Amen, amen. Let us turn to Ezekiel chapter 11, page 186. In some of the Goliath ESV Bibles, a couple of different editions there. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. And a few words before we begin our reading. We'll begin our reading at verse 1. We'll read the whole chapter. We'll focus on verses 13 to 25. A few words as you're turning there. We're in Ezekiel chapter 8, looking at the four abominations in the temple, and the dreamlike vision that Ezekiel has of what is going on in Jerusalem, even as he's a thousand miles away living in exile. And that is the beginning of this section, this dreamlike vision continues through chapter 9 and 10, and we'll see the end of this dream vision here at the end of our text in chapter 11. It is mostly focused on the sins of the people and God's just judgment of those sins, certainly we saw that in chapter 8 for those who were here a couple weeks ago, the abominations in the temple. There are some brief words of hope even for those in the city, especially in chapter 9, in chapter 9 verse 4. But it is mainly these words of the sins that are going on and the just judgment. Just for context, a couple words about the first part of the chapter and a strange phrase that I've actually been explaining before we get there. It's not part of our text, but just part of the context. In 11 verse 3, we're going to read about this saying of the people that the city is the cauldron and we are the meat. And that was a very proud thing of the people to say. You say, that doesn't sound like a very proud thing. I don't usually call myself a piece of meat. And, you know, other people wouldn't usually think that I'm being very proud if I do that. But what they're talking about is the fact that, you know, when they would cook meat in ancient Israel, if it was a quarter piece of meat, they would cook it right on the fire. But the choice is piece of meat. The choices pieces of me. they would cook in a cauldron. This was the typical practice. And so then, it would be cooked in a different way, because it was the choicest piece of meat, and it would be protected from the fire, because it was in a cauldron. And so when they say that, what they're saying is, well, we're the greater choice pieces of meat that haven't been taken to the exile yet, we're great, and we're protected from any fire, we're protected from any judgment, because Jerusalem is our cauldron, is our top. So just to give a brief explanation of that, even before we get to it. And again, that's the context of continuing this description of the sins of the people, is just judgment of it. But then this whole section ends with an extended word of hope, not just the brief word of hope for the repentant people in Jerusalem, briefly described in chapter nine, but even for the exiles. is that extended word of hope starting with the desperate question from Ezekiel in chapter in verse thirteen. That's gonna be that's gonna be our text. So, with this, with those words, with that, bringing us back into this dream vision of of chapters eight to eleven which we're just looking at the beginning and end of. Let us hear now the holy word of god. Ezekiel chapter eleven beginning with verse one. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the LORD, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gateway there were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jehazaniah the son of Azeber, and Pelitiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city, who say, The time is not here to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat. Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, Say, Thus says the LORD, So you think, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind. You have multiplied your slave in this city, and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore, thus says the LORD your God, your slain, whom you have laid in the midst of it. They are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it. You have feared the sword and I will bring the sword upon you declares the Lord God and I will bring you out of the midst of it and give you into the hands of foreigners and execute judgments upon you. You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the order of Israel and you shall know that I am the Lord. This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the LORD. For you have not walked in My statues, nor obeyed My rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you. And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelletiah the son of Benaiah died, and I fell down on my face. and cried out with a loud voice and said, ah, Lord God, will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? And the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, go far from the Lord, to us this land is given for a possession. Therefore say, thus says the Lord God. Though I remove them far off among the nations, and though I scatter them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone. Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And when they came there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations, and I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my rules, and obey them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. As for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God. And the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went out from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up, I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, this section, this dream vision of chapters 8 to 11 is a section of departure It's a section of the leaving of the glory of God. The glory of God, the throne of God is departing from the temple, is departing from Jerusalem. But in the midst of all this leaving, in the midst of all this departing, it is very clear that the grace of God remains. The grace of God remains for His true servants who are yet in Jerusalem. Chapter 9 verse 4, which we kind of jumped over, but we may come to it in the future and look back at it. The grace of God remains even for the exiles. And that's the focus of this last word of hope here to end this section in Chapter 11. The glory of God is departing. but the grace of God remains, and the grace of God always remains. To put it very simply into today's terminology, the visible church is not always what it should be, and the visible church from one nation to another may fall very far from where it should be. and may fall under the just judgment and condemnation of God. But whatever the situation around us appears to be, let us know that the grace of God always remains. That God will always be bringing His people to Himself. He will always be leading by the work of His Spirit people to true repentance, he will always be saving his people and preserving his people unto himself. And so it's a section about leaving, but it ends with a hope of what is remaining. It is the grace of God that always remains. That's our theme tonight. And we're gonna look at that theme with the two parts that hope remains Verses 14 to 20, and authority remains. Verses 21 to 23. And all of this coming out of this question of desperation. Because in verse 13, remember, it's mainly this word of judgment, all through chapter 8, all through chapter 9, all through chapter 10, and then the first part of chapter 11. And finally Ezekiel sees someone, it appears that this is someone that he knows, struck down by the just judgment of God. We don't know what the relationship was. Was this a childhood friend? Or what was it? But it appears to be somebody that Ezekiel knew. And that personal tie on top of all the person coming forward, it drives Ezekiel to this point of desperation. He says, O Lord God, will you make an end of the remnant of Israel? Is there any grace that remains? Is there any hope that remains? That's where this answer comes out of. It comes out of this question of Ezekiel. And Ezekiel asks very few questions of God. We might remember the question from the Sinai, chapter 3. Must I really do that? Must I really eat that? And then God said, well, we'll change it a little bit. That's unusual. In the whole book of Ezekiel, there's very few questions. This is one of them. And it's from that question that we get this word of the remaining hope, the remaining authority of God. And so first we're looking at this hope that remains. And that's verses 14 to 20. And we're going to spend a fair bit of time at verse 15, which is what the people are saying, who are still So verse 15, God is saying, Ezekiel, this is what the people in the land are saying. And it's discouraging. We're going to see why in a minute. But then verse 16 and following is, but this is what I, the Lord God, say. This is what I say. This is my word of promise to you. So what are the people saying in verse 15? And who are the people? Well, the people are your brothers, your kinsmen. Or, that word for kinsmen could be translated, your kinsmen-redeemers, which you may recognize from the book of Ruth and Ruth chapter 4. In other words, this is a technical term in the Hebrew. It is the word that refers especially to your relatives who should play a role in protecting your inherited property in the Promised Land." It's a technical term that explains that. We see that developed a couple of times, especially, but probably most familiarly, in Ruth chapter 4. What are the people who should be protecting your inheritance? For you, Ezekiel, and your fellow exiles, what are your kinsmen redeemers saying? This is what they're saying. Look at the end of verse 15. Go far from the Lord. To us this land is given for our possession. In other words, people, your brothers, your relative, your kinsmen, redeemers, who should be a Boaz for you, who should be protecting your land for you. Instead, they're saying, they're making a theological declaration that you shouldn't even trust in the Lord anymore. And they're making a physical declaration that this really belongs to us because we're the ones who haven't suffered from exile. We're the ones who are still here. We're claiming all your property for ourselves. In other words, if you're in exile, don't worry about the Babylonians coming in and wiping down your property. Before that ever happens, your own relatives are stealing it from you. That's what's going on. That's the description of the situation in the land. So once again, you say, well that's, That's not the most encouraging word we want to hear, but in a minute. For those who are holding, more discouraging than the fact that their land is being stolen is the fact that the people who remain in the land are so caught up in the idea of the day that local gods rule local lands that to their relatives in exile, look again, and this is close to the end of verse 15, they say, go far from the Lord, Lord in all caps, Yahweh, the name that only applies to the one true God, the God of Israel. What are they saying? They are so caught up in the mindset of the day that local rulers, local false gods rule local lands, that they're saying to your relatives, look, you're not in Israel anymore. You're not in the promised land anymore. So worshiping Yahweh didn't work out for you. Clearly, we must be the only true believers. You just go and worship the false gods of your new foreign lands, meaning that will work out for you. This is how bad the situation is in Israel. But I do want us to have one of those moments where we pause and we say, you know, how could something ever get to this? How could something ever come to this? And I just want to say, the reason why it sounds so ridiculous, and it should sound preposterous, it should sound insane to us, but really the reason why it sounds insane to us is because that's not the mindset of sin that people struggle with today. The mindset of sin that people struggle with in the United States is not, you know, there's a god of Wisconsin, there's the gods of Illinois, and there's the gods of Iowa, there's the gods of Michigan, and whatever state you're in, you should worship the gods of that place. If we change this to an expression of the theological errors of our own day, really those are just as insane. Those are just as much an abomination. It's just that they're different errors. We heard a list of those errors this morning. And the different ways that that can take shape. But this was the error of their day. And there are many who are caught up in this error of the day thinking that Yahweh is only the God who promised land in Israel. You're not here, so we're taking your land. And why don't you try to worship the gods of foreign lands to your end? All of that sets up, but we can't look in at too much detail now, but all of that sets up, this is what I, the Word of God, say. That's what they say. But I am the Lord your God. And I have not left you. I have not abandoned you. Your situation is very difficult. You are already in exile. Your relatives, who should be protecting your land, are stealing from your property before the Babylonians even come to destroy it. And the Babylonians are coming to destroy it. But, I am the Lord, your covenant father. and hope does remain. Because as you look to me, there is salvation. And as you look to me, I will be your sanctuary in the foreign lands. Look at that language. That's the beautiful language of the promise. We see that language of sanctuary. I will be your sanctuary for them while they are in the countries where they have gone in the mercy seat. There is also a promise of restoration. We know that some decades later there were those who were returned to the promised land. That's what the next verse is about. But there are not many who live to see that day. The first word of promise is this. Though you are in exile, though your situation is very painful and difficult, I am your sanctuary in exile, as you would trust in me, as you would look to me. Because what does God do for those who trust in him? What does God do? God is the one. Here we have one of the many times in Scripture where we speak about the personal responsibility But ultimately, what is repentance? It's a work that God himself is doing. And this is one of those places where that is very clear. Look at the language of verse 19 and the emphasis upon how this is the Lord God speaking and this is the Lord God's word. I will give them one heart and a new spirit. I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them heart and flesh. We are stone solid in our sin, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit renews. The Holy Spirit gives us a new spirit, a new heart, a flesh, where we are ready to be molded and shaped and renewed by God and for God. In other words, even if you're not one of the ones who will live to return the land, which is part of the promise in verse 17, I will be your sanctuary. I will be your God. Why? Because there's hope of salvation. There's a hope of a new heart for all who trust in me. And that hope always remains, brothers and sisters. Whatever place we are in, whatever our own nation looks like 50 years from now, or less than that from now, whatever your own situation is right now, whatever your own personal trial and exile is right now, whatever your own relatives are doing to you and to your possessions right now, hope remains because there is salvation in God for all who repent of their sins and trust in God. This is the very work of God that does this. He does this, verse 20, that they do walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they, what is this? The end of verse 20. It's a repetition of one of the very key promises of the Old Testament. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. It doesn't matter where they are. hope remains, my grace remains, my saving grace remains. There is hope because the restoring grace of God is always at work. Whatever the situation of the world, of the people of God, the Old Testament nation, of the New Testament visible church, Whatever the situation that you are facing, whatever your sins have been in the past, hope remains, because the restoring grace of God always remains. Well then, let's come to our second point. Authority remains. One of the reasons why the grace of God always remains One of the reasons why we can always have hope in God is because the authority of God can never be destroyed. The authority of God can never be thwarted or stopped. or defeated. It does not matter what happens in the nation of Israel. It does not matter what happens to the visible church from one place to another. The authority of God never changes, never is defeated. To think about this, let's remember what the authority of God is being pictured as. verses eighteen to twenty-one of chapter ten. Okay, so now we're looking back towards the end of chapter ten and I'm just gonna pick out some of the language uh there where we have we have the cherubim, the cherubim have wings, uh we have veils, we have living creatures who each have four faces. Okay, well, what is that? It's going to have a little bit of time now, but we were in Ezekiel chapter 1, for those who are here, not too long ago. What is the cherubim, or the four living creatures, these are the four faces, and the wheels, and the chariot, what is all this? It's the throne chariot of God. with the wheels within the wheels underneath and the attendants of God who are His cherubim, His angels, the four living creatures who are used to carry Him. In other words, we're seeing the same thing that we have in the vision of chapter 1. And that throne chariot, what is the main thing that the wheels tell us? The main thing the wheels tell us is that the throne chariot of God is mobile. and move and so it appeared to Ezekiel in the in the place of exile by the Kiber Canal. Now, you know, Ezekiel's brought an addition over to Jerusalem and so now it's in Jerusalem but it's not in the Holy of Holies. It's not where we might expect the throne of God to be in that sense. It's not sitting above the Holy of Holies. It's not sitting above the ark in the Holy of Holies. No, it's moving out of the temple. It's by the east gate now. Chapter 11, verse 1, which is what? That's the place in the temple, which is the farthest away from the Holy of Holies. The throne chariot is moving out of the temple. It's a throne chariot. It can go wherever God wishes it to go. It has wheels. It is not bound. The authority of God is pictured in this throne chariot, which is God's way through the vision, making it very clear. My authority remains. My throne moves wherever I want it to. And right now, what I'm doing is I'm moving my throne chariot out of the Holy of Holies. And from this point forward, through His prophet, God has revealed that His glory is no longer in the Temple of Jerusalem as it once was. While the glory of God was there in a special way, that Temple was not going to be destroyed. But now, because of the sins of the people, God is moving His throne. His throne is not destroyed. The temple is being destroyed. Catch that distinction. God is not destroyed. His authority is not destroyed. His throne remains. It is just this that His throne has moved out of the temple. And now the temple is just like any other ordinary building. And it is vulnerable to the attack of the Babylonians like any other building. So, in a matter of a few years, five years after this vision, that temple will be destroyed. That's what's going on here in chapter 8 to 11. That's the throne chariot moving out. The grace of God remains. It is only the earthly temple that is destroyed. It is not the throne of God that is destroyed. God's throne remains. It is just moving. There's some parallel here to what happens to the second temple. Once the temple is rebuilt, people do return. There are exiles who return in faith many years later. Some who are even alive who saw the first temple see the second temple when they're very old. But then what happens to the second temple? Well, there's a time when the glory of God departs from the second temple. There's a time, there's one specific event When the Second Temple loses all of its significance, what is that event? That event is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. And what happens while Jesus Christ is on the cross? The veil in the Second Temple to the Holy of Holies is torn in two from top to bottom. And from that moment forward, the Second Temple was vulnerable to destruction. And what happened about 40 years later? This time it wasn't the Babylonians, but it was the Romans. And that temple was completely destroyed. What is the temple that we need and what is the temple that we should be a part of? Let's turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. We spent time in 2 Peter this morning. Now we're going to read a handful of verses from 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 to 7 and then in a moment, we'll read a couple more verses. What is the language of the temple? That is now used for the New Testament church. 1 Peter chapter 2 beginning at verse 4. As you come to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I have laid in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." In other words, the language of Temple. is now applied to the New Testament church. We are, as God's people, as the members of that church, the stones of that now symbolic temple. And this temple will never be destroyed in any way. God's people were never destroyed in the Old Testament. But the Old Testament temples were destroyed. The New Testament temple, because it's figurative, is never going to be destroyed because it has a perfect cornerstone, it has a perfect foundation. The cornerstone is Jesus Christ. and now we live as members of the Church. Christ our cornerstone, figuratively together the living stones that make up the New Testament Temple, And we're to think of ourselves as exiles in this world, part of God's temple, seeking to serve and worship God together. So that's the language as 1 Peter 2 continues, verses 10 to 12. 1 Peter 2, verses 10 to 12. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Remember this, one of the central promises. I said in the Old Testament, it's one of the central promises of all of God's Word. I will be your God, you shall be my people. It's just a different way of saying it. You were not my people, now I have brought you and made you my people. It's the same promise in a slightly different form as what we see in the words of Hope in Ezekiel 11. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I heard you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Why is that image of being sojourners in exile so appropriate? Well, there's a number of reasons. We're just going to talk about one right now because like the exiles, we don't have a physical temple anymore. God makes a sanctuary with us as people wherever we are together worshiping him. So now we have God's New Testament church, figurative temple. which will not be destroyed, Christ Himself is our cornerstone. We worship God as exiles, as those in a land which is not our planet alone, as those who don't have a physical temple anymore to gather at for special annual feasts. No, we are God's people. with His sanctuary in all different places wherever His people are gathered together to worship Him. And so the throne of God is departing from Jerusalem, but the throne of God is not destroyed. The authority of God has no end. God is always directing us to confess our sins, to trust in the only perfect cornerstone, Jesus Christ Himself. And now, before we get to our conclusion, which will be a little bit longer than our conclusions usually are, I want us to just pause and think about the order that God says things in this Hebrew book. Before God said, I will not hear them, in chapter 8 verse 18, God spoke of the reality that the people were not willing to listen to Him. Before God said, My throne is departing from Jerusalem, God said, My throne is a chariot with wheels. that goes wherever I will it to go." In chapter 1. And before God destroyed Jerusalem, God communicated the hope of salvation for all those who trust in Him, even those in Jerusalem, chapter 9 verse 4, and those who have been scoured, chapter 11, 16 to 20. People of God, God communicates to us hope even before we need that word of hope. And God speaks to us plainly of the justice of His ways. Well, now let's come to our conclusion. This is a little bit longer than our conclusion usually is. We're going to talk about how this is a word to the exiles, because see what happens there in verse 25. Ezekiel, well verse 24, he's brought back. He's coming out of his dream vision. He's in vision brought back to Calcutta. And then he's brought out of the vision entirely at the end of the verse. So now, where are we? We're back where we were in chapter 8 verse 1. I'm going to go back there and I'm going to read verse 1. In the sixth year of the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there, and then the vision begins. So, where are we now in 11 verse 25? We're back. not just physically where Ezekiel has always been but also emotionally and and mentally. Ezekiel is totally back in his home. Now, he's sitting in front of the elders of Jerusalem in exile which what does it mean that they're still elders of people of of exile? That means that they were still allowed to have some of their own government. Remember, the elders for those who are here a couple of weeks ago, we That's a ruling class, the Israelites. There's the 17 elders in Jerusalem. You'll have a vision of them. There's also elders, there's also a ruling class, to some extent, in exile. And that's consistent with even extra-biblical testimony bears out that the Babylonians were not like the Assyrians. The Assyrians, they took their slaves, and then they mixed them all up from all different places and tried to erase their identities. And that's part of why we talk about the Lost Ten Tribes, because the Assyrians wiped out the northern people. But the Babylonians, They kept people in their own ethnic groups. They kept them together with some kind of local rule even though, you know, the Babylonians still said, you know, you can't move back. You have to follow a number of our own things and all of that. Why is, why is this important? And what does this drive us to? Well, we don't know for sure. But it's certainly possible that some of the men who have been made elders in exile were elders before they went into exile. And this was from two weeks ago, but do you remember the second abomination? That was the abomination of the elders, and it was the sin that was committed in secret. It was different from the worshiping of the son. It's happening in public in the fourth abomination of chapter eight. Okay. So, we have to connect a few dots here but what do we have? We have elders which is a form of referring to local rulers who were probably elders in from the mouth of the young prophet, a description of the secret abominations and sins of the elders in Jerusalem." Now is it possible that they are hearing a description of things that they knew about, that they had participated in, that they thought was secret? That is very possible. The young prophet has been shown by a revelation of God. The sins of the people, the sins of the elders, the sins of the women in the temple, the sins of the priests in the temple. That second abomination may be hitting his audience especially hard right now. As he relates to them, all that he has heard. I appreciate how Christopher Ryan once said it, If the Holy Spirit exposes any part of our lives, past or present, as sin, then deal with it as such. Do not, like the exiles, blame others or accuse God. Do not, like so many today, explain it, excuse it, or try to put it in perspective. Sin is sin. When it is exposed, we are left with only two mutually exclusive options – repentance or harmony. Such was the choice that now confronted the elders of the exile in front of Ezekiel in that little room on the 17th of September, 592 B.C. Now I want us to take that picture and I want us to take it into our own lives. What happens when the Word of God confronts us, even in the sins that we might consider to be secret sins? What happens when our sins are exposed by the truth of the Word of God? Brothers and sisters, let us know that whatever age we live in, whatever sins we are surrounded by, whatever sins we ourselves have fallen into, the grace of God always remains. this call to trust in God and His hope and the sanctuary that He made to His people and the heart of flesh which He gives to His people. This is coming to those elders in the exile. It's the word that comes to each and every one of us. It's the word of hope. It's the word of the authority of God. It's the word of the grace of God that always remains. Trust in Him. Repent of your sins. There's no secret sin He knows not. But there's also no sin that He has not power to save from. Trust in the one whose grace is always strong to save. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, may we hear your word to us and may it not just be a word from 2,500 years ago. May we hear this word exposing our own sins and may it not just be the word of your remaining grace 2,500 years ago, may this be the word of your grace, which always remains yesterday and today and tomorrow. We stand as those saved by your grace. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our cornerstone,