Is Our Worship Better?

Series on Ezekiel

III. The Fulfilled Promises

B. Faithful Worship, Text:44:1-46:24

Title: Is Our Worship Better?

Introduction

In our last study we saw Ezekiel’s vision of Israel’s future in his description of an ideal temple, very large, very high and filled with the glory of God. We understand this temple to be a symbolical representation of the spiritual blessings that God is going to bring to his people in the new covenant. We cannot separate this ideal temple for example from the prophecies of Ezekiel 36:24-26, which clearly anticipate the cleansing and renewal brought by Christ, For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. The idea of rebuilding the temple and resuming the sacrifices of the Old Testament is completely contrary to the teaching of the book of Hebrews which reminds us that we are God’s temple, that Christ is our only high priest who made a full and permanent atonement for our sins so that there is no longer any need of priesthood or sacrifice, that we are all a spiritual priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices to God, and that the worship of the earthly tabernacle and temple has been completely replaced by a new form of worship. In fact, the book of Hebrews actually takes the viewpoint that missing this fulfillment in Christ and going back to the weak and beggarly elements of the old covenant is tantamount to apostasy. Fortunately most people who believe in the material rebuilding of the temple and the resumption of animal sacrifices are less than consistent and still believe to a significant degree in the fulfillment in Christ. Nevertheless i must say, in all honesty, that to ignore the perspective given in Hebrews is dangerous. As we look tonight at prescriptions for worship in the visionary temple of Ezekiel we need to apply these appropriately to our own New Testament worship which is the real fulfillment for this is a vision of the heavenly Jerusalem of Hebrews 12:22-24, But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. The Jewish Christians are warned not to go back to the old Jerusalem as the center of their faith. The words of chapter 43:10 are an admonition to us to do purify our worship in the same way Israel was to purify theirs, Son of man describe the temple to the people of Israel that they may be ashamed of their sins. Three principles may be observed: worship must be pure, practical and perfect.

I Pure

Purity is in view in chapter 44. The prescriptions regarding the prince and the priests are set forth with a view to establishing a principle which is summarized in verses 5-9, The LORD said to me, “Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and give attention to everything I tell you concerning all the regulations regarding the temple of the LORD. Give attention to the entrance of the temple and all the exits of the sanctuary. Say to the rebellious house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel! In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant. Instead of carrying out your duty in regard to my holy things, you put others in charge of my sanctuary.’ This is what the Sovereign LORD says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites.” The purity here is not the purity involved in the regulative principle of worship, that is, in doing only what God has commanded, but rather the purity of the participants. This may be observed in the extraordinary regulations carried over from the law. According to verse 18 even perspiration was offensive to God, This has nothing to do with the fact of being offended by body odor today, for which we have a multiplicity of commercial products called anti-perspirants Rather it points to the zeal which we must have for keeping ourselves separate and holy for acceptable worship. I think of the exhortation of Jude 21-23, i also think of the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 where he says to his disciples Be perfect therefore even as your father in heaven is perfect ,and in that same chapter in verses 23 and 24 warns us not to come to worship God unless we are reconciled to our brother. And looking again at the book of Hebrews in 12:14 in the same place where it says we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, we read, Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. And we might add, without holiness no one can truly worship God.

II Practical

In chapter 45 we have a description of the allotment of the land. The land is a symbol of private property, of personal possession and personal dignity. look at verses 9-11, This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “You have gone far enough, O princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah and an accurate bath. The ephah and the bath are to be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both. There is to be justice and righteousness in the land. The whole point here is that you cannot have a holy temple in which God dwells in a place where unrighteousness and injustice prevail. We must understand, first of all, that although we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the vision of Ezekiel and the Old Testament prophets does not distinguish between our present fulfillment and the future perfect fulfillment. The prophets’ visions are one whole. We have already entered the heavenly Jerusalem, but it has not become as perfect as it will be. Thus the righteousness is not going to be as perfect as it will be. We also need to understand that the practical righteousness in view here is in the city of the Lord. We are not talking here about changing society, though that is a duty; we are talking about justice and equity in the Church and kingdom of Christ, that is about the way we treat one another, as for example in James 2:1-7, My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? James is talking about polluting worship.

III Perfect

The emphasis in chapter 46 is on the worship itself and so reflects a concern for the regulative principle which, in brief, says that the only proper way to worship the Lord is the way he has prescribed. and one must not introduce anything else into worship except that which is pleasing to God, according to His Word. The prescriptions in this chapter do not agree in all respects with the prescriptions of the Levitical law and thus they intimate that changes will be taking place. Nevertheless, they are written in terms the people to whom Ezekiel spoke could understand. We sense that there is something greater in view. However the principle does not change. It involves the people in keeping careful rules. I had a grandfather who was very superstitious. He would never reenter the house by the same door he had gone out. As a kid, I thought that was very silly. Ironically that’s one of God’s detailed rules for the worshippers in verse 9, When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate; and whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. No one is to return through the gate by which he entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate. The rules for sacrifices were to be carefully observed as in verse 13, Every day you are to provide a year-old lamb without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD; morning by morning you shall provide it. The whole point of our carefully observing the pattern here as we learn throughout Ezekiel 40-48 is that we are to be as circumspect and as careful about our worship of God as they were and even more so. Going back again to Hebrews 12 this is exactly what we are told. There we note first that the commandments of the law engendered fear in Hebrews 12:18-21, and then when the author speaks of the fact that we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem he paints a beautiful picture, but the conclusion is quite different than what some people might expect. He does not say, therefore since you are not trembling under the law and its penalties you can worship God any old way you please. Rather he says in verses 28 and 29, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” We should be even more concerned than they were about doing the right thing. This ought to be our primary directive in worship, not what do I like, or what do I get out of it, or what pleases me, but what is acceptable to God.