To understand the book of Ezekiel, you have to understand the first chapters of this book, the situation in which the prophet was placed as he wrote these words and these visions came unto him. And there is a valuable key to the understanding of the words in the first chapter of Ezekiel and the opening verses. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Kibar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God in the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiakim's captivity. The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans. by the river Kibar, and the hand of the Lord was there upon him." Now, Ezekiel was a priest in his thirtieth year. Well, now it came to pass in the thirtieth week and have no relevance to anything whatever except to the age of Ezekiel. The age of thirty was the age at which Those who were born to be priests in Israel of the line of Aaron were admitted to their priestly office. Not before the age of 30 they began to perform their priestly task. Now Ezekiel wasn't in Jerusalem. He was with the captivity by the river Kibar in the land of the Chaldeans as verse 3 expresses. no doubt like John on the Isle of Patmos when he was bereft of his beloved work on account of the persecution, the first great persecution of the Christian Church under the Emperor Domitian. So Ezekiel was separated from his beloved land and his beloved work by many, many, many weary miles. perhaps was never to see that land. For the captivity lasted from the destruction of Jerusalem 70 years. But this was prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. There were two captivities. There was the earlier captivity under King Jehoiachin, which was some 14 years before the captivity of the remainder of the people under the king who was then upon the throne. This earlier captivity did not involve the destruction of the temple and the city. It was preliminary to all that when the king Nebuchadnezzar took away the cream of the the craftsman, the statesman, the best of the people. He took away and carried into Babylon and amongst these was the young priest to be, Ezekiel. And he'd been there in the fifth year of King Jehoiakim's captivity. That means he had been there five years. when this vision came unto him while he was among the captives by the river Kibar. He was sitting there with the other people of the land who had been cast out from the, or carried away from the land of Israel, bemoaning their lot, no doubt, and thinking of the temple of Jerusalem and of the city, the land of their fathers. graves of their ancestors. Terrible thing to be, an exile from your country with no hope of ever returning. And peculiarly poignant was this experience of Ezekiel because he had now arrived in his thirtieth year, when he would have been going into the temple for the first time to offer The calling to which he had been born, and for which he had been trained, and now was never to execute. While he was there bemoaning his lot, the hand of the Lord came upon him. Nilute and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof was the colour of amber. Out of the midst of the fire he sees four living creatures. a marvelous vision in the first chapter which is explained for us later that these were the four cherubim, the four great beasts of the book of Revelation which John saw, and their characteristics gathered from the prophecy of Ezekiel. The cherubim are presented here as symbolic beasts or living creatures. They bear the resemblance of a man, a lion, an eagle, and an ox, the four leading members of the tribes of animate creation, and representing in themselves the powers of God in creation. It is very, very important to understand this, that we are beholding in this great symbolic vision, in this and the other chapters, what the earlier scriptures described as the mercy seat and the sanctuary of God, which shall have been first appeared at the entrance to the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword to keep every way, every, to keep the way to the Tree of Life. And they are symbolic, therefore, of the power and greatness and the holiness of God in creation and in His reign over all creation. When they reappear upon the Ark of the Covenant, upon the golden lid, as the two cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, they represent the presence of God in all his creative power. We see in the vision of Ezekiel the representation of the triune God in all his glory and power with the aspect of mediatorship supreme. We cannot now go into detail upon these points because we want to pass rapidly to the 11th chapter which has a very special significance for us but before we reach the 11th chapter We pause on the threshold of it in chapter 10, and we see the cherubim again. And we are to associate this with the priesthood of Ezekiel, which he was never to execute. And what he sees in these opening chapters of his prophecy is the true representation of what the temple is and what it is for. While he is in Babylon as a captive, instead of his going to the temple, the temple comes to him. So he is no longer deprived of his functions of entering upon the priesthood, but he exercises them there in the spirit in the land of his captivity. what the temple really represents comes to him and he sees God traveling upon the chariot upheld by the cherubim on the chariot of creation riding down the ages in judgment and in grace and in providence to bring to pass his purposes. He sees the innermost meaning of the temple and of the holiest place of the sanctuary coming towards him, representing the holiness of God. He sees the four wheels of the chariot of God, bearing omnipotence at the will of omnipotence, just wherever omnipotence directs for the accomplishment of his purposes. And in chapter 10 and verse 13, we read a peculiar verse, as for the wheels it was cried unto them in my hearing whole wheel, so that the wheels of the divine chariot, carried by the cherubim of glory, the wheels are addressed as personal things, they are spoken to, and this indicates to us living creation. And our brother Mr. Whitelaw will appreciate this more than any of us, I think, seeing he is so intimately connected with the secrets of material creation. That creation in the Bible is a living thing and must be so regarded. It is not a material thing in itself. To be understood it is to be seen as the means by which the living God expresses himself. It serves no material purpose, but a divine purpose. And so the cherubim in the book of Revelation become living and they are also the seraphim. Another word for the cherubim in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, where they cry one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And creation can be only understood as to be seen as the vehicle of the divine omnipotence and power, that by which God rides in glory to the fulfillment of his purposes. One of the great tragedies of the present age, of course, is that creation has become entirely a materialistic thing. It is an accident of nature. or what went before nature or whatever you care, however you care to express it. It has within itself written no purpose, no divine wisdom, no particular end in view. No one knows how it came about and no one knows how it's going to finish. This is being pumped into our children in our educational system. It is being assumed as being true. by almost every commentator who appears upon me in the mediums of communication, and it is accepted by the world at large. And hence they commit the murder of abortion, they commit racial suicide, as the Western nations are, so that if this process goes on we shall be overwhelmed presently in one or two generations by an overwhelming tide of colour I'm nothing against colour, by the way, but this is just sheer fact. From north, south, east and west, for the white races to whom was committed the gospel in the days of the Apostle Paul, have surrendered their heritage, are in process of surrendering it, and also committing racial suicide by the limitation of population, by abortion, and by all these terrible crimes which are being committed and being committed because the idea of God has gone out of history and out of creation and there is no longer a law to which we are responsible and no longer an all-wise creator who knows exactly how many people can occupy the globe and no attempt ever being made yet economically or scientifically to discover the possible resources of the globe, to sustain any amount of people who might ever live upon it, however much they may be multiplied. We have no conception of the powers of creation. Creation is a living thing. It is the chariot and the means of expression of the divine glory. It was said unto them in my hearing, All who And he sees the wheels surrounded by eyes. The Spirit of God breathing through the whole of creation. The omnipotence of God, His omniscience manifested in every part. From this point, Ezekiel travels on. He is caught up in the Spirit. He is conveyed to Jerusalem. and there sees in the temple itself. He's only there in the spirit and not in the flesh. He sees the corruption of the religion of his forefathers. He sees the whole nation and particularly the priesthood given over to abomination. He sees some of the men he knows in chapter 11 The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house, which lucreth eastward. And behold, at the door of the gate five and twenty men, among whom I saw Jarsaniah, the son of Asa, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief. and give wicked counsel in this city which say it is not near. That is the destruction of the city is not near. Don't listen to Jeremiah away back there in the land. Or in the voice of Ezekiel which is now speaking in the land of the captivity. They say it is not near. The destruction of the city is not near. Let us build houses. This city is the cauldron and we be the flesh. saying which is interpreted a little later on, to which we may not give attention just now. Jeremiah recognizes these men. They are the men who are surrounding the throne of the king, the king who is giving himself entirely over to sin and to wickedness, the king who is appointed there by the heathen power and who serves that heathen power only too well until he rebels at the last against King Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of the Chaldeans come and overthrow the city and destroy the temple and lay it waste and the land lies waste for the 70 years of Jeremiah's prophecy. This is the background of what Ezekiel is given to tell and we have read from verse 13 of chapter 11 And it came to pass when while Ezekiel was prophesied that Pelitia the son of Benaiah dies. One of these wicked men as a symbol who is one of the princes of the people as a symbol that God's judgment was falling upon that nation. This is only in vision of course he's not actually in Jerusalem to see this. He is by the river Kibar in the land of the Chaldeans. But in the spirit, like John in the spirit, he finds himself in heaven. He sees all these glorious things passing before him, which have to do with the preservation of the people of God in their age long persecutions and afflictions, as we were hearing this morning. So similarly to Ezekiel, he was caught up in the spirit. He sees the sins of the people, the sins of the Old Testament church. He sees the reason why destruction will not be long delayed. And then he returns in the spirit and finds himself again amongst the captives by the river Kibar. And as he is sitting with them and they look upon him and he looks upon them and they are expecting a word from God. and he cries with a loud voice as he sees the son of Benaiah dying. Our Lord God will thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel and the word of the Lord comes to him. Now mark these words in verse 15. Son of man, thy brethren even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred and all the house of Israel holy are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said get you far from the Lord Unto us is this land given in possession. I wish that all our futuristic friends were present here to hear some explanation at any rate of such a verse as this. And they would understand then that there are two Israels. There is the Israel in the land of the captivity and there is the Israel in the land of Palestine. And Ezekiel stands between the two. He sees the coming destruction because of the righteousness and holiness of God upon those who committed abomination despite his holy law and turned the temple of God into a temple of heathenism away there in Jerusalem. And he sees them as the one Israel. and the other Israel, the men who sat beside him, the men of the captivity. And the word of the Lord says to him, son of man, differentiate between these two Israels, the true Israel, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred and all the house of Israel holy. are these men by the river Kibar in the land of Chaldea. And they are the men to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem are saying, get you far from the Lord unto us is this land given in possession. You men in the captivity have no right in Jerusalem anyway. This is what they were saying in effect. You were carried away. along with King Jehoiachin five years ago. And the Lord is not going to bring you back. There you stay. Now he's left us in the land, therefore we are the true church. We are the true Israel because God hasn't moved us. Get you far away from us and to us is this land given in possession. You will never return to it again. But if you do, it will not be yours. And so the people of the captivity were despised because they had been cast out of the land and carried away captive. And this was the verdict which the Jews in Jerusalem were passing upon them. They and their security. It will not happen to us. The destruction prophesied by Jeremiah in our midst is not near. Let us build houses. Let us make all arrangements for staying here an indefinite period of time. Because we are the people whom the Lord has spared. We are the real chosen people. And God will not cast us out of the land, as for these who have been taken away captive. They're not to be numbered amongst Israel at all. And as the people in the captivity felt the pain of all this, the words of Ezekiel came to them, son of man. Thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel holy, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord. Unto us is this land given in possession. Now notice how Ezekiel addresses them or how he is addressed. He is addressed as son of man. Now this is the title which our Lord takes to himself. in the days of his flesh. There's a good deal of work to be done upon the Lord's use of the term son of man. And it springs from two exiled prophets, Daniel and Ezekiel, who were contemporary one with the other. For Daniel was one of the men who was carried away with Ezekiel in the original transport of the captives from Jerusalem. in the earlier years of King Nebuchadnezzar. These and Azariah and Mishael and the other one of the three companions of Daniel, many other of the younger men, the finest, the cream of the community. Nebuchadnezzar made a very wise selection. when he selected these men and carried them away to captivity. He saw that these were the people who were the real soul and spirit of the nation. And so he carried them away captive and left the others to serve him. And they did serve him until the time when the arrangement broke down and they rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar. Contrary to the advice of Jeremiah who was cast into prison as a traitor and as a fifth columnist for prophesying the way he did in Jerusalem. So nothing could avail for the devoted city but Nebuchadnezzar came and swept away the whole of the city and temple and priesthood Those who weren't slain were carried away captive and never saw their own country again. But in this interim period, the word comes through Ezekiel, son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred. Now he is speaking in the name of Christ, or rather Christ is speaking in him. And this is shown in the New Testament by the use of the term Son of Man. The prophet spake by the Word of God. And the Word of God was Christ, he who is the power of God, the wisdom of God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Logos, the eternal Word, the reason why God does everything. God's other self. in whom he sees himself and loves what he sees, the eternal son of the eternal father. It is he who speaks in anticipation, many centuries beforehand, in anticipation of the work which he would do in the New Testament under the gospel. He prepares the way by showing Israel in advance that he makes a difference between Israel and Israel. that there are two Israels and that this must be understood if he would understand prophecy. Moreover, he's addressed in these terms, son of man, thy brethren, and the expression is duplicated to make sure precisely that Ezekiel understood what was being said. Thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred. Now the brethren of Christ are the church, the true church. And Ezekiel begins to unfold. We read in the 19th chapter, or the 20th chapter is it, of the Gospel of John. While it was yet dark on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene comes early and finds the stone taken away from the sepulcher and passing over the intervening events. Later on the same morning she finds herself alone in the garden again in the presence of a man whom she supposes to be the gardener. It is none other than Jesus standing and she knows not because He has shrouded himself from her recognition, as he does with the two the same day on the road to Emmaus. For the purpose of revealing himself to them in a special way, their eyes were holden that they could not behold him with recognition, and so with Mary in the garden. And she, supposing him to be the gardener, said, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him. and I will take him away. And he says to her, Master, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren. Notice that. Go to my brethren and tell them, I ascend to my father and your father, to my God and your God. We turn back to Psalm 22. The 22nd psalm, the great crucifixion psalm, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? The same psalm which ends with the last saying of the cross, it is finished. At the end of verse 31 in the Hebrew, that he hath done this, it is finished in the Hebrew. And in verse 22, where the Lord cries that he might be saved in order that he might be preserved to do his task by being raised from the dead. The assurance coming to him upon the tree that this would be done. He says in verse 22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. And so he says to Mary Magdalene, who there stands prophetically for the church Let's make no mistake about that because Mary Magdalene is Mary of Bethany. They're one and the same woman. And it was Mary Magdalene who anointed his feet. And it was Mary of Bethany, her other name. This is another story. Someday we might have the privilege of going into it all and showing the marvellous mystery which is unfolded therein. And how it all comes back to that verse in the first chapter of the Song of Solomon, which says that while the king sat at his table, my spikenard gave forth the smell thereof. And so she took her box of spikenard, exceeding precious, as the king sat at meet in the house of Simon the Pharisee, who was her brother-in-law. The only reason why she could be admitted to such a place, and she with her character, that she formerly had, and anointed his feet with a spikenard, the smell thereof filled the house. That was the church. And to Mary Magdalene he first revealed himself, and said, Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father. Go and tell them that Psalm 22, verse 22 is now being completed. One reason why I said last night that We shall require a new exegesis of the first verse of that psalm as to what it means. For before the Lord ever finished the psalm upon the cross, he was in complete communion with the Father. How many seconds had to elapse between the time that he was forsaken and the time that he was not forsaken. Absurd, he was never forsaken. And we are to understand those words in another sense than that which is imposed upon us. Because while he was upon the cross, all the contents of this psalm, he was feeding upon the contents of this psalm. And he knew every portion of it. He knew he would quote the first verse. He knew he would quote the last verse. It is finished. And he knew that when he rose from the dead, he would quote verse 22 to Mary Magdalene in the garden, as she was there represented as the New Testament church. And the reason why she wasn't to touch him was because she represented the church and the church had not yet been constituted till 50 days afterwards on the day of Pentecost. And the touch me not was not because the touch of earth might have soiled him on his passage into heaven because he'd already been in heaven. He'd already said to the dying thief, this day shall thou be with me in paradise. And that was two days before. So he'd already been to heaven and all this idea that Christ was on his way to heaven to present his sacrifice to the Eternal Father and must not be touched in the meantime is sheer nonsense. It has no basis whatever, either in fact or in reason. The reason why Mary Magdalene must not touch him was because the time had not come for her. Later on, he was touched by the other women. He said to Thomas, reach here thy hand and put it in my nail prints and be not faithless, but believing. Of course, he could be touched and by Mary Magdalene, too, but not at that moment. And referring to his ascension, which took place 40 days afterwards, he meant this, that the church would not know him in her fully constituted New Testament sense. until he had ascended to the right hand of power and had sent down from heaven that gift of the Holy Spirit, which was the seal of the New Covenant and the establishment of the New Testament Church. Then it was that she who represented the church would touch him, but not with a touch of earth, but with a touch of faith. She would take up the hem of his robe. She would there worship at his feet. She would there as representative of the church, or the church as represented in her, would present herself in worship before the Lamb. How wonderful is the Gospel of John. How wonderful the Bible is. It all hangs together and has to be compared one place with another. And of course I don't need to remind you that Paul in the second chapter of Hebrews, I said Paul by the way in the second chapter of Hebrews, And I meant Paul, who wrote the epistles of the Hebrews. And it's not only because I've got John Owen on my side, which would be enough for any rational man, but because the epistles of the Hebrews, like every other doctrinal portion of the Old Testament, had to be written by an apostle. Because to the apostles only was given the unfolding of truth. The only three parts of the Bible not written by an apostle were those historical parts, Mark, Luke, and Luke's history of the spread of the church and the acts of the apostles. Hebrews is the greatest doctrinal treaty of the whole of the Bible. And therefore it was not written in epistolary form. And that is why the apostle Paul, his identity is shrouded behind the new style, the formal style of delivery and proving. For this was intended to be a treatise on the Christian faith and the relation of Judaism to the gospel and those who had been brought over from Judaism and what their place was and how the old covenant passed into the new. It's a formal doctrinal treatise and not a letter. We don't come to the letter to the end. till the very end, when the critics admit that if the rest of it isn't Pauline, then the last chapter is Pauline. How that got in without his writing the rest, we don't know. And the confusion is whoever could have written it, of course, is confusion, worse confounded, because they just can't agree upon anybody at all. Almost everybody except Paul gets a show. But the very man who did write it is, of course, and must be excluded. It was Paul who understood, and Paul who said in the second chapter of Hebrews, in verse 11, For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, quoting Psalm 22, 22, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. So we have the interpretation of this word brethren. Son of man, Ezekiel, thou who dost stand. A priest who never exercises priesthood in the temple. Thou dost stand for the great Melchizedek. The great high priest of Israel who shall come. who also never exercised any priestly functions in the temple of Jerusalem, but by his own blood entered once into the holy place of which that upon earth was only the shadow of the truth, there to appear in the presence of God for us and to plead for his brethren and to send his spirit down upon them to declare thy name, O God, to my brethren, that is to make God known to be their God as He is my God and as He is my Father, that He might be their God and their Father too. Therefore, Mary Magdalene, thou who standest there in the place of the church, prophetically in the shoes of the church herself, go to my brethren. Ah yes, that was the word, isn't it? Not to my apostles, not to my disciples, not to Peter, James and John, but go to my brethren. That is, in all ages, all those who are numbered amongst my brethren, go to them and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father and my God and your God. That is, I have made them one with you, even as I prayed in the 17th of John before my crucifixion, that they all might be one as thou, Father, art in me. And I in thee that they may be one in us, that the world may know that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. Think of this now. This word brethren is a crucial word. It's found first in this specific way in David in the 22nd Psalm, prophetic of the crucifixion. and of what the consequences of the crucifixion would be in the declaring of the name of God to the brethren. It is taken up by the Apostle Paul and explained of the church in the second chapter of Hebrews. It is given to the church to proclaim it in the person of Mary Magdalene, who is also the woman of the Song of Solomon, whose spikenard when the king sat at And she only of her day knew in that intimate sense that he was the king who shrouded in the homespun garment of the Galilean. She penetrated the robe and saw within the king in his beauty. And in the name of the church, though she was unwitting in this and did not know what her office was, in the name of the church anoints him to his burial, sends him on his way, on his task, that he might return again, that he would say, touch me not, for thou art the church and thou art not come to the great moment yet when thy function shall begin. Touch me not after the Old Testament fashion. Thine will be a greater, more marvelous, more spiritual touch. Thou shalt touch me with thy prayers, with thy devotion, with thy worship. And oh, so intimate, thou, O Church, shalt be one with me in the presence of the Father forever. Touch me not, but go and tell my brethren, tell my brethren, that the 22nd Psalm is now fulfilled. I am declaring to them the name of God and the name of my God is my Father and your Father. And you will learn to cry Abba Father when my Spirit comes down and illuminates you and brings you fully into the full treasures of the divine grace and privilege and standing. Now we turn back with his added information to the 11th chapter of Ezekiel. We begin to understand it is Christ speaking, Son of Man, Thy Brethren, even Thy Brethren. The expression duplicated so that we might make no mistake, we might be arrested by it, this all-important key word, Thy Brethren, O Son of God, who also art the Son of Man. Even Thy Brethren, the men of Thy kindred. as we all know or ought to know, even from our Scofield Bibles, by the way. And in this, Dr. Scofield has given, done us a service. And let us give credit where credit is due. Some of us as young believers wouldn't have known of the existence of the Hebrew word, Goel, unless we had read it in Dr. Scofield. We might have read it somewhere else, of course, but we didn't. We got it from Dr. Scofield. And to that extent, we are very, very grateful to his late eminence and hope to meet him on the streets of heaven and say doctor you made quite a few mistakes in your day but here's our hand all is forgiven and forgotten from now onwards and we did our best to overturn all the things that you did which you shouldn't have done and we're still at the task now but this word kindred is a very special word it is And Dr. Schofield didn't discover this, of course, he simply made a note of it so that we young fellows who haven't even thought of learning Hebrew at that time might have some inkling as to what it was about. I don't think he said much about this 11th chapter of Ezekiel. He was talking more concerned about the liturgical sacrifices. But it is the same word here. It means our kinsmen in a redemptive sense. The men of thy kindred, the men of thy redemption, the men who are appointed to thee, that thou by thine own most precious blood might redeem them from all iniquity. The men of thy kindred, all the house of Israel holy, are they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, get you far from the Lord. Unto us is this land given. which is this land given in possession. Or to use a more literal translation yet which is suggested to us by Dr. Hengstenberg in the German and some kind friend has translated this into English. Thy brethren, thy brethren are the men of this ransom. And the whole house of Israel, the whole, They to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, Father ye from the Lord, to us the land is given for a possession. Which makes it even more emphatic still in this literal rendering. Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren are the men of this ransom. These who are sitting around you. This is the whole house of Israel. The whole. They to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say. You don't belong to us. Away get you hence. To us is this land given for a possession. And we turn over again the pages to the New Testament in Romans chapter 11. And brethren, this is the verse that we've got to encounter. This is the verse we've got to have a reckoning with if we are to overcome the errors of the present time. This is the one in which post-millennialists and pre-millennialists alike are so interested in concern. And regard this as the key to the whole situation. Romans 11. And verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, they shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my covenant unto them and I shall take away their sin. All Israel shall be saved. Now who is all Israel? Ezekiel has already anticipated the question by giving the answer in our verse 15 of Ezekiel 11. Thy brethren the men of I kindred, and all the house of Israel holy. Or in our literal translation, the whole house of Israel, the whole repeated in the Hebrew. They to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, yours is not the land, to us it is given. Now a premillennial and futurist friend I'll have to get some tongue drill to get round that fearful name. Our futuristic friend turning to Romans 11 wave this verse in our faces hurl it at us and think that this one verse demolishes our whole system and so all Israel shall be saved but Ezekiel has already told us that all the house of Israel are they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, get you hence, yours is not the land, it is ours. Don't you see the significance of this word in Ezekiel, in association with the Pauline doctrine in Romans 11, that when Paul says and so all Israel shall be saved, he is referring to the election of grace in Israel itself alongside of and combined with the fullness of the Gentiles in that preceding verse. And the two together, the election of grace which Israel has always cast out. It's a get you hence, like the poor Christians in Palestine now, the Christian Jews I mean. Everybody knows who's been to Palestine, had any conversation with them. I haven't been to Palestine. I've known those who have been there. I've seen it in writing, too, by men who are futurists and who have every interest in Jewish evangelization over there, who complain of the hardships which the Christian Jews have to endure on account of the fact that they're no true part of Jewry. And they're not recognized as part of Jewry, but because they have the Jewish physiognomy and Jewish descent, therefore, they cannot, according to the laws which they themselves have established, keep them from the land, keep them outside, or even drive them out. Someday they might try to do so if they're there long enough. But if they do so, they will incur the ignominious of being persecutors themselves, of their own people. Those were of their own race. But the Christian Jew is always cast out from Jewry. He must needs be so. They'll put up with an atheistic Jew. They'll put up with a modernistic Jew. They'll put up with all kinds of Jews, and there are all kinds of Jews there. And very few of them orthodox Jews. They'll put up with all of them. But they will not put up with a Christian because by becoming a Christian he has contracted out of Jewry. And they know it. They know it well. But these are the true Israelites. The election of grace. Paul says in the first verses of Romans 11. I say then hath God cast away his people? God forbid I because I am also an Israelite. That is, God has not cast away his true people, else I would be cast away. But the fact that I am an Israelite proves that God has not cast away his people. Verse 2, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. And then verse 5, even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Verse 7, What then Israel hath not obtained, that which he seeketh for? But the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. And so on right through the chapter. He plainly shows who all Israel are. They are the election of grace. Not only of the Jew, but also of the Gentiles. And all the converging light of the Pauline epistles is brought to bear upon this. And they will make Paul at enmity with himself. Paul contradicting Paul in order to establish their point here, that all Israel is all the twelve tribes of the earthly Israel. But they're not all Israel anyway. And even if every person who calls himself a Jew were converted tomorrow, that wouldn't be all Israel being saved either. You've got to include Caiaphas and Judas Iscariot. They're all Israel too, aren't they? You've got to include every atheistic Jew who ever lived. You've got to include everybody from the time of Jacob right to this present day who's ever lived upon the earth. All the wicked whom God has long ago rejected. These are all Israel. The last remnant of the tag end of the historic succession of Israel is not that which is in the land of Palestine today or even the even greater number of them who are walking the streets of New York at this very moment. For there are more Jews in New York than there are in Palestine and likely to remain so too. These are not all Israel. You include all of them but they're not all Israel at all. Unless you include the whole posterity of Abraham. You cannot make sense out of this word all Israel will be saved. And to do them justice there are some futurists who actually say that. And they include Judas Iscariot, they include Caiaphas, they include the lots. They include every monster of cruelty that Israel has ever produced. It would be difficult to find the election of grace in the vast multitude of the ungodly. Who according to the theory are all Israel who are going to be saved. But Ezekiel has already given us the key to the understanding of who all Israel is. Thy brethren, thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel holy are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, get you far from the law. And so here there's a distinction made between Israel and Israel. And to that election of grace we belong, though we be not children of Abraham. Yet are we the seed of Abraham by adoption and by grace, and we are as much the children of Abraham as they are not the children of Abraham, who claim to be the children of Abraham in Christ's day, to whom he said, ye are not the children of Abraham, ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. And nothing could be plainer than that, that anyone who is not of the election of grace is not a child of Abraham. They are not of the seed of Abraham. And this is a divine doctrine concerning Jacob, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descent. Their descent consists only, not in part but entirely, of the election of grace of Jew and Gentile united in one body as we have the Pauline doctrine in Ephesians. Our time is limited and we must hasten to the conclusion of the matter. Now to these people the Lord Christ addresses himself in the person of Ezekiel, son of man. The son of man now speaks and he speaks not only to that little company of forlorn captives by the river Kibar. surrounding Ezekiel on that never-to-be-forgotten day and hear the pearls of wisdom and the gems of divine truth falling from the young priest's lips. Not them only, but all the people of God in all time to the end of time are now being addressed. Thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them off among the heathen, And although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary, a temple. The temple of Jerusalem will be destroyed, son of man. And I will destroy it, but these who are my sheep will always have a temple, a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. They will always find me there. as the temple has come to you Ezekiel this never to be forgotten birthday of yours and you've seen the cherubim and you've seen the glory not just the golden cherubim overshadowing the mercy seats but you now see the representation of the living creation of all the omnipotent powers of God on the moon greater than ever you would have seen if you'd been the high priest of Israel entering into the sanctuary once a year only with the blood of others. Now you see unto you is given the full revelation of the greatness and the glory of God in the cherubim, riding down the ages to perform the divine will and to carry out the divine purposes, going straight always to their end, according as the spirit which is in them directs. And his word is directed to the whole house of Israel. The house of Israel holy, the men of thy ransom, the men of thy kindred. I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will give you the land of Israel. That means I will give you the privileges which are represented by the land of Israel. The promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The fulfillment of that promise in eternal redemption brought to you which is only prefigured in that poor temple which must eventually be cast away, rebuilt and again destroyed a second time and never rebuilt anymore. For Ezekiel sees, does he not, in the end of his book, in the end of his prophecy, he sees after the temple has been destroyed in his 25th year in Babylon and already the temple has been now destroyed and the few captives that remain have been brought over to join the refugees already in the land of Chaldea and he sees rising again another temple which our futurist friends declare is going to be built again upon the temple site. and blood sacrifices offered therein. And despite what Dr. Schofield and the others say about these are sacrifices in memorial, it doesn't say so. It says this is the sin offering that's being offered up again. And moreover, circumcision is required again, which Paul declared, I declare unto you, he says, that if ye be circumcised, Christ is become of no prophet to you, ye are fallen from grace. But in Ezekiel you will find in the prophecy of the New Testament temple that no stranger who is uncircumcised in heart or in flesh shall enter into the house of God. And so evidently circumcision in the Millennial temple is going to be re-established. The temple veil is going to be re-erecting again. You'll see it in Ezekiel's temple. Only this time it will be more solid and more permanent. It'll be made of wood. It'll no longer be a veil that can rent. It'll never be able to be rent again. And so you'll have more difficulty than ever in getting into the sanctuary if this is a material thing. Oh, the parade of knowledge. which people make regarding these things and only betray the ignorance of the true genius of the word of God and the spirit in which that word is presented to us and how we are to understand it. So here, I will gather you out from amongst the people and give you the land of Israel. You who are not regarded as Israelites at all, you have been thrust out from Israel, whom Israel will not acknowledge. to you will be given this land, whereas they say to us the land is given in possession. But to this other Israel, elect Israel of Jew and Gentile, yours will be the land. I will give it to you, despite what these people say. And that will be the symbol. The land is symbolic there of the privileges I will bestow upon you, the great gospel privileges and standing which these poor types and shadows only prefigured and represented. And notice verse 19 and 20, I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh. This is regeneration, of course, that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God. If this is not a gospel promise, there is no gospel promise. And yet they take the 36th chapter of Ezekiel, where these words are repeated. Verse 25, verse 24, I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land. Ah, say the literalists and the futurists. You see, you can't get past this, God is going to bring them back into their own land. But who is he going to bring back into their own land? The brethren of Ezekiel 11. And to make absolutely sure that that is the case, that there's no confusion about it at all, the Holy Spirit repeats here what is in chapter 11 concerning the new covenant. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and your idols will I cleanse you, and new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." That's Ezekiel 11, 19 repeating. That they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances. So Ezekiel is saying the same thing to the same people. And this is the whole of Israel, the men of Christ's ransom, the men whom He has redeemed, His brethren, the house of Israel holy, those to whom He addressed Himself when He rose from the dead. Go and tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. And remind them of these words in Ezekiel 36 and 28. Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. And again Ezekiel 11 verse 20 that they may walk in my statues and keep mine ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God. Tell my brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and to your God. The whole of the Bible hangs together as you put all these pieces of the jigsaw together. They make one glorious picture of Christ. It is mediatorial glory. in his kingly appearance as the king of the son of Solomon, the spikenard of the church filling the house as the king sits at meat. The worship of his people, the true Israel, the men of this ransom, the house of Israel holy, my brethren, my people, the elect Israel, the inner Israel, the true Israel of Jew and Gentile, my glorious church, for which I have died, which I have purchased with my own blood, and which in heaven shall behold my glory, and be one in me with the Father, as I am one with the Father and the Father with me, that they may be one in us. Amen.