In making my trip to Escondido, I didn't realize I was going to be preaching. I've been on sabbatical, so I didn't bring proper clothes and I didn't bring sermons. But during my sabbatical time, one of my personal projects has been studying the book of Ezekiel. And I've been studying this more or less, at least initially, for my own spiritual edification and renewal. And one of the things that attracted me to the book of Ezekiel is that, for one, it's a major prophet. I'm of the mind, I'm of the opinion that the major prophets have been potentially neglected in the life of the church, probably because they're difficult to preach, in part just because they're such large books, large documents. And there's also such a focus upon God's judgment that I just think, in the contemporary Christian church that's a hard sell when half a book is about God's judgment and wrath and sin and there's a heaviness there. But Ezekiel in particular I've been drawn to because Ezekiel is a prophet who was raised up by God in exile. He was actually a priest. He's a priest, and his whole ministry is to a people living in exile, and therefore the whole book is to God's people in Babylon in exile, and the same time is Jeremiah, and Jeremiah is the prophet that God has raised up, and Jeremiah is ministering to those who are left in Jerusalem, in Judah. So they're contemporaries of one another, but Ezekiel seems to me, if my assessment is correct that the book largely is a closed book to God's people and I recently tested my theory I had one of my elders over for dinner one night probably one of the more mature men in our church and I did devotions on Ezekiel and he confided in me I don't know much about this book I learned more from your devotional than I've ever known about the book before and he said you should preach this so maybe that'll happen you're the first ones now it came to pass in the 30th year I'm reading from the New King James in the fourth day of the month on the fifth day of the month as I was among the captives by the river Kabar the 30th year is a reference to Ezekiel's age why would ezekiel begin a book by identifying time age i realize the esv reads a little different but why would that be important is there another book in the bible that the biblical author would begin by identifying his age and the place, in terms of time, the location. It's important because Ezekiel is a priest. If you read Numbers chapter 4, you learn that the priests begin their official ministry in the temple when they're 30. So in 597, Ezekiel is taken with the captives into Babylon, likely the same time that Daniel was taken into captivity. So Daniel and Ezekiel are contemporaries of one another. You've heard about Daniel this morning. So this hopefully will complement what you've been hearing from this pulpit already and build upon that or certainly complement that. And I want you to think for a moment about the situation. Can you imagine being Ezekiel? Can you imagine you're a priest, your father's a priest, your grandfather's a priest, And as far as back as you can go, all the way potentially to Levi, the men in your family were priests. All your training has been in preparation to serve the Lord in the temple. But you live in exile, and you have for six years. And now that you're of age 30, to begin an official capacity, everything before this is training, you're cut off from the temple. No temple, no hope of ever accessing the Jerusalem temple. Out of question. Only six years into the exile. What do you do? You want to talk about identity crisis. I've seen men who were farmers, and all of a sudden the farm fails, and they go through this process of having to find another career, and they have a tremendous identity crisis. Everything he knows involves being a priest. What's a priest do in exile? How do you celebrate the animal sacrifices when you're cut off from the altar? How do you celebrate the three major festivals where the entire nation grathers in Jerusalem before God because it was understood that the Jerusalem temple was God's heavenly throne, the footstool of his heavenly throne? How do you do this, and how do you practice your religion in exile? These are all the issues that are being pushed forward that this book is addressing. This book addresses the major issues of life in exile. That's your life. And that's why there's such impulse right now in terms of Christian nationalism and theonomy and Christian reconstructionism, because we understand existentially this is not the way it's supposed to be. We want a home. We want comfort. We want things to be better. We don't like exile. Nobody chooses exile. Nobody seeks out exile. Exile is uncomfortable. It involves suffering and being stretched and living in an environment where there's antagonism towards you and all that you value and all that you believe and everything you want to teach your children. There's opposition to everything. The basic worldview is under attack, rejected. That's what it's like for Ezekiel. And therefore, the ministry that Ezekiel has is a ministry of the Word. And how ironic that God comes to him and addresses him as son of man. We didn't read on. But the whole book, when God addresses Ezekiel, it's son of man, son of man. The only time that phrase is used in the entire Hebrew Bible is the book of Daniel in Daniel chapter 7 when Daniel has the vision and he sees the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven appearing before the ancient of days. And this Son of Man speaks and acts with divine authority and dominion as he establishes and inherits a kingdom from eternity. From the creation, the beginning of the world and the beginning of creation. And we know that that was the favored, that was the chosen self-identification of Jesus Christ. That was the phrase Jesus chose in terms of self-identifying. Son of man, son of man, son of man. Ezekiel is addressed first time in the Bible. Son of man. What's going on in this book? This book is all about the temple of God. It's all about the temple of God. It's all about the kingdom of God. It's all about the new creation. But you're familiar with the imagery and the language of kingdom. And you're familiar with the language of new creation. But in Ezekiel, those things are all present, but they're the same. To say that the mission is the kingdom is no different than to say that the mission of God is the temple. To say that the mission is the new creation is no different than to say that the mission is the kingdom or the mission is the temple. They're all one and the same. We know that from Revelations chapter 1, chapter 21 and 22. So in Ezekiel here, God's people are living in exile. God has raised up Ezekiel to speak and act with divine authority. We learn in chapters 2 and 3 that God transforms him on a personal level and makes his head as hard as stone. bringing a new, wow, did that phrase come from Ezekiel? Hard-headed? Every time somebody has referred to me as hard-headed, it's never been complimentary. Ezekiel could say, well, God made me hard-headed. And God prepared Ezekiel to look into the eyes of God's people, and his people would have antagonism toward them, toward him, And for him to be unfazed, unmoved, no fear of man whatsoever. And to speak forth, confronting them with their sin, their unbelief, because God sends Ezekiel to what God describes as a rebellious house, a rebellious people. And that's why they're living in exile. Because they're a rebellious house. They're a rebellious people. If I was going to, or you were going to contextualize this book and this opening for your children, how would you do it? Things are really bad. Things are really bad. You know what has hit me and I have wrestled with the time that I have spent in this book is that Ezekiel is ministering to God's people in exile. And they're suffering the typological covenant curses related to Deuteronomy 28, 27, Leviticus chapter 26. But you know what? There's been no change of heart. They're just as rebellious in exile as when they were in Jerusalem. I think that that's probably one of the most prominent messages of the entire book of Ezekiel, at least at this point from my understanding, my limited understanding of this book. Because over and over and over again, Ezekiel prophesies and he ministers. And the only thing that God really assures him of is that God's people are going to reject his ministry because they've rejected the Lord. And although they're living in exile, they're unrepentant. You go to chapter 8, and once again, Ezekiel has the same kind of vision. That's why it's in the plural. Visions of God. The one at the beginning of the book is not the only one. It's the first one. It's the first one. And in chapter 8, Ezekiel, God is building upon something he's already said. My people have profaned my temple through heathen abominations. That's chapter 5, but I'm sitting here thinking, because I was writing a sermon on this. I want to know what these abominations are. Well, you go further to chapter 8, and all of a sudden there's a whole other chapter explaining the abominations. And you have before one of the gates of the temple describing women weeping, worshipping a pagan god. You have 25 men standing between the altar and the holy place with their back to the holy place, worshipping the Son in the inner court. This is going on when God's people are in exile. The ones still in Jerusalem are worshipping the Son. How on earth can that be? That's what resulted in judgment. And Ezekiel is saying, God is not done with the judgment. You're in exile, but he's going to go back with Nebuchadnezzar. And this time he's not going to just do his siege and take a few people into captivity. He's going to level Jerusalem. He's going to destroy the temple. It's going to be brought to rubble. Repent, repent. The whole thing is about God's temple, God's temple, because it's through the temple that we have access to God. It's only through the temple we have access to God. Being cut off from the temple is being cut off from the presence of God. That's why it's so severe and so important. On a positive note, some of you are wondering, is this guy ever going to get to a positive note? Well, I don't want to rush it. Ezekiel had to be encouraged by the fact that this vision he has in chapter 1 is identified as the throne room of heaven. Heaven's throne room is present roaming across the plains of Babylon and God's heavenly presence appears before Ezekiel as Ezekiel is 30 years of age, approximately six years in exile, wondering, what does a priest do? And God raises him up to be a prophet, a watchman. And as he speaks, calling out and explaining the abominations, the sin that resulted in exile, and warning them that judgment is not yet done. The pride, no repentance. The pagan practices continue. The hard-heartedness continues. The reliance upon the good name of Jerusalem the sense that we're special no change of heart no change of heart Jerusalem was supposed to be a light to the nations the light of God's law the light of the gospel through the ceremonial law and the promise of the coming Messiah was supposed to go out from Jerusalem and they had profaned the temple, the land themselves can you imagine being a Jewish father and trying to explain to your children that God is faithful that God is good when their children have been cut off from all their cousins who were left in Jerusalem. Family members, businesses destroyed, homes left, 401Ks gone. Left with the clothes on your back, judgment, questioning the goodness of God and his faithfulness. Let me ask you this. If Ezekiel had not preached against sin, if he had not warned about God's wrath and judgment, would have his ministry been relevant? It would have been a lie. It would have been absolutely non-relevant. It would have been no different than the ministry if Noah had not warned against God's wrath and the judgment to come. How relevant is the Christian ministry today if there's no preaching of the law, if there's no confronting sin, the fact, the final judgment, the great white throne judgment, everybody appears, regardless of what you think of it. One of the things that is so fascinating to me and that's so encouraging, in the book of Ezekiel, after God destroys Jerusalem through the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar, and after he destroys the Jerusalem temple, at that point on, the focus is on the new covenant. The New Covenant, you're all familiar with Ezekiel chapter 37, the valley of dry bones. A dead body, if you touched a dead body, you were defiled. The imagery of a valley, the land filled with bones, bones that have been scattered by the enemy, defilement, profane. And what does God command Ezekiel to do? Organize. Speak to the dry bones. Speak to the dry bones. Speak the word of the gospel to the dry bones. Speak of the new covenant. Speak of life that only comes from Christ. That's the rest of Ezekiel. It's been interesting to me because sometimes I'm surprised by what I read in commentaries. Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48 are nothing but a description of the temple. And there's commentators that struggle with that because the description of the temple doesn't fit the reconstructed temple after the destruction of Solomon's temple. Why would it? It's not a description of a physical temple in Jerusalem. It's a description of a temple tied to the new covenant. The very covenant that Ezekiel is speaking of in the second half of the book where he actually says the same thing that Jeremiah says. God is going to write his law not on tablets of stone but on your hearts. And he's going to renew you and he's going to bring life. and therefore it should be no surprise that the Apostle John concludes the Bible with Ezekiel's description of the temple. The Bible concludes with the new Jerusalem descending. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, but there's no tabernacle on the earth in terms of a physical structure because the new Jerusalem, the new creation, is the tabernacle. As God dwells with his people and you have the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, you shall be my God. I will be your God and you'll be my people. It's a great encouragement to me because we see that this new covenant is based upon, it's established through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's established through a man, the only perfect man, the only innocent man, the only man who could stand before heaven's throne and be rendered, yes, righteous, holy, acceptable. The only man that could, God's law could recognize, yes, yes, your righteousness is perfect, satisfied by this righteousness. that man he who was innocent became sin that you and i might become the righteousness of god through the shedding of his blood through the breaking of his body he established this better covenant he is the better priest in the order of melchizedek he is the better priest who mediates a better covenant without types and shadows reverend gordon not that long ago preach through Hebrews, you understand the idea that the Jerusalem temple was a copy, it was a shadow of the heavenly reality. And therefore, just because God brought judgment against the Jerusalem temple, in no way was his kingdom or his redemptive program compromised, but rather it was executed. The same judgment that God brought against the Jerusalem temple, God would bring against his own son. The same judgment that God brought against the sin of his people demonstrated in the history of Israel, the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Jesus Christ went to that same place, And his body was broken. His blood was shed. The veil was ripped. And he said, it's finished. It's finished. Nothing left to do. And when he was challenged in John's Gospel, chapter 2, after the wedding at Canaan, and he's cleansing the temple, He said, you have turned this into, you have profaned this temple. You've turned it into a house of merchandise and sales. It should have been a house of prayer. You know where they sent up this store to sell in the vine? It was in the court of the Gentiles. They had no concern for the purpose of this, as the light going out to the Gentiles. They set this up in the court of the Gentiles, And they challenged Jesus, by what authority? By what authority do you do this? And he says, destroy this temple. Tear it down in three days. I'll raise it up. I'll raise it up. And those who are grafted into Christ by faith in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit are described by Peter as living stones. God is building the temple. God is building a temple. And you know how the glory of the Lord fills the earth? When enemies of God, people who are dead in sin and have no life and they hate God, and all of life, regardless of how much money or successful they are, to humanly speaking, is futility. And they come to a point of recognizing it's all an ash heap. and they've been lifted up from the ash heap. And in Christ, they're given life. They're remade. And through the new birth, the miracle of the new birth, regeneration, the ongoing renewal, the glory of the Lord is filling the earth through image bearers of God redeemed. The Lord is building his temple, his kingdom. And when Jesus Christ returns in power and glory, according to Matthew 25, as the Son of Man, quoting from Daniel 7, it's all revealed. It's all revealed in its glory, and all the enemies dwell outside the gates of Jerusalem. And remember now, the New Jerusalem is described as a cube because the whole thing is a temple, like the Holy of Holies. And all the earth is filled with the glory of God and transforming. That's the way back to Eden. The whole story of the Bible is the way back to the temple that Adam and Eve were cast out of. The whole story of the Bible and what you have in ezekiel is if god's people had been faithful if god's people had been obedient and you see glimpses of this with david they would have prevailed over their enemies the land would have been transformed the land of by the time the new harvest was coming in they wouldn't know what to do with the old harvest so much bounty so much even all over again on a typological level but that's not what happened with their history I think this is a great warning to us I think there's great application here to us because the ministry of the law produces apart from God's grace apart from the ministry of the gospel the ministry of the law is a ministry of condemnation and death it either produces people that are incredibly discouraged and ready to quit and give up and disillusioned or it creates people that think in some way God is pleased with them because of what they do they're proud and difficult judgmental religious very very religious maybe outwardly devoted but dead no joy not happy difficult that's the Jews but that's also our history a legalistic ministry that is based that's law based ultimately apart from the gospel produces death but when the law is preached and over and against the law which shows us our sin when the gospel is proclaimed directly, clearly, forthrightly it's a beautiful thing the dry bones start rattling the sinew and the flesh appears it's renewal there's life there's life my application this evening we live in an interesting time very interesting time there's those who are relocating and moving you have that right I've watched a number of people relocate because they want to go to a place with more favorable politics they've moved to a place without a decent church never gone well they're so invested in Babylon they're so invested in this present earthly kingdom they're so consumed with politics you would think that their hope is in America. You would think that the cross was painted with red, white, and blue. You would think the American flag was draped over Jesus as he was crucified. You would think that the star-spangled banner was played at the moment of his resurrection. It wasn't. It's repulsive. It's problematic. And just as problematic and maybe nor so problematic are those on the other set of the whole other spectrum. At least those on the right care about God's law. I'll give them that. At least they believe it. They still don't relate to it rightly because they have a false confidence in what we do. And then there's those on the left. They create, their law is the spirit of the age. Complete defilement. Profane. There's really no such thing as woke Christianity because it's not Christian. You can't reject God. You can't reject his authority. You can't reject his dominion. You can't reject his word and call whatever it is you create Christian. It's an abomination. That's exactly what the Jews were doing. This synergism with the world, where they brought in the gods of the world and the spirit of the age. Isn't it interesting that we have both? We have woke Christianity and we have Christian nationalism. As a Christian pastor, In the book of Revelation, chapter 19, when Jesus Christ returns in power and glory, he is going to destroy Babylon, and Babylon is going to burn. God's people are going to be called out, and they're going to rejoice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, the destruction of Babylon. And those who have rejected Christ, those who had their hope in Babylon, those who've been engaged with becoming rich through Babylon, those who are intoxicated with the riches, the luxuries, the life, all the things associated with Babylon are going to mourn, weep if Jesus Christ returns tonight in power and glory and everything burns up. Are you going to be weeping? Or are you going to be singing, rejoicing? There's no middle ground. You're either going to be rejoicing, so thankful, the blessed hope, my Lord and Savior has come. You know, I've got to be honest with you. I am not nearly as spiritual. I'm not nearly as sanctified as I thought I would be. In March, I turned 60. When I was a teenager, when I was in my 20s, I thought certainly by the time I get to be 60, I'm going to be a whole lot more sanctified and spiritual than I am now. I don't think I'm going to make it up between now and March. The older I get, the more profoundly I am aware of my misery. And my only hope, my only comfort, is Jesus. It's Jesus. My piety, no good. It won't impress anybody. If it does, that's not good either. I'm going to tell you a story in closing. A former pastor of this church, retired, home base was Lyndon, Washington. And he was my mentor for a number of years, Reverend Kaminga. And him and I would go to lunch and anything that he thought I needed a little help with, you know, he'd try to give me a tune-up. But over the course of time, he actually got a great laugh. He'd say, boy, I bet you got in trouble when you said that. I'd say, yeah, I did. But over the course of time, I became his pastor. And I knew he was towards the end of life. It was a Sunday night. it was not easy to get access to him. His family really protected access to him. And after the evening service, I made my way to the hospital. I walked into his room, and even though he was probably a day and a half from death, he raised up in his bed, and he pointed his finger at me and said, I've been waiting for you. I knew you would come. I knew you would come. I've been waiting for you. Smiled, I walked over to his bedside. Millie was there. He said, I've never been so weak. I've never been so weak, Pastor. I can't pray. And he started to rehearse things. He was struggling. You know what I did? You know what he wanted? He wanted Jesus. He said, just give me Jesus. Don't give me the Hattelberg. And I don't know a greater defender of the tradition than Cammington. The last words he spoke to me was, Pastor, just give me Jesus. What do you want tonight? When you leave here, you're going to run back to an idol to minister to your heart, to give you fulfillment, to give you life. You're going to drink from a cistern you've created and drink crappy water that makes you sick. Or do you want Jesus? Your flesh is an enemy. Your flesh wants you to believe. you need something other than Jesus. The spirit of the age hates Jesus. The whole world lies about Jesus. What do you believe? What's your relationship tonight with Jesus? Come to Jesus. Let him feed you. Let him wash you. Let him clothe you. Let him minister to your heart and the anxieties. Rest in Jesus. Let us pray. Father in heaven, as we have had this opportunity to read the scriptures, to reflect upon this amazing, amazing book, Lord we ask as feeble as my attempt may be to bring the word to your people may Christ be faithful and minister his word the manna from heaven may Jesus be ministered to their hearts may you give them life and renew them Lord may they recognize their comfort may they not rest in their own doing may they not rest in their lifestyle may they not rest in a tradition and forms or whatever it may be may they rest in the person of Christ the work of Christ may they be content with Jesus this we ask in Jesus name Amen Amen.