Open—Mark Allan
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I'd like to share just a few thoughts this afternoon.
You know, I, I've been struggling since last night and I thought there wasn't a chance at all that I would be saying anything today.
But you know what?
What I want to speak about.
It impresses me that it's not. It's not about me.
And I just want to add a little bit to what Robert Bullard spoke about.
Because it ties into it.
Earlier this year I was in I went on a trip with my daughter.
To Israel and I was in Jerusalem.
I just got to thinking about that place.
And the significance of it. And the more I thought about it, the more.
It impressed me and you know, we've been talking in Luke 22 about where the Lord would have us meet. And what I want to talk about just in the remaining time is.
About the The physical place Jerusalem in the Old Testament.
And then how that translates a little bit over into what we've been having before us just now. So I'd like to to 1St read a verse in Ephesians.
Because I find it very helpful to look at things sort of from the big picture and.
Take it from there.
You know the ultimate goal of God is to glorify.
His Son, and I just would like to read the verse there because, you know, when we go to consider a physical place on earth like Jerusalem and its significance, it all gets tied into the Lord Jesus being glorified. You know, we get pulled into it as believers and get tremendous blessing from that. But I just like to read a verse.
There are few verses in Ephesians. One verse five it says having predestinated us under the adoption of children.
By Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, were any heth abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. So we've been chosen to praise, it says, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Well, I want to go back and just take a look at Jerusalem. Let's go first to Genesis.
Chapter 22. We had this spoken about by Doctor Prost and also by Will.
And what impressed me about this chapter?
It wasn't Abraham who picked the place where he was going to offer his son, you know, God. He didn't even make known to Abraham the details of it.
But he had a specific place.
Were that where he was asked to offer his Son, and the reason was because that is where Jesus.
In that area was where Jesus was going to die, that was where he was going to be rise again, and that is where his excellence will be on display to this world for 1000 years in a time that is not very far away.
That's what makes it such an incredible place.
And you know, just as you go through the Old Testament, you know, we don't, we don't read about the Lord Jesus because he hasn't been born yet, although.
The Lord himself starts at the beginning and goes through the whole Old Testament and explains himself to the two in the Road to Emmaus from that.
But we have hidden the fact of how much it means to his heart that.
There, his son is going to die. He's going to rise.
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And his excellence will be on display.
Before this world the way it should be. And so it says here. Let's just read the verse, it says.
In Genesis 22 verse two, he said, take now thy son.
Thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.
And then down a little bit further.
It says.
Left, forgive me. In verse three it says in Abraham rose up early in the morning and he saddles us, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and claved the wood for burnt offering, and rose up and went under the place which God had told him of.
Very specific place chosen by God. He didn't Abraham didn't know the significance of it. He's his faith was being tested here and it was a long time to get to this point is we had yesterday before us, but a very specific place.
Jesus in a future day was going to die, he was going to raise and he was his excellence will be on display. You know, just to realize the heart of God as he looks, he's testing Abraham and he's asking him to take his son and kill him. You know, we can't even naturally.
Comprehend what that you know. I have children. They're here. The emotions that your children put you through.
In good ways.
In other ways.
Are beyond comprehension your father.
Is asked to take his son and kill him. Just a reminder to the heart of God, to that specific place and you know.
We'll just go to the next place here. Let's go to first Samuel.
Chapter sorry Second Samuel, chapter 2. So it's on the mountains of Moriah and there was a Canaanite city that was.
Built in that place.
And David?
Becomes king.
And.
He decides that he wants to.
Have that as his capital city and I don't know, and maybe I can be correct in this, but I don't think David had any idea that that that was where Abraham or the area that Abraham had been in when he went to.
Offer his son, but Joab goes and conquers the city. If you just read this is in Second Samuel 5.
Verse 8 David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter.
And smiteeth the Jebusites, the lame, and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain.
Wherefore they say, the blind and the lame shall not come into his house. So David dwelt on the Fort and called it the city of David, and David built roundabout from Milo and inward. This is a a difficult story to understand. I appreciate it now to understanding a little better, but this was a fortified.
Canaanite city that had a spring, the Gihan Spring that was the source of water is needed for just about everything. And there was outside of the city there was an area where they had fortified and there was a huge pool of water there.
And obviously a very good place to have a city.
And David sends Joab to conquer the city. Did David? David didn't know that. Just within spitting distance, perhaps?
Was this place where Abraham offered his son and you know.
He you can go there today and just across the street from the old city, there's a place called Warren Shaft where they think Joab probably climbed up and conquered the city. So David sets up his Kingdom there. You know that David wasn't allowed to build a house for the Lord, although that was his desire he's given. He's given the plans he puts aside.
Money and materials for it, but his son Solomon.
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Is actually the one to do it. And you know, I've often wondered, if David did it himself, where would he have built that temple for the Lord?
To dwell. I don't know the answer to that, but we know that later on in David's life.
He sins in numbering the people. Let's just turn to it.
This is in Second Samuel chapter 20.
4.
David sins in numbering the people and there's a plague that comes. I'm not going to go into the story. I think most people know it.
A whole bunch of people die as a result of David's sin.
Verse 15 it says so the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel from the morning even unto the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba 70,000 men.
But you know God in his grace.
Still thinking of his son.
The place where his son will die.
Where he will rise.
And where his excellence will be on display very shortly.
And you know David?
Is told.
To go.
And it's interesting. It struck me when I read it, and I don't know that I had appreciated it.
A prophet comes to David in verse 18. This is not David's own volition, it's the prophet. It's coming directly from God. It says in God is verse 1824 verse 18. God came that day to David and said unto him, go up.
Rear and altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Arona the Jebusite.
You know, as I get older.
I realize more of my failures and perhaps even when I was younger.
David sinned, but there's grace there. You know the whole theme.
Undergirding the whole New Testament, one of it is just grace.
It's easy for us to forget that when dealing with our brother and God says.
Here to David go and build an altar in this place. I don't think David knew the significance of that place. He buys it, as we know he builds an altar there.
And what's in God's heart?
That is the place.
Where his son will die, he will rise again.
And his excellence will be on display.
Probably.
With everyone here who knows their Lord and Savior.
As part of it in a not too distant future.
Well, if we go over to Second Chronicles and this ties it together.
To show.
This is where Solomon builds his temple.
Says in Second Chronicles chapter 3 and verse one it says then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord.
At Jerusalem, in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father.
In the place that David had prepared the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he began in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. So Mount Moriah is mentioned there. That's where it says Abraham went. Or an answer rushing floor, you know, as I was in Jerusalem just considering that.
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This was a physical place dear to the heart of God.
Because of his son.
And to realize that we as believers would be brought into that.
Is an incredible, incredible thing. So here and we have through the whole word of God, God's desire.
To be with us in our You see it in the Garden of Eden, you see it in the Tabernacle, you see it in the temple. We see it all through the New Testament. We see it through into the eternal state. It's it's a beautiful theme. You see it in the Millennium. Here Solomon rears up this temple.
Have the Shekinah glory come the Lord dwells among his people and yes, they they fail, but I just just think about God's heart. I don't think the Lord, of course, was completely they didn't understand.
At all exactly what was going to happen in the future and you know.
Recently I've been going through with my Sunday school class.
Just an overview of the New Testament and you know, the whole New Testament, it starts first verse of the New Testament, it's about the Lord Jesus. Last verse of the New Testament, it's about the Lord Jesus. The start and end of just about every book in the New Testament, it's about the Lord Jesus. You know, finally we have this revel or this opened up. Who is this person that was on God's heart from eternity past? We had this place, it's Deuteronomy 12, as mentioned, this place where Israel was to gather.
Physical place. It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
You know, it's amazing to me, You know, Israel failed.
His presence leaves, the temple goes out.
Israel fails completely. The authority of government is handed over to the Gentiles. There's a remnant brought back there, but we get to the New Testament and you know it. It gives me such an appreciation for the New Testament. It's the Lord Jesus is introduced, starts off by proving who he is.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John rejected Messiah, perfect servant, Son of man, Son of God, a history of how that change happens. Then it goes into a detailed explanation of the gospel in a beautiful way, and then instructions for how we're supposed to meet in Corinthians. You can go on just it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know in the New Testament, it's not about a physical place like Jerusalem, it's about a person.
It's about a person. You don't have any more mention of a fancy.
Not a fancy building, but the details of the temple like you or the Tabernacle like you have in the Old Testament. You don't have the details of the measurements that you have in Ezekiel of of the Millennial Temple. It's about a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, from beginning to end.
You know it's.
All of the trappings that went with the system of the Old Testament that failed are gone. It's a person.
Were gathered.
To the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 18 says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. You know, it's a remarkable thing for me to consider to just to think about what Jesus means.
To the heart of the Father.
And you know what? What struck me? And we only have 5.
Minutes left, but, you know, just little things impressed me, just considering, you know, it was in Jerusalem where the Holy Spirit, they're told to stay in Jerusalem today at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells the believers there. You know, God chose a physical place to put his name in the Old Testament, in the New Testament.
We're to gather in his name, but you know, his Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside us as believers, and that's an incredible thing, too. You know, I was thinking in Corinthians, in Ephesians, the verse that I read at the beginning of the meeting, He actually chose us.
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That he would indwell us he's not the Lord and I need to make the Holy Spirit would involve. Let's just read in First Corinthians chapter 6.
In verse.
19 It says, What know ye not that your body is the temple?
Of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.
For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God.
In your body, in your spirit, which are gods. It's all about the Lord.
Being glorified, His excellence being on display. To consider that myself as a believer.
My the Holy Spirit comes and indulge us, but you know I, I don't even begin to understand that the way that I should.
But it's an incredible thing, particularly if you consider in the Old Testament about the physical place.
You know, I think it's, it's good for us to think about these things. It helps me understand.
Why getting bogged down on a building?
And.
All of the things that characterized Judaism where it says let us go therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. And you know, it just gives a little bit more meaning to that. And you know, it's easy for us to make that the focal point. Be inward for that. But you know, it is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I just I leave those few thoughts with you to think about. It was exciting. And I'll say this. I don't know how everybody gets to go there. Well, we all will.
In the not too distant future, just to be there.
In Jerusalem and to consider its significance.
To the heart of God, but then to consider.
In the Lord Jesus.
That I've been brought into that is an incredible, incredible, incredible thing. You know, I hope that each one of us can appreciate it just even a little bit.
And to realize that, as we had, it's not these things aren't our choice.
It's God's heart being revealed.
Well, that's really all I had to share, but I just share those things with you for consideration. They were an encouragement to me and continue to be. And it's exciting. We can get bogged down in this world, and this world is where the Lord will be put on display in all of His excellence in a very short period of time. You know, we have pretty messed up.
Politics all the way around the world right now, and I've had long discussions with my daughter about what the best.
Form of government is and should be. But you know, I've been thinking about how's the Lord going to rule for those thousand years when his excellence will be on display? It's not going to be a democracy.
It's not going to be libertarianism. It's not going to be it will be something far better. And to know that we will be brought into it is amazing. And it's not very far away. It's not very far away. You know, I remember from a boy hearing Dad say I thought the Lord was coming soon. But you know, it just it seems like that soon is getting sooner. And I know that maybe and yet at the same time you go to work and and.
Satan tries to blot our eyes away from it, but it is his coming is near, and it's an incredible hope to have ahead of us.
Let's just look to the Lord and and really think about how dear he is to the heart of God and how much that should mean to us to.
Shall we think 300 and 33130? Oh God, the thought was fine. Mine only could be fruit of wisdom, love, divine, peculiar under thee.
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What raised the world?
So.