Amen. Let us turn to Ezekiel. chapter 46. And now that we have three chapters left in the book, I am pretty confident that we'll follow the outlined plan of three more sermons. And so we'll have one sermon from Ezekiel 46, which is here, page 930 in the Pew Bibles. and then Lord willing one from Ezekiel 47, and then Lord willing one from the end of chapter 48, the end of the book. For this evening, we are in Ezekiel 46, and we'll be looking at considering verses one through 18. Ezekiel chapter 46, we begin at verse 1. Thus says the Lord God, the gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. The people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of the gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. The burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish, and the grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah, and the grain offering with the lamb shall be as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. On the day of the new moon, he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish and six lambs and a ram which shall be without blemish. As a grain offering, he shall provide an ifa with the bull and an ifa with the ram and with the lambs as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ifa. When the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate. and he shall go out by the same way. When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate. No one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. When they enter, the prince shall enter with them. And when they go out, he shall go out. At the feasts and the appointed festivals, the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs as much as one is able to give, together with a hen of oil to an ephah. When the prince provides a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offering as a freewill offering to the Lord, the gate facing east shall be opened for him, and he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out, the gate shall be shut. You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily, morning by morning you shall provide it. And you shall provide a grain offering with it, morning by morning, one-sixth of an ephah and one-third of a hymn of oil to moisten the flower as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided morning by morning for a regular burnt offering. Thus says the Lord God, if the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, It shall be his to the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince. Surely it is his inheritance. It shall belong to his sons. The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property. So far, the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures. Dear congregation, Bernard of Cluny was a monk who served in the French monastery of Cluny during the 12th century, a few hundred years before the Reformation. Now we don't know very much about Bernard of Cluny, We're not even sure if he was born in England or in France. We have a few of his sermons, a few of his poems. One of those poems is a famous Latin poem called De Contempto Mundi, or On Contempt for the World. It's a long, complex poem. It's mostly about the sins of this earth which must be mourned. And then it has, since it's so long, it still has quite a bit about heaven as well. And it contrasts the glories of heaven with the sins of this world. And this was a few hundred years before the Reformation, but Bernard of Cluny is critical of all the sins in this world, including the sins of the Roman church. And so this poem was translated a number of times in the early years of the Reformation, as here was one of the monks from the Middle Ages who was critical of the sins of the world, including the sins of the church. Now, you're more familiar with this poem than you might know. Because the lines of the poem which were focused on heaven were put into a booklet called The Celestial City and translated into English. And here is part of that poem. They stand, those halls of Zion, all jubilant with song, and bright with many an angel and all the martyr throng. The prince is ever in them. The daylight is serene. The pastures of the blessed are decked in glorious sheen. Now, who is the prince of Jerusalem, the golden? Well, we're not even sure where Bernard of Cluny was born. And he is long past, so we can't go and ask him. But we can be quite confident he was talking about the prince of Ezekiel 40 to 48. This is the prince, Jesus Christ, who is ever in the halls of the heavenly temple, who is present there with his people, having a unique position and a unique responsibility in that heavenly realm. And so this is the Prince from the line of David first described in Ezekiel chapter 34, or first prophesied, we should say, in Ezekiel 34. This is the Prince Jesus Christ. And our theme tonight as we consider the duties and the place of the Prince In the halls of Zion is this, the prince gives heavenly blessings. The prince gives heavenly blessings. And we're going to first look at the prince and the offerings. And then the prince and the people. Our third point will be the prince and talk a little bit more about the offerings but also the prince and the inheritance. So this prince who appears a number of times between chapters 44 and 48, especially here in chapter 46, it is nearly certain and I certainly hold that This is the same as the prince prophesied in chapter 34 and 37. Now, we were in Ezekiel 34. Most of us were there, I believe. It was a few weeks ago. Let's turn back to Ezekiel 34 just for a reminder. Let's read two verses. And leading up to Ezekiel 34 verses 23 and 24, we have the language about how you need one shepherd to be a true shepherd over you. And God says in verse 15, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. And all of that language of you need a righteous shepherd, and I myself will be that shepherd, it leads up to this prophecy in Ezekiel 34 verses 23 and 24. and I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord. I have spoken." And there's reference again to this Davidic prince who is God. God says, I myself will be their shepherd, who is man. There's this one David who will be their shepherd. This is the God-man Jesus Christ. He is the true shepherd. He is the prince. And this is the identity of the prince which leads into the references to the prince in Ezekiel 44 and 45 and especially here in 46, our text for this evening. Now there's one important word about the role of the prince that we're going to look back on in chapter 45 verses 16 and 17. Okay, so we're not going through every chapter, that's not how we've been working through Ezekiel, so just a brief overview of where we are. In Ezekiel 45 verses 18 to 25, there's an overview of all of the major festivals like Passover and how they're mentioned in this heavenly temple. And then our text, 46 verses 1 to 15, is all of the minor festivals, all of the daily and monthly feasts and sacrifices. verses 16 to 18 is that stand-alone festival, the year of Jubilee. Before all of this, back in 45 verses 16 and 17, we're told what the role of the prince in this visionary heavenly temple is for all of those sacrifices that follow. What is the role of the prince? Ezekiel 45 verse 16, all the people of the land shall be obliged to give this offering to the prince in Israel. It shall be the prince's duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel. In short, the people, verse 16, give the prince the offerings, and then as this is described in later verses, including verses 1 and 2 of our text, the prince then, as the intermediary, gives those furnishes, provides those offerings to the priests, who then offer them. So what is the role of this prince for all of these offerings? And we could speak about the purposes of the burnt offerings and all of these things. We're not going to dig into that tonight. In short, what do all the offerings look at? In short, all the offerings are summarized by this. You need to make payment for sin. And in all of these offerings, there's someone who's not described in Levitical law. There's no one like this in the law of Moses. There's no one like this in the tabernacle or in the first temple. There is this prince who has this unique position as a royal person. He's a prince, but also as this intermediary priest through whom the offerings of the people come. Now we step back. We've got a lot of details and reference to all these different sacrifices, but what's the big picture? The big picture is that we have one king, the one shepherd from the line of David, who's a prince who's also playing this mediatorial a priestly role. And when we step back and we take the big picture, we say it's in this visionary form. It's communicated in terms of the Old Covenant. And so there are some things that seem strange, but when we put it all together, it is a very clear picture of the one Mediator, Jesus Christ. That is what it comes down to. There's this one prince with this unique position. Something that people would not be familiar with. The rest of the language is familiar to them. It's a little bit strange for us because it's all kind of unfamiliar to us. What is a hymn? What is an ephah? It's hard to keep all the Old Testament sacrifices straight. So it all kind of seems strange to us. But for them, they're saying, alright, I know what these offerings are, but who is this prince? Who is this Prince? Who is this Mediator for us? It's a prophecy. It's an anticipation of Jesus Christ. So as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 1 verse 5 and 6, For there is one God and there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. this prince would have stood out to the exiles, because there's no one like this in the tabernacle in the first temple. And at the proper time, it was revealed fully and directly, He is Jesus Christ. He is our mediator who stands between us and God who brings us to God as we'll speak of more as we continue. This was a wonderful description for the exiles. It would have stood out for them even in a way that he maybe doesn't immediately stand out for us, but it is an anticipation in wondrous language of the one mediator, Jesus Christ. Well, that brings us to the prince and the people, verses 9 and 10. And we're going to continue to look at this prince and his unique role. And for this, as we look at verses 9 and 10, we have the people And there's so much North and South going on, I didn't even keep it straight as I was reading the text. But what's the basic picture of verse 9? The people either come into the North Gate and leave through the South Gate, or come in through the South Gate and leave through the North Gate. That's how all the people of the land are going to come into God's temple, God's presence, to worship Him. There's three things before these verses, which help us understand the importance of what's going on here. The two of those we looked at last week, so we'll cover them very quickly. Number one, remember chapter 40, gives us the basic layout of the temple. The most holy place is against the western wall, and the east gate is the central gate. The east-facing gate is the one that, as you come into the temple, it looks straight at the Holy of Holies. And the north and south gate, they're the side gates. And then, we also looked, for those who were here last week, at chapter 43, verse 4. What happens at that central gate? The glory of the Lord comes into this visionary temple through the gate facing east. Those are the first two things. The third thing is in chapter 44. Please look with me at the beginning of chapter 44. Now this is the first mention of the prince in this huge temple vision from chapter 40 to 48. We're going to read the first three verses of chapter 44. Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, who is he? He is the man whose appearance is like bronze, the angelic tour guide. First mentioned in chapter 40, verse 3. So He, the angelic tour guide, brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east, and it was shut. And the Lord said to me, This gate shall remain shut, it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it." Back in chapter 43, verse 4. Therefore it shall remain shut. Okay, so let's stop. Let's go right on in verses 1 and 2. Because God's holy presence has entered and been present in a direct and special way in this eastern facing gate, it remains shut. Verse 3, only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He, the Prince, shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way." Who is the only one allowed in the Eastern Gatehouse? It's the Prince. He's the only one. He is unique. He is not the same as everyone else. He's their mediator. He's this intermediary who's both royal and priestly, but he is not like anyone else. Everyone else, now we come back to verse 9, either comes in by the north and leaves by the south, or comes in by the south and leaves by the north. Now, with these details in our mind, brothers and sisters, what is this a picture of? What is the cross? The cross is Jesus Christ directly facing the holy presence of God, who is the only one who can be in the Eastern Gatehouse. Only one. Only the Prince. We cannot directly face the holiness of God, because you and I and everyone else is an unholy sinner. If we would try to go through that eastern gate, we would die. We cannot stand there. The prince is not the only one in the temple. The prince is the only one who can directly face the holiness of God. The prince is the only one who could die on the cross for sinners because he's the only one without sin. But the prince is not the only one in the temple. without directly facing the holiness of God. All of God's people are allowed to come in from the north through the south, or from the south through the north. From all of God's land, God brings in all of His people. And though we cannot come before God's holiness in the way that the very Son of God can come before God's holiness, though we could never be on the central cross and face the wrath of God against sin, yet God in His mercy says there is forgiveness of sins and through the Son you still have entrance to my temple. You can't come in the same way he comes in. You cannot worship me in exactly the same way as he worships me because he is also God. He is also co-equal and co-eternal with me. But you are all invited in to my temple because of what he has done. This is a wondrous picture of the Gospel. It comes in this huge heavenly temple vision with all of the Old Testament imagery piled on top of each other, but this is a wondrous picture of the Gospel. We have no right to come and worship God. And we can't come in through the central gate with a direct facing of the holiness of God. We are unholy sinners who must confess our sins, but as we trust in the prince, what does he do? Verse 10, when they enter, the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out. This isn't a literal picture. How can one prince literally be walking with all of the people as they're coming from two different directions. No, this is a visionary picture of the truth that you can come into God's holy presence and worship God because the Prince comes alongside you. And what's the language of Hebrews 2 for those who are here this morning? He calls you brother. And He is not ashamed of your name in the midst of the congregation. Though you can only come in in a way that's from the side. You can't come in by directly facing the holiness of God. But God wants you in His temple. He wants you to worship Him. And He says, come in with My Son, the Prince, and worship Me. Surely, Jesus Christ is the One who brings us near to God. So, as we would move from this wondrous Old Testament visionary picture of the Gospel, we can read also the direct New Testament language from Ephesians 2. beginning at verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility. by abolishing the laws of the commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who were near, for through him We both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. The household of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple the Lord. Brothers and sisters, do you know that you cannot directly face God's holiness, that you must trust only the Prince and repent of your sins and believe in Him? And do you have a longing and a desire to worship the one true God, your maker and your sustainer. Because though you can't come in by facing the wrath of God yourself, you are still brought into the temple as you trust in Jesus Christ. He comes alongside you as you go from the North Gate to the South Gate or from the South Gate to the North Gate. He brings you near to the presence of God. Do you worship God? Do you know the great privilege that it is that by the work of the Prince we are allowed in God's presence to worship Him? Praise be to the Prince and the heavenly blessing of His presence with us, and His work which allows us to come in. Well, brothers and sisters, let's look at the Prince and the Inheritance. And this is one time when the title of our third point relates to the second part of it, because we're still looking at We're still looking at the sacrifices in verses 11 to 15. And at this point, since we have considered the East Gate again, we can dig into this easier. So it says in verse 12, at the end of verse 12, and he shall offer his burnt offerings or his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. What does that mean? Well, remember that all the way back from 45 v. 18 through 46 v. 15, it's all about the sacrifices and the festivals of the Old Testament. And so when it says that He shall give these offerings as He gave those offerings, it's telling us He's still the mediator, as described back in 45 verses 16 and 17, and that he has this unique position, which we kind of jumped over, but that we can now come back to in 46 verses 1 and 2. 46 verses 1 and 2 can be paraphrased in this way. The prince worships standing in between the doorposts of the east gate. We know that we're talking about the east gate. It says that at the beginning of 46 verse 1. And the place of the prince is described at the end of verse 2. The priest shall offer his burnt offerings. Why are they called his offerings? Because the prince is the mediator. all of the offerings are coming through him. The priest shall offer his burnt offerings and his peace offerings and he, the prince, shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Which gate? The east gate. 46 verse 1. So, in other words, 46 verse 12 is saying this This offering is to be given the same way as the other offerings. The people bring the offering to the prince. The prince is the mediator through whom the offering comes. And then when the priests are giving the offering, the people are all in the court worshiping, and the prince is worshiping with them from this unique position, standing in the doorposts of that central eastern gatehouse. In short, this expands upon what we talked about in the last point. He is worshiping with us. He is our elder brother, but he's also not like us. He's the only one who's allowed to worship from really within the Eastern Gatehouse. It's all of this Old Testament imagery. It is, in a sense, shrouded from us because it's unfamiliar language to us, but it's more language about the prince being our elder brother. Brothers and sisters, I did not anticipate that Hebrews chapter 2 from this morning and Ezekiel 46 would be so closely linked, but brothers and sisters, as we reflect on these texts, there is a strong connection between them. Christ is our brother. He leads us in worship even as he worships with us. He is not ashamed to call us brothers. even as He worships from this unique place that no one else can worship from. He is both with us, even as He is high above us. Well, that's the last that we'll say about the sacrifices, which goes through verse 15. We will not spend time to dig into what these sacrifices symbolize What it means that every offering has to be without blemish. Those are all things which we could reflect on more, but we're going to move on. And we're going to come to our conclusion by looking at the inheritance verses 16 to 18. There's no one like this prince. The kings of Israel were not given land in this way. And they certainly didn't have the priestly roles that are described in this vision. But this prince makes everything right. All of the major festivals, all of the minor festivals, and daily sacrifices, and the year of Jubilee. It's Old Testament language. We might not see this right away, but if we were to paraphrase verses 16 and 18, one way to summarize it is, this prince is going to perfectly follow all the rules of the year of Jubilee. We're not going to work through the rules of Jubilee. There's one verse which summarizes what Jubilee is all about. And that's the one, that's the last thing we're gonna think about tonight. That verse is Leviticus chapter 25, verse 10. So there's all these years for Jubilee. We're not gonna get into those rules. We're just gonna say, Ezekiel 46, verse 16 to 18 is describing a prince who's gonna perfectly follow the rules of the year of Jubilee. But what is the purpose of the year of Jubilee? That's the one thing that we're going to come to our conclusion by thinking about. And it's summarized for us in Leviticus 25, verse 10. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property. and each of you shall return to his clan." Now, in all the historical record, for one thing, there's no king that is allowed to own land in this way. For another thing, we don't have any record of any kings really upholding Jubilee at all. It's the neglected blessing of the Old Testament people. And the exiles, they could really use a blessing that restores land. This is an image which is going to strike very close to home for them. It's an image which is a little bit distant for us as New Testament people, but this is an image which is going to strike very close to the heart for Ezekiel and his fellow exiles. In this heavenly temple, there is a prince who has property and he's going to fulfill everything that Jubilee should look like? This is basically what verses 16-18 are detailing. Now in New Testament language, brothers and sisters, how do we say it? The Prince, Jesus Christ, is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies, including the year of Jubilee. What's the biggest thing about the year of Jubilee? Leviticus 25, verse 10. Declare liberty. Proclaim liberty throughout the land. The Prince does not just take us into worship. Oh, He does that. And it is a sweet blessing and a wondrous picture, even as it's surrounded by all of this Old Testament language, The Prince does not just take us into worship. The Prince sets us free. The Prince fulfills the liberty of the year of Jubilee. When Jesus Christ was beginning His ministry He read from a text in Isaiah which included these words. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. And in Luke 4, verse 21, Jesus, after He rolled up the scroll and sat down, said this, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. The exiles would not have the blessing of having a year of jubilee where they got all their physical land back. But as the exiles trusted in the prince, as the exiles would exercise faith in the Davidic shepherd who is God, who is man, who would save his people, they receive all the greater promises of being set free. When we look to Jesus Christ, the captive is set free. And that's true for the exile of Ezekiel's day, who was not going to experience a literal year of jubilee, That's true for us. We're not going to march into the land of Israel and experience some literal jubilee. But who are we? We are people with all kinds of chains, including the chains of sin that we spoke about this morning, and the chains of all kinds of bondage, and pain, and suffering, confusion on this earth, and all of those things, and what does the fulfillment of this come down to? The fulfillment of this comes down to the Prince is the One who sets the captive free. Today, Jesus Christ says, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Brothers and sisters, we are liberated and we are brought into God's presence to worship the holy, holy God by the work of the great High Priest, the perfect mediator, the righteous Prince Jesus Christ. A few less familiar words from John Neal's translation of the old poem by Bernard of Cluny are words which I think he may have been reflecting on Ezekiel 46, though again, we cannot ask him. And when the soul begotten shall render up once more the kingdom to the Father whose own it was before, the glory yet unheard of shall shed abroad its ray, resolving all enigmas and endless Sabbath day. Then, then from His oppressors the Hebrew shall go free, and celebrate in triumph the year of Jubilee. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, set us free and bring us before You to worship You. You are