I would invite your attention
to Ezekiel chapter 48. We're going to continue our study
with the names of Jehovah this evening. Jehovah Shammah. The
Lord is there. Now, in the last nine chapters
of Ezekiel, Ezekiel has spent his whole time, nine chapters,
describing a city. which is a prophecy of New Jerusalem.
Ezekiel's prophesying of the second coming of the Lord. He's
prophesying of a city that sounds very similar to the vision that
the Apostle John saw, when he saw New Jerusalem coming down
from God out of heaven. And he gets to the end, after
these nine chapters, to verse 30 of Ezekiel 48. Here's the
end of his description of this city. He says, and these are
the goings out of the city. on the north side, 4,500 measures. And the gates of the city shall
be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward,
one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi. And
at the east side, 4,500, and three gates. And one gate of
Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan. And at the south
side, 4,500 measures, and three gates. one gate of Simeon, one gate
of Issachar, and one gate of Zebulun. At the west side, 4,500
with their three gates, one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, and
one gate of Naphtali. It was round about 18,000 measures,
and the name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is
there, Jehovah Shammah." Now, I confess I tried to read these
nine chapters And I couldn't do it. I got lost quick. And Charles Spurgeon made this
statement about these nine chapters. He said, the prophet Ezekiel
has been telling us many remarkable things, which I shall not attempt
to explain to you. And my chief reason for not doing
so is the fact that I do not understand them myself. So I
feel in pretty good company. But there are a few things about
this city, simple things. that I understand and would point
out to you. And the first one is this. This
is the city that Abraham looked for. Builder and maker is God. It's a city of peace ruled by
Christ, the Prince of Peace. It's a city that's well fortified. It has walls all the way around
it. David said, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. This is a well fortified city.
It's a well defended city. This city is not going to fall
to attack. God is a wall of fire about this city. Second, this
city is a perfect city. The wall of this city is a perfect
square. And it's easy to enter this perfect
city. There are three gates on every
side of that square. Sinners can come from the four
corners of the globe and enter this city. by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ has opened those gates.
He's opened the kingdom of God for every believer. And the third
thing I know about this city is its name. Now the name of
New Jerusalem, the name of God's church has several different
names in scripture. Jeremiah calls it the Lord our
righteousness. Isaiah says that this city shall
be called Hephzibah. which means the Lord's delight.
Isaiah also says this city should be called Beulah, which means
married to the Lord. But the name we're going to look
at tonight is the name Ezekiel called this city. Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. And all those
other names are only possible because of Jehovah Shammah. Because
the Lord is there. This city can only be called
the Lord our righteousness. because the Lord Himself is there.
This city can only be called the Lord's Delight because the
Lord's there. This city can only be called
Mary to the Lord because the Lord, our Bridegroom, is there.
Now, when we first hear this name, the Lord is there, more
than likely what comes to our mind is, of course He's there. Of course, the Lord's omnipresent.
And that's just a big word to mean that God's everywhere all
at the same time. He's omnipresent. Everywhere there's a where, God's
there. So of course the Lord's there.
He's everywhere. But this name means more than just the Lord
is there. It means He's there in a special
way. He's here in a different way. Not just in a way of government
and overseeing the world. He's there in a way of grace.
He's here in a way of mercy. He's here in a way of salvation.
He's here in a way of His eternal love. He's here in a way of leadership
and protection for His people. The name Jehovah Shammah means
the Lord is there to make Himself known to His people and to dwell
with them in unity. And I want to give us just a
few ways this evening that the Lord has always been with His
people and He always will be with His people. The first one
is this. Before the creation of this world,
the Lord was there. He was there with his people,
as a representative of his people. Now, we say so often that Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's not just
an interesting tidbit of information. That's our hope of salvation.
If Christ was not the Savior before there was ever a sinner,
No sinner could ever be saved. He was the Savior before there
was a sinner. He was there. Before God created
the heavens and the earth, Christ stood as the surety for His people.
If you look over in Proverbs 8, and even then at that time,
Jehovah Shammah was there with His people before God created
the earth. In Proverbs 8, beginning in verse
22, The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning wherever the earth was. When
there was no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills, was I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, when He prepared the heavens, I was there. When
He set a compass upon the face of the when he established the
clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass
his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily
his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the
habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the
sons of men." Even then, Jehovah Shammah, the Lord was there with
his people. And in God's creation, when he
created the heaven and the earth, the Lord was there. In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. And at that time, our
Savior was there. Because our Savior is the Creator.
We just saw that in our study in John. In the beginning was
the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And all things were made by Him. Without Him was
not anything made that was made. In that creation, our Savior
was there. And God created a perfect world.
He did it in perfect order. He didn't create man first. He
created light. He created the dry ground, the
grass and the animals. And He created a perfect garden.
And when everything was ready, He put man in that perfect garden. And God did that for this purpose.
So he had a place to walk with this creature. God came and walked
with Adam in the cool of the evening. As a friend, walks with
his friend. Jen and I took a walk yesterday
evening. Walked and talked. God did that with Adam. He was
there. And that is the glory of Eden. The glory of the Garden of Eden
is not this idyllic scene, you know, we have pictured in our
minds. I can promise you, we all have this picture in our
minds of what the Garden of Eden looked like. I promise you, it
was much better than what we envisioned. Because everything
we envision is marred by sin. That place was perfect. The glory
of that place was not the beauty of it. The glory of that place
was Jehovah Shaman. The Lord was there. walking with
His creatures, being with Adam and Eve. But then third, Adam
fell. He plunged all mankind into ruin,
despair, and death. Well, where on earth is God?
He was there. He was there. He allowed that
to happen to accomplish His eternal purpose. And even after Adam
rebelled, God came to him. And what did Adam do? He blamed
God for his sin. Even then, God was there. He didn't wipe Adam out. God
showed mercy. Now, there was still judgment,
wasn't there? Adam was flushed out of the garden. But in that
dark hour, God came to his own and he made himself known to
Adam and to Eve and gave them the prophecy of the seed of woman
who would come and crush the serpent's head. In that dark
hour of sin, in that dark hour of death, God promised Jehovah
Shammah. Adam, the Lord's there. The Lord will be there. Adam,
the Lord's coming. He's coming to redeem His people
from the curse of sin. Adam, you lost all righteousness.
But the Lord's coming. Jehovah Shammah's coming. He's
going to bring righteousness with Him. You be with His people.
Adam, you lost union with God. No more will you walk in the
cool of the day with God. But Jehovah Shammah is coming,
and He's going to restore that union with God, make His people
one with God. Adam, you lost peace with God.
You declared war on God. Jehovah Shammah is coming to
bring peace, to bring peace with God through the blood of His
cross. Adam lost communion with God, but Jehovah Shammah coming. He'll be here to bring communion
with God, because the Lord is here, will be here on this earth,
on this earth that you've cursed. Well, things didn't improve,
did they? Fallen man kept reproducing.
We kept stumbling around lost in God's creation. We kept sinning
and marring God's creation and continued to rebel against God.
But even then, The Lord was there. God looked down from heaven.
He saw the wickedness of man. It was great in the earth. It
repented God. He made man. He saw man's every imagination,
every thought of man's mind was only evil continually. And God
said, I'm going to destroy the world with a flood. But he commanded
Noah to build an ark. Noah went in and shut the door.
And the Lord was there with Noah in that ark. Abraham and Isaac
went to the top of that mountain Moriah to worship. And the Lord
was there. Abraham told Isaac, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac
went up alone. They left the servants back here.
They weren't alone at the top of that mountain. The Lord was
there and provided a substitute that let Isaac live. On the run from Esau. Full of
fear. One night he's so tired he had
to lay down and go to sleep. He's full of fear, knowing soon
he'll see Esau. But the Lord was there. Jacob
wasn't alone. In a dream, Jacob saw that ladder reaching from
earth to heaven and angels descending and ascending on that ladder.
And Jacob woke up and he called the name of that place Bethel.
This is the house of God. Why? Jehovah Shammah. The Lord's there. Christ had
not even come incarnate yet. But Christ was there present,
always with His people Israel. All through their daily lives.
The Lord was there. Christ was there. Even if they
didn't have eyes to see Him, He was there. They offered the
daily sacrifice. The Lord was there. Morning,
noon, and evening. Lamb sacrifice. The Lord was
there. The Lord was there in the rest of the Sabbath day.
The Lord was there in the Passover lamb. The Day of Atonement. He's everywhere. He's pictured
everywhere. The Lord was there in the tabernacle,
in the temple. The Shekinah glory of God shone
in that Holy of Holies. He's there. There's the High
Priest. That's a picture of Christ our
High Priest. There's King David sitting on his throne. The Lord's
there. That's a picture of Christ our
King. There's that smitten rock that followed Israel around the
wilderness. The Lord's there giving water to his people. There's
the brazen serpent that's up on the pole. People are dying
everywhere. There's a brazen serpent looking
to live. The Lord's there. The Ark of the Covenant. Those
priests would move it from place to place as they moved around
the wilderness. The Lord's there. He's with His people. God's always
been with His covenant people because that's His name. The
Lord's there. And then fifth, Christ was born
in Bethlehem's manger. Jehovah's Shaman's there like
He was never there before. Look in Isaiah chapter 7. We've seen pictures. of the Lord,
we've seen some pre-incarnate appearances of the Lord. But
now, in that manger, the Lord is there like he's never been
there before. Isaiah 7, verse 14, Therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. God with us. God is with us. The Lord is there. Like He had
never been with man before. Wonderful. Counselor. The mighty
God. The everlasting Father. The Prince
of Peace. There He is. He's here with us
in that manger in Bethlehem. That baby is God Almighty wrapped
in human flesh. Come to save His people from
their sins. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled
among us, stayed among us, dwelt among us. The Lord is there. In a few days, eight days later,
Mary and Joseph carried that baby into the temple to be circumcised
the eighth day. The Lord's there. The Lord has
come to His holy temple. Most people probably saw a baby.
Poor father and mother bringing that poor baby. Simeon saw the
Lord's there. He said, Oh, let thy servant
depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Thy
salvation is here among men. Come to save his people. And
all throughout our Lord's earthly ministry, we read of a man going
about preaching righteousness, preaching the kingdom of God.
He's doing good, showing mercy to sinners, helping the helpless.
But that's no mere man that we read of. He's not just a prophet. He's not a reformer. That's Jehovah
Shammah. The Lord is there. He's there
establishing righteousness as a man. Righteousness that He
can impute to His people, to sinful men and women, to make
His people righteous. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. and year complete in Him. In
Him, because He came to be with us where we are. That man is
God. And God's that man. This is God
with us. And at the end of our Lord's
earthly ministry, He went to Calvary's tree. And this I know. The Lord's there. There at Calvary
is the Father. punishing the Son for the sin
that was charged to Him. A Calvary God is punishing sin
and God is being punished for sin. A Calvary God is turning
His back on God. The Son is forsaken by the Father
because sin is charged to Him. A Calvary God is being made a
curse for His people. And God is dying to put that
curse away. At Calvary, God is there, dying
as a substitute so that His people will live. Thank God the Lord's
there. He's there accomplishing the
salvation of His people. What on earth would you want
to add to that? Christ is our salvation. The Lord is there, bringing salvation
to His people. And because of that, when you
find one of God's sheep, you find Jehovah Shambler. When I
see Dale Simpson, there's Jehovah Shambler. The Lord's there. In the creation of the new man,
the Lord's there. Just like He was in the creation
of the world. Except this time, he'd get his
spiritual life. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And from that point on, the Lord
is there with that redeemed sinner. Look over 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. Know ye not that you are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any
man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the
temple of God is holy, which temple you are. If you're a believer, you are
the temple of God. Look over 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians
6. Verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? For
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is
there dwelling in the hearts of his people. And when the church
meets together to worship, we're not alone. The Lord's there. Dale said that in his prayer.
This was his prayer. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. The security
of the church is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. For centuries,
men have tried to wipe the church of God off the face of the planet.
Why haven't they been able to do it? The Lord's there, that's
why. The power of the church. It's
not in our programs and interesting programs and things we can do
to grab people's attention. Thankfully, it's not on how much
people like the preacher. The power of the church is the
Lord's there. The Lord is there. He's our power. The happiness of the church is
the Lord's there. If the Lord's here, we'll have
happiness. The peace of the church is Jehovah
Shammah. The Lord is there. If He's here,
there'll be peace. And don't take this unspeakable
blessing for granted. I know the Lord promised, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there are mine in
the midst of them. Don't ever take it for granted. Ever. We
should all earnestly pray. and beg the Lord to meet with
us in our worship services. Beg God not to leave us alone,
because I'm telling you, we'll never be blessed unless the Lord's
there. Sinners will never be saved unless
the Lord's there. He's got to do it. We've met
here in vain unless the Lord's there. Look over in Exodus 33. I've told you before, this is
one of my very favorite passages of Scripture. This was my prayer
at the dinner table this evening. Exodus 33, verse 14. And God said, My presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And Moses said unto
him, If thy presence go not with me, Carry us, God, uphands. If your presence doesn't go with
us, don't let us go. Don't let us go. We'll never
be blessed. There'll never be any salvation
that we've met in vain unless the Lord's there. And during
times of trial, the Lord's there, lying in a
hospital room, flat on your back. I remember Scott Richardson.
talking about laying in that hospital room. He talked about
being, I think he said chained. What he was talking about was
those IVs going up to the, you know, chain to that post. In
pain. Facing uncertainty. Suffering
loss. Feeling lonely. Feeling anxiety. Where's God? He's there. Oh, He's there. We never have
to wonder, is the Lord among us or not? Remember in Exodus
17, our study of Jehovah Nissi, the people asked, is the Lord
among us or not? We never have to wonder. The
Lord's there. He's always among His people.
Another one of those precious promises I love to read so often,
Isaiah 43, 2. When you pass through the waters,
I'll be with you. You'll not be there alone. I'll
be with you. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
refused to bow down and worship an idol. Boy, Nebuchadnezzar,
he was angry. He was going to throw them in
a fiery furnace. He heated it up seven times more
than they normally did and he's going to get rid of them. He's
going to show them. Those three Hebrew children were
delivered from that fiery furnace. They came out of there. Their
clothes didn't even smell of smoke. Because before they went
into that fiery furnace, Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is already
there. He delivered them. He's there. Ezekiel experienced this. Ezekiel
prophesied at one of the lowest points in all of Israel's history.
When Ezekiel was prophesying, Jerusalem lay in ruins. Israel's
spirit was so broken, they wouldn't even sing the songs of Jehovah
anymore. And their captors asked him, what did you quit singing?
Where are those songs you used to sing? We kind of liked them.
They say we're too filled with sorrow to sing the songs of Jehovah
in our captivity anymore. Just broken. Every word of prophecy
Ezekiel ever spoke was spoken in captivity. But God's promise
to Israel at this time is the same promise to His people who
are in trial right now. And His promise is His name,
Jehovah Shammah. The Lord's there. The Lord is
there wherever you are. The Lord's there. I thought of
our children. I remember being your age, going
to school. And when you go to school, that
place is not run like your home. It's very different. And it's
a world unto itself, isn't it? When you cross that threshold
tomorrow and you go to school, you remember this. The Lord's
there. You're not going in there alone.
The Lord is there. When you go to work in the morning,
the Lord's there. The Lord's out there. He's there.
And I'm telling you, everywhere you go, the Lord is there. That'll make us breathe a little
easier, shouldn't it? And last, The glory of God's
church, of God's people, in eternity, is this. Jehovah's Shammah. The Lord is there. I don't know
when it will be, but before too long, one day, God's purpose
on this earth is going to be finished, and He's going to fold
it up and put it away. Christ is going to return. The
dead will be raised. The earth and sea will give up
their dead. And there will be that great judgment where Christ
will judge the earth in righteousness. Satan will be forever enchained
in hell. The unbeliever will be sent to
eternal damnation. And believers will be taken to
the place we call glory where there will be no more tears,
no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death because there will
be no more sin. Now I cannot say this often enough. The glory of that place that
we call heaven, paradise by whatever name you want to call it, the
glory of that place will not be that we're floating around
on clouds, enjoying the easy life, playing a harp with no
more stress and no more worries. The glory of that place is its
name. The glory of that city is the
name Ezekiel told us of, Jehovah Shammai. The Lord is there. That's the glory of that place. The fact that the Lord is there
makes that place paradise. The glory that God's elect will
enjoy will be this. The Lord is there to be holding
face to face with nothing between. And because of that, a believer
can face death without fear. Even expectantly. Because to
be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. Face
to face. To have Jehovah Shammah in person. And the name Jehovah Shammah
is the very promise that God's purpose of redemption will be
accomplished. I'll show you that in 1 Thessalonians
4. All those that Christ redeemed
by his sacrifice will be eternally with the Lord. The glory of his
name depends upon it. Jehovah Shem. If any of his people
are not there with him, if he's not there with his people, he
lost the glory of his name. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 15. For this we say unto you by the
word of the that we which are alive and remain unto the coming
of the Lord shall not prevent or shall not precede them which
are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Jehovah-chan. Wherefore, comfort
one another with these words. Is Christ your happiness? Right
now, is Christ your happiness? Is being in the presence of Christ,
is that your happiness? Then being in the presence of
Christ will be your happiness throughout eternity. The name
of glory for God's ravine shall spend eternity is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord's there. Is the presence
of Christ the delight of your soul right now? Then enjoying
the presence of Christ will be the delight of your soul in eternity. Because if Christ is the delight
of your soul now, you'll spend eternity with Jehovah Shammah. The Lord's there. All right,
well, I hope that'll be a blessing to you.