EZEKIEL 46-47 THE MANNER OF WORSHIP2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 46-47 The Manner Of Worship

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

Now here in Ezekiel chapter 46, we're continuing to talk about the temple that will exist during the 1,000 year reign of Christ. It's called the Millennial Temple. For that thousand years that Christ is reigning, this temple will be built and it will be in use. It will be functioning throughout that time. We've been talking about it

since chapter 40 in the book of Ezekiel, and we got the description there which gave us an outline, a foundation of the structure of this temple that will be built. And there's a snapshot of it if you have forgotten. There's also some handouts on the back table that we've given out the past few weeks so that you can get a good picture and understanding of the things that Ezekiel is writing about.

Well, the temple, if you were approaching it, would have a wall around the outside and it would have three gateways to get in. You had the north gate, which would be on the right-hand side of this picture, the south gate, which would be on the left-hand side of this picture, and then the east gate, which is at the bottom of this picture. And so you would have to enter through one of those gates in order to get into the temple.

Well, as we saw last week, the east gate would actually be closed because that was the gate that the Lord entered through. And so for the rest of us who are not God, which is pretty much everybody, those who exist in that day in the millennium, they will enter through the south gate or the north gate.

Then as they enter into the temple complex, then that gray area there would be the outer courtyard. And there's going to be some things happening in there. We'll talk a little bit about that today. And then you have three more gates on the inside. And these gates take you into what's called the inner court.

And there in the inner court is the altar where the sacrifices would be offered. And then the temple would be in there and the entrance to the temple for the priests that were serving the Lord. And so you would come in and you could be offering your sacrifices to the Lord there in the inner court. And you would have to enter through one of the three gateways. Again, the east gateway, we'll talk about that today as a special function. The rest of the people, the normal people, would be entering through the south entrance.

And so this is a quick overview of the structure. We've been dealing with it for the past several chapters. And so you can review those for any clarification. And so this is a quick overview of the structure.

But as we go forward now, we're talking about some of the things that will be taking place and the types of offerings that will be given, the manner of worship that will be taking place in the temple during the millennium. And so we pick it up in chapter 46, starting in verse 1, it says, Thus says the Lord God, the gateway of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be shut the six working days.

But on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. The prince shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway from the outside and stand by the gateposts.

The priest shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings. He shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. Verse 3. Likewise, the people of the land shall worship at the entrance to this gateway before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. So here in verses 1 through 3, we're getting some insight into the types of worship that will be going on within the temple.

And there's some specific things that will be happening at the east gate. And that's what's being described here. The east gate was a special gate. Again, because we saw in an earlier chapter, the Lord entered into and his presence was dwelling in the temple, but he entered through the east gate. And so the east gate has some special significance and it's consecrated to the Lord. And so the east gate is really only to be used by the prince.

Now we talked about the prince a little bit last week and we don't know exactly who the prince is. Some suggest that the prince could be King David and in his glorified body he comes back and he rules and reigns along with Christ there by being the prince that's mentioned here and that's a possibility. Also another suggestion that commentators or scholars suggest is that it could be Jesus himself and he could be the one being referred to by the prince.

As I shared last time, I believe that it's not David and not Jesus, but another type of ruler that we just really don't know about, but that Ezekiel is describing for us here. And so this prince, whoever he might be, he has some authority, he has an allotment of land, as we saw last time, and he has a special privilege of being able to enter in at the east gate.

And at the east gate, he would enter in to offer some specific sacrifices, and he would be able to do so on the Sabbath and also on the new moon. Now, the new moon is kind of the opposite of the full moon. It's when, you know, you can't really see the moon because it's directly behind the sun. Well, the sun's anyways, it's the shadow. He can't see the shadow. Okay.

The next new moon, if you want to check it out, is February 3rd. So you can look and see what I mean whenever you see it then. But on the Sabbath and on the new moon, it was kind of like the beginning of the month for them. The Jewish calendar was always based on a lunar calendar, based on the...

the phases of the moon. And so the new moon, when basically it was the shadow or there was no moon, would be kind of the beginning of the month. And so this would be a celebration that they would do, a feast, a sacrifice that they would offer at the beginning of the month. And then the Sabbath, which would of course be the seventh day of the week or Saturday, would also be a set-apart day to the Lord and there would be offerings that would be offered there.

And so these special offerings on the Sabbath and on the new moon would take place at the east gate or the prince would go into the east gate and then they would offer these sacrifices. The gate would be open the whole day and it was a special place of worship for the prince and also for the people who would worship the Lord before the gate. They wouldn't be able to enter in like the prince, but he would be able to enter into the east gate and the people would stand on the outside of the gate and worship the Lord there. Verse 4 says,

The burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. And the grain offering shall be one ephah for a ram and the grain offering for the lambs as much as he wants to give, as well as a hen of oil with every ephah. On the day of the new moon, it shall be a young bull without blemish, six lambs and a ram. They shall be without blemish.

He shall prepare a grain offering of an ephah for a bull, an ephah for a ram, as much as he wants to give for the lambs, and a hin of oil with every ephah.

And so here he's describing for us the particular details of the sacrifices. So on the Sabbath day, there's to be an offering of six lambs without blemish. These are the details that if you're familiar with the Levitical system are the same. These are the sacrifices that are to be given on the Sabbath day.

Then also there's specific sacrifices for that new moon celebration. This time it's to be a young bull without blemish, as well as six lambs and a ram, and they shall be without blemish. Now, as was the practice in the Old Testament under the Levitical system, along with the offering of an animal, there would be an offering of grain as well as

oil and sometimes wine that would go along with it. And so these offerings would be put upon the altar and burned...

But understand that it wasn't just, you know, they take the whole animal and put it on the altar and burn and consume the whole animal. These offerings, some of them were burnt offerings and they would be completely consumed. But the others, it was just pieces of the animals that would be consumed. And then the rest, as we talked about a couple weeks ago, would be used for the priest and his family as food for them. And so there was certain things that were going on with the sacrifices of the priest.

As they're being offered to the Lord, there are certain pieces that would go on the altar. They would attach with it, you know, the grain or the oil that was specified by the law. And that's what's being described here. And so these are the offerings and the sacrifices that will be taking place for the Sabbath as well as the new moon celebrations or feasts. Verse 8, When the prince enters, he shall go in by way of the vestibule of the gateway and go out the same way.

But when the people of the land come before the Lord on the appointed feast days, whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate. And whoever enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. He shall not return by way of the gate through which he came, but shall go out through the opposite gate.

And so here, God's giving some specific instruction about the order of the people in the temple. And so in the east gate, you know, there were some specific things happening and the prince was there, but the people would not be able to go through the east gate. They would enter in through the south gate or through the north gate. Now, what God is describing here, he's prescribing order for the temple functions, right?

Now, during the millennium, there's going to be a lot of incredible things. There's going to be peace. There's going to be righteousness. It's going to be, well, without Satan. You remember, Satan will be bound for that thousand years. And it's going to be a lot like it was back in the Garden of Eden and back in the early days. If you remember, there was Bethlehem.

Great, long lives that were lived in the Old Testament. I mean, 900 years long, some of them. 969, I think, is how long Methuselah lived, the longest recorded life in the Bible. And so that type of thing will become normal again. Isaiah talks about, you know, it will be odd. Someone will be thought as a child if they die at 100 years old.

Now, long life, it means a couple of things. It means that, well, the earth's population is going to become significant fairly quickly because those who survive the tribulation period and go into the millennium, well, they will live a long time. They will have normal lives. They'll reproduce.

You and I as believers, we will come back with Jesus and we'll be ruling and reigning with him, but we'll be in our glorified bodies. It'll be a slightly different thing for us. But those who enter in to the millennium through the tribulation period will live lives like you and I live today, except for it will be under the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And so they're going to live a long time. They're going to get married. They're going to have children. But

There's not going to be many people dying off. It will be just a continual addition to the population whenever children are born. And so you can see very quickly that the world's population will increase and become quite significant. Now this is important to consider because...

In the functions of the temple, there's, you know, there's only a certain amount of space. And what we're looking at here in the temple is, it's a big structure, you know, it's pretty substantial, it's pretty, you know, impressive as far as size, but it's not, you know,

the size of the world, it's limited. And so the amount of people that will have to go through will probably be significant, that there's going to be a lot of things happening here in this millennial temple. And so God is giving some order. If you come in to the temple from the north side, then you need to kind of keep going straight through and then exit out on the south side. If you come in on the south, then you need to go through, prefer

Perform your worship, spend time with the Lord, but then continue on and exit out through the north. And so whatever gate you entered in through, you enter out the opposite gate. If you came in the south, you go out the north. If you came in the north, you go out the south. He's prescribing order and giving order so that the number of people that are coming to worship the Lord...

are able to do so in an orderly manner. You know, like Paul said, God, you know, is the author not of confusion. He wants things to be done decently and in order. And so there's some practical things going on here. But I really like verse 9, not so much for the practical insight that God is giving, but I think there's some spiritual application for this as well.

that you and I, we can understand that when God calls us to him, when we meet with him, that we're to go out different than the way that we came in. You and I, as we gather together for service, and

In the same way that people come to the Millennial Temple in that time, God wants us to come in to spend time with Him, but to go out a different way or to go out differently. That is that we are to be changed as we come in contact with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As we spend time with God, He's transforming our hearts. He's changing us. He's growing us. He's working within us.

And so we are to leave not the same, not the same way that we came in, not untouched, not unchanged, but we are to leave transformed. And I want to encourage you as we gather together regularly, you know, we come together on Sunday mornings, we come together on Wednesday evenings. Sometimes we have Sunday evening studies. Sometimes you're participating in other studies that are happening throughout the week. And it's very easy for all of this to become routine.

And sometimes we sing, you know, the same songs as we sang last week. And you're really familiar with the song and you like that song and you don't like that song. And this guy that's teaching, he's exciting. But this guy over here, you don't like him that much. And it's very easy to just kind of get in the routine and get really unchanged because you're just so used to the routine. It's very easy to just sit through service.

But God doesn't want you to just sit through service and then leave and go, well, I did my religious duty. Here's what God wants. For every time that you come to church, for every time that you meet with Him, He wants you to come, to engage, to connect with Him, to be transformed and to go out different.

That's what God desires for us to meet with Him and for Him to work in our lives. We don't always see the differences immediately, but as we come in contact with God, He is doing a work. And I want to encourage you to get out of the rut and get out of the routine and step out of your comfort zone and really seek to engage and meet with God as you come to services.

I would encourage you to prepare your hearts on the way here. Get ready to meet with the Lord. Get ready to receive from Him so that you maximize this time. So that it's not the first 30 minutes of service you're waking up, but you're preparing yourself for what God wants to do. And you're listening, you're alert, you're paying attention because listen, God's here to meet with us. Jesus said where two or three are gathered, I'm there in their midst.

He's here with us. Now, sometimes, you know how it is as believers, and you can try to deny it if you want, but we all know it's true of you just like it's true of us. Sometimes, you're sitting there and you're like, man, this guy is going on and on, and when is he going to be done? Now, meanwhile, the person next to you, they're having their lives changed. It can happen like that all the time.

Someone right next to you is like, this is like amazing. I can't believe what God's doing in my heart right now. And we're there like, oh my goodness. I just want to get out of here. I'm so hungry. I got to do the laundry. Man, is he going to go long again tonight? While the next person's like, oh my goodness, Jesus, I love you so amazing. It's awesome. That's how it is, right? You know, if someone is teaching the word, you and I, hey,

we can be ministered to. Because the Word of God is living and powerful. Now, if you're going somewhere, or one of us, we're not being faithful to the Word, or we're just kind of sharing whatever we feel like sharing, well then, yeah, maybe there's room for not much impact. But listen, if the Word of God is being shared, we need to pay attention. It's not about the person, oh, I don't like this guy, he's boring. Listen, it's not about the person,

It's about you and your heart. Are you ready to receive from God? That's what I'm trying to share here. When you come to meet with the Lord, when you come to service, be ready to meet with the Lord. Be willing, be alert, be paying attention. God, you're going to speak to me. I want to hear it. I don't want to miss it.

You want to do a work. When we're spending time in worship, it's easy just to kind of sit there or to kind of like mouth the words on the screen or, you know, maybe jump in, jump out. But, you know, you're just kind of really not engaged. But to really, well, to really involve your heart and really involve your passion and your energy in worshiping God and really meaning the words that are being sung.

God can do a tremendous work. He will do a tremendous work. But we're so lazy and we just like to be entertained. It's dangerous. God doesn't want us to just come in and go, oh, good show, and then leave. He wants us to come in to worship Him with all of our hearts, to hear from Him, to be ministered to, and then to leave different, having been changed and challenged and transformed by His Word.

And so he gives this instruction and there's some practical, you know, orderly side to it. But I think there's some real spiritual application that we need to pay attention to. If we're just coming in and going out the same way, something's wrong. God wants to do a different work. Verse 10, the prince shall then be in their midst. When they go in, he shall go in and they shall go out. He shall go out.

Verse 2.

You shall daily make a burnt offering to the Lord of a lamb of the first year without blemish. You shall prepare it every morning. You shall prepare a grain offering with it every morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hint of oil to moisten the fine flour. This grain offering is a perpetual ordinance to be made regularly to the Lord. Thus they shall prepare the lamb, the grain offering and the oil as a regular burnt offering every morning.

Here we find some more instruction. If the prince wants to offer a voluntary offering, so aside from the Sabbath days, aside from the feast days, aside from the new moon, if he just says, you know, I want to offer something special to the Lord today, he would be able to do that. And then the east gate would be open for him. He would come in, he would prepare his offerings, and then they would put it upon the altar and sacrifice it to the Lord.

And so the east gate would normally be closed, except for on the Sabbath days and on the new moons, unless the prince wanted to offer a voluntary offering. When he was offering an unscheduled offering, they would open it, and then it would be immediately shut after. On the other hand, on the Sabbath days and on the new moon days, in verse 2 it tells us that the gate would be opened the entire day. And so on those days,

It would be open the entire day, but when he was offering a voluntary or willing offering, an unscheduled offering, then it would be open for him to offer it and then it would be shut as he exited.

Then there was also the daily offerings that were to be given. Every day in the morning, they were to offer certain sacrifices. A lamb of the first year without blemish, it says in verse 13, every morning. And they're to attach with it the grain offering and the oil. It describes there the oil is to moisten the fine flour. And so there was kind of a recipe, you know, as a reason that God was having them include oil and grain along with the animal sacrifice.

And it was to be a daily thing. Every day, this sacrifice was to be offered.

Now the sacrifices that we see here, as well as the sacrifices of the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus, they all point to and they all picture the work that Jesus Christ did upon the cross. And I'm not going to get into those details, but you can check back into the book of Leviticus and see the different types of offerings. And I would encourage you to consider how those relate to what Jesus did for us upon the cross.

sacrifices portray and what they will be doing in those days for those who are offering them is they will be portraying the severity and the cost of sin. Could you imagine

For those times when you sin, which is pretty regular, right? That then you would be required to offer a sacrifice for that sin. You would have a very real sense, a very real understanding of what sin costs. Now, you and I as believers know

today under the New Testament, we don't have to offer sacrifices. We're forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ. And the sacrificial system is put aside for now. It will be resumed there in the millennium. But for now, we don't have to offer sacrifices. And as a result, many times we don't really recognize

We don't fully understand how serious sin is. And that's why we, you know, very often we're living in compromise, we're putting up, we're dabbling in sin, we're playing in sin. We forget how serious it is, how damaging it is, how costly it is. We need to remember that the wages of sin is death. Understand there are consequences to sin, that it brings death, it brings destruction. Even as believers in Jesus, sin dies.

has major consequences. And they're long-lasting, and oftentimes we don't see the results of it until later on. And so we think, hey, you know, nothing really happened. I didn't get struck with lightning, and so I guess I can continue this. God doesn't care about it that much. It's not that big of a deal. Well, these guys in the millennium will be reminded it is a big deal. These sacrifices remind them of what it cost Jesus to deal with sin.

I would encourage you to remember what it cost Jesus to deal with sin, to die upon the cross for us. Amazing grace, yes, but let's not continue on in sin that grace may abound. That's blasphemous. We need to turn from sin because it is serious. It is costly. It does bring destruction. Verse 16.

Thus says the Lord God, if the prince gives a gift of some of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons. It is their possession by inheritance. But if he gives a gift of some of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty.

After which it shall return to the prince, but his inheritance shall belong to his sons. It shall become theirs. Moreover, the prince shall not take any of the people's inheritance by evicting them from their property. He shall provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of my people may be scattered from his property. And so here God is giving some specific regulation in regard to the prince. Now, if you remember...

The prince was given a specific amount of property on either side of what was called the Holy District, where the Levites lived, where the temple was, where the city of Jerusalem was. On either side of that, we'll see it in a little bit. I'll give you a slide and a picture of it. But he was given this certain amount of land. And so that land was his to do with what he pleased, but he could not take anybody else's land.

In Ezekiel's day, the kings, the princes, the rulers, they would do whatever they want. They would take people's land. They would evict people and cast them off. And they would take whatever land that they wanted. But God is saying in that day, no, he will be limited to his land. If he wants to give an inheritance to his sons, great. They can have that inheritance within the land that belongs to the prince. But he can't take someone else's land and give it to his sons.

Also, it says if he gives land to one of his servants, well, then it's not a permanent change of title. It's a temporary change of title so that that servant will be able to have that piece of land until the year of liberty.

Now the year of liberty was something, again, that was dealt with in the Old Testament. It was built into the sabbatical system or the Sabbaths. And that was, you know, the seventh day is the day of rest, right? Well, also the seventh year was to be a year of rest. That is, the land was to be let to rest. They were not to plow and sow. They were just to, you know, harvest whatever the land produced, but they weren't to work the fields.

Well, then every 7 years, that is the 50th year, was to be what was called the year of Jubilee or the year of Liberty.

And again, it was to be a Sabbath year. And all debts were to be canceled. And all those who were enslaved were to be set free. All those who had exchanged property, the property was to go back to the rightful owners, the original owners. It was to be kind of a reset button for the nation of Israel so that they would not go into great debt, that there would not be great oppression. It was God's protection against those things.

And so every 50 years, there would be this year of jubilee, this year of liberty, where those things would be reset. And so what he's making reference to here is that that will be practiced there in the millennium. And so if the prince gives a piece of land to one of his servants...

Then at the year of liberty, at the year of Jubilee, that piece of land will go back to the prince because that land is given to him by God and it's not to change ownership permanently. His descendants, the prince's descendants, they could have and occupy the land and it will be theirs permanently, but it's not to go to different families or to other people who are not descendants of the prince.

And so this year of liberty, this year of jubilee will be practiced during the millennium. Now you can read a little bit more about that if you'd like in Leviticus chapter 25. And it gives the details there. Verse 19.

Now he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which faced toward the north. And there a place was situated at their extreme western end. And he said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, so that they do not bring them out to the outer court to sanctify the people."

Here in verse 19 and 20, what we have is a description of a place of cooking for the priests.

Now this I've put on the screen for you. There on the left-hand side, what you see is a little bit of the priest's chambers. We talked about that a couple weeks ago. The priest would have their place where they'd be able to eat their portion of the offerings. And there you see those things, those dark things on the ground. Those are kind of pictures of what their ovens and stoves would be like. And it's there that they would be able to cook food.

The sacrifices or their portion of the sacrifices and then they could go into their chambers and have the meal. And so they would have this place that was set up to cook all of the different sacrifices that were being offered. It was separate though, the darker gray here on the right hand side, that's the outer court.

And so the sacrifices that were offered, the priest portion of them, they were holy. They were not to be consumed by the common people. They were only for the priests. And so there's a wall there. And so the priests would be able to consume it and enjoy it within the chambers, but they wouldn't be able to take it out to the people and that the people could have something that was not set apart for them.

Now the common people also were able to partake of part of the offerings. And so if you wanted to enjoy some fellowship with God, you could bring a sacrifice. And as you offer the sacrifice, part of it goes on the altar, part of it goes to the priest, but also part of it goes to you and your family.

And so the idea is, you know, you get to have a nice barbecue and enjoy a good meal with your family before the Lord. And that's part of what the sacrificial system was about. God enjoys that. He likes for us to gather together, to break bread together and to enjoy fellowship with one another as well as him as we worship the Lord together.

And so verse 21 through 24 describes the kitchens for the common people. It says, Then he brought me out into the outer court and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court.

And in fact, in every corner of the court, there was another court. And the four corners of the court were enclosed courts, 40 cubits long and 30 wide. All four corners were the same size. There was a row of building stones all around in them, all around the four of them. And cooking hearths were made under the rows of stones all around. And he said to me, these are the kitchens where the ministers of the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people.

And so again, when the people brought the sacrifices, here on the right-hand side is the kitchens for the common people, those who were bringing their sacrifices. There was one in each corner, so four corners, four different kitchens where people could come, they could offer their sacrifice, they could take their portion, they could cook it, and then they could go to one of the chambers and have a good meal with their family in worshiping the Lord and fellowshipping together.

So here is another angle. You can see that. And then on the right-hand side, you see those pillars and then that wall. Those would be all the chambers that were along the outside wall. And so they would be able to cook their food and then go and have a table and sit down and fellowship together and enjoy a good meal. And so that is something that's going to be happening during that thousand-year reign of Christ.

Well, as we go on into chapter 47, now what we're getting a picture of is something entirely different. We've been talking about, you know, the temple and the services and the things that are going to be going on. But here in chapter 47, we begin a new subject, and that is talking about the river of life that will be coming from the temple. So look at verse 1 with me. It says,

Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east. For the front of the temple faced east, the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple south of the altar. He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east, and there was water running out on the right side.

And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured 1,000 cubits, and he brought me through the waters. The water came up to my ankles. Again, he measured 1,000 cubits and brought me through the waters. The water came up to my knees. And he measured 1,000 and brought me through. The water came up to my waist. Again, he measured 1,000, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed."

Here in verses 1 through 5, he gets a glimpse now, something we haven't seen before. There's some water in this temple courtyard, in this picture that's going on. There's water that's coming from the temple area. And it goes out of the temple area.

Through the outer gateway, and so the angel takes him out through the north gateway, he goes around the whole outside of the structure, and he sees all of this water, this river that's coming out from the temple. It's originating in the temple, and then it's coming out through the inner court, through the outer court, through the outside wall, and then beyond, and we'll talk about that in just a moment where it's going.

Here's kind of an idea of what it might look like. Of course, this is nowhere near what it will actually look like, but to give you a little bit of a visual. So there in the very top, you have the temple and then you have the blue line, which is a little bit of water coming out and then it extends on to the outer courtyard and then boom. And then as it goes out the outer wall, then it quickly expands and becomes very, very wide.

How wide? Well, he's describing it, you know, the angel takes him into the water. He takes him in 1,000 cubits and it's only up to his ankles. Now, if you remember, a cubit is about 18 inches. Probably more accurate for what is being described here is 21 inches because it talks about the cubit as well as a hand breath. And so it's a couple extra inches onto the cubit.

But 18 inches is easy calculation. So 1,000 cubits would then be equal to about 1,500 feet tall.

So he takes him about 1,500 feet into the river and it's only up to his ankles. And then he takes him another 1,500 feet and it's up to his knees. And then another 1,500 feet and then it's up to his waist. And then another 1,500 feet and finally it's so deep he can't touch the bottom. You have to swim at that depth. And so he takes him all together 4,000 cubits or 6,000 feet into this river.

And so what we're talking about here is the river exits the temple. It becomes quite massive. It's very wide. 6,000 feet is about 1.14 miles. So it's going to be about a mile wide. Except, remember, he's only gone at the very most, he's gone through half of the river. Because...

If he went this far and then it was that deep, then it would take the same amount of distance on the other side to get back to the shore on the other side. And so it's probably about 8,000 cubits wide, which is about 12,000 feet wide, which is almost two and a half miles wide.

this river becomes outside of the temple. And so there's this massive river that comes out from the temple area, from the temple itself, through the courtyards, out the outer wall, and then becomes this massive river that goes into the land. Verse 6, He said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned there, along the bank of the river were very many trees on one side and the other.

Then he said to me,

And so here in verses 6 through 9, we find that this is not just regular water. It's not tap water. It's not just water that happens to be there. But there's some significant properties to this water in that they bring healing. Now, this healing that is described is very significant understanding the geography of the land of Israel.

So here's a quick map of the land of Israel. That middle portion there that's colorful, we talked about last week. That's the holy district and the lands that's divided to specific things. The blue section is the land that's given to the prince. And so going back just a couple of verses, you know, if he gives that to his sons, they can have it. If he gives parts of it to his servants, then it goes back to the prince's family at the year of Jubilee.

But this is an overview map of the nation of Israel. Kind of at the top, you have the Sea of Galilee. And that is a sea that is fed by a couple different sources. But basically, it's the Jordan River that comes into the Sea of Galilee. And then it flows out of the Sea of Galilee. And the Jordan River continues down to the middle there. You see something called the Dead Sea. It's also known as the Salt Sea.

Now it's called the Dead Sea for one main reason. There's no life in the Dead Sea. That's why it's called the Dead Sea. Because the salt concentration is so high that there's no fish. There's not trees living along the banks or anything like that. Because it's too high of a mineral content for things to be able to survive.

Now the reason for this is the Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level.

And so water flows down into the Dead Sea, but there's nothing lower for the water to flow to. So it's kind of the end. The Jordan River begins up beyond the Sea of Galilee, up in the mountains. There's several different springs that come forth. So they flow into the Sea of Galilee. Then the Jordan River continues on, and then it goes into the Dead Sea, but it can't go anywhere. There's nowhere lower for it to go beyond the Dead Sea.

It's 1,300 feet below sea level, and so it just sits there. Now, because it's just sitting there, there's a whole lot of evaporation that's taking place. The Dead Sea area is very hot and pretty dry, and so there's a lot of evaporation. In fact, 7 million tons of water evaporate every day from the Dead Sea.

And so all of this water is coming in and a lot of it is being evaporated out. And all that's being left, all that's left when it evaporates is the salt, the minerals, those types of things that are in the water. And so the Dead Sea is very, very thick. It talks about...

it being, I think, if I remember the numbers right, it's like 25% solid compared to the ocean, which is like 5% solid. And so you know the ocean, it's a little bit easier to float than it is in regular water because of the salt content and stuff. Well, the Dead Sea is 25% solid. It's five times...

more than the ocean, five times more mineral and salt content than the ocean. And so some of you guys who are there, you can talk to Mario after the service. You know, you go, you can't sink in the Dead Sea. You just float on top of it because of all of the content of minerals and such that are in the Dead Sea.

Now, this is where the Dead Sea is. That's what it's like. There's no fish. There's no trees. There's nothing like that. But whenever we talk about the Dead Sea, you know, for most of my life, I pictured the Dead Sea. You've probably seen those ponds, right? That they just sit there and they turn all green and slimy and there's algae all over the place and they're ugly. Like you want nothing to do with them.

The Dead Sea is not called the Dead Sea because it looks terrible. It's actually quite beautiful. And I just put a couple pictures here just so you can see. This is us as we're driving. That's the Dead Sea right there, that bright blue water. It was kind of a hazy day, but you can see the bright blue water. It's, I mean, nice and clear. It looks pretty good. Here's a view from our hotel and they have kind of a little resort thing on the beach. And you can see it's very nice.

here's a sunrise in the morning and on the waters is very beautiful. It's not called the Dead Sea because it's ugly. It's called the Dead Sea because of the content of the waters makes it impossible for life to exist.

Now what's being described here in verses 6 through 9 is that this river that comes out from the temple will go into this sea, which currently is dead, and it will bring life to where there was once no life. It will heal the waters. There's going to be a transformation that takes place as the waters from the temple enter into this sea.

So here is a kind of a closer up. Again, this is the holy district. That green area is where the temple would be. And so kind of a silly picture there. But you can see the temple and then there's this river and then it goes down to the Dead Sea. It goes east to the Dead Sea and then the waters are healed and there's new life that is born. Going on to verse 10, it says, It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglum.

They will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many. The great sea, by the way, is the Mediterranean Sea. Verse 11, But its swamps and marshes will not be healed. They will be given over to salt. Along the bank of the river, on this side and on 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. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine. And so here what we have is the description of these waters that are healed. And the result will be there's going to be fishermen because there's going to be all kinds of life in the Dead Sea when there isn't right now. There's going to be fish in there and fishermen are going to be fishing there in the Dead Sea. It says from En Gedi.

You see En Gedi right there on the bottom. That was a place where David hid from Saul for a little bit. And it's right there on the banks of the Dead Sea. And from there all the way to En Eglum, which is at the very bottom tip, the south tip of the Dead Sea,

Fishermen will be there. They'll be spreading their nets. There's going to be lots of life. He describes trees on all sides as well. They're going to be producing fruit every month. It's never going to fail because the waters come from the temple. And so there's going to be this great radical healing that takes place of this Dead Sea. Now,

This is interesting and it's going to be exciting to see one day, you know, when we come back with Jesus to see these things happen. But once again, there's a spiritual lesson here in the healing of these waters that's what I want to focus on as we conclude our time in studying the Word together. Considering for a moment the spiritual lesson of what is being described here.

As I shared just a moment ago, God desires that when we come in to meet with Him, that when we leave, we're changed. That there's been a transformation that takes place. That there's an impact in our lives. That we're not just coming in and going out and nothing's different. God desires to bring life where there was once no life.

And that is what takes place when you and I are born again. Spiritually, without Christ, we're dead. We have no life, no capacity to walk with God, to worship God, to commune with God. We are spiritually dead. Paul describes it as being dead in our trespasses and sins in Ephesians chapter 2. But when we are born again, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ...

We're given spiritual life. And much like the Dead Sea will be in that day, there will be a transformation where there once was no life, now there is life for the believer. There's growth that's happening. There's God working and there's fruit that's being produced. And there's a lot of things happening and it's amazing to watch. It's amazing to be a part of. And so there's this great work that God does when we turn to Him.

And for some, perhaps here this evening, perhaps some who are listening to this, you've never had that transformation. And you need that life to be given to you by God. There's just spiritual deadness. There's no real life. There's never been a transformation. There's never been a change. And God wants to do and He can do that change and that work in your heart. And I would encourage you this evening to not leave this place the same way that you came in, but to leave changed.

to turn to Him and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. There's also a lesson here for those of us who are believers, for those who have been born again. Really, the great lesson of the Dead Sea is that we must have an outlet. We must have an outlet. We'll come back and talk more about that a little bit later. But we see here the temple waters come forth and they enter into the Dead Sea and they bring forth life.

And sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, our walk, well, even though we've been born again, there's a deadness. There's an absence of life. There's an absence of fruit. We can become stale in our walks. And what we need is this kind of healing touch. And where does the water come from? It comes from the temple. Again, it comes from that place of worship.

The worship team is going to come up and they're going to lead us in a worship song. And as they do, I want to encourage you. Let's engage our hearts with the Lord. If your walk has been dead, listen, God can bring new life. If you've never had life to begin with, God can bring you new life. It comes from the temple. It comes from the presence of God. It comes from entering in.

Engaging with Him in that relationship that He desires. And so they're going to lead us in some worship right now. And as they lead us in this first song, I want to encourage you. I ask you, I beg you, meet with the Lord. Don't just sing the words that are on the screen, but mean them with all of your heart. Use this time to really meet with God. To turn your heart to Him, to give yourself to Him completely.

to open yourself up and invite Him to do a work in you that He desires, to let Him speak to your heart, to let Him lead you and guide you. Let's take this time to really meet with Him, not just go through the motions, not just get through the song, not just wonder when service is going to be over, but let's take this time to lift up our voices, to sing, to spend this time one-on-one in the presence of our loving Savior who gave Himself for us.

He died upon the cross that we might have new life. Remember what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5? If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have gone. Behold, all things become new. Many of us tonight need that kind of transformation, that newness, that life being revived and renewed in us. And it comes at the presence of God. So let's worship Him. Spend time in His presence.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.