Revelation 11 1 and there was
given me a reed like unto a rod and the angel stood saying rise
and measured the temple of God and the altar and them that worship
therein Now we'll remember that this angel is the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is that mighty angel mentioned in the chapter 10 and
There are several reasons here for measuring the temple. This
has happened before in the word of God, and so we always want
to look at that, especially often the first time something is mentioned
in the scriptures is key. But this is, let's turn to Zechariah
chapter two. Zechariah chapter two. and read verses 1 through 5.
And this will give us a little perspective
on our text here. Zechariah 2, 1, I lifted up mine
eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in
his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou?
And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem. See what is the breadth
thereof and what is the length thereof and behold the angel
that talked with me went forth and another angel went out to
meet him and Said unto him run speak to this young man saying
Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the
multitude of men and cattle therein This is spiritual Jerusalem now. This is talking about and Always
the promises were given to spiritual Israel earthly Israel was simply
a type of God's elect and So it's a city without walls indeed,
isn't it? So it's a people from every kindred
tribe nation and tongue under heaven But we do have walls look
at the next verse for I saith the Lord will be under her a
wall of fire and Roundabout and will be the glory in the midst
of her Measure the city what for Lord are we gonna build a
new wall? Nope, you're not gonna need one I'm gonna be your wall
so you see the picture here that The type of course, there's no
reason to literally measure The city here in the case of our
text the temple Because the Lord knows the exact dimensions of
his kingdom The picture is clear in our text. It's the temple
in Zechariah Jerusalem because they both picture the same thing
the kingdom of God the church of God And the illustration here
is that God needs the God needs the dimensions because he himself
is going to be the wall, but he didn't really need the dimensions
you see it's just a Illustration not a physical building or city
that God surrounds and protects It's his spiritual kingdom and
church The temple was a place of worship and the Church of
God Is a people of worship wherever they gather is a place of worship
whether in a cave somewhere or a building a temple a It's a
place of communion with God. Where does God meet with his
people? Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I
am, in the midst of them. Solomon built the temple with
these huge hewn stones, but the Lord said that his temple, his
kingdom, his church is made up of living stones, which we are,
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. As we mentioned
a moment ago, the measuring here denotes the fact that there are
specific dimensions to God's kingdom. God knows the exact
dimensions, but he said to John, measure them. And that tells
us this clearly. It's not physical dimensions
that he's measuring, of course, it's spiritual dimensions. What
in the world are spiritual dimensions? How can you measure something
that is spiritual? Well, it's measured The measure of it is the efficacy
of the blood of Christ. However, wherever, with whomever,
for whomever his blood is efficacious, that's part of the kingdom. That
person is part of the kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
a ransom, an offering, for all of God's elect, only God's elect,
and he redeemed every one of them. He said, I haven't lost
any. All that the Father hath given
me, I've not lost any. That's how long, that's how wide,
that's how high the kingdom of God is. So it's measured in the
dimensions of the efficacy of Christ's precious blood. You'll
notice in verse one that the altar and the worshipers are
mentioned specifically within the temple. The altar, He said,
measure the temple of God and the altar and those that worship
therein. Think about that with me for
a second. The altar represents, that's where the blood was shed.
That's the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul called
it. It's Christ crucified. What Paul called the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ is not a physical cross, that's worthless. Christ's cross is his substitutionary
offering on behalf of his people. It's an offering to God, not
an offer made to sinners. Christ's cross is the precious
blood that bought us and washed us from our sins. And the worshipers
here are the ones bought, the ones redeemed, the ones washed
from their sins, those robed in white. The church of God is not up to
you long, it's I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy long.
That's how long it is. It's not God wants to if you'll
let him, why? It's I lay down my life for my
sheep and they shall never perish, why? And it's as high as the
glory of God. And God forbid that we should
glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The measuring also speaks of
finished dimensions. The length and width of a board
before you cut it are not particularly important. It's the finished
dimensions that have to be right. It doesn't matter what size it
was before. To tell somebody what size lumber you used to
build a building does not tell them the dimensions of the building. Every board has to be cut to
precise finished dimensions and fastened in the right place if
the building is going to measure according to the purpose of the
builder. And God's building does. It has finished, completed, perfect
dimensions. The temple is being measured
here because it's finished. If the temple's gonna be torn
down and rebuilt or added to or taken away from, there's no
use measuring it. Who cares what size it is now? But God's building is done. First Peter chapter two, turn
there with me, let's read this together. First Peter chapter
two in verse four. 1st Peter 2 for to whom coming
to Christ We're still coming to him. We continually come to
him as unto a living stone Disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious Men disallow that which is precious
And cleave to that which is worthless or worse harmful Ye also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. And the stone of stumbling, and
the rock of a fence, even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But
you are a chosen generation. royal priesthood and holy nation
a peculiar people That you should show forth the praises of him
who have called you out of darkness Into his marvelous light That's
the building of God He's a living stone. We're living stones. He's
the chief cornerstone And he puts every stone in place like
they built the temple out of those huge hewn rocks The Lord
knows exactly how many bricks are in his temple. He knows the
exact dimensions of them and is established. On this rock
I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. The dimensions are exact and
the dimensions are finished dimensions. And then verse two, but the court
which is without the temple leave out. measure it not For it is
given unto the Gentiles and the holy city shall they tread under
foot forty and two months Now this refers to an outer court
of the temple Under the old covenant where
the Gentiles could come and observe the business of the temple observe
the sacrifice being altered and the priest going in and The holy
place and the other priests that ministered about the temple the
tabernacle in the temple there was an outer court where the
Gentiles And I'm sure some actually worship God there were some Gentiles
saved in the Old Testament It was never utterly exclusive to
the Jews because they were a picture only They had all the outward
advantages What advantage then hath the Jew, Paul asks in Romans
3? Much every way, unto them was committed the word of God.
Much every way, but not all Israel are Israel. It's the spiritual
Israel of God to whom all of the promises were made. So some
Gentiles were saved and many Jews were lost. Many. So it's not about that, it never
has been. Only those who are spiritual
Jews are truly Jews, according to God's word, God's spiritual
elect, and only they can enter into the kingdom of God, pictured
here. Only they could come into the
temple. Only the priests could do the
business of the temple, and God has made us kings and priests
under our God. So that again is a type of God's
church, his kingdom. Listen to Galatians 3, 26. Let
me have you turn there. We won't be long tonight. Let's
look at these verses together. Galatians 3, 26. Galatians 3, 26. For you are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, not by birth. Not by heritage, by faith. That's
how you're a child of God. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, immersed into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
It's insignificant what your earthly heritage is. There's
neither bond nor free. There's neither male or female
even. What difference does that make? when it comes to the things
of God. For you're all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you be Christ's, then
you're Abraham's seed. You're a Jew. You're a spiritual Jew and heirs
according to the promise. The promise was not made to earthly
Israel. It was made to spiritual. If you're one of the Lord's,
if you belong to Him, if you be Christ's, you belong to the
Son of God, you're one of His peculiar people, where we read
a moment ago. It said they're a peculiar people.
Listen to Titus 2.13. I'll read this one to you, if
that's all right. Listen to Titus 2.13. Looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. That word peculiar means that
which is one's own. You see why I read that? If you
be Christ's, you're God's spiritual Israel.
You're one of his people, you're one of his elect. And notice what takes place in
the courtyard there of the Gentiles. That's given to the Gentiles,
but it's not talking about earthly Gentiles either, any more than
it's talking about earthly Jews. It's spiritual Gentiles, spiritual
enemies of God, without Christ. The Gentiles were without God
or without Christ or without hope in this world. spiritual
Gentiles Are those who are not in Christ Jesus? And that's whose
picture here and notice what it says. They're gonna trample
the holy city under their feet For 42 months Now here's the
thing about that They're religious They're at the temple. They want
in on it and They're not down at the bar somewhere, they're
at the temple. They say, if you asked them,
they'd say they're worshiping God. But they're not measured among
the true church of God. But they are involved in the
physical church. They're not believers, but they're
not far. They're not far away, they're right there. They show
an interest in the things of God. They're in the courtyard. They
love the trappings of religion. They love to see, you know, all
of the types and pictures. They love the social aspect of
God's church. They love talking about Jesus
and God in heaven. They see the sacrifice, but not
by faith. Not by faith. They trust in the
death of a Jesus according to their way of thinking, but they
don't know nor love the true Christ of God, who actually saved
everyone for whom he died. And that's all you've got to
say to them to offend them. Just say the Lord Jesus Christ
came to save sinners, some people, his elect, and he did. And that
blows their whole religion out of the water. It does, doesn't it? It's just
that simple. If he accomplished what he came to do, and it's
not up to you, that destroys all of the false religion. A victorious Christ, a successful
sacrifice, substitutionary sacrifice, successful, satisfactory, it
destroys the false religion of this world. They're in the courtyard of the
temple, and so people might assume that they're worshiping God,
and they may be good at looking like they are. They probably
wear religious jewelry and things and dress up nice and have stained
glass windows and have a choir that sings pretty and all that
kind of stuff. But in their hearts, they're
trampling underfoot that which is most precious to God. Hebrews 10, turn over there with
me, please. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 26. This is every one of us, but
for God's grace so when we say they It's a blessing to be able
to say that because it'd be it'd be we if it wasn't for God's
grace And we wouldn't be saying it because we wouldn't know any
better Hebrews 10 26 for if we sin willfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth There remain is no more
sacrifice for sins now. We need to understand what that
says clearly If we sin willfully, we're lost forever, then all
of us are goners. You have never sinned against
your will, have you? Has anybody done that? Have you
ever sinned against your will? Well, clearly it's not saying
that. It's talking about the sacrifice. If you sin with regard
to the sacrifice, then what other sacrifice is there? If Christ
crucified is not your hope, then what hope do you have? You see
that? There's no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking
for of judgment, if Christ is not your substitute, and all
of your hope, all of your righteousness before God, all of your salvation,
then you don't have any hope. You're just waiting for God to
pour out His judgment upon you. Looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation which shall devour the adversaries. You're going
to be among them. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. That's the truth,
isn't it? If you break the law, they didn't
play, did they? And God appointed it that way.
But listen to this, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son
of God? That's what's happening in our
text now. Religious, if you told them that's what
they were doing, they'd deny it and probably believe that. But
that's what they're doing according to God. So what difference does
it make what they think? and hath counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace. The only thing
that people hate more than God's law is God's grace. For we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord, and again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Thank God for his grace. Thank God that with regard to
the sacrifice, we bow. We bow to God's truth. We bow
to God's Christ. He says, you're all a bunch of
and dogs and worms, and you ought to go to hell, we say truth,
Lord, truth. But our hope, like Paul, our
only hope, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. It's not
Christ died and then something happened to legitimize that or something.
It's just unthinkable, isn't it, Turn the light on. Now for 42 months, they're gonna
be allowed to get away with this, to be pretend worshipers. And yet they're destroying in
their heart and mind anyway. They're not gonna really cause
any harm to God's church. Nobody can do that. And it's
a long time, 42 months is a long time, but not really. You know, people argue about
and try to figure out what does that 42 months represent? Nobody
knows. Nobody knows. But I'll tell you
this, 42 months is a long time in a sense. And yet in the big
scheme of things, it's not that long. That's how it is with the
Lord's return. We think, boy, you know, I thought
when I was a kid, you know, we were in the end times, and here
we are, and I still think that. The Lord's still tearing, but
in the big scheme of things, it's not long, is it? It's not
long. He said, I'll come quickly now. I'm coming quickly. But here's what's important. Not that we know what 42 months
means specifically, but here's what's important. It's a specific
amount of time. God, one of these days is gonna
say, no more, no more. Hitherto shalt thou come and
no further. Turn over to Psalm 94 with me,
please. I believe scripture helps a lot
As always with our text tonight we need to look at some scripture. God is going to say no more one
of these days. And this is what we say. Psalm
94.1 Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth
O God to whom vengeance belongeth show thyself Now I'm pretty sure
that's what was quoted in the verse. We just read wouldn't
you reckon in Hebrews? said vengeance He hath said vengeance
belongeth unto me And that's what David said here Vengeance
belongeth to you, Lord. Show yourself, lift up thyself. Thou judge of the earth. Render
a reward to the proud. Aren't we kind of ready for that?
And look, we don't know what God's will is. Some people that
we might judge to be worthy of eternal hell may be his sheep. I'm sure a lot of people thought
Saul of Tarsus was about as bad as you could get. But at the
same time, we can see the evil that goes on in this world. We
don't know what God will do specifically with certain people, but we can
pray that, Lord. How long? How long? Look at verse three. Lord, how
long shall the wicked? How long shall the wicked triumph?
How long are they going to be able to get away? Have you ever
thought about that? Some of the stuff that people
get away with that are in leadership, how long, what are you going
to let them get away with that? 42 months, that's what. It doesn't seem that long really,
does it, if you think about it like that. How long shall the wicked try?
How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the
workers of iniquity boast themselves? They speak things that I can't
even listen to anymore. What about you? I got to turn
it off. This makes me mad. How long, Lord? How long shall
they boast themselves? They say they're doing the Lord's
work and it's just deeply evil, deeply evil. The false preachers, of our day? How long shall they boast themselves?
They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They trample it under their foot,
the city of Jerusalem. They slay the widow and the stranger
and murder the fatherless. We know that's spiritual. Most
important, isn't it? Some of the Lord's people have
definitely been murdered physically over the centuries. but they're
murderers of souls. Yet they say, the Lord shall
not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand
ye brutish among the people and ye fools, when will you be wise? He that planted the ear, shall
he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen,
shall he not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge
shall not he know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou
chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. Aren't you
glad you're not one of the ones that's just getting away with
it, with your evil? The Lord wouldn't let us get
away with it, would he? Stopped us in our tracks hmm But thou
mayest give him rest from the days of adversity how long Lord
until The pit be digged for the wicked It's gonna take the Lord 42 months
to dig that pit How long is 42 months until I
Until God gets good and ready, that's when. Not forever though,
it's not forever. God has restricted where they
can go. That outer courtyard is given
to them, that's it. They're not gonna really do any
harm to God's church. Not a hair of our head will fall
to the ground. They might even kill the body,
but they can't hurt us spiritually. That's the most important. They're
restricted to the outer court and what they're limited also
in the time that they can do what they do. They've got a short
while to do it and only in very, very restricted circumstances.
And notice that word given. It's given to them. He said to
us, it's given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God. Them the space that they have to do their evil the false
preachers of this world the horrible leaders of this world Given it's given to them Though they rage against God's
kingdom And do all the damage that they can what are they doing?
What are they really doing? Whatsoever his hand and counsel
determined before to be done It's given to them Is it amazing
to you that there's that much in those two verses right there
isn't that every word every word You remember acts 423 being let
go the disciples went to their own company and reported all
that the chief priests and elders had said into them they had threatened
them and And these religious Jews, all
that we talked about the chief priests and the elders, those
are the ones in the courts of the Gentiles. Think about that. They were religious, but they
hated Christ. They're in the court of the Gentiles.
I bet that wouldn't have made those Pharisees and elders and
chief priests very happy if you said, you're a Gentile. You're
a spiritual Gentile. They didn't care much for Gentiles.
But that's what they were. That's what they were. Spiritual Gentiles. And when
they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one
accord and said, Lord, you're God. Isn't that interesting that you
can say the most obvious thing to God and yet it's a great blessing,
isn't it? It's a great blessing. Not very
many people believe he's God. Very few. Oh Lord, you're God. You're God. Aren't you glad he's
God? Which has made heaven and earth
and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant
David has said, why did the heathen rage? The people imagined vain
things. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. You know who's out there in that
courtyard of the Gentiles? All of the important people.
All the big shots. The kings and the rulers, the
chief priests. Religious man of the year. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. And that simple word given in
our text is one of the most beautiful and comforting truths there is
in God's word. God is God. He said, be still,
be still and know that I'm God. This outer core is given to the
spiritual Gentiles. Now it's said that the measuring
reed is the word of God. That's what the commentators
say that I read. And that's true, I'm certain. But we need to understand this,
Christ is the word of God. Christ is the word of God. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by son, in the language of son. His son, that's how he
speaks to us, his son. Paul said, we preach, what, the
Bible? Of course, but that's not how
he said it, was it? We preach Christ and are determined to know nothing
save Jesus Christ and him crucified. So everything in God's kingdom
is measured by Christ. That's what we said. The measurement
of it is his saving power. That's the dimensions of it.
His power to save. He's the perfect stone in Proverbs
11.1, by whom all are weighed in the balances and found wanting unless you're
in Him. And He's the unit of measure
whereby all things are sized up. The word measure means what we
think it does. But it also means this, and think
about this. This is a subtle difference,
but it's an important one. The word measure there also means
to meet out or give by measure. In other words, it speaks of
the kingdom being meted out, being measured out to Christ
as reward for his righteousness, for his faithfulness to God.
for his victorious everything. Everything he did, said, and
thought was a victory, up to and including his victorious
death on Calvary as the champion of sinners. And that's what this
is talking about. The worshipers are measured here. Measure the worshipers meet them
out in other words or give them by measure is another sense of
the word They're meted out to or given by measure to Christ
as an allotment or a portion Our Lord called us those that
the Father hath given me The Lord has measured out to me a
people. He's given me an heritage, a
portion. The Lord is our portion. And
listen, we're called, in Ephesians 1.23, the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. His body, the fullness of Him
that filleth all in all. How is that? That's amazing,
isn't it? Listen to just a couple of scriptures. I just want to
close with two scriptures with this thought in mind. The measuring
out. They would measure out and put
stakes or stones at the corners of property. This is the measuring
out of an allotment or a portion. Deuteronomy 32.8. Turn over there
with me. Let's turn to these together
and look at these. Deuteronomy 32.8. When the Most
High divided Deuteronomy 32 8 when the Most
High God Almighty Divided to the nations their inheritance
think about this. This is talking about earthly
Dividing up the earth among the different peoples When he separated
the sons of Adam All of the offspring of Adam, which is everybody in
the earth when he separated them he set the bounds of the people
and He moved everybody, controlled all of the earth and gave this
to this people, this to that people, this to the, according
to the number of the children of Israel. His people is what
everything revolved around. Everything is decided in preference
to his people. For the Lord's portion is his
people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance
you see that that's why The earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof and he give it he gives it to whomsoever. He will everything
he divides The wealth in this world he divides the property
in this world He divides everything in this world, and he does so
with an eye though to his elect and They're his portion Isn't
that beautiful? And then Psalm 73 Psalm 73 25
Psalm 73 25 Whom have I in heaven but you And there is none upon earth
that I desire besides you. If I did want something else,
I wouldn't have anything, because there's only Him. Who do I have?
What do I have? But I don't want anything else.
Everything that's precious to me is because of Him. The Lord
hath not spared His own Son and hath also freely with Him also
given us all things. All things without him would
be nothing. All things with him is all things. My flesh and my heart faileth. Boy, ain't that the truth. A
little bit more every day, but God is the strength of my heart. and my portion forever. My share, my possession, my award. That's what it is. Won by him, given by him, and he himself is the award.