Christ, the River of Life

Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you, Pastor Carnes, for moderating this far. It's good to see you all here tonight.

It's a privilege to be able to close out this year by being able to preach to you all. On the way to church this morning, Ella was explaining her excitement about the people that she would see. Ella has a strange infatuation with people who share the same names as her, so Ella Wilburn's her best friend here, and she's got another Ella at her ballet that she goes to, and she got to spend some time with another Ella here recently, and so she's quite infatuated with those.

They have a love-hate relationship, but those are her favorite girls that live. And while we were going through that, she said, and Dad, we're going to see your brothers this morning. Originally, I kind of looked at her a little discombobulated because I don't have any brothers by blood, and she went on to explain how she had noticed me calling the men here brothers. And so that really blessed my heart. It was sobering. It was encouraging to see that she's aware of the terminology that we are using, but also I hope that we would display that sort of affection amongst one another in such a way that our children see it tangibly displayed before them, and so that was a blessing to my heart, and it's a blessing to be with you, my brethren in the faith, here tonight as we will look into the book of Ezekiel together.

My desire through this is that we would leave understanding how to see the Bible put together a little differently being able to see the overarching theme and mission of God throughout the Scriptures and to see where we are placed within them, and we will launch from the book of Ezekiel together here tonight. Now with that said, I'm reminded of a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon. It's a name that if you have been around the faith for long and you have been familiar with church history, at least recent history, you've probably been familiarized with him. Maybe you've read his sermons and found your heart flooded with love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you've been motivated to do something for Christ as you've contemplated the vast scope of his ministry, multi-millions of copies of his sermons. He was responsible for 167 church plants out of his church.

They had 66 benevolent ministries out of their church. He preached 10 times a week. He was a titan of the faith, and as I consider his ministry, it encourages me.

The fact that he was infatuated with the Lord Jesus Christ, and well, that's a fine enough thing to have married to your name regardless. And regardless of your exposure to Spurgeon, one thing stands married to his reputation as I just said, and it's that Spurgeon wanted to do something for God. If we were to get his hands on the early letters of Spurgeon, you would read something like this throughout them. He would say, oh, how I wish I could do something for Christ.

And then you would read other statements like this. During his first year as a believer, one of Spurgeon's mentors documented his spiritual progress saying, Spurgeon lost no time in channeling this rush of spiritual life into practical Christian commitment and work. And an important thing for us to understand, however, as we consider these men in the faith, is that for the believer, the experience that struck such zeal in the heart of Charles Spurgeon is really the same experience that each of us has known ourselves, and it is namely that each of us have experienced Christ. But in the face of serious adversity, in the face of a society that is laden with lethargy, and a myriad of screens and hobbies and more that are calling for our attention, I believe that it is necessary that we ask ourselves whether we have grown cold to the excitement that we once knew as we contemplated.

The Lord Jesus Christ. It is my prayers we explore the scriptures together tonight that we would leave not only understanding how to read the scriptures a little bit better. And when we are preaching, it is our desire to demonstrate to the congregant how to handle the scriptures better.

We are not merely showmen. We're teaching you how to handle the scriptures. And so I hope that that you might leave understanding how they piece together a little bit more, but also that we would find understanding of the work of God through us, in us, and what his endgame is that we would find our hearts stoked with an unquenchable zeal to make Christ known in Burlington. So if you found yourself here tonight wondering whether you've drawn the lot in life of being a bench warmer in the church, this is for you. Or if you found yourself disturbed by the heartaches of this life and find your soul drained by the darkness that is so common in this world, this is also for you. Or if you find yourself here tonight thirsting for something different than the bitterness that you have always known, this text is for you. Tonight we will see that our God is making all things new through the work of his son Jesus Christ and that this message of life comes through each of us as his people here on the earth.

Now as we look at our initial text here this evening, I want to catch us up to speed on what's occurring. Ezekiel is experiencing something quite interesting. He's been invaded by the Babylonians and a first wave of exiles have been sent off from Israel. And among them is Ezekiel. Now in the year that Ezekiel would have been commissioned to the priesthood, his 30th birthday, he receives a vision. And in this vision he sees what is quickly depicted as the glory of God marching towards him or rolling towards him on these chariots. And it bothers Ezekiel. It confuses him because the glory is not with the Ark of the Covenant.

In Israel. It's departed from there. And what you find as you go through the book is that the people back in Israel have fallen into idolatrous worship and have therefore broken their covenant with God and his glory is not resting upon the Ark of the Covenant any longer. It is coming towards the people in captivity as it were. And so God raises up Ezekiel and commands him to go and call the nation to repentance or there will be another attack similar to what they have endured previously. As we find ourselves in this latter half of the book, we find Ezekiel is being taken on an angelic tour of a temple that is to come. And this leads us to this interesting passage here in Ezekiel 47 here tonight as we have just read that he is walking around and during the end of his tour he finds that there is a divine water leak, if you will, pouring out of the eastern side of the temple that is going to bless everywhere that it goes. Now before we can understand this text, we're going to have to go all the way back to Genesis because if we don't understand that, you're not going to understand this passage here. And so I do invite you to turn me to the book of Genesis chapter 2 and I believe that we will get a little bit of clarification there. If you were taking notes here tonight, the first point is the hardship. Hardship floods the human story. I did mean to print out notes for you all because even though I am a southerner at heart, I have learned during my time here that I speak with a northern pace of speaking and while I do, I yearn to be with you in thought and speech. Apparently I just gear a little differently so I'll try to tone it back a little bit tonight.

I did not drink much caffeine before I got up here so perhaps that will help us all. Now, in Genesis 1 and 2 we see the creationary account and we're all familiar with it because this is so early in our annual Bible reading plans that we haven't fallen off the wagon yet. So we're all familiar with these first several chapters. In chapter 1 we see an outward view, an enhanced view of the creation of the universe and Moses is trying to teach these Israelites post captivity about a sovereign creator who is the true God, who is their God, and who is worthy to be praised as creator. Now in the second chapter he is zooming in a little bit more and he's zooming in upon the creation of the garden and most specifically Eden and what you'll find is there's a three-tiered system going on here. You have the world, you have the garden that's on a mountain and then you have Eden or Eden and you have the garden that's right in the center of it.

So there's three tiers going on here. Now what we find as we look in this text and I'll read it for you very quickly starting in verse number eight is something that I find intriguing and enlightening for our study this evening. It says this, What is important for us to remember in this context is the bliss of this experience. As a matter of fact as we just sang that first song tonight that spoke of the bliss of Eden, and sin ruining everything, that is indeed what we find to be the case here in the first three chapters of our Bible.

According to the dialogue recorded in Genesis 2 as well as later in Genesis 3 8, Adam enjoyed fellowship with God, enjoyed a rich, sweet, vibrant, unhindered fellowship with God. There was no heartache, there was no relational fracture, there was no irrational fear, there was no anxiety, no death, no famines and wars, there was no separation from God. What you are looking at is paradise.

You are looking at paradise. But as we all know tragedy strikes in Genesis 3 and in our parents rebellion we are separated from God. From this rebellion enters a tidal wave of depravity and separation from God that brings forth heartache and it produces the atrocities that we see in our society even that hit our society this week with the murder of an officer over in Greensboro. Do you feel it? Do you feel a yearning in your heart for all things to be made right? A yearning in your heart to wish that things could have stayed the way that they were. A yearning in your heart for things to be corrected. A yearning in your heart to fellowship with God without sin barring this perfect fellowship.

If you are good that's the intent of the text. That's what he is trying to get us to feel is this yearning for unhindered fellowship with God and as a result of this rebellion recorded in Genesis 3 mankind is banished from the garden and with that goes the blissful fellowship of man with God. And as we look back at this paradisiacal setting Genesis 2 10 mentions to us that there was a river that nourished the garden and not only is there a river feeding the garden and not only is God present there but the garden verse 11 and 12 shows us is full of gold and onyx. I'm going somewhere with this but not only is it full of gold and onyx but in this garden we find a tree of life and then we find a garden keeper by the name of Adam and Adam's job is twofold. Well actually it's threefold but there's there's two words that are given to Adam and it says that he is to tend and to keep the garden in verse 15.

Now why does that matter? The reason it matters is because these similarities are found in the temple that will be constructed later. In this temple that we find in Ezekiel there's a river flowing out of it but in the early temple that's constructed what do we find? We find a lampstand that matches that of the tree of life.

We find that the temple is decorated with onyx and gold. We find that the priest is told to do two things the exact same word he is to guard and to keep or to tend and to keep the temple. What I find also in the temple is that there are pomegranates that are sewn into the fabrics in the temple and so on and so forth. Now what do we get from this?

What am I trying to explain here? What I want us to understand here first is that what we see in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 is that the garden is the temple of God. The garden is the temple and Adam is the priest who is supposed to tend and to keep it. As a matter of fact when we see them barred from the garden there is an angel that is standing there guarding it. You see the exact same angel placed on the curtain into the holy of holies later on and so what we see here is there is a garden setting or a temple setting in the garden.

If you still don't believe me the word that's used in Genesis 3, 8 it says that God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That's the exact same word that the Old Testament writers in reference use in reference to God's presence being in the tabernacles and the temples throughout the Old Testament. So as we explore the Old Testament storyline we find first the establishment of the tabernacle and as you know growing up in the church as they are marching to the promised land there is a tabernacle that is built. It is a mobile tabernacle that will move where they move and it is significant because it is declaring to the world that God moves where his people move.

He is present with them and then we find later on in the promised land that a temple is erected a sign of permanence and the majesty of God's presence that is there. However in summary we find the first man dwelling in the Edenic temple with God where a river is flowing to nourish all things name of the tree of life and however in sin it is all lost but the temple worship of the Old Testament will be established to point to what is to come. Now seeing this we are ready to move forward to Ezekiel 47 and that takes us to our second point tonight which is a pre-figured temple.

So the first thing our first point tonight is that hardship floods the human story and now we see second is a pre-figured temple. Now just like the garden had a river flowing from it so does this temple. In verse number one it says then he brought me back to the door of the temple and there was water flowing from underneath the threshold of the temple toward the east. What's important for us to recall here is that the temple is the place of God's presence. So what we are seeing here as the angel says to us later on that wherever this water goes life goes with it what we are seeing being presented for us here tonight is that there is life that comes forth from the presence of God.

That God is the source of life, God is the source of renewal, God is this source of regeneration that we find taking place and will further find taking place. In verses 8 through 12 we find a beautiful depiction of the nature of this water. It says verse number eight the land shall be his excuse me wrong passage let me flip over a page verse number eight says then he said to me this water flows towards the eastern region goes down into the valley and it enters the sea when it reaches the sea its waters are healed and it shall be that every living thing that moves wherever the river goes will live 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. First what we find in verse number eight it describes that this water is flowing from the temple now this temple would have sat around 2400 feet above sea level and it says that it is flowing down to the sea it's referring to the dead sea the dead sea would have sat does sit around 1300 feet below sea level this is a drop of over 3700 feet not only this but when this life-giving water flows into the poisonous and dead waters of the dead sea the angel says it's going to bring life with it when it touches these dead waters abundance will be known where only barrenness has been known before. In verse 12 we find this I'll read it for you along the bank of the river on this side and that will grow all kinds of trees used for food their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail they will bear fruit every month because their water flows from the sanctuary there will be their their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine and so he's backing up and he's saying not only is this water going to affect the dead sea but this water is going to bring abundant life to the desert the barren desert even that it touches now what are we seeing here we're seeing a beautiful imagery that is being depicted here of the magnificent and life-giving grace of God which flows from upon high and it reaches down to what was formerly known as nothing but death and it will bring forth life this sanctuary this this temple that is known for the presence of God that is seated up high will flow with this life-giving water and whatever it touches abundance will come from it life will come from it what is formerly known as nothing but dead will now be known for abundant life notice the garden imagery that's in verse number 12 it says that there is a river that feeds a garden-like setting and how it will have trees that are life-giving much like the tree in the garden of eden what we are looking at in this passage is a promise it is a promise that God is bringing life to death God is bringing hope to hopelessness God is bringing abundance to what was barren God is declaring to us tonight that he is the source of life and he is the source of our healing and it will flow from no other source but himself and unless he decides to allow his plenteousness to flow into our lives we will remain barren it says in the text that the swamp lands will not be touched and that they will be left for salt he is the source of life he is the source of our healing as i was writing this i was reminded of a poem written by sarah sparks and if you like c.s lewis uh you might remember a girl by the name of jill poll from c.s lewis's the silver chair she says the poem says this i saw you on a mountain and i met you by the stream and i terrified at your sight a lion after me you asked if i was thirsty i said if i don't drink i will surely die here be dry lying by the stream he said dear child come farther for this the only stream that will bring you life my supply is all you will ever need he didn't promise not to hurt me he said i'll do no such thing for i am the law and in my jaw i've swallowed men mountains and kings it is so there is only one blood that could have done what i have done and i know and so many do you may run but i am your only hope there is only one blood that could have done what i have done it is so i am justice and wrath i am love but i am your only hope i am the light i am the shade i am in the wind and i am in the waves where do we find the blood that this poem speaks of and where do we find the one through whom this life-giving water is given but in the lord jesus christ himself and christ alone if you will turn with me and we will look at our third point which is that the fountain head dwells with us now in passing john 114 makes mention that the word was made flesh and dwelled among us the word for dwelled is the same exact word used for tabernacle in the old testament he is the tabernacle that moves among men he is coming he is coming tabernacled among us now i want you to turn with me to john 7 though john 7 and we will read verse 37 through 39. Jesus says this the scriptures read on the last day that great day of feast Jesus stood and cried out saying 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 and we'll return to the rest later now what's the context here some of your bibles may make make mention of the feast of tabernacles or the feast of booths that is taking place in this context now through over time the this feast developed a tradition developed a tradition where they would have a seven-day water ceremony and they would pray for rain and so what they would do if the priest would go down to the pool of salom and he would fill a golden pitcher and would march back to the city and when he would enter the water gate they would blow a shofar and the psalms of praise would begin to be sung to the lord and he would march around the altar and his priest the priest would follow the high priest and they would pour this out asking god to bring rain and this would be a a morning offering that they would make and although this would have been a prayer for rain there's something stronger here than just rain the feast of tabernacles was a time where the israelites would go outside and they would build these little booths these little shanties that they would live in and it was a way that they would remind themselves about god's faithfulness when they left egypt and how they built these little booths these little tabernacles to live in as they were journeying into the promised land and so they would recall this and meditate upon the favor of god and what we find here throughout history is that the development of this of this water ritual that they would do was stronger than just warning rain it was messianic because what happened while they were journeying through the wilderness moses struck a rock and god providentially provided for them a water to quench their thirst in the heat of the day so this is not only a prayer for rain but this was an arrow pointing every year that there will be a messiah we pray who will come and who will flood the earth with blessing and will quench the thirst that we have so long held they are longing for god to give them what they have prayed for and in the midst of this on the last day of the feast jesus stands up and says if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink this would have been a stunning thing for jesus to have said flabbergasting for him to have stated to them because jesus is declaring that he is the fulfillment that this feast has been anticipating and he's also saying that the scriptures speak of me he is he is saying i'm the one that you've been anticipating i'm the one that the rock is depicting and i'm the one through whom the thirsting of men's souls are quenched come to me come to me and is this not what he said of himself to a little woman at the well in john 4 when he told her that he could give her water that she would never thirst again and is this not what he is saying to you and me here today christians we must never seek to have our thirst quenched by the idols of this world if we have truly tasted of his grace we understand that there is nothing that can compare to what christ delivers to those who believe and yet in our fallen souls we have a temptation with weakened wondering hearts to try and go and have our thirst quenched by the wells of this world to those of you who do not know christ tonight are you thirsting do you find your heart burdened underneath the weight of your sins are you wearied and beaten down by the hardships of this broken world and it's not enough just that you want things to be right everyone wants things to be right do you understand that from the depths of your own soul it is your own sinfulness that contributes to the horrors that this world knows and that you desire that you might not only be freed from the sufferings of this world but that you might be free from the suffering that your own sin brings upon the world and upon yourself are you broken tonight are you thirsting do you find yourself longing for reconciliation to god and hoping and hope longing for hope that extends outside of the here and now if that is you run to christ run to christ he floods the barrenness of our souls with life he reaches from our high and blesses those who are low he brings life to what was nothing but death and he extends a call to you at this moment to come to him and to find your thirst quenched and if your heart tells you that he would never want someone like you jesus corrects your heart and says come to me and the only qualifier is that you thirst and he's so and he's so gracious that he is the salt that causes thirst in the first place are you thirsting tonight the one who quenches thirst is the one that brought you to be aware of your thirst to begin with and he says come come and i will quench your thirst in john 1 14 i said it earlier how the the temple tabernacle typifies the dwelling place of god and how jesus is god tabernacling among us it says and the word became flesh and dwelt tabernacled among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth jesus has come the fountainhead of life has dwelt among us that we poor and thirsty sinners might drink and be made satisfied and in in the in the heart of what pastor carns was saying this morning stop looking for what you can offer there's nothing that you need you've got nothing to bring there's nothing that you need you you've got nothing to bring what are you going to offer the god who is fully satisfied before you are even created he doesn't need us yet somehow this fully content god is imminently with us isaiah 55 one says ho everyone who thirst come to the waters and you who have no money you come and buy and eat yes come buy wine and milk without money and without price he calls you the ones who have nothing to offer and he says come i've already paid it all and the offer is freely bestowed to those who would believe just come just come here we find that the way that god is making all things new is through the person and work of jesus christ alone who is the fountain of life now if you will look with me last i promise it's the last thing i'm going to take you to i think probably not but we can look at it look with me our fourth point turn with me to the book of revelation revelation chapter 22 now as pastor carns has been in revelation i hope you've picked up on something and i hope it becomes clear as you begin your bible reading plans the first three chapters of genesis and the finality of the book of revelation the final threes are bookends to your bible if you want to understand your bible better genesis one through three the rest of your bible is a commentary on genesis one through three and you're going to find these questions answered as you look through this who are we how did we get here what went wrong and who's going to fix it that's the whole that's that's the commentary on the whole scriptures and it's all a commentary on what went wrong us we are sinful creatures but who's going to fix it god and who receives the glory god but who receives all the benefit us us that's the bible in a nutshell there now in revelation 22 one and two we find language much like we have seen in genesis and ezekiel it says this and he showed me a pure river of of water of life clearest crystal proceeding from the throne of god and of the lamb in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore twelve fruits each tree yielding its fruit every month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of of the nations do you see the language that's similar to where we've looked everywhere so far life giving abundance flowing from the presence of god and i'll do a timeout here and i think pastor carns may jump and run a lap after this um you're never going to understand the book of revelation if you do not understand the old testament the language that is being utilized here is so richly old testament that we will never firmly grasp what is occurring here if you're not familiar with two-thirds of your bible okay and we'll keep going on from there what we find here is this strong edenic language this strong language from ezekiel this life-giving abundance flowing from the presence of god except here there's something greater in genesis there is a tree of life but in revelation there are multiples of the tree of life because it says in verse two on either side of the river was the tree of life now i don't know about you but i rarely see trees with rivers running beneath them these are trees on either side of the river a multiple of the tree of life there there are not singulars but multiples of the tree of life and they do not provide healing for an area like a garden but it says that it provides healing for the nations to put it simply it's bigger than we could ever imagine in genesis the temple is a garden but in revelation 22 it's the whole world notice verse one it's a pure river in verse two this river isn't hidden somewhere far off but it's in the center of the street gk bill says this is because eternal fellowship with god is an essential characteristic of this city i don't know exactly what kind of music or theme that you grew up with but sometimes we would fall off into celebrating heaven for everything except for god and i i like how john piper addresses this he says and i'm paraphrasing here if you could have heaven with everyone you've ever loved and with every food that you could ever enjoy and with every scene that you could ever hope to see and every song that you could ever hope to sing and god was not there would that still be heaven to you in the center of this heaven flows the river which is typological of god's presence this reconciliatory act that's bringing into union what was once disunified it's bigger than we could ever imagine in this there is eternal unbroken secure fellowship with god for all of his saints and how was it found it is found through the person and work of jesus christ where does it flow from god and the lamb now where does this temple dwell today is there going to be a third temple that is going to be built in the future does the water not already flow among us this is a question that we need to ask if we're going to be faithful to the text and i believe it's answered very clearly by the apostle paul and by the lord in the book of john as we have just seen the answer to this question is no there will not be a third temple that is going to be built where is the temple first corinthians chapter 3 16 paul writes to the church of corinth do you not know that you are the temple of god and that the spirit dwells in you the spirit tabernacles in you now who are these people who it dwells in is it this is solely corinthian letter no the ones who are the temple of god with the spirit indwelling them are the ones who have had their thirsts quenched by jesus jesus stood up and said all you who thirst come to me and then what does he say after that he says he who believes in me john 7 38 as the scripture said out of his heart will flow out of his heart will flow rivers of living water but 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 now what does this all mean for us i'll bring this back around but i'll give us our three lessons here tonight the first lesson that we get from understanding this theme that threads throughout the scriptures first of all is that there is redemption there is redemption just jesus is the just and only source and substance of all true peace and relic reconciliation salvation will be found nowhere but in christ alone he is the sole source of abundance that will flow throughout the earth he is the sole one through whom god will bring life where death was only known and it is the same for you jesus's ministry was one of exclusivity and the christian faith is a faith that is exclusive there will be salvation known from none other than christ and if you are sipping from the cisterns the whales of this world you will never find salvation there come to christ now you don't have to thirst any longer come to him now embrace him now find yourself quenched now stop putting it off he has come and life flows from him and he is joyfully ready to dispose it to all those whom he has caused to thirst are you thirsting tonight be not ashamed and try to quiet your heart he gave you the thirst and that is an invitation to come and to have it satisfied second i got a new thing put on my ipad where at the top it has a clock and the clock starts flashing at me and it's turning red stop that not only is there redemption but second there is hope there's hope jesus has come jesus has died jesus has resurrected and it doesn't end there jesus has ascended and reigns overall and so surely has this has happened so surely will he see to it that all things will be made new all things will be made new where is the hope of the christian as he stands over the casket of a loved one he will make all things new where is the hope of a pastor as he stands and preaches the gospel not that we would have some sort of intellectual assent to facts but it is that through these facts he is making all things new there's hope here he promised promised and he is going to see to it that all things will be made new and so when the time comes and unless he does return all of us will taste death in our final moments we can be assured he will make all things new this is the promise of god and finally there is motivation what does it mean that we are the temple of god it doesn't mean that we are the source of life giving water but it does mean that we are the instruments that god is using to dispense it to the world shouldn't the mouths of those who have tasted such water be the same mouths that share where others can find their thirst quenched to the mouth of a christian who has drunk of this water should not be one that spews poison but that spews the promise of the gospel to a world that is lost and dead inside concerning the motivation of spurgeon he wrote this the church is the world's hope as christ is the hope of the church so the church is the hope of the world in ezekiel 47 there was a little trickle from the temple that grew into a mighty river and as we read the account of our beloved lord's death on the cross where his side was pierced and there flowed blood and water so did the church begin so small yet it is now a mighty river that will not be dammed up that will not be stopped and the way that god builds his church today is through us we are the funnel through which his life giving water is showed to the world and so in 2024 the question and challenge that i have for you is will we be dedicated to being the people that god might be willing to use to share the gospel with our neighbors in burlington should not the mouths that have had our own thirst quenched share this thirst quenching gospel with those around us we have a hope that should not make us ashamed this is the word of god for the people of god let us pray heavenly father we thank you for the mercy and grace that you show us in christ and that your mercies are new every morning and that through christ all things are made by him and through him and for him and it is by him that all things are held together even today and as you have given us breath and life just for one more day as we stand and feast upon the promises of your word may our hearts be exhilarated as we pierce into a new year to resolve in our own in our own hearts that we will seek to be motivated by your love to share the gospel to those who are around us we ask that this might be done to the glory of christ whose name we do pray amen