Now this morning we have to bring these studies in Ezekiel to a
close, and I think we cannot do better than come right to the end of
the book itself. The last clause of this book reads like this: "And
the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is There."
We might just put alongside of that some words from Ephesians
chapter 2, verses 19 to 22: "So then ye are no more strangers and
sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the
household of God being built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone, in Whom
each several building, fitly framed together groweth into a holy
temple in the Lord, in Whom ye also are builded together for a
habitation of God in the Spirit."
Chapter 3, verse 17: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith; to the end that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be
strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of
God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all
generations for ever and ever."
"And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is
There."
The end to which all God's works move is this End.
Everything that we have in these prophecies of Ezekiel points to
the one end, but that is also true of the whole Bible. The
whole Bible moves toward one end, it is the end for which
all things were created, and that is: the presence of God in
fullness and in finality. The purpose of God is that He
shall fill all things. So then the end is: "The Lord
is There."
Now, there is one particular thing which is [needed for] this end;
it is the one thing which is necessary if that end is to be
reached:
God Must be able to Commit Himself to Man without
Fear.
That is what God wanted to do at the beginning. It is
perfectly clear in the beginning of the book of Genesis that God
wanted to commit Himself to man. He wanted to be with man.
He wanted to trust man. He wanted to put all His interests
into the hands of man. In a word: God wanted to trust Himself
to man. That is the absolute essential for God's end. That
is what the Lord Jesus wanted to do, but He found that He could
not do it.
You are familiar with the words in John chapter 2, at verse 23:
"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast,
many believed on His name, beholding His signs which He did, but
Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for that He knew all men,
because He needed not that anyone should bear witness concerning
man, for He Himself knew what was in man." Jesus found that He
could not commit Himself to man. Here is God present in His Son,
but unable to commit Himself to man, therefore He cannot remain
with man. He cannot be with man in fullness and in finality. He
will have to create the conditions which are suitable to Himself.
God will have to create the conditions which will not involve
Him in man's disordered state. This may explain a great deal. This
may explain God's reserve and God's delays. There is very much
desire and prayer that God will commit Himself. For instance,
there is prayer all over the world for revival; that has been
going on for years! Why does God delay? It may be that He is not
able to commit Himself to men. He is not able to involve Himself
with men and men's work.
Whether that be true or not in this particular connection, it is
true as an established principle with God. He will not
commit Himself to what is of man. He demands the conditions which
are suitable to Himself. It would be dangerous to God Himself to
commit Himself to man. From the beginning satan has always
tried to put man in God's way. Man was made for this very purpose:
that God should be with him, but satan captured man and he has
made man the greatest hindrance to God. Man, as he is, now
defeats God's purpose, therefore God cannot commit Himself to that
kind of man. Jesus saw that it was man that made it dangerous for
Him to commit Himself. He knew what was in man. He needed
not that anyone should tell Him what was in man, therefore He
could not and would not commit Himself. That is why just at that
very point the whole question of new birth arose. There ought not
to be a division between chapters 2 and 3 of the gospel by John,
it ought to run straight on. Jesus would not commit Himself to
man, therefore you must be born anew! I advise you to just blot
out that number 3 at the chapter and take no notice of it, it
ought to follow right through. There is the man to whom Jesus will
not commit Himself, therefore he must be born from
above.
So the great question that is now before us is this:
To What will God Commit Himself?
The whole book of Ezekiel is the answer
to that question. In the first place, the answer is given in a
negative way. God will not commit Himself to that in
which satan has a place. Satan had gained a place in the nation of
Israel and in the nations outside, therefore the glory is removed
and it goes right outside. God will not commit Himself to
that in which satan has a place. Satan and his works must be
destroyed before God will commit Himself. The Son of God was
manifested to destroy the works of the devil, but that was not an
end in itself. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil
in order to make way for God, in order that God should have His
place and reach His End. God will not commit Himself to
that which has not been judged in righteousness.
Now you'll recall all that we have said about brass in these
prophecies: the brass in the cherubim, the brass in the Man of
brass, the brass of the great altar. God will not commit
Himself to anything that has not been judged in
righteousness. Until the nation has been judged in righteousness,
God will not commit Himself. The same applies to the nations, so
the largest section of these prophecies has to do with the
judgment of the nation and of the nations. Until that has
been done, you cannot reach this point where: "The Lord is There".
That is the negative side; there is the positive side or answer to
our question.
To what will God commit Himself? The positive answer has several aspects. It is firstly: where
Christ is, on the other side of judgment. The Man in the Throne
represents Christ as on the other side of judgment. There is a
rainbow around that Throne. That rainbow is the symbol of
redemption. In the book of the Revelation, it is represented by
the Lamb in the Throne. The Lamb is the Man and the Man is
the Lamb. He is there as on the other side of judgment, and that
is the first thing related to God committing Himself. I repeat,
that God will commit Himself where Christ is on the other side of
judgment - that is, where all judgment has been fulfilled. You
must study that with your New Testament in your hands.
When Jesus went to His baptism, He said to John the Baptist: "Suffer
it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness." His baptism was, as we know, a type of His Cross.
Therefore, baptism and the Cross represent the fulfillment of all
righteousness - that is, through judgment: the death of one man
and the putting of a New Man beyond the reach of judgment. That is
where we are supposed to be by faith in Jesus Christ. That is
where the Church is in the beginning of the letter to the
Ephesians, it is seated together with Him in the heavenlies. That
Church is seen as on the other side of judgment; it has been
raised together with Him. For that Church, all judgment is
fulfilled. That is the first thing that makes way for glory in the
Church - all judgment fulfilled; that makes the Way for God to
commit Himself. There are other aspects of that, it is where
Christ is Glorified.
God will commit Himself where Christ is glorified. You
notice in John 7 it is Jesus glorified and the Spirit given. The
giving of the Spirit is God committing Himself, and He commits
Himself on the ground of Jesus being glorified. Where Jesus is
glorified, God commits Himself; where man is glorified, God holds
back. No flesh shall glory in His presence. It is only where Jesus
is glorified that God will commit Himself. Here is a law of God.
If God is to give Himself by His Spirit, then Jesus must be
glorified. When the glorifying of the Lord Jesus is our only
object, then the Father will come in by the Spirit.
Then there is this third thing: God will commit Himself
where Jesus is enthroned in government. Where this Man is
on the Throne and is really governing everything, then God will
commit Himself. Where all the authority committed to His Son is
recognised and accepted, there God will commit Himself. Firstly
where the authority of satan has been destroyed, where it is true:
"Now is the prince of this world cast out", and then where the
authority of man is removed - where every other kind of
authority but the authority of God's Son is put away. If we
come in with authority, then God stands back. Our
authority must get out of God's way and God waits for that before
He commits Himself.
And then there is a fourth thing: God commits Himself
where all is formed "according to Christ" where everything takes
its measure from Christ.
You see, these things are all in this
book of Ezekiel. We have been just looking at the House. We have
not studied it in any detail, but what we do know about it
is that everything was measured by the Man of brass. The least
little thing had its measurement given to it. Everything
took its measure from the Man. That is the place to which God will
commit Himself, where everything takes its measure from Christ.
And then just one more thing: God will commit Himself
where the Cross governs everything. We saw how the altar governed
everything within and without. So, where the Cross governs
everything, God will commit Himself. The Lord Jesus is the great
example of all this. God committed Himself to His Son. It was
there at His baptism that God committed Himself to Jesus, "The
heavens were opened and the Spirit descended upon Him". We have
said that the giving of the Spirit is God committing Himself, so
there, God committed Himself to Jesus. It says that God does not
give His Spirit by measure to Jesus; that is, He gives His Spirit
fully, without any reserve, to Jesus. He wholly commits
Himself to Him. That was done at His baptism. In type it was by
His Cross. When the meaning of the Cross has been laid down and
established, then God commits Himself. That is God's
ground.
Then, God committed Himself to Jesus by His close walk with the
Father. You notice how Jesus measured everything according
to heaven. We have so often pointed this out, Jesus would never be
governed by the mind of man - He would never do anything, say
anything, or go anywhere at the advice of man. He was all the time
pushing away from Him the suggestions of men and women. He did
that with regard to satan, He did it with regard to everything. He
pushed back
everything that would come from man. He would only take
His way and His words and His works from the Father. He measured
everything according to Heaven. His was the closest
walk with heaven. For every detail in His life, He took the
government of heaven. Therefore, the Father committed Himself to
the Son.
And then by His perfecting. He said: "I must work today and
tomorrow, and the third day I must be perfected". We are told that
He was made perfect through suffering. Of course, we understand
that this was not moral perfecting, it was not the making perfect
of His nature, it was bringing Him to fullness, the
fullness of the will of God. He was walking every day in the will
of God, He said: "Lo, I come to do Thy Will" but the
Will of God was making ever greater demands upon Him until, at
last, the will of God requires that He should drink the cup, that
He should go through Gethsemane to the Cross. He was being made
perfect or complete as to the will of God and when He was made
perfect as to the will of God, God fully committed Himself to Him.
God gave Him that fullness for the Church. "God gave unto Him the
Name that is above every name." God committed Himself to
Him. I think that is all quite clear. Jesus is the Great Example!
Now we bring this study to a close. We do so by noting three
necessities. For this end of God to be fully and finally reached,
three things are necessary. The Church must have these three
things.
First of all, a clear apprehension of God's purpose. It
is absolutely necessary that the Church sees what God's
purpose is. That is why Paul prayed that great prayer for "a
spirit of wisdom and revelation," that the Church might have "the
eyes of (its) heart enlightened." It is absolutely
necessary that we have a clear apprehension of God's purpose, that
purpose being that God shall come to fullness in present
residence in the Church, that the Church should be the fullness
of Him "that filleth all in all", that God should have a full
place in the Church. That is the first necessity, that we should
see that, and that we should be governed by that vision, so that
it is a matter of spiritual vision or spiritual
understanding; a
revelation of God's purpose concerning the Church. This is
why we read those scriptures at the beginning that the Church
should be a habitation of God through the Spirit, that
God should be resident there and that it should be said, "The
Lord is There," - a habitation of God. Unto that, we must see
what God's purpose is.
The second thing is a clear apprehension of God's Way to
His End. [break in audio] Therefore, it is essential
that the Church has a clear apprehension of the Cross. These three
things are essential to the end that God shall be there!
Now, there are two aspects of those three things: there is the
present progressive and the future perfect. Just at this present,
this is not all fully true, and yet, what is in the letter to the
Ephesians has a present application. At present, this is only
progressively true. That means that the Lord is more, or less
present, as these things are true. Where there is a clear
apprehension of His purpose, where there is a clear apprehension
of His House, where there is a clear apprehension of the Cross,
there you will find most of the Lord! At present, these things
determine the measure in which the Lord is present, but the time
is coming when these things will be complete, when He shall come
to be glorified in His saints. Then He will be in His Church in
fullness. Well, you notice that at the end of Ezekiel, it is the
city that is mentioned: "The Lord is There". The city
represents the vessel in and through which God is present in
government. It is that in which God is present in government.
Well, we have given a broad outline. We have tried to make these
lines as clear as possible, but comprehended in this outline there
is a tremendous amount, and as I pass it over to you, I do say to
you, go away and pray over it. Do not just take it as some Bible
study; I have told you that I am not interested in that.
Everything must have spiritual and practical value. So I say: pray
over it, think over it, and ask the Lord to make it all true where
you are.