I was advised this morning that I might speak a little slower and a little louder. I hope I can oblige. I think we may manage it by the grace of God.
Lord, here we are. We have indeed known Your presence, and, Lord, it sobers us to realize that the Almighty, the Excellent One, the One that surpasses all human understanding or comprehension, could be among us. But, Lord, we thank You: You are here. You are here in Your jealousy. Oh, we thank You for that.
May we be aware of Your hand upon us, and may that mean that we shall be able not only to hear, but to listen to what You say. For, Lord, there is much hearing but so little listening these days. Help us to hear, for You have said:
If to-day ye shall hear His voice,
Harden not your hearts.
So, Lord, we commit this time, commit the hour, to You in the precious name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now we are going to turn again to the book of Ezekiel, to perhaps consider more the end than the beginning. At the same time, we will just look at the beginning.
We said last night that Ezekiel’s message was indeed for his own people, but it is also a message for us, for our day.
The book of Ezekiel, or the message of Ezekiel, can be summed up in four words—four words which occur at least sixty-five times:
I am the Lord.
And that is said in two connections. “You shall know that I am the Lord.” That is God speaking to His people: “You shall know that I am the Lord.”
Then, speaking of the nations round about: “They shall know that I am the Lord.”
In that connection, we might just see one verse in Ezekiel 36:23.
I will sanctify My great name, which hath been profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
There we see the connection between what God’s people are and their witness to the nations—a witness to the fact that He is the Lord.
The second time I went to the Philippines, I think it was in 1962, a young man—comparatively young, anyway—met me at the airport. I did not recognize him. He had a woollen hat pulled down over his ears.
I looked at him. He greeted me like a long-lost brother. I looked at him and said, “Oh, you’re Sebia.” I knew him, but I did not recognize him because of his hat.
He wore his hat in the meeting. “That’s not allowed, is it, brother?” Hmm?
What was the story of the hat? It was this: he had not a hair on his head—bald as a billiard ball.
But this was the history. He was a husband, a father of eight children, but had fallen into sin—into adultery—with a woman who paid him to go with her.
Eventually, he got sick of it and said one night to the Lord, “O Lord, do something to me to make me unattractive to these women.”
When he woke up in the morning, nearly all his hair was on the pillow. In two days, he had no hair anywhere—bald all over. Now he was wearing a hat.
I said to him, “Take it off. Take it off and say, ‘Look at this. You cannot cheat God. You cannot play with God. You cannot play with sin and get away with it. Say, “I am a sign, brothers and sisters. I am a sign. Take heed. God is holy.”’”
The Lord our God does judge. And that, of course, is part of the message in Ezekiel. God is the Lord. He is the Lord. He judges.
But there is the other side too: He restores. He restores.
If we just use the telescope, if you like, to look at the visions which the Lord gave to Ezekiel, we might see the introduction of the book. We cannot go back over Ezekiel 1; we did that a little bit last night. But notice Ezekiel 1:1.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Then:
The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.
I like that. To me, it says the Lord was retaining this man. This man had a ministry to fulfil, and the Lord put His hand upon him, as it were retaining him, lest he might somehow miss the purpose of God in choosing him.
He had come to his thirtieth year. That was the time for the beginning of public ministry. That is when our Lord’s ministry began, in His thirtieth year. Ezekiel had reached that critical point. He was to be the instrument of the Lord for the nation.
And what does he see? Allow me—forgive me, those of you who were here last night—for just briefly reviewing what he saw. In Ezekiel 1, he saw the people of God as God meant them to be.
These living ones—living creatures. Some translations say cherubim; others suggest angels. But I think the best definition is living ones. They have all the evidences of a redeemed company.
They have got so many features, we find it difficult to explain them or understand them. There is a combination of the heavenly and the earthly, and that is perhaps what makes them a little unusual. But that is to be true of you and me, surely.
If the Lord’s life is in us, we will be different. We will be distinguishable from others, not because we set ourselves up as more righteous than others, but because the Lord’s life makes the difference. And His glory—which is what He is—begins to come through, come through.
These living ones show great variety: four different faces, yet combined in marvellous harmony—diversity, unity—and moving, empowered, and directed by the Spirit.
I like to reflect that here is the activity of the Godhead. God, in Ezekiel 1:4: the wind, the whirling wind, the cloud, and the fire enfolding itself—the activity of God. And what comes out of it? These living ones, in the image or likeness of a man.
What man is that? What man is there to compare with what is said about these living ones? It is the Man from the throne, whom he sees in Ezekiel 1:26.
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
You see the word “likeness”—likeness, likeness. A throne in likeness. He could not really describe it because it was beyond description. He could only use the term “likeness.”
The Man whom he sees upon the throne resembles the One who is Lord of all, the One whom we have been worshipping this morning: exalted, seated at the Father’s right hand.
Well, Ezekiel, in the first chapter, in the first vision, sees God’s people. He sees the nation as God intended them to be. He sees the church as God intended them to be, and he sees the church as it was in Acts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
This is Pentecost—a picture of Pentecost in advance—when the Lord, enthroned, gets through by the Spirit to that vessel prepared, so that the diversity there was in those one hundred and twenty, with one accord, reveals the greatness and glory of the Lord.
What is the glory of the Lord? There was a time when Moses was in a difficulty, and he said in Exodus 33:18, “O Lord, show me Thy glory.”
What was the answer to Moses?
I will make all My goodness pass before thee,
And will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee;
And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
And will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Moses had a revelation of the glory of the Lord. His glory is what He is. We can only, as it were, grasp a little by means of His attributes: His goodness, His mercy, His patience, His love, His power, and His purity. These are His attributes, but they are the ingredients of His glory.
This book refers again and again to Ezekiel seeing the glory of the Lord. That is the privilege of the people of God: to embody, reveal, and express His glory—what He is.
How ignorant people are today of the Lord as He really is, and how little we portray Him as He is.
Well now, we cannot stay in Ezekiel 1; we are moving on. But in the next vision, having seen the people of God as they were meant to be, in Ezekiel 3 he is taken back to the captivity. He sits with the people and sees them as they are. What a difference.
Miserable captivity. They had no song. They could not sing as we did this morning. Their harps were hung upon the willows. They were sitting by the waters, the rivers of Babylon, in shameful slavery and exile from their land.
Ezekiel sits seven days with them, and his feelings are inexpressible. The shameful, sad position of God’s people as they really were.
Then he is taken back to Jerusalem to see why it was—why they had fallen away and why they were in this miserable exile. You read Ezekiel 8, prayerfully, and the Lord will show you. There is the explanation why the nation was so pathetic and such a betrayal of the Lord.
Then Ezekiel is shown the glory of the Lord withdrawing, withdrawing; and the living ones, sensitive to that, following after the Lord. If the Lord is withdrawing, if the glory is departing, the living ones go with Him. So we have that in Ezekiel 10.
Ezekiel 37, of course, tells us about the dry bones—how dry they were, and how hopeless the situation appeared to be. But there was the Word; there was the Spirit. Ezekiel was privileged to see that no matter how dry the bones had become, how scattered and impossible of reuniting they appeared to be, by the Word they are clothed with flesh, and by the Spirit they are filled with life.
But that is not the end. When we come to Ezekiel 40 through 48, we see the glory returning—the Lord’s testimony restored. That, I think—indeed, I am sure—is what we are going to think about this morning: the glory returning.
We will read a few verses first in Ezekiel 43.
Then he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east:
And His voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with His glory.And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face.
And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
And the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
You see, he is relating this to the same revelation of God’s glory which he had seen in the living ones in Ezekiel 1. It was the same revelation of God’s glory, but in judgment, that he had seen in Ezekiel 8.
The glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. The Spirit lifted him up and brought him into the inner court. Behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. The glory of the Lord filled the house. Is that not wonderful?
There are two mediums of revelation of the glory of the Lord given to us here in Ezekiel. The first, of course, is the living ones. They were the medium of revealing the glory of Him who sat upon the throne—the authority, majesty, dignity, power, and love of Him who sat upon the throne.
But here we have the other metaphor, with which we are familiar: the house, the city, the temple in the midst. Here is another medium by which the glory of the Lord is revealed.
This requires our attention, because we are told hereby how the glory will be restored—how the pathetic desolation and misery of His people can be overcome, and how again they can know His presence and His power returning to this temple.
Now, you may say, “I do not read Ezekiel 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46.” Why? Why? Because it is measuring, measuring, measuring. That is not interesting, surely. Why so much measuring?
Measuring is important to the Lord. Measure is underlined not only in the Old Testament, but in the New. Remember, as soon as God gave the pattern of His sanctuary to Moses in the mountain, there was much to do about measuring. All had to be according to the pattern, or according to the measure. The ark was measured; the altar of incense was measured; everything was measured.
Well, here again, in relation to the house of the Lord: measurement. But it is unusual measurement.
Turn back now to Ezekiel 40. Here is the introduction to this vision of the city and the temple which is going to be filled with the glory of the Lord.
In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me thither.
In the visions of God brought He me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, whereon was as the frame of a city on the south.
And He brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee; for to the intent that I might show them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.
Then, in Ezekiel 40:5:
And behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man’s hand a measuring reed of six cubits by the cubit and an handbreadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
Now notice: this is an unusual rod that is being used to measure. The cubit was six handbreadths, but here it is not a six-handbreadth cubit; it is a seven-handbreadth cubit. Do you see that? A cubit and a handbreadth—six plus one makes seven, does it not?
What is six? Six is the number of man. But seven—what is seven? We know numbers have significance in the Bible. Seven is the perfect number, is it not? The perfect number.
So here we have a seven-handbreadth rod instead of a six-handbreadth rod.
It is interesting: once I made the difference clear, I made two sticks—the normal one with six handbreadths, and then the one that had seven. You can see the difference. But this is used to measure.
And what is it saying to us? There is a Man by whom God measures everything. There is a Man by whom God measures everything.
This is very important all through the Bible: the Man, the Man. Where is the Man that is going to bruise Satan’s head? Where is the seed of the woman that we are expecting to give us victory and deliverance? A man—the Man.
Pilate, when he brought out our Lord Jesus Christ, what did he say?
Behold, the man!
Well, that is always in God’s mind and heart and eye: the Man, His Man, His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here He is represented by the measuring rod. Six is the number of man, but here it is the perfect Man; it is the full-grown Man. The temple is being measured by Him.
So do not get weary. You may not need to read all the verses about this measurement and that measurement, but do catch the emphasis. If the glory of the Lord is going to return to the desolate sanctuary, if there is going to be again a recovery of the testimony to the Lord, it must be in the dimensions of His Man.
You remember that this was the apostle’s emphasis. What was the burden of his ministry? Not just that souls should be saved, forgiven their sins, cleansed by the blood, and brought into the family. Of course, that is necessary as a beginning, but that was not the apostle’s objective or burden.
See what he says in Colossians 1:27–29.
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.
I am reminded that in 1949 we had a visitor to Madras from overseas. I will not tell you which country he came from, but he came from overseas and visited us. He was a very dear brother—a lovely brother, a very friendly brother.
But he had only three questions: “Are you born again? Have you been baptized? Do you break bread?” He had nothing after that—no questions after that. He was just satisfied if you were born again, baptized, and breaking bread.
Well, the Apostle Paul had more than that. What does he say? “Admonishing, teaching with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.” A mature man, a full-grown man.
Not only in relation to believers individually, but see Ephesians 4.
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
Paul had that vision, ambition, and purpose for the church. That is God’s objective—not babies.
Babies are lovely, of course. We like babies. They are very choice and precious, but we hope they will grow up, do we not? After all, we have to bear a good bit when they are babies. We have to give a lot of attention to them, which we hope we will not have to do all their lifetime.
Babies are nice, but they must grow up. Must grow up.
Believers—new believers—they are beautiful, are they not? If you meet a new believer, they are all aglow. They have got the first love. That is lovely.
But if they should stay babes, the writer of Hebrews regretted it. There were those who should have been teachers, but they were still babes and could only take the sincere milk of the Word.
Some people do complain, “Oh, I cannot understand him; he is too deep. I cannot understand him.” Well, sorry. Perhaps they should have grown up.
God needs sons. God’s objective is sons like unto His Son.
You know, when God spoke from heaven, “This is My beloved Son,” He did not say that when Jesus was in Nazareth. He did not say that in the period of our Lord’s human adolescence. But when He emerged in His thirtieth year, crossed the threshold of time into His ministry, God bore witness: “This is My beloved Son.”
That is what our Lord is looking for. That is what God is looking for: sons grown up.
I see that here in these early chapters of Ezekiel’s vision—Ezekiel 40 through 48. Measure: that is the important thing. The measure of a man, the measure of the full-grown man, the measure of God’s Man.
How can the excellences of our Lord Jesus Christ—His majesty and all His beautiful, wonderful attributes, His glory—find expression in our infancy? It does not.
It is wonderful, of course, that the day we are born of God, we are perfect. A baby is like that, is it not? The baby is all there; everything is there when the baby is born. If it is not there then, when will it be there? It has two eyes, two ears, two hands, and five fingers. Everything is there—perfect.
Yes, but there is another perfection known to Scripture, unto which we are to go on. We are to go on.
The Lord desires measure among His people.
When we were children—can you remember?—we used to play games. If there were three or four of us, it made the game more interesting. If you wanted to play hospitals, well, we had a doctor, we had a nurse, and we had a patient. We might have something else, but we played hospitals.
Or we might play school. We would have a teacher, and we would have children. Or we might play church. I remember, we used to play church. Did you ever play church when you were children?
Well, do not go back to your second childhood and play the game. That is the danger. That is the danger.
That was a complaint here that the Lord made: “They put their door by My door, and their threshold by My threshold.” We are so prone to be like children in the matter of the church, in the conduct of the church, and to imitate, imitate.
“Oh, they do that over there, so we will do it over here.” And so we find a whole lot of churches, or local churches, local congregations—whatever you call them—all doing the same thing. Children, copying, imitating.
That is grievous. We must grow up. Do not play churches. This is what we have drifted back to: going back to our second childhood. Of course, when we get old, we do that—we go back to a second childhood—but that should not be in the body of the Lord, in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not play churches. Have the reality, and press on to attain to the stature of the fulness of Christ. Grow up. Grow up.
The glory of the Lord returned here, in Ezekiel’s vision, to the temple which had divine dimensions. If the glory of the Lord is to be seen among His people, it will be seen as we grow up and attain to something of the stature of our Lord Jesus Christ, both individually and collectively.
But notice: there are other things that may explain how the Lord could return to this temple which Ezekiel saw. What does it say in Ezekiel 43:13?
These are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an handbreadth.
You see, it is the same rod that measured the house which is now measuring the altar. The altar is measured by the same cubit—a cubit and a handbreadth.
Now the altar, of course, is a figure of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you have ever seen a diagram of this city and temple which Ezekiel is seeing, you will find that the temple is at the centre of the city, and the altar is at the centre of the temple. How important.
That has a message in itself, has it not? The house of the Lord is to be at the centre of the city—that means affecting the city—and the altar must be at the centre of the house.
The altar here has the measurement of the Man. This special rod is measuring the altar as well as the house.
How important it should be the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not anything less than that, which is central to our message and our life.
The Apostle Paul complained when he wrote to the Galatians, when they had digressed or gone back to legalism and forfeited the liberty into which Christ had brought them. He complained that the cross had been neglected—another gospel, a different Calvary.
In every chapter of Galatians, we have reference to the cross—the cross, the cross. Paul is, as it were, restoring the cross to the centre of the gospel, or the message.
It is important, because how can we grow up? What will contribute to our spiritual growth, to our spiritual manhood?
There is much to oppose and much to hinder. There is the flesh, there is the world, and there is the devil—all these elements militating against our growth and progress in the knowledge of the Lord. What will help us?
The cross. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I was a Christian for ten years and knew nothing about the victorious life. I made no progress whatsoever in my Christian experience. Then I came, in the favour and providence of God, under the ministry of dear brother Austin-Sparks.
The first time I went there, oh, I did not understand a word. He was talking about the subjective and objective aspects of the cross. I did not even know the meaning of the words. I was only a village boy. I had never been in such circles before.
I was impressed by everything, but the message I could not understand. I said to somebody in the interval, “I could not understand what he was talking about, but there is something here for me.”
And there was. I got it before the weekend was out. There was a turning point in my life: to know what God had done, what Christ had done with my old man.
He is not just my substitute. He is not just taking my place. I am in Him, dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
The cross is vital to our spiritual progress because it is the weapon of the Lord to deal with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and everything else that is natural, to bring it into its rightful place.
The altar here is central to the house, and that explains, in my understanding, how the Lord in His glory could return and be manifest there.
Of course, there is another thing mentioned here which surely contributes. What does it say in Ezekiel 43:12?
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.
Most holy—the whole area, most holy. Holiness becomes His house, does it not? How can the Holy One dwell amidst the unholy?
That is why the glory withdrew from Jerusalem: because of the iniquities and abominations which were being practised there. But here, the sanctuary to which the Lord returns, in which His glory is again manifested, has a law: the law of the house—holiness.
This is the law of the house.
Do not let us accept less. Do not let us desire less. I admit, I wanted to be a Christian from a young age, but I did not want to be too good. I did not want to be a goody-goody.
So I was hesitant, without really admitting it, about coming to the Lord. I was afraid of holiness. I did not want to be holy. Of course, I did not see the reason for it, the purpose for it, or the motivation for holiness.
But when we learn that by the gospel we are called to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, well, of course, we have got a future. It is to be expected that we should be suited to that future.
Holiness is God’s requirement, rightly so. How can you and I be comfortable in the presence of the Holy One if we are not holy? It will be hell for us to go to heaven if we are not prepared to be in His presence—He who is a devouring fire, a very jealous God.
We have to be suited. That is, of course, why we are told about that change in the twinkling of an eye. We are told about a change when He comes. We need it.
But do not think that it is all going to be totally topped up at the end. Many people make that mistake about 1 John 3. You know where they say, “When He comes, we shall be like Him.” Yes, a lovely idea.
We think all our deficiencies will be topped up. Does not mean that at all. If you go by the context—and that is always the right thing to do—go by the context.
See 1 John 3.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.
Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.
It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. No, it has not appeared as yet what we shall be, because we are going on. We have got to go on.
We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him. How like Him? Because we shall see Him as He is. And what does that mean? You will be seen as you are. I will be seen as I am. We are going to see Him as He is; we shall be like Him.
Not suddenly topped up to a holiness fitting for that relationship; not all our deficiencies suddenly overcome. No, we shall be shown to be what we are.
If you say, “I am a child of God,” a child of God like Him, well, it is going to be evident that day. As He is revealed, so we are going to be revealed.
Now, I think the next verse helps us to understand that this is right. Why?
And every man that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.
You see: application, application to condition. Everyone who has this hope, this expectation—when He is unveiled, I shall be unveiled; I shall be unveiled as a child of God or son of God—everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself. There is exercise about holiness of life, purity.
Well, that is the law of the house, and the glory of the Lord returned and filled that house. Ezekiel was given to see not only God restoring to His people His glory, embodied and enfolded in that sanctuary, in that people, but also the conditions: the altar was there, and holiness was the condition.
How do we grow up? How do we attain to the stature of a man?
Well, of course, there are certain rules even in our natural life. There are certain rules for growing up, are there not? We apply ourselves to knowledge. We apply ourselves to doing the things we know to be right. So we grow up. We gain experience—gain experience by obedience.
But we might remember this: the Lord has wonderfully provided for that spiritual growth. How? By sending to us, or giving to us, the Spirit of His Son.
The Holy Spirit is referred to in a number of ways, or by different names, but here is one that perhaps we do not notice so often: the Spirit of His Son.
See Galatians 4.
It talks about the heirs. But while they are children, they are no more than a slave or a servant, it says in the first verse. Children of God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ—but if the heir is still a child, he is nothing more than a servant.
But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
That He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
What an advantage—what an advantage to us and to our spiritual growth—when God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.
In Romans 8, we can see again the advantage of that.
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Now, what is the evidence of sonship? If the Spirit of the Son has been given to us, what is the evidence of sonship? See Romans 8:14:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
These are sons of God, led by the Spirit of God.
I like to think—and surely this is something for us to take hold of—God has given me the Spirit of His Son. That Spirit is jealous over me, urging that I might grow, make progress, and come to the stage of adoption.
You know what adoption means? I suppose you do; you are well taught here, I think. But anyway, in case you do not: adoption nowadays just means taking somebody else’s child, or taking an orphan, and adopting them into our family. But that is not the idea in the Bible.
The adoption is our coming to maturity, and God being able to incorporate us into the upper levels, in the right way, of His family.
I remember—forgive this personal illustration—but I have a twin brother. We were twins. One day Father had a relative come who was in trouble and wanted help. Father did not quite know whether he should help him or not.
So he took us two boys aside. I do not know how old we were, perhaps seventeen or eighteen at that time. He said, “Boys, what shall I do?” He gave us an outline of the case. “What shall I do? Shall I help or not?”
Well, this was something, for Dad to consult us. But it indicated that we had reached a stage when Dad could share with us. We were now adopted as sons.
You see, the Jews have a point where the boy becomes adopted, at the bar mitzvah—a ceremony for the boy in his early teens which distinguishes him now, not as a boy any more, but as a son.
The Greeks, of course, did not have that kind of distinction. If it was a male, they called him a son from the beginning. But the Jews did not do that. It was their sort of biblical background, perhaps. Only when the child attained to a certain degree of maturity were they adopted as sons.
Now God has given us the Spirit of His Son to bring us into that maturity.
When Dad said, “Well, what should I do, boys?” I said, “Well, the Bible says:
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”
Well, that was a bit daring, but still, Dad did take the advice, and he did not suffer on account of it, as far as I know.
It is wonderful when you get into that relationship with God, that God shares with you. Abraham was a friend of God. Moses was a friend of God. That surely is attaining a standing, a degree of communication, a relationship, which is very wonderful.
If you have a friend, you know almost instinctively what your friend likes. You do not even have to have an exchange. There is an intimacy, a maturity, in the knowledge of the Lord. That is sonship.
This temple that Ezekiel saw was filled with the glory when it had the measure that God had desired—measured by the rod—holiness and the cross.
Romans tells us this. See Romans 8:12–13:
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the doings of the body, ye shall live.
How do we attain to this maturity, which is so important individually and collectively? How do we attain to it? Well, here is one clue: putting to death by the Spirit.
Not by your struggles, not by my struggles, not by our struggles. Putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit—mortifying the deeds of the flesh. That is a very real exercise, but it is by the Spirit.
You and I can do it because He has given us the Spirit of His Son.
Years ago, there was a lot of conflict between two parts of India—south and north, not extreme north, but two areas: what is now Tamil Nadu, Madras southward, and Andhra northward of Madras. They had all been one.
But, as happens so often, the Telugu people of the north wanted a state of their own. They did not want to be under the Tamils. So there was conflict between the Tamils and the Telugus over having their own state. We know plenty about that these days.
Well, they did not get it easily, but they got it when one man devoted himself to fast unto death. And he did.
Of course, Gandhi, one of our national leaders in India, fasted many times, but never unto death. But this man committed himself to fast unto death, and he did. He died.
Why? Because he meant to die. How? By depriving his body of food and water. He took neither.
When Gandhi fasted, he had goat’s milk or lemon juice. But this man—it was a thorough fast, a fast unto death—and he died.
He gave his body nothing. If you give the flesh nothing, well, you will soon overcome it; you will get the victory. It is giving the flesh something, just a little bit here and there, that we survive. But we survive in an immature state.
Here we are told that if we are going to grow up, if we are going to attain spiritual manhood, if the church is going to grow up and attain to this manhood which gives expression to the glory of the Lord, then there has got to be a dying to the flesh.
Our problem in church life is that the flesh is still alive and still appears from time to time in one guise or another.
Now Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord filling the house. The final vision is a river going out. I am not going to stay with that, but we should have that as a conclusion, I suppose.
In Ezekiel 47 there is a river. Where does it flow from? It flows from the altar. Notice Ezekiel 47:1.
Then he brought me back unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house was toward the east: and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.
He saw the river flowing out. You know, so many sermons have been preached on this river getting deeper and deeper and deeper. It was supernatural because there were no tributaries feeding it.
How does a river increase in depth, width, and strength? It is by other tributaries feeding it. But there were no other tributaries feeding this river. It is a supernatural river, but its depth and strength increase.
It is coming out of the house—a living stream coming from the house because the house is filled with His glory.
Wherever the river went, there was life. And where did the river go? It went due east. You are looking, I suppose, right that way. It went due east from Jerusalem to the neck of the Dead Sea.
If you look at the map, you see due east from Jerusalem goes to the neck of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan joins. It says the river brought life.
When this river from the sanctuary reached the Dead Sea, death was overcome. Life was there. It is only death now in the Dead Sea, but in this day, when this vision is fulfilled, there will be life there—fish there, many.
But the point is this: are we really measuring up to Christ? Are we diligently seeking to attain unto the stature of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Are we all contributing to that, as suggested in Ephesians 4? The apostles, the prophets, and so on are ministers to us, but that is in order that we all minister. And to what end? We all minister to the fulness of Christ.
When there is the fulness of Christ, surely the glory of the Lord is there, and that will go out with living power—life-giving power. That is the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John the apostle was in Patmos. What for? For the testimony of Jesus Christ.
People do not go so far. We hesitate to go so far as to insist on a real deep work of the cross and growth in spiritual experience of the Lord. We hesitate so often.
But if only He has His way with us—He who has given us the Spirit of the Son—and we will indeed make to die the things of the flesh, we shall indeed not only reach the adoption stage, but we shall be the means whereby the testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ will get out with effect, as the river flowed from the sanctuary, bringing life wherever it went.
Amen.
Lord, please sift it all, Lord, and please blow away anything that we should forget. Throw it away if it is only chaff, but that which comes from You, oh, watch over it, Lord. Watch over it.
May it accomplish the purpose for which You have sent it. Help us this day to hear what You are saying and, Lord, to yield and respond to You in that way which gives You opportunity to fashion us, to mould us, to fit us as an instrument for Your glory—a revelation of all Your wonder and grace and goodness and power.
Oh, Lord, make us a people for Your name, we pray. Amen.