Sermon Central
-
Everything Shall Live Where The River Comes
Contributed by Maurice Mccarthy on Oct 19, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: The river in Ezekiel's vision brought life wherever it went, it even brought it to the lowest, deadest place on earth the Dead Sea. In like manner God wants to use us to bring the living water of the Holy Spirit to the lowest, most lost people on earth.
Everything Shall Live Where The River Comes
PPT 1 Message Title
New Series: River Scenes, today part 1 Everything shall live where the river comes.
Ezekiel is a priest in Jerusalem, carried away. Temple is destroyed. Has a vision of an angel. Shown a new temple. Measures everything with a 9’ long measuring reed. They measure everything starting with the outer wall. 500 reeds long 500 wide. (Eze 42:20) Think of how long this vision took, think of how meticulous this measuring is.
In Ezekiel 47 a river is shown to him, Ezekiel saw something that never existed in the temple before: a river flowing directly from the temple.
I believe this river represents life from God and the blessings that flow from His throne. The river in this story is a picture of the beauty and power of the Holy Spirit touching people, and in this story you will hear an invitation by God to step into this river and go further into the river of His presence and power.
Today we are going to look at the rivers source, its power, and finally we will ask the question, “Where am I relation to this river?”
The Source
PPT 2 text
Ezekiel 47:1 Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.
Ezekiel 47:2 And he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side.
Ezekiel 47 is the culmination of a vision about a temple in Israel. Many believe it will be what is called the millennial temple. We are skipping that subject today, I have other important ground I want to cover. After the introductory remarks of v.1,2 the water that is just trickling becomes an incredible life giving river. Ezekiel is taken out into it first ankle deep, then knee deep, that waist deep, then it is over his head. We will get back to that part of the vision shortly.
I want to begin by talking about the rivers source and particularly what the angel challenged Ezekiel with when this vision of the temple began to unfold we read this in Ezekiel 40:4
PPT 3 text
Ezekiel 40:4 And the man said to me, "Son of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and give attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see."
Ezekiel 44:5 And the LORD said to me, "Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the LORD and concerning all its laws; and mark well the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary.
At the beginning of the vision Ezekiel is told to pay very close attention all that he sees and is shown, but especially to mark well the entrance of the house and the all the exits of the sanctuary. We are going to talk about the very amazing entrance and exit to this house and what comes from it.
This passage, and the exhortation to record it exactly reminds me of what Moses was instructed when God gave Him the design for the tabernacle in the wilderness
PPT 4 text
Hebrews 8:5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, "SEE," He says, "THAT YOU MAKE all things ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN."
God will not allow the slightest deviation when it comes to access to His presence, and acceptable sacrifices, even down to the slightest details of how the temple was to be built.
Ezekiel 47 is about a river that brings life I want you to notice the source of the river to the world, It’s source is the temple
PPT 5 text
Ezekiel 47:1 Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.
Note carefully, according to God there can be no deviation from His pattern. There is only one access point, one source from which the river of God flows. It flows from His temple altar through His doorway entrance. (From under the threshold)
