All right, good morning. Go ahead and turn to Genesis.
Chapter 22 is where we'll start. We won't spend tons of time
there, but it is where I want to start and we are going to be
starting a brand new series this morning.
So I hope you're excited about that.
I think we learned everything there is to learn about Jonah.
I'm just kidding, brother Josh. Sometimes these series are, are
really, really good for, you know, they, they build around
maybe four or five weeks of lessons and then they have to
fill a 13 week series. And so I try to, I try to choose
a series that we're going to be really learning every single
week. And I think this is one of
those. I had another series in mind
that I wanted to do and I chose this one kind of not last
minute, but late, late, later than I would like to have.
But I think it's going to be a good series for us.
If you see me hobbling around, just so you know, I have
something going on with my sciatic nerve.
So I know lots of people have that issue.
So you probably know exactly what I'm feeling like.
And so there's nothing particularly wrong with me.
It just my leg doesn't straighten out and it hurts if I
do. So I'm trying to walk to make it
hurt the least possible. So that's what's going on with
me. But Gray finally convinced me to
go to the to the chiropractor. So I went and they said that's
exactly what it is. So they're going to work on me
next week. So hopefully get that fixed up.
But we're going to start a new series and we're going to start
in Genesis chapter 22. Now we hear often preaching on
storms and I think that's good. And you'll hear this, this, this
phrase often. If you're not in a storm, you'll
you just came out of one or you're going to be going into
one soon. And I think that's very
accurate. However, I don't think it's the
whole picture. I think there are times where we
are on the mountaintop as Christians.
We have times in our lives where we are really close to God,
where we've we've conquered some sin and, and resisted
temptation. And that's a mountaintop
experience. Maybe, you know, maybe God heals
you of something and, and miraculously heals you.
The doctor gives a, a prognosis that's not great.
And a couple weeks later they can't explain it, but it's gone.
Those are mountaintop experiences.
Those are things that we know, you know, with, with prayer and
everything else. God heals us.
So we do have in our lives, not just storms or calm.
Sometimes we have mountaintop experiences and those those are
great. And we're going to start this
series here this morning called Mountains and Valleys.
And what it is, is we have 7 mountains in the Bible, 7
specific mountains, actual, actual geographic locations, and
then six valleys in the Bible. And the goal here is the
mountains we talk about. We're going to do all the
mountains 1st and then get then all the valleys at the end.
But the goal here is to really to be inspired by the mountains
that we see in the Bible. And, and you'll, you'll see what
I'm talking about here as we get into this first one, some
amazing things happened on on these mountains and, and then in
the valleys to be instructed. Some terrible things have to
happen in some of the valleys and valleys of disobedience and,
and frustration for God's people.
And we're going to the goal there is to be instructed in
those in those valleys. So we're going to start this
series, the valleys and the mountains.
And you know, we're not going to spend tons and tons of time
talking about the actual geography of them because pastor
just did that for about a year and a half, did all the the
Bible geography. So we're not going to spend too
much time on that. And we're also not going to
spend too much time on some of the controversial pieces of some
of these mountains. For example, we're going to talk
about Mount Moriah first. There are, there are a good
number of, of scholars that believe Mount Moriah is where
Christ was crucified as well as you know, where Abraham
sacrificed Isaac and and, and, and, and I'll ask you this right
now, where is Mount Moriah now? Does anybody know that what it
what is Mount Moriah or where is it right now that ha, so it is
the whole Temple Mount. Yep, where the Dome of the rock
is at. So that is Mount Moriah and the
Muslims have taken the actual, what they believed to be the
stone that Isaac was sacrificed on and they built the AL Aqsa
Mosque, I believe, on top of that.
So when you, if you, you can't, but if you were to be able to go
on top of the Temple Mount, you would see where Isaac was
sacrificed. And they, they're pretty, that's
pretty accurate even for Christian scholars.
Now then there's other scholars though, that say that Mount
Moriah is the place where Christ was crucified.
We don't believe that because he was crucified outside of the
city walls. So my point is we're not going
to take a ton of time and argue those things.
That's not the point of this of these lessons.
OK, So if if and I say that because if there's things where
you because I do this sometimes when people are teaching or
preaching, I go, oh man, that was a great point they could
have made right there. But some of it's because I'm not
trying to make that point in this series.
OK, We are going to talk much more about what happened on
these mountains and what we can learn from from what happened on
these mountains. OK, so that's where we're going
to go with this series. Genesis chapter 22 verses one
through all the way through verse 14 really is this story of
Abraham on Mount Moriah. He takes Isaac there to
sacrifice. And we're not going to read the
whole passage. I'm just going to pick a a verse
or two out of there. But that's where we'll start.
But let's go ahead and pray and then we'll get right into this
lesson. Father, I thank you for this day
that you've given us. Thank you for another
opportunity we have to open your word and to learn.
God, I pray that you be with me as I teach that you would make
the points that we are trying to make here very, very obvious and
understandable to your people. And I pray that the things we
learn in this series, we'd be able to to take into our lives
the good and the bad and God the good things where we see the
hand of God just moving all the way through Scripture for our
redemption and the bad things in these valleys where we see some
some real things we can learn from and and hopefully avoid the
mistakes ourselves. I pray that we would learn those
things in this series in Jesus name, I pray Amen.
Now the name Mariah means scene of God or chosen by God.
And I think it's very interesting.
I'll ask you this question because it is Sunday school.
So I try to make it a little bit interactive.
I know what happens is I get to Russian at the end of every
lesson and nobody gets to answer or ask any questions.
But I like to to be a little bit interactive, but for one, to
keep you awake and for two, so you can learn.
Does anybody know how many times Mount Moriah is mentioned in the
Bible? Give me a guess.
How many How many times do you think?
Who was that? It's Taiwana.
Anybody else? 7 Anybody else?
All right, Mount Moriah is mentioned three times in the
Bible. The entire Bible.
It's only mentioned by name twice.
Yeah. Where is that candy?
It's too early for candy. We'll do something else.
Any mints? Mints or something.
But yeah, it's mentioned three times.
It's only see. It's only mentioned by name
twice. And we're going to look at all
all three of those appearances because they're very important
as to what the point of Mount Moriah is.
I know. I do think it's interesting also
that a lot of stories in the Bible, sometimes you'll see very
important places that have very little detail, though Mount
Moriah is one of them, very important place all the way
through the Bible. I mean, in Genesis 22, we see
that it is a prophecy of the coming Messiah, this sacrifice
of his only son that. And then, and then we see
Christ, the only son of God being sacrificed is very
important, but not a lot of detail about Mount Moriah.
And I think God does that on purpose so that we don't get
hung up in the details. We get the point of what this
picture is. And we talked about this when we
looked at the Savior in the shadows.
This was one of them. This is a type of Christ, and it
definitely is. But I think God doesn't give us
tons and tons of details so that we don't get caught up on it.
We have verses one through 14 and that's about all we have in
this whole story, let alone it, it doesn't mention but Mount
Moriah but one time and it just tells us that's where it was.
And I think it's it's important. But you see that in verse 2 of
Genesis chapter 22, he said, take now thy son, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and they 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.
That's what we have about Mount Moriah here.
That's it. That's and so I do think it's
very important that we don't read too much into it.
We take it what God gives us and that's it.
But then there's other stories where we have lots and lots of
detail. And I think God does that on
purpose as well because there's lots of of very important
lessons in the details that he wants us to learn.
But I think it's interesting that Mount Moriah means chosen
by Jehovah or chosen by God because with God's eternal
foresight, the Providence of God, that in his eternal wisdom
he chose this place knowing it was going to be where his son or
a picture of what his Son would do for us in redeeming mankind.
So quickly let's go into the three times that we see Mount
Moriah. The first time is here in
Genesis chapter 22. We already looked at it in verse
2. Get the end of the land of
Moriah and offer them therefore burnt offering on one of the
mountains which I will tell the of That's the first time we see
it and that's with Abraham. The second time we see it, and
I'd like you to turn here is in Second Samuel chapter 24.
So go to Second Samuel 24 and if you know this story, Second
Samuel 24. This is where King David
numbered the people and eventually 70,000 men of Israel
die because of this sin. But this is where we see it the
second time and this is the one time that it's mentioned, but
it's not mentioned by name. So let's see in verse 18 second
Samuel chapter 24. So this is after David David
numbers the people. Gad the the prophet comes to him
and says, what have you done? This is a wicked thing in the
eyes of God that you've numbered the people.
He told you not to verse 18 And Gad came that day to David and
said unto him, go up rear an altar unto the Lord in the
threshing floor of Aruna the Jebusite.
And that's the mention of Mariah and I'll show you in a second
where where we see that that is Mariah.
So it get up and rear an altar in the threshing floor of Aruna
the Jebusite. And David, according to to the
saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded.
And Aruna looked and saw the king and his servants coming
toward him. And Aruna went out and bowed
himself before the king on his face upon the ground and and it
goes on. But then you see it at verse 24.
Aruna offers him the the land here.
Just take it. And David says in verse 24,
maybe you've heard this phrase. And the king said unto him unto
Aruna, Nay, but I will surely buy it of the at a price,
neither will Ioffer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God,
of that which just cost me nothing.
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50
shekels of silver. And David built there an altar
under the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings. So the Lord was entreated for
the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
So while this is all happening, men are dying from this
pestilence that we'll look at in just a few minutes.
But David buys the threshing floor of Aruna, and that is
Mount Moriah. Now go to Second Samuel.
Nope. Sorry.
Yes, Second Samuel 12. No, that's not where I want to
go. Second Chronicles chapter 3.
I'm going to say that can't be where I want to go.
It's behind us. Second Chronicles chapter 3 So
David was the second time we see Mount Moriah mentioned but not
by name. But we know it is the same place
because in Second Chronicles chapter 3 and verse one, we we
read this then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at
Jerusalem in Mount Moriah. So we know the temple's built at
Mount Moriah. We know that it's the same place
that Isaac was sacrificed. So those two are the same.
And he says, where the Lord appeared unto David his father,
in the place that David had prepared, in the threshing floor
of Ornan the Jebusite. So Aruna now is Ornan in this
passage is the same person, but Ornan the Jebusite.
This is the threshing floor that David bought to sacrifice to
God. So we know that these three
places now, they are the same place.
They are Mount Moriah that David bought for Solomon to build the
temple because God wouldn't let David build it because he was a
bloody man. He was a man of war and God
didn't want him to build the temple.
So those are the three times that we see Mount Moriah
mentioned in the Bible. And I'm not super, I'm not huge
on, on numerology. I think people can really,
really read into it. That's how they come up with
the, you know, Jesus is coming back in 2024, January 1st
between the 1st and the 7th and that passes and he doesn't come
back. It's all numerology.
So I'm not huge on numerology, but I do think it's interesting
they they mention this that the number 2 is typically in
numerology means a witness or a testimony.
And we know where that comes from in it, where two people are
that that's a a witness and and all the rest of that three is
the number of the, the Trinity. Yeah.
So that one's pretty obvious. So you have it mentioned three
times, but only the name itself 2 times.
And then they make, we make this point here that Mount Moriah
then was a witness or a testimony of what the Triune God
would do on behalf of sinful man.
Not huge on numerology, but I think that is is interesting to
take a quick peek at the two and the three there.
But secondly, then we have those 3 mentions.
Now I want to look at the activity that actually happened
on Mount Moriah. You probably moved your finger,
but go to Genesis, back to Genesis chapter 22, Genesis
chapter 22. And the first activity we see on
Mount Moriah is the fact that there was a sacrifice.
That was the, that's the first activity, the first mention.
And we'll do the same thing. We'll we'll go look at the
second mention with David and see what happened there.
And the third mention with Solomon and see what happened
there. But first is the sacrifice with
Abraham and Isaac. Go to Genesis chapter 22 and
verse 9. Well verse 8 and Abraham said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together.
This is when Isaac said, hey, I see the fire and I see the wood,
but where's the sacrifice and gods?
And Abraham says God will provide himself a lamb.
What a perfect picture again of of the coming Messiah.
God would provide himself a lamb for our sins.
But in verse 9, they came together and they came to the
place which God had told him of Abraham and Abraham built an
altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son
and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
I did I mentioned this before with our Savior in the shadow
series, but that's been a few months.
But it's, it's interesting to me if, if Abraham, I mean, if Isaac
was was old enough to carry the wood and, and carry, you know,
those things up the mountain. He certainly was capable of
getting away from his father, to not have to be a sacrifice.
He gave himself willingly, let his father bind him, laid him on
the laid him on the altar. Obviously this was going through
Isaac's mind. Where is the sacrifice?
So when his father started binding him, he wasn't going, am
I the sacrifice? He knew.
He knew what was happening happening and he allowed his
father to do that, which I think is a perfect picture of Christ.
Bible even says he could have called 10 legions of angels to
take him off the cross, destroy those that were there, but he
didn't he he stayed there for our sin, a willing sacrifice on
that cross. So that's the first thing we see
with the activity on Mount Moriah.
There was a sacrifice that happened, a perfect picture of
of what was coming. But then secondly, we see in
Second Samuel 24 and go there again, Second Samuel 24.
You may just have to put bookmarks in in these three
spots. But Second Samuel chapter 24 and
verse 14, I think this is a really interesting passage if
you read through it. I think we fly through it pretty
quickly sometimes and and don't really catch what's going on
here. David numbers the people.
Gad comes to him and says, hey, there's going to be a
punishment. And that's the second thing I
want to see here on Mount Moriah.
A sentencing happens, but look what David this is this is the
point I want to make here. David says in verse 14, verse
13, So Gad came to David and told him and said unto him,
shall so so he says, Hey, God's going to give you a choice.
What is your punishment going to be?
Which I used to hate when my dad would do because my dad used to
do that kind of stuff. Not not to be mean.
He would just say, would you rather have a whoopin right now
or, you know, lose this privilege for two weeks?
Man, that's a hard choice. Well, here's what happens with
David, Gad says in verse 13. So Gad came to David and told
him, would you rather have seven years of famine on the and thy
land? Seven years of famine is a long,
I mean, that can destroy an entire economy.
Or would you rather have you, David, flee 3 months before your
enemies while they pursue you? Or would you rather have three
days of pestilence in the land and Gad says, now advise and see
what answer I shall return to him that sent me being God.
So God tells Gad, go ask David what he wants and come back and
let me know, which is interesting in itself.
But David says to Gad in verse 14, I am in a great straight and
you got to think this is the king of Israel making a making a
decision for the entire land because of his mistake, because
of his sin. Am I going to have seven years
where these people starve and I have to watch that happen?
Or am I going to have three months where our enemies are
pursuing us and winning or which which could run them completely
out of their land? Or am I going to have three days
of pestilence? And he says, let us fall now
into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great, and let
me not fall into the hand of man.
And I I've noticed that before, but often skipped over it.
David is so confident in the mercy of God that he says, let
God choose. He'll choose the least, I
believe the least of these three punishments because I don't know
which one is the least. And so they and so God chooses.
He says, OK verse 15. So the Lord sent a pestilence
upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed and
their died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba, 70,000
men. And that's why the 70,000 men
died. This pestilence that God chose
for them. I, I think that probably is the
least of them. Yes, 70,000 people died, but who
knows how many would die in a famine for seven years or in
wars for three months being chased by your enemies.
But 70,000 people die and then it's over.
And the and the punishment is done.
So the second thing we see with activity here on Moriah, because
this is where it happened. Remember, at the end of this
chapter is where we see David by the threshing floor of Aruna or
Ornan and make this sacrifice to God.
So this is that that same story. This is what's happening.
So on Mount Moriah, we have a sentencing, a price has to be
paid because of the sin. There's going to be a sacrifice.
It's it's coming. That'll be Jesus Christ as a the
prophecy of Isaac shows, but there has to be a punishment for
sin. And then the third thing, the
third activity we see on Mount Moriah is in Second Chronicles
chapter 5. And so I'd like you to go there
as well. Second Chronicles chapter 5,
just a few chapters after what we just looked at in in chapter
3 where where Solomon starts to build the temple.
But the third activity I believe that we see on Mount Moriah is a
satisfaction in verse chapter 5. Second Chronicles chapter 5 and
verse 7, it says this. And the priest brought in the
ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, to the Oracle of
the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of
the cherubim. And what we have here is in this
most holy place, every year on the Day of Atonement, blood is
put on the mercy seat, right? For what purpose?
It's the Day of Atonement. It's an atoning for the sin of
the people. And when God, when that blood is
offered on the mercy seat, God is satisfied.
And So what a perfect picture again of of the coming Messiah.
He would offer His blood before the Father.
Bible even says that He takes his, the blood back to the
Father and God is pleased with it.
He's satisfied with it and the redemption of mankind is
finished. That's what happened on the
cross. It is finished.
God's wrath against sin is satisfied because of the blood
of Jesus Christ. Perfect picture here of what's
going on with Mount Moriah. There's going to be a sacrifice.
There is a punishment for sin and the blood is what satisfies
a holy God, not just any blood as we see in the new in the Old
Testament. That's what the picture was.
I, I was watching, I don't want to get on a rabbit trail here,
but I was watching a video of a couple of well, one was a was a
theologian slash scholar. The other two were were kind of
fringe that had come with this idea that the reason that Jesus
Christ came was to do away with killing animals.
That was the reason for his coming.
How you can read the Bible and come up with that, I don't know.
But they, they take just the Gospels.
They, they say the only thing we know that is inspired is the, is
the words that are in red. So the rest of the Bible, you
can take it or leave it, But the words of God that are Christ,
that are in red, those are the ones you have to follow.
And so they, they build this whole theology off of it that
the reason Christ came was to do away with animal killing, not
just sacrifice, but killing in general.
And I listened to this whole debate.
They had very, very silly, silly reasoning.
They have. But where was I going with that?
I'm sorry. Anyways, I believe my point was
that this blood had to be sacrificed.
And the point was, oh, the Old Testament, all those sacrifices,
because Hebrews even tells us the law was a schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ, right? So what was the point of the
sacrifices? Was this was the point of the
sacrifices to actually forgive them of their sin in the Old
Testament? Absolutely not.
We we know that from the New Testament because it was a
picture of the coming once for all sacrifice that Jesus Christ
would make. So anyways, I said I don't want
to get on a rabbit trail. And that's why I lost my train
of thought because it wasn't what I had had thought of
before. But anyway, so we have those
activities on Mount Moriah. Now thirdly, we see some
announcements on Mount Moriah. And remember I mentioned that
the 2 is, is a witness or a testimony, the number 2 and the
three is the witness in the testimony of this triune God of
what was happening on Mount Moriah of basically a prophecy
of the coming Christ. And so the first announcement we
have is that the son would be the sacrifice.
And we see that in Genesis chapter 22, God tells Abraham,
take your son and make him a sacrifice.
Now Isaac didn't know that, but Abraham did and he is the son.
He is told that his son would be the sacrifice.
And we see that in the New Testament in Romans chapter 6
and verse 23. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So this is this is we know that the Son is coming to be the
sacrifice and this announcement is made on Mount Moriah with
with Isaac Hebrews chapter 10 verse 12.
I just mentioned this, but it says this man after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right
hand of God. Why is he able to make that
sacrifice? Have God turned his back on him
for the first time in eternity? And I mentioned this a couple
weeks ago when I was preaching that the agony Christ felt in
the garden was not because of the pain that was coming.
It was because of the sin that he would have to take on and
that he would have to have his Father turn his back on him.
That's the the agony he was feeling.
And I I wish we would feel that same agony about our own sin.
You know, I think often we we have a temptation and we think I
don't, I don't think that we think 01 time we'll be fine.
We know it's not fine. But we don't have the same
attitude about sin that Christ had this agony in the garden
over the fact that he would have to take on sin for the first
time in eternity. But this first, this first time
we see Mount Moriah in the Bible is the is the announcement that
the son would be the sacrifice once for all and then sat down
on the right hand of God. The second thing we see with the
Trinity, the second announcement is that the father would execute
the sentence. And I remember that's that was
the point there with David. God came to David, gave him an
option and then executed that judgment and said, all right, I
will have mercy on you, but this is your, this is the punishment
for the sin that you committed. 70,000 men die in this three day
pestilence. Go to Isaiah chapter 53.
It's very interesting. As a side note here as well,
I've, and I'm sure some of you have seen this as well, but
when, when somebody is talking to a, a true Jew, a Jewish
person that's not a Messianic Jew, they don't believe Christ,
but they are a true Jew following the culture and
following the Old Testament and all the rest of that.
They have Isaiah 53 taken out of all their scripture readings in
their in their tabernacles and everything else there is Isaiah
53 is not there because they can't explain it away.
So they just take it out kind of like new translations do now.
But Isaiah 53, they take it out because so, so some, if you
watch some of their videos, there are men that say, Hey, I'm
going to read a passage to you and tell me where, where it's
from. They read Isaiah 53 to them and
they say it's New Testament. We don't believe it.
They turn them, turn the Bible around and say it's Isaiah 53
and they, they're floored because they've never heard it
before. But it is a prophecy of the
Messiah and exactly what happened with Jesus Christ.
But in Isaiah 53 and verse 10, the father executes the
sentence. So the Son is going to be the
sacrifice. And we see this, this is the
picture of the cross now that the Father executes that
judgment. Pastor mentioned this yesterday
at the funeral. But God is loving, but he has to
have punishment for sin or he's not just.
And so even though it's his own Son who takes on this sin for
all of mankind, God doesn't look down and go, oh, that's my Son.
That's my, my, my beloved Son. I'm not going to execute
judgment. He has to because of the sin
that his son took on in Isaiah 5310.
We see that verses one through 9.
It's it's all that would happen to Christ.
But in verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord.
Remember there, it's all caps. So that's Jehovah God.
It pleased Jehovah God to bruise him.
He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an
offering for sin. He shall see his seed, He shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. But it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. That doesn't mean he was happy
about it. It means that it was something
that he had to do. It was what he saw fit to do it.
It was the Lord saw fit to bruise him because of the sin
that he took on. Very interesting that that we
see all the way back in the Old Testament what was absolutely
going to happen a couple thousand years later with Jesus
Christ. And so we we see secondly, the
the Father would execute the sentence.
And then the third thing we see is that the Spirit then would
woo the Sinner. And we see that with Samuel in,
in, in with the temple, first with the temple, we see that God
is holy. They made a holy of holies.
Now remember, we think that the Tabernacle in the Old Testament,
remember when we have the, the high priest goes in once a year
on the Day of Atonement, and he's got the, the rope attached
to his ankle in case that he's got sin and he falls dead.
And they, they were able to pull him out without themselves going
in and being killed because that's the Holy of holies that
did not end with the children of Israel in the wilderness.
That is the temple here with Solomon, that that same
structure was in place because the Messiah had not come yet,
right. So this is just to give you an
idea. The, the first temple was built
somewhere around 9:50 to 960 BC somewhere in there.
And I could have my dates off just by a little bit, but it's
somewhere in there, 950 to 960 BC, so 1000 years before Christ.
The temple structure is still in place.
And so you have this Holy of Holies that was built in
Samuel's Temple or Solomon's Temple.
I'm sorry, Second Samuel, if you did hold your finger there,
that's if not, that's fine. But Second Samuel chapter 3 is
where we see it was Second Samuel.
What notice? Yes, it was.
Is it 24/24/24 Second Samuel 24 is where we see No, it's not
Where was it anyways, I'm looking for where Solomon builds
the temple Second Chronicles 5 Sorry so second Chronicles 5.
I'm not going to read this this passage because we just got a
couple minutes, but it's it's we see there where the Holy of
Holies was brought in and set in there.
I even read that verse, I believe, but let's see.
Yes, Yep. So second Chronicles 5 seven and
the priest brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto
his place to the Oracle of the house into the most holy place,
even under the wings of the cherubims.
For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of
the ark, and the cherubims cover the ark and the stage thereof
above, and they drew out the staves of the ark, that the ends
of the staves were seen from the ark before the Oracle, but they
were not seen without. And there is there.
It is unto this day. Anyways, my point is, they
brought this ark into the Holy of holies, and this structure
now is set in place. That is where God himself would
dwell until that temple was destroyed and Jesus Christ,
well, until Christ was sacrificed.
And the, the, the veil is split. That all happens right here in
Solomon's Temple, which I, I, I don't know if that's what you
have in mind, but sometimes in my mind, I think it's the
Tabernacle. It's not at Solomon's Temple.
This, this veil is split and, and then in 70 AD it is, it is
destroyed for the last time. But my point is, the first thing
we see with the Spirit wooing the Sinner is that there is a
holy place. God is holy.
And then secondly, the temple bears witness to the fact that
man is sinful. And, and we already mentioned
that, but man could not go into the Holy of Holies.
It could not come before God because we're sinful.
And then lastly with the Holy Spirit, this third part of the
Trinity wooing sinners to himself is the fact that God
made it possible one time a year with this temple, with the
temple structure for man to come be reconciled to him shows us
that God is not a the picture of the Greek mythological gods
waiting to just send lightning down and destroy things.
He wants to be reconciled to mankind, but he cannot reconcile
with sin still in place. And so as we saw, he's a just
God. He will execute judgment if sin
is not taken care of. Heard this yesterday at the at
the funeral. But that sin was taken care of
by Christ himself. The sacrifice we saw with
Abraham and Isaac, that picture that sacrifice took care of our
sin. But the mercy seat, why is it
called the mercy seat? Because when the blood is put on
it, God shows mercy on his people.
That's why it was called that. And so, so I'm going to finish
with this verse. Revelation 2217.
Even today the Spirit of God is pleading with sinners to come
and be reconciled to him. It's it's, it's a picture we saw
all the way started back in in with Mount Moriah in Genesis
chapter 22 and still all the way in the last book of the Bible,
Revelation chapter 22, verse 17. And the spirit and the bride
say, come and let him that heareth say come and let him
that is a thirst come. And whosoever will let him take
the water of life freely. God is thus the Holy Spirit is
still wooing sinners to himself and until Christ comes back,
that's his, that's one of his jobs.
He's calling sinners to repentance.
I thought this was an interesting poem and, and this
will be well, I'll read this and then we'll pray and be done.
Mount Moriah was a shadow for it told of things to come, how that
God would pay man sin debt with the blood of his own son.
I'm thankful for the shadow for it showed to me the way to that
blessed mount called Calvary where my sin was washed away.
And that's my whole point this morning.
I hope that, like we said, these, these mountains hopefully
are an inspiration to us of, of the plan God had in place
already. This is not something that off
the cuff he's going, what do we do now?
And I used to, I mentioned this, but I used to in witnessing kind
of say that, you know, then man sinned.
And so God said, well, we've got to have a sacrifice.
This is before the foundations of the earth.
God knew what was his redemption plan.
And so as soon as the Bible starts in, in in fact, even
before Genesis chapter 22, but with the with Mount Moriah in
Genesis chapter 22, the redemption plan is starts to be
put out there for us to see and for us to know that what was
coming. And so God had this plan in
place all along for mankind's redemption.
And I hope we see that in Mount Moriah, our first mountain in in
this series. All right, let's pray and we'll
be done. We'll get into another mountain
next week. Father, I thank you for this day
you've given us. Thank you for another
opportunity to open your word. God, I thank you for the the
prophecy in your word. It's that we can look back all
the way through and know this is not a chance thing.
This is not a religion that has been come up with.
This is not something man looked in your word and saw things that
maybe sort of matched and put a religion together.
God, this was your plan from before about the foundations of
the world to redeem mankind when we fell after being made perfect
in a in a perfect state and we fell.
God, you had this plan all along and and you showed it to us.
And so God, I pray as we witness and we share this gospel, this
good news with others. Yeah, that we would have full
confidence that that this Messiah that came was was the
one that you sent for redemption of our sins.
And God, I pray that as we bump into Jewish people, God, that we
would be able to steer them to this, to this obvious point as
well. God that you had from eternity
past had this plan of our redemption.
Pray that you be with the next service.
God be with pastor as he preaches.
Fill him with your power. Pray that you'd feed us, help
our hearts to be prepared. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.
All right, we're dismissed.