Ezekiel 47:1-12 - A River of Life

let's go ahead this morning open our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 47 and as you did the reading this week you probably were like me and wondering why has she read the chapters why am i why are you giving me all this detail Lord and and I think there's a reason why I think for us even as Gentiles and this is obviously in the future this temple that's described with the detail with which he describes it as a temple that's never existed not it's not the temple that was rebuilt in the days of Jesus that was standing that had been refurbished by Herod neither does it match the temple that we read about that's measured in the book of Revelation there's a temple that the Antichrist will enter into and proclaim that he's God Paul warns us about that in 2nd Thessalonians and we see a temple measured in the book of Revelation a temple that was destroyed in 70 AD that hasn't existed till today then before the return of the Messiah there's a temple in Jerusalem and John is actually measuring it and those dimensions don't match these dimensions this is a different temple from that and so lots of questions there's not all the information that we would have I was listening to Pastor Chuck Smith's teaching on this yesterday and it wasn't super encouraging to me when he started off by saying this is the passage of the Bible I know the least about so Chuck was a great Bible teacher and really knew the word and he has he fessed up as he started that he didn't know what he's talking about so that that's always encouraging you know so there's a lot of questions that are raised in these chapters and and having said that I think the there's a there's a very important reason why there's the detail why he says it's this wall is gonna be this many cubits high this is mini cubits wide it's gonna go like this the building's oriented like this this wall is this big and it's this high and these this side of the building has this many rooms the rooms are this big they're gonna be used for this all that detail it makes it difficult to dismiss these chapters and say it's just an allegory and I would encourage you when he come to the Bible be careful about turning something into a symbol that really is literal and this this is a much large maybe necessarily relate to our congregation we're on our fourth time studying through the Bible verse by verse from Genesis to Revelation so we've made a commitment to what we believe about the Bible but it's important for you to understand that not everybody who reads the Bible will read it the way that you read it you're expecting the Bible to mean what it says and in every place possible your first choice is this means what it says it's literal and so even when we come to prophetic passages and we don't really know exactly how this is going to work the dimensions of this building won't fit in Jerusalem the way Jerusalem currently exists geographically there isn't a place in Jerusalem in the old city that's big enough to house the complex that's measured here but we know that when the Bible said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem that he's gonna be born in Bethlehem and in fact he was and it was very unlikely that somehow his mom and his step that would end up in Bethlehem when she's nine months pregnant and living in another part of the country but we know that when there's things that we don't understand we're just gonna stick with what it says he's from Bethlehem it'd be really easy to make that an allegory Bethlehem literally means House of bread apparently there was some amazing bread makers who lived there when they were founding the village and if you wanted to get bread and you'd end up down in that village that's house of bread so Jesus the bread of life and of course he's born in Nazareth but he fulfills us because he is the bread of life and it's an allegory describing you know his identity it's a figure and we say well it's true he is the bread of life but he actually was literally born in that place so it's really important there are some places where clearly we're looking at a symbol where it says there's a dragon and the dragon does this and then woman flees and then we're told well the dragon is the devil so there's all the almost every symbol in the Bible is interpreted someplace else on the Bible in a very plain straightforward way this is this is important on the larger scale because you'll have false teachers come along and they'll say I'm actually this new temple and these numbers speak about my latitude and longitude where I built my temple here in whatever city you know like all kinds of weird fanciful interpretations once the Bible is interpreted by whatever you feel quote-unquote you know we're the field generation we don't think anymore we feel everything I don't feel like that well who cares how you feel like what do you think tell me what you think and then tell me why you think that well I don't really care how I think or why I think that it's I don't feel like this that's it that's a degradation reality should always be above your feelings just right that's something that kind of the cultures tossed it out the window like no feelings feelings feelings actually will determine your reality okay that's not that's not sound thinking there is an order of things and so this this is on the large scale it's important for us to consider these things even when we're reading through it we're it's not a it's not a futile exercise to go through the detail of it because you look back and go well why would God give us all this detail why would God tell us all these dimensions why do we need to know this and I think I think there's there's the important reality on the large scale that we're reading about a real City about a real place that will actually exist this is important because already two weeks ago we're looking at the description of the city of Tyre it's a real City and we're told that the rocks and the lumber of the city are all going to be thrown into the sea and then they're gonna scrape it like the top of Iraq and all the dirts gonna be thrown into the sea it'd be really easy to allegorize that and say what is really is using hyperbole to describe this thing and there's gonna be a total destruction well actually we found out that in the past that act that happened literally as difficult or as hard as it might be to understand how could those events come to pass that would cause someone to do such a thing never happened in history that I can think of other than that one place why would somebody do that well then we find out they actually did that and we find out the reasons why and then that prophecy was literal it really happened so when we come to something like this and we're given all this detail it doesn't make me think that it's allegorical it makes me think wow this is amazing something's gonna happen something's gonna happen to Jerusalem that's gonna make it different geographically like topography like the the topo map with the lines you know there's this many feet between each line and you're gonna look and where there was a cliff there's not going to be the Bible says there's gonna be a great earthquake in Jerusalem in the tribulation period and it's gonna cause a big percentage of the city to fall many people will die when Jesus returns it says he's going to return to the Mount of Olives at the Mount of Olives is gonna split in two there's gonna be some radical cataclysmic events to the lands the physical structure of the land that the Bible tells us is going to happen so then when I read about a temple and a complex that if I looked at the if I looked at the platform of the Temple Mount today or Jerusalem today I would say with these dimensions like you can't place it anywhere there well the Bible tells me there's gonna be a tremendous earthquake that's gonna upset everything and that the mountain directly across only a few hundred yards away is gonna split in two okay well it's gonna look probably different so I don't have a problem with it I'm not expecting this to not be literal I don't have any need to then make the Bible well I know it says this but it doesn't mean that please please please please don't do that please don't hold to a position of doctrine that you have to take your big pliers out and Bend verses to make them fit your theology yeah I know this verse says that but I got these big pliers and if I put my foot on the bottom and pull on the top I can make this verse mean what it doesn't say and it will support my theological position don't do that we want to just believe the Bible take it for what it is tyre a real city we read about it that prophecy was fulfilled in the past now we're reading about Jerusalem we're reading about this new temple that is going to be standing this would be very encouraging for the people because their temple has been destroyed this message we're given the day to when this message comes they've been in the captivity for 25 years their temples gone and gods now saying I'm bigger than all these nations my plan is bigger this new thing is bigger they would be familiar they're from that city and they'd look at these dimensions and they've walked around that city and they would say this won't fit they're not dumb if I can read it and realize it doesn't fit somebody who lived there their entire life would go I've walked around that place where are you gonna put this complex and and it won't fit on these hillsides there's not a spot to hold it something would be stirred up in in them and and that the story of Jerusalem in the Bible and it's that it's the last City we learn about it's the final place it's there's a new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband it's the place where we find our fullness in our relationship with God when the tears are wiped away and we're in his presence and and all of evil is put away and the devil is is done and gone and sin is is gone and and now we're with the Lord it's the expression of that is in a location and it's the New Jerusalem it's in this city so though this is important to us and what we read in these chapters is that this new temple will stand in Jerusalem it's not a temple that we can point to any temple and say well this has been fulfilled because never before and never like this and even the as I mentioned the description in Revelation 11 when John is told to measure the temple that he sees in the tribulation period it's different it's not the same and it's supernatural this temple that we read about is going to have the glory of God and its midst we'd seen earlier in the Book of Ezekiel when the glory of God departed from the temple but now in these chapters the glory returns and it returns in a way that's never before even Jesus coming into the second temple and revealing himself and cleansing the temple and say my father's house and being revealed but he's rejected and he doesn't reign from Jerusalem and those prophecies are not fulfilled in his first coming and that glory doesn't return to the temple but the glories returned to this temple the glory of God in its midst and chapter 47 where I asked you to turn something else is happening with this temple that's amazed especially for the region and something that you would know if you were from this area something is very unique in all of history is Jerusalem doesn't have a river all major cities ever including Sacramento they're built on a river old old cities there's a reason why you put the city where you put it is because the rivers are so important and so significant and so people that aren't from California and they see California today and they say why they visit you know they visit LA they go to the Bay Area maybe they came from India or you know somewhere and they move they got a job at Facebook or Google now they're in the Bay Area and then someone says we're gonna go up to Tahoe and they drive through the capital of California and they've been in LA now they lived in the Bay Area and then they drive through your town and how do they feel about where you live you get the question often why are you guys the capital and the easiest way to explain it well there's the American River coming down and the Sacramento River coming down and where those two rivers meet there's a city and 150 years ago when they discover gold and all these people are moving in there isn't a Los Angeles I mean not to speak of not a city not a major exporter of culture and music and all the others people and they're having their they haven't probably really enjoying the way it used to be before we ruined it you know then there's the there's the sailor town that is San Francisco is craziness and so you get the you need to do something you got to manage this new thing that's happening and there and the convergence of these two rivers becomes the capital of California yeah it's got to be understood in in sort of a historical way it's nots like we didn't look and say what's gonna be your right in the center of Ag you're right in the center like well it's a river so go to Jerusalem I mean go to any of the seas Babylon Assyria Nineveh I mean go to the places and go anywhere go to Belgrade London Paris you know wherever you want to go it's the anywhere in the world any major city you want to go in the world you gonna find a river there's an exception probably the most important city in the world I mean even in some sense today like strategically or just the the political tension around it Jerusalem has no River there's a spring that's at the bottom of the hill kind of down quite a ways from where the big it's not gonna be enough water to provide for the people of the city there's no River there and what we're reading about in chapter 47 is Jerusalem gets a river it's very interesting Jerusalem gets a river so let's let's read through it is he easy to see this in his vision he brought me back to the door of the temple verse 1 and there was water and it was flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east and for the front of the temple was facing to the east and the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple south of the altar and then he brought me out by way of the north gate and then he led me around on the outside of the outer gateway that faces east and there was the water running out on the right side and when the man went out to the east with this line in his hand he measured 1000 cubits and he brought me through the waters and the water came up to my ankles and again he measured 1,000 and he brought me through the waters and the water came up to my knees and again he measured 1,000 and he brought me through and the water came up to my waist again he measured 1,000 and it was a river and I couldn't cross the water was too deep the water in which one must swim a river that could not be crossed and he said to me son of man have you seen this and then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river and when I returned there along the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and the other and he said to me this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the valley and enters the sea and when it reaches the sea its waters are healed and it shall be that every living thing that moves wherever the rivers go will live and there will be a very great multitude of fish because these waters go there for they will be healed and everything will live wherever the river goes it shall be that fisherman will stand by it from an getty to any glam and they will they will be places for the spreading of their nets and their fish will be of the same kinds of fish in the great sea exceedingly many but it swamps and marshes will not be healed they will be given over to salt and along the bank of the river on this side and on that will grow all kinds of trees use for food their leaves will not wither their fruit will not fail and they will bear fruit every month because their water flows from the sanctuary and their fruit will be for food and their leaves will be for medicine it's very interesting because if you travel to Israel today or really any time in Israel's history and you leave Jerusalem and you travel east you immediately go into what's called the Judean wilderness and it becomes very very dry it's kind of fun to go there in the springtime when there's some kind of rain because these hills that normally are just dead I mean just brown as can be sometimes in the spring you'll have like a little thin green carpet on them and sometimes you'll be there when the flowers are blooming severely some of you guys go down to the go to Death Valley at the time when there's a big spring bloom and see it but the rest of the time I mean it's just a desert and as you go down into that deep valley that's on the east side of those mountains and you see the mountains on the other side of the valley that make up modern day Jordan and then you see the Jordan River flowing down and the Jordan River brings a lot of life with it but the Jordan River ends in a place called the Dead Sea the Dead Sea has a high high concentration of salt and minerals that only some very rare kind of bacteria can survive there's nothing there nothing's growing there and it's a Dead Sea has no outlet something's coming in coming in coming in it never goes out if you have everything coming in and nothing ever goes out then you become dead Christian I mean it's not it's not hard to make an application out of that that's a cheap one so I so a cheap shot at you you know how do you pass that one by self tee-ball right like hit that one you know give it up the game so everything's coming in and nothing goes out and it dies it's the Dead Sea but now this river is now flowing and it comes right out of the temple itself he says that later it comes out of the sanctuary and this river it grows and it starts off as ankle to the knees to the waist till he has to swim in it and it just goes right down this valley whatever however the new topography is it's gonna make its way down to the valley and it's gonna go and wherever it goes it's gonna bring healing and it's gonna pass into the Dead Sea and something cataclysmic or amazing will happen that's gonna allow for the transformation of the Dead Sea if we won't be we won't call it the Dead Sea and I think it's interesting that in the prophecy here as we're reading about any says the marshes will still be given over to salt it's almost as though the Lord is going to leave enough evidence so that people later when they look at it there's gonna be a reminder yeah this was dead but wow look at what God has done look at what this water has broad and how it's been transformed it it's interesting it's supernatural this would never be able to happen this new temple with the glory of God in its midst and now a new River that's coming out that's never been there before only God could do this this isn't a plan that you could go if you were in policy in Israel and you went you know to the Prime Minister and you said I've got this great idea I went to the Bible I think we can do this my friends got a mini excavator and I think we can this isn't good it's not possible there's not a sort there's not a water source there's not enough water to make a river there's not enough it's just kit can't happen it's supernatural so we're looking at what I think is a real City real dimensions this is really going to happen and it's going to be supernatural something a real place of the real location and it's really going to happen and it's supernatural and now having said that this particular place I don't think this is an allegory but I do think that this is one of those places in the Bible where something is happening physically something like that it's a it's a precursor to something more amazing that's gonna happen that's just like this and it's also a similitude if you will I don't call it an allegory it's primary it's really gonna happen but it's really happening is also to help us understand something else that's really happening that's completely spiritual that's that's not a city but actually is a person so I don't believe this is an allegory I I really believe in a literal return of Jesus to the earth when I first got saved I didn't believe that I didn't wasn't raised as a Christian I didn't know the Bible so the thought that people would be expecting a literal return of Christ seemed to me like you were in a weird cult like you have a tinfoil hat so they can't read your thoughts and you know you're you know you're gonna go to another country with some megalomaniac and he's probably gonna murder all of you you know I you know I was grew up I was a little kid when that you know was younger when that happened it was you know that I grew I was a little kid when all the hippies were tuning in and checking out that was frightening if you're six and seven years old like these guys are lunatics dad let's not go camping ever again you know the hippies have taken over the campground you know they're they're all tuned in you know so the idea of like someone being a guru and you know the Jesus is coming back so when I first got saved I remember maybe the second or third week I was a Bible study and never really been in a church never read the Bible and I remember the youth pastor was talking about Jesus second coming and I thought man how did I end up in a cult you know I do believe in the Lord but these people and I went up to the youth pastor with ton of tons of sincerity has said you know what how can you possibly say Jesus coming back like what are you talking about like don't they take out full-page ads in newspapers Jesus is coming back aren't those people wackos like are you a wacko he smiled he's got a gracious gracious youth pastor you know what I got saved it he opens his Bible the book of Revelation why don't you read this I'm reading turns to chapter 19 he's like so I read through it whoa Jesus coming back who knew well I guess maybe you're not a cult I guess the Bible says well just my thinking on this issue that's happened to me a lot have to adjust my thinking on this issue why no I never really thought that well why did I change my mind well the Bible clearly said the opposite of what I was thinking so I've learned this way better you know the Bible is gonna be right and when we when I me in the Bible contradict I make changes that are necessary so I believe in a literal return of Jesus to the earth I think Jesus is coming back to the earth I believe physically he'll come back I think what we've read in the book of Revelation is gonna happen even when there's symbolic language used what the symbols are pointing to are real events that are really gonna happen in the future I just like I believe he was gonna be born in Bethlehem and it actually happens I think that when it says this gonna happen I think it's gonna actually happen I believe that when he comes back to the earth he's gonna reign upon the earth for a thousand years the book of Revelation says that and so that's what I believe I believe he's gonna reign in Jerusalem I believe that the temple is gonna be rebuilt and I believe that the temple that we're reading about and Ezekiel's probably the temple that is describing the temple that will exist during this thousand year reign I believe that the things that are happening here that they're hard to understand there's a prince who enters in through the east gate it's not Jesus because he has sons and he offers sacrifices for himself so there there's a leadership that is raised up but I don't understand there's not other passages of scripture that talk about it I don't it's anything like I don't understand that it says it I take it at face value if you want me to extrapolate on that or or develop a whole idea I I don't feel comfortable doing that cuz the Bible only gives us what it gives us I'll I'm gonna stop there sacrifices are gonna be offered including a sin offering are gonna be offered but Jesus is the final of sacrifice so you have to come back tonight to learn about how to understand that that's that's you don't get that one for free you got a record the Superbowl to get that so I believe there's gonna be a great earthquake I believe the mountain will split I believe he will come back bodily I believe in a battle of Armageddon and I believe in this river I think this is gonna happen I think it's literally gonna happen I think it's gonna be part of the restoration of the earth and and all that's gonna take place in the in the glorious kingdom age this river will flow and I believe that this river is gonna flow down into that Valley and that valley that has been dead for thousands and thousands of years it's gonna be restored and you'll be able to go visit it and especially if you visited it when it was dead and you're gonna go down there and go fishing and you'll be able to go down there and catch something that only lives in the ocean and so how is this happening here and and there's some other supernatural aspect of it some people are trying to understand because you guys know because you hike in the Sierra Nevadas it's not far from us to see the beginning of a river so you're at the South Fork of the American River and that implies there must be a North Fork of the American River and you know that if you're going up to South Fork and you're gonna see this little tributary coming in and feeding that one and this one come in and so you know the snow starts to melt you know that downstream the rivers going to go up because all those creeks and streams are filling up and they're all feeding the system until this main river now is taking them taking it all in so when you read the different commentaries about this and they talk about how he walks into his ankles and then he goes to his knees and then he goes a little further and he's up to his waist there's a way that happens naturally and so I've reading all my different commentaries and the guys saying well you know there must be other tributaries coming I don't know something supernatural about this river that the further you go on down the river the deeper it is this isn't water that's coming from the rain this isn't water that well this Hill is getting water and that Hill is getting water this this this river is bringing life where there's death and this River comes from the sanctuary and somehow when you're right there at the beginning it's only up to your ankles but if you go about a thousand cubits down the things up to your knees and if you go down another thousand cubits you walk out there and all of a sudden it's waist-deep and if you go down another thousand cubits you can't go across it unless you swim something amazing it's supernatural it's wonderful I I think this is literal I don't I'm not looking for a natural explanation for it doesn't bother me I know though I know that if water is spontaneously coming out of the temple of God I got no problem with it somehow supernaturally expanding in its depth and in its capacity I think this is literal I think this is really gonna happen but it's an amazing similitude it's an amazing way for us to think about this and also of you know let's see let's go ahead and jump jump to Revelation I don't know exactly I want to do this my notes are now worthless I just looked out they're not they're not helpful right now let's go to revelation 22 so this is the end there there's an there's no other descriptions after the end of Revelation this is the final of the revelation of of all that God wants to show us and so we're in the last chapter and he's described the New Jerusalem it's come down and he's given this physical description of it and it's dimensions and its beauty its glory and then chapter 22 verse 1 and he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb there's not going to be a temple in the New Jerusalem because God is the temple so it's coming from his throne it's coming from his presence he's replaced the temple in that sense so this river is coming it's a river of the water of life it's coming right out of God's throne verse 2 in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the Tree of Life and it bored the twelve fruits each tree yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation's there will no longer be a curse the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will serve Him and they'll see his face and his name will be on their foreheads there will know there will be no night there they need no lamp nor light of the Sun for the Lord God gives them light and they will reign forever and ever and then he said to me these words are faithful and true and the Lord God of the Holy Prophets sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place behold I'm coming quickly blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book so as John's concluding he's really concluding his description of the new city and it's focused on the presence of God in this river that comes out of the presence of God so so it's not hard to look at the passage and say well just like many other places in scripture you have something happening in and it's taking place and it's prophetic it's uttered by Ezekiel and it's not gonna happen in his lifetime and it's a prophecy but it has one fulfillment but then it has an even greater fulfillment in the future there's many many places even evil people there's someone who's kind of a type of the Antichrist will read about him in a couple weeks in Daniel this this person who's a ruler of this division of the Greek Kingdom under under Alexander the Great and he becomes the leader of the Seleucids and and he becomes a picture of the Antichrist so some of the things he does he's actually Daniels prophesying about this guy but this guy's not the fulfillment this guy he's a fulfillment a part of it but he actually becomes a picture of the Antichrist which is not really if you're gonna be in prophecy you don't really want to be prophecy of they haven't Christ but this particular individual is he's not the total fulfillment of those verses he is the fulfillment of those verses but he's more John the Baptist he's like Elijah he comes to the spirit and power of Elijah Jesus said if you care to accept that he's the Elijah who would come but then jesus said but Elijah is coming there wait a minute what do you mean Elijah's come John you said John about he is but he isn't John the Baptist is a fulfillment of that role before the coming of the Messiah the first time but Elijah is coming before the second time is going to fulfill what Malachi prophesied Elijah will come before the great and terrible day of the Lord John the Baptist is kind of a fulfillment and there's a future fulfillment a lot of Bible prophecy is like that this is like that because this temple it's not the New Jerusalem these guys are offering sacrifices there's a temple this this temple and where the water is coming from that's not the revelation 20:2 because ain't no temple there this this detail you can say well it's an allegory no it's not these this details there cuz this place is gonna be real I don't know exactly how it's gonna be fulfilled but I know it will be the Bible always means what it says so I plan on being like Charles Simeon this sermon that I read you last week that guy preached a sermon 200 years ago still good one I want to preach sermons that are gonna be good in 200 years you say well then do on this good today so I'm trying I'm doing my best so doing the best I can so have mercy this reality there's a reality here but then there's prophecy here but then sometimes the things that God is revealing prophecy and in a literal way they're also given to us to help us understand something that would be very difficult to understand something that's completely spiritual and there's another river that flows besides this one in chapter 47 and besides the one that we read about in Revelation chapter 22 and that's what I want to talk to you about you each one of you I want to talk to you personally about this and about how this applies to you if you want to turn to John chapter 7 we're taking this straight from the words of Jesus in John chapter 7 starting in verse 37 and I believe that I will be speaking to you because Jesus tells us who he's talking to and I think this is you I hope it is on the last day John 7 verse 37 on the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried out saying if anyone thirsts is that you you have a thirst and he's talking to you if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink he who believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water but this he spoke John's gonna interpret it for us verse 39 we don't have to wonder what he meant this he spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in him would receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified in the moment when Jesus uttered these words he was making an invitation to the people to come and experience something that was shortly take place it hasn't really begun yet but the offer is made the invitation is given that if you're sensing a thirst if there's a longing in you then you come to me and you drink and the scripture will be fulfilled that out of your heart would flow a river of living water so if we think of our passage as a simile a similitude I don't want to call it a metaphor necessarily but like this is like that and this will happen and surely it's pointing to the New Jerusalem and that's the amazing fulfillment of it yet it's it's these are given to us to make us think of something that you and I can experience and need to experience and if you're thirsty this is what you're thirsty for this is what you want to experience and that is out of the temple will flow this river that will bring life where there's only been death and the Bible says that you become the temple of God you individually you personally and when you open your heart to Jesus Christ when you say alright Lord I'm done I'm done sinning I've lived like a fool what a mess I've made in my life Jesus please forgive me I surrender my life to you please come into my life and Oh forgive me cleanse me O God help me follow you and I want to be born again I want to be a new creation in Christ ooh and and Jesus hears that prayer and Jesus the only one who could answer that prayer he answers that he promised that he would answer it whoever receives me to them he gives the right to become the children of God to those who believe in his name and you become the child of God and you're born again jesus said and the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you and so Paul would write to the believers and say you're now the temple of God and out of the temple of God Jesus says a river will flow and we know our Bibles we say wait a minute I know about that that's in that's in that weird section that no one can totally understand in Ezekiel it's going to be in the future and and and that's in the last revelation that you gave to your apostles when they gave us the full canon of Scripture and your last word was a new city is coming and it will have no need of a Sun or moon because you'll be the light it won't need a temple because you're the temple and they're that same rivers gonna flow and the healing and the life is gonna be there and you're gonna be there and we're gonna be there and Jesus is saying right now today in your life if you're thirsty come to me and drink I would ask you some questions have you become the temple of God are you the temple of God or do you go to church you know it's a bad thing to teach your kids that their behavior needs to change when they go to church now you I'm saying that in light of the fact that please make sure their behaviors better when they come to church okay let's be honest but listen what a terrible thing to teach a kid when you're here your behavior has to be different well wait so when I location changes no no if I am Who I am then I am Who I am here or there or wherever if my behaviors a problem maybe I need to change who I am maybe that's the real issue why in the world will we be interested in something superficial when God's ready to make this radical transformation and make me the temple of God I would just ask you you say well I believe in Jesus well so does the devil he believes Jesus has the only begotten Son of God but is the devil the temple of God no way he doesn't ever do what Jesus wants him to do so how are you different from him do you obey Him any more than the devil obeys him well I obey him when it suits me I'm sure the devil will obey Jesus when it suits him too I mean what is going to be the difference between me and the devil there's going to be some place of surrender some place where Jesus becomes Lord and I'm no longer Lord some place where Jesus King and I'm no longer King someplace where Jesus speak it's him and it's not me that makes me different than the demons of my faith is a surrender does Jesus live inside of you is are you the place of worship where is the place of worship is it here is it when someone else is leading you or is the place of worship in your life in your heart in the act of surrender see this is the answer for thirst is if you're thirsty well that's what you're thirsty for you're thirsty for the king and the priest you're thirsty for a relationship with God you're thirsty to have him produce his life in you and Jesus said this it was Jesus who spoke of this river flowing that would come from the people who come to him he said it it was his idea not man's idea was God's idea it's not something that that we can produce for you can't say listen come to Calvary Chapel three months with us a river will be flowing out of your life but we actually probably could promise that not the kind of river you want maybe spend time with us you might take on a fragrance spend time with Jesus probably you're gonna take take on a fragrance spend time with the Lord a rivers gonna flow out of your life it's not something a human you can't tell your kids you could do this for them an organization can't do this for you there's a person who can do it for you Jesus he's describing something supernatural this river that will come out much like the river in our passage of Scripture this thirst that he's talking about you have a hunger for the supernatural are you satisfied with cnn's take on everything or fox news's take on everything or talk radio's take on everything or your amazing friends on Facebook and their take on everything Facebook has restored my confidence in democracy not enough people left apparently you're not all on Facebook or maybe you need new friends like more like my friends are you content are you thirsty are you content with this life are you content with this world or you look at the results of the world and then there's a hunger and you say you know I'm hungry for something more than this I long to see life springing forth where there's just been death I want to go into that desert place where there was death and I want to see life bringing forth I want to see abundance where there was lack and if that's you Jesus is talking to you if that's not you he's not talking to you he says if anyone's thirsty you say well I'm totally so satisfied I don't even see I can see why all you all need this but I don't need it well then check out friend get in - don't a day you might get a head start get the one you want you'll end up with a donut you want to end up with with a river of life a river of life who's he talking to someone thirsty someone recognizing they want something this is the water of life it's not made of an oxygen atom that's got two hydrogen bonds and two hydrogen atoms locked onto it making it that water molecule that has joined together he's not talking about that he's talking about a river that when you're in it it's ankle-deep and you go down a thousand cubits and now it's up to your knees that's and doesn't happen water molecules don't multiply when they're together apparently this water of life is a whole different thing because it does something amazing it's not natural and Jesus had what he says in these verses has to be explained by John John said listen he's talking about the spirit there is a real City the temples gonna be really rebuilt like this temple that we're looking at Ezekiel it's really gonna happen but John says what Jesus is talking about is also just as real but it's not physical and it's accomplished by the Spirit of God you can experience something that originates with the Spirit is empowered by the Spirit is started and finished and sustained by the spirit not by you you need to receive it though Jesus is the one who does it the receiving is very simple he gives you a very simple plan in verse 37 first you have to come to me that might be the step for someone this morning someone brought you to church because they've come to Jesus and they want you to come and hear a message from the scripture so that you'll recognize something about who you are really and what God wants to do in your life and you'll realize you need to come to Jesus they've come to Jesus they know Jesus and they want you to know Jesus and they wanted you to come so that you would come to know him you would you've drifted away from him you let miles and miles get between you and him you stopped talking to him you stopped listening to him maybe used to believe in him and you let years go by where you didn't even listen to him the first step you got to come to Jesus you have to come to Jesus come to him thankfully he's here it's you could you say well it took me 10 years to get this far away guess why I could take you one second to get back you just turn around go oh Lord boobies right there it took me 10 years to walk this far yeah well I got big steps I mean you turn around you turn around here there come back come to Jesus then he says and this is sweetest walk right through what he says and just apply it come to me then the next word drink come to me and drink you got to receive it yourself before you're a channel through which God flows out you have to receive you need to receive you need your shame lift it out of your life you need you need to be cleansed you need your mind to change you need to have all that bitterness that's there cut out you need to drink you need to drink this living water if you drink it you'll never be thirsty again when you taste the living water and you taste that touch from the Lord and you think you know what I've been drinking around in all the wells that the world has that you can't buy this stuff you can't I mean you can't attain it you need to receive yourself then he says verse 38 the next step come to me drink than verse 38 he who believes in me you have to trust him you have to believe you have to put your confidence in him you have to rely upon him think of think of the synonyms in your vocabulary that you would use for trust or faith or believe what does it mean to believe have you looked at someone and they say I believe in you're like you don't believe me well what do you mean well I asked you 10 times to do this and you never do it the way I asked right like there's a there's a lot of factors that affect whether or not we think someone really believes us you know when someone believes you though don't you well yeah the trust is implicit the obedience is immediate the joy that I mean there's just a camaraderie there's so many things when you believe in somebody you experience it maybe on the level there's a football game today okay is a big big game it's gonna be for some guys that's gonna define their career these athletes are playing next to people they feel like our family they believe in each other right some of them are not gonna believe in each other as much it's just the with nature of thanks right like but they're looking at each other right now like they're looking right now right now wherever they are Miami they're looking at you like brother they're hitting each other and screaming each other's like whatever they're doing a hype up for the game or some guys getting all Zen whatever and it and they and you look at these guys like you're gonna do your job and don't worry about your friend Lee and some of those guys are looking like that guys not that good this is why team sports that's why things happen in team sports that's why it's so amazing because you know someone's not doing their job and someone else then doesn't do their job and all of a sudden the whole side of the line caves in and you can't stop a running I mean it's just it's crazy how it happens has so much to do with faith have you ever looked at someone say you just don't trust me I trust and you've an argument I do trust you you don't trust me I do trust you really how do I know if someone trusts me what does that look like let me ask you the question then apply it to you and Jesus just do you trust him oh I trust in Jesus how would he respond to that he trusts me didn't he say that do you trust me has he said did he say that to people do you trust me do you believe in me do you want to follow me foxes have holes birds of the air have nests the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head do you trust me really Simon you trust me by faith do you trust Jesus and then by the spirit John says out of his innermost being will flow these rivers of living water it's by the spirit what does that mean this what does it mean is this life is going to be produced and he was gonna come right out of the temple send you this living water that you snow is gonna happen late that you know is gonna happen later Ezekiel talks about it John talks about it Jesus said I'm talking about it but I'm talking about you yes this is gonna happen yes this is gonna happen but these are similitudes of something amazing also equally amazing you in cooperation with the spirit the spirit is gonna do something supernatural in you and a new outflow is gonna be produced are you gonna cooperate with that are you gonna go along with him are you gonna be led by the spirit or do you need to be led by your nose you're gonna be led by your attitude by your appetite or you're gonna be led by the spirit are you gonna surrender to him are you gonna be obedient to him and I think that this revealing of the story with its detailed detailed dimensions of the whole building and then this river and we get detailed about the river that I think is so fascinating and I think it's letting us know about the supernatural nature of this river of life as it flows but I think it has something to do with the similitude because if I was in Jerusalem and I saw a river I've been a Jerusalem isn't enough times now that if I saw a river coming out of the Temple Mount and it was trickling I'd be stoked I think it would be on my camera and I would be live-streaming you know if it was just barely coming I would be stoked I wouldn't even need to get it into a up to my ankles if I was enough to my ankles I'd be out of my mind have you ever been so thirsty than when you saw water coming out of the snow you just went and drank out of it I remember glissading down from Mount Whitney we had run out of water as a long story but got to the bottom of the big long you know the switchbacks I go up to one side and we slid down on our bottoms with our ice acts as a very ineffective break we got to the bottom and we had been hiking in the fog at the top of Whitney and I've wandering and you finally realized we need to get out of there and got to the bottom and we didn't have any water and you know there's enough human being up there that you don't want to be drinking any water and we were just need of water so bad and just see in this water just coming right out of the rock right out of the snow and they're just putting my face was so cold it was so good and I didn't get sick thank God later so happy but I've been excited about a trickle of water man we didn't have any water and you see a trickle of water it's a big deal been excited about been a little kid man filled a little pool up for six inches of water boy make a run across the yard Superman into that pool I've been excited about six inches of water I've been excited about water up to my knees up to my waist that I could swim in it's by DC it's by degrees he he's watching this happening and he and that he's invited in to measure it by his personal experience and it's by degrees I can't help but think that's a similitude it's not an allegory it's not that's not what the passage means it's not what it's about it's not what it's trying to teach us it's about what's really gonna happen it just so happens that that rivers gonna be like that but when Jesus says out of your innermost being will flow a river of living water and I think boy that's connecting these thoughts and I think of believers that I know and how I want them to walk in up to their ankles because I know believers they they haven't ever really put their face under the water coming out of the snowmelt and just let that fresh water refresh them that might be you your spiritual life man you're barely hanging on you need to drink you need to drink you need to be restored you need to get some freshness because you can't make the journey unless you drink but then I know people you look at me like man you've been in at your ankles for like 18 years go downstream a bit it gets deeper but I don't really want to be deeper I'm feeling pretty good up here I'm in control no come down where you swim oh no no I make swimmin in nothing I have to go with the current so I see a believer up to their knees this is I'm safe I got this far it's all good I don't want to go any deeper it's really interesting to me that he experiences it by degrees and I just want to ask you where are you at if it's a if it's a if it's a simile if it's a similitude if you can say well Jesus said this we got this passage of Scripture this is gonna happen it's like he's connecting these ideas this is a reality of my life this is a reality ways gonna do in this new temple it's the book of Revelation ends with this idea and he's telling me it can be mine today and where are you are you are you in the deep end are you are you like man I kept going I thought if I could get to my knees it could be way steep I'm going and like then I was there and I thought if you're on this wet I might as well swim and I'm in the River of Life that's bringing life and I'm I'm in over my head where are you where are you go deeper go deeper brother go deeper sister you must go deeper you must you must it's a river of life it brings life wherever it goes don't be satisfied with less if God's wanted to do more Lord we want to pray for more than a just an emotional sort of thinking about this or reacting to this is such an amazing promise that you made Jesus and connecting it with two of the most amazing passages in the Bible and then saying that that would be true of us because of you it's a wonderful Lord your your wonderful Jesus but we're asking specifically for you to do what you are promising to do as we respond to what you invited us to participate in and so Lord we come to you I want to pray specifically if there's anybody here who has never really sincerely come to you they've never really said alright here it is you could have my whole life they've always hung on to part of it they've always had a back-up plan they've never really come to you I pray that if there's anybody in that state they would come they would just say alright alright Lord oh I need that I want that I want your life that they would come and if there's those that drank but have it drunk in a long time or they they've been not receiving Lord that they come and receive from you those that don't trust you they don't live in a life of cooperation they don't really see themselves as a temple live a life of trust and confidence and believe in faith Lord that you would meet that person Lord those that are standing in ankle-deep living water amazed by it in awe of it and they've been in the exact same place for twenty years that they would have a reckoning today and a wake-up call and that your spirit would invite them to go deeper that the man said come let me measure a thousand more cubits come and see down this far that they be invited by you to go deeper with you to to experience more of your power more of your presence more of your working help all of us Lord pour out your spirit upon us do a work on us we pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: calvary chapel laguna creek

Views: 1,034

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel Laguna Creek, Bible, Elk Grove, Jesus, Bible Study, CCLC, The Word

Id: Hb_EG7jsk68

Length: 54min 12sec (3252 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020