Eternal Hope

We're going to be looking at our last session on Ezekiel today, number six, and I really hope that you have been enjoying it. Thank you to the visitors that have been coming to take part in it and to come and listen. We want to invite you back. You are so welcome here. And, yeah, my prayer is also that we, through this, all of us have discovered something new, something surprising about our God from this wonderfully complex, fascinating, eccentric book that we find in the Bible.

We've been sort of walking through six main themes in the book of Ezekiel. We saw the calling of Ezekiel in chapters one through to three, and then a lot of chapters on judgment on Israel, chapters 25 to 32, the judgment on the nations. God speaking to the nations about judging them for loving the fact that Israel were judged. We saw the hinge chapter of chapter 33 where the news of Jerusalem and Israel's fall finally happens. Last week, we looked at the restoration that happens, how God promises new life, new hearts to the people of Israel that there will come a day where they will all love God with their entire lives.

Everything about them will be made new. And then today, we're looking at the final chapters, chapters 40 through to 48, which talk about an eternal hope. You may have also picked up over the six weeks that our title of this series has been "The God Who Wants You to Know Him". I hope you've discovered why I've called it that because it is the phrase that we hear again and again and again through the book of Ezekiel, isn't it? The God who wants you to know Him.

These things will happen. God keeps saying, "So that you may know that I am the Lord your God." These things are happening to the nations so that they may know that I am the Lord God. Time and again, we see how God explains that this is so that you will know me. Well, today, we hear it for one last time as we turn to our final passage.

And it's a little bit perhaps confusing because we're going to be looking at chapter 39 as we deal with, I guess, the summary of chapters 40 through to 48, but there's a reason to it. We find chapter 39, this passage we look at just before heading into chapter 40. So it's a good summary statement, actually, like a great introductory sentence in a paragraph. It explains what's going to happen. So turn with me to Ezekiel 39, and we're gonna read from verse 21.

Ezekiel 39:21. God says, "And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from them.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. And I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations.

Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore, and I will not hide my face anymore from them when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God." So far, our reading. If you are to take your Bible and you start flipping through it quickly through chapters 40 through to 48, you'll notice in the sort of the chapter headings there, just a lot of talk about a temple. This is eight chapters of temple that we find here.

Intricate, meticulous description of a vision that Ezekiel sees, and there's several here, but visions that Ezekiel sees of an incredible temple that has been built. And there's a guided tour of this temple. An angel of the Lord with a measuring tape walks through the temple and says, "This is how high it will be. This is how wide it will be.

This is where the priest will live. This is where the worshippers will eat," etcetera, etcetera, for eight chapters. There's this description of a temple. Well, this is on the back of what we saw last week, which is still sort of talking about a restoration that is happening. And in fact, if you read these chapters, you see that there are these recurring themes that are coming through again of what God has done at, in chapter 37, for example, when God raises the skeleton army and He breathes into them and they become living beings.

Right? They grow back flesh and organs and muscles and stuff like that. Chapter 36 is where God speaks of His people having a heart of stone, but He reaches into their bodies, pulling out this heart of stone and replacing it with a living, fleshly heart. His people are being recreated, and they will love God fully like they have never loved Him before. But in these last chapters, even though they are repeating the same sort of themes, there's this eternal perspective that comes through now.

We see it in our passage here, but there's words like "forever" being used now. "Never again" being used. And so there's this element that this is not just limited. This is going to last. This is going to last.

And because these words and these images are related to eternity, it is no wonder that the Jews of Jesus' time and the Jewish and Christian scholars after have thought of Ezekiel chapters 40 through to 48 as eschatological, which is a big word meaning the theology of the end, of end times. And so we see previously God had warned Israel. God had warned constantly that Jerusalem's great temple was going to be destroyed if they did not return to Him, if they did not leave their idols, if they did not worship God as the only God, they would lose the temple of Solomon, the dwelling place of God on earth. Again and again, Ezekiel warns the people to turn back, but they don't.

And like we said in chapter 33, they receive the horrible news that God has allowed Jerusalem and the temple to be destroyed. But here in chapters 40 to 48, we see a new temple created. A new temple is made. Previously, we saw God's people taken from their land in the exile, but now we see them living in the land. Previously, we saw God's people being dominated by shepherd kings who are terrible.

Instead of feeding and nurturing the flock, they're feasting off the sheep. God promises here in these chapters that He will send a new shepherd king in the line of David. And the whole time, while these themes are being reinforced, reintroduced, this idea of "forever" is coming to us. Forever. Never again. Forever.

The temple, if you are to read it, and I suggest you do, although it can get a little bit tedious at times with the cubits and all that sort of stuff, the measuring sticks and so on, but you get this idea that this temple has actually never been built by human hands. It's just there. God's created it.

There's no expression of "I'll get some of my people to create it" or God has created this, designed this temple. So you have this idea that the temple is a divine creation. And as you look at all the details of this temple, some amazing sort of details come out. Firstly, this temple is massive. It is a huge place.

It represents in its architecture the transcendence of God, the holiness, the majesty of God. He is huge, and the dwelling place for Him should be huge. Then there are these fascinating bits of details where there are places for the priests to live, places for them to be fed and looked after and so on. So there's this idea of worshippers and servants of God being allowed to worship freely. They don't have these distractions of looking after themselves physically.

Everything is there for them to keep worshipping God. The temple is massive. And then we finally see that all of this is created in a way where there is a, in chapter 47, a river of life that comes from this temple. This river that just fills the land, and there is life that just explodes from it. And all the while, you're thinking, as you're reading this, and I'm sure the Jews who first read this, they're thinking, this is not Solomon's temple.

And the Jews who came after this time who, sort of with king Zerubbabel, built a kind of a temple, a little tiny temple that everyone cried when they saw it because it was so small compared to the big Solomon temple. They're reading this and they're saying, "This is not what this temple is looking like. What's going on?" Well, I think this temple is a picture of the restoration, eternal restoration that God is bringing for His people. A restoration that brings eternal hope and eternal peace.

And so this chapter 39, I think, gives us a great little summary of what these chapters are about. Here we see a snapshot of the great themes again of Ezekiel coming together and God saying, "Guys, it's going to be okay." And I wanna point out just two things, two major aspects in the summary passage that I think relates to the theme of eternal hope in this last sermon on Ezekiel. Firstly, we see a world that is judged along with an enemy king. Have a look in verse 21, rather, of Ezekiel 39.

Verse 21. God says, "I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed and my hand that I have laid on them. The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward." Again, just before we get to this passage, chapters 38 and 39 tell a story of another vision that Ezekiel has of a king. And this king is said have a look at chapter 38, verses one and two.

"The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." So this is a country or a, yeah, a country called Magog, and he is chief prince or, in other words, king of a place or a nation called Meshech and Tubal. Through these chapters, 38 and 39, we see Israel who are now dwelling safely in the land. They've returned from the exile safely in the land, enjoying peace.

But according to these opening verses, a powerful king rises up to attack God's people again. It's sort of like what happened with the Babylonian empire. But as these chapters unfold, we see how God vindicates His holiness, and He mentions that in our passage as well. He vindicates His name by absolutely hammering these invaders. Seven nations joined Gog.

Seven nations. It's not just Meshech and Tubal. Seven other nations joined Gog in attacking God's people in raising up an army to destroy them. Seven nations against one, but it's not Israel that does the fighting. Gog and his armies are obliterated.

It is so bad that the vision says that the bodies are littered so high, and there's so many of them that the wild beasts of the field and the vultures of the air live off the bodies for seven months. The destruction is so bad that the armies, their weaponry lying on the ground is so vast that the people of the land, God's people, live off the wood of those weapons for seven years as firewood. Seven years of firewood. That is a lot of wood. That is how immense this army was that is destroyed by God.

Now we know historically that there's never been a threat like that against God's people, Israel. We also don't recognise the ancient king by this name, Gog. And so the Jews of Jesus' time, the Christian theologians over the years have seen Gog as an eschatological army or enemy. But because it is end times related, it also means there is about a hundred thousand different interpretations. We have many different positions in our church here at Open House.

It's one of the beautiful things I think about our church here because we have such a diverse group of people, people from all different Christian backgrounds and non-Christian backgrounds. But trust me, as a pastor, it's also one of the most frustrating things. Because whatever I say today, someone will say to me, "I don't think you had it right." But with all respect, there are people that will say that Gog and Magog are a literal physical army that will rise up to destroy physical Israel. But I want to put a word of caution out there, and it should make us think very carefully about how quickly and how confidently we ascribe associations, physical associations with anyone. Because over two thousand years, and the church has been around that long, over two thousand years, nearly every generation thought that they have identified who these armies are.

Some notable contenders have been in the thirteenth century, in the 1200s, Genghis Khan and the rampaging Mongols. Remember them? They were terrifying. And they just kept getting bigger, and they kept walking from the East to the West. Right?

You think, "Oh, that that can fit the bill," but it wasn't there. In the seventeenth century, in the 1600s, people thought Gog is the pope, and as he led the Holy Roman Empire of the day, they thought this is Gog and Magog. Others in that century thought it might be the Turks and the Ottoman Empire. In the nineteenth century, Russia was thought to be this army. The funny thing is "chief prince" is the word in Hebrew, "rosh", which sounds like Russia.

And Meshech and Tubal, the nation that he represented, sounds like Moscow and Tobolsk. So it's obviously them, but it wasn't them. In the twentieth century, who can forget the German empire? And there's a nation that's mentioned as one of the seven, Gomer, and that sounds like German, but it wasn't them. There's even an accusation that it may have been the Welsh. Lisa.

I always thought you were shady. As we can see, very, very smart people in the past have gotten it wrong. Very, very watchful people have gotten it wrong. And so I think we should probably hold these things a little bit loosely and not be too stubborn about it. We can talk about it, and I'm sure we will talk about it.

But the passage we're studying here in chapter 39 comes at the end of all of this, and this is the great thing. This is what we really should draw from it. There's some great perspectives here. There are seven nations. Right?

Seven nations that rise up against God's people. And we know that the numerology of seven is significant in the Bible. It means perfection. Right? It means fullness.

That is why God is referred to as seven, seven, seven. He is the fullness of everything. Seven nations means many nations, a perfect amount. This is a terrifying enemy has set itself up against God's people. I don't believe this is a literal enemy nation that will rise up with physical armies that will attack a literal physical place like Jerusalem.

One of the reasons is, do we think that we'll still be fighting with wooden weapons? We have guns now and missiles. Are we gonna somehow just go back to axes and clubs? This is Satan and all his forces, whether human or supernatural, waging war and assaults against God's people. It represents the seven nations, the very serious threat.

He is the perfect enemy, if you can call him that, that exists against God's chosen holy people, the church. But our passage, if you were to look at it again, shows these things, that God is in control. He doesn't panic. He lets the nations come to him, and when they're in the open on the plain, He just destroys them. We see that God wins this battle.

He's going to win irrespective of His people. They're sort of just milking the cows and bringing in the hay and all that sort of stuff. God is the warrior on their behalf. Thirdly, those who oppose God are utterly destroyed. They are devastated.

This perfect enemy is annihilated so much so that there is nothing left. There is not a survivor that runs away from this fight. And because there are no survivors, God says there's no more threat again. Perfect peace. And so to me, this represents the final judgment.

We know from 1 Corinthians 15 it says that the final enemy is sin and death. We know from Revelation that Satan himself is bound to hell and can never escape. There are no survivors. There are no more enemies after this battle. Never again will anyone threaten God's chosen people.

And then lastly, the simple thing is that those who trust in God are safe. God's people have to do nothing but know that the Lord is their God. See it in verse 22 of our passage. "The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward." Never again will they doubt.

But then we get to our second and our final reflection. So that is the first thing: we see there's a world, there are nations, there are enemies against God that are judged. There's an enemy king that is completely destroyed. But then we see in the final chapters, and I guess that's really the focus of 40 through to 48, but it's also alluded to in verse 26 of our passage. It says that they, this is Israel, "shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practised against me when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid.

When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God." Last half of 28, "I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore." Verse 29 says, "I will pour out my spirit upon them. Never again will I hide my face."

They will all know me when I pour out my spirit on them. This is all of God's people. This is the full number of the elect drawn together from across all the nations. Wherever they are scattered, wherever they are found, across all generations, across all eras of mankind. None of them are still among the nations anymore.

They have all been brought back home. But the amazing thing is that their shame and the knowledge of their treachery and of their guilt and of their shame disappears in light of the glory and the majesty and the peace that they share in for all eternity. Sin is not remembered anymore. Rebellion doesn't exist. The idea doesn't even exist.

It evaporates like mist as God's people dwell with Him. And this is where chapters 40 through to 48 come in. This is what I think chapter 39 is starting to introduce, this new state of existence that God's people will experience. What we see in these final chapters is there's a new temple, there is a new land, and there is a new city. And this is emphasised powerfully in chapter 47 where we see this amazing temple that God has built with this source of water.

There is a river that comes out from its foundations, and it flows down the mountain, and it runs across countries right to the sea. This is not a little stream that sort of, you know, those little pitiful streams that just disappear. It's a sort of marshy, swampy land. This is a river. Ezekiel is made to walk through it, and he says up at certain points, he can cross it, and then there's just parts where it is massive.

You cannot cross. It is too big. It's a mighty river. And along this mighty river, it says there are trees that are huge, and they bear fruit. And these fruits are fruitful in season and out of season.

They are always bearing apples and oranges and bananas. And on the river banks, the animals come. They drink from it. And as this river gets to the river mouth at the sea where it meets the sea, there are fish. There are just so many fish where this river meets the ocean.

And verse 9, I mean, you can have a look, verse 9 of chapter 47. Just a wonderful little summary statement after all of this. It says, "And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh."

So everything will live where the river goes. This is a life-giving river from the temple. And again, there are people that believe that at one point, there will be a new physical temple literally built in Jerusalem on top of where the old temple stood, even though there's a massive mosque there, the Dome of the Rock now. Somehow, somehow we'll have to blow that up, which is a bit of a problem. But from this physical temple, somehow there's a river that will come from it, and it will flow all the way from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean.

But I think that vision is far too small. I think that vision is far too small. It is too insignificant for God and what He wants to do. God isn't talking about a tiny little place in Jerusalem anymore. The whole planet is His.

"Every nation is mine," God says. The whole universe is His. This vision of a temple flowing with life-giving water is far more epic. Far more epic than a little dribbling brook that can come from some place in Jerusalem because this vision, friends, I believe is a vision of Christ. It is He who is the one who establishes in His body and in His work on the cross salvation that brings life.

And this is not me saying it. We'll have a look. I'll prove to you. Let's have a look at John 7. John 7:37.

"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this He said about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. What we see here happening is in verse 2 of this chapter, Jesus has come to Jerusalem. He's come from Galilee to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the booths, a significant festival for the Jews.

Jesus is in and around the temple the whole time. And while He's standing next to the temple, He says, "Come to me to drink." And the Jews think of Ezekiel 47. I'm sure of it. Come to John 2 with me because Jesus does something else regarding the temple where He's associated Himself with the living waters of the temple.

In John 7, He comes to, we come to John 2, and you guys will surely know this, verse 18. Jesus has just driven out all the money changers in the temple, and people are mad at Him. And they say to Him, in verse 18, "The Jews said to him, 'What sign do you show us for doing these things?'" And Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up."

"The Jews then said, 'It has taken forty six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days.'" And, again, the apostle John sort of gives us an explanation, but "he was speaking about the temple of his body." Friends, Jesus is the new temple. He is the perfect holy dwelling of God, allowing people to worship the Father perfectly. He's a temple out of which flows living water, which gives life everywhere and everything it touches.

He causes people to bear fruit in season and out of season. He is a temple which facilitates the meeting between God and people. And He can be this temple because He also is its high priest. Gonna flip one last time, if you allow me, Hebrews 10. The book of Hebrews makes it wonderfully clear here in chapter 10 from verses 12 to 14 what it means for Jesus to be the high priest of this temple.

Verse 12, chapter 10. "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, his own body, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected all those who are being sanctified." Isn't this amazing? Think about it.

We find in this passage a conquering King waiting for all His enemies to make His footstool. Again, 1 Corinthians 15 says the last enemies being sin and death. The conquering King who on the cross started destroying the kingdom of darkness. He is reigning today, friends, and He is laughing in the face of His enemies. And perhaps there will come one moment where all of Satan will cast his fury in one final attempt to dethrone God.

But it will be nothing because He has already dealt a fatal wound. But He's not only the conquering King. He is the mediating priest. God destroys Gog and all his enemies, and He establishes a temple with perfect worship of Him. And the book of Hebrews says it is all found in Christ.

Friends, when we say we have eternal hope, when we say we have eternal peace, we are saying that this is possible because of Jesus Christ who is our warrior, who is our King, who has crushed His enemy on the cross. And even in the midst of ankle biting enemies that sort of try and usurp and try and undermine, He laughs. But we are all the more sure of our eternal hope, not simply because He is King, but because He is our willing priest who has reunited us back to our God by the one sacrifice that was sufficient. And He has made, as Hebrews says, us perfect forever, being made holy.

And so God's people will dwell in that kingdom forever, perfectly secure, eternally rescued from the enemy of Satan, sin, death, and all of Satan's forces. The victory is available for us if we will take it. And so if there are anyone here, anyone here that hasn't, please perceive it. Let Him fight for you because it is there for you. Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, You are our defender. Lord Jesus, You are our atoning sacrifice. You are the mediator that makes it possible for us to worship our God fully and freely. Lord Jesus, You are the first quencher. And so, Lord, again, this morning, we receive You, and we make You our King and our Lord.

And we thank, Lord, that this gift is something that You give us freely, that we are just to take it, but we love it, Lord, that we can be so moved and so humbled by what You've done for us. Lord, we look forward to that day where You will complete this transformation. We look forward to Your final and ultimate restoration after the judgment, where all our enemies, the sin that so disheartens us, that so disappoints us, the violence of men that destroys life as we saw again yesterday or the day before, the oppression of guilt, of our treachery and rebellion, Lord. And God, You promise that all of these things will fade into obscurity in light of the eternal peace we have.

Never again will we remember those things. God, we look forward to that, and we say, "God, Maranatha, please come. Restore us. Recreate us. Save us."

And for those who we've already prayed for this morning, those who do not know You, our family members that are just not right with You yet, our friends that don't know You, that have nowhere to turn, that don't know their right hand from their left, God. We pray for them. Will You save them? Will You breathe Your spirit into dead bones and raise a living human being? Give hearts of stone, hearts of flesh.

We pray this, Lord Jesus, through Your power, and we thank You, Lord, for what You have done. Amen.