in complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this evening. I wish to direct your
very prayerful attention to the prophecy of Ezekiel chapter
46 and our verse Well, the verses that are upon
my mind and heart are verses 9 and 10. Ezekiel chapter 46,
verses 9 and 10. But when the people of the land
shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth
in by the way of the North Gate to worship shall go out by the
way of the South Gate. And he that entereth by the way
of the South Gate shall go forth by the way of the North Gate. He shall not return by the way
of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against
it. and the prince in the midst of
them when they go in shall go in and when they go forth shall
go forth when the people of the land shall come before the Lord
in the solemn feasts he that entereth in by the way of the
north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate
and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth
by the way of the north gate He shall not return by the way
of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against
it. And the prince in the midst of
them, when they go in, shall go in. And when they go forth,
shall go forth. It was some time ago, several
months, perhaps even a year, I received a customary telephone
call at about 11 o'clock in the evening from a certain minister
of whom I do every now and then some of you may know of whom
I'm speaking of where the conversation turned to the book of Ezekiel
and to the matter of the temple and he said to me Do you mean
to tell me that all the measurements of the temple are spiritual? I said yes. Some of you know
who I'm speaking. I said yes. Yes. He's a dear man that I have to
disagree with him on this point. Dear soul, you and I would be
looking at the scripture in a most strange and very limited fashion
if we were to look upon the temple simply as a physical temple and
we would certainly be on the wrong tack as they would say
in Yorkshire. if we were to look upon it as
something that is yet to be resurrected in Jerusalem. I say these things
because I'm not stretching the point. There are those who are
polishing the stones, expecting to see such a thing once again. Now you may think I'm pressing
this too much, but dear friends, it's very, very important because
an amillennial and an experimental view of the Bible is not limited
to the book of the Revelation. No. No. It affects the whole
economy of grace. It affects the whole way that
we understand the scripture to speak to us. It must, surely it must. Now, that being the case, what
do we understand these chapters to mean? Well, put very plainly,
from the 40th chapter onwards, these temple measurements and
this vision that Ezekiel has is in relation to the very gospel
age in which we live. In conclusion, I will quote you
a wonderful hymn from Wells' Selection, it's not in our book,
but the very Final words that we find in this book of Ezekiel
is this. The name of the city from that
day shall be Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. And the Lord is here in this
Gospel Age. What do we see in the Edenic
Age? sin ended it. What do we see
in the pre-Diluvian age? That is the era before the flood.
It ended. The post-Diluvian age, the era
after the flood, it ended. The era of the patriarchs, it
ended. And the era of at the Levitical age ended, did
it not? And the end, this last age, is
that from the Lord's resurrection until the very end of time. That is what the scripture means
by these last days. And this is a spiritual reigning. The Lord has made us kings and
priests unto God. Kings and priests. Dear soul,
we don't confess our sins to a poor man in a box, do we? No. We confess our sins to the
Lord Himself. The man in the box can do nothing
for you. But the Lord Jesus can do everything.
everything all things above that that we can ask or even think
what a glory what a mercy and thus and thus we see in the book
of Ezekiel and from this 40th chapter onwards perhaps If the
Lord spares me one day I shall preach through them. I think
it would be wonderful to do so. All the points, the various spiritual
points that are brought out and of course they all point us to
the Lord Jesus himself. So what do we see? Well mention
is made of course to the Sabbath days, plural, and the feast days,
plural. Now, we must observe and we must
make clear that although all of those feast days in one type
or another pointed us to a certain element of the Lord's atoning
work or a certain definitive part of the gospel that is confirmed
in the New Testament We are not to expect such things today. And where we read in Colossians,
let no man judge you in eat or drink, or of the feast days,
or of the Sabbath days, and so on. These, those were the extra,
those were the additional added feast days pertaining to the
Old Testament worship. There is but one day one day
that we remember. And this is the point. This is
the point. And even today, I use this as
the most basic example. What we are remembering today
is not the Jewish Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath pertained
many rules and many prescriptive observations, particularly in
the preparations of food and the washing of one's hands and
so on, what we have today is the Lord's Day. It's the Lord's
Day! And if it is a trudgery for you,
I'm sorry for you. If it's a trudgery, I am sorry
for you. What a glorious thing it is when we can wake up on
the Lord's Day Be free from the world. Be free from all the things
of the weak. Be free from all the elements
that irritate and that gall us. And we can come to the Lord's
house and look unto Him. for it's the
only place we can expect the Lord to speak to us. I've got
no time for people who say well I can worship the Lord anywhere.
Well of course the Lord is not limited to space. We don't believe
we have any theology of holy buildings or holy space. but
dear soul the only place we can expect to receive anything from
the Lord on his day is in his house if we neglect that we neglect
everything we neglect everything not forsaking the assemblings
of yourselves together so here we have the observation
of these thing. So we have to remember, it's
interesting for those of you who take an interest in the history
of Israel, although in difficult circumstances there was certain
freedoms. Freedoms of movement to a point. Freedom to have one's own house
and so on and so forth. We read that Ezekiel did indeed
have his own dwelling. And there were free obviously
to meet to a very limited extent. But here we read of the worship
of the Lord. Now, but when the people of the land
shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts He that entereth
in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the
way of the south gate." Now, the old Jerusalem stood on the
north side of Mount Zion and the north side was always the
weak point. Indeed, The opposing nations
often fixed their camps on the north side, because it was the
weak point. The Assyrians tried this, but
of course they forgot the Lord. He gave them a blast and that
was it. You see, the Lord will not be
mocked, will he? He will protect, he will keep
his people. And there is some symbolism here. at the North Gate and the South
Gate have a spiritual application even to us today. Now there are those who would
say that I am taking this text too far. That I have been fanciful
in some way. But unless we understand these
things in a spiritual light do we not completely lose them?
And certainly, we cannot go with the view that this has nothing
to do with us. It's all for the Jew. As some
would say. No. The North and the South Gate. We shall come before the Lord
in the solemn feasts. Now, those days were no different
to this. There were those that gathered
because they had to. There were those that gathered
because it was tradition. There were those that gathered
because they were brought there. There were those that gathered
because they were Israelites and that's what they did. And
it's no different with us sat in this chapel tonight. You can be brought to the house
of God. You can hear his word as they
were a witness to these things. They heard the
law. The scriptures were opened in what they had in those days
in respect of the Pentateuch. The first five books was open
to them. You can sit here today and hear
the word of the Lord opened to you. But there were those who came
in a wrong way. There were those
who came in a wrong way. There were those who came symbolically
through the wrong gate. You see, where does true religion
begin? Where does it begin? well it
begins does it not at the South Gate we go up to the North that's
where it begins dear soul you and I must know the workings
of the law we must know the workings of the law in the mind and in
the heart that we've a broken law and we are subject to give account for that law,
for that broken law and standing before the Lord where would we
be? where would we be? where would
we be? Dear soul, we must and can only
come through and by Jesus Christ We
notice here in verse 3, the people of the land shall worship at
the door of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths and
in the new moons. Now the gate stood midway in
the court and just inside the gate there was an altar and just
beyond the altar there was the temple and in the inner part
of the temple was the holy of holies and he that went in at the south
could not go out but by passing the altar the altar of sacrifice
stood nearly at the center and anyone coming in at the South
Gate had to go all across the court and out at the North Gate
and must pass the altar or else one might go in a little way
and back out again. But what do we read? He shall
not return by the way of the gate wherein whereby he came
in. You see, this shows us that all
our profession is vain, unless we come by Jesus Christ. All this imagery might seem somewhat
far-fetched, as I said to some, but do we not believe it? Do
we not see it's true? Real religion must come in and
through Jesus Christ. If they had stopped short of
the altar, this would have typified stopping short of Jesus Christ. And, dear friends, the typical language
that we have here, that we see here, is typical of the way that
we must come It's typical of the way that we must come. Because
there are those in religion, indeed in every type of religion,
they begin at the North Gate, don't they? Everything is wonderful. Justification by works. Justification by the hands of
the law. and a glorious end isn't in question but how different for the Christian?
how different? how different? how different?
because the Christian must come in and through and by Jesus Christ
and the gospel as I said this morning never leaves him as it
finds him He never leaves him as he finds him. And he finds
a glorious liberty in Jesus Christ. And thus, he must come to the
altar. He must come to the altar. There's nothing more humiliating
to the flesh, is there? than coming by the altar of Jesus
Christ because if we come by the altar we've come to a place
where we realize there's no hope in self and there can't be any
hope in self and there won't be any hope in self very recently I heard a sermon
and a statement that I've never heard before but I think hope
and a trust we've lived to prove it true he said your sins never separate you
from being saved they don't stand between you and salvation your problem is you're too good
you're too good and is that not the root of our problem? pride
unbelief we are so puffed up with self and our own when none
of us are exempt from this none of us none of us none of us but the Lord won't
have it the Lord won't have it He must bring us in by Jesus Christ. We must see
the way of salvation in and through and by Him and we must enter
in by the door. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. Ezekiel's hearers knew this They
knew it. They knew it. They knew what
this tipified. And another striking point here. When the offering was made, indeed when the fire descended,
not one spark hit the people. Not
one spark touched them. All the punishment, or all the
vengeance we should say, came upon that which was offered. The people
went free. What a glorious picture of salvation. You see these things are not abstract, are they? They're spiritual. they always have been and they
always will be spiritual the Lord's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom it is an experiential kingdom and we must enter into
it body and soul body and soul yes
our whole being is taken up with the way of salvation this is
the way walk ye in it and thus the Lord will have us
come in the way he has said we must in and through and by Jesus
Christ confessing all confessing all and thus we would further go
on we would further go on and we would see this matter of the
prince of the prince now the prince would enter in
at the east side and he would go
in further than anyone else Indeed, he would go in and a place only
he could go. What does this typify? Again,
I trust I'm not being fanciful here or bringing this too far.
But the Prince is a type of the Redeemer here. And notice this. He goes in with them and he goes
in for them. the Lord's intercession is continual. Where is the Lord now? Well,
some of you here may be old enough to remember that Monsignor Ryan
was asked that question and his answer was that the Lord is in
a box known as the tabernacle and every now and then the priest
condescends to let the Lord out of the box Foolish. Foolish. But that's what Rome
believes. We believe something very different. A man there is, a real man, with
wounds still gaping wide, in which rich streams of blood once
ran in hands and feet and sang. The same dear man in heaven now
reads, he sits at the right hand of the father forever interceding
for his own, do we not see this here? do we not see this? he's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities is not this a mercy, we're never left to
ourselves we're never left ultimately to
ourselves and although at times perhaps much of the time we don't
feel or experience the Lord's presence as we would perhaps very often we don't feel
to be free from the law perhaps very often we don't feel to have
the liberty that we would have or that we would desire but you
see here is a typification of one who's
touched with the feeling of our infirmities the prince in the midst of them when they go in shall go in and
when they go forth shall go forth he stands does he not as a forerunner
how are these things spelt out to give one example. You know I'm not one for jumping
around the Bible but occasionally it is necessary that we see these
things are right. Howbeit was not the first which
is spiritual but that which is natural. and afterward that which
is spiritual, Lee 1 Corinthians 15 we read for the first man
is of the earth earthy the second man the Lord from heaven this
is the great difference we read and we sang of that hymn
when Adam by transgression fell. It sets out the order of salvation. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. And notice this, every
man in his own order. Christ the first fruits, afterward
they that are Christ's at his coming. Yes, you see the Lord is the
forerunner of salvation and if there were no resurrection there
could be no final victory. But do we not preach a risen
Christ? Do we not preach a glorious Christ? Do we not preach a victorious
Christ? For we are more than conquerors
through Him. Oh dear soul, you won't be looking
for a physical temple then. No. No. And what do we read? In the book
of the Revelation, we were reading from the 21st chapter on Thursday
evening, were we not? And the 12 gates were 12 pearls. 12 being the number of the church. Every several gate was one of
one pearl. And the street of the city was
pure gold, as it were transparent glass. The glorious gospel is
transparent glass. Brings people into a land where
gold is nothing. Is nothing. And the city had
no need of the sun. neither of the moon to shine
in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the
light thereof and I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it." He saw no temple. There were those that were looking
for a physical temple, those who look today for a physical
temple But if you find me a converted
Jew, he won't want the Temple. He won't want Temple worship.
He won't want forms and ceremonies that Ezekiel is speaking of,
no. He will want the experiential truths of the Gospel made manifest
in his soul. And that is what all the living
family of God desire. That is the very reason that
we exist. That's the very reason we're
here. That's the very reason we can't join with others. Yes, there's church order, but
isn't the centre of it the way of salvation? You see, the question is, do
we really believe we have power? If we're taught of the Lord,
we realise we've no power. None. Nothing. None at all. But the glorious Gospel of Jesus
Christ is all power. And gives all power. Men talk
about moderate Calvinism. Dear soul, I agree with James
Wells. Moderate Calvinism is a moderate
Gospel. We can't have it. We can't have
it. We must have Jesus Christ all in all performing the work
from the beginning until the very end. What a glorious truth. What a wonderful truth. And you
see this is not, is it not, a light. This is the light of the Gospel
that comes to us. The light of the Gospel that
reveals Christ and that enables us to see Christ. And then is
it not the Holy Ghost, who from first to last teaches us not
only our lost estate, and to be found in Him, but opens
our eyes to the great truths of the Gospel. Doctrinally and
experimentally, the two go together. The two go together. They're
not mutually exclusive. They go together. And that's exactly what we find here. You see, you'll
find that the Prince of Peace must go before us. You can't
go in on your own. The Prince of Peace must intercede. You can't go in on your own.
The Lord must take up the mantle and show us the way. You can't
go in on your own. Yes, to face the Lord on that
great day. We can't go in on our own. No,
Jesus Christ must stand between. So the glory of the Gospel is
this, that despite all our sins, despite all our iniquities, despite
all our failures, despite these things, the Lord still has a
people. He loves a people and He keeps
a people. And are we not enabled to say,
Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. in conclusion, I would just wish
to read this hymn by John Kent that when I saith to the Saviour
ascend to my throne the Spirit to comfort I'll surely send down
and this saith Jehovah his mission shall be and sin to convince
and glorify me to sack the foundation for whence they have stood and
show them the worth of salvation by blood and when to Mount Sinai
for refuge they flee shall point them to Calvary and glorify me
shall show them my Godhead, my blood and my fame and how as
the ransom for sinners I came, and when their demerit and vileness
they see, shall teach them my fullness and glorify me. The stout-hearted rebel, his
power shall subdue, not mending old nature, but forming anew. There's a theological point.
and when they acknowledge salvation as free as mine he shall seal them and
glorify me in truth all essential my chosen shall guide whose surety
I am and for whom I died and when from the sheepfold they
wandering shall be shall lead them to Zion and glorify me. But when the people of the land
shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth
in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the
way of the south gate. And he that entereth by the way
of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate.
He shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in,
but shall go forth over against it. And the prince in the midst
of them When they shall go in, shall go in. And when they go
forth, shall go forth. No salvation and there is no
other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Amen.