gave the oracles to the Jews. What about the non-Jews? Well, notice God is inviting everybody to his temple and saying, come and pray there. Now the splendor of Solomon's temple was so great that people came from the then known world simply to see it. It was awesome. What happened to that temple? Well, first of all, let me say that it served Israel for nearly 400 years. That's a long time. We think of the United States of America, 200 years. Within time it will be 250, 300 years, 400 years.

What an old country. 400 years this temple served the people. And then various kings ruled who were idolatrous and God says, I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to take the temple from you. I'm holding in my hands a book entitled When Jesus Returns. It actually has chapters by a collection of authors. One of them is is Anne Graham Lotz. You may of course recognize her as the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham and his wife Ruth. The title of her chapter is a warning to America from the book of Joel. We have to understand this that we are living in perilous times and it is so important for us to not only recognize those times but be ready for a future that oftentimes even on this earth is going to be terrifying.

Now if we know Jesus Christ as Savior, we know that we will be secure forever. But meanwhile we must be ready. We believe that this book is going to be a tremendous encouragement to you. It'll give you insight and motivate you all the way to the finish line.

Guest (Male): So the temple was the center of Israel's worship and one day it will be again. That was Irwin Lutzer with part one of The Temple Rebuilt in Jerusalem. The fifth sign in his series, seven signs of Christ's return. On future programs, details about preparations already underway for that new temple. When Jesus returns, living in expectation of the end times, that's a book compiled by Jan Markell. It contains the best teachings on Bible prophecy from a wide range of authors. This book is our gift to you for your gift of any amount to support Running to Win.

For full information, call us at 1 800 215 5001. That's 1 800 215 5001. Online go to offer rtw.com. That's offer rtw.com or write to us at Running to Win, Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Ask about when Jesus returns. Running to Win comes to you as a ministry of the Moody Church.