Ezekiel

Very warm welcome.

Lovely to have you here on this, beautiful Sunday morning, and, so great to welcome you. And as Dean has already said, if it's your first time with us this morning, and, I know we have got a number of visitors in the house, then it's great to have you. And, if for whatever reason you can't be here in person, then welcome to you as well. If you have a hard copy of the Bible with you, then do turn to ezekiel 42 48. Okay?

So we're gonna be trying to look at 9 chapters of scripture today, which is something of an undertaking And, rather than have them all read at the head of this sermon, we're going to look at various different passages, as we go through. We won't try to tackle literally every single word, within those 9 chapters, but we're gonna see some snapshots from this fantastic vision. So let's ask the lord's help shall we as we turn to it. Heavenly father, we are thankful that we can be here this morning in the name of Jesus Christ. And we are a people purchased by the blood of our savior.

We thank you that every sin that we have committed in this last week is all known by you, known to you, and paid for already. In the blood of Christ. And we gather here this morning as forgiven people, and we praise you. And we thank you that you're so good to us. Not only do you save us in your son, but you bring us together every single week for mutual encouragement, to be spurred on in the faith, to be made alive again with the truth.

And we pray that you would speak please to every single 1 of us here this morning, and we ask you in Jesus' name. Well, as I say, this morning, it is our final session in the, in the book of ezekiel. And, so if you are here for the first time, you you've come right at the end of this series that we started, all the way back at the beginning of the year, And, if you have been following along, I'm sure you'll agree. We we have been on some, been on a bit of a wild journey in this book. We we've had weeks where we've been right down in the darkest valleys, and we've seen some desperately low moments in this book.

Mean, you remember the whole context is 1 of desperation. God's people are not where they should be. They've been exiled, deported from their homeland, and the religion they know, and the people they know and the places that they know. And because of their sin, They've been taken away into Babylon surrounded by a foreign culture, a foreign language, a foreign god, that the whole context is 1 of desperation. And then we've been learning together exactly what it was that brought that situation about.

We've looked at the false shepherds, haven't we? Those men who were called to shepherd and love the people of god with the truth, but they neglected their duties were selfish and let the people of god die under their watch. We've seen the false prophets who were called to be spokesman of the truth and to deliver words that would point people to the true god and build them up, but they too had neglected their duty and were just parroting the lies of the age and the people suffered. We've seen the temple. Remember that back in chapter 8 and 9.

Probably 1 of the lowest points of the book. The temple of the living god had been desecrated by idolatry, and those priests who were called to keep the place pure had allowed it to be overrun with idols, and the name of the true god had all been forgotten and been exchanged for the false gods of Egypt and others. So if we we've been right down, haven't we? In distant depths. But then in chapter 33, The language and the prophecy started to trend in a much more hopeful direction.

Remember that from 33? We get the news in chapter 33 that Jerusalem has fallen. But what had been promised by ezekiel has happened, the city is no more, but from then, things could only go in 1 direction. And so the lord started to promise that these exiles would be restored, that there would be a time in which they would come home. That their hearts would be made new, that saving water would be sprinkled over their sinful hearts and they would be cleansed, that their hearts of stone would be turned to hearts of flesh, and the law of god would be impressed upon them and would remain with them forever.

We heard the promise of a good shepherd who would come where the failures had neglected their duty, and god himself would come and shepherd his people. He would be everything that they needed. And then last week, do you remember we looked at, Gog and magog you know, the great opponents of the people of God. And last week, we said good night to them. Once and for all, they're gonna be wiped out.

And so as we now turn into chapter 40, we're supposed to be asking, and what is the crowning glory gonna be? We've been down in the valley. We've been trending upwards. Gog and magog are gone. What what prophecy and vision is going to crown this now.

And what we discover is 9 chapters of measurements and and qubits. You know, the the word qubit is mentioned 73 times I mean, that's most of its old testament usage, is in these 9 chapters, a book of meticulous measurements of inner courts and outer courts and inner rooms and upper rooms and how they all nestle together and how wide and long a court is And I think we would be forgiven as readers, particularly in 20 25, turning to that and feeling as if it's a bit of an anticlimax. I mean, isn't there something more hopeful and gripping with which to finish this book? Why? Why are we taken into this for 9 chapters?

I think there are 3 very good reasons, and then we'll get into it. The first is this, and I hope this is, going to, appear behind me. Maybe at work. If not Steve, you might have to just Oh, there we go. Pick this up in 1 commentary.

If the reading of these chapters is tedious to us, we must remember that to the Jewish mind, it was impossible to bestow too much trouble and thought. On the place whose name is yahweh Shamah, the lord is there. For this people, steeped in this language, it would be impossible for them to say, I think we've spent a bit too much time describing this place. No. No.

So that's the first reason. Secondly, we've gotta remember who Ezeekiel is. So Ezeekiel himself is a priest We've been experiencing him in this series as a prophet, but by nature, he is a priest. And so when this man talks about Temple, he's riffing on his favorite subject. This is what he knows.

Yeah? It's like talking to a an artist about art or a musician about music or a sportsman about sport. They you get them on their subject, and they can speak and speak and speak and speak. Well, that's ezekiel. He's been, I think, building up to this, give me 9 chapters on temple measurements and cubits and who wears what and what we sacrifice.

That's his native tongue. That's his language. And so firstly, in a Jewish mind, it would be impossible to waste too much time and attention on a subject like this. Secondly, this is Ezekiel speaking his home language. But thirdly, for us, let me take you to 2 Timothy 3 15.

Paul says to Timothy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And there in that crisp simple sentence, we learn that every part of what we call holy scripture of which ezekiel 40 to 48 is 1 is in some way designed to make you and I wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. These chapters, with all of their cubits and measurements, are about Jesus. They're about Jesus. And they are in their own special way, making you and I today wise about the salvation that we have or can have through faith in Christ Jesus.

Now you'll forgive me if that last point is a little bit obvious, but I do think it's worth underlining this morning because as 40 to 48, these chapters are interpreted, there can be a lot of confusion about them. Now I don't know if you remember the media fast, which we did back in February when we tried to take on the reading of this whole book, and we read our way through these chapters. And perhaps during that time, you had some discussion or read some commentary about this part of ezekiel, but there are a number of different interpretations. So some people would see these chapters mainly as a historic temple plan. In other words, the people were in exile, and they were to take these chapters as a blueprint, go home with them and build this brick and mortar temple.

But if that is the case, then we have to acknowledge that it never happened. That this temple was never built in history. Now it is true that when god's people returned from exile, they did build a temple under the Ministry of Zerubbabel and Ezra and Naimayah and those characters, a temple was built. But it was nothing compared to the temple that is described here. It was not as big.

It was not as glorious. It was not as splendid. It was just an altogether smaller, lesser thing not only than what we have here, but even what we had in Solomon's Day, it was altogether less. And, crucially, there is no record of the glory of god ever returning to that historic temple. And so we have to say, if this was meant for history, it was never built.

And so some people would say, yeah, that's because it was never meant for history. What we have here is a plan for a future temple. In other words, in this interpretation, we are to imagine the lord Jesus Christ returning from heaven to make all things new, and 1 of his main jobs is going to be to oversee the building of this new temple. And so what he's going to do is to come to Jerusalem, a renewed Jerusalem, and he's going to oversee the bricks and the mortar, and the reestablishment of the priesthood and the altars, and all of this is future. But again, if that is the case, we surely have to ask, does that not cut against the whole grain of scripture?

Are we really to read the whole Bible and the New Testament and to conclude that where history is going, and what Jesus is going to be all about when he returns is the erection of a brick and mortar temple? And more priests and more sacrifices, and is that where history is going? It seems to me that when you book read the book of Hebrews, the writer to the Hebrews is saying the exact opposite. He's saying my friends what you have in Christ is the sunshine and the reality. So don't go back to the shadow lands.

Don't go back to the shadow because you now live in the reality. The temple that you had pointed to the temple that you now have in Christ. The offerings that you used to do were all pointing to the final offering that has now been sacrificed, who is Christ. The priests that you used to go to were all pointing to the final high priest who is Christ and who intercedes on your behalf. The old covenant in which you lived in was pointing to a new covenant established by Christ, and he now is your covenant.

The old sabbath rest you used to enjoy at particular times was pointing you forward to a new sabbath rest who is Christ. The blood of Abel speaks bet blood of Christ speaks better than Abe. It's all trying to say, my friends, Why would you go back to shadow lands when Jesus is everything that it pointed to? And so how odd it would be if when Jesus returns, he reestablishes the shadow. You go from shadow to reality and back to shadow.

It doesn't seem right. I think Revelation 22 21 is very persuasive on this point. Here is Revelation. Sorry. 21 22.

Here's what John sees in his vision. I did not see a temple in the city. Because the lord almighty and the lamb are its temple. That's a very interesting way that sentence is constructed, isn't it? I did not see a temple in the city.

Why not? Because Jesus hadn't built it yet. That's not what it says. I did not see a temple in the city because it was built in the country. That's not what it says.

The reason that he did not see a temple in the city is because there already was 1. And it wasn't bricks and it wasn't mortar, and it wasn't wooden altar tables. It was the lamb and the lord god almighty. They had no need of the building because the building was there. And it had flesh and blood, and it was a person who was the fulness of all the things the shadows had been pointing towards.

And so as we come, to 40 to 48, the end of ezekiel, we are to remember that this image ultimately is about our Messiah, the lord Jesus Christ. And the messianic age in which we now live in the age of the Messiah, our king Jesus. And so you might then ask, okay, well, if that is true and the way to interpret it, then what what is the reason for so much detail here? What why put in 73 times the word Cuba and so many numbers and so much information about this place? Well, surely, the answer is because of the audience.

You see, in 20 25 London, this this is not our world. We don't live in this world. We're not in the world of courtyards and priestly garments and inner rooms and outer rooms. It's not our world. We're in the world of traffic and trains and iPhones and social media and politics.

That that's our world. But this original audience were steeped in the language of temple and measurements and priests and that way of relating to god. This was their world. And so you might ask Well, then what better way to communicate the gospel to a people like that than in the language that they best understand? It's a bit like when Jesus walks the earth, when he's talking to fishermen, he talks about boats and nets.

When he's talking to farmers, he talks about seeds and soil. When he's talking to farmers, he talks about sheep and goats. In other words, he uses the language they best know to preach kingdom truth. And here is the master prophet Izekiel thinking, what language is most accessible to my audience? How do I best get the Messiah into their minds and hearts?

Let's use all the illustrations that they know. All of this language, they get it, and from it, I'm gonna preach Christ. I'm gonna show them Christ in the language that they best understand. And so with all of that said, and that was just the introduction, So it's it's now my job as senior pastor to to to, very long introductions. It's the only the only thing I was told to do.

Just make your introductions an hour long, and the church has been built on my long introductions, you know. So There we go. That's may well be the longest intro I've ever done, and it's in honor of, Pete, though, so if you're listening, I don't know. That's that was for you. So here we go.

That's all it, all all all to have in mind. And now we're just gonna look at 4 snapshots. From these chapters. We're gonna look at the man guiding. We're gonna look at the glory returning.

We're gonna look at the river flowing, and we're gonna look at the city proclaiming. Man guiding, glory returning river flowing city proclaiming. And so firstly, let's see the man guiding. And now let's turn if you will to ezekiel chapter 40, and we're gonna read the first 4 verses and I'll try to put put that up. There we go.

In the 20 fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city. And so we are now 14 years on from the day in which the report came that Jerusalem had fallen, and we are now 20 years on from where we began our series back in January. 20 years has elapsed between the first vision, 14 years has elapsed between the fall of the city. On that very day, the hand of the lord was on me, and he took me there in visions of god. He took me to the land of Israel.

Now let's just pause there because that phrase in visions of god is like an ezekiel hyperlink. Phrase. You know, when you have your hyperlink and you click it, and it links you back to various other places, that phrase is used 2 other times in this book, and the first is in the very first sentence. So here's ezekiel 1 1. In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kaybar River, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of god.

At the beginning of his opening vision, visions of god. At the beginning of his final vision, visions of god. The book is bookended by that phrase, visions of god. And in chapter 1, I know it's a long time ago, but you might remember that in that vision, Izekiel saw approaching from the north, this this incredible mobile throne, which was full of all kinds of strange and wonderful wheels and creatures. And all of it was to say that the sovereign god of heaven is present with you, ezekiel, where you now are.

And so in that case, the vision of god was about sovereignty and majesty and presence, visions of god, sovereignty, majesty, presence. The other time it's used is in chapter 8 verse 3 when ezekiel is taken again by the sort of hair and he's transported in the body or out of the body only he knows He's transported into a Zeke into a Jerusalem where he sees the temple that is awash with idolatry. And so in that case, visions of god is about temple and holiness and what's meant to be happening at the temple. And so you put those 2 things together, 1 1 and 8 3, visions of god are about glory, present, sovereignty, and temple. And now you come to chapter 40 in visions of god.

He's gonna see the glory of god, and he's gonna see the temple. So visions of god is connected to this language. Okay? And then let's come now to verse 3 of chapter 40. He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze.

He was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. So here we have this man figure. And again, if we've been paying attention in our ezekiel series, we'll know that a a metal man and a linen man are things we've seen before. So in chapter 1, all the way back at the beginning, who was high above and at the center of that mobile throne, It was a man, and from what looked like his waist upwards, he was glowing metal. He was like a glowing metal man at the center of the throne of god almighty.

And now we come to chapter 40 in this closing vision. We're told whose appearance was like bronze. Metal man appears at the beginning and at the end. But then also, don't forget the other element. There's linen man.

And you remember linen man back in chapter 9, the linen man who was called to go and do something about the temple idolatry. And what he had to do was to go out into the city and place a mark on the forehead of all those who grieved the detestable things that were being done in the temple. In other words, his job was to mark out the repentant people amongst the city and to save them. And so linen man is doing something like overseeing the judgment and salvation of the people. And so, again, you put these together.

You've got metal man, the glory of god on the throne of god. You've got linen man, the savior and the judge. Well, then who is this man guiding us around the temple at the end? It is none other than the lord Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne of God and who oversees the salvation and the judgment of the world. And it is this man who is now gonna come with us on a guided tour around the temple.

And so what we've got here is something like Jesus giving us a guided tour of Jesus. That's sort of what's gonna happen in this final vision. Okay? So there we are. That's the man guiding.

Secondly, now let's look at the glory returning. And for that, we're gonna need to turn to chapter 43, the glory returning. Now in this book of ezekiel, there are and I had to Google this, there are just short of 30000 words. It's 30000 words in this whole prophecy. I think the 6 most depressing words are in chapter 10 verse 18 where it simply says The glory of the lord departed.

The glory of the lord departed. Don Carson, who's a, a biblical scholar, in his, sermon on ezekiel. He talks about that temple scene in chapter 8 where that home of god had become so full of offensive idolatry. And he puts the lord's message this way. Either holiness prevails and I stay, or sin prevails and I go.

Either holiness prevails and I stay? Or sin prevails, and I go. And sadly, we saw in those chapters that sin prevailed. Sin prevailed. And so finally, the lord god was forced to slowly and steadily withdraw his presence from his people.

The glory of the lord departed. It's gotta be 1 of the worst moments in the book. Because of the nature of god, really. I mean, we know that the god that we serve is not quick to anger. And he doesn't make rash decisions.

And he doesn't do things lightly. And he doesn't decide to leave home age 15 like a stroppy teenager for half an hour. You know, packs a bag goes to the end of the road and comes back. He's not given to rash leaving of home. And so when he slowly steadily withdraws from his own home, we understand something of the magnitude of the sin that must have driven him to make that decision.

He departed from the home in which he lived. The glory of the lord departed. But now look at chapter 43 verse 1 to 5. Then the man brought me to the gate facing east. And I saw the glory of the god of Israel coming from the east.

His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kibar river, and I fell face down. The glory of the lord entered. Most depressing words, the glory of the lord departed. 10 verse 18.

Most wonderful words, the glory of the lord entered the temple through the gate facing east, which if you're interested, is the same gate in which he left. He returns now through the gate that he had left by, and then the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the lord filled the temple. You see, we all know, in our lives, the joy of recovering a lost thing, don't we? Even on a very small scale, if you lose your phone or your keys. For a bit, even just a few minutes, and you're trying to get out of the house, and it's where's my key, you know, where's my phone?

Where's my key? And you've you've mislaid these things. And then you find them. Or they're found for you The joy is almost better than if you hadn't lost them in the first place, isn't it? It you're sort of happier at the lost and foundness of the thing than just if you hadn't lost them.

We we know, even on the most micro scale, How happy a moment it is when something lost is recovered. And so friends, how much more when the glory of god is recovered? You see, when you think about it, a temple without the glory is not much good, is it? It's something like the difference between a house and a home. You might have a beautiful house that's well cleaned.

All the proportions are just as you would like them. It's a beautiful house, but it's not a home until someone lives within it and makes the house a home. And in the same way, you might have a perfectly proportioned temple with gorgeous stones. In elaborate gems, looks great, but if there's no glory, Living within it. All you've got is the shell of a house and not a not a Christian home.

Something true would be similar of a church, wouldn't it? You can have the best building. You can have the best looking congregation. You could have the greatest PA in media. You could have the most phenomenal band.

The seats could be all like those lazy boy, comfortable armchairs. You know, the most, you know, everything could be brilliant. But if the spirit of Christ is not there because the true word of Christ is not there, and if the true Christ of the scriptures is not being preached, all you have is a house and not a glorious home. There's no home because there's no glory. And so what makes 43 so wonderful is not how wonderfully constructed this building is.

But the glory has come back through the use gate. And it is now returned to the people. And do you notice just in that section how this return of glory is all of the grace of god? You know, it's not that the people have got their act together. And so god has decided there's now enough true worshipers to offset the idolatry of the past, and now he's been persuaded to come back.

It's not like they've done some good deeds to counteract their bad deeds. This return of the glory is all of the grace of god. It's that his initiative and his decision, he's decided to return because he's gracious and merciful, and he's come back all of his kindness. And so do you see, the man who guides us, shows us the glory returning. And thirdly now, let's look at the river flowing.

The river flowing. Here's chapter 47. Turn to chapter 47. And, this is, slightly longer 1. Verse 1 to 12.

The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple. And I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east for the temple faced east. The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside of the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle deep.

He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was waist deep. He measured off another thousand and let but now it was a river that I could not cross because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in a river that no 1 could cross. He asked me son of man, do you see this? And then he led me back to the bank of the river.

When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arab where it enters the dead sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the water flows. There will be large numbers of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh.

So where the river flows, everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore from Angetti to NEGLame. There will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds, like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh.

They will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fail. Every month, they will bear fruit because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.

I'm sure you've all seen those nature documentaries where you get those time lapse films. And, you're taken to a a desert landscape. And over time, you're shown the way in which that landscape is revived by annual streams and rivers that begin to flow back through the land. And when you watch that whole process over just a minute or so, it's amazing, isn't it to see how that desert landscape is resurrected by the life giving water, which comes to it every year, and how the sandy yellow is turned into a vibrant green and how stones are exchanged for fruits and the water brings healing to the sand and the land. Well, that is something like a spiritual image of what we have here.

From under the threshold of the temple. So from the place where the glory of Jesus Christ is, from under the threshold of the temple, first there is a trickle. Then it is ankle deep. Then it is knee deep. Then it is waist deep.

And by the time you get to verse 5, it's just too big to cross. And everywhere this water goes, and everything it touches, there is an eruption of life. These are not like the waters of Noah's Day, the waters that flooded the land and bought death and judgment. These are the waters of resurrection. That flow from god himself into the dead landscapes of the world and make it come alive.

This is not just the watering of a land. This is the resurrection of a people that is imaged here in this water. Now I know we've been jumping around a little bit with bible verses, but there's just so much bible in these chapters. So much bible. And so you think with me about the, the garden of Eden.

Just think about Eden for a minute. Last year on the, Dean mentioned our, authentic, youth conference that we've got coming up. Or last year, we had a smaller pilot version of it. And, in 1 of the social times, someone had put together 1 of these bible quizzes. Know, you have a sort of a a quiz and then 1 of the rounds, I think, is a Bible quiz.

And 1 of the questions was can you name the 4 rivers from Eden in Genesis 2? Can you name the 4 rivers? From Eden in Genesis 2 to put you out of your misery, the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. And when you go back to Genesis chapter 2, it is quite weird that in a chapter which only has 25 verses, There are 4 or 5 verses given over just to rivers and the description of rivers. And you think why is that so important for Moses to communicate to us?

Well, surely it's because of the connection. Between water and river and life and fruit. That the river and the presence of god and the fruitfulness of the land all goes together as it does here in the Ziq 47. And then if we spring forward from here, through Genesis back through ezekiel 47, and then into John chapter 7, we find a gospel writer who loved rivers. John was a big lover of the river.

So here's what he says about the lord Jesus in John chapter 7. We get that 1 up. Oh, there we go. On the last and the greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

And by this, he meant the spirit of god. And so here is the lord Jesus Christ in John 7, and where is he teaching? He's teaching in the temple courts. Near the temple flowing from the temple as it were. And on the last and greatest day of the feast of tabernacles, he stands up, and he proclaims living water.

For all who will come to him. Anybody at all who will come to Jesus and believe in him will find the flowing waters of the spirit coming into their lives bringing resurrection in their lives, and then flowing out from them into the world. And so the lord Jesus Christ is here again in ezekiel. This, this really is what he is seeing ultimately. He's seeing the spirit of Christ flowing from the presence of Christ, bringing life to all of god's people.

And so when Jesus stands up in John 7, surely, he was conscious of that, surely, he was taking ezekiel language and proclaiming himself to be its fulfillment. I am the living water. I will make the salty areas of your life fresh. I'll make the dead areas of your life alive. And turn stones into fruit for you if you will come to me.

That's what my spirit will do in you. And it strikes me that this is not just a picture from ancient Babylon or a picture from first century Jerusalem, that this, in many ways, is what the church is all about. That the reason we are gathered today as the people of god is to be filled all over again with the life giving water of Christ. Isn't that why we come to church? Because basically, over the course of the week, we get very dry and dusty, don't we?

And we need again the living waters of Christ to flow from the word of Christ into our lives. During a GCSE geography, 1 of the things we spent some time on is these, these oxbow Oxpo lakes. Then if you've ever seen these before, it's just a term for a bit of the river that's been cut off because the river has found a more efficient way to move. And so it kind of does away with bits of the old river. And what you have is this thing here called an oxbow lake.

And over time, because it no longer has access to the fresh water, the fresh flow, it begins to stagnate. And it turns into an altogether different kind of environment. It becomes more swampy and more stagnant because it hasn't got living water, fresh water flowing through it. And you know, I think that there are areas of our lives that can become a little bit like those oxbow lakes. That over the course of a week or a month or a year or a decade, there are certain parts of our life, which we dam up to the living water, and we and we cut off, and we sort of decide that we won't have the living water of Jesus flowing into areas like the way in which I use the internet or the way in which I treat this particular person in my life.

Or this part of my daydream life, the things that I dream about, or my work ambitions. We kind of have these areas where we we really ought to let the life of Jesus flow into them and be transformed by them. But we've made a decision to dam up certain areas, and then now no go zones for the living water of Jesus. He's not allowed to flow there anymore because we've got that bit cut off. And over time, even though it begins to stagnate and die, we just won't open up ourselves in the way that we should, to the living water of Christ.

But brothers and sisters, wouldn't it be better given what we've seen? To have all of this living water flowing into every area of our lives so that dry bits come alive and dead bits become fruitful. Again, church, church is about living water flowing. A trickle, ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, too big to crop flowing from the word into the people and bringing us to life. That then is the river flowing.

How are we doing for time? Not great. Okay. We are going to just very quickly then come to the fourth vision, the city proclaiming, the city proclaiming, and it's a shame to have so few minutes to do this because it's a fantastic section. But let's turn to it now in, the last chapter of the book, 48 verse 30.

Here we go. These will be the exits of the city beginning on the north side, which is 4500 cubits long. The gates of the city will be named after the tribes of Israel. The 3 gates on the north side will be the gates of Rubin, the gates of Judah, and the gate of Levi. On the east side, which is 4500 cubits long, there will be 3 gates, the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin in the gate of Dan.

On the south side, which measures 4500 cubits will be the 3 gates, the gate of Simien, the gate of issachar, and the gate of Evelyn. On the west side, which is 4500 cubits long, there will be 3 gates, the gate of Gad, the gate of ASHA, and the gate of NAFTA. The distance all around will be 18000 cubits, last sentence. And the name of the city from that time on will be. The lord is there.

If chapter 10 verse 18 contained the most depressing words, and chapter 43 contains some really hopeful words, these surely are the greatest words of the book. From that time on, the name will be the lord is there. The very best thing about the Garden of Eden was not the rivers and it was not the different fruit trees that they could sample. It was the 1 who walked with them in the cool of the day. In Eden, the best thing about it was Yahweh Shamah.

The lord was there. The very best thing about the good news of Jesus is not the forgiveness that we have. Although that is wonderful. And not the cleansing from shame that we need, although that is wonderful. It is that in that gospel, we are brought to god.

God is there. God is in that gospel. And through Christ, we are united to god so that our lives take the name, the lord is there. The lord is there. The very best thing about heaven and what makes heaven heaven?

Is not all the good things that we've been separated from in this life, and it's not the opportunity to catch up with family members as sweet as that will be. The thing that makes heaven heaven is yahweh Shamah. The lord is there. The lord is there. The lord is in that place.

And you know, 1 pretty good way to work out whether you are a converted person or not is to ask yourself, what do you actually make of that? What do you make of that? What do you make of the fact that the thing which makes heaven heaven is that the lord is there? What do you make of the fact that the best thing about Christianity is not that you get a clean slate, but that you get god? You get god.

The lord, what do you make of that? Can we say with the Psalmists in Psalm 23, whom have I in heaven? But you. And earth has nothing I desire besides you. That's a converted person who prays like that.

Heaven has nothing for me if god is not there. Whom ha what have I in heaven, but you? Yahwe Shamat, the lord is there. That's why it's so good to me, and earth has nothing I really desire. There's things I like.

Things I'm interested in, but nothing I desire at the deepest level of my heart besides you. Yahwe Shamah. The lord is there. That's what it's all about. And again, just quickly as we close, there's so many.

It's like every chapter is like an onion. It's just these layers that peel away because these words are are also brothers and sisters about church. They are about church. You know, our name on on the internet and here is Cornerstone Church. But our name is Yahashima.

The lord is there. Have a look at how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 3. Don't you know that you yourselves are god's temple? And that god's spirit dwells in your midst. If anyone destroys god's temple, god will destroy that person for god's temper, temple is sacred, and you together are that temple?

The lord is here. The lord is here. That changes how we think about church, doesn't it? That person who greeted you at the door this morning, and gave you a warm welcome after what was possibly a difficult week, yahweh Shamah. The lord is there.

Those people who are out there now teaching your children about Jesus. What are their names? Yahweh Shamah. The lord is there. The lord is there.

The people who put the chairs up for us this morning. The lord is there. That's what makes church church. The lord is there. And so I know this vision is long and it's strange.

But it is full of glory, and it is full of Christ. Glory returning river flowing, city proclaiming. This is what it's all about. Now as we close, I would like to invite you to stand if you can. And we are going to read altogether the words of Revelation 22.

So please stand. We're just gonna read the first few verses. Now, to be honest, these verses could have been mentioned at almost every point of this talk. But I thought we would close just by hearing 1 another say these words to each other and just notice, hardly needs pointing out the connection between fruit and river and healing and temple and lamb and guide, and everything that we've just seen condensed down into a few sentences. This is all of our hope.

Let's say together, then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal. Flowing from the throne of god and of the lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse? The throne of god and of the lamb will be in the city.

And his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun. For the lord god will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever amen.

Father god, we thank you so much that we can sing those words. We have an amazing savior god. No other god can be called savior god. And we thank you that he is the savior who came and gladly gladly took on our burdens. He was the 1 who bled and died so that rivers of life could flow out from him to the world.

Lord, and we pray that you would help us this week to take those words to heart, to think about them, lord, may they come back, often to our minds, when we come up against difficulties this week when we when we lay in our beds, and we drift off to sleep, lord, may these words come back to us, and may they come for us, and may they help us to trust you? Father, we thank you so much for speaking to us this morning. We thank you that that in him, you are making a temple, a holy temple. We thank you that you are building us together into a place where you live by your spirit. Lord, thank you that when you look at us, you see the words the lord is there.

Praise the lord. Armen.