Ezekiel's Temple

Now let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Ezekiel, please. That might be just the clean section of most Bibles, but we're going to meet this dear brother in heaven, so we should get used to his writings. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel, Daniel.

We're going to start in chapter 22, please. I think it's very good for us to sort of have a long view of things. Many of us, we've come through two years, which has really been almost mind-blowing, whoever thought that would happen.

And then as we're almost over that, in comes a war. And then you look at the potential of things over there. Just shows us how quickly events can change.

Well, dear child of God, there's nothing like the word of God to give us the assurance that there is a program. God does have a program. Man is not going to interrupt that program.

Man's not going to delay that program. And I would just mention just a few things just before I open. Don't be too quick to judge what is happening over there with Russia and Ukraine, because we have no idea what God is doing.

We don't. I know from the Old Testament that many dictators were used by God to fulfill his purposes and to judge his people. So we tend to have a desire to put everything in little neat boxes.

But it's nice just to keep all of these things in perspective. I've written down just a few little things here. It's interesting when you go through the word of God, I think it's good to always have a notebook and a pen ready, things that you notice as you go through the word of God.

Do you know what God called the Assyrian nation when they were moving across the world conquering nations? You'll find this in Isaiah chapter 10. He called the Assyrians the rod of mine anger. How do you like that? You say, that doesn't sound right.

God is going to use a pagan nation and he's going to call them the rod of mine anger. Well, that's God's prerogative. Here's another good one for you.

Babylon. Babylon comes onto the scene. They're a mighty nation.

What does God call them? Jeremiah 23 calls them a whirlwind. He calls them a grievous whirlwind. He calls them in Jeremiah 51, oh, destroying mountain.

Here's another one. This will really get you. Ezekiel 32.

You know what he says? They're my net. No one's going to escape them. My net.

Finally, he calls them my sword. Gives you a different perspective, doesn't it? On just what God is doing. Medo-Persia.

They came onto the scene after Babylon. What does God call them? My battle axe. Go search it up in the Bible.

Medo-Persia is my battle axe and weapon. Weapons of war. Amazing.

You go into the book of Isaiah. I'm on the front porch now. I'm spending too long, but... You go into Isaiah.

Do you know what God will do? A very figurative thing. When he's dealing with Egypt, when he's dealing with the Assyrians, when he's dealing with Babylon, I want you to search in your Bible for that little word, hiss. H-I-S-S It means to whistle.

And God calls Egypt, he calls them a fly. The actual word fly is used. And he says, I will hiss for the fly.

And she'll come. God looks at the Assyrian nation and of all the different animals that he could have used to represent them, he calls them the bee. The sting.

Because the Assyrians were violent. They were brutal with their captives. And God says, when I'm ready for them, he says, I'll hiss.

Amazing. That's the God that we come to know. He's in absolute control of everything.

So that's just an introduction. That is gonna help us just as we start to look now at the end result. So Ezekiel, I want you to look at something in Ezekiel here.

Ezekiel chapter 22. Ezekiel is a fascinating book. Our brother mentioned it last night in his message.

I've never really spent a lot of time reading and studying Ezekiel. Of course, you kind of read through it, but you don't spend a lot of time. But over COVID, I spent a number of months on Ezekiel.

And Ezekiel is gonna give us fascinating things. I'm thinking particularly of the end of Ezekiel, the last eight chapters, which takes us to the millennial reign and the millennial temple and lessons that we can learn from all of that about our God. Notice what God charges the nation with in Ezekiel chapter 22.

And verse number, let's go to verse number 25. There is a conspiracy of our prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening, ravening the prey. They have devoured souls.

They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Now notice this verse 26.

Her priests, this is looking at the tribe of Levi. Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They've put no difference between the holy and the profane.

Neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths. Here's the end result of that. God says, and I am profaned among them.

See dear child of God, that is why the nation was carried off into captivity. That's why they were chastised by a righteous, holy God. We learn lessons from that today.

We are living in a society where everybody wants everything the same. No difference between the secular and the spiritual. Everything is the same.

The nation of Israel fell into that trap. God help us that we don't. God help us that we always keep things that are linked with God, holy and clean.

Let us keep humanism out of those things. The wisdom of the world out of those things. Because if we don't, when we start to blend them, we're just bringing God down to the human level.

And it's almost as if God is going to play to our little song. That's not what you learn from the Bible. God is absolute.

And it's amazing why I'm bringing this to your attention is because now we're going to go and look at the end of Ezekiel. And I want you to notice what God says. Go to chapter 44.

Ezekiel 44. We're coming now to the end. This is really within the section that I want to major my thoughts upon.

Go to Ezekiel 44. And let's have a look at verse number 23. Look what we have here now.

Ezekiel 44 in verse 23. Now it's very important. This is another whole topic.

But just before I do that, if you looked at verse 15, this is who he is speaking to. God through Ezekiel. Verse 15 of chapter 44.

But the priests and the Levites, the sons of Zadok. Now that is very significant. If you were to study through Ezekiel, that group, that family, comes up a lot of times.

They were part of the greater priesthood, the Levites. But within that big, big family, God gives a unique place to the sons of Zadok. And there's a very important reason for that.

Here's what he says about these people in a coming day. Verse number 23. And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

You might say, huh, why is God doing that? Why is God going to have, you say, well I thought the whole priesthood thing and the tabernacle thing and I thought all of that was done with once Christ has come. But on this millennial earth, God will have another temple over there in Israel. God is going to take a 50 mile by 50 mile piece of land.

He's going to call it a holy obligation, a holy offering to the Lord. And I just don't have time to develop all this now, but as a result, there's lots of verses from the minor prophets and the major prophets and revelation that you can put together. As a result of the seven years of tribulation, every mountain flattened, every valley brought up.

And what will be the result at the start of the millennial reign will be just one mountain on this earth. The whole topology of the land will be changed through the destruction of the seven years of tribulation because God is preparing this world for something. And that temple will be built and what a structure it will be.

You're going to find out in a few minutes the lessons we're going to learn from the physical pattern and the physical structure of that millennial temple that reflects God's character. If you were to go into the word of God, this is for those that would like to study this just out a little bit. It's wonderful to compare the tabernacle system, which was a temple.

Then you come ahead in time to Solomon's temple, which was another house that God dwelled in. And then finally you come to the millennial temple. Now it's very interesting the things that are found and the things that are not found in all of those different structures.

It's amazing when you listen to the world today. You maybe have seen this in Christian sites. Everybody's going on about we've got to find the Ark of the Covenant.

Remember how important the Ark of the Covenant was? Linked with the first structure in this world. It's the very first thing that God gives them. And as you go through the tabernacle structure in Exodus, everything is built just for that Ark of the Covenant.

You come into Solomon's temple many, many years later. This was portable. Solomon's temple was not portable.

And there it is, the importance of the Ark of the Covenant. I can take you to the book of Jeremiah and when you now come into the millennial temple, guess what? No Ark of the Covenant. It's gone.

And God says in Jeremiah, you wouldn't even desire it. You wouldn't even remember that there used to be something called the Ark of the Covenant. Why? Because God is there.

He's come back into his earthly house. There's no need now of something gold and acacia wood that speaks of the great truth of the Incarnation. God is there.

Go to the very end of the book of Ezekiel. What is the name of that city? The Lord is there. That is going to happen on this earth.

And the thing that thrills me is I will be with my Savior helping him to administer the kingdom age. It's tremendous, dear child of God, where it's heading. Absolutely tremendous.

If you were to look at the tabernacle structure and the Solomon's Temple, do you know what is significant? And it is because the weights are given to us. The amount of gold and silver and brass. Tremendous.

Monetarily, it's just staggering. Do you know what you find in the millennial temple? Wood and stone. No gold.

No silver. No brass. Why? Because the Lord is there.

There's nothing to distract from this central figure. Everything in the Old Testament only pictured the coming one. Do you know what was significant in the tabernacle and significant in Solomon's Temple? It was the veil.

The holies of holies separated from the holy place. I often wonder if the priests of the bygone age would have came up as close as they could to that veil and just wonder what is on the other side. Do you know what you'll notice in the book of Ezekiel? Not one mention of the veil.

There is no veil. There is no separation. God now is with his people.

Full communion. Tremendous thing. You think of all of the different articles that you'll find in the tabernacle structure and Solomon's Temple and you just can start labor.

Very important. No labor in the Millennial Temple. No need of cleansing.

Now this world has entered into the full of the redemptive work of Christ. Amazing. When you just start going through.

Here's another thing for your meditation. Do you know what was significant? The brazen all. Remember the brazen all? There's where all the animals were killed, right? You get that in the tabernacle.

You come into Solomon's Temple. You get that in the tabernacle. Then you come to the Millennial Temple.

You have it. You have it. Do you know what you'll notice? See, always pay attention to the detail.

God gives you the size in each one of those buildings. The size of the brazen altar. The size, the size.

Do you know what you'll find? It's fairly small in the tabernacle. He moves to Solomon's Temple. It's over twice the size.

And it's getting higher. Then you'll come to the Millennial Temple. And it's even higher yet.

And it's wider yet. What's that showing us? The death of Christ will always be the center of everything. It's what will just keep developing and getting higher and getting larger as we dwell eternity with our Savior.

I mean, are you excited? Oh, I see a few where I just cracked a smile. Don't be afraid now. Don't be afraid to go, yeah, right on.

This is great. Listen. This world has no hope.

No hope. They have nothing to look forward to. Simple me and you, we got everything.

It's all centered around a person. There's an amazing thing back to this earth, leveled, absolutely leveled. And there is that one mountain.

And upon that mountain is that magnificent Millennial Temple. Do you know what the Bible says in a number of places? All nations will flow into it. You ever seen anything flow uphill? It's quite a graphical thing to stand back and get the broad picture of this one magnificent temple.

All centered around one person, the Lord of Lords and the Kings of Kings. There will be no other religious system in the world. Nothing will distract from that one singular thing that will just glisten with the glory of God.

And all nations will just flow into it. Tremendous. There's another fascinating thing as you go into the book of Ezekiel.

Now get the picture. You've got this Millennial Temple on top of the only mountain in the world. All nations are flowing into it.

What's coming out of it? There's a river. And it starts right in the Holies of Holies. And it's just a little treckle.

And Ezekiel puts his feet in it and he says, it's up to the ankles. And then the Word of God gives us every 1,500 feet something happens. He's moving into the river and it gets deeper.

So now up to the knees. He goes another 1,500 feet. It's up to the hips.

He goes another 1,500 feet. He can't get across it. It's getting wider.

It's getting deeper. And it's all starting out of the Holies of Holies where the Lord is. And it's flowing out to the world.

And it will come out of Jerusalem. It will go down toward the south, toward the Dead Sea. And as it gets near the Dead Sea, all of a sudden, there'll be this river taken off to the Mediterranean Sea.

And then that river will go in to the Dead Sea. And it will be full of life. Filled with life! Now listen, have you ever gone fishing? You ever looked at the source of a river bubbling out of the earth? This river, the river of God is very distinct from anything that's on this earth.

Most rivers, all rivers today start at a very small head. And then as they go, there's other rivulets and things are coming in and it becomes very... This is one singular source that as it moves further away from the source, it increases. And nothing else is coming into it.

Do you know what that's showing us, dear child of God? Let us get this straight in the 21st century with all of our computers and our ability to search the Bible and on and on and on it goes. You and I will never comprehend God. Never! You can get into this river and you can spend a billion years swimming in this river.

And the further you go, the deeper it gets. The wider it gets. And the more magnificent it gets.

My land, why wouldn't we be going in for this? Why are we so taken up? Look what's happening in the world. It gets us all nervous. And then we come to the Bible.

We don't even know what to read. Dear child of God, just be still and know that He is Lord. Let the word of God flood your mind.

Let the word of God just anchor the mind. And God has a program. And this Millennial Temple, God is going to take this one family particularly.

He's actually going to separate them from the other Levites. When you look at that 50 mile by 50 mile plot of ground, you can just divide it into 50 by 20. There's one section.

Then you have another 20 mile by 50. There's another section. And then you've got 10 mile by 50.

There it is. What you end up having is on the bottom, the smaller one, you have the city of Jerusalem. Then as you move up, 10 miles away.

That's interesting. 10 miles away from the city, you've got the temple. And then on the top portion, there's where the tribe, the Levites will be.

Now I want you to think about the center for a minute. We're told in the Bible that Jerusalem will be the center of the world. I often thought it would be fantastic if I could have about 15 minutes in the United Nations.

And just take the word of God in there and just look at all of those so-called big nations. Do you realize, gentlemen, that in the coming age, that little despised piece of land will be the center. The center! She will no longer be the tail.

She will be the head. Because God's son was crucified in that city. And that's where he's going to reign.

And dear child of God, the devil knows that. That's why there's so much hatred that seems absolutely blind. It doesn't even make sense why so many nations hate such a little strip of land.

There's not another nation in the world that dominates the news like the nation of Israel. Because the devil hates it. And God says in Psalm 2, yes, I have set my king on my holy hill in Zion.

And it will come to pass. Coming back now. So you got the Levites.

You got the temple in the center. You got the city 10 miles to the south. The sons of Zadok are separated from the tribe of Levi.

And all of their tents are right around the tabernacle. The temple. Why would God do that? You go back into history and you will find brothers and sisters, this is where faithfulness is important.

I want to encourage you today in spite of the departure around, stay true to your God. It will bring reward. If you were to look at Aaron, the four sons that he had, we know that two of them died because they brought strange fire into the tabernacle structure in Leviticus chapter 10.

That left only two sons of Aaron, two lions. There's something that's going to happen in those lines where God is going to make a statement that only one of them is going to have the everlasting priesthood. And it's actually the sons of Zadok.

Why, you say? Well, I want you to go back into the life of King David. There were actually two men, two priests. One was younger, Zadok.

And the other man was Abiathar. He was the older man. Zadok came from child number three and Abiathar came from number four.

Do you remember the rebellion of Absalom? Those two priests were united and they supported David. You say, wonderful. They were true to God's appointed king.

Alright, David now is passing on the throne to his son Solomon. Do you remember a man by the name of Adonijah? He sprung up and he said, Solomon's throne belongs to me and I'm going to take it. Do you know what happened? Zadok sided with Solomon and Abiathar sided with Adonijah.

Oh, Adonijah, what are you doing? Stay true to the king. God has made this very clear. In the rebellion of Absalom, you should have known better.

No, no, no. The kingdom is going to go to Solomon. It's not going to go to Adonijah.

And actually, Adonijah, he conspired with Abiathar. And God took note of it. Unfaithful to me.

Now we come ahead. After the whole rebellion was put down, Solomon comes to the throne. Very sad, you know what it says about Abiathar? Solomon put a metal to the priesthood.

Done. And now you have one man, Zadok. That man has children.

Now you come ahead to the millennial reign. His sons are separated from the rest of the priests. And now they're brought into a very close relationship to where the temple is.

And that's why they have all their tents just around the temple. It is worth it to be true to your God. Don't listen to the air of change today.

Don't find yourself mixed up into a rebellion that's going in a different direction than what is clearly laid out in the Word of God. Stay true, dear child of God. Let that family be an encouragement to you.

No, it's not going to be easy. It's not easy to stand when there's so much change happening that's not according to the Word of God. But just get occupied with your Lord.

I'd like to interview those sons of Zadok and say, do you have any regrets of what your father did? Oh, they'd say, we're so glad for our dad. Dad and mom were faithful. Look at how close we are to the presence of the Lord.

That is amazing. Now, let's quickly go to 43. We're just going to kind of look around here at a few different verses.

Let's just look at this chapter 43 for a second. And this is getting back to this pattern. I'll be shortly done here.

So, look at 43, verse number 10. Now, this is God through Ezekiel. And of course, Ezekiel is trying to prophesy to the nation, verse number 10.

Thou son of man, I want you to notice the amount of structural terms, okay, like show, like measure, pattern. Just notice it, verse 10 of chapter 43. Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel.

Show the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. That's the very first thing you're going to discover from this structure. The immediate effect upon you is a shame.

Because God is holy. And let them that may be ashamed of their iniquities, and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings-out thereof, and the comings-in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.

And write it in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinance thereof, and to do them. This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

Dear child of God, you cannot serve God acceptably without laws, without the word of God. We seem to live in an era today of like, just do whatever you want. It doesn't matter.

It does matter to God. Because we are losing how holy God is. It's almost like we can, like I said, we're back to that.

There's no difference between the secular and the spiritual. It matters to God. It does.

And this Bible is full of the evidence of it. I want you to notice this here. Go over to chapter 44 for a minute.

This is amazing. Look at verse number seven. It's just looking at the house and the glory and who can come into it.

Look at verse seven of 44. In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, notice, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. Do you notice that God puts the inwards before the outwards? It matters what's in your heart, what's in your mind.

We often, you hear this all the time. Well, it just doesn't matter the outside. The outside is a reflection of the inwards.

And God is tying these two things in. We know that circumcision speaks of the cutting off of the flesh. God wants it not only physical, but he wants it inward as well.

And then you have another one, verse number eight. And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things. There's it again, the holy things.

But ye have set keepers of my charge and my sanctuary for yourselves. Verse nine, thus saith the Lord God, no stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary, and so on. Do you know what you'll notice with the Millennial Temple? Four gates, north and south and east and west.

The east gate is only gonna be for the Lord. Can't use it, okay? The west gate, you don't use either. But what you'll notice is this, the north gate and the south gate.

Do you know what God does? Every time someone comes to the temple, he says, whichever door you go in, north or south, you're not allowed to exit the same way. Think of that. You say, now why would God be doing that? If I was in the north part of Israel and I was traveling down to the temple at a required feast and I went in through the north gate, couldn't I not just do what I came to do and then just turn around and go back out the north gate? God says, no.

He says, I don't care how far you go to walk. Matters not to me. When you come in the north, do your business, go out the south.

God expects a change in our lives as a result of being in his presence. It should have an effect upon you and I. That's what he's teaching. This is what he wants Ezekiel to do.

This is what you failed to do in the Old Testament. But these sons of Zadok, they will teach people. This makes a difference.

You continue to go through the book. Let's get to the core of the whole thing. The walls.

Actually, let me back up for a second. If you were to look at a side profile of the temple, do you know what you're gonna find? It's on a foundation. Then there's another foundation.

Then there's another foundation. Ezekiel records the number of steps. Five, seven, nine.

What's happening? As you get closer to the presence of the Lord, you're rising higher. It's separating you from this earth. See the practical outworking of that? Those individuals in the New Testament, they took notice that these people were with the Lord, with Jesus.

You and I living in this defiled world, they should automatically look at us and see right away, there's something different. God is going to show them that. Here's another thing that's fascinating, is the gates.

Do you know what you'll notice? The gate into the first section. Watch my hands. The gate into the second section.

The gate into the temple. The gate into the holies of holies. What's happening? Not only are you going higher and higher and higher, as you're getting closer to the presence of God, it's getting narrower and narrower and narrower.

Can't take the world with you. Can't take carnality with you. That's back to the uncircumcised heart, the circumcised body.

When I come into God's presence, it has such an effect upon me that it causes things to drop off. Oh, can I warn our young people today? Beware how much time you spend on YouTube. Please.

It will do nothing for your spiritual life. Nothing. Be careful how much time you're on Facebook.

Careful how much time you're on what, Snapchat? I'm getting so old now, I don't even know what these things mean. Whatever. I just look at it and go, just a waste of time.

That's my opinion. It'd be great if you all thought that way, but anyway, that's fine. Getting closer to God.

It's not gonna be easy. Do I have some young people here that I could challenge? You take time to be holy. You take time to get to know your God.

And you let it have an effect upon you. Finally, I love this one here. When you come to that temple structure, another measurement that the Spirit of God gives us is now we're into the temple, okay? We've made it right into the very presence.

There are actually three chambers. Do you notice my hands? God gives us the height and the width, the dimensions of the first chamber. Then he gives us the height and width of the next chamber.

And then he goes to the third and final chamber. So not only are, as you're getting closer to God, you're moving higher off of the earth. Those chambers were used to store material.

Do you know what'll happen when you start to fellowship with your Lord consistently? It's almost like your apprehension gets bigger. And more of him is displayed to you. And that will never end.

Never end. I think it's a good practice. I heard it from preachers years ago.

It's a very good practice. Instead of praying and asking God and a whole list of gimmies, next time you get on your knees to pray, just tell God why you love him. This is why I love your son.

Just spend about, let's go small, just spend 15 minutes. Just tell the Father what you know and love about his son. Because dear child of God, nothing can replace devotion for your God.

Nothing. And God wants laws, commandments, to be working with devotion. Because laws and commandments keeps us on the right course.

Love is what keeps the attitude right. I trust as a result and what will follow, that as a result of this weekend, we would actually move closer, a little higher, toward the one who sent his son to die for us.