Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Dave McCallister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. Central in Israel's worship was first the tabernacle and then the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was where God dwelt. Prophecy points to a day when the long destroyed temple will be rebuilt. That end time event will point to the soon return of Christ to the earth. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Erwin Lutzer is in a series on seven signs of Christ's return.

Today we're learning about sign number five, the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem. We've learned that Solomon's temple was destroyed. Then Zerubbabel built a smaller one in its place.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Then what happens is a man by the name of Herod the Great comes and he's an Edomian and he is put there by the Romans who basically has the responsibility for ruling the land because now you remember the land is under Roman authority and Roman power and he says, I want to do the Jews a favor. Of course, the Jews didn't trust him at all. He says, I want to build you a temple. And they said, Oh yeah, we know what you're going to do. You're going to tear this temple down and then you won't build us another one.

And so in order to curry favor with the Jews, he said, Look, I'll make you a deal. I will not even tear your temple down. I will build another one on top of it. And really the building of the new temple and the tearing down of the old one will go on simultaneously and I will train 1,000 priests to work as Masons so only priests will be working on those holy areas in the temple and I want to build it for you. And so he does. He begins in 19 BC, 19 years before Jesus Christ was born approximately.

And what happens? This temple is absolutely gorgeous and it is still called the second temple. You say, well actually there are three. There was Zerubbabel's temple and then there's Herod's temple. But oh no no no no no, they don't count it that way because Herod's temple was a quote continuation of the second. It is therefore also called the second. So you have the second temple period. And then of course, when you go to Israel today and you're at the Wailing Wall and you see those huge stones that weigh tons, those are the stones that Herod's men put in place to build the sanctuary area.

That's the part that you see. No remains of Solomon's temple, but plenty remains or at least some remains, I should say, of Herod's temple. So that's the temple that's there when Jesus is there. And you remember they even said it wasn't finished yet in Christ time. 46 years was this temple in building. The disciples said, and thou will raise it up in three days. They had built on it that many years. You've seen replicas of it. It is gorgeous. So now turn to Matthew chapter 24. Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives and he's there in the temple area.

He came out from the temple and was going away. That very probably means he was going through the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. When his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him and he answered and said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another which shall not be torn down. Wow. And then he goes into the destruction of Jerusalem. In 70 AD, Titus comes and he destroys Herod's temple and they surround the city. And Jerusalem, it is said that a million people died in and around the city.

And the atrocities are unbelievable. I will not even say them publicly because one time I did and someone rebuked me and said, you should never talk about such graphic things publicly. So I won't except to say that people were crucified on the Mount of Olives. People who had starved to death were thrown over the walls because they had no place to bury them and women were eating their children. It was terrible terrible just like Jesus said later on that the tribulation was such that there hasn't been a tribulation like it. Now I think that there's still a tribulation coming that's even going to be worse.

But up until that time nothing that horrible had happened. And would you believe that if you go to Israel with Roy Schwartz, and he'd be a good man to go to Israel with, you'll actually see some of the stones that fell down during the destruction of the temple in 70 AD and you will notice on those stones if you look carefully some soot that you can actually rub with your hands and know that that soot is nearly 2,000 years old and that's the fire that was set by Titus and his men when Jerusalem was so terribly destroyed and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.

So that's the story. That's the story of the two temples. The question is what about the future? Will there be a third temple? Will the Jews who have the heart of what shall we say? Israel is in their heart and the temple is in their heart. Will they ever get a chance to build a third temple? Now nearly 2,000 years have passed. Take your Bibles and turn to second Thessalonians. Second Thessalonians and the passage is one that we read earlier in this series on prophecy. And you'll notice it says in chapter two, verse three, Let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God.

Now if this is the Antichrist, there has to be a temple in Jerusalem so that he can go there and pretend that he is God. Take your Bibles also and look at Revelation chapter 11. If the book of Revelation was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, the only sense that one could make of this is that there will be a temple because it says, And there was given to me a measuring rod like a staff and someone said, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it and leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it has been given to the nations and they will tread under foot the holy city for 42 months which is really three and a half years.

What's going on in the text? When you measure something it means that you're evaluating it. You're evaluating the people. Now the question of course is how could a temple possibly be built? All of us know that the obstacles to it are formidable. You have the two Muslim buildings that are on the Temple Mount. You have of course the whole Middle East as a powder keg ready to explode anyway. How could a temple be built on the temple area today? First of all, I have to tell you that there is a group called the Temple Mount Faithful who are absolutely convinced that it's going to happen and they are preparing for it to happen.

In Jerusalem you can go into their rooms and their workplaces and they will take you there and they'll show you all of the utensils are being readied just like in the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament. They already have them and these aren't replicas. These they say they are making to use. You have for example some of you have heard the discussions regarding finding the ashes of the red heifer. That that may really sound strange to us. Finding the ashes of a red heifer. I mean number one, who in the world would want to find the ashes and number two, what's the significance of the red heifer anyway?

You know in the book of Numbers God says that when you purify the priests what you're supposed to do is to take some water and mix it with the ashes of a red heifer. So what they're trying to do is to do either one of two things. Either find the ashes because there were only a few red heifers that were killed and apparently the ashes were kept in a bowl because they were very sparingly used. So you have these people looking for these ashes all over the place in the Qumran area outside Jerusalem. They're looking for ashes.

Now personally it's just a personal thing, but I do think that possibly there are other priorities that I personally could have other than looking for these ashes. But some people are intent. The others are saying, no we can breed some red heifers that are so red that they do not even have one single white hair and if we can do that we can meet the requirements either way. The bottom line is you have people that are fanatically committed to the establishment of the temple. How in the world could it possibly happen? Well, one is of course that there might be some peace agreement and people might be able to say, look let's let the Jews build a temple.

They don't have to tear down the Dome of the Rock. Some people think that the temple was 100 excuse me 300 feet north of the Dome of the Rock. Anyway, build the temple there and they can build a small one there and then you can have two houses of worship. There's the Al-Aqsa Mosque. There's also the Dome of the Rock and let's have the temple too. Let's be lovey-dovey. Let's get along nicely. What are the chances of that? Uh very very slim. Could we say maybe zero with a minus sign? At least that's the way it appears.

Another possibility is there those who say, Oh you know what's going to happen is there's going to be an earthquake and if the earthquake destroys the Dome of the Rock, it'll be a whole brand new day. Then we can have discussions as to who owns it and we won't have to tear it down. God will tear it down. It's another possibility and I suggest it only as a possibility. If it is true that there's going to be a world leader who's going to rise out of Europe and who's going to make a covenant of protection with Israel, who is going to be able to say, I will protect you against the foe and he will appear to be a friend of Israel at first.

Might it be that he has so much clout and so much political power? And this is one of the reasons that the people on the earth will worship him is because he seems to be able to even solve the Middle East crisis by having enough muscle to allow a temple, perhaps even at least a small one to be built in Jerusalem to give the Jews their own worship place. And then later three and a half years later he breaks his covenant and he personally goes into Jerusalem and does in effect what Antiochus Epiphanes does and he establishes himself as the ruler, the god as we just read in second Thessalonians where he in effect says, I'm taking over.

I'm the one who is going to control the events of the world. I am God. And after that period of time Jerusalem is trodden under foot by the Gentiles for 42 months as it says in the book of Revelation until the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives splits in the middle as we shall see in the final message of this series and Jesus Christ comes to rule and to reign.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: My friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. May I speak to you for a moment? I want to thank you so much for listening to this broadcast and I also want to thank you in advance for helping us as we get it around the world. What blesses me is testimonies such as this one that is given to us by an Arabic speaking listener. And she writes that when she came across running to win she was very angry. But as she prayed and listened she became more open spiritually and eventually prayed to accept Jesus Christ as savior. She writes, my hope is renewed because God is our support and our helper in times of trouble.

Let me ask you a question. Are you willing to help us as we continue to get this gospel around the world? I want to challenge you to go to offer rtw.com and consider becoming an endurance partner supporting us monthly. Of course the amount that you give is entirely your decision and becoming a part of what I like to call the running to win family. Once again go to offer rtw.com. That's offer rtw.com. When you're there you click on the endurance partner button or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-800-215-5001.

Dave McCallister: Erwin Lutzer has brought part three of The Temple Rebuilt in Jerusalem. The fifth sign in his series, Seven Signs of Christ's Return. Next time, final thoughts on a new temple and the return of Jesus Christ. Running to win is all about helping you find God's road map for your race of life. For the believer the return of Christ is our great hope. Our current series, Seven Signs of Christ's Return, will be sent on CD as our gift when you give a gift of any amount to support running to win. Just 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 Seven Signs of Christ's Return. This is Dave McCallister. Running to Win comes to you as a ministry of the Moody Church.