Look back with me to the book
of Ezekiel chapter 47. I've entitled this message, Jesus
Christ, the Water of Life. Jesus Christ, the Water of Life. I don't want to take up a whole
lot of time with background, but I do think there is a certain
amount of information that's needed for you to understand
what's going on here in this vision. that God gave to the
prophet Ezekiel and what it's about. What we have here, I hope
that you're familiar with the types or some of the types in
the pictures, the symbolic language of the Old Testament that teaches
us in those types and pictures something of the glory of the
person and finished work of Christ. And sometimes those types, those
symbols, those pictures, will tell us more about His church,
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the people of
God, the chosen of God, elect before the foundation of the
world, whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The
redeemed, those who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ,
bought and paid for, as our sins were imputed, charged to Him,
His righteousness has been imputed to us. as the redeemed of the
Lord. You see, the church, you know,
is not a building. It's not bricks and mortar. The
church is the people of God. When Christ said upon this rock,
I will build my church, he was talking about the redemption
and the calling out through the new birth under the preaching
of the gospel of his people. And so we are the building of
God. In fact, in many ways, the scripture says we're the temple
of God, the collective body of his people called out by the
Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel. And so you have
those types and pictures. Well, that's what this is in
Ezekiel 47. This temple that he describes
here, a temple that's like no other that had ever been. You
know, in the Old Testament, basically, there are three temples. You
have the Temple of Solomon, which replaced the tabernacle. And
that temple was destroyed In fact, during the time of Ezekiel's
prophecy, Ezekiel was a priest of the tribe of Levi, but he
never did the duties of a priest. He was a prophet. And in fact,
he was the only prophet of God that never prophesied on Jewish
soil. He was in Babylon. That's where
this is given. Ezekiel was a priest called to
be a prophet and he preached, he prophesied to about 10,000
Jewish refugees at the edge of Babylon where they'd been carried
captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was
the instrument of God's judgment against Judah for their idolatry.
And he tells them some things in the first part of his prophecy.
He talks about He has this message, Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon
were going to be destroyed. That was God's judgment because
of the idolatry that they had allowed to go on in that temple
and in Jerusalem. You see, these refugees that
Ezekiel was preaching to, they were expecting to go back in
their life and they were expecting to go back to Jerusalem and to
resume their religious worship at that temple. But Ezekiel was
telling them, no, you have no home to go back to. You see,
their eyes were on the physical. It's like people today. Their
eyes are on the physical, not the spiritual. And their hope
was, we're going home. We know God's going to... And
Ezekiel said, no, Jerusalem's going to be destroyed. The temple's
going to be destroyed. And those people just could not
imagine that happening. And that's the first part of
Ezekiel's prophecy. And then, while Ezekiel's prophesying
in the years that he prophesied, the siege of Jerusalem began.
The city was under siege, and Ezekiel, he was just hearing
about this long distance. And he was telling the people
about it, and then he turned his prophecy against the nations
that surrounded Israel. Because he knew And this is God's
word through him. He knew that those nations around
Israel would gloat and rejoice at the destruction of Jerusalem
and the temple. And his message to those nations
is basically, don't be too happy. Don't think you're getting off
the hook. Because you too are sinners, idolaters, and you deserve
God's wrath just as much, and it's coming down on you too.
That was his message. You too will be judged. And that
section, that second part of Ezekiel's prophecy against the
nations, it closes with a messenger who comes from Jerusalem to deliver
this news. Jerusalem is now destroyed. The
temple is destroyed. It's all gone. What Ezekiel told
you in the first part has come about. It's gone. In fact, Just by way of information,
I believe that's where this psalm, Psalm 137, came from when that
news was brought to them. The writer of Psalm 137, listen
to what he said. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down, yea, we wept. When we remembered Zion, we remembered
what it was like back in Jerusalem. We remembered what that temple
was like. Verse 2, we hanged our harps upon the willows in
the midst thereof, for there they carried us away captive,
required of us a song. In other words, the Babylonians
were saying, now sing, now sing. And they that wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How
shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land, in a foreign
land? In other words, they whose hope
was in the physical was now lost. And what's the lesson there?
Well, if you put your faith and your hope in the physical, whether
it be a nation. You know, I tell people all the
time, I love America. I do. I love this country. It
saddens me what's happening to our country. It really does.
But my hope is not built on America. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. You see what I'm saying? I thank
God for the freedoms we enjoy, and I see some of those freedoms
starting to dwindle, don't you? And it's sad, and I pray God
don't let it happen. But that's not my hope. My hope
is Christ, the hope of glory. Now, the positive thinking generation
of today, the false gospel of health and wealth, they say,
well, that's not good enough for me. I've got to have my best
life now. Well that's what Ezekiel's crowd
was saying too. And here he comes along, here's
the messenger, Jerusalem's gone! The temple's destroyed! God's
judgment has fallen upon the wicked. Then we sat down by the rivers
of Babylon and we wept. Now Ezekiel's next message and
it really begins at chapter 33 and goes really all the way to
the end of this book, is a message of hope. It's a message of future
joy, salvation, and glory. And here's what he says, basically.
He says, now this nation is going to be regathered and restored by God's sovereign power Not
because they were so good and so righteous. It has nothing
to do with that. But it's going to be regathered
and restored. God's not finished, He says.
And that prophecy has been fulfilled in a limited, even inferior way
when they returned from Babylon back to Jerusalem. You remember
they came back under Zerubbabel. who was a descendant of David,
and they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and they rebuilt the
temple. That's the second temple. The first temple was Solomon's
second temple. But the prophecy of Ezekiel was
not fully and ultimately and perfectly fulfilled then. That was just a measure of God's
providential dealings with that nation that would be fully fulfilled
and completed and perfected only in one way. And that is with
the coming of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ezekiel talks about it. You see,
this whole section of Ezekiel's prophecy is ultimately a fulfillment
or prophecy of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. And you know
what he's doing in this whole prophecy. He's simply telling
them, look, don't set your hope in the earth. Don't set your
hope in a physical city called Jerusalem. Don't set your hope
in a physical temple. Set your hope on the spiritual,
on the promise of God's grace in the coming of the Messiah,
Jesus Christ. That's where our hope is. And
that's what he does in this last section. Now part of that hopeful
message is found right here where the Lord gives Ezekiel a vision
of a perfect temple. And you can read about it in
these past chapters. He talks about a perfect temple.
This is a temple. Now, some people say, well, this
is going to be built in the actual land of Palestine later on. I
don't believe that and I don't want to offend anybody. But you
measure the dimensions of this temple. You look at the dimensions
of this temple. It's a perfect temple. Well,
where is the perfect temple of God? Well, if you would, look
with me over in the book of Revelation. And here the Apostle John is
prophesying of the heavenly Jerusalem, spiritual Jerusalem. What is
spiritual Jerusalem? It's the dwelling place of the
people of God, chosen of God before the foundation of the
world, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and called by the
Holy Spirit. It's God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, spiritual Israel. Some people
say, well, you're just replacing Israel with the church. They
call it replacement theology today. My friend, it is not replacement
theology. It is fulfillment theology. This is fulfilled in spiritual
things. It's not replacement theology
no more than Christ being the Lamb of God is replacement of
the Old Covenant lambs. Was there a literal Old Covenant
lamb? There was a bunch of them. Rivers of blood. But Christ is
the fulfillment of all those lambs. That's what John the Baptist
said. Behold the Lamb of God, which beareth away the sins of
the world. He is the Lamb. That's why we're not sacrificing
lambs today. It's not because Christ replaced
those. He fulfilled it! And that's what he's talking
about. But here he's talking about the heavenly Jerusalem
coming down. And look at Revelation 21. I
think I said 22, but look at 21. Look at verse 22. Now in this heavenly city, now
what is spiritual Jerusalem? It's the dwelling place of all
the people of God. It's a spiritual kingdom. And
he says in verse 22, he said, I saw no temple therein. Do you see that? There was no
temple there. For the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it. The Lamb's the temple. What does
Ezekiel's Millennial Temple picture? It pictures Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect
temple. And if you read all the chapters,
we don't have time to do that this morning. You have here a
perfect temple. There's no perfect temple here
on Earth. And listen, nobody's going to build a perfect temple.
And let me tell you something, if you could get all the dimensions
and all of the materials right, I'll tell you something about
any temple, any physical temple here on Earth, it's going to
be destroyed eventually. Because this Earth's going to
be burnt up. And in and of itself tells you
it's not perfect, for perfection cannot be destroyed. This is
Christ who has no beginning and no what? No end. And if you read all the chapters,
you also see a perfect priesthood. Let me give you a little point
of interest. Turn back to Ezekiel 44 and look
at verse 15. You notice even the types and
the pictures All through the Old Testament,
even beginning back in Genesis, what you see is a narrowing of
the pictures to pinpoint certain aspects of Jesus Christ and His
people, His church. For example, we know that the
priesthood, Aaron was the first high priest. He's a picture of
Christ, our great high priest. Christ, when he came along, he
did not replace Aaron. He fulfilled what Aaron typified. You understand what I'm saying
there? He's the fulfillment of it. All the other priests, the priests
of Levi, the sons of Aaron, they were the attending priest. Only
the high priest, you remember, he could go into the holiest
of all with the blood of the Lamb as the representative, surety,
substitute of the people, pictured Christ. Christ our High Priest,
Christ our Altar, Christ our Sacrifice, the Lord our Righteousness,
that's why he was doing that. You remember the Holy of Holies
and the Mercy Seat and all that? That's how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. There's the gospel in picture
right there, isn't it? How God saves sinners by grace,
conditioned on Christ. Well, the other priests, they
represent the people of God, the church. We're made priests
unto God. That means we have free access
into the presence of God through the blood of Christ. But it started
out with the children of Levi, they were the priests, and now
it's narrowed down. Look at verse 15 of Ezekiel 44. Here it's even narrower in the
type to show something specific. It says in verse 15, But the
priests of the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge
of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me,
they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall
stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith
the Lord. Not just Levi now, the tribe
of Levi, but now it's the sons of Zadok who were of the tribe
of Levi. It's gone down to Zadok. You know, I've heard people say,
well, when they build that temple, they're going to re-institute
the priesthood. The Bible does not teach that. In fact, a re-institution
of that priesthood would be a denial of Christ. And somebody asked the question,
well, how are you going to know who's from the tribe of Levi? And I,
believe this or not, somebody said they're going to check it
through DNA. Well, let me tell you something.
According to the Word of God, not only would they have to be
from the tribe of Levi, they have to be of the specific family
of Zadok now. Zadok! How are you going to get
that DNA? Is there some DNA named Zadok you can find? You say,
well, what's significant about Zadok? Well, back in David's
day, you remember when David's son Absalom rebelled and wanted
to take the kingdom? There was a priest named Zadok
who remained loyal to David. And that shows us that the priests
of this temple are those who by the power of God's grace,
the power of His Spirit, are those who remain loyal to the
Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. True believers. That's what he's showing in the
picture. You see that? Now, with that in mind, let me
just do sort of a read-through and comment of Ezekiel 47. I hope that helps you. Gives
you a little bit about... This is talking about Jesus Christ
and His people. And here's what it says. Look
at verse 1. Afterward, He brought me again into the door of the
house. That's the house of God. The
family of... That's what the temple represents.
The household of God. We are His house. We have a high
priest over this house. Hebrews chapter 3. over the house
of God. This is the house that Christ
has built. Upon this rock I'll build my house. Christ is the
foundation of the house. He's the head of the house. He's
the heart of the house. He's the heartbeat, isn't he?
Isn't he the life of the church? And He said, I brought it to
the door of the house. Who's the doorway into the house? Christ
is the door, isn't He? You see how all this fits together?
I'm the door, He said. I'm the way, the truth, the life.
No man cometh... This is a way of the cross. It's
the way of the blood. It's the way of righteousness
established by God. And Mark and I were talking about
it. It's not the righteousness of man. It's the righteousness
of God. That's what this whole temple
is about. That's what the gospel revelation is, the revelation
of the righteousness of God. It's His righteousness, the merits
of His obedience unto death, imputed, charged, accounted to
us as He died for our sins and put away all of the guilt and
condemnation. And look here, this is strange.
He says, and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold
of the house eastward. There's waters coming out from
under this temple. The threshold, that's the door
out. The source of this river is the Holy of Holies, the mercy
seat. But it's issuing out from the
door of the temple. Have you ever seen a temple that
had a river running out from it? Some people say, well, they're
going to have an earthquake over there. And that's how this is
all going to happen. Well, the scripture doesn't say
that. That's just the speculation of man. This is Christ, the river
of life. This is life issuing out from
Christ. And He who established our righteousness
before God, righteousness demands life. This is the Spirit of Life,
the Spirit of God coming out from Christ. And it's going eastward. That's the rising and the setting
of the sun. East in the Bible symbolizes
the Son of Righteousness, Christ. Coming eastward. He's the Son
of Righteousness. And then it says, for the forefront
of the house stood toward the east. That's toward Christ. See what this is? This is the
Spirit of God in the preaching of the gospel, the water of the
word, Christ the river of life, the water of life, pointing sinners
eastward. That's what I'm doing this morning.
I'm pointing you eastward. What do you mean, preacher? I'm
pointing you to Christ. The risen Christ. the one who came and
fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf, the one who died
was buried and rose again the third day. What do we do if we're
truly Christians? We look to Jesus Christ as the
author and finisher of our faith. That's the way this river runs. It doesn't run south, that's
toward Egypt, that's bondage. Doesn't run north. You know,
north in the Bible is a symbol of God's throne and usually judgment. That's where Babylon came down
upon Judah from the north. That was judgment of God coming
down. The west represents the finishing of it, the setting
of the sun. And so it says toward the east
in verse 1, And the waters came down from under the right side
of the house, The right side being just what it says, that's
the right way. It's the way of acceptance. At
the south side of the altar, in other words, it's coming from
there. And then verse 2, Then brought he me out of the way
of the gate northward, And led me about the way without unto
the utter or outer gate, by the way that looketh eastward, and
behold there ran out waters on the right side." So these waters
are coming out. That's a picture of Christ, the
water of life. You know how waters in the scripture
are so important. Water is essential for life.
We could go back through the Old Testament and read a lot
about waters. I think about the waters of Marah
when the Hebrew children came upon the waters of Marah, which
means bitter, and they couldn't drink it. Remember Moses was
commanded of God to take that tree or that bush and throw it
into the waters of Marah, and then they became sweet. That's
a picture of Christ going into the sins of His people, our sins
imputed to Him, and making the waters sweet by the shedding
of His blood. You know about the rock that
followed him through the wilderness. Moses struck the rock and water
came out. That rock was Christ. That water
is Christ. The scripture talks about water.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they'll
be filled. Christ the bread of life. He
feeds our hunger. He fills our hunger. Christ the
water of life. He quenches our thirst. How do
we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Where do we find that fulfilled,
that hunger and thirst fulfilled? By looking to Christ, the bread
of life. Christ, the water of life. Remember what He told the
woman at the well in John chapter 4? Rivers of water, welling up
within, talking about Himself. Well, that's what these waters
are. And then look at verse 3. He says, when the man had the
line, this is the man with the measuring line, And of course,
you know what the measuring line is in Ezekiel and in Revelation?
It's the Gospel. How am I to measure my salvation? Through Christ as He's presented
in the Gospel as the righteousness of God. For God hath appointed
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained and that He hath given assurance
unto all men and that He hath raised Him from the dead. You
see, if I find righteousness anywhere else but in Christ,
I'm just fooling myself. So here's the man with the measuring
line in his hand. He went forth eastward and he
measured a thousand cubits. Now a thousand, in the Hebrew
way of thinking, is what they call a Hebrew idiom, which means
an unlimited, unmeasurable period of time that only God knows. It's like you men, when you fell
in love with your wives, you may have said something to her
like, I'll love you for a thousand years. Now, if you said that,
did she look at you and say, well, what are you going to do
at the end of the thousand? No. What you're saying is, I'll love
you forever and ever and ever. We speak that way. That's what
it is. And so what he's saying, this is immeasurable, my man.
Only God knows. And here's what happens. The
man had the linings and he measured a thousand cubits. He brought
me through the waters. The waters were to the ankles.
That's how deep they were, up to the ankles. Verse four. Again,
he measured a thousand and brought me through the waters. The waters
were to the knees. Deeper now. Again, he measured
a thousand and brought me through. The waters were to the loins.
Here it's waist deep. Afterward, he measured a thousand.
It was a river that I could not pass over, for the waters were
risen waters to swim in over my head. The river could not
be passed over." What's going on here? This river's getting
wider and deeper as it goes out from the temple. Now, it's not
necessarily so strange that a river might get wider or deeper as
it gets away from the source, except for one thing. Any river
that does that on land geographically, you know why it does it? It's
because there are other rivers flowing into it. But there's
no other rivers flowing into this river. And it's still getting
deeper. What's he talking about? Well,
this is the way the gospel is. This is the way the kingdom...
It started out small like a grain of mustard seed. And it got bigger
and bigger and bigger. Why is that? Because God has
a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation all
over this world. That's right. And He's going
to save them. This river is going out to them.
And look at verse 6. He said unto me, Son of man,
hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused
me to return to the brink of the river. Here he is on the
banks of the river. Look at verse 7. Now when I had returned, behold,
At the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side
and on the other. Trees grew up. What do you suppose
these trees are? Trees of righteousness whose
planting is of the Lord. That's the people of God. Life
coming from this river. As far as the type goes, geographically,
you know where this river's flowing to? It's like the River Jordan
flowing into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea. Why do they call
it... The word dead is not mentioned
in the scripture as far as the Dead Sea. But that's what they
call it. Why do you suppose they call
it the Dead Sea? I'll tell you exactly why. It's
dead! There's nothing living in it.
There's no fish there. There's no plant life. It's dead.
But here in this river, there's life. And he says in verse 8,
Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country.
They say it's always toward Christ. That's what that means, always
toward Christ. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, there's none else.
and go down into the desert, the dried desert, and go into
the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the waters
shall be healed, the dead shall be healed." Life given to the
dead. What is that? That's the Spirit
of God in the new birth, isn't it? Under the preaching of the
Gospel. Life given to the dead. That comes from Christ, the Lord,
our righteousness. Verse nine, it shall come to
pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, which whithersoever
the river shall come, shall live. What does he say? Wherever this
river goes, life. No death now. This river doesn't
go and leave things dead. This river goes and brings life.
What is that? That's the gospel of God's grace in Christ, in
the power of the Holy Spirit. Wherever it goes, it reaches
its mark, it gives life to the dead, it doesn't leave people
dead. Christ did not die for anybody in vain. No, sir. His blood, His righteousness
is both the security and guarantee of the life of His people. Verse
nine, and there shall be a very great multitude of fish. We learn
here later that it's different kinds of fish. In other words,
it's not just Jewish fish, it's also Gentile fish. To the Jew first and to the Greek
also, because these waters shall come thither and they shall be
healed, the waters healed, and everything shall live whither
the river cometh. You see, wherever this river
goes, there's life, not death. Verse 10, it shall come to pass
that the fishers shall stand upon it from in Gedi unto in
Eglam. That's a widespread area. They shall be a place to spread
forth nets. Their fish shall be according
to their kinds, Jew and Gentile, and the fish of the great sea
exceeding many. How many? I don't know. As many
as the Lord determines. Now verse 11, but the miry places
thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed, they shall
be given to Saul. See, this river doesn't go there.
And they're left. But verse 12, and by the river
upon the bank thereof on the side and on that side shall grow
trees for food, trees for meat, whose leaves shall not fade. Listen, that's the security of
the believer right there. If God saves you, you're saved.
And he says, and neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.
No condemnation in Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It shall bring forth new fruit
according to His months. What that means literally is
that it's going to bear fruit every month. It's not going to
just be, well, tomatoes are in season now. No, they'll be in
season all year round. It's going to bear fruit every
month. Because their waters they issued
out of the sanctuary. That's the source, the sanctuary,
that's the holiest of all. That's the mercy seat, that's
Christ. And the fruit thereof shall be for meat, for food,
and the leaf thereof for medicine. Ain't that a beautiful picture
of Christ and his people? And how salvation comes about
by the grace of God in him. All right.