Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201603A
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00:01 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1
00:04 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:07 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:12 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:15 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:18 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:22 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:25 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:28 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:32 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:35 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 00:38 IIW-2016-3 --- All eyes looking in the wrong direction #1 01:31 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 01:35 God's book, The Bible 01:38 Still relevant in today's complex world 01:43 It Is Written 01:46 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 02:00 "Is the city of Jerusalem the centre of attention for the unfolding of events in the final 02:05 crisis here on this earth?" Today let's take a journey to the city of Jerusalem. We will 02:13 stand overlooking the city of Jerusalem. We will see some magnificent places, some ancient 02:21 places - but the centrepiece and most recognizable structure of modern Jerusalem is the Temple 02:28 Mount. There on the temple mount stands the Dome of the Rock, which was built at the end of 02:35 the seventh century. Now many of the conflicts that have occurred in Jerusalem over the 02:40 years have occurred because the Dome of the Rock. It is one of the most holy places for Islam, 02:47 and is actually built on the site of Mount Moriah, which is where the ancient Jewish temple 02:53 was. This mixture of two religions has created considerable issues in the 03:00 Middle East. In fact at the bottom of Mount Moriah there is the Wailing Wall, and up at the 03:11 top you have the Dome of the Rock. Two religions in continual tension. 03:21 It has led to the question that many Christians are asking, that many people around the world are 03:30 asking, is, "Will the Jewish temple - which was burned down and destroyed in 70 A.D. - at 03:37 Jerusalem be rebuilt?" And the question we must ask is, "Is this temple, a rebuilt temple in 03:47 Jerusalem, the focus of our attention in the last days?" 03:55 In order to answer these questions, along with the question of the mysterious 2300 03:58 days, we must step back further in time. We must understand a little bit of the history of the 04:05 temple in order to answer these questions. We must go to those ancient ruins of Egypt. If 04:12 you're familiar with Biblical history.God's people, the Hebrew people, were taken captive into 04:17 Egypt. Initially, they actually were living there by free choice. The Egyptians provided a 04:26 shelter in a time of famine. Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob, became the chief of the 04:31 commanders in Egypt. And then his brothers and father came to the land of Goshen in Egypt to 04:38 live and find refuge. Now if you go to Egypt today, you will see these magnificent structures - 04:44 some of these structures were likely built by the Hebrew people, not the pyramids, but 04:50 many of them. The Hebrew people, over time, begin to grow and multiply in population and 04:58 became a threat to the Egyptians. The Egyptians then enslaved the Hebrew people to 05:07 control them.. The Hebrew people were enslaved for over 400 years and sometime around the 16th or 05:13 15th century B.C., God's people are reconnected to Him. A leader, Moses, rises up. Moses 05:22 was a Hebrew; however, he was brought up in an Egyptian home. He was trained in the royal 05:29 courts of Egypt and Egyptian schools. He was being groomed to be a leader in that land. Later 05:38 in life, he became reconnected with his Hebrew roots, he became reconnected with God, and God 05:44 called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. That event is called the exodus, 05:50 and it is recorded in the book Exodus. 05:56 Through the Hebrew people's 400 years enslavement, they had become disconnected with their 06:03 God. As they made their way out of Egypt, God wanted to reconnect with them. And God 06:10 instructed them, in the Sinai peninsula, in Exodus 25, for them to build a sanctuary. The 06:20 purpose of that sanctuary is stated plainly: 06:31 The sanctuary was to be a reminder to God's people of the relationship he desired with 06:35 them. This is why the sanctuary, when it was set up amongst the Israelites, among those twelve 06:42 tribes, that the sanctuary was right at the centre of the camp. It was symbolic and the physical 06:49 location was indicative of what God wanted for His people. It was to be at the very centre of 06:57 their life. And so that is what they did. Additionally the Bible says that God would lead 07:06 them by a pillar of fire at night and protected by a cloud during the day. The Hebrew 07:13 people became reconnected with God. The sanctuary system set up a system of sacrifice that 07:22 pointed forward to Jesus as the Messiah, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 07:28 world. Within the sanctuary, there was a courtyard, in that courtyard, the altar, and laver. 07:35 Within the very structure, called the tent of meeting, wasthe holy place, and the most 07:44 holy place. Every day, sacrifices were made in the sanctuary. Every day, people 07:50 would bring their sin offerings. Every day, sacrifices would be made. Lambs would sacrificed. 07:57 Then the priest would take the blood into the sanctuary. He would take the blood into the 08:04 sanctuary, into the holy place. And that was a daily activity. The sinner's guilt was 08:12 symbolically transferred to the perfect lamb, then - don't miss this - that sin that had been 08:23 transferred to the lamb was symbolically transferred to the sanctuary. Understanding the 08:30 symbolism of the sanctuary, the sanctuary is a demonstration, is a physical manifestation of 08:36 where God wants to dwell. And so sin was actually transferred from the people into God's 08:47 dwelling place. So the perfect lamb was slain and its blood caught in a basin, that basin 08:55 taken into the sanctuary. All of that is symbolic of the sacrifice of Jesus and remember 09:05 that happened daily. Then once a year, on a special festival or a special feast, something 09:15 different occurred. It was called the Day of Atonement. The definition of atonement is 09:22 contained in the very word. If you break the word "atonement" up into separate parts, it is 09:33 "at-one-ment." That's all atonement is. Atonement is bringing us back into one with 09:41 God. 09:42 The day of atonement brought abouta unique happening. The sacrifice would be made, the 09:48 blood would be collected into the basin, but there would no sprinkling on the way into the 09:55 sanctuary. The priest would go all the way - only once a year, into the most holy place. And 10:05 there, he would place blood upon the altar, and then he would place blood going out of the 10:11 sanctuary. Don't miss the direction. Daily, the blood goes in; once a year, it comes out. 10:22 The Day of Atonement was a day of cleansing where the sanctuary would be figuratively, 10:28 symbolically cleansed of all the sin that had been placed there throughout the year. The 10:35 wildernesses sanctuary was a temporary structure. It was a structure that was set up, and 10:40 then would be taken down. As the Israelites eventually settled in Jerusalem, they built a 10:49 permanent structure, and that permanent structure was Solomon's temple. The Day of 10:55 Atonement was at the end of the Jewish year when the high priest entered the most holy place of 11:01 the sanctuary. It was a day of repentance and confession. It was the most solemn day of the 11:08 year because it was a day of judgement. The Day of Atonement was a day of judgement and it 11:16 was the cleansing of the sanctuary. After Israel entered the promised land, the 11:22 wilderness sanctuary was replaced by Solomon's magnificent temple. And at 11:27 Solomon's temple, the same activities continued throughout. 11:36 There have been volumes written on this topic and what I have presented is a simplified 11:41 version of a lot of history and theology. The sanctuary system continued in Solomon's time. 11:48 However, Solomon's temple didn't last forever. In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed that 12:01 temple. Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were taken into exile into Babylon. Years 12:10 later, they were allowed to come out of Babylon, under the Persians and commissioned to 12:15 rebuild, and they being rebuilding. The temple was rebuilt and existed in Jerusalem 12:22 during Jesus' time. Eventually that temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. This is the temple that 12:31 Jesus was referring to when He was looking over the city and He was weeping and He said, 12:53 The sanctuary was left desolate. It was fulfilment of the prophecy of Matthew chapter 24, 13:01 that the Roman empire would come in 70 A.D. and destroyed the temple. This event is recorded 13:07 in one of the reliefs of the Arch of Titus. Will the temple at Jerusalem be rebuilt, and is 13:15 this the temple that is the focus of last-day events? And here's what we find as we look 13:23 at the Scriptures. Although the earthly temple played a vital role, the earthly temple has 13:29 been destroyed, and God directs our eyes to another temple. The Apostle Paul says in writing the 13:41 book of Hebrews: 13:51 This word "main point" literally means, this is the chief point. This is the capstone of 13:53 everything we've been saying to you. It goes on 14:09 This is remarkable. There is an original sanctuary, because God asked the Israelites to make a 14:19 copy. What was it a copy of? It was a copy of the temple in heaven. And the Apostle Paul 14:28 writes in Hebrews 14:41 Paul says this is the chief point. That's the capstone. That's the capstone of 14:50 everything I've been teaching you, that we have a high priest, and He serves in the true 14:53 tabernacle made by God and not man. While much of Christianity has been almost duped into 14:57 believing we need to look to literal Jerusalem, God is saying however, "Listen, Jerusalem is 15:09 an important place, but I need you to stop looking to the east, and I need you to look to the 15:15 north and look to the heavens, because what I want to show you is up in heaven." This is why in 15:23 Hebrews 4:16 says, 15:38 You see, when Paul is writing Hebrews, he doesn't write Hebrews in a way in which he's 15:47 speaking symbolically. He's writing in a way that is literal of things that are happening and 15:59 literal places that are in heaven. So to help us understand this, we need to go back to the 16:06 book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 7 specifically. Daniel sawfour beasts. Then Daniel sees in 16:24 vision a judgment scene, and it says: 16:52 Daniel uses throne room imagery that has language that is very similar to the sanctuary. And 17:01 Daniel says that judgement commences in a courtroom that has a lot of language that looks 17:09 like the sanctuary, where books are opened. In last book of the Bible, in Revelation 14 is 17:18 recorded God's counterattack to Satan's deceptive assault on the church. Revelation chapter 14, 17:32 God sends three angels with three messages. The first message is a clear one: 17:49 What is God's counterattack to Satan's counter-attack? The everlasting gospel. But it's not 17:55 just any gospel. The everlasting gospel that says something, to preach to those who dwell on the 18:03 earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. So the everlasting gospel has no one 18:10 that is left out. It goes to any and all people, and this is the message: 18:31 The hour of His judgement has come. Is that future tense? No, no, it doesn't say "The hour of 18:45 His judgement will come." It says, "The hour of His judgement has come." We have a sanctuary, 18:48 Day of Atonement, judgement; Daniel 7, judgement; Revelation 14, judgement. What's going on 18:55 here? You see, Revelation 22:12 records that at His coming that... 19:12 Friend, if Jesus is coming to give His reward at the second coming, what must happen before 19:19 He comes? Judgement. Jesus Himself, said Matthew 16:27: 19:42 Too often in Christianity we talk about judgement and it makes us very nervous, 19:47 frightening. But Jesus wants us to understand something. Before Jesus comes, something needs to 19:57 happen. 20:00 Jesus is coming again to make all things that are wrong right. Jesus is coming to take His 20:04 people home with Him to heaven. And in order to take people home with Him to heaven, He needs to 20:09 know who has fitted themselves for citizenship in heaven. And in order to do that, the Bible 20:15 is quite clear, that judgement must happen before He comes. While Revelation describes the 20:23 details about the judgement, the book of Daniel predicts when and where the judgement will occur. 20:30 The book of Daniel, we left off in Daniel chapter 8. Daniel chapter 8 ends with these words: 20:51 What didn't he understand? And what was he astonished by? Daniel chapter 8 and verse 14. 21:08 2300 days. It's a time prophecy. What's this all about? It would seem to be very important, 21:16 because we just talked about this. The Bible talks about how critical the sanctuary is. The 21:22 Bible talks about a sanctuary in heaven. Daniel was given a vision of 2300 days, and the 21:29 sanctuary will be cleansed. Now, the angel visitor Gabriel gave him some key pieces that will 21:38 help us understand this. Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. 21:57 Daniel didn't understand the vision, but here are the elements he does understand: 22:02 number one: the vision is for the end of time. Number two: it speaks of the sanctuary being 22:08 cleansed. Now, how did Daniel know that it was referring to the heavenly sanctuary? Was 22:16 there any sanctuary existent when Daniel was given the vision? There was no sanctuary. 22:20 So Daniel's mind would not have been drawn to the sanctuary in Jerusalem because there was 22:29 none. His mind would've been drawn to the heavenly sanctuary And number three: it is a 22:35 symbolic time period because the Bible says 2300 days, but then it says it's at the time of the 22:43 end. Did Daniel live in the time of the end? No, because we're all here. And unless some of us 22:51 are about 2,500 years old, it wasn't the time of the end when Daniel was alive. So there must 22:59 be something symbolic about this 2300 days. 23:04 Daniel longed for an answer and while it only takes mere seconds for you or me to turn the pages 23:12 from chapter 8 to chapter 9, for Daniel, that time span was 13 years. Daniel chapter 9 records 23:21 his continued prayers: 23:51 Daniel studied his Bible, and he prayed. He didn't give up on God, even though during that 23:57 13-year timespan, God did not tell him what this vision meant. It is a lesson for us in our 24:05 practical, spiritual walk with God. Don't give up on God. Don't stop praying. Don't stop reading 24:11 the Bible, because as soon as we do that, we turn off the communication. Stay in 24:17 communication with God. Specifically Daniel was studying the prophet Jeremiah, the 24:23 message of the prophet Jeremiah was very simple for 70 years, you will be in captivity in 24:32 Babylon. In Daniel's later years that 70 years was coming to an end. And so as he was reading 24:38 this, he prayed. He asked for the sins of his people to be forgiven and not to forget the 24:47 Hebrews. Something notable happens. In Daniel chapter 9 verse 23, the Bible says that an 24:55 angel visitor comes and begins speaking to Daniel and says, 25:15 Friends, Daniel chapter 8 leaves off with Daniel not understanding a vision. The 2300 25:20 day vision. Now in Daniel chapter 9, the angel says, "I have come to help you understand 25:26 the vision." What vision was he coming to help him understand? Without a doubt, The 2300 25:33 days.The angel Gabriel comes to Daniel and says, "Listen, I've come to help you understand the 25:40 vision of the 2300 days. It is in that vision, that we can answer all the questions 25:47 surrounding the Jerusalem factor. But we've run out of time today. Next week, the 25:57 answer will thrill you, you won't want to miss it. 26:04 Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that You are in control of all things. And dear Lord, 26:12 You want us to be ready. You've told us about the judgement. You've not kept it secret from 26:17 us. But we know in that judgement, You're not looking to keep us out of heaven; we know 26:22 in that judgement, you are looking for every opportunity to get us to heaven. And so today, 26:29 as we pray, we place our faith and trust in You, knowing that You will give us the strength, 26:34 you'll give us the courage, and that we would be ready when Your Son Jesus comes again soon. We 26:41 pray this in Jesus' name, amen. 27:01 Dear friends, the sanctuary message, the 2300-day message can be a very confusing message. 27:06 Hopefully this program has helped make it simple. But I want to give an offer to you 27:12 today for further reading to help it be even more simple. I want to offer to you the little 27:19 booklet Blood Behind the Veil. This book was written by Joe Crews, and it will help you dig 27:26 deeper and understand more completely this prophecy of the 2300 days, this prophecy of the 27:34 sanctuary message and the hope that it brings that Jesus is coming soon to take us home. 27:42 Here's the information you need to receive today's offer. 28:46 Friends, the greatest assurance in a time of judgement is to be on the side of Jesus, to be in a 28:53 relationship with Him, to have security in Him. I want to invite you to go to our web 28:58 page, www.itiswrittencanada.ca, and there you'll find resources on how to dive more deeply into 29:07 relationship with Jesus. You'll find some of our programs there along with an ability to sign up 29:13 for Bible studies and other resources to develop your spiritual library. You can also 29:20 go to our YouTube channel, youtube.com/iiwcanada, and there you can find all of our archived 29:28 programs. You can follow us on Twitter. You can like us on Facebook. You can follow me on 29:34 Twitter @PastorHolland. My dear friends, Jesus desires to take us all to heaven. I hope you 29:43 enjoyed today's program. I invite you to join us again next week. Until then, remember, it 29:49 is written: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the 29:56 mouth of God." 29:59 ######### |
Revised 2016-10-27