SPEAKER_00: Tonight we are looking at uh specifically Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: This is a continuation of our series about what is dispensationalism, and every sermon so far in our series has been the church has a new something.
SPEAKER_00: The church is a new priest, the church is a new promise, the church has a new purpose, church has a new plan.
SPEAKER_00: I've got all kinds of practice, we've got all kinds of uh peas going on.
SPEAKER_00: The church is all those new peas.
SPEAKER_00: But this one kind of gets to a main point of dispensationalism that not everything is about the church.
SPEAKER_00: The center of the Bible, of course, is Christ, and history leads to him and then comes from him.
SPEAKER_00: And either even as the Westminster Confession says, that history takes place through certain stages and dispensations of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of at the center of dispensationalism, of course, is Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected that launches the church age, and this teaching that the church and Israel are not interchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: That God had given promises to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Those promises, in some senses, are fulfilled in Christ, but in some other senses, very important senses remain to be fulfilled in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And that the church occupies a unique place in God's redemptive plan, that the church began in Pentecost and will be glorified at the rapture of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so the church occupies a break in world history.
SPEAKER_00: When you think of the unfolding plans, the church occupies a unique stage beginning here at Pentecost, ending on earth in that sense for glorification at the rapture.
SPEAKER_00: But prior to Acts chapter 2, there was, of course, history, and God was working predominantly through Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And part of dispensationalism is the belief that after the church is raptured, that God will continue working through Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is the prophecy from Daniel chapter 9, that there are 70 weeks that Daniel decreed for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: We are through 69 of those weeks.
SPEAKER_00: There remains a 70th one in the future.
SPEAKER_00: So God has a plan for Israel, and that plan is not completed yet.
SPEAKER_00: There still remains promises for them.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's common to say that the church receives those promises and fulfills those promises because true believing Christians are the spiritual heirs of true believing Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so promises to true Israel are taken over in the church, and so we fulfill all them.
SPEAKER_00: And I understand that conceptually, and I understand that's what perhaps even most Christians have believed throughout the ages, but I don't understand it when it comes to the Word of God because the passages like Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's just so much in the Bible that is not conceivably fulfilled in the church or by the church or in the church age that causes us to look forward for a second age, for an age to come, a millennium, a thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth that fulfills all of these prophecies that were not fulfilled at the Savior's first coming.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that when Jesus came to earth the first time, he didn't fulfill all the prophecies about him.
SPEAKER_00: Many of them remain to be fulfilled at the second coming.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting when you take a step back and look at the Bible that many of those unfulfilled prophecies, not all of them, but many of them relate to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezekiel 36 is one of those chapters, and so we will look at that tonight.
SPEAKER_00: But first I just want to give you a little sense of place in the book of Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel is a prophecy given to people that are going into exile.
SPEAKER_00: These are the 12 tribes of Israel that are being evicted.
SPEAKER_00: The 10 tribes of Israel are being evicted by the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_00: The Assyrians are going to fall to the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: The Babylonians are going to conquer Egypt as well.
SPEAKER_00: Judah is going to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: That's Daniel and his prophecy there.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel is right before that.
SPEAKER_00: And as they are about to be taken into exile, Ezekiel writes this book warning them to repent.
SPEAKER_00: The book begins, and kind of in the middle here, we'll see it tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Has this image of Ezekiel as a watchman.
SPEAKER_00: He's on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the watchmen, they didn't have radar.
SPEAKER_00: Norad didn't exist yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so they put watchmen on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Watchmen are watching for the attack.
SPEAKER_00: They would sound the trumpet, they'd sound the alarm.
SPEAKER_00: And when the trumpet sounds, you know the attack is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so Ezekiel says he's functioning like the watchman.
SPEAKER_00: And he's sounding the alarm to the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: Bad things are about to happen to bad people.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel's alarm.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, bad people don't listen to the prophecy of bad things.
SPEAKER_00: They reject Ezekiel, and you get all the weird, crazy signs in the book of Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: He does some pretty outlandish stuff to try to wake them up to the destruction that is coming.
SPEAKER_00: But when you jump into like chapter 29 and 30, this prophecy gets specific about Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Egypt has been what Israel has been trusting.
SPEAKER_00: Judah in particular.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem had been trusting Egypt for protection.
SPEAKER_00: So they know the Assyrians got ten tribes into captivity, and now the Babylonians are coming and surrounding them, and God has delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians before, and the Israelites think he'll deliver us again.
SPEAKER_00: The Babylonians are coming knocking on the door, they're going to destroy us, but we don't think so because we're God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have all the minor prophets, you know, most of them are written during this time, and they're telling the Israelites, hey, you say you're God's people, then I don't know, repent.
SPEAKER_00: They say, we don't want to repent, we want to keep living this way.
SPEAKER_00: And so God tells them, you're going into exile, then I'm going to destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: You're going down.
SPEAKER_00: And their response was always, God's not going to destroy us because we like him, even though they don't.
SPEAKER_00: But also, just in case God doesn't show up for us, we have a secret backup plan.
SPEAKER_00: The top secret emergency backup plan is the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: They will come and they will rescue us.
SPEAKER_00: If God can't help us, the Egyptians can.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that doesn't work out.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Ezekiel 29 and 30 are about.
SPEAKER_00: That you want to trust in the Egyptians?
SPEAKER_00: Guess what's going to happen to them?
SPEAKER_00: The Babylonians are going to beat them, you know?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to send the Babylonians away from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go sack the Egyptians first, and then they'll come own you.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what Ezekiel 29, 30 are about.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 31, Pharaoh is going to die.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you see this in chapter 31, verse 2, son of man say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his multitude, whom are you liking greatness?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Pharaoh's exalting himself.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Assyrian, verse 3 there of chapter 31, uh was like a cedar, you know, a tall tree.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to chop down Assyria.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon wrecked Assyria, so it's going to wreck Egypt as well.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh's going to die.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 32 of Ezekiel, a long lament over Pharaoh getting smoked by the Babylonians, and really by God is the one who did it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Egyptians, they trusted in their river, they trusted in their glory.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 32, verse 12 in the middle there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to bring ruin to the pride of Egypt, its multitude shall perish, I'll destroy its beasts from beside many waters.
SPEAKER_00: And there's an irony here that Israel is under drought.
SPEAKER_00: Their animals are dying.
SPEAKER_00: So they're trusting in Egypt because there's a river there.
SPEAKER_00: Nile, that's a great river, way bigger than the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_00: We'll trust them.
SPEAKER_00: God says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'll kill your animals with drought, and I'll kill their animals next to the river.
SPEAKER_00: Teach you all a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: You want to trust in horses?
SPEAKER_00: Their horses are going to die.
SPEAKER_00: Right next there, you know, great flowing rivers.
SPEAKER_00: There will just be, verse 16, lamentation chanted everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Egypt's going to go down.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 33 of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is a watchman.
SPEAKER_00: He's standing there and he's he's sounding the alarm.
SPEAKER_00: He's on the wall and he's sounding the alarm.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 33, verse 7, you son of man, I've made a watchman for the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
SPEAKER_00: And chapter 33, verse 10, why are you gonna die, you Israelites?
SPEAKER_00: You say, How can we live?
SPEAKER_00: And as I live, verse 11 or chapter 33, declares the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of wicked.
SPEAKER_00: Very famous verse.
SPEAKER_00: You know this verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's Ezekiel like begging the Israelites to repent.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, if you do repent, I'll restore you.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: If Ezekiel says to the wicked, you surely die, and the wicked turns from his sin, does what is just and right.
SPEAKER_00: If the wicked restores his pledge and gives back what he's taken by robbery, walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he'll live.
SPEAKER_00: He won't die.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of the Sodom and Gomorrah negotiation with Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if there's 50 righteous, are you gonna destroy it?
SPEAKER_00: And God says, No.
SPEAKER_00: Ten righteous, we destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Be right back, I'm gonna go destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it lets you know there's not ten righteous there.
SPEAKER_00: And they're not, there's not righteous people there.
SPEAKER_00: It's going down.
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing is here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Israel, if you repent, you get to live.
SPEAKER_00: But then look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: In the 12th year, the word comes out, the city has been struck down.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the same passage, chapter 33.
SPEAKER_00: If they repent, they'll live.
SPEAKER_00: Next verse, they all die.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't repent.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 34, we talked about that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy against the shepherds of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Israel is run by wicked religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: They threw Jeremiah in a pit, they reject Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they have they want nothing to do with God.
SPEAKER_00: They believe believe false prophets.
SPEAKER_00: And so, verse 15 of chapter 34, critical verse, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I will seek the lost, I'll bring back the strayed, I'll bind up the injured, I'll strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong, I will destroy, I will feed them in justice.
SPEAKER_00: So God says, I will be your shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Now we understand as Christians that this is fulfilled in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus declares that he is the great shepherd of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a prophetic word here.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's going down, Jerusalem falls, and then the narrative of Ezekiel jumps forward to Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd comes and dies on the cross, of course, inaugurating the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 25 of Ezekiel 34.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to make with them a covenant of peace.
SPEAKER_00: We read much of that section earlier for a scripture reading, that he will sprinkle their hearts with the blood and the purity, water of the word.
SPEAKER_00: They will be regenerated, and God will rescue them.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 35 now is a prophecy against Mount Seir.
SPEAKER_00: That's Edom.
SPEAKER_00: It stands in often in the Old Testament for the nations that hate the Israelites, the nations that try to take their land.
SPEAKER_00: This is the place where Abraham stood with Lot back in Genesis, what, 14, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Around there somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: I could have the chapter wrong, but they stand on the mountain there, I think it's Genesis 14, and Lot looks one way, and Abraham looks the other way, and this is where that's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And Lot goes one way off to Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham goes the other way, and God says, You're going to the land of Israel, will you have?
SPEAKER_00: So this is those mountains.
SPEAKER_00: And God says they're going to be judged.
SPEAKER_00: They stand here representing the nations that want the land of Israel, their enemies, and God says, Don't worry, I'm going to inaugurate the covenant of peace, but your enemies are going down.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very important passage because when you understand Israel is a light to the world, a light to the nations, that doesn't mean all the nations are saved.
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of a mystery in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: I think you're Old Testament Jew, a believing Old Testament Jew, even Ezekiel, I don't know if he'd be able to put this together without the New Testament, because he understands that the gospel is going to go through the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant to the world.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be the seed of Abraham, through the king of David, that will be the savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: He'll be the one from Genesis 3 that will crush the head of the serpent and restore the gospel, bring the gospel to the world, make peace between God and man.
SPEAKER_00: So that's all gonna happen, and Jesus is gonna be a light to the Gentiles, a light to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Old Testament, God's working through Israel, doesn't that mean that Israel has a special place in God's plan?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, he's going to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that mean that each nation has a special purpose in God's plan?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like this continuity from Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is no, and that's how Ezekiel 35 is functioning, that the nations are going to be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 36, we'll look at it more carefully later, but just an overview real quick.
SPEAKER_00: It says that Israel is going to be spared.
SPEAKER_00: The nations are going to be this is after the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: In the chronology here, it's after the new covenant has been inaugurated.
SPEAKER_00: At the time of the judgment of the nations, Israel is going to be spared.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: How are they going to be spared?
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 37.
SPEAKER_00: The dry bones, the valley of the dry bones.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the bones of Ezekiel, can they live?
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel has the only answer possible.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of my favorite verses as a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 37, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: God said to me, Son of man, can these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: And I answered, Oh Lord Yahweh, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That's the best answer.
SPEAKER_00: God, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I give up.
SPEAKER_00: When Israel lives, when they're resurrected through the agency of the Holy Spirit, you get the last half of chapter 37, they will be back under God.
SPEAKER_00: God will be their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be purified.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24 of Ezekiel 37, they'll be brought in.
SPEAKER_00: King David will be over them.
SPEAKER_00: They'll all have one shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: They'll all walk in my rules.
SPEAKER_00: They'll all be careful to obey my statutes.
SPEAKER_00: And so now you're seeing, I think, kind of this image of the church in Israel together.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be occupying the kingdom here at the end of Ezekiel 37.
SPEAKER_00: They're all one person, they're all under my King David, verse 25, or chapter 37.
SPEAKER_00: They're all together.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be in the land, it says in the middle of verse 26, in their land of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to multiply them, He'll dwell with them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: They will, I will be their God, they will be my people.
SPEAKER_00: And then the nations will I know that I'm Yahweh, who sanctifies their Israel.
SPEAKER_00: My sanct sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: So this is, I think, a prophecy of the millennial kingdom pointing forward.
SPEAKER_00: Before the kingdom, though, you have the last battle at the end of the tribulation, the battle of Gog and Magog.
SPEAKER_00: That's described as the Antichrist War.
SPEAKER_00: That's described in Ezekiel 38 there.
SPEAKER_00: And 39, two chapters that you get to this massive battle.
SPEAKER_00: It's also described in Zechariah 13, well, 12, 13, 14.
SPEAKER_00: It's described all over the Old Testament, described in the New Testament, in the Olivet Discourse.
SPEAKER_00: It's alluded to in 2 Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_00: It's described in Revelation, around like 16 to 19 or so in that window there.
SPEAKER_00: But even through that battle, the end of Ezekiel 39, Israel will be restored.
SPEAKER_00: Not just part of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Ezekiel 39, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: I will have mercy on the whole house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: All of them.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds you of Romans 11.
SPEAKER_00: In that day all Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: This is obviously a future event.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 28, 28 of 39.
SPEAKER_00: They shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh, because I sent them into exile among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: I then assemble them in their own lands, and I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I won't hide my face from them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pour out my spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And then chapter 40, the end of the book is the image of the new temple that is in the millennial kingdoms.
SPEAKER_00: But you get, you know, a smooth eight or nine chapters here describing the temple that will be in the millennial kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how the book ends.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know we went through that fast.
SPEAKER_00: I just wanted you to get like a 30,000-foot overview of this section of scripture, because it's not one we're very familiar with, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we don't, you know, you read your Bible in a year and you try to blitz through this in a day or two and uh not think about it again.
SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to pull the car over and let you know, like from above, when you're flying over this at a high altitude, you look out the window, that's what you see.
SPEAKER_00: So it's God's judgment on Egypt, God's judgment on the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Israelites are bad, yet God's gonna be their own shepherd and he's going to save them.
SPEAKER_00: He'll save them through the new covenant, then he's gonna judge the nations that oppose them.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I have an outline.
SPEAKER_00: Then he's gonna judge the nations that oppose them.
SPEAKER_00: Forgot about this.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that so helpful?
SPEAKER_00: But if I didn't, if I put this up earlier, you wouldn't have been listening as attentively.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean that's the order of those chapters.
SPEAKER_00: And do you see this flow?
SPEAKER_00: There's a judgment on Israel, Israel will fall on Egypt, then Israel will fall, Jesus will be their shepherd, he'll inaugurate the new covenant, the nations will be punished.
SPEAKER_00: God will spare Israel from that punishment.
SPEAKER_00: There's that battle between Gog and Magog, and it ends with a description of the millennial kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And I can translate this.
SPEAKER_00: That's the overview of Ezekiel here, but let me translate this into terms that we're more familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, Ezekiel 36, right there, if it's there, but here's the same list in the same order.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, I saw I subbed out kind of the New Testament terms here, but it's the same, same chapters.
SPEAKER_00: You get the flow of it.
SPEAKER_00: You get the Old Testament kind of summarized in Ezekiel 30, 31, 32, the judgment on the nations, including Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You get the exile that happens in Ezekiel 33.
SPEAKER_00: It's described.
SPEAKER_00: This is, you know, of course, where Daniel and Ezra and Nehemiah take place, Esther during that time period.
SPEAKER_00: Then you get the uh the Gospels, where Jesus comes as the shepherd to lay his life down for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 34, the first half of it.
SPEAKER_00: You get the new covenant inaugurated the death of Christ, launching into the church age from Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: You get the tribulation, the tribulation, the seven-year period uh that's coming onto the world where God judges the nations.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 35.
SPEAKER_00: Even despite that, God is going to spare Israel, that's ushering them into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But on their way into the kingdom, there's that final war against Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the Antichrist breaks his covenant in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 38 and 39, it ends with the millennial kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So I take this whole section to be chronological.
SPEAKER_00: And when you take it chronologically, I think it makes a lot of sense, and it corresponds really neatly with the same chronology that you get in the Olivet Discourse, the same chronology you get in 1st and 2 Thessalonians, and lo and behold, wouldn't you know it?
SPEAKER_00: The same chronology you get in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: If I had more time today, I just I just blame, you know, we only get 24 hours and you have to sleep and eat, and yeah, but if I had more time, you would see an outline of the book of Revelation, and you would see the same thing follows the book of Revelation, the Revelation follows the same pattern here.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe some other time.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go back here to the overview where you see where the passage we're gonna look at tonight is Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: I want to zero zero in here.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is common to say that this flow is not necessarily chronological, that all these chapters kind of are uh can be spiritualized into the church age.
SPEAKER_00: They all take place more or less simultaneously in the church age.
SPEAKER_00: They're all kind of the promises of Israel fulfilled in the church, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's a compelling argument when you look at the flow of them, that there's something going on here chronologically.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezekiel 36, if you drill in there, I mean I could pick any of these chapters and make similar points, but I think it's uh most persuasive from Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: I want to dive into Ezekiel 36 and try to illustrate for you that these are not things that are really fit well with saying they're just fulfilled in the church.
SPEAKER_00: That the church and spiritual Israel care uh have a common lineage and heritage, which is true, but because of that common lineage and heritage, the church fulfills these kind of promises to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that is true because of chapters like Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, there's there's probably 20 chapters that make the same point, and it's tempting to choose all 20 of them, uh, but eventually I have to preach something different.
SPEAKER_00: So we've got to wrap the series up sometime.
SPEAKER_00: So just one chapter tonight, Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: You son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And I just like the image of Ezekiel having to go yell at the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of is fun for me.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be preaching in the mountains, which is not doesn't even crack the top five for the craziest things he's done in his life.
SPEAKER_00: So he's probably he's probably grateful for this one.
SPEAKER_00: He gets to wear his clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Um mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Because the enemy said of you, aha! And the ancient heights have become our possession.
SPEAKER_00: That's you contrast with Edom.
SPEAKER_00: Edom is the one that said those.
SPEAKER_00: This is all the nations claim Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: But God's going to protect them.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, verse 3, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of all the people.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: So the land here is being divided.
SPEAKER_00: The nations, Edom, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, they're all fighting over Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They want to divide it up.
SPEAKER_00: And of course they do divide it up.
SPEAKER_00: The Assyrians get ten tribes.
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians are peeling off part of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually Benjamin falls to the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, so it is being peeled apart by the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, you know, everybody mocks you.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's making fun of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get that?
SPEAKER_00: Like they don't realize that they're the kid everyone's making fun of.
SPEAKER_00: But they are.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Ezekiel's saying here.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody is making fun of you.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, mountains of Israel, verse 4, hear the word of law of the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, the desolate places and the deserted cities, which have become a prey and a derision to the rest of the nations all around.
SPEAKER_00: So just pause here before we look at what the actual prophecy is.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to inanimate objects.
SPEAKER_00: And those inanimate objects represent the nation of Israel, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But you just wonder why is he talking to objects instead of people?
SPEAKER_00: And it's I mean, you can probably make a list of reasons.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the people aren't listening to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's tried.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he was already, the watchman on the wall already happened.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, these prophecies will not be fulfilled in the lifetime of those who are hearing it.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't go to the grave when the people die.
SPEAKER_00: When the Babylonians take him away, the king is going to be led away with a hook through his nose.
SPEAKER_00: When that happens, these prophecies do.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go with him.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah did something similar.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jeremiah took the scroll?
SPEAKER_00: Took a title deed, bought a field, took a title deed, dug a hole, and buried it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you guys are all gonna get evicted.
SPEAKER_00: You're all gonna get evicted.
SPEAKER_00: But my great, great, great, great, great, great grandkids are gonna come and they're gonna have a 7-Eleven right here.
SPEAKER_00: We're coming back.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Ezekiel's doing here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, listen, mountains, listen up mountains, listen up streams, listen up little ravines, listen up hillsides.
SPEAKER_00: All you land listen, because the prophecy will be fulfilled in the land.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, verse 5 says the Lord Yahweh, surely I've spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all of Edom.
SPEAKER_00: That was the previous chapter, who gave my land to themselves as a possession.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that turn of phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Allah's nations said, I hereby give myself that land.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to love it when you give yourself a gift.
SPEAKER_00: With wholehearted joy and utter contempt that they might make its pasture lands a prey.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore prophesy, verse 6 concerning the land of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Say to the mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, thus says the Lord Yahweh, behold, I've spoken in my jealous wrath, because you've suffered the reproach of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, I swear, the nations that are all around you, they'll suffer reproach.
SPEAKER_00: But you, O mountains of Israel, so the contrast here is the other people, the people that are attacking Israel, they'll die, but the land of Israel, verse 8, will shoot forth your branches.
SPEAKER_00: You'll yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home.
SPEAKER_00: They're going into exile now.
SPEAKER_00: They'll come back.
SPEAKER_00: When they come back, they'll eat the trees.
SPEAKER_00: They'll eat from the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: They'll drink from the rivers.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be back in the land.
SPEAKER_00: So at this point, it could be tempting for you to say, hey, that already happens.
SPEAKER_00: That's talking about the end of the exile.
SPEAKER_00: That's talking about Jeremiah that says, you know, they'll be in exile 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: That's Daniel where he says it's time to come home.
SPEAKER_00: That's the decree of Cyrus.
SPEAKER_00: That's already happened.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites ate an orange.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I went on Israel, uh went on trips to Israel and saw Israelites eating oranges off their trees.
SPEAKER_00: There are big avocados everywhere in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They're grown by the Jews that eat the avocados.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, prophecy fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: But not quite.
SPEAKER_00: Not quite.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I'm for you, God says.
SPEAKER_00: I will turn to you, you shall be tilled and sown.
SPEAKER_00: It has echoes in it of other prophecies about the millennial kingdom, swords and plowshares and such.
SPEAKER_00: I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: The cities will be inhabited, the waste places rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that still hasn't entirely happened yet.
SPEAKER_00: I will multiply on you man and beast, and they will multiply and be fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times.
SPEAKER_00: And will do more good to you than ever before.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so important to understand the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Israel didn't own that land.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, they they didn't have the glory of their former times after the exile.
SPEAKER_00: The former times they're talking about are like when David was king, when Solomon was king.
SPEAKER_00: That's the former times.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what happened when they came back over exile?
SPEAKER_00: Their nation was divided up.
SPEAKER_00: The whole point of, one of the many points of uh Esther is that there's another king reigning over God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Or of Ezra, he's got to write permission slips to get timber to build the temple.
SPEAKER_00: You remember all that in the book of Ezra?
SPEAKER_00: The Jews were not in charge.
SPEAKER_00: They got no king in Ezra and Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: There's no king there.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have their own currency, they don't have their own governor.
SPEAKER_00: By the time of Jesus, it's divided into thirds.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Herod the Great kind of ruled a lot of it, builds his own temple.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Herod, the butcher of Bethlehem, when he dies, they split it up into thirds.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you got Pilate, who's not even a king.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you got the whole argument there with Pilate's the governor versus king, and you've got the other Herods running around, and Jesus isn't under Pilate's jurisdiction, he's under the other Herod.
SPEAKER_00: You've got, I mean, it's it's a hot mess there.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way to say that that was the glory of the former times when David was their king.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing like that at all.
SPEAKER_00: When it happens, verse 11, key marker, then you will know that I'm Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I'll let people walk on you.
SPEAKER_00: Even my people Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They'll possess you, you'll be their inheritance, and you will no longer bereave them of children.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is an interesting turn of phrase because Jesus, when he comes, he weeps over Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I wish you would have known, would have would have taken for peace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks at Jerusalem and weeps because they don't have this yet.
SPEAKER_00: The kids are still dying.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the temple and says, This whole place is gonna get torn down.
SPEAKER_00: That's letting you know that what's described here in Ezekiel 36 had not been fulfilled by the life of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's still pointing forward to the destruction of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He's still saying, This place is going to go down brick by brick.
SPEAKER_00: God is gonna judge this place.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever is being described in Ezekiel 36 is still after that.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't happen with the return from exile.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Nehemiah and Ezra don't fulfill this.
SPEAKER_00: By the life of Christ, this hadn't happened.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still prophesying destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still prophesying, really, gonna be honest, Jesus is still prophesying.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 35, he's still prophesying the nations are gonna get judged.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, forget that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying Jerusalem is going to go down.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that repeatedly.
SPEAKER_00: But here in Ezekiel 36, what a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: The land will no longer bereave them of children.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: One more comment on bereaved them of children.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when Jesus was born, remember they killed all the babies.
SPEAKER_00: That's bereaved of children.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, therefore you should no longer devour people, no longer bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I will not let you hear any more the reproach of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: You shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, during the life of Christ, Israel was ruled by Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Rome butchered the babies.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the opposite of Ezekiel 36 was taking place during the life of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a future time when the mountains and the streams and the ravines and the hills, the Israelites will be there.
SPEAKER_00: And it'll be theirs.
SPEAKER_00: How's that going to happen?
SPEAKER_00: Well, verse 16 points forward to it.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to do this by removing their oppressors.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, Son of Man, the house of Israel lived in their own land.
SPEAKER_00: They you know back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: They defiled her by their ways and their deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Their ways before me were like the uncleanliness of a woman in her menstrual impurity.
SPEAKER_00: So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they have shed in the land, for their idols which they had defiled, and I scattered them among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: They were dispersed to the countries in accordance with their ways and the deeds I judged them.
SPEAKER_00: And this is reminding you of how he described the evil shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: They were the one butchering the people, the blood from the evil shepherds back in chapter 34.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying that that applied to the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: That was the religious leaders in Jesus' lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: We're still back in chapter 34.
SPEAKER_00: So this is, of course, still future.
SPEAKER_00: When they came to the nations, verse 20, and wherever they came, they profaned.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the exile now, when they came into the nations, they were sinning in the other nations' land too.
SPEAKER_00: The other nation says, these are the people of Yahweh, and that they had to get out of his lands.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: They were wondering, the Persians are wondering, man, these are Yahweh's people.
SPEAKER_00: Why did Yahweh throw them out?
SPEAKER_00: But I had concern for my holy name, God says, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
SPEAKER_00: This is the new covenant language, then.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: I say to the house of Israel, thus says Lord Yahweh, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name.
SPEAKER_00: So God's going to do this not for the sake of the people in exile, not for the sake of Jehoiakim and Ahab and the others.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to do this for his own name.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to vindicate, verse 23, the holiness of his great name, which has been profaned among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The nations will know that he's Yahweh at that point.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see all these arrows pointing features still?
SPEAKER_00: When this happens, when God brings them back, the nations of the world will know who Yahweh is.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24, I'll take you from all the nations, I'll gather you from all the countries, I'll bring you into your own land, I will cleanse you as clean water on you, and you'll be clean for clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, you can't, this just did not happen at the return of the exile.
SPEAKER_00: You've read the book of Ezra and Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have happy endings.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't purified from all their impurities.
SPEAKER_00: Sandbal and Tobiah had moved into the temple at the end of the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra ends with Ezra at the wall weeping and plucking out his own beard, and Nehemiah ends with Nehemiah plucking out other people's beards.
SPEAKER_00: This is not like they've been purified with the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But when God does do that, verse 26, I'll give you a new heart, new spirit, I'll put it in you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll remove your heart of stone from your flesh, I'll give you a new heart of flesh, put my spirit within you.
SPEAKER_00: This is a new covenant language.
SPEAKER_00: I'll cause you to walk in my statutes and you'll obey my rules.
SPEAKER_00: You'll dwell in the lands that I gave your fathers.
SPEAKER_00: So you're back to the land again.
SPEAKER_00: You will dwell in that land I gave your fathers.
SPEAKER_00: You shall be my people, and I will be your God.
SPEAKER_00: I'll deliver you from your uncleanliness, I'll summon the grain, make it abundant, and I will lay no famine upon you.
SPEAKER_00: So, very physical kind of language again.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's grain involved.
SPEAKER_00: Grain is growing and you're eating it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's a metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: I know Jesus tells parables about grain in the New Testament, but this is not that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think it's so clear that Jesus is talking, that Yahweh here is talking about the physical reality of these hills, these mountains, these streams, these trees, this wheat.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna grow, it's gonna make food, and the Israelites are gonna eat it, and they're going to eat it with a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: So some want to say that this is the church that fills these promises, even though we're not eating that grain or that fruit, spiritual grain, spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not this.
SPEAKER_00: It just isn't.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 33, this is Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: On that day I'll cleanse you from your iniquities, I'll cause the cities to be inhabited, the waste places will be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's talking about physically returning to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: The land that was desolate shall be filled.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of being the desolation that was in the sight of all who passed by, they'll say, Hey, this land was desolate, it's become like the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have a nice campus at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: But people don't drive by and say, Hey, that's like the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: I'm being a little bit facetious here.
SPEAKER_00: Because I imagine the counterargument to this would be, you know, spiritually we're returning in sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: But the whole point in Ezekiel 36 is that the unbelieving nations will see this and say, Wow, Yahweh has done great things.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 36, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: The nations who are left around you will know that I'm Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I've rebuilt the ruined places, I've replanted that which was desolate, I'm Yahweh, I've spoken and I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says Lord Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I'll also let the house of Israel ask me to do it for them, to increase their people like a flock, like a flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during your appointed feast, so that the waste cities will be filled with flocks of people.
SPEAKER_00: Then they will know that I am Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just one more time.
SPEAKER_00: That's not talking about today.
SPEAKER_00: God says he's gonna do this for his own name.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who said he'll put Israel in the land.
SPEAKER_00: It's Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: This all started back in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Abraham on the hill, Lot that way, Abraham that way.
SPEAKER_00: They're looking at the mountains, and God says, whichever Lot went that way, and God tells Abraham, okay, those are your mountains then.
SPEAKER_00: That's where this is gonna take place.
SPEAKER_00: Two basic observations about this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna put it on the screen, I'm just gonna say them both and then unpack them real quick.
SPEAKER_00: First, these promises are given to unbelieving Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the reality of this.
SPEAKER_00: These promises are given to unbelieving Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The people that receive Ezekiel unbelieving, they're about to go into exile.
SPEAKER_00: Chronologically, the people that received the book of Ezekiel are packing their bags and on the march.
SPEAKER_00: I stress that just so that you're aware.
SPEAKER_00: The temptation is to say the promises were given to Israel as a nation, but specifically the believing remnant in Israel, and the believing remnant in Israel grows and expands into the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so the church receives these promises, the churches fulfilled them.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have the land of Israel, but we've got the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it better to have the whole world as the garden than confined to Israel?
SPEAKER_00: Again, I understand that argument, I don't buy it, because that's I just don't think that can what's described in Ezekiel 36 can be stretched globally like that.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's pretty clearly talking about the land of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But the second reason I don't buy it is because the promise was given to unbelieving Israel.
SPEAKER_00: At the end, it's the Valley of Dry Bones, the next chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Second observation.
SPEAKER_00: First, this promise was given to unbelieving Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Second, the promise stresses the physical elements of the Abrahamic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: The physical elements of the Abrahamic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this is stressing.
SPEAKER_00: There are spiritual elements of the Abrahamic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Abrahamic covenant has a mix of physical and spiritual in it.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual elements, faith.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham believed God by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It was credited to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: We are, as believing Christians, I would say we are children of Abraham in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody who puts their faith in Yahweh and who is justified by faith is a child of Abraham in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: But that is not the entirety of the Abrahamic promise.
SPEAKER_00: The Abrahamic promise is not merely those who put their faith in God will be saved by that faith, but it also includes the physical seed.
SPEAKER_00: It is marked by circumcision.
SPEAKER_00: There's a nation that will grow out of this.
SPEAKER_00: When you're looking at the story of Abraham, Genesis 12 and 13 and forward, the whole idea is that there is not a nation in the earth that God's going to use.
SPEAKER_00: There's a physical reality of this.
SPEAKER_00: That physical reality carries into the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 9, where Paul says, not all who are from Israel the man are real Israel.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the name is being passed down through unbelieving Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There's a remnant in Israel that is in that sense true Israel, but the Abrahamic covenant covers both.
SPEAKER_00: You know that in Romans 9 because Paul is begging for his brothers, the fellow Jews, to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't know why they're not saved.
SPEAKER_00: They have the promises, they have the patriarchs, they have the covenants, they have the commandments, they have the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: They're not saved, though.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to them.
SPEAKER_00: They are his countrymen and he wants them to be saved, but they're not.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean the word of God has failed because there's always been the remnant, but he's begging for these unbelieving Israelites to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Begging God.
SPEAKER_00: He even says in Romans 9, 1 and 2, I trade my own salvation for their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That's how bad he wants them to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to tell God, I return this so that my brother gets saved or my son gets saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works, but that's what Paul was trying in Romans 9.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a physical reality of the Abrahamic covenant that is real, that Paul understood was real.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at people that he are his brothers in the Abrahamic covenant, but not by faith, but through the physical act of circumcision, the passing down of the seed, the cultural and ethnic identity of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: That's what was meant in Genesis 13, is where Abraham and Lot separated, where God tells Abraham, I will give you this land to yours forever.
SPEAKER_00: The promises, in fact, in Genesis 13, if I'm recalling correctly, God even tells Abraham, look at the land.
SPEAKER_00: What you see, look at it, Abraham, look at it.
SPEAKER_00: That's where they'll live.
SPEAKER_00: The Abrahamic covenant itself declares that kings will come from Abraham, and you trace down the Abrahamic line to the kings.
SPEAKER_00: And those guys are not believers, most of them.
unknown: Huh?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Manasseh's in the line.
SPEAKER_00: Wicked, wicked people are in that line.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 27 repeats it with the notion that those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who cursed Israel will be cursed.
SPEAKER_00: This is Isaac, and he's receiving the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no denying that these promises have two elements in them.
SPEAKER_00: The Abrahamic covenant is both spiritual through faith and physical, through circumcision and the passing along of that ethnic identity.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why they're real you can really function with two Israels, not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That's Romans 9, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Now the fullness of the new covenant described in Ezekiel 36, the fullness of it includes both.
SPEAKER_00: The spiritual regeneration and renewal of ethnic Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Where does the church fit in?
SPEAKER_00: Well, not everything's about the church.
SPEAKER_00: But where does the church fit in?
SPEAKER_00: The church receives these new covenant blessings.
SPEAKER_00: We have the Spirit who cleanses us, who abides in us, who teaches us the Word of God, who builds us into a church body brick by brick.
SPEAKER_00: This is the new covenant church era.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate communion, which inaugurates the new covenant, celebrates the new covenant, the epistles of the New Testament are written to the church about the church.
SPEAKER_00: So we receive the blessings of the new covenant for sure, but we don't receive the land.
SPEAKER_00: Not all these promises are fulfilled in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And the point of Ezekiel 36, the end of it anyway, I argue, is that there is a time when both components of that promise will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: All Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Dry Bones, there's regeneration, and in that moment, all of Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's a phrase that's used in the end of Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 37, all of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It should remind you of somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11 uses it as well.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm saying to you, I hope I'm not being too confusing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to not be too confusing.
SPEAKER_00: I have lots of thoughts that go different directions.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to corral them like the Jeremiah's horses here and funnel them in one direction.
SPEAKER_00: That there are two components of the Abrahamic covenant, physical and spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture in Ezekiel 36 is that both of them reach fulfillment in this future age when Israel occupies the land, rebuilds the land, their kids won't be slaughtered in the land anymore, they won't die by enemies in the land anymore, other nations won't rule the land anymore, but Yahweh is the true shepherd will rule from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The nations of the earth will see that, and in that day all of Israel will be truly saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying this teaches.
SPEAKER_00: I see that described in many, many other places.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 24 was another chapter that I almost gave up on Ezekiel for Isaiah 24, because the same thing is taught there with a level of clarity where Yahweh is going to come to earth and reign over the nations from Mount Zion, it says in Isaiah 24.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to reign over the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The nations will see the Israelites back in the land.
SPEAKER_00: There's shadows of the exile and the return, even in Isaiah 24, and the land won't kill them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 14.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably the clearest chapter in the Bible of this.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 14.
SPEAKER_00: The Antichrist comes with his armies.
SPEAKER_00: It's very clearly a future event.
SPEAKER_00: The Antichrist comes with his armies, and then the Lord shows up.
SPEAKER_00: Remember how he shows up?
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful passage.
SPEAKER_00: He shows up with people getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: Individually.
SPEAKER_00: The kids, then the moms, then the dads.
SPEAKER_00: It's like totally reverse order of what you would expect.
SPEAKER_00: It goes that way, so you're letting know everybody's getting saved one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even households here.
SPEAKER_00: It's each individual.
SPEAKER_00: This is very much a new covenant reality.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a cool baptistic verse, too.
SPEAKER_00: Joel chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: The judgment on all nations will come, and then the day of the Lord will usher in this revival in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 19.
SPEAKER_00: The parable Jesus tells about the king, the man who gets a kingdom, but he's got to go away on a long trip.
SPEAKER_00: And so he leaves the stewards to take care of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He goes away to receive the kingdom and then he comes back.
SPEAKER_00: So for us Americans, that parable doesn't make a lot of sense because you're like, if you got the kingdom, why would you leave it and come back?
SPEAKER_00: Well, understand in the Roman Empire, that's the way kind of things worked.
SPEAKER_00: If one king dies, the next king has got to go to Rome to be appointed the king and then come back and reign.
SPEAKER_00: Or to use an analogy that might be more familiar with us, Jesus ascends to heaven to receive his kingdom, and he's going to come back and claim it here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's Luke 19, 11 through 28.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 24 and 25, the all of that discourse, a long description of the future judgment coming upon the nations that begins with Israel being destroyed and the kingdom going forth.
SPEAKER_00: Titus 2, verses 11 and 13, we look for the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Titus says we're looking for.
SPEAKER_00: The promise, this blessed hope that Jesus is going to appear again.
SPEAKER_00: He'll usher in these promises.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 1, verse 13, our hope is set on the appearing of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So our hope is in Christ and his death and resurrection, but our hope is set.
SPEAKER_00: It is fixed, is Peter's language in the Greek, actually.
SPEAKER_00: It's fixed on this future event where Jesus comes back and appears and ushers in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: We wait to be rescued from the coming wrath on the world.
SPEAKER_00: So this judgment on Edom from Ezekiel 35, we're waiting to be rescued from it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, 1 thess 1 verse 10, 1 thess 5, verse 2 says the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes back, he's revealed, the judgment comes with him.
SPEAKER_00: And then he ushers in these promises to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 2, 2 Peter 3, verse 10 describe this as happening like a thief in the night, along with other passages.
SPEAKER_00: Quickly, there's an event where Jesus comes back, he crushes the nations, puts down the revolt, and ushers in his Kingdom beginning with the salvation of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: But one more passage.
SPEAKER_00: We can leave Ezekiel behind.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to flip over to Romans chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 11 kind of ties this all up together here.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 9 is where Paul is begging for the Israelites to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 10 talks about the Gentiles getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever calls the name of the Lord will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's Romans 10.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11, Paul asks the question: Has God rejected his people?
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Israel, it echoes back from Romans 9.
SPEAKER_00: This is Romans 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Has God rejected his people?
SPEAKER_00: By no means, Paul says he's talking about physical Israel here.
SPEAKER_00: That's a key point.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an Israelite, a descendant from Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the physical Abrahamic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: He is a member of that.
SPEAKER_00: And he's wondering, did God reject that covenant?
SPEAKER_00: Because most Jews aren't saved.
SPEAKER_00: We see why in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: I mean they killed the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: They demolished the altars.
SPEAKER_00: Quoting from Elijah here.
SPEAKER_00: God always has a remnant, even in fallen Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, he's got his people that are a remnant.
SPEAKER_00: But then jump down to verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask, did they stumble?
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the Jews, did they stumble in order that they might fall?
SPEAKER_00: Are they done forever?
SPEAKER_00: By no means.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, by no means.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles as to make Israel jealous.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's describing a break here.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at this thing like Israel, Israel, Israel through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Israel, Israel, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They keep rebelling, keep rebelling, keep rebelling.
SPEAKER_00: Now they've fallen.
SPEAKER_00: Are they down for the count?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, they're not down for the count.
SPEAKER_00: They're only down long enough for Gentiles to get saved.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something new happening here.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Gentiles are being saved.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't, of course, a brand new thing.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 49 says Israel will be the light to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 1, verse 9 says the gospel goes first to the Jew and then to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 8, verse 11, Jesus describes people around the kingdom reclining with Abraham from all of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of John, he says, I'm the great shepherd, but I got sheep in this pasture and other flocks as well.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God has always planned on saving the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: You're seeing how he's doing it here in Romans 11.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites fell, and now there's the church growing in its place.
SPEAKER_00: He's got sheep in other pastures.
SPEAKER_00: He's got people in other nations.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gap in Daniel 9, verse 24, between the 69th and the 70th week.
SPEAKER_00: There's a gap there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you all these verses, so you know this is not like one random verse where I have a weird interpretation of Romans 11 or Ezekiel 36 and have developed a whole system out of it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is all over the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 13, verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, now we're going to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 13.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel goes to the Jews, they reject it, now it goes to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's theologizing this in Romans 11.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews stumbled, so the gospel's going to the Gentiles, Romans 11.11 says.
SPEAKER_00: But does that mean it's over?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: If their trespass means riches for the world, meaning salvation for the nations, if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion be?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is that full inclusion?
SPEAKER_00: The time is coming in the future where they will all be saved.
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking likely of Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: They're coming back.
SPEAKER_00: So if you think it's glorious now that there's Gentiles in the church, wait until you see how glorious it is when the Jews all get saved.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, I'm speaking to you Gentiles, and as much as I'm an apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my own ministry in order to somehow make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.
SPEAKER_00: So is Paul saying the Jews can't be saved in the church age?
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's playing up the Gentile salvation so that there will be Jews listening and go, hey, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing in quoting the Torah?
SPEAKER_00: That's my book.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says he's Lord of the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing saying Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath?
SPEAKER_00: That's the fourth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: The Jew is going to say, that's my commandment.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, oh no, Jesus says, Jesus says that he's the Lord of the Sabbath, and you're provoking them, and maybe you'll provoke one of them to say, okay, I'll believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul's describing here.
SPEAKER_00: And if a Jew gets saved, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He's part of the church.
SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, their rejection, verse 15, means reconciliation for the world.
SPEAKER_00: Their acceptance will mean life from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ezekiel 37, the dry bones, resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's working through Ezekiel here.
SPEAKER_00: Dry bones resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, if some of the branches are broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot, speaking of the Gentiles, were grafted in among the others, you now share in the nourishing of the root and the olive tree.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be arrogant towards the branches, and don't like flaunt yourself to the Jews and be like, eh, no, no, no, no, we've got the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, it's not you who support the root, the root supports you.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament leads to the new.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament doesn't prop up the old.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament leads to the new.
SPEAKER_00: The root of David, stump of Jesse, the root that goes forth, that brings forth the flourishing olive tree of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So don't be arrogant, verse 18 says.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you think you're gonna be arrogant, guess what's gonna happen to you?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get chopped right off and cast in the fire.
SPEAKER_00: So look out.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't spare the natural branches.
SPEAKER_00: He won't spare you either, arrogant Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: Behold the kindness and severity of God.
SPEAKER_00: However, verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: If they were cut off and you're grafted in, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?
SPEAKER_00: You see Paul's promise?
SPEAKER_00: The time is coming when they will be brought back.
SPEAKER_00: And then here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, this will happen until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.
SPEAKER_00: And when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, fullness here meaning everybody whom God has chosen to save, every Gentile, every predestined Gentile, every elect Gentile, when the fullness of them comes in, at that moment, verse 26, all Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: All Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
SPEAKER_00: What calling of God does Paul have in mind?
SPEAKER_00: Probably Ezekiel 36.
SPEAKER_00: That God is going to call Israel back to the land.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, he's working through the church.
SPEAKER_00: The branches have been broken off, the Gentiles grafted in.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: The day is coming when all Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Time would get away from us too much if I were to make a list of all of the old covenant promises that have not been fulfilled yet.
SPEAKER_00: But I have such a list.
SPEAKER_00: All of the land's promises that they're going to return.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it said, you know, at the end of the book of Joshua, it says all these promises were fulfilled, none of the words of Yahweh fell to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: All the things that were promised to them were fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: I buy that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel comes after Joshua.
SPEAKER_00: There's still promises that are still pointing forward.
SPEAKER_00: And the day is coming when God will bring them all to pass.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that you're not making this up as you go.
SPEAKER_00: But you've been planning this from before the foundation of time.
SPEAKER_00: You have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: The anchor of that plan is your covenant of redemption in eternity past.
SPEAKER_00: The names of the elect written in the book of life, and you've been unfolding them throughout world history.
SPEAKER_00: Now here we are in the church, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We are delight to be part of the sage.
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice in it.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful that you have chosen us by name to come to faith in the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: In this sense, we share Paul's thankfulness that Israel was broken off.
SPEAKER_00: Because where would we be if that didn't happen?
SPEAKER_00: But in another sense, our heart does break for the Jews that are alienated from the covenant now, from the promises.
SPEAKER_00: We share Paul's grief just begging.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they have the covenants.
SPEAKER_00: The patriarchs are theirs.
SPEAKER_00: Patriarchs belong to them.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we're branches that are grafted in.
SPEAKER_00: And so we long to see the Jewish people come to faith.
SPEAKER_00: We know one day they will, and the nations will see it.
SPEAKER_00: Israel will be established in the land.
SPEAKER_00: You will reign.
SPEAKER_00: You'll shake the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Haggai chapter 2 says, Hebrews 12 says the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: You'll shake the earth, and the treasure of the earth will go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The nations will turn their eyes upon the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: As he reigns over the world, we long for that day.
SPEAKER_00: Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, DC area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.