{"id":18979,"date":"2019-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-031-gods-temple-past-present-future\/"},"modified":"2019-03-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T06:00:00","slug":"revelation-031-gods-temple-past-present-future","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-031-gods-temple-past-present-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 031 – God’s Temple: Past, Present, Future"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18979","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 031 - God's Temple: Past, Present, Future","sermon_date":"20190310","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6491,"sermon_slides":6492,"sermon_mp3":6496,"sermon_id":"310191216285804","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"11:1-2","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nGod\u2019s Temple: Past, Present, Future\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3-10-19\n\nRevelation 11:1-2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 31\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0\u00a0 I hope you guys all managed to get your clocks set right, spring ahead, fall back, right.\u00a0 I like fall better.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles this morning and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 11, taking a look this morning at verses 1 and 2.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Temple of God, Past, Present and Future.\u00a0 If you have been tracking with us through the Book of Revelation we are in a section of the book where the various trumpet judgments, at least six of them, have been sounded bringing various judgments to the earth.\u00a0 Now one of the things I tried to warn everybody about is when you hit a six in a series look for a pause in the action.\u00a0 I kind of call these lunch breaks, where John sort of stops with the chronology and he sort of pauses and highlights something that\u2019s happening in the sequence.\u00a0 And then once the pause is over he gets right back on the beaten path and the chronology continues.\n\nWhen you hit a six look for a pause and that\u2019s where we are, in between trumpet six and trumpet seven and we have a pause there in Revelation 10 and 11.\u00a0 You might remember that the first pause was in seal six and seal seven where we had sort of a pause in the action related to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, Revelation 7.\u00a0 And now the same thing is happening.\u00a0 In between trumpet six and trumpet seven we\u2019ve got a pause and we\u2019ve got a pause in the action, chapter 10, verse 1 through chapter 11 verse 13.\u00a0 Chapter 10 we covered last week, it\u2019s the announcement of no more delay.\n\nAnd this morning we find ourselves in chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 where we get some information about the end of the time period called the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 And it\u2019s here we learn that God is only going to put up with so much.\u00a0 We sort of look at the progress of the evil in our world and we think it\u2019s just going to go on and on and on and yet in our passage today we learn that that is not true.\u00a0 God has evil on a very tight leash.\u00a0 And next week, assuming the rapture doesn\u2019t happen first, we\u2019ll be looking at chapter 11 verses 3-13, the ministry of the two witnesses, the last part of that pause in the action between trumpet six and trumpet seven.\n\nSo this morning we\u2019re trying to tackle two verses and you guys know me, I can make two verses go on probably three months [laughter].\u00a0 But we have the command, verse 1, the court, verse 2, and then finally the second part of verse 2 the contempt.\n\nNotice how it begins here, Revelation 11:1, notice the command.\u00a0 At this point it says this, \u201cThen there was given to me\u201d that\u2019s John, \u201ca measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, \u2018Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice this word \u201ctemple.\u201d\u00a0 The Greek noun for temple is \u03bd\u03b1\u03cc\u03c2, [naos]<\/em> and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s talking about the entire temple complex but I think it\u2019s talking about the actual temple building itself.\n\nAnd this raises an interesting question.\u00a0 Which temple are we dealing with here in Revelation 11:1-2?\u00a0 In Jewish history there are a total of four temples, two past, two future.\u00a0\u00a0 The first temple, as you probably know, was built by Solomon around 966 B.C.\u00a0 1 Kings 6:1 talks about that.\u00a0 [1 Kings 6:1, \u201cNow it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon\u2019s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.\u201d]\u00a0 And that temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon just prior to or during the days of the Babylonian captivity.\u00a0 And so Israel was out of their land without a temple for about 70 years.\u00a0 And then they came back into that same land under the days of Ezra and Zerubbabel, etc. and they began to work on temple number 2 and that temple was refurbished by Herod and that was the temple that Christ was interacting with in the Gospels.\u00a0 I had a chance to visit recently the remains of that temple and what did our Lord say.\u00a0 The disciples were so impressed with the temple what did the Lord say?\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be taken apart brick by brick, and that\u2019s exactly what happened.\u00a0 In fact today in Israel you can go and see the remains of what once was a temple there, a beautiful temple torn apart stone by stone, brick by brick; you get the impression that when Jesus gives a prophecy it\u2019s meant to be literal\u2026 Amen!\n\nAnd you\u2019ll find Jesus making that prediction about the destruction of the temple at the hands of the Romans in A.D. 70 and how that was literally fulfilled about 40 years later; you\u2019ll find His prediction in Matthew 24:1-3.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:1-3, \u201cJesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. [2] And He said to them, \u201cDo you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.\u201d\u00a0 [3] As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, \u201cTell us, when will these things happen, and what will be<\/em> the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?\u201d]\n\nAnd so ever since that point in time the nation of Israel has not had a temple.\u00a0 And yet Bible prophecy, like the passage we\u2019re looking at today, makes it very clear that some way somehow a third temple must come into existence.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll see this prediction in many places, like Daniel 9:27, it\u2019s the temple that the antichrist will desecrate.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to do that without a temple being there.\u00a0 Daniel 12:11 predicts the same thing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 12:11, \u201cFrom the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.\u201d]\n\nAnd the fact our Lord, quoting these prophecies, says this in Matthew 24:15, \u201cTherefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),\u201d \u201choly place\u201d is a reference to temple three that the antichrist will desecrate.\u00a0 Paul, the apostle, speaks about this third temple when he says of the antichrist, \u201cwho 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.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Thessalonians 2:4]\n\nAnd we know that that temple, I think will probably be destroyed with the seventh bowl judgment and it will be replaced by a glorious temple, a millennial temple, in the kingdom age (when it starts).\u00a0 That\u2019s the temple that the Shekinah glory of God will return to and you\u2019ll see Ezekiel chapters 40-48 going into great detail of this millennial temple.\n\nNow the criticism that people like myself face is well, you\u2019re taking this coming temple stuff too literally, I mean, don\u2019t you know that the Book of Revelation is a symbolic book, dah, dah, dah dah!\u00a0 Well, can I ask you a basic question?\u00a0\u00a0 Were the first two temples literal?\u00a0 I mean, if temple one and temple two are very literal structures why wouldn\u2019t temple three and temple four be literal structures.\n\nThis is a chart from one of my professors in seminary and it shows how the Book of Ezekiel is symmetrically structured.\u00a0 The things happening at the beginning of the book repeat themselves at the end of the book.\u00a0 The Shekinah glory of God leaves the Solomonic temple but at the end of the book the Shekinah glory of God returns to the millennial temple.\u00a0 So when people say well, I don\u2019t believe that the temple\u2019s coming is literal my question is well, do you take the first temple of Solomon literally?\u00a0 If so then why wouldn\u2019t you take the rest of the book literally as well?\n\nThe reality of the situation is we don\u2019t have permission to go through God\u2019s Word and take whiteout and cancel out things that don\u2019t make sense to me.\u00a0 The Bible tells you very clearly there will be temple three and temple four just as literally as there was temple one and temple two and as the maxim we like to follow \u201cGod says it, I believe it, that settles it.\u201d\u00a0 Or maybe better said, \u201cGod said it, that settles it!\u201d\u00a0 Whether God gets my assenting vote or not is irrelevant; God is going to do what God is going to do.\u00a0 Amen!\n\nSo two temples past, two temples future BUT, and here\u2019s some diagrams I found of the various temples that are on the horizon.\u00a0 As exciting as all of that is, and it\u2019s very exciting to study, there are three temples of more of a metaphorical nature that God is doing right now.\u00a0 Did you know that?\u00a0\u00a0 And sometimes I find that as Christians we can get so excited about the Jewish temples coming that we forget about the temples that are right now in our midst.\u00a0 One of those temples is the Lord\u2019s body.\u00a0 Remember what the Lord said in John 2:20, \u201cDestroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up?\u00a0 And what does it say in verse 21, \u201cBut He was speaking of the temple of His\u201d what? \u201cHis body.\u201d\n\nAnd did you know that according to 1 Corinthians 6:19 that your body, as New Testament Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 6:19, \u201cOr do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?\u201d\u00a0 And you see, that is Paul\u2019s whole basis for morality in the Christian life.\u00a0 The Corinthians were joining themselves to prostitutes in sexual immorality, as Christians!\u00a0 And rather than second guessing their salvation what you\u2019ll find Paul doing in 1 Corinthians 6 is reminding them that when you join yourself in that sin you\u2019re bringing the Lord in with you because don\u2019t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 By the way, how long is the Holy Spirit in us for?\u00a0 Forever.\u00a0 Talk about an incentive for godly living, every sin I commit, sexually, gossip, bitterness, whatever it is I\u2019m involving the Lord in it because the Bible says my body is \u201cthe temple of the Holy Spirit.\u201d\n\nAnd there\u2019s another temple, and that temple, 1 Corinthians 3:16, is the local church.\u00a0 \u201cDo you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?\u201d\u00a0 I think in context there it\u2019s speaking of the local church.\u00a0 How do we treat the local church as Christians?\u00a0 You know, a lot of Christians it\u2019s hard to get them to commit to a local church.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to get them to get behind a local church.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to get them to contribute to the local church, to use their gifts in the local church, to attend the local church.\u00a0 And we need to understand that is dishonoring to the temple of God just as much as dishonoring the Solomonic temple in Old Testament times.\u00a0 Two temples past, two temples future, and three temples in the interim, the Lord\u2019s body, our body and the local church.\n\nBut our focus this morning is on the third temple that\u2019s on the horizon, Revelation 11:1-2.\u00a0 [Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, \u201cGet up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. [2] \u201cLeave 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 forty-two months.\u201d]\u00a0 I don\u2019t claim to have the whole prophetic jigsaw figured out but I know this much: some way, somehow, in the middle of the coming tribulation period that temple must be functioning with a sacrificial system for the antichrist to betray the Jewish people in and desecrate.\n\nAnd I look at the prophecies and I kind of compare it to our recent trip to Israel and I say you know what, we must be getting pretty close.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because in the nation of Israel, in the city of Jerusalem you can go to a place called the Temple Mount Institute under the direction of Rabbi Chaim Richman and what you discover in the Temple Institute is the whole layout and blueprint for the third temple is already in existence amongst unbelieving Israel.\u00a0 They don\u2019t let you take any pictures when you\u2019re inside of there so most of the real pictures that I took are of us standing outside the Temple Institute but there\u2019s a picture of my wife and myself, the beauty and the beast as I like to call it [Laughter] standing in front of that Temple Institute.\u00a0 Here are some sort of things that you find online in that Temple Mount Institute.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that giant globe, Menorah there on the left, a Menorah that weighs half a ton, it contains 45 kilograms of 24 carat gold and its estimated value is approximately $3,000,000.\u00a0 The nation of Israel has built that and they plan on using that or displaying it in temple number three which I believe is on the horizon.\u00a0 There\u2019s a layout of what it\u2019s supposed to look like and the priestly garbs that have been picked out, etc. etc. etc.\n\nAnd even within the nation of Israel you have a mindset where they want to start offering animal sacrifices again.\u00a0 A recent headline reads as follows: \u201cWith priests blowing silver trumpets a group of religious Jews slaughtered a sheep on Thursday in Jerusalem\u2019s old city to demonstrate the traditional pascal sacrifice, the first time in such a reenactment has been held inside the city walls in 2,000 years.\u201d\u00a0 The desire for a temple, the desire for sacrifices in the temple, all of that is jumping off of our headlines if you know what signs to look for.\n\nNow I\u2019ve been through this Temple Institute, probably four times, once in 98, once in 2014, once again in 2018 and once again in 2019, and I\u2019ve been listening very carefully to how they promote this third temple when you go through that sort of museum that they have set up.\u00a0 In the old days this is what they used to say:\u00a0 We\u2019re waiting for our Messiah to come to build the temple.\u00a0 You know what they say today?\u00a0 We need to build the temple so that our Messiah can come.\n\nIt\u2019s a completely different psychology at work today demonstrating the urgency amongst many within the nation of Israel to rebuild this third temple.\u00a0 And we believe in a coming seven-year tribulation period, we believe that this temple will be part of that coming seven year tribulation period; it\u2019s got to be functioning midway through the tribulation for the antichrist to desecrate and we believe the rapture of the church precedes the tribulation period.\u00a0 And so if God is so busy setting the stage for the tribulation period, as I think He is, and the rapture of the church precedes the tribulation period, then the rapture of the church can\u2019t be far away, can it?\u00a0 And it\u2019s a perpetual reminder of the fact that we are living, as Christians, literally on borrowed time.\u00a0 If there\u2019s a ministry God wants you to do you should do it.\u00a0 If there\u2019s somebody He wants\u00a0 you to reach out to in terms of evangelism then you should do it now because it\u2019s highly likely, I can\u2019t guarantee this, it\u2019s highly likely that many of us in this room will not experience the full expectancy of our life spans; they could be cut short at any moment.\u00a0 And I believe God has wanted every Christian generation to live with this expectation.\u00a0 And we in the time period we\u2019re living in have more evidence than any other generation that has preceded us.\n\nThe stage is being set.\u00a0 The illustration I like to use for this is the signs of Christmas. Santa Claus, Christmas music, Christmas sales, Christmas trees, Christmas ornaments, and when you enter that time of the year and you see all this Christmas stuff go up in terms of decorations in the department stores, etc. you say to yourself you know what, Christmas is approaching fast.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re seeing these things in November you say to yourself something else, you know what, Thanksgiving is coming even faster because the signs of Christmas indicate not just Christmas but Thanksgiving which is coming even more rapidly.\u00a0 And I believe this is how the Lord wants us to look at these things, these various signs; He wants us to understand that the tribulation period is coming and if the rapture of the church precedes the tribulation period (and it does) then the tribulation period is coming\u2026 or the rapture is coming even faster.\n\nAnd how unpopular this type of message is today, even within the evangelical church.\u00a0 There is sort of a prophetic agnosticism that has descended over the body of Christ.\u00a0 A lot of people say oh, don\u2019t bother me with that stuff, I\u2019m a pan-millennialist, it\u2019s all going to pan out in the end, etc. etc. etc.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s interesting that when I leave the house my wife, when I go on a trip, she wants to know when I\u2019m coming back, what airline I\u2019m going to be on, does she need to pick me up or am I renting a car or a cab, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.\u00a0 These are all details that she\u2019s interested in; she\u2019s interested in the details surrounding my return to the house.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because she loves me.\u00a0 Think if I walked out the house and she could care less when I\u2019m coming back, care less what airline I\u2019m on, care less about whether I need to be picked up at the airport or not.\u00a0 I think if it ever got to that point we\u2019d need some marriage counselling\u2026 amen!\n\nAnd a lot of people are like that with Jesus, not understanding that He is the groom, we are the bride, and if we are in a love relationship with the Lord there ought to be an automatic interest and curiosity in these things.\u00a0 And if it\u2019s something that we\u2019re just pushing out of our minds and we don\u2019t want to be bothered with I would take that as sort of a warning of our love relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 Are we really in love with the Lord Jesus or not?\u00a0 And it\u2019s gauged largely by the interest that we have in the signs of the times.\u00a0 Some way, somehow temple three much be functioning.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to come about, I just know it\u2019s got to exist.\n\nAnd so we have a problem, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 You say what is that?\u00a0 That is what is called the Dome of the Rock, it was built by the Muslims in the seventh century, 691 A.D. to be exact, and they placed that over the site where they believe Solomon built the first temple.\u00a0 And this is all very interesting because this has become the third holiest site in Islam.\u00a0 Now is this really the third holiest site in Islam, this Dome of the Rock?\u00a0 I would say no because when you go through Hebrew Bible how many times do you find the word \u201cJerusalem,\u201d Old Testament New Testament; probably about 800 times.\u00a0 You go through the Quran how many times do I find the word Jerusalem?\u00a0 Any guesses?\u00a0 Zero, not a single time!\u00a0 But isn\u2019t it interesting how Islam suddenly got interested recently in that part of the world it\u2019s where they today think it is the place where Mohammed allegedly ascended back to Allah.\u00a0 And yet Jerusalem itself is not found in the Quran but just some vague reference to the furthest mosque, and they make that into Jerusalem, even though your Bible 800 times talks about Jerusalem as the city of the Lord.\n\nAnd so what is modern day Islam doing?\u00a0 They\u2019re rewriting history and they\u2019re pretending that the Jews were never there and nothing of biblical significance ever happened there.\u00a0 Solomon didn\u2019t build the first temple there.\u00a0 The problem is they produced some literature in 1924; the Rose \u00a0Guide to the Temple,<\/em> written by Dr. Randall Price, is this: \u201cThe propaganda that accompanied the Palestinian Intifada uprising beginning in 1987 included an official Islamic denial that the Jewish temple existed and Jerusalem was ever a Jewish city.\u00a0 However, the denial of the Jewish temple is a recent phenomenon.\u00a0 In the English addition of a guidebook to the Temple Mount written by Islamic authorities in Jerusalem entitled A Brief Guide to al Haram al-Sharif Jerusalem<\/em> published in 1924, an unchanged in all later editions through the 1950\u2019s we find the following declaration.\u201d This is what the Muslims themselves said.\u00a0 \u201cThe site\u201d referring to the Dome of the Rock \u201cis the oldest in the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s sanctity dates from the earliest, perhaps from prehistoric times,\u201d look at this, I\u2019ve got it underlined, 1924, Islamic Authorities.\u00a0 \u201cIts identity was beyond dispute.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not what I say, it\u2019s not what your Bible says, (it does say that), this is what they say.\u00a0 And this is what they were saying in 1924, \u201cThis too is the spot according to universal belief on which David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings,\u201d as I like to say, hung by the tongue.\n\nRandall Price says this: \u201cThis document provides evidence to show that despite the present public denial of the historicity of the Qur'an as the Jewish Temple Mount Islam did not hold this opinion for most of its existence.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re in the middle of a propaganda war where we\u2019re hit with propaganda after propaganda after propaganda denying the Jews were ever in that land, denying that the Solomonic temple once stood there and yet if you know where to look in terms of literature you\u2019ll see the Muslims themselves conceding the fact that the Dome of the Rock stands over the location of the Solomonic temple in 1924.\n\nHow in the world is this third temple going to be rebuilt without causing World War Three? \u00a0Ever asked yourself that?\u00a0 There are several different possibilities.\u00a0 Again quoting Dr. Price, he writes: \u201cThere are three main theories about the exact location of the temple.\u00a0 One theory, put together by a Tel Aviv architect, says that the temple was situated at the southwestern corner of the platform where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is today.\u201d\u00a0 Ahah.\u00a0 One theory is the Solomonic temple was in a slightly different location than the Dome of the Rock.\n\nA second theory is from Hebrew University physicist Asher Kaufman, who concludes that the temple was built on the northwest corner of the platform about 350 feet or 100 meters from the Muslim Dome of the Rock.\n\nA third theory says that the temple stood exactly where the Dome of the Rock is today.\u00a0 How in the world is temple number three going to be rebuilt which prophecy demands?\u00a0 (A) somehow the Dome of the Rock has to be moved, I don\u2019t know how that can happen without causing World War III, do you?\u00a0 But there are two other possibilities.\u00a0 The first theory and the second theory that I gave where the Dome of the Rock is at a slightly different location than the Solomonic temple and the third temple could be rebuilt there.\n\nI know this much, and this is sort of my working theory, I don\u2019t know this for certain, but it\u2019s my leaning.\u00a0 I expect two functioning holy sites side by side, very soon.\u00a0 You have the Dome of the Rock already there and perhaps the Solomonic temple will be rebuilt nearby.\u00a0 If that doesn\u2019t happen then somehow the Dome of the Rock has to be moved to make way for temple number three.\u00a0 And you say well how in the world can any of these scenarios take place?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know other than the fact that God doesn\u2019t lie and some way, somehow, temple number three must come into existence and must be functioning midway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 In fact, this may be the work of the rider on the white horse, seal number one.\u00a0 Remember we studied him.\u00a0 Revelation 6:1-2, we believe this is a reference to the antichrist coming forward.\u00a0 He brings peace to the earth, he has a bow, he goes forth conquering and to conquer.\n\nCan you imagine a political leader coming forward and solving this problem?\u00a0 You can see how fast the world would embrace such a person.\u00a0 He has fixed the unfixable.\u00a0 He has solved the unsolvable.\u00a0 In fact, what kind of language would he use to fix this problem?\u00a0 Maybe a language like this: the deal of the century!\u00a0 The art of the deal!\u00a0 The ultimate real estate deal!\u00a0 You say wait a minute pastor, you\u2019re going too far now.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019 re not saying what I think you\u2019re saying are you?\u00a0 Well, the Bible does mention the last trump [laughter] and maybe that has something to do with it. \u00a0I\u2019m not trying to get into the political situation, what I\u2019m saying is the psychology\u2026 the psychology for the erection of temple number three is already in place.\u00a0 And if there\u2019s something you need to be watching very carefully as an evangelical Christian is the Trump Middle East peace plan.\u00a0 Regardless of partisan loyalties you should be watching that like a hawk.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that this peace plan is very secretive, only five people know about what\u2019s in it we\u2019re told, and I\u2019m wondering why is it so secret.\u00a0 And catch this, according to recent news reports it\u2019s going to be released after April 6th<\/sup>. Why is that?\u00a0 Because April 6th<\/sup> is the Israeli elections.\u00a0 Apparently, they don\u2019t want the information about this peace plan coming out prior to the Israeli elections. Is there something in this peace plan that would go against the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I hope not!\n\nYou say well, come on, Pastor, you\u2019re just really going out on a limb here.\u00a0 I mean, Trump, he\u2019s the guy that moved our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.\u00a0 And he did!\u00a0 And I applaud him for that.\u00a0 But can I ask you a basic question?\u00a0 Do you think that embassy move was a freebie?\u00a0 Do you think He just did that out of the goodness of his heart?\u00a0 I mean, this is the President that wrote the book The Art of the Deal.<\/em>\u00a0 Are you telling me that a move of that magnitude is not some kind of bargaining chip in this arrangement?\n\nYou see, it\u2019s interesting, a lot of Christians take the view that the historic election of Donald Trump has slowed down the end times.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard that from many, many people and part of me believes it myself, he\u2019s slowed down the progress into the New World Order, he wants to build a wall around America and all of these things.\u00a0 Can I offer you another suggestion?\u00a0 Maybe the historic presidency of Donald Trump has not slowed down our progress into the end times, maybe he\u2019s sped it up because I know this, at the end of the day that God is totally sovereign.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Proverbs 21:1, God says, \u201cThe king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 4:35 says, \u201cAll the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?\u201d\n\nGod is not somehow limited to using a leader of one party but not the other; He\u2019s using everything to advance His plan and His purposes on the earth.\u00a0 Have you seen this?\u00a0 The half shekel, recently minted in the nation of Israel.\u00a0 It\u2019s got a picture of our current President on it and who is behind him?\u00a0 A man named Cyrus.\u00a0 You say well who is Cyrus biblically?\u00a0 Cyrus was the Persian king that let the Jews return from Persia back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.\u00a0 And according to a coin like this, this is how many within the nation of Israel view the current President---as a modern day Cyrus. He\u2019s the guy that\u2019s going to come along and allow us to rebuild temple number three.\n\nWhat did the Lord say? \u00a0[Matthew 16:1] The Pharisees and the Sadducees came up testing Jesus, and they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven, [2] But He replied to them, \u201cWhen it is evening, you say, \u2018It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.\u2019\u00a0 [3] And in the morning, \u2018There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.\u2019 Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?\u201d\u00a0 You know how to interpret weather, \u201cred sky in the morning\u201d what? \u201csailor take warning.\u201d\u00a0 You know how to figure out the stock market.\u00a0 You know how to, in the month of March put your favorite team on the bracket to see if they\u2019re going to get to the final four.\u00a0 You know how to figure out interest rates.\u00a0 Why is it that you can\u2019t see what\u2019s happening right in front of you?\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus is saying to first century Israel.\n\nAnd one of my concerns about the body of Christ today is the body of Christ has become so partisan in terms of its loyalty, which I don\u2019t necessarily have a problem with, but it\u2019s almost as if partisan loyalty has almost become an idol, to the point where we are not recognizing the times and the seasons in which we live.\n
    \n \t
  1. E. Blackstone in 1908, a very important date, that\u2019s forty years before Israel became a nation, said this: \u201cIsrael is God\u2019s sundial. If anyone desires to know our place in God\u2019s chronology, our position in the great march of events, look at Israel. Israel has been, is and always will be God\u2019s timepiece.\u201d\u00a0 You want to know where we are?\u00a0 You want to know where we stand?\u00a0 You want to know where we are in the chronology?\u00a0 Look at the activity in Israel.\u00a0 It\u2019s been analogized this way: Israel is a clock, it\u2019s the hour hand; anything related to Israel shows you what hour it is.\u00a0 Jerusalem is more specific, that\u2019s the minute hand.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAnd then, the temple Mount itself, what is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the second hand.\u00a0 I\u2019m watching very carefully the Middle East peace plan because our Lord tells us to monitor the signs of the times. I don\u2019t know everything there is to know about the future but I know that God cannot lie; it\u2019s contrary to His nature, and some way somehow temple three must go up and be in existence.\u00a0 And is this going to go up in existence prior to the rapture?\u00a0 That\u2019s a definite possibility and if it does it shows me how borrowed time we\u2019re living on.\u00a0 And yet you keep hearing evangelical sermons today around the United States of America, how many pastors do you know that will even touch this issue?\u00a0 Most of them just avoid it like the plague.\u00a0 And yet we\u2019re living in times that to my mind are mindboggling in terms of prophetic reality.\n\nLet me tell you something.\u00a0 If the older guys, J. Dwight Pentecost and others that taught me these things, were alive right now and could see the same things on their newsfeed that I see on my newsfeed they would be screaming at the top of their lungs.\u00a0 And yet the evangelical church today has largely fallen asleep; we\u2019re no longer yearning but we\u2019re basically yawning, bored with the whole thing.\u00a0 We\u2019re not even talking about it at all.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice, back to Revelation 11:1 it says, \u201cThere was given to me a measuring rod like a staff,\u201d and you\u2019ll notice what John is told to do with this staff, he\u2019s told to measure something.\u00a0 Number one, he\u2019s told to measure the temple.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:1, \u201cThen there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, \u2018Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Number two, he\u2019s told to measure the altar.\u00a0 Now what is the altar?\u00a0 The altar could be the place where the sacrifices were offered, the brazen altar, some would say the altar is the alter of incense sort of connected with the most holy place. But John is told to measure the temple measure the altar, and it\u2019s very interesting here, he\u2019s told to measure those who worship inside of it.\n\nIsaiah 29:13, God says this to the prophet Isaiah, \u201cBecause this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.\u201d\u00a0 I was just there at the Wailing Wall and it\u2019s very interesting to watch how the Jews worship at the Wailing Wall.\u00a0 When we worship it\u2019s an intelligent exercise; it\u2019s not a ritual.\u00a0 They have all these sort of books set up there that you can sort of bring down there to the wailing wall and recite books.\u00a0 I mean, how do we look for books as evangelicals? We look for our favorite commentator, our favorite Bible passage.\u00a0 You know how they do it (and you can sit there and watch them do this over and over again) they just grab the first book off the shelf without even thinking about it, going down to the wall saying their thing, putting the book right back.\u00a0 What do you call that?\u00a0 That\u2019s a ritual devoid of reality; that\u2019s what that is!\u00a0 That\u2019s the kind of thing I used to do as an unregenerate Episcopalian.\u00a0 And this is what the third temple will be like.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God says the whole thing needs to be measured; measure the temple, measure the altar, measure the worshippers.\n\nThe concept of measuring goes back to Zechariah 2:1-2, where it says this, \u201cThen I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there was<\/em> a man with a measuring line in his hand. [2] So I said, \u201cWhere are you going?\u201d And he said to me, \u201cTo measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that the Lord is using a plumb line here to determine what kind of temple this is, temple number three.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because I think prophecy indicates that it\u2019s a temple built out of nationalistic pride.\u00a0 It\u2019s built for every reason other than a right relationship with God.\u00a0 It\u2019s very different, this third temple, from the fourth temple in the millennial kingdom, that the Shekinah glory of God will enter into.\u00a0\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Jerusalem at this time, with temple number three functioning, is in unbelief.\u00a0 All you have to do is leave verse 2 and go down to verse 8 and you\u2019ll see it.\u00a0 What does it say, \u201cAnd their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called\u201d what? \u201cSodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d What city would that be?\u00a0 That\u2019s Jerusalem.\n\nAnd at this time of the third temple Jerusalem is being described as that of Sodom; I mean, they have gay rights parades in Jerusalem just like they have them in San Francisco today.\u00a0 Israel today is primarily an atheist nation; that\u2019s why they\u2019re described here as \u201cSodom.\u201d\u00a0 But you have the very orthodox Jews who are trying to put everybody back under the Mosaic Law, not understanding therefore Galatians 3:24, \u201cTherefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to\u201d who? \u201cto Christ\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Once you\u2019re in Christ the Mosaic Law has done its job.\u00a0 And going back into it is putting oneself in bondage.\u00a0 That is the state and that is the condition of the nation of Israel today.\u00a0 There probably isn\u2019t anybody more excited about God\u2019s work in Israel today than myself; I love how God is giving His Word and recycling the Jews back into their own land.\n\nBut you know what?\u00a0 There\u2019s something missing in Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy\u2026 the breath, the Ruah<\/em>, the Holy Spirit has not yet come into that nation.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that Jerusalem and Israel and the temple, even in this backslidden state (did you catch it there in verse 1) is still called \u201cthe temple of God.\u201d\u00a0 Did you notice that?\u00a0 How could it be \u201cthe temple of God,\u201d I thought they built this in nationalistic pride?\u00a0 Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 calls it also \u201cthe temple of God.\u00a0 [2 Thessalonians 2:4, \u201cwho 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.\n\nDid you catch this, we didn\u2019t read it yet, actually we did read it a little earlier, did you catch how Jerusalem is described, even in this backslidden state?\u00a0 \u201cthe holy city.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 11:2, \u201cLeave 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 forty-two months.\u201d]\u00a0 But wait a minute, I thought they were Sodom and Egypt, I thought they were building this out of nationalistic pride, how could this be a holy city?\u00a0 How could this be the temple of God?\u00a0 And here\u2019s basically the answer\u2014the nation of Israel has something that no other nation in the history of the world has ever had.\u00a0 Do you know what that thing is?\u00a0 It\u2019s a covenant with God.\u00a0 Not them making a covenant to God; God making a unilateral binding covenant to them.\u00a0 You won\u2019t find that in any other workings of any other nation on planet earth.\n\nAnd Jerusalem may be a spiritual mess at this time but God still looks at it as a holy city.\u00a0 We have to learn to look at the Jewish people the way God does.\u00a0 They have the Abrahamic Covenant, and what did Paul say in Romans 11:28.\u00a0 \u201cFrom the standpoint of the gospel they\u201d Israel, \u201care enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are\u201d what? \u201cbeloved for the sake of the\u201d what? \u201cthe fathers.\u201d\u00a0 Who are \u201cthe fathers\u201d?\u00a0 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom the Lord gave a contract or a covenant.\u00a0 This is why you have all of this sin documented here in chapter 11 concerning the temple and Jerusalem, but God still says that\u2019s My temple, that\u2019s My holy city.\n\nAnd the great drama of human history is how is God going to take this unbelieving nation and bring them to faith?\u00a0 How is God going to do that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole point of the seven-year tribulation period, because the best piece of theology I\u2019ve ever gotten in my life comes from the man that led me to Christ in 1983.\u00a0 This is what he told me, he said \u201cGod knocks us down so we look\u201d what? \u201cup!\u201d\u00a0 Has God not worked in your life that way?\u00a0\u00a0 We probably wouldn\u2019t even be sitting here unless God had done that.\u00a0 And there is a massive knocking down coming for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 As they rebuild temple three out of nationalistic pride thinking that the antichrist is their Messiah and he walks into that temple and rips them off, and repeats what one of their villains in their history did, a man that every Jew knows about, Antiochus Epiphanes, and betrays the Jewish people and desecrates the temple.\u00a0 And what does the Lord do?\u00a0 He knocks them down so they look up, and they figure you know what, we\u2019ve had it wrong; we\u2019ve had it wrong for two thousand years.\u00a0 Our Messiah is not the antichrist, It\u2019s Yeshua, Jesus, who we rejected.\n\nAnd Zechariah 12:10 talks about how they will begin to mourn as one mourns for an only son.\u00a0 [Zechariah 12:10, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 And here we are at the end of the age of the church and these events are right around the corner.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re privileged to be living in the time period and the season that we\u2019re living in.\n\nWe move away from the command and now look at the court, look at verse 2, \u201cLeave out\u201d as John is measuring this, \u201cLeave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it,\u201d why would it say that? It\u2019s the outer court, the outer court is where the Gentiles came in, the inner court is where the Jews went it.\u00a0 The Gentiles weren\u2019t supposed to go into the inner court.\u00a0 In fact, Paul, in the Book of Acts, chapter 21, verses 28-29 was falsely accused of bringing a man, Trophimus, a Gentile, into that inner court. \u00a0[Acts 21:28-29, \u201ccrying out, \u201cMen of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.\u201d [29] For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.\u201d]\n\nWhy is the inner court measured but not the outer court?\u00a0 It\u2019s very simple, Israel has a plumb line, the Gentiles don\u2019t.\u00a0 Israel has a standard, the Gentiles don\u2019t.\u00a0 What\u2019s the standard?\u00a0 The standard is the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 \u201cTo whom much is given, much is\u201d what? \u201cmuch is required.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 12:28] We\u2019re going to measure Israel to ascertain its unbelief, to ascertain its disobedience; I\u2019m not going to bother with the Gentiles, they don\u2019t have a plumb line.\n\nPsalm 147:19-20 says this, \u201cHe declares His word to Jacob,\u201d who is Jacob?\u00a0 Israel.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026His statutes and judgments to Israel. [20] He has done this for no other nation; And as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the LORD!\u201d\u00a0 Israel was God\u2019s chosen people but as some of the Jews like to say, I wish the Lord would choose someone else for a while because the more the favor of God is on a person\u2019s life, the more truth they have, in this case the only nation with a unilateral contract from God to them.\u00a0 They have a very high standard of accountability.\u00a0 Not so the Gentiles; they\u2019re not even counted.\n\nWe move from the court to the contempt.\u00a0 Look at the second half of verse 2, \u201cLeave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it\u201d why? \u201cfor it\u201d outer court \u201chas been given to the nations;\u201d which comes from a Greek translation of the noun ethnos<\/em>, meaning ethnicity.\u00a0 What is happening here is the end of the time period called the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 The times of the Gentiles represents a period of time when the nation of Israel had no functioning Davidic king and she was being trampled down by various Gentile or pagan powers.\u00a0 It started in the days of Daniel with Babylon followed by Medo Persia, followed by Greece, followed by Rome, followed one day by the antichrist kingdom, which is coming, the new world order.\u00a0 And it will end, not with the rapture, the rapture ends the church\u2019s earthly mission.\u00a0 It will end with the second advent of Christ, at the end of the tribulation period where He, Matthew 25:31, takes His seat on David\u2019s throne and ushers in His thousand-year kingdom.\u00a0 [Matthew 25:31, \u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.\u201d]\n\nWhy is there a reference here to these forty-two months?\u00a0 Because we are at that point in the Book of Revelation where there\u2019s only forty-two months left before the kingdom comes.\u00a0 We are the tail end of the times of the Gentiles and during that time period what does it say?\u00a0 It\u2019s been \u201cgiven to the nations.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 11:2, \u201cLeave 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 forty-two months.\u201d]\u00a0 The nations are going to get their upper hand over the Jews.\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that when you look at United Nations resolutions, roughly two-thirds of them go against Israel.\u00a0 I mean, every time the United Nations meet that\u2019s why Israel calls the United Nations the United Nothing, U.N.\u00a0 You can rest assured they\u2019re going to make some decision against the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Why is it? Why is it so bias?\u00a0 Because of the time period that we\u2019re in now and will continue until the end of the seven-year tribulation period called the times of the Gentiles.\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that in June of 1967, when the nation of Israel and what is called the Six Day War, got control for the first time, of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Moshe Dayan, acting political leader of Israel, turned the Temple Mount back over to the Muslims.\u00a0 And today the Temple Mount itself is under Islamic rule.\u00a0 You can\u2019t go up there unless you have their permission. And by the way, don\u2019t be holding hands with your wife or your husband up there because you\u2019ll get someone screaming at you through a loud speaker saying \u201cDon\u2019t touch holy site.\u201d\u00a0 I was up there in 98 and I heard that voice saying that, that scared the daylights out of me, don\u2019t touch what? The walls?\u00a0 No, they meant each other, \u201choly site\u201d they kept saying.\u00a0 And by the way, when it\u2019s their time to get up and pray and do their thing they want you off that Temple Mount fast and they\u2019re not very polite about getting you off there.\u00a0 Get off there and get off their yesterday is their mindset.\n\nAnd so why would Moshe Dayan, in June of 1967 after the nation won a miraculous war, got control of Jerusalem, got control of the Temple Mount, why would he just turn around and give the whole thing back to the Muslims?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s a practical reason for it; I asked this of our Israeli tour guide and he said if he didn\u2019t do that it would have enflamed the Muslim sentiments worldwide\u2026 holy site, usurper.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a second reason I think Moshe Dayan gave it back, to fulfill this prophecy.\u00a0 God is very clear that the times of the Gentiles, the outer court would continue to be trampled on by the Gentiles for the remaining forty-two months of the tribulation period.\n\nAnd what are the Gentiles going to do with their freedom during this time period.\u00a0 Look at the very end of verse 2.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026and they\u201d that\u2019s the ethnos<\/em>, or the nation, \u201cwill tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.\u201d\u00a0 Now this word \u201ctread\u201d I found interesting, it\u2019s the Greek word \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c9 (pate\u00f3) which means to harm severely through subjugation.\u00a0 Another way of saying it is to treat something holy disrespectfully, because God views it this way because remember, thanks to the Abrahamic Covenant the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem is still a holy city.\u00a0 And so during this final forty-two months the Gentiles have the upper hand and they just take the things of God and they treat it like absolute garbage.\u00a0 And God only lets them get away with it for another forty-two months.\n\nAnd I thought to myself, Lord, do we have any illustrations in Your Word of this happening?\u00a0 And I sensed the Holy Spirit leading me this way.\u00a0 Look at the basement.\u00a0 You see the Book of Daniel is the basement, the Book of Revelation is the ceiling.\u00a0 The Book of Daniel, which we\u2019ve already studied in this church, is the foundation for the Book of Revelation. And in the Book of Daniel, chapter 5, you have something that the Gentiles are doing, something that God calls sacred.\u00a0 It has to do with the temple vessels that were taken in by Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian captivity, Daniel 1:2.\u00a0 [Daniel 1:2, \u201cThe Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.\u201d]\n\nAnd Nebuchadnezzar came and went, he died.\u00a0 Remember what his son was doing?\u00a0 Belshazzar?\u00a0 The last reigning king of Neo-Babylonia, Daniel 5:2.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:2, \u201cWhen Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.\u201d]\u00a0 Let\u2019s take those vessels that my father brought to Babylon and let\u2019s have a drunken bash with those vessels.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take something that God says is holy or sacred and let\u2019s use it for profane reasons.\u00a0 And the moment he did that the handwriting appeared on the wall, \u201cMENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN\u201d what does that mean?\u00a0 Numbered, numbered, weighed divided.\u00a0 Belshazzar\u2019s Neo Babylonian kingdom was to be taken away from him because he had been weighed in the balance of God\u2019s justice and found wanting.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:25, \u201cNow this is the inscription that was written out: 'MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.\u2019\u201d]\n\nYou see, you can push God to a certain degree because of His grace, but He gets to a point where we\u2019re not going to do this anymore God says.\u00a0 You\u2019ve pushed long enough; grace is over.\u00a0 And you see, this is what is being narrated for us here in Revelation 11:1-2 as these Gentiles are trampling all over the temple and treating it disrespectfully.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:1, \u201cThe Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, [2] who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, as much as he saw.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Something happening right now, and God reaches a point where He says that\u2019s it.\n\nAnd what happened to Belshazzar?\u00a0 He died that very night and his kingdom was taken.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s in store for the United Nations, the Gentile nations of the world, CNN News, MSNBC, and all of these groups that act like the Jews shouldn\u2019t be there and they\u2019re transgressing and that territory really belongs to the Palestinians\u2026\u00a0 By the way, I can\u2019t find the word \u201cPalestine\u201d in the Bible, someone help me with that, if you find it let me know, because it\u2019s a manufactured term is what it is.\u00a0 It\u2019s a propaganda piece!\u00a0 And we\u2019re living in the time of the Gentiles where these things are happening all the time, and we think it\u2019s never going to change.\u00a0 No, it\u2019ll change all right.\u00a0 Forty-two months and you\u2019re done!\u00a0 Just like God said to Belteshazzar, you\u2019ve got one night and you\u2019re done because you went too far.\n\nWhat did Jesus say in Luke 21:24 concerning the times of the Gentiles? \u00a0\u201cand they\u201d Israel, \u201cwill fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles\u201d notice the verse doesn\u2019t stop there, until, until, \u201cuntil the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.\u201d\u00a0 The progress of evil is on a leash folks, it\u2019s limited.\u00a0 And one of these days God steps back into history and corrects things.\u00a0 Really the issue for people today is which side of the ledger are they are on, that\u2019s really the issue because there isn\u2019t a lot of middle ground here the best I can tell.\u00a0 There\u2019s no compromise position.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019re either with God or you\u2019re not.\u00a0 And Jesus is very clear, if you\u2019re not for Me you\u2019re against Me.\n\nAnd so here at Sugar Land Bible Church we like to give people the opportunity to get right with the Lord through what we call the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel means good news because Jesus did all the work on our behalf.\u00a0 He did everything that could possibly be done to bridge the gap between sinful humanity and a holy God.\u00a0 In fact, what were His final words on the cross?\u00a0 \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The translation of the Greek word tetelestai, <\/em>which means paid in full.\u00a0 How do you get right with God?\u00a0 How do you get on the right side of history?\u00a0 You receive what He has done for you as a free gift.\u00a0 If you\u2019re coming boasting your credentials God is not interested in that any more than He was interested in Cain\u2019s offering in Genesis 4.\u00a0 You come by way of faith because \u201cwithout faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:6] You either receive what he\u2019s done as a gift by faith, which is the only way to receive a gift from God, or you can\u2019t be made right with God.\n\nAnd so as we look at this confrontational information here in Revelation 11:1-2 our exhortation to folks, anybody within the sound of my voice, listening or watching on social media is the best you know how, in the quietness of your own heart, as the Holy Spirit places you under conviction to trust in Christ and Christ alone for salvation.\u00a0 And once that issue gets resolved you\u2019re on the winning side of history and now it\u2019s just a matter of monitoring the signs and monitoring the trends because you know what folks\u2026 I\u2019ve read the last chapter, you can sum it up this way, WE WIN!\u00a0 And I hope this week as we go into our lives and challenges and difficulties you\u2019ll go through it with optimism knowing that we are on the winning side of history.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for these two verses and the things that they reveal about the future.\u00a0 Help us to be good stewards of these things as we walk these things out by way of faith this week.\u00a0 If there\u2019s anyone here today that\u2019s unclear of their eternal destiny we pray that they will come talk to somebody, the staff, myself, whoever, so that we can lead them into the glorious gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t