Ezekiel 40-48

[00:00:00] Ezekiel 43 from verse 1. [00:00:08] Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. [00:00:15] And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the east. [00:00:21] And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters. [00:00:26] And the earth shone with his glory. [00:00:30] And the vision I saw was like the vision which I had seen when he came to destroy the city. [00:00:36] And like the vision which I had seen by the river Kiba. [00:00:41] And I fell upon my face as the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east. The spirit, spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court. [00:00:56] Behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. [00:01:01] While the man was standing beside me. [00:01:04] I heard one speaking to me out of the temple. [00:01:08] And he said to me, son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. [00:01:27] And then, chapter 47, chapter 47, verse 1. [00:01:41] Then he brought me back to. To the door of the temple. [00:01:45] Behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east. [00:01:52] The temple faced east. [00:01:55] And the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. [00:02:03] Then he brought me out by the way of the north gate and led me around on the arks side to the outer gate that faces toward the east. [00:02:14] And the water was coming out on the south side, going on eastward with a line in his hand. [00:02:22] The man measured a thousand cubits and then led me through the water and it was ankle deep. [00:02:30] Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, and it was needy. [00:02:37] Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water. [00:02:41] It was up to the loin. [00:02:43] Again he measured a thousand. [00:02:45] And it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in a river that could not be passed through. [00:02:57] And he said to me, son of man, have you seen this? [00:03:03] Then he led me back along the bank of the river. [00:03:06] As I went back, I saw upon the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. [00:03:12] And he said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah. [00:03:20] And when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water will become fresh. [00:03:26] And wherever the river goes, every living creature which swarms will live. [00:03:31] And there will be very many fish, for this water goes there. That the waters of the sea may become fresh. [00:03:39] So everything will live where the river goes. [00:03:46] Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engadae to Eniglaem there will be a place for the spreading of nets. [00:03:54] Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the great sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh. They are to be left for salt. [00:04:05] And on the banks on both sides of the river there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail. [00:04:14] But they will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them is flows from the sanctuary. [00:04:22] Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. [00:04:31] Now this evening we come to the last part of the book of ezekiel, from chapter 40 to 48. [00:04:42] I put back on the board the outline, brief outline of the book of Ezekiel, which you see is five fold. [00:04:52] And we have covered the first four of the first four of those divisions. [00:05:01] Seen those first chapters, the glory of the Lord, what Ezekiel saw as the glory of the Lord, the presence of God, the throne of God, the dwelling place of God, bound up with the cherubim. In the midst of the cherubim. [00:05:25] Then we saw the departing of that glory and the reasons for it condition amongst God's people, which drove out the glory of the Lord. Something which was incompatible with God's glory and God's presence and throne. He had to leave it. [00:05:44] And Ezekiel got right down to the root and the causes of that departure of God's glory. [00:05:53] And we saw something too of the judgment of the nations. [00:05:58] Not only the judgment of God's people, with a view in them to restoring them, but the judgment of the nations, a removal of those influences and that ground forsaken. [00:06:14] And then we saw something of the recovery and the restoration of God's people. That was the last evening I remember we left it there in the 39th chapter, God's people restored those wonderful visions of the impossibility really of restoring the people of God in the condition into which they had come. And yet the remarkable way in which the Lord revealed to Ezekiel that as it were, not by might nor by power, but by his spirit, he was able to make even dead bones to come up out of their graves and to be to live again. [00:07:00] And we left it with the final great conflict, Gog and Magog, which is a symbol in many ways of the endless conflict that rages over God's purpose. [00:07:12] It may one day have some literal fulfillment. It's had many fulfillments in a sense, because the. The conflict itself is endless. [00:07:22] And the good, great song of that, those two chapters 38 and 39, is the fact that in the end, by the mighty power of God. [00:07:34] The whole satanic kingdom and forces and energy is going to be destroyed once and for all. [00:07:43] Now, when we come to chapter 40, we enter immediately into an altogether different atmosphere. [00:07:52] These last nine chapters from 40 to 48. This part of the book, in many ways is quite different from the rest of the book. [00:08:00] It contains one of the most remarkable and clearest of the unfoldings of God's objective in the Old Testament and indeed in the Bible. [00:08:14] These few chapters stand out quite on their own from the rest of Ezekiel. Indeed, of course, if you look at the date, you will discover that a 13 year break exists between the last prophecies that were given in 39 and these in 40. [00:08:33] It's quite clear that Ezekiel now was reaching the climax of his ministry, at least as far as we are concerned, as far as the people of God in other generations, successive generations, were concerned. And here we now have something set down in a positive way. [00:08:53] There is nothing negative in these chapters. All of it is absolutely positive and it deals with the essential character and ministry of God's habitation, the eternal place of God's glory. [00:09:12] These chapters are all to do with the essential characteristics of this vessel which is God's objective. God is after a vessel. God is seeking to produce something which can contain himself, which the cherubim are symbols of, symbolic of. [00:09:36] And now, as it were, the symbol changes. And Ezekiel seeks to define something clear as to God's great objective. [00:09:50] It's a vision of the eternal church of God. [00:09:56] And in keeping with the rest of Ezekiel's ministry, it does not deal with, with temporal and local matters. It doesn't deal with those things that we could call temporal practicalities. [00:10:14] Mind you, there's a tremendous amount in these chapters that seemingly deals with some practical problems about boiling things and where to eat and how to keep entrances from getting congested and all those kind of things. But nevertheless, in keeping with the whole of Ezekiel's ministry, these, these chapters do not deal with details really. [00:10:44] They are getting all the time at the eternal and abiding characteristics of God's house, not to do with those matters that you will find, for instance, in Nehemiah and Ezra, to do with the actual practicalities in time and in place, in places, in localities. [00:11:09] Ezekiel here is dealing with those timeless characteristics of God's house and dwelling place. [00:11:20] And we must remember that the local and the temporal is after all only an expression or should be, of the eternal and the universal. Now that's the whole value of Ezekiel's ministry. Whilst he doesn't touch things that are detailed. He doesn't touch situations like Aeodia and Syntyche who couldn't get on together and Clement who'd got to help them, and lots of other little matters like husbands and wives and children and parents and employers and employees and all the rest of it. He's not coming down quite to that level. He's not coming down to those things to do with the locality, to do with the actual situation, to do with the place itself, the places themselves. [00:12:13] He's keeping all the time to the essential and eternal characteristics of God's house, which can be applied to any given place and at any given time. The wonder of this, of these chapters is that it could be applied to the time when the children remnant went back to the land. It could be applied in, in Paul and John's time, it can be applied in every successive generation since. And it can be applied today to our own time within his ministry. We have those essential characteristics of the eternal church of God, that which is eternal and universal. [00:13:01] His vision was a majestic vision, vision, a grand vision. He saw everything in its broadest and yet at the same time in its finest lines. [00:13:18] Ezekiel, of course, sees the longing of God fulfilled and he sees his glory coming back to dwell forever. [00:13:28] This, of course, is the. [00:13:31] The climax and the fulfillment of Ezekiel's ministry. It's a very wonderful thing to note that very beginning of his ministry. He understood by the river Kiba what the glory of God was like. [00:13:45] This the character of God's glory, the meaning of the glory of God. [00:13:51] I think Ezekiel had an understanding of the glory of God that few Christians today have. He saw something and then he lived right through the period of God, just departing God, just leaving, getting out, couldn't stay any longer because it was all incompatible. [00:14:11] Now he sees the glory of God returning, not just to stay for a little while and then go off, but he is now seeing something which is eternal God through it all, securing something in heaven, as it were, which is going to be absolutely eternal and forever. [00:14:28] And in his vision he sees God coming back for good, coming home at last. [00:14:37] Now there's just one special note that we should make, and that is that we must remember that many people take these prophecies for the Jew, these last chapters, as indeed they take most of Ezekiel. [00:14:51] And they expect to see a rebuilt temple that we shall all see. [00:14:59] And they expect to see a restored, reinstituted sacrificial system with lambs and bullocks and so on once again being slain for the sin of the people on the ground, on the basis of these prophecies. Many Christians, multitudes of Christians, believe firmly and implicitly in that view that according to this and other parts of the prophets, the temple is going to be rebuilt in the millennium, and all these sacrifices are going to be restored, and earthly priesthood and earthly Levites are going to look after it, and there are going to be a restoration of all the feasts and the holy days and the new moons and the Sabbath and everything. [00:15:50] Well, I make that a point of just mentioning that in passing, because I feel that we cannot really concur with that view, chiefly because these chapters correspond so remarkably to Revelation 21 and 22, and that is not the Jew. [00:16:15] Revelation 21:22 reveal only what we find in these chapters, but in a fuller and more detailed way than ever, showing to us that this is not Jew or Gentile, but the people of God in every generation. [00:16:32] So we need just to make that point. If you want to ask any questions, you'll have to come and ask them. [00:16:39] Now, let's just together look at these chapters, beginning at chapter 40. [00:16:49] I have actually put up on the other side of the board. [00:16:53] Any of you want to copy it down, a little more detailed outline of these nine chapters. [00:17:04] Now, what do we find in these nine chapters? [00:17:08] We expect to find here in this part of Ezekiel a definition of the essential character of God's church. [00:17:21] And we ought to be able to apply those characteristics of the eternal and universal to the church here in Richmond or the church as expressed anywhere in any locality. [00:17:38] We ought to be able to apply them to ourselves personally and corporately and be able really to learn, because they've been given to us, that we might be brought into complete alignment with what God is seeking to do. [00:17:54] What we have to say is, if God can't get those characteristics in us here on earth, we cannot have part in the end in the eternal vessel. [00:18:13] We will not lose our salvation, but we can well lose our place function in that eternal objective of God. [00:18:26] That's the important point to recognize, and that is the value of this ministry. [00:18:31] Now, what do we find? Well, the first three chapters, 40, 41 and 42, I don't know whether some of you, like the first two or three chapters of Ezekiel, gave up when you read these. [00:18:44] There is an endless, seemingly an endless repetition in these three chapters of the man measuring. [00:18:54] Everything seems to be measured. You look at chapter 40 and you will find that this part of Ezekiel opens with a vision of the city. Now, it's very interesting. It says the structure of a city on a very high Mountain, I can't spend too long with that. But it's very interesting that when John saw the city of God coming down, he was carried up into a very high mountain. The very high mountain, in actual fact, geographically, is not so very high because it's Mount Zion. [00:19:30] And on Mount Zion, which spiritually is very high and very great, as far as God is concerned, there is a city. [00:19:40] The vision opens with Ezekiel being carried into this city on this mountain. [00:19:49] But his attention is directed away from the city and away from the land, to the house of God. [00:20:01] And you will find that quite a lot of these chapters are dealing with the house of God, and then only afterwards the land and the city. That's important because, you see, these three things represent quite distinct, distinctly different aspects. The city always speaks of administration and government, a center of commerce, of administration, of government, of order. [00:20:41] The land in Scripture always speaks of the fullness of Christ. And that's why you always get inheritance linked with the land, the fullness of Christ, Christ himself. [00:20:55] And the house speaks of the heart of everything. [00:21:00] It always speaks. The house of the temple always represents that intimate union with God, the most intimate relationship of all to the Lord in devotion and worship and service. [00:21:16] Always. Whenever you have the house of God in Scripture or the tabernacle, that's what it represents, the inner sanctum, the home of God. You see, the city is the home of God, but in a much wider and broader, it's bigger and broader than the house. The house is contained within the city. You get what we mean. The city speaks of God's government, of God's kingdom, of God's order it were. [00:21:51] And the land speaks of the Lord personally, to be possessed the fullness of his own. [00:22:00] But the house speaks more of the hope of God, where God is, if I may use the term reverently, himself, where God relaxes, where God is at home. [00:22:20] This is always represented in Scripture by the house. [00:22:26] Now, when Ezekiel is brought in his vision, he is directed away from the land to which he expressly tells us he was brought into, away from the city, though he mentions it on the high notes mountain. [00:22:41] And he comes straight to the house. [00:22:46] Now, Mark, he begins without and moves within. [00:22:51] The first thing in these chapters we discover is that he's shown the wall of the outer court. [00:22:58] And then gradually he moves stage by stage with the man with the measuring rod and the line of flax, all to do with measuring. He moves stage by stage through the outer court, into the inner court, from the inner court, right into the house itself. And then after he's been taken round the house, right back out again to measure, finally, the whole area. [00:23:25] He starts from without and works within. Now, that's rather important. [00:23:30] Next, I want you to note about these chapters, because we can't obviously deal with everything exhaustively, that in these three chapters, everything is measured by the man. The word measure occurs at least 38 times in these three chapters. It is almost. [00:23:50] Almost painful the way we find the repetition of the word measure. Measuring. He measured this, he measured that, he measured everything. [00:23:59] I mean, it's all right for a man to measure a few steps, but when he comes to measuring the jambs of the door, the actual pillars of the door upon which the door swings, and then starts measuring windows and measuring each little chamber of God's chambers, apart from everything else, and then goes on to all kinds of other things, measuring everything. [00:24:23] I don't know whether perhaps some of you found it just a little bit much too much to understand why for three whole chapters we get nothing else but this man measuring every nook and cranny in the whole of the house of God, from the outside walls, right through to the inner court, right through to the actual sanctuary itself. Everything is measured. [00:24:56] Now, what does this mean? Well, I've put it up here. The pattern of the house. [00:25:02] There's a tremendous amount said in Scripture about the heavenly pattern. The tabernacle was made according to that heavenly pattern. The temple was constructed according to the pattern given to David. [00:25:17] Now, Ezekiel. The thing that's being impressed upon Ezekiel is there's a pattern. [00:25:23] There's a pattern to this. [00:25:26] Now, it's not simply that God's got some blueprints and he's being a little bit meticulous and fastidious about his blueprints. It's not that at all. There's a reason for it, because when you come to Revelation 21 and 22, you find again that the thing that impressed John was that the angel there started to measure every. Everything of the city. He had to wait while he measured everything. [00:25:53] And John tells us how everything was measured with a golden measuring wand. [00:25:59] Here is the same thing again. Everything is being measured. [00:26:03] Nothing escapes. Even the tables upon which the hooks and the pans for the slaughtering of the sacrificial animals. [00:26:15] Even those tables we are told he measured. Everything is measured. [00:26:23] What does it mean? [00:26:26] It speaks simply of this, that the church is absolutely according to pattern. [00:26:36] Now, let's translate that into a few practical terms. That simply means that you and I have not been born of God by mistake, nor are our circumstances A mistake. Nor is our condition a mistake, nor is our situation a mistake. The whole thing is being used of God to bring something out in the end which is according to measure, it's according to pattern. Oh, you might be grumbling about your conditions at present. You might at the at the present time feel that they're all very unfair and upside down and all the rest of it. But one day, if by the grace of God we are part of that eternal church, we'll thank God for every condition and every situation which has produced something. [00:27:23] I want to tell you something about a man who lives next door to me. He is a man who's written quite a number of books on yachting. He's one of the leading yachts in this country. [00:27:34] And I don't think he's an exceedingly wealthy man. But about six months ago he had a yacht built. It was brought home as beautiful looking thing and parked in the drive next door. [00:27:46] And then a few days later it was taken away. [00:27:49] And we heard that it was one inch out. [00:27:56] Because it was one inch out, he was not allowed to enter it into the racing cows. [00:28:02] So a new yacht, he got his money back. He took it to another boat building firm. A new yacht appeared a month or two later. Another beautiful thing, five, six days later that went back. [00:28:17] We heard this time that there was something out at the back. [00:28:22] It wasn't according to measurements. [00:28:25] He got his money back again, or they agreed this time reading to build another yacht. [00:28:30] Two weeks ago a new yacht appeared next door. [00:28:34] And then to our horror, we saw an admiralty man there measuring up every single thing. And we heard half an inch out. [00:28:42] But the half an inch out disqualified him completely. The yachts combat back and he's got back. [00:28:52] Would you believe it? [00:28:55] Now you see, everything in the house of God is according to measure. It can't be an inch out. [00:29:03] Nothing's going to be out. [00:29:05] If it's out, it's disqualified. [00:29:08] You know, they found stones that were originally intended for the temple, still with the mark on quarried. But somehow they didn't yield. [00:29:21] And they were left with a great cross through the letter that had been put on them, marking the temple, there was something out. [00:29:31] So you see, everything's got to be according to measure. God has given us in this vision to Ezekiel a lot to do with everything being according to pattern. [00:29:44] There's a lot in scripture about being subject, isn't there? Subject to people, subject to conditions, subject to circumstances, subject to all kinds of difficult and hard things. Why do you think the Lord is sort of seeking to bring misery into our lives and to try and do everything he possibly can to just make things difficult. [00:30:08] No, it's simply because something is coming out through our learning him in the conditions which, if we don't learn him, will never come any other way but that way. [00:30:22] And that something which is coming out is qualifying us for a place in the house. [00:30:29] Everything is according to pattern because everything has got to be produced to God. The whole thing is of God, this temple, to transfer it into the spiritual. There is nothing that is natural. Nothing belongs to the old creation in this house. [00:30:48] You know, when John finally saw it, you know, it was such pure gold that it was transparent, the glorious gold. God got right through it. There wasn't a thing that could cast a shadow. There wasn't a thing that was an obstacle or an obstruction to God's presence and glory. Everything was perfect, absolutely perfect. [00:31:12] So you see, this vessel for God's glory has got to be not only according to pattern, but holy of God. [00:31:22] And this man was measuring everything to see. There were no additions, nothing else. [00:31:29] All was exactly according to God's pattern. [00:31:37] And also you will find here in the pattern that everything is provided for. God has made provision for everything. [00:31:45] He doesn't leave it to us to start making provision for things and trying to know better than him, as many of us, we think better, we know how to do it. The Lord, if you read right through there, has made provision for everything from God's rooms in the entrances, as I've said, to kitchens and boiling houses, to storage rooms big and small. Everything is provided for in this dwelling place of God. [00:32:14] Nothing is left to chance and nothing is left to man. [00:32:19] Everything is wholly out from God's mind. And therefore the man with the measuring rod is seeing that everything is according to God's mind. Everything represents God, nothing else. [00:32:35] In chapter 43, in verse 10, you will discover that the Lord tells Ezekiel that the people, he says, thou, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. And let them measure the pattern. [00:32:57] Now there we are. Let them measure the pattern. [00:33:00] Let them now get down to finding out what the Lord wants. [00:33:05] Here the Lord is saying, this is what I want, something out absolutely according to my mind, something wholly out of the nature of Christ. Now then, let my people discover. Let them find out the measure. There's a lot that Paul says, isn't it, about a man not thinking more of himself than he ought to think, but to think of himself soberly as he ought ministering exactly the measure that he has. [00:33:35] We ought to be discovering the measure that God wants. [00:33:41] Well, there's a lot there, but there we are. It's all to do with the pattern. [00:33:47] This church of God is not a haphazard thing. [00:33:51] It's something that was in the mind of God from before times eternal. [00:33:57] And God is very slowly working on it. He's taken many thousands of of years. [00:34:03] The eternal objective of God is something of the most singular and peculiar beauty which he is working over slowly, methodically. [00:34:17] But surely God's working, you know, over this objective of his covers thousands of years of human history. [00:34:26] And when we were to add up the aggregate of denial and suffering and faithfulness and devotion that it represents, it would be tremendous, you know, when at last that city appears, having the glory of God, a thing of such beauty that no one can hardly look upon it. It's so wonderful. It's not just something cheap that God has suddenly clicked his fingers and there it is. It's something which has within it something inherent. [00:35:00] It's come out of us a long history of the dealings and the workings of God. [00:35:08] Well, there's the pattern of the house. I'm afraid I haven't been able to put it very well, but there we are as the pattern of the house and we're all in it. [00:35:15] These stones are living stones and we are the stones. [00:35:20] We have been brought, we've been begotten again of Christ. We've got something, however small of Christ in every one of us. And that's the thing the Lord's working on. The rest let it go. The Lord's not bothered about the rest. [00:35:34] He's bothered about what's of Himself in us and what's of himself he knows is going to get through what's of himself. [00:35:42] If we will only allow the Lord, he can bring it to the full measure that he requires in each one, then it'll all be built together and fitly framed together and fused into one great building, the habitation of God. Now the next thing in chapter 43 is the law of the house. [00:36:04] I leave that for you to read. But here we see God actually moving into his he in the other. He's not there. [00:36:15] We just see everything being measured to see whether it's according to pattern, to see whether it is of Himself. Now in chapter 43 we find God takes a major step forward. It's like the book of Leviticus. He steps in, he takes residence, takes up residence within. [00:36:31] He comes home, he moves in. [00:36:36] And Ezekiel tells us this specifically, that it was the same vision which he saw at the river Kibar and which he saw departing from Jerusalem, which he now sees coming back into Jerusalem, into the house. Now, what does he mean? Why does he specifically tell us that it was the same? He means simply this, that everything the cherubim represent and symbolize is now secured. [00:37:04] You know, all that measuring it was to see whether the qualities the character represented in the Chernobyl was in actual fact there. That's all. Whether we'd got the royalty, whether we got the nobility, whether we'd got the authority, whether there was the service, whether there was that laboring, steadfast, sacrificial serving of the Lord, whether there was the sympathy and the response of the man, whether there was the spirituality and the heavenliness of the eagle. [00:37:42] Everything now has been measured. God comes in because now it corresponds to what he wants. He has got something which is absolutely compatible with his glory, compatible with. With his presence and with his throne. [00:37:59] So he can move in. God can eternally commit himself. [00:38:07] It's a tremendous thing. Obviously, when God eternally commits himself. Ezekiel didn't see the Lord just commit himself for a period of time until sin drove him out. [00:38:20] Ezekiel ended this tremendous vision with and that shall be called the Lord is there. [00:38:28] In other words, now the Lord's got something from which he will never leave, something from which he will never depart, something so compatible with him, if I may say so, something that is sinless. [00:38:44] He's got it. [00:38:46] And there's no possibility or even potentiality of him being driven out. [00:38:55] There it is. If you look at this 43rd chapter, you will find one or two rather wonderful things. [00:39:01] You will note first that he, that Ezekiel hears the Lord speaking from within. [00:39:08] Last time he went from without right the way to within. Now he is in the inner court, and. And he hears the Lord speaking to him from within the house. The Lord has taken up restraints. And what is the Lord's declaration? We read it. This is my throne. [00:39:25] Now, do not make any mistake about it. The church is God's throne. God doesn't sit on something that looks like a throne, nor will he ever sit on something which looks like a throne. Many of us have got a vision of an old gentleman sitting on a golden throne rather like the one in Westminster Abbey. Well, the Lord doesn't sit on that kind of throne. God's throne is his people. He is enthroned in his people. They are his throne. [00:39:51] God has a throne like that. [00:39:54] That's his seat. [00:39:57] That's his home. [00:39:59] This Is my throne. He says, and listen. [00:40:02] A rather remarkable phrase. [00:40:04] The place for the souls of my feet. [00:40:12] There's a rather remarkable phrase for God to use. The Lord hasn't got soles and feet. [00:40:18] Why should the Lord say, this is my throne, and then add this strange word and the place of the soles of my feet? The Lord said, this is my throne, and here I will dwell majestically. [00:40:31] We would have all understood. But why does he say, and this is the place of the soles of my feet? I want to remind you that the first picture we ever get of God is of God walking in the garden. [00:40:44] And ever since the Fall, God has been seeking somewhere where he can put his feet, metaphorically down on the earth, where he says to Isaiah, I will make the place of my feet glory. [00:40:58] The church is the place of God's feet. [00:41:02] When Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple, he saw him right up there. But his train filled the temple. His feet were in the temple. His feet were on the earth in the temple. Do you understand? [00:41:18] The church is the place of God's feet. [00:41:21] We should be the link between heaven and earth. [00:41:26] It's as if God's feet are here in us. [00:41:30] The head's in heaven and his feet are here. The soles of his feet. What a declaration. My throne on the place of the soles of my feet. Authority and presence. The presence and the authority of God. [00:41:51] What is the law of the house? [00:41:55] A word we don't like. [00:41:59] Verse 12. The law of the house is hers. [00:42:05] Law of the house. This is the law of the house. Upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof, round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law, the house. It's interesting that in this vision you continually get squares or cubes. [00:42:23] The most holy place, the Holy of Holies, was a complete cube and always represents the holiness of God. [00:42:30] The new city is a cube, huge cube and everything. Here you will find the altar is a cube. You will find the area of the temple is the same type of square. You will find the whole area in the land is the same square. It all speaks of the holiness of God. Now, what is holiness? Well, I think you all know holiness is wholeness. [00:42:57] What is wholeness? Well, our word health is something akin to it. Wholeness, health. [00:43:05] What is to thee? [00:43:07] When something gets out of its right place into the wrong place. [00:43:13] That's disease. [00:43:15] What is sin? [00:43:17] When something gets out of its right place into the wrong place. [00:43:24] What is holiness when everything is in its right place? [00:43:31] You know the little phrase in the Old Testament Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. [00:43:37] It is translated in some of the modern versions. Worship the Lord in holier way. [00:43:45] The idea is an idea of order, everything in its place. [00:43:51] Do get away from the idea that holiness is a kind of pie, a kind of being very sanctimonious and distant and superior. And you don't do so and so. And you don't do so and so. And you don't do so and so. And you don't do so and so. And you're very holy. [00:44:07] Holiness is wholeness. [00:44:10] It is spiritual health. [00:44:13] Something that is absolutely right, a right order. Everything in its place, that's holiness. Now, the law of the house is holiness. [00:44:26] The whole of the house, everything is according to pattern, everything in its right place. Nothing's gone out of its right place into a wrong place. [00:44:37] Everything is where it was placed and doing what it was meant to do. [00:44:43] That's holiness. [00:44:45] And the law of the house is holiness. [00:44:49] Now, you and I might well ask ourselves a question if we look at this 43rd chapter. Well then, how exactly do we produce such? [00:44:59] How is a hole in the slightest produced? You've got it immediately from verse 13 to 27. The altar is the next thing that we view. [00:45:09] After we've learned that the law of the house is holiness, the next thing we are told to look at is the altar. And we dispute that. [00:45:20] Holiness can only be produced by a deep experience of the cross. [00:45:26] That's the only way that holiness can be produced. [00:45:31] There's no such thing as right order, either personally or corporately, without an experience of the cross. When there's disorder, when there's confusion, when everyone is against everyone else, when everyone's doing everyone else's job, when everyone is, as it were, in a place they shouldn't be and weren't meant to fill. That's all due to the fact that the cross isn't working. [00:45:55] When the cross starts to work in people, it puts them back into their right place, cuts them down to their right measure, stops them overreaching themselves or building something which is counterfeit or substitute. [00:46:13] The work of the cross all the time produces health. [00:46:18] It produces order, it produces wholeness. If you look at this, you will discover again that there's a lot about sin. Offering and burnt offerings for seven days to atone with the altar for seven days. But upon the eighth day, it only speaks of burnt. [00:46:39] From the eighth day I will accept you. [00:46:42] A deep, thorough work of the cross in its twofold nature. [00:46:49] One justifies us and the other removing what we are. [00:46:58] And when You've got that the ground is cleared for another kind of offering altogether. [00:47:06] That's holiness. [00:47:08] Holiness is, first of all, God working to cover our sin, to cleanse it, to remove the penalty, and then it is getting down, secondly, to what we are and dealing with what we are by putting us away, teaching us how to take the ground of the altar, teaching us how, by faith, to appropriate the cross for what we are. [00:47:34] And then we discover something else is coming out. [00:47:40] The eighth day, you know, always speaks of a new beginning. [00:47:45] The eighth day always speaks of resurrection, always in Scripture. And from the eighth day the Lord accepts us. It's all then. What's born of God, what's not of God is being dealt with. What's born of God is now accepted. [00:48:00] That's how holiness comes in. Now I'm going to say something else that I remember Brother Oliphant said in one of the last messages she ever gave. Here no one is happy who is unholy. [00:48:15] And there is absolutely no truer thing in the world. [00:48:21] There is absolutely no happiness. Where there is unholiness, where there is true holiness and not that pseudo holiness, you get true happiness. [00:48:36] Order, peace, joy comes that way. [00:48:44] The third thing you find from 44 to 46 is the service in the house. We've seen the house, we've seen its laws, and now we turn to the service within it. We've seen something of the pattern of the house, and we've seen something of the law of the house. [00:49:03] Now we move into the service within the house. [00:49:07] And when we come to the service within and mark it is within, we find some very interesting things about service within the house of God. [00:49:17] It covers these chapters 44, 45 and 46. [00:49:22] Seven things you find here. The first about service within God's church is there can be no violation of the Lord's authority. You read that in the first three verses of chapter 44. Now, what does this mean? Now, don't get it wrong. It doesn't mean that you mustn't speak wrongly of brother so and so, or you must obey those that have the rule over you, as it says in the New Testament. It's from another aspect altogether. [00:49:47] There's a very interesting aspect too. Ezekiel doesn't deal with our relationship to those who have authority over us or those who represent the Lord's headship. It deals with those who are, shall we say, elders, or those who are responsible for God. [00:50:07] And it deals with the possibility of their violating the authority of God. [00:50:16] You see what it says about the east door? Because The Lord came in that way. That door is to be shut. Not even the prince is allowed to come in that way. [00:50:26] He must come in another way now and again. He's allowed to use that way because he represents the authority of God. But he must not violate authority of God. [00:50:36] There is more trouble from the violation of responsible brothers in the work of God. More trouble from the violation of the authority of the Lord than anything else that stems from anything else. [00:50:53] It's one of those tremendously delicate things, authority. [00:51:00] And it's one of the first things we find when we come to chapter 44, when it deals with service. [00:51:06] Those who are rulers, those who have administration in their hands, must not substitute their mind to the mind of the Spirit in the house of God. [00:51:19] They must not act independently. [00:51:26] The rest, there must be no violation of authority. [00:51:34] You go on. You will find that every function is according to pattern and to God according to God's appointment. From verse 4 to 14, every single one has an appointment. And you know what had been happening. [00:51:48] People have been delegating others to do the job for them. [00:51:53] And in the church there can be no delegation of responsibility. [00:51:59] If you are qualified to doing a certain thing, you cannot delegate it to someone else. [00:52:06] Absolutely no delegation of authority. [00:52:09] No delegation of responsibility. See, what had happened here was that those that should have been doing work in the house of God, keeping them doors and ministering in the place, keeping it all clean, had given it to prisoners of war, paid prisoners of war to do it, and had gone have a good time, evidently somewhere else. And the Lord said this thing was an absolute offense to him. [00:52:33] These uncircumcised people, Gentiles, had been brought into his house and were doing the jobs first for others that the Lord had appointed. [00:52:46] Now, we've all got a streak in us that's only too prepared to delegate responsibility. [00:52:55] And one of the things about service is that there can be no delegation of it. It cannot be secondhand. Someone else can't do it. You can't shelve your responsibility and leave it to someone else. [00:53:08] That's the point here. There is a pattern even about service. There is an appointment to function and office within the house, and there can be no delegation of it to others, no deputing of others to do it for you. Now then, you know what the Apostle Paul said about stirring up the gift that is within the I would like to know how many gifts there are here that are well and truly astute in everyone, because we're deputing it to others. Oh, look, there's brother so and so he gets up quite regularly and gives us a word. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good. But anyway he does do it. He seems to have a gift in that way. And then look at sister so and so who can always depend on sister so and so to put and old brother sons and brothers sons and brothers sons and brothers sons. And if we really get stuck they'll pray oh, cleaning well the so and so and so and so and so and so they go along and do it. We can count on them. [00:54:17] And so what happens is that half of the company are passengers. They are carried by everyone else. They never say anything, they never do anything, they never contribute. But they have inwardly deputed others to do it for them. Inwardly, they have delegated their responsibility to others. [00:54:39] You know what the Lord said and we might have more to say about this. No one of the children of Israel shall come before me empty handed. [00:54:48] Every single one of them shall have something when they come before me. And they can't hide behind someone else's filled hands. [00:54:57] Their hands must be filled. [00:55:00] So you see, there can be none of this in service. Every function is according to a pattern. [00:55:06] And it's by God's appointment. [00:55:09] And God says it must be circumcised. [00:55:12] That's the mark he looks for, circumcision of the heart. [00:55:16] When that work of the cross is there, there's a functioning. That's the thing God looks for in us. [00:55:24] You go on to, from verse 15 to 31 you will find a lot about pure service. This is a very lovely part, very interesting part about the priests. What they're not allowed to do, not allowed to touch, who they're not allowed to marry, what they're not allowed to touch, what situations they mustn't get involved in. And a very remarkable little thing about linen. [00:55:45] They must wear linen when they come into the presence of the Lord. They mustn't wear wool. Well, many of you might say, why can't they wear wool? Why must they not wear wool? Because it's a very interesting point. It was the east and it says, because it causes sweat in the east, that causes uncleanness, you understand? [00:56:12] A woolly garment in the east very quickly becomes dirty and smelly, nasty. But a linen garment doesn't. [00:56:22] It's purity of service. [00:56:24] Even that Ezekiel was told to mark that the priests were to come in dressed in linen, pure service. [00:56:33] All those things they were told that they were not, not to touch those things that they were not to get involved in. [00:56:41] You will find they have no inheritance because the purity of their service depends upon the motive. [00:56:47] Are they out for what they get? [00:56:49] Are they out for what they can obtain? [00:56:52] Are they out for what benefits and advantages come to them because they are serving the Lord? There are many of us like that judge our hearts. Many of us are like that. We judge every gathering on what we get, not what we put into it. We judge every single time or contact with any Christian upon what we get, not what we put into it. Everything is judged upon this. And the Lord says, they shall have no inheritance. [00:57:20] They shall have not like the rest of the people. They shall not have the ground, they shall not have homes. All shall be I shall be their inheritance and everything they've got. Oh, by the way, they did have homes and they did have ground, but it was all in certain portions that were set apart for the Lord, so that these people were utterly dependent upon the Lord. Purity of service comes from dependence upon the Lord. When we're independent, there's impurity of servants. And when we're dependent, dependent upon the law, there is purity of service. [00:57:58] So that's another thing that we find in service within the house is pure service the Lord looks for. Then we find that everything centered upon God in His house. If you look in chapter 45, the first 12 verses, the house is central to the whole land. [00:58:14] A portion of the whole promised land is marked out. It's the very center. [00:58:20] The center of that portion is where the house is to be, more or less. [00:58:24] And everything is to find its relationship. Even the city finds its center in the house. [00:58:30] Everything. [00:58:32] A little later on, Ezekiel suddenly is told to talk about weights and measures. [00:58:37] It doesn't seem actually to have anything to do with these other things at all, but it is really to do with the effect of being related to God in His house. [00:58:54] The effect being related to him in that way should be seen in our lives. [00:58:59] Everything should be effected by our life with the Lord. People who make a great distinction between what they call their spiritual life and their secular life are very wrong. There's no such thing. Weights and measures and all that to do with the world outside, as it were, is bound up with God's house being in the center and our all being related to it. [00:59:27] Everything in service has got to find God and His people at the center. You don't put. You don't come in here and sort of relate the house of God to your home and family, but you get your home and family related to God in the midst of his people, and then Everything else starts to fall into proper shape and should. [00:59:52] That's important. I'm afraid we can only mention these things. Then, in chapter 45, verse 13 to 17, you have a very interesting little portion. Offerings from all. That's something to do with service within the house. You. You will note here that it's not only the prince, but the people. The prince has to give much more than the people. But the people are told that they're all to bring their offerings as well. They can't rely upon more responsible people. Everyone is to bring their offering. Service is dependent upon the offering or wants of Christ. They're to bring first fruits, they're to bring tithes, they're to bring the first of the flock. [01:00:26] But they've got to bring something. If you were too poor, well, you could bring two. Two pigeons. [01:00:32] If you couldn't afford a bullock, you couldn't afford a lamb. Well, you could at least surely afford two pigeons. But the whole point was this. It didn't matter whether you were the most humble peasant in the land or if you were the most authoritative noble amongst the whole of God's people. [01:00:53] The point was you. Your cocktail, something. [01:00:58] Do you know, I believe this is the line upon which the enemy tries to get us more than any other line. [01:01:04] If we think we've got so little, we go and watch the point. There are many others that have got something much more worthy than I. Why should I contribute? I'm so small and so. So we're unworthy. [01:01:18] The point is, the Lord waits for you to bring your two pigeons. [01:01:23] To put it spiritually, maybe a very little bit of Christ in you, but you've got to contribute it. There may be a good deal more in others. They must contribute what they've got. Some, it might be the measure of a bullet, as it were, but they've got to contribute what they've got. Everyone according to his measure, everyone according to what he's got of Christ. But everyone must contribute. The law is giving. [01:01:50] Giving what you've got. That's the law of service. Giving what you've got of Christ. [01:01:57] And if you don't give what you've got, you won't get any more. [01:02:02] You hinder increase. [01:02:04] So the people in the company who are waiting all the time to grow before they contribute will wait until I go to with the Lord and many of the rest of us go to be with the Lord. And I might say that when we get to that day, you won't have changed very much from what you are now. [01:02:21] There's a Law in this, you've got to learn to give what you've got. [01:02:27] If you're a spiritual prince amongst God's people, give a princely offering of Christ, if that's the measure of Christ you have. If you're just a spiritual peasant amongst God's people, someone who has very little, give what you've got. [01:02:45] It's the law of service. [01:02:49] Oh, well, we must pass over more quickly. From 45, verse 18 right through to chapter 46 and verse 12, you've got Christ as the basis of all acceptable services, all to do with offerings, to do with atonement, with Passover, to do with tabernacles, to do with new moon, to do with the Sabbath, to do with all kinds of things. But you know what the basis of it all is? Christ. [01:03:11] All service is related to Christ. It's what we've got of Christ, what we can offer of Christ. How much have we got of Christ to offer? [01:03:19] All service is to do with what we've got of Christ and how much we can give of Christ and offer of Christ. That's the only acceptable basis. [01:03:29] And then if you go on, you will find in chapter 46 from 19 to 24, you will find provision for service. Not a boiling houses or kitchens in the inner court for the priests, in the outer court for the people, but everyone's provided for. So if you've got a service, if you're going to be engaged in service within the house of God, very well, very well. [01:03:55] Don't think the Lord's going to just let you find your own resources. He's going to provide for you. He's given you kitchens within God's house where you can feed. [01:04:04] And the more you get of Christ, the more you must give. [01:04:09] It's an interesting fact, you know. Do you know what the food was in those kitchens? [01:04:13] What the people adopted? [01:04:19] Do you see what the people had offered? [01:04:25] In the inner court, the priests were allowed to feed on part of the sin offering. In the outer court, they were allowed to feed on the peace offering. The people were allowed to feed on the peace offering. It's a very, very wonderful thing, feeding upon what you give, what you contribute. You bring something into the house, God of Christ, you offer to its Christ, you're giving, it becomes food for others and food for yourself. [01:04:50] Part of it just satisfies God, but part of it God turns back on us. So you see, the law is giving. [01:04:58] Give and you will receive, said the law. Give and you will receive. The measure that you give will be the measure of receiving. Pressed down, shaken together and running over. [01:05:09] You see, it's the law of service. [01:05:14] So if you give something of Christ to God in worship, you will find somehow everything lives. Have any of you found that you've come to a prayer gathering? Let me be very practical. Come to a prayer gathering and you haven't contributed. And you felt very weary about it. Oh. And somehow, well, you almost sort of. Oh, dear, that was a difficult time. Have you ever come again? It seemed very difficult. And then you contributed. [01:05:36] And all of a sudden you felt really quite different. [01:05:40] Somehow or other, you were strengthened yourself. [01:05:43] It's always the law of service. [01:05:46] When you give, you yourself proceed. [01:05:50] When you refuse to give what you have, you don't get what you should have, nor do others. [01:05:58] So let's mark that. It's the law of service. But now, very swiftly, move on. Chapter 47, first 12 verses. You have the river of life from within the house. [01:06:10] You've seen. We've seen first the house of God according to God's pattern. [01:06:16] We've seen the law of the house, which is holiness by the work of the cross. [01:06:22] Then we've seen the service of the house. [01:06:26] But service, mark you within the house. [01:06:30] Now mark that must. You must mark that within the house, Service within the courts of the Lord. [01:06:38] God is now resident within. He's committed himself. Now, because God is within and because of all that we've seen, Ezekiel now is taken out of the temple and he begins to see the most remarkable ministry that starts to flow out from the house. [01:06:57] What is this? Well, it's not a ministry of the Word. Let's make that very, very clear at the beginning. Some people seem to think this river of life is a ministry of the Word. It's nothing of the kind. [01:07:07] It's a ministry of Christ. [01:07:09] It's a ministry of Christ's life. Let's put it another way. It is the life of Christ being expressed through the church. [01:07:18] Now, when the Lord has certain conditions, suddenly a river starts. Now, you must mark this. A river starts. And that river becomes a mighty, transforming, regenerating, healing, feeding thing. [01:07:36] You find that wherever the river goes, it transforms situations, it overcomes obstacles, it brings life in, it brings regeneration, it heals and it feeds. [01:07:51] Now, the interesting thing is, if you look at it, you go to the. Into the house. You go to the sanctuary with Ezekiel. What do you see? [01:08:00] A great big river, like a waterfall, like Niagara, pouring out of the thing as some people have depicted it. [01:08:08] You read. Do you know what the Word says? [01:08:12] A trickle. [01:08:16] Well, that's an anti Climax. [01:08:19] So there we go to the threshold of God's house, and we see a little trickle. It's coming out south side, under the threshold, south side of the altar. It trickles down beside the altar, out through the gate, over the outer court, under the threshold of the east gate. And when Ezekiel takes around to see whether it's increased at all, he says, and there it was trickling out. [01:08:42] Trickling out. That's the word. [01:08:46] Then the man says, wait, Ezekiel. And he puts his line down in a peg and starts to unravel the line. [01:08:53] Thousand weeds, Ezekiel. [01:08:58] So Ezekiel starts to walk. He finds his water only up to his ankles and pigs again. And then takes another thousand measures, another thousand, tells Zeke to come to it. Zika walks and eats a little more. And so it goes on until at last, Ezekiel can't swim. Now, Mark, this isn't a normal wither. There are no side streams coming into it. This is actually increasing within itself as it goes. [01:09:28] And then Ezekiel taken to see what it does. And as he's taken around, he sees all the desert transformed, trees on every side, fish within the water. The Dead Sea, in which no fish can live, cast up on its shores, changed and transformed into something fresh in which actually the fishermen spoken of as fishing for the fish. [01:09:53] Everything's changed by this river of life. What does it speak of? [01:09:58] It speaks of a ministry without it issues from the sanctuary, from the throne, from God's dwelling place by way of the altar under the threshold. [01:10:21] What does that speak of? [01:10:23] It speaks of three things. If there's going to be a river of life which is going to affect situations in a tremendous way, which at its source is a mere trickle, so weak, so meagre, seemingly so poor, but which in its onward course is going to change and transform wherever it goes, you've got to have three things. First, you've got to have the throne of God absolutely in charge, Throne of God established. [01:10:59] Secondly, you've got to have the cross, because the cross is the gauge of the river. [01:11:07] And the third thing you've got to have is God's people built together into his habitation. [01:11:17] If you get those three things, the throne of God in his own obeyed utterly, allegiance given without any conditions on the part of his own. [01:11:31] If you've got the cross working in that company, and if you've got that, those folk by way of the cross being fused together into one house, absolutely cemented and bonded together into one home, you'll have a river. [01:11:55] It won't seem much to you at the beginning. It'll Seem a little tickled, but the effects of it will be tremendous. [01:12:04] Absolutely true. [01:12:07] Well, that's what Ezekiel saw coming out of the house. [01:12:14] Afraid we don't see much of it today, but as he saw, it was one of the characteristics. [01:12:21] You get the church of God like that, you get the throne of God established, you get the cross really working, and you get the people of God being built together. And you've got a river, a river that will change nations. [01:12:47] The last thing John ever saw was a river. Only he saw one great difference. It was no longer an altar, it was a throne. [01:12:55] So the way you look at it, some of us look at it and we see it as an altar. Others of us look at it and see it as a throne. [01:13:02] Just the way you look at it. [01:13:04] Remember that some people look at the cross and they see it as an altar. [01:13:09] Other people see the cross as the veil. [01:13:14] Well, there we are, we come to the end of the Book of Ezekiel. [01:13:17] The last chapter, the last part of 47 and the last part of the whole chapter of 48 are all to do with inheritance. You've got the land, all inheritance. And the last word of all is the city of God. [01:13:31] Land allotted to each part and portion of the people of God. They've all got their portion and all is judged on faithfulness. [01:13:41] Those nearest to the house because they have been tribes that have been the most faithful, faithful in their history, those farthest away, those that fell into apostasy earliest, everything is judged on history. [01:13:54] Everything is fairly and accurately judged inheritance. [01:14:02] But the final word is the city. [01:14:06] You've got this. Well, John takes up the city as the thing later. [01:14:11] These are the character of, you see, of God's church, tremendous characteristics. [01:14:20] I don't know really how we can end this, these studies on the Book of Ezekiel, but we must suffice it to say that what is the message of the Book of Ezekiel? [01:14:38] The message is really essentially the glory of God. [01:14:44] Not some distant abstract splendour, but God's presence committed to a redeemed humanity. [01:14:55] God calls that glory. [01:14:58] When God can bring a redeemed humanity into the place where it is fused with Himself, he calls that glory that for which humanity was created and that for which God loved. That's glory. Bring those two things together and the result is glory, absolute glory. [01:15:22] Well, that's the message of Ezekiel. And all his ministry is bound up with the character of that vessel, the kind of vessel, vessels. It must be the kind of men and women that we've got to become if we're going to become such a vessel. [01:15:39] The house at the end is only that. In another way speaks of it in another, another aspect. [01:15:47] It speaks of it in three ways. As a house, as a land, as the land, as the city. [01:15:54] All these three are bound up together. [01:15:59] That's Zeke's ministry. [01:16:02] Tremendous ministry of definition of those eternal characteristics and principles which govern God's home and habitation. [01:16:17] Or shall we ask the Lord to help us? [01:16:22] It, Lord, we do believe that Thou art able to do this. And we commit it now wholly to Thee. That Thou wilt have Thy way, dear Lord, utterly. [01:17:06] We ask it in Thine own precious name. [01:17:10] Amen.