Dwelling Place of God 1987

The book of Ezekiel comes to a climax with a vision of a glorious new temple, and Ezekiel takes chapter after chapter to describe that temple at the end of the book. Now this vision was given to Ezekiel at a time when he was one of the captives in Babylon, and when there was in fact no temple in Jerusalem except some charred ruins of the temple that once had been. So why this vision? What's so important about the temple? The temple was a sign of God's presence among his people.

It was his dwelling place inside the nation. When the people listened to God and submitted to him, the temple was alive with his spirit. And when they rebelled against God, the temple became a dried-up religious museum.

And when the people turned from God, went their own way, ultimately God's judgment fell on the nation, and the sign, the absolute sign that his judgment had not fallen was that the temple was destroyed. This happens more than once. So now here's Ezekiel, a captive in Babylon, who receives a vision of a glorious new temple in the midst of a restored Israel.

And after spending chapters talking about the so many cubits this way and so many cubits that way and the chambers and the stairs and this courtyard and that courtyard, he ends by describing a very unusual thing. He describes a building, and then he describes coming up at the threshold of the temple, a spring of water, and the water runs down over the temple steps, out on the south side of the great altar, and then eastward again to the gate of the great prince, which faces east. The water then goes out underneath that gate, and it's a very small stream, a small trickle, but the farther it goes away from the temple, the deeper it becomes, until it becomes a mighty river, as a sign that the life of God, when it first leaves his dwelling place on earth, looks very inconsequential, but it becomes a mighty power in the land, a river of life for the whole earth.

Multitudes of people on the earth today have a cry in their hearts to find such a place. They're looking for a place, the dwelling place of God, where they can in some way see his glory and hear his voice and be changed by his power. Multitudes in the metro Detroit area are walking around with a cry which was in them from before their birth.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. But where is that? Where can I find the living God? Where can I find a place where his glory is revealed and his word is clear? Ezekiel's vision began to have its fulfillment when Jesus appeared on the scene. He was the dwelling place of God on the earth.

When people looked at him, they were looking at the glory of God manifested, even though he was just an ordinary human being, no halo around his head, didn't look supernatural. He was a true man. Yet he said, if I, by the finger of God, cast out demons, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you.

The words coming out of Jesus mouth were words straight from the heart of God. And the light that flowed out of his hands as signs of the kingdom were the life of God. Now, Jesus.

Was also the fulfillment of that vision in that he was the one who became that spring of water coming up at the threshold. Which ran down over the steps, the great altar around which that stream ran was his death and resurrection, the death and resurrection of Jesus shoots that stream eastward toward the east gate, the gate of the great prince, which is Pentecost out through the gate into the world. And wherever that river is flowing, there is the dwelling place of God on this earth.

Now, with Jesus, the dwelling place of God on earth switches from a temple of stone. To a temple of flesh and blood, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And when he did that, when he raised was raised from the dead as the first born of the new creation, the temple containing the presence of God suddenly expanded because it was not just Jesus' resurrection body now, but Jesus immediately gathers around him.

A body of believers, first thing he does the night of his resurrection, he gathers his disciples around them, breathes on them, says, receive the Holy Spirit, if you retain this, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. And now he becomes the cornerstone and on him are built living stones becoming a holy habitation for the spirit of God, people, men and women and young people who are filled with the resurrection life of Jesus.

This is described in some detail in the book of Ephesians, but I'd like to just have I'm going to read a few verses from chapter two, verse 19 to start. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God through the spirit in the spirit. And so what we have is an assembly of people gathered together who become his dwelling place built on the cornerstone of Jesus, a temple, the fulfillment of Ezekiel's temple, really his vision where people can find God and hear him speak and can be changed by his power.

I can still remember the night almost 32 years ago when Gene and I walked into a gathering of Pennsylvania Dutchmen who were held together by their love for Jesus. And the strong impression was God is in this place, God is among these people, crazy things are going on here, but this is the dwelling place. Now, this gathering here is an extension of that.

This is meant and ordained by God to be. We, such as we are, are to be that temple. Both when we gather like this to break bread and when we go forth tomorrow and through the week to the places where God puts us, both scattered and gathered, we are to be the temple of God, a place where people who are crying out in their hearts for the temple, trying to find them, may be touched by the life of God.

We, together with brothers and sisters in the body of Christ worldwide, are to be the fulfillment of Ezekiel's vision, the place where people can hear God speak, see his glory and be changed by his power. To be the fulfillment of that vision, to respond to that call from God as a congregation, we have to answer the call of the spirit and yield to the spirit in three specific areas. The dwelling place of God is where the wall is down between us.

The dwelling place of God is where the word is distinct among us. The dwelling place of God is where the work is getting done by us. We are the dwelling place of God when the wall is down, when the word is distinct and when the work is getting done, the dwelling place of God is where the wall is down between us.

Ephesians 2, 13, But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that he may create in himself one new man in place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near or through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father, Jesus, by his death, by the shedding of his blood on that cross, broke down the wall, which was, first of all, a wall of guilt that separated us from God so that it's now possible for us to come into his presence.

But that same wall of guilt that separates us from God has also been at the same time and always is a wall of hostility that separates Jew from Gentile, black from white, male from female, rich from poor and every other barrier that our sin raises up between us. The most convincing proof that God has made his dwelling place among us is that the wall is down. In two respects, first of all, that it's down between us and God so that we can in fact come into his presence and worship him and praise him and thank him and intercede for each other, but also that the wall is down between us.

If the wall is down between us and God, it's got to be down between us so that there is no division, no division, holy, heavenly, supernatural, glorious unity around Jesus and around Jesus only, nothing else holding us together, just Jesus. In place of the two, one new man. In place of Jew and Gentile, one new man.

In place of black and white, one new man. In place of male and female, one new man. In place of Catholic and Protestant, urban and suburban, Democrat and Republican, right-winger and left-winger, on and on and on and on, one new man.

For he is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end, thereby bringing the hostility to an end by his death on that cross, by his shedding of the blood. Jesus wipes away the wall between us and God and also the wall between man and man. He wipes it away.

That's a fact. That's something which is already done. We don't do it.

He did it. But we enter into it. When we enter into that, when we submit to that and when we live that way and practice that so that we allow the blood of the Lamb to wipe away all walls between us and God and between man and man, all walls, so there are no walls, then God's spirit moves, his power is felt, and lives are changed.

The dwelling place of God is where the word is distinct. Reading from First Corinthians 14, a passage that Peter read earlier today, beginning at verse 20. Brethren, do not be children in your thinking, be bathed in evil, but in thinking, be mature in the law.

It is written by the men of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners. I will speak to this people and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus tongues are assigned not for believers, but for unbelievers, a sign of judgment.

While prophecy is not for unbelievers, but for believers, if therefore the whole church assembles and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, they will. Will they not say that you're mad? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all the secrets of his heart are disclosed.

And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you to prophesy, as Peter said earlier, is to speak a word. That's clear, distinct and understandable, and that has come from God, it's not necessarily foretelling the future, it may be something about the future or the past or the present, but it's a word that comes from God and that word is meant to come forth from all of us. And when I'm alone, I often pray in tongues.

I worship God in tongues when I'm in the assembly or when I'm talking to somebody on Verner Highway, I speak in English. And if I were Marcus Rodriguez, I'd speak in Spanish, I'd speak a word that somebody can understand. Nor is it a matter of just quoting scripture.

We need to know the scripture and it's good to quote it, but Satan quotes it, too. It has to be living scripture. It can't be just repeated spiritual platitudes, it has to be authentic, it has to be part of our life, it has to come from our hearts.

And when it is, it's prophecy, it's a word from God, and when we as a flock, as a congregation, not just one or two of us, but all of us are giving forth such a word, the secrets of hearts will be revealed, people will be convicted and called to account, they will fall on their faces and declare that God is indeed among us. The dwelling place of God is where the work is getting done by us. John, chapter nine, verse one, as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest.

We must work the works of him who sent me while in his day, night comes when no one can work. Now, let's get it clear right off the bat, salvation is a gift. It's a gift from God, it's a finished work, we don't earn it, we don't buy it, we don't deserve it, it's a gift paid for by God, God did it.

All we have to do is look to the cross. And see the blood of the Lamb shed for us and repenting of our sins, receive that forgiveness. And if there's anybody in this gathering who hasn't done that yet or needs to get back to that today, today, right now, don't leave this place until you come down to the rail and let somebody pray with you.

But. Once we've received salvation as a gift and have joined ourselves or been joined by the grace of God to the purposes of his kingdom and have become sons and daughters of that kingdom, we are immediately put to work and we must work the works of him who sent me while in his day. My father worketh here hitherto and I work.

First thing Jesus does when he rises from the dead. He's put his disciples to work. Reading from John chapter 20, verse 19, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.

Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands in his side, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Now, notice this, it doesn't stop there, they don't have a praise meeting that goes on for five years.

The praise meeting immediately is translated into work. And where it isn't translated into work, it is no longer praise, it becomes fraud. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you.

As the father sent me, so send I you. I'm putting it to work. Come on.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these fish? Lord, you know that I love you, I'm praising you all the time. Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Now, I know some of you, I've had a number of discussions in the last month, you know, where people say, yeah, but that really, I'm burned out.

I'm burned out. You guys are making me work too hard and I'm burned out. A couple of things to say, if we burn out, it's almost because we're working out of our flesh instead of out of the spirit.

You can't burn out when you're drawing your life from the spirit. You can't. But if you should burn out, working for the Lord or entering into his work, praise God, it's far better than to rot.

You know, we need to praise God more than we do. And my own life was changed. I mentioned that incident 32 years ago.

And shortly after that, I received the Holy Spirit, changed my life. Thank God for the charismatic movement. For the charismatic movement is to carry us into the field, into the battlefield, not to stay in a charismatic kindergarten for the rest of our days, is to get out there and do what we're called to do.

Now, the work is done by God. He's the one who opens the blind eye. He's the one who opens the deaf ear, raises the dead, draws them to his son.

But we are to be so yielded to him that all those things are done through us. Amen. Just as surely as they were done through our Lord in the days of his flesh.

You did not choose me, I chose you and ordained you, not that you should sit there and praise me forever, but praise me by getting out there that you should go. Praise me by going and bearing fruit, fruit that will remain. Bring them from darkness to light, bring them from Satan to God, bring them from death to life by the power of the word which I have placed within you.

Now, in the sight of men, this gathering right here doesn't look like much. In any way, numerically or otherwise. None of us here are movie stars.

And none of us here probably is a genius, but inside of God, this is a holy. Oh, this is a living part of his living body on this earth. This is Ezekiel's temple.

This is the place where people will find God, hear his voice, see his glory and be changed forever by his death on the cross, by his rising from the dead and by his pouring out of his spirit upon us afresh. Now, Jesus is commanding us to be a people where the wall is down, where the word is distinct and where the work is getting done. Those who obey that command are one man, male and female in Christ.

They are the dwelling place of God on this earth. Let's just wait upon God. Yeah.