Bible In A Year - Ezekiel

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

0 views

0 comments

00:01
We are going to do the next book, which is the book of Ezekiel this morning. How many were here and remember when
00:07
Wes Jameson did Ezekiel? He did a high level overview.
00:13
I can't remember how long it was. Wheel in the middle of the wheels. He went through some of the different things as far as the way that he illustrated and God had him lay on his side.
00:26
I can't remember. Did Wes lay down on here or something? He did something up here.
00:33
I can't remember what he did to illustrate some of the things that Ezekiel had done. But we're going to touch on that a little bit this morning.
00:39
Before we start, let's pray. Let's go to the Lord and ask His blessings upon our time. Our Father in Heaven, we do thank you and praise you that even in a time like this when the world would go in the complete opposite direction of you and of your word and as it were in the world, they would make void your law.
01:05
They would take it and cast it aside. And in the religious world, they would teach for doctrine the commandments of men, something that you did not ordain.
01:17
And in the world, they would take and fashion their own laws which are so contrary to your mind and to your word that you in the midst of all of that would call out a people for your very own and that you would redeem us through the precious blood of your
01:37
Son, the Lord Jesus, and that you would put your name upon us and that we would be so privileged and so blessed to be called the people of God.
01:50
And in this dark world that you would have a remnant and that you would keep your hand upon us and that you do for you are not only a
01:59
God who saves but a God who keeps. And we praise you for your great power to save us and to keep us.
02:07
We thank you for your great mercies because we know we're deserving of far worse than what we have received.
02:14
And we bless you for your grace and that you have favored us and you've smiled upon us and you think upon us.
02:21
And we even just think to us it may seem like a small thing to be able to make it here this morning through this weather and to be able to sit in this building that is warm.
02:31
We're so ever grateful for all that you send our way. And we want to just take a moment to stop and to think on these things and to not take it lightly that we are a people who are in the hand of our
02:46
God. And this morning we would ask that you would please teach us that you would stir our hearts that this would be a profitable time for our souls and,
02:57
Lord, for us and for those around us who do come. And I know there's some that are even struggling probably to come.
03:03
We pray from journey mercies that they would make it here. And, Lord, that you would keep us and that this would be a time of refreshing which comes from the presence of the
03:14
Lord amongst us. And we do pray that you would come and visit us from on high and that we would sense your very presence and that as we open the
03:24
Word and as we look at it that our hearts would be touched and that you would feed us with the finest of wheat.
03:30
We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, as we continue on in this study, you'll remember that as when we look back in the history of the people of God, God's people, that He created, of course, from the very beginning.
03:48
We looked at the book of Genesis. God created Adam and Eve. He created, of course, all of the world.
03:54
He put man in the garden. Man fell in sin. And the whole plan of redemption was unfolded before us when we see what
04:04
God had promised to do through the coming Messiah and how
04:09
God, through the book of Exodus, when He took the people out of Egypt after they had gone into slavery and they are there and that's a picture in Egypt of sin and God redeems the people out through the blood.
04:22
We have the Passover lamb and the whole picture of that. And then God takes the people and brings them up to the promised land and they refuse to go in because of unbelief.
04:34
The 10 out of the 12 spies say that it cannot be done. They're too big. We're going to be consumed.
04:41
Why didn't we stay in Egypt and all of this? And because of that, because of that unfaithfulness, though Joshua and Caleb stayed faithful,
04:51
God refused to allow them to go into the promised land and there they wandered in the wilderness until that generation died off.
04:58
And then we have the book of Deuteronomy, which is the second law or the reiteration of the law where God told that new generation that was going to go into the promised land, laid it all out again, what the law was, the specifications for worship and all of that.
05:16
And then we have those books of Leviticus and all the others which go through the history of the people of God, preparing them for the land.
05:26
And then Joshua, finally, where they go in and the land is divided afterwards and the people are there.
05:33
All along, God has this covenant with his people that he would be their God, they would be their people.
05:38
But it was conditional upon the fact that they would be a people whose heart would be after God, that they would seek the
05:44
Lord, that they would do his ways, they would walk in the ways of God and eventually they refused to do that.
05:51
And they sinned, idolatry, hooking up with the heathen. I mean, just the things that they allowed to take place.
05:59
And God said many, many years before it took place that if you do this, the judgment will come and you will suffer because of your sin.
06:11
And the people did. And we have, after all this time, we have the blessing, the land flowing with milk and honey, and you would think that they would have gotten it by then with all the lessons that God had taught them.
06:22
But no, they didn't, they refused to obey God and God judged them and they were taken captive.
06:27
And we're kind of in the prophets where this is, we have this taking place where Isaiah prophesied of it,
06:34
Jeremiah wept over it and wrote lamentations about it. Also, as they looked back upon what was taking place with the captivity of the people of God.
06:44
And really, when you look at that, it just tells us something about sin, doesn't it? It tells us something about the consequences of fooling with that which
06:54
God says don't fool with, of going in a direction that God says not to go in, of living a life and having and setting your heart upon that which is opposed to what
07:04
God says. And surely your sin will find you out, and surely God will uphold his word.
07:09
If God does not keep his word, then he is not God. Because God says what he is going to do and he lays it down and if he says, if you obey me, if you walk in my ways, if you keep after me, you will be blessed and you will prosper.
07:26
But if you go away from me, if you refuse to listen to me, if you disobey my word and if you do not keep my law and do not walk in my ways, then you will be punished.
07:39
And he told him exactly what was going to happen and it took place. And what we have in the book of Ezekiel is, well, of course, let me just kind of look historically what happened a little bit.
07:51
In 605 B .C., the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem and they deport a large group of captives.
07:59
Now, there's three sieges on Jerusalem that happen over time. So we're looking at around 600 years before Christ, B .C.
08:06
And 605, we have this group of people that go in and that's when
08:12
Daniel goes in and we're going to look at Daniel next time. That's in the first siege of Jerusalem and the carrying away of captives.
08:20
In the second one, which is 598 B .C., about seven years or so after that one,
08:27
Jerusalem is besieged again, the city is defeated and there's 10 ,000 captives deported out of Jerusalem and in this group, this includes
08:39
Ezekiel. And Ezekiel is in Babylon and he writes this book of Ezekiel.
08:45
And there are a lot of things that we could cover in this book.
08:52
It would particularly be helpful if I had my notes so I can teach the class this morning.
08:59
In this book, there are a lot of things that take place. And to some people, this book is really strange.
09:09
And some people, it's like, I can't even read this book. I mean, what is he talking about? And you've heard some of the songs, maybe the
09:16
Negro spiritual songs of the wheel within the wheel. And there's Ezekiel laying on his side for so many days and he takes his hair and it gets clipped and it's weighed and then it's burned.
09:30
And just different ways, this baking of bread.
09:36
And God, though, is going to use this man Ezekiel, whose name means strengthened by God, writing in Babylon at this time to use this vivid type of descriptions with these visions, with his prophecies, the parables, the signs, the symbols that will take the message and just kind of visualize it.
10:09
And it also proclaims the message through these signs and visions and things that he did.
10:16
Sometimes he could speak and sometimes he could not speak. His mouth was closed. But most of the time he did speak and he dramatized the message by God's instruction, of course, to this group of exiled people of God, these captives that were in Babylon.
10:34
And in so doing, there was even one time,
10:40
I believe it's in chapter 24, where God tells him,
10:47
Ezekiel, your wife is going to die. And when she dies, well, let's take a look there.
10:54
I know sometimes I bounce around, but it's good if you can actually see this. In Ezekiel 24, you have this whole beginning of this whole chapter, like verses, the first 1 through 15 verses or whatever.
11:08
And you have this idea of this animal being taken and the meat and bones being put in a pot and the scum that arises out of that, and then you take that pot and you put it on there until it burns.
11:24
And it's just gross, the word that we would use today, and that being likened to the sin of the people.
11:34
And it also shows what's going to happen to them as a people.
11:40
It's a picture. And notice what it says in verse 13, In thy filthiness is lewdness, because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.
11:53
I mean, God is furious and he's angry with the wicked here. You can see that God's wrath is going to be poured out here upon the sin of these people and they're going to be judged because of it.
12:07
I, the Lord, have spoken it, verse 14, It shall come to pass, and I will do it, I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will
12:13
I repent, according to thy ways and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God.
12:20
Also, notice verse 15, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.
12:28
And, of course, the desire of his eyes, this is going to be his wife, we're going to find out about this, with a stroke.
12:34
And he says, Neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shalt thy tears run down.
12:39
Now, someone has a wife, husband, close relative, the natural thing to want to do is to grieve and to cry.
12:47
And God calls upon Ezekiel to do something that is against his own wishes, against his own desires, but for purpose.
12:55
And Ezekiel is going to obey. Difficult as this must have been for him, he's going to obey.
13:00
Notice what it says, Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes on thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
13:11
You know, don't have the posture of one who is in mourning. So I spake unto the people in the morning, and at even my wife died.
13:20
And I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us that thou doest so?
13:29
Then I answered them, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, and he spoke unto them. And we're not going to go into the message, because I just wanted you to see in this point here that God used
13:40
Ezekiel to do that which was against his nature. And it must have really wrecked the man.
13:47
I mean, it must have been difficult for him to do this. Yes, question? 24,
13:53
I'm sorry. 24. And it was like around verses 15 through 20 or so where it talks about his wife in there.
14:05
And the natural tendency would be to grieve. And he is called to do something which causes him or calls from him a sacrifice.
14:18
And God does that with his people. He does it with all of us. I mean, there are times when we are going to be asked of the
14:25
Lord. You remember last week I talked about the priest whose feet had to go into the water when they were carrying the
14:30
Ark of the Covenant across the water to go someplace that they had not gone before. But in and through it all,
14:38
God marvelously strengthens this man whose name is Ezekiel, whose name means strengthened by God, to continue to go on and on and do this.
14:45
And there's a purpose behind this. Ezekiel is a priest who God has called to be a prophet.
14:53
And the prophet is the one who delivers the message for God. And the means and the method whereby
14:58
God uses Ezekiel to bring these messages across is so very plain and clear to the people.
15:05
As in this example here with his wife, just as Ezekiel was not allowed to mourn for his wife who had died,
15:15
Judah would not be allowed to mourn for the death of Jerusalem and for the destruction of Jerusalem and for the taking away of the temple.
15:26
They would not be allowed to do so because their focus was not going to be on that which was the physical, but the spiritual aspect of all of what was taking place.
15:37
They were being judged for their sins, and God was dealing with them. And they ought not to be thinking about what was being taken away from them.
15:43
They ought to be thinking about where their hearts, what is their relationship to the Lord, where do they sit, and that's what's important.
15:51
The things which are unseen is very important. And the message is coming across from Ezekiel in all of these signs and symbols and visions that God was speaking through this unique method of Ezekiel's communicating shows in it the striking comparison to the clearness of the message of what
16:15
God was telling them and the outright rebellion of the people. It's almost like you think about it when
16:21
Jesus comes upon the scene in the New Testament and he's teaching. He's using things like flowers and grass and birds, these simple...
16:31
He's taking children and putting them on his lap and teaching a lesson. He's taking off and putting on the robe and he's kneeling down before the disciples and washing their feet.
16:41
Very, very simple, clear messages to get the message of God across, and that's what
16:46
Ezekiel was doing. And they reject the message. There's such a difference between their willful rejection and the clear message.
16:57
And what it does is it removes every excuse from the people. There is no excuse for not knowing what
17:04
God is communicating. I mean, it's very, very clear as you read through the book.
17:09
So don't, when you go through the book, the whole idea, and to me,
17:15
I read so many different things about what the theme of this book is, and they were very good.
17:22
One of them, as I was looking, I can't remember the gentleman's name.
17:30
Defenbaugh was his name. I gleaned a lot from him, and it just focused me this week, really, on the attention that ought to be paid to this book and really to any book in the
17:41
Scripture, but particularly to Ezekiel, because what happens is when people read that, and come with me to Chapter 1.
17:50
Let's go to Ezekiel 1 and just read some of this. Ezekiel 1 .1.
17:58
And it came to pass in the thirteenth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of this month, of the month, as I was among the captives by the river
18:06
Chebar, so this is Ezekiel writing, he's among the captives, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
18:15
In the fifth day of the month, which is the fifth year of the king Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto
18:21
Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and the hand of the
18:28
Lord was there upon him. And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was about it.
18:37
And out of the mist thereof is the color of amber, out of the mist of the fire, also out of the mist thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.
18:45
Now listen to some of the details as we go through this. And this was their appearance. They had the likeness of a man, and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings, and their feet were straight feet, and the soles of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
19:02
And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, and they four had their faces in their wings, their wings were joined one to another.
19:10
They turned not when they went, they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, the face of a lion on the right side, and the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and also was the face of an eagle.
19:24
Thus were their faces, and their wings were stretched upward. Two wings of every one were joined to the other, and two covered their bodies.
19:32
And they went every one straight forward, whether the spirit was to go, they went. They turned not when they went.
19:38
As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps.
19:44
It went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
19:50
And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of the flashing of lightning. Now as I behold the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures with his four faces.
20:00
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of beryl, and they four had one likeness.
20:07
And their appearance of their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of the wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides, and they turned not when they went.
20:15
As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful. And their rings were full of eyes round about the four.
20:23
And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them. And when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
20:30
Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went. Thither was their spirit to go. When the wheels were lifted up over against them, the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
20:39
When those went, these went. And when those stood, these stood. And when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
20:49
And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the color of a terrible or awesome crystal stretched forth over their heads above.
20:59
And under the firmament were the wings straight, the one toward the other. Every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.
21:10
And when they went, I heard the noise of the wings. Notice this detail. Like the noise of great waters as the voice of the
21:16
Almighty, the voice of the Speech as the noise of an host, when they stood, they let down their wings.
21:22
And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, and as the appearance of sapphire stone.
21:34
And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it. And I saw the color of the amber as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward.
21:49
I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. And at the beginning of verse 28 it talks about a rainbow.
21:59
Now, anybody like to tell me what all this means?
22:05
Gladman, what do you think? You know, I'll tell you, come on up and tell me, what is the wheels in the middle of the wheels and this lifting up and spirit and all of that?
22:13
Let me just tell you something about Yes, Mark?
22:31
Yeah. Yeah, right. And when you have this idea of Gog and Magog later on, we'll hear about that in that great battle, the
22:40
Gog, the Hebrew word, the kind of pronunciation of that word sounds like Russia, you know, and all of that.
22:47
I did not ask Mark for the segue into this, but it's good. If you think about modern
22:54
Christianity today, if you think about what's in the bookstores, if you think about what seminars just blow the attendance off the charts, you think about the focus.
23:04
I mean, it is this idea of getting into prophecy and explaining what it is, and when it is, and how many of it is, and what those eyes all are, and what those four faces mean, and what the man's hands under the wings mean, and why the wings are coupled together, and you know, the times and places and how much, and all this, and really, when you think about it, what is really being done here, and what
23:37
God's intent is, is absolutely and totally missed. Totally missed. The whole idea is, did you see
23:44
Ezekiel in verse 28? It does not say that Ezekiel got his laptop out with the
23:55
PowerPoint presentation, and he took the pictures of all of this, and he just had it up so everybody could see it, and everybody would just ooh, and ah, and just go crazy about the details of all of this.
24:08
He does not do that. He doesn't put badges together, or any type of handouts, and free brochures, or he doesn't start authoring a book so that he can make money and promote that.
24:20
The Christian bookstores. Look what happens in verse 28. The next thing was this bow.
24:26
As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, this is a rainbow, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.
24:34
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the
24:39
Lord. This is God. The whole focus is this.
24:45
This is a vision. This is something that God allowed
24:51
Ezekiel to see, and he got to see in a measure. He got to see the presence of God.
24:57
He sees the Shekinah glory in the best way that he can. He describes this, and he doesn't create the
25:09
PowerPoint, or something to market, or some book, or whatever it is to hand out to the people, and come check out all these details.
25:19
When I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake, and God calls him.
25:27
The posture is the whole idea behind all of this is to know the living
25:34
God in this way, and to be a people who worship God. When God called the people out of Egypt, when
25:43
Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh and said, let my people go, what did
25:48
God want them to do when they went out into the wilderness and into the promised land? That they might what?
25:54
They might worship me. The whole idea is that glory and honor and blessing belong unto this
26:07
God who is so high, and so lifted up, and so holy, and so different than we are.
26:16
We are so unholy, and yet he is holy, and we are a people who do not deserve to be called out by God.
26:25
We do not deserve to be saved, but God saves a people for himself. I hear the words of the
26:34
Lord Jesus saying to the woman at the well, in John chapter 4, that the father seeks those that will worship him.
26:45
God desires, it pleases God for his creation to worship him.
26:53
Do the stars do a good job? They sing the praises of God. Do the mountains and the hills do something?
27:00
What does the psalmist say? Kind of like giving them a personality. What do the hills and the fields do?
27:09
They clap their hands. The mountains and the hills will clap their hands in praise to God.
27:17
All of creation is praising the Lord. You remember when Jesus was going into Jerusalem and the people were crying out,
27:26
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes and lay in the palms and give him the honor and the glory and the worth that is due unto him.
27:38
And the religious leaders are saying, stop it. Stop those people from doing it. And Jesus says to them, if the people didn't cry out, who would?
27:45
The rocks will cry out. For the Messiah had come. That was
27:50
Jesus Christ. And here, we're getting this picture of God showing himself in the response of one who is so unworthy is to fall on their face and to worship
28:06
God and to have this posture. The problem today is that folks in most of the literature that you'll read, most of the radio broadcasts, most of the books that you'll see in the store, you've got this kind of like nonchalant, happy -go -lucky, you know
28:28
I'm not using that word, it's just this attitude, a light attitude about who
28:34
God is. And there isn't this idea the fear of the
28:40
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There isn't this idea of God is, we use the word awesome as great and kind of super duper.
28:52
You know, this is the best, but awesome is also a word that's translated in the
29:00
King James is terrible. It is this idea that the attitude should grip us that we are under the constant vision of a
29:11
God who is so holy and he cannot look upon sin, and yet he has redeemed us and set his love upon us and called us to be his people.
29:19
And we cannot, and we must not brethren, ever get to the place where we think that because, just because God redeemed us, we have this, well, so what?
29:30
I can live any way that I want, my sin is under the blood. I've got, you know, I've got a buddy in Jesus.
29:38
I have my, what is the word that some folks use? I've got my best friend upstairs.
29:46
You know this light attitude. No. That's what caused the people of Israel, the children of God, to suffer what they suffered because they lightly esteemed
30:01
God. They did not consider who he was and what he had done for them, and they took for granted the blessings of God upon them, and their hearts went elsewhere.
30:18
Because they had prospered and God had blessed them, their hearts went elsewhere and they trusted in the arm of the flesh, they looked to themselves, they profaned
30:26
God's Sabbath, they got into idolatry, the bloodshed, the lewdness,
30:31
I mean, it is just, you read the book and you will see some vivid, vivid descriptions of the sin of God's people, and that came up into the nostrils of God, and it was a stench to God, and he could not bear it, and he had to take and keep his word to judge it, and in so doing, his people get taken out of the land that was promised to them, and they are captive in Babylon.
31:00
And there's a third wave that comes after this, where Jerusalem is besieged after the time of Ezekiel, he's in the second siege, and that's when there's the devastation and the destruction that Ezekiel talks about also, and the other prophets talked about, and the people were thinking, you know what, we can live any way we want to live basically, and they lived sinful lives, unrestrained, and they were thinking, we're
31:27
God's people, and because we're God's people, he's on our side, and Ezekiel, the false prophets are right, they're telling us that Jerusalem will never totally fail, it will not be destroyed, the temple won't be destroyed, because it's
31:41
God's temple, and we're God's people, and they presumed upon God, and Ezekiel was telling them just the opposite, he said, it's going to happen, don't listen to those false prophets,
31:51
God said it would take place, and it did take place, and there was a total devastation and destruction, and that's the first half of the book, basically, the first 25 chapters or so you'll see in the outline, but that's not the whole story, there is hope in this book, and you see this in the vision of the valley of dry bones, this description of Israel being spiritually dead, of being dry, and God comes, and he has
32:27
Ezekiel preach to the bones, to prophesy to the bones, and of course they take up life, they come up, and then there's the sinews, and the muscles, and the flesh comes upon them, and this is a prophecy in a picture of Israel being restored, and then there it also talks about being restored to the land, so there is this message of hope also, that is the kind of like the overview of the book of Ezekiel, but one of the things that I want to do is,
32:58
I want to kind of just focus on this idea that I was talking about, at the end of chapter 1, we see that when
33:06
Ezekiel sees this vision, he falls down on his face, now hold your place here,
33:13
I want you to look at one of his predecessors, Isaiah, you'll remember this text,
33:18
Isaiah chapter 6, just go back there with me please, just a couple books to the left,
33:24
Isaiah chapter 6, and in verse 1,
33:32
Isaiah's book, 6 -1, and in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the
33:39
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, above it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly, and one cried unto another saying, holy, holy, holy is the
33:57
Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory, and the posts of the doors moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke, and then he cries out, woe is me, and he also is one who is humbled before God, falling before God the same way, saying that he's unclean, he's not worthy to be used of God, and yet God still calls him, this is like a hundred, six hundred, this is like a hundred and fifty to two hundred years before Ezekiel, this is what
34:31
Isaiah sees, now, you can hold your place in Ezekiel, lose your place in Isaiah, and turn with me to Revelation chapter one,
34:41
Revelation the last book of the New Testament, Revelation one, and in verse ten,
34:57
John writes, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, and these are the words of the
35:05
Lord, I am the Alpha, the Omega, the first and the last, what thou seest, write in a book and send it to these churches, and that's the next chapters that are coming right after this, he says in verse twelve,
35:15
I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about the paps with a golden girdle, and his head and his hairs were white like wool, and as white as snow, and his eyes were as the flame of fire, and his feet like on a fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters, did we hear that before, and the fire, and this brass, and the sound of the many waters, and he had on his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a two -edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shining in the strength, remember
35:52
Ezekiel saw from the waist up and from the waist down this brightness shining out, and what did
35:59
John do? In verse seventeen, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, and he said these things, fear not, and he calls him, he tells him what he's going to deliver to the churches, and that's in chapters two and three, but look over in chapter four.
36:17
In chapter four, after this I looked, and behold a door was opened in heaven, the first voice which I heard was as it were a trumpet talking with me, which said come up hither, and I'm going to show you things, and he says, and immediately
36:28
I was in the spirit, verse two, and behold a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like as Jasper, and as a siren stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne, and a sight like unto an emerald, and round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats
36:45
I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed with white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold, and out of the throne proceeded thunders, and lightnings, and thunder, and voices, and there were seven lamps burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal, and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, notice this, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind, and the first beast was like unto a lion, the second beast like unto a calf, the third beast like as the face of a man, and the fourth beast like a flying eagle.
37:17
Same description, isn't it? And the four beasts had each of them six wings about them, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night saying,
37:26
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come, and when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who liveth forever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him.
37:39
Problem is, today is his people stand up, and they just walk around, it's almost like chewing a gum, day to day just going about our business, and just lightly esteeming
37:53
God, and not having this proper posture and position before the Lord, and fearing
37:58
God as we should. They fall down, and they worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne saying,
38:04
Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.
38:11
You know what is so amazing about this? Almost eight hundred years previous, in Isaiah chapter six that we just read, heaven is opened up, and Isaiah sees the
38:21
Lord, God allows him to see the Lord upon his throne, with these beasts going, these creatures going around the throne, and eight hundred years later,
38:35
God allows John to get a glimpse of heaven, and what does he see? The same thing.
38:41
Eight hundred years later, he sees the same thing going on. God being worshipped, day and night.
38:46
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. And beloved, the thought of my heart all week long was, is let us not get caught up in this idea that, you know, church is just something we just kind of punch in on Sunday, and we just kind of go home, and the rest of the week is mine.
39:08
We've been redeemed by a gracious God, a God who loved us, and we did not deserve that love.
39:14
We have been called like Isaiah and Jeremiah and John, to be a people who proclaim the message of God to a lost world that is dark all around us, and to live differently than them, and we are a people who have been called to worship.
39:32
A people who have been set aside for God, and by God, saved from our sins, and saved to be, and saved from our sins.
39:41
Not only the penalty, but the power and the clutch and the control of those upon our lives. To be a people set free from Egypt, so that we could serve the true and living
39:49
God. God's message does not change. It has not changed from the beginning, opening of the scriptures, where God had created
39:57
Adam and Eve for fellowship, and to love Him, and to worship Him, and we see this story continues to go on.
40:04
God has a redeemed people, and He wants those people, and it pleases Him for those people to be a people who fall down and worship
40:13
Him, and we just need to be reminded of this. Not to be a people who just take it for granted, and not just to have for better, for better or worse terms, a drive through God.
40:28
I can go to McDonald's, quick, drive through that thing, Wendy's, whatever, get whatever I want, whenever I want, it's mine.
40:33
Now, and it's just quick, boom, bang, it's done. And you know what? Same thing with God. Whatever I want, just kind of drive through, get what
40:41
I want, but I miss the whole thing. And one of the things that I wanted to kind of stress in the closing minutes, is one of the most important things when it comes to us as God's people is the relationship with our
40:56
God, is to know God, to be intimate with the
41:01
Lord, to have a close fellowship with God, to get away from the schedule and the busyness, and to have those moments where our hearts are poured out to the
41:13
Lord and we are just so desirous to be with the Lord and to know Him more and to know Him deeper like the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3, that I might know
41:20
Him. After years and years of ministering, he still had that quest and that desire to know the
41:26
Lord. J. I. Packer wrote these words about his book, Knowing God. He said, the conviction of the reason why he wrote the book that he wrote is ignorance of God.
41:37
He said, ignorance both of God's ways and of the practice of communion with the Lord. That lies, that ignorance lies at the root of much of the church's weakness today.
41:48
The modern way with God is to set God at a distance, if not at all to deny
41:53
Him altogether. And the irony is that the modern Christian preoccupied with maintaining religious practices in an irreligious world has allowed
42:04
God to become remote. It's to keep God on the side, on the fringe of our lives, where the
42:12
Apostle said, for me to live is Christ. Everything about his life was the
42:17
Lord. And you'll notice that in this book, if you read it, you will see, like when we read, if you want to turn back to Ezekiel 24, when that was all said and done, when
42:31
God took His wife and He wasn't allowed to mourn and that message came to the people, notice what it says in the very last verse of Ezekiel 24, 27.
42:41
In that day shall thy mouth be open to Him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak and be no more dumb, and thou shalt be a sign unto them, and they shall know that I am the
42:53
Lord. That phrase in your Bible that might say, in your translation might say, that they may know that I am the
43:00
Sovereign Lord, or that they may know that I am the Lord, that phrase is used around 70 times in this book.
43:08
And to me, that is the thrust and the theme, as I wrote on your sheets, is knowing
43:15
God is the basic theme of this book. This phrase is known over 70 times, and it's to remind the generation born during the
43:22
Babylonian exile of the cause of Israel's current destruction, of the coming judgment of the Gentiles, and then their restoration.
43:29
But it was totally to remind them, and it all revolved around this idea that God was communicating and communicating and keep on communicating to the people that He would be, if you look even in Ezekiel chapter 36, that great text where it talks about what
43:44
God is going to do. A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. I'll take out the stony heart and put a heart of flesh in you, and you will be
43:52
My people, and I will be your God. That's always, always, always God's intent, that He has a people for His very own.
43:59
And brethren, what a special blessed position that we find ourselves in today also, that we, like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, the message has come to us, the gospel has come to us, and we have been a people who have been called out by God to be a special people to worship the
44:21
God, to worship our God all the days of our lives, and to press on to know
44:27
Him more and more and more every single day, and to spend the time in His words, spend the time on our knees, spend the time falling down before Him.
44:36
Now, I'm not saying that you need to fall down on the floor like they did, but there ought to be times when you are just so overwhelmed with either the presence of God as you're reading the
44:44
Word of God, with the Word coming to you, that it causes you, you know, like we sing, today the church is, you know, and we've heard it in this church here when we sing the special songs in the, when
44:58
Charlie leads them, the worship songs, we bow down and we worship you
45:03
Lord, we bow down, we're standing up and we're clapping, aren't we? And who was it, the man that came for the conference, he says, no, we don't bow down, and we don't.
45:14
And what I'm, I guess what I'm just kind of reminding us is we ought to, at least in our spirit, even if we don't do it physically, we ought to bow down in the presence of our thrice holy
45:25
God and recognize who He is and who we are and be so blessed and so happy that He has saved us and make sure that we're a people that keep a proper posture about our lives when it comes to worship and the fear of the
45:39
Lord. And Ezekiel's whole message to me, and God threw the whole thing in these clear and simple visions and symbols and all this, is that the people might understand and know that the
45:50
Lord has saved them and that He is their God and that they might know Him more and more and more and grow, as Peter said, in the grace and the knowledge of the
45:59
Lord. I'm going to close with, I think, I think
46:08
I heard them practicing this morning and it seems like there is a new song. Not unto us, but unto your name alone.
46:15
I'm just reading out of the bulletin. I heard them practicing. Not unto us, but unto your name alone be all the glory, the glory forever, for your faithfulness and steadfast love.
46:24
Receive the glory, the glory, it all belongs to you. Only by your mercy can we come to you, though we deserved your judgment, you have called us by name, so we glory in the cross of Christ that made us yours forever, that joined our lives together to sing.
46:41
And we sing those songs, we can sing them with a new understanding that this is something special, this is something quite unique, this is something that is, in the terms today,
46:52
I'll use now, flip the meaning of the term, this is something that is totally awesome, that is incomprehensible that God would do this, would save a people for his very own.
47:02
And let's press on and encourage each other in this respect to press on to know the Lord and not to esteem him lightly.
47:10
Let's pray. Our Father, thank you again for the time.
47:15
Thank you for the blessing of just being able to be together, to be reminded of who you are.
47:21
And Lord, we don't ever want to take it for granted that you have revealed yourself in the word. And as a man once said when
47:29
I heard him preaching, he said, God is not like us and we're so glad that you are God and that you are lifted up high and holy.
47:37
And we bow in your presence, Lord, this morning and we worship you and please as we continue to worship in the service, may it be proper, may you receive it,
47:47
Lord, may it bring glory and honor to Christ and help us as we leave this building today and we go home and we go to our places of business or school, whatever it is that you've called us to do, that we would be a people who would live in the fear of the
48:02
Lord and live in such a way that we are just so honored and privileged and blessed that we give you the praise and the honor.
48:09
And as John wrote, blessing and honor and glory and power belong unto him who sitteth upon the throne and unto the