Ezekiel 4-39

[00:00:00] Last Friday we dwelt very much upon the first three chapters of Ezekiel. [00:00:09] We finished off the whole question of the key to the book of Ezekiel, which we found to be the glory of God as found as characterized in the cherubim. [00:00:23] And last week we spent quite a lot of time in these first three chapters, and particularly chapter one, looking at three the cherubim, the twirling wheels, and the throne with the likeness of a man upon it. [00:00:44] And we can't very well go back upon that. [00:00:47] But together, those three things that were the. [00:00:55] Were the constituents of Ezekiel's vision. [00:00:59] They sum up. What Ezekiel means by the glory of God doesn't just mean some abstract splendor or something that is just a blaze of color and light. [00:01:15] He means God dwelling in a kind of humanity, and to him that is glory. [00:01:25] So I'm afraid we cannot go back over all those things that we have mentioned about that, seeking to put before you the evidence for it all. We've got to go on this evening if we're going to cover this ground. [00:01:38] But you will understand that what Ezekiel saw in his vision in the first chapter of this book is absolutely basic and is and fundamental to the whole of his prophecies. [00:01:56] Everything comes out of what he saw by the river Kebab. [00:02:03] And it is most important for us that we should get to the root of what he saw and should understand something of the symbolism of it all. [00:02:13] Well, if you. [00:02:16] This evening, some of you who weren't here last Friday seem to be a little bit at sea or a little bit lost. I can only suggest that you listen to the tape of last Friday, which is not only important as far as this book is concerned, but you will find it very important to much else that we call apocalyptic in scripture. [00:02:40] Now, I want just to remind you that the last note upon which we ended last week was a rather severe warning to Ezekiel. He was told that he was a watchman, which is going to come out again, I trust, this evening. He was told that he'd been made, he'd been set, appointed as a watchman. And he was told that if now he had seen what he had seen, if he did not warn the people clearly and distinctly, their blood would be required his hand. [00:03:14] I don't think any other prophet had such a solemn sense of responsibility placed upon him as Ezekiel. And that is probably why in his prophecies he put so much upon personal responsibility. [00:03:28] Not being able to hide in the mess, not being able to hide in the collective, but each one being responsible to the Lord for what has been entrusted to one for what one has seen. [00:03:44] This, of course, was brought out very much later by our Lord Jesus in his parable of the talents. [00:03:51] This whole question of personal responsibility. Well, we should see it again. [00:03:55] Now. This evening we come to the second division of Ezekiel. The departing glory. [00:04:03] The departing glory and its causes. [00:04:07] This covers quite a number of chapters, from chapter 4 to chapter 24. [00:04:14] And it is important for us at the very beginning to understand now that his having seen the glory of God, and having seen the character of the glory of God, its nature, its character, and understood it, he's understood it. [00:04:33] Now Ezekiel is prepared for his ministry. [00:04:38] And as you all know, I trust from these past weeks the whole of Ezekiel's life is bound up with his ministry with him. It is his ministry which is the all important thing. [00:04:54] And now Ezekiel has been prepared and made ready for. For his life's work. [00:05:02] He has seen something. [00:05:05] And what he has seen has ruined him forever after. For anything which is merely transient and temporal, he has somehow or other seen into heaven itself. [00:05:18] And his whole ministry is now taken up with those things which are eternal, spiritual and lasting. [00:05:28] And when we come to this very big section of his prophecies, we discover that it is all to do with the glory of God departing from his people. A terrible thing. [00:05:44] When you remember that the people of God had been created, had been brought into existence, that they might contain the glory of God and be the vessel of the glory of God, and might be the means by which the glory of God could be set amongst the nations, you will understand what a terrible thing it was for the Lord to have to depart from the very vessel which he had created. [00:06:11] But history and scriptural history, divine history, if you want to put sacred history however you like to put it, the history of God's people has again and again had these terrible phases. [00:06:27] When God has had to leave the vessel which he has purposely created to contain his glory. [00:06:35] And here Ezekiel is taken up entirely with the glory of God, having to leave the very vessel which was created for it. This vessel had no meaning apart from the glory of God. [00:06:50] The way God had chosen Abraham and the way he had constituted through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, a people, a nation for his glory. And how he says it again and again in the past, in previous books, how again and again he reminds them that it was for his own name's sake that he had chosen them, not for anything else, but because he loved them and for his namesake, for his glory's sake. [00:07:15] Now we find he's got to leave them. [00:07:19] Now, Ezekiel doesn't just record the fact that the Lord is having to leave this vessel. [00:07:26] He doesn't just simply record the bare fact that the Lord is departing from Jerusalem, leaving his people, forsaking them because of the sinfulness of their condition. [00:07:40] But Ezekiel, having seen something of the nature and the character of the glory of God, now sets about the task of instructing the people as to why the glory of God is departing. [00:07:57] And that is why so much is taken up. With the departure of the glory of God. [00:08:04] He is going to get to the root of this. And if there is one thing he is going to do, he is going to leave with the people of God forever. [00:08:14] Quite clearly the reasons, the causes which will always inevitably result in the departure of the glory of God. [00:08:26] He is going to, through defeat, he is going to elucidate those principles. He is going to define those principles upon which alone God's glory can rest forever. [00:08:44] And so he sets about his task. [00:08:46] Now, in these chapters from 4 to 24, we have a number of different things that we can look at. First of all, I think we will look at chapter four and five. [00:09:04] Just as two chapters, they are very much linked together. [00:09:08] You will notice that if you have read them, that these two chapters contain four active signs. [00:09:17] Ezekiel was told by the Lord that he was to do four things. [00:09:22] Firstly, he was to take a tile of soft clay, a soft clay brick of clay. He was with a stylus, steel stylus, or something very hard. He was to depict certain things about Jerusalem upon it. Then he was to bake it hard. And then he was to almost, as it were, play sandcastles with it. He was to build battering rams against it. He was to bring a steel pan up against it. He was to build ramparts round about it, and so on. It was all a little sort of sharad. [00:09:57] Then he was told that he was to lie on one side 390 days a day for a year. And then he was to lie on his other side 40 days a day for a year, one for the House of Israel, 390 years for Israel and 40 years for Judah. Then he was told that he was to take certain kinds of grain and he was to mix them all up, and he was to bake them on human dung. [00:10:27] He pleaded with the Lord, he said, being a Jew and knowing something of the laws, ceremonial laws of cleanness and uncleanness, he particularly asked the Lord if he might be excused this. And he was allowed to use cows. Dun. Now doesn't sound very nice. All this but the whole point is, you see, we've got to get to the fruit of some of these things. [00:10:49] And then he was told to shave his head off. Shave his hair off. Pardon me, that would have been rather unfortunate. [00:10:58] He was told to shave his hair off and his beard off. And he was to divide the three his hair that he cut off into three portions. [00:11:09] And he was to do with these three portions certain things, and out of the last portion he was just to take a certain number of strands, and he was to tie them into the skirts of his garment, of his clothes. Then he was to take certain number of those and destroy those. And in the end he was left with just a tiny remnant of his hair. Now, these four four acted signs caused evidently quite a stir, and they all had a reason. [00:11:38] Each one of them was depicting something about Jerusalem. Now, you must remember that Ezekiel was something like a thousand or more miles from Jerusalem. He was amongst the exiles, and he was having to act out his ministry. At this point. [00:11:54] It wasn't so much what he was saying as what he was doing. [00:11:59] And the key to it all is found in chapter 5, from verse 5 to 11. [00:12:06] I will read it. [00:12:08] Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, this is Jerusalem. Now, that means the four signs he's acted out. [00:12:17] I have set her in the midst of the nations and countries around about her. She hath rebelled against mine ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes, more than the countries that are round about her. For they have rejected mine ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them, though. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because ye are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I am against thee, and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee, in the sight of the nations, and I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers, and I will execute judgments on thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also Diminish thee, neither shall mine eye spare, and I also will have no pity. [00:13:38] That's the key to those two chapters. [00:13:40] The point is this, you see, and this is the first thing we want to underline about the departing glory. Jerusalem has been set in the center or amongst the nations as the testimony of God. [00:13:56] Now that is the key to everything in God's sight. Jerusalem, which is the very symbol of the people of God, God's dwelling place, the place which he has chosen to cause his name to dwell. There is a picture or a symbol of the testimony of God. It was meant to be amongst the nations as a witness to God, as a veritable expression of God, of what God really wanted. [00:14:31] Something over against the nations roundabout. So that any of those nations, as indeed in days gone by had done, could come to God's people and could see the glory of the Lord, could understand the glory of the Lord. [00:14:50] You see, God's thought was not that his people should be a tightly closed little circle of going on saints. [00:14:59] His thought was that they should become a great, if I may use the word, a great missionary center. [00:15:07] They were to have within themselves something that was simply and could not be described in any other way but as the presence of God. [00:15:18] They were to contain the presence of God. The temple was to be his dwelling place. The sanctuary was where he could be found in the earth. It didn't matter if you were in China or in the isles afar off or wherever you were. The thought of God was that somewhere on the earth you could find God. And that place was the sanctuary in a city called Jerusalem that constituted Jerusalem, an absolutely unique and singular city. [00:15:52] It was the testimony of God under the old covenant as the Church is meant to be the testimony of God under the new. [00:16:03] It was that which was meant to be on earth, the centre of God. [00:16:10] Now, you see, it has become more detestable on the nations round about. [00:16:16] It has somehow rather imbibed all the influences of those evil things about it. And as we shall go on, and it's most important we should understand this chapter four and five, we shall discover that Ezekiel is continually drawing upon this chapter. Again, you see, these few chapters up to chapter eight are absolutely basic to what he's got to say. He is trying to point out God is not sulking. [00:16:47] God is not just sort of angry, irritated, sort of irritated by his people because they've just not played the game. [00:16:56] And he's got very irritated with them and decided that, well, that's the finish. He's going to depart from them and leave them to it. It's not that at all. The whole point is this, this city, this people, this nation has been constituted to be the means by which the knowledge of God should spread over the whole earth. [00:17:18] It was not just to be a preaching center, not just to be a place like a school, a Bible school, a theological college. It was meant to be in, in itself the testimony. [00:17:32] People could see that God was there. [00:17:36] People could see by the character of the city, the character of the people, that God was in this people. [00:17:43] Now you begin to understand the terrible nature of the compromise that's taken place. [00:17:51] Instead of it being distinct and separate, set apart, it had now become involved with the nations. And all the things of the nations round about had somehow come into the city of God and into the people of God and into the very sanctuary of God. [00:18:13] You go on to chapter six and seven and that's the next great point that Ezekiel makes. [00:18:21] Idolatry. [00:18:23] Idolatry is the basic cause of the departure of the glory of God and for the judgment of God. [00:18:34] Now this chapter six and seven of course are linked with four and five. Four and five are four acted signs, each with meaning, depicting something in Jerusalem and depicting what God is going to do to Jerusalem. 6 and 7 are not acted signs. They are the most clear denunciation of the sinfulness of Jerusalem and of God's people. [00:19:06] It is the denunciation of terrible judgment which is inevitable. [00:19:11] Later on we shall discover that Ezekiel has to point out one or two things why judgment is inevitable. But now in chapter six and seven he doesn't point out why it is inevitable. He just takes us to the wound. [00:19:25] The basic route for the departure of God's glory is idolatry. [00:19:31] I want to remind you what we said on Sunday morning about idolatry wasn't that a few idols had been set up in certain places and that the Lord was rather angry with these carved bits of stone and wood. It was simply that God knew there was a constitutional capacity in within man that meant he's got to worship something. [00:19:56] And if he once, if once his love for the Lord began to wane, he had got to find something to worship. And that's so with all of us. [00:20:07] The only way that we can be kept from idols is to positively love the Lord. [00:20:13] Once our love is on the wane, then we shall love our home more than the Lord, our career more than the Lord, or our friends more than the Lord, or even the work of God more than the Lord. [00:20:24] Then these things become the all important matter in our lives and not the Lord. [00:20:32] So here, idolatry is found to be the basic cause for the departure of God's glory. [00:20:39] God wants to dwell in a vessel that can contain his glory. [00:20:46] Where there is an idol, there is not the emptiness which can be filled with the glory of God. [00:20:54] Something has taken the place of the right kind of vacuum that should be within our lives once we have set up. What is called here in the word by Ezekiel, those images of jealousy, calls it the abomination image that provoketh jealousy. [00:21:23] Something in the life right in the sanctuary set up where God should be, and just to the side of the altar. [00:21:36] And you will remember at one time that one of the kings of Judah actually removed the altar out of its place and put an idol there in the gateway into the Lord's house and put another kind of altar, an Assyrian altar altogether. [00:21:51] This was what Ezekiel was dealing with. He was dealing with these last kings of Judah. And much the same kind of conditions were the thing that he was getting at. Now, just in case anyone thinks that I'm just harking back to Sunday morning, I would like to point out to you that idols or images are mentioned at least 38 times in these chapters. From 6, chapter 6 to 24. It's an interesting fact. They're not mentioned before chapter 6, but from chapter 6 to chapter 24, idols or images are mentioned 38 times. [00:22:25] And now here's another very interesting thing I have found in reading through Ezekiel, that there's a little phrase that comes back like a monotonous refrain. It is this. And then shall you know, or then shall they know that I am the Lord. [00:22:45] And this is always associated with the. With the idols, the departing glory, the judgment of God is always linked somehow with this little refrain. And then shall they know that I am the Lord. What does that mean? [00:23:05] It means simply this. You can't play with the Lord. You can't play with the Lord. [00:23:11] You can't just treat the Lord with that familiarity which breeds contempt. [00:23:18] You can't just shove the Lord around into this part, into that part over here. Come in here, Lord, I need you out there. I'll have you a bit later. You can't do that with the Lord. That's what they had been doing with the Lord. [00:23:31] They'd been treating the Lord as a kind of someone to be brought in when there's an emergency. But otherwise, that's all right. Keep him out. [00:23:42] Plenty of idols that were the object of worship. [00:23:47] And again and again, this whole question of the judgment of God, which was meant to Destroy idolatry. And indeed, as you all well know, it did. [00:24:01] For to this day, the Jew, from that day to this, the Jew was never worshipped. And an idol of stone or wood, or gold or silver, it cured them at least of output idolatry, if not from the spirit of idolatry, you understand? [00:24:19] It did do it. [00:24:21] The Lord says, I will bring these judgments down upon these people in chapter six and seven. These judgments must come for one reason, that they might know that I am the Lord. Now, he didn't mean that in a harsh way. He didn't just mean simply that when he judged it, they would fear and cringe in that way, but he meant they would respect him in love. They would know him as the only one that they could worship and the only one worthy to be worshipped. They would discover that these other things were deceptions, delusions, a lie. [00:24:58] And you know, it's a solemn thing that the thing you love most, what I love most, and you and I make an idol, is a lie. [00:25:09] And in the end it proves to be a lie. Now, some of us do not believe that at present, but through sheer experience, in the end we shall come by the grace of God to see it. [00:25:22] Those things are a delusion and a lie. [00:25:29] So I think we've got to mark this very much, this little phrase, I am the Lord, then shall they know I am The Lord occurs 42 times in Ezekiel between the chapters 6 and 39. 42 times. There are many more, actually, but those are the ones I've counted. [00:25:52] So idolatry is discovered by Ezekiel to be the basic cause of the departure of God's glory and for judgment. Now we go on to chapter eight. We've got through some fundamental things. We've discovered that Jerusalem is the center, is the testimony of God in the midst of the nations. We have discovered that it is idolatry which forces God out, which makes him depart. [00:26:18] Now, from Chapter 8 to Chapter 11, we have the vision of the departing glory. This is a very, very interesting few chapters. Ezekiel is carried in spirit thousands of miles from where he was in Tel Aviv, in Babylon, right over to Jerusalem. [00:26:39] And I want you to note in these chapters from 8 to 11 how Ezekiel re emphasizes the character of God's glory. For instance, in chapter 10, you've got almost a word for word description of what he has already given to us in chapter one. And I want to remind you that Ezekiel is not. The. The way that Ezekiel is arranged and set out is not haphazard. [00:27:07] It is very carefully and systematically arranged. [00:27:13] And there is purpose in the fact that he wishes to re emphasize to us the details of the glory of God, or what he saw by the river keeper. He wants to point out to us as he comes to Jerusalem that the glory of God is departing. And it's not some ideal glory. [00:27:35] It is the very thing which he saw at the river Kiva. [00:27:41] He says it's exactly the same. [00:27:44] And he said it was departing. [00:27:47] Now, in chapter eight, I'm only going to mention these things because we cannot really spend too long on them. We're going to get through all these chapters. In chapter 8 you have the prostitution of worship. [00:27:59] You see, Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel is built on a systematic arrangement. Each section develops from the last. It's most interesting. First, he speaks of Jerusalem as being the testimony of God in the midst of the nations. Then he points out to us that it's idolatry, which is the basic cause for judgment and for God's departing. [00:28:23] Now he goes back. [00:28:25] Now he's going to take this whole question of the departure of the glory of God in a detail. [00:28:31] He takes us into the temple and he sees four things. [00:28:38] You know, first of all, he sees the image that provokes to jealousy. [00:28:42] This was an immoral image, an image that was basically and absolutely obscene. [00:28:53] It had been set up inside the court of the Lord at the entrance to the north gate. [00:29:05] Then as he went in, he was taken to a little door which was in the wall of the inner court. [00:29:12] He was said he was shown the door dig through. And he found a door. Go through the door. He was told he went through the door and he came into a room. And as he looked around the room, all the walls were filled with obscene religious scenes, all Canaanite religion. And inside there were the very elders of Judah burning incense. Before these things depicted on the wall, the Lord said, you haven't seen everything, Ezekiel. Evidently Ezekiel's very horrified. Haven't seen her. Come with me. He takes him out again to the entrance into the inner court. And there he sees the women weeping for Tammuz. [00:29:57] Tammuz. Tammuz was the Babylonian God of vegetation. [00:30:03] And they were weeping for his death in autumn, when the leaves and everything died back. They thought they always kept the time of wailing for his supposed death. In the same way in spring they set him into motion by acts of immorality as religious worship, which was supposed to set the cycle of nature moving again. [00:30:29] In spring, you see, he, this God of vegetation, was supposed to come to life. [00:30:36] And here were all the women, people of God, weeping At the gate of the temple, over the God Tammuz, who was supposed to have died. [00:30:47] Then he was taken again right into the threshold of the house of God. And there on the threshold were 25 men, elders. Again, their backs were toward the house, their faces were out to the east, and they were worshipping the prostitution of worship. [00:31:11] This capacity within, completely prostituted. Now, make no mistake about it, this is the thing from the beginning which the devil has always sought to prostitute. [00:31:24] He doesn't try to make us put something on outwardly. He's got to get something inside which he knows is inherent within us. [00:31:34] And it is always on the line of what we worship that he comes, he wants our worship. [00:31:40] And sometimes we think that the things we're worshipping are quite legitimate and harmless, but in actual that behind them, says Paul, are demons. [00:31:51] And behind the demons, the devil himself. [00:31:54] The whole thing is in his grip. [00:31:58] So if we. The first scene we see is the prostitution of worship. [00:32:02] Then in chapter nine, we have a most remarkable chapter, which is a very thrilling one in many ways, where suddenly Ezekiel hears the voice of the Lord and he sees seven men march into the temple, six men with great battle axes, and the seventh with a writing quill, an ink horn. [00:32:24] In they come, all ready to do execution. And they are told by the Lord, begin at the house of God. Now, that's a principle with God. This is the first time it is clearly mentioned. It's taken up later in scripture that all judgment begins at the house of God. [00:32:41] Always begins with the people of God. So they're told, begin at the house of God, and you're to begin at the sanctuary. Now, that meant beginning with the elders up on the threshold who are worshipping the Son. [00:32:56] One or two very interesting things in chapter nine, verse two and verse six, you will find that they are told to move right through the whole of Jerusalem, not sparing anyone except those that have a certain mark upon their forehead. [00:33:17] Now, they are told, the man with the inkhorn is told to go through and mark every single one in the whole city who is any concern whatsoever over what is happening in the city. [00:33:33] And this is the interesting thing, they are to mark them with the Hebrew letter Taurus and the Hebrew letter towers across. [00:33:44] And every single one that was in any way concerned over the condition of the people of God and the house of God, they were marked as a remnant that would be spared when the marking of the remnant was over. You can see that in verse four, then begins the judgment. Now, the man dressed in the linen and with the quill and the inkhorn is told to go into the whirling wheels, and he is told to obtain coals of fire. [00:34:22] He goes in to the whirling wheels, and the cherub stretches out into the midst of that burning glory, in the midst of the cherubim, in the midst of the four living figures, and he takes from the altar there fire. [00:34:34] He gives it to the man. The man goes out and scatters it over Jerusalem. Now, here's the most interesting fact, and it is a fact borne out throughout the whole word of God, that what is to the people of God's salvation is to the world damnation. [00:34:52] You will find it again in Revelation 8, where the angels, in the last great judgments of God, are told to go and take fire off the altar of God and scatter it over the earth. And wherever they scatter it, it brings judgment. [00:35:07] Now, isn't that an amazing fact? [00:35:09] You know, there is a savor of life to those who are to live, and it's a savor of death to those that are to die. [00:35:21] The cross has two remarkable aspects. [00:35:25] On the one side it can save, and on the other side it can damn. [00:35:31] On the one side, we're told of a stone. The Lord Jesus spoke of it, which, if you fall upon it will break you, but you'll be saved. But if it falls upon you, it will crush you to dust. [00:35:44] Do you know, it is not just the cross. I want to point out to you that it is the presence of God. The presence of God and the glory of God and the throne of God and the church of God. [00:35:59] These things, if I may use such a terrible, almost irreverent term to describe them, these things have two aspects. On the one side, they can save men and women, and on the other side, they damn them. Bring the presence of God into the atmosphere of wicked, sinful men, and it will damn them unless they turn to him for their salvation. Bring the glory of God onto the earth and it will burn up everyone who will not hide in Christ. [00:36:27] Why do you not know something about the end when men will call for rocks to fall upon them and will go into the caves of the earth to hide, they say, from the face of him who sits upon the throne. Why should they be afraid of the Lamb that has been slain? Why should they be afraid of a little lamb that is in the midst of the throne? Because to us he's a little lamb, but to them he's a lion. [00:36:51] To them it's damnation. To us it's salvation. [00:36:55] So here, Jerusalem, on the One side, those who had the cross on their head, the mark that saves them, to them it is salvation, deliverance from a terrible state of sinfulness, evil and chaotic disorder. [00:37:13] But for the others, it is nothing but the most terrible judgment and destruction. [00:37:22] I do believe the church should have that ministry. [00:37:26] And wherever the church has really functioned, it has had that ministry. [00:37:33] Whenever you get a real expression of the church, on the one side it saves every man and woman who will come to its midst, but on the other side, by its very life and character, it condemns and exposes. [00:37:49] And it's one of the reasons why, whenever you get a functioning church, it's not long before Satan moves and gets permission to destroy it. Outwardly, he knows only too well what it can do to his kingdom. [00:38:05] Well, there you are, it's there. And if you look in chapter 11, from 17 to 20, you find the glory is departing, but there's a hope of. Of recovery. I wanted to draw on the board. [00:38:20] I'll put this back. So those of you who wish to. [00:38:24] A very, very simple and poor diagram. Forgive me if it is so very poor. [00:38:30] If we say that that is the city, we could say that that is the temple very poorly and roughly. [00:38:41] This is north, this is south, this is west, and this is east. [00:38:49] Here is the actual temple, there's the altar, this is the court. [00:38:56] That's the gate that faces north, that's the gate that faces east. [00:39:04] The glory of the Lord, we're told in these chapters 8 to 11, was in the house at the beginning, at least it's implied that it was there. [00:39:12] It moved out to the threshold, it moved through the east gate and stood there, and finally it went right up outside of the city and remained there. I want you to remember that, because later, when we come to the last nine chapters of Ezekiel, the glory of God comes back the exact same way that it left. Point by point, from point to point it returns. And the most interesting fact, God's glory gradually leaving. But he will not leave it any farther than he has got to. [00:39:49] He remains just outside the city, waiting till later on in Ezekiel's vision, He sees a new city and a new temple to which the Lord can fully and completely commit himself. [00:40:08] Now, from chapter 12 to chapter 24, we've seen a vision of the departing glory. [00:40:19] Ezekiel has got down to the root of this thing. [00:40:26] He has pointed out to us now that, and I believe this is most important, that glory has departed because the thing the people do not correspond to, the cherubim. [00:40:48] The very characteristics that Ezekiel has been so careful to define for us are absent from these people, this city, this sanctuary, this people should be the container of God's glory. [00:41:10] They should be the embodiment of what the cherubim and the whirling wheels and the throne with the likeness of a man upon it symbolized. But then they're not anywhere near it. They are in fact an actual contradiction to it. [00:41:29] And therefore the glory of the Lord leaves. [00:41:33] In other words, there's a division. [00:41:36] The presence of God is gone. [00:41:40] This does not correspond to God's mind. [00:41:47] Now, from chapter 12 to chapter 24, we have more lessons drawn out from the departure of God's glory. And these I am going to just mention and pass over. Perhaps we will stay with one or two a little longer. [00:42:04] They are a lot, a whole series of different prophecies linked together under a very definite arrangement. [00:42:13] But it would take a long time to go through them all. But each one is a lesson. [00:42:18] Some of them are just the reinforcement of lessons which he has already given us. [00:42:26] Others are the very definite instruction of new lessons that we must learn. [00:42:32] In chapter 12 you have a depicting of King Zedekiah. [00:42:40] Ezekiel acts out another sign, and it's a picture of Zedekiah. [00:42:45] In chapter 13 you have a prophecy concerning false shepherds. Now here Ezekiel traces much of the condition of the people back to false shepherds, false prophets. [00:43:03] Oh my God, it always goes back to false prophets. And of course it's not wholly the false prophets. I mean, you all know the sort of where there's a demand in the end, there's bound to be a supply. [00:43:17] Really, the whole point is, Paul puts out in one of his letters, they want to heap to themselves teachers with itching ears. [00:43:26] They want to have those. Those teachers that have itching ears. They want to hear what the people want to hear. [00:43:38] They don't like anything about so and so and so and so. All right, or get those. [00:43:46] They don't want to hear anything about sin or we'll cut sin out. Then, as all false prophecies, many of you, if you could hear the false prophets of Ezekiel's day, would be quite satisfied. Think what they're all making thus about seemed to be perfectly all right to me. You don't think that they were just absolutely violently abominable, wicked men who sort of spoke in the most obscene language and so on? No, all these things that were so immoral and obscene all seem to be, if you had been there, very rational and reasonable, taking into account the circumstances and, and atmosphere of the day. [00:44:26] And if you'd heard these false prophets, you would have thought, well, well, what nice, refined men. [00:44:35] What nice, refined men wouldn't harm a fly. [00:44:41] Nice people. [00:44:43] And so they wooed the people to sleep when they should have been summoning them to the danger that lied ahead and of course, lay ahead. And of course, the prophets who the very few who stood out and boldly came with thus says the Lord. And it really was by the commandment of the Lord, they were looked upon as the most awful, gloomy types that were all the time stirring up this whole question of sin and judgment and all the rest of it. You see, it all seemed like that. Ezekiel goes back to this point. It is these topics that are the root of the fall. [00:45:29] They have wooed the people of God into senselessness, and they have come again and again and with a thus saith the Lord. When, as Ezekiel says, it came out of their own minds. [00:45:45] The Lord never told them to say, thus saith the Lord wasn't even in it. [00:45:51] But they came with all their messages and everything else, and the people listened to them and they had no discernment. Anyway. It wasn't that they were popular, they were nice. It was good to hear them, nothing unpleasant. It was all so comforting. [00:46:07] And so it went on. [00:46:09] If you go on to chapter 14, you will find that he points out the inevitable outcome of idolatry. [00:46:17] He points it out quite clearly. That always ends in judgment. It must do. [00:46:26] Then, if you come to chapter 15, 16 and 17. [00:46:31] Ezekiel sees God's people in history, and he depicts them in three ways. And he has a vivid imagination in the way he depicts God's people. In the first, he depicts them as a useless vibe. [00:46:45] There's no fruit, there's no grapes on her at all. And he says, what can you do with the vine wood? You can't even make a peg out of it. [00:46:54] The only thing you can use it for is firewood. [00:46:57] And then he said, when it's burnt, what more use is there to it? And he points out in chapter 15 that Israel is like a vine that should be bearing fruit, but has lost its purpose altogether. It's lost its aim and is now useless, absolutely useless. He says, even the other trees of the wood have more purpose than you. [00:47:24] Then he goes on to the second little picture that he draws. It is an unfaithful bride, a terrible picture, I suppose, to Western ears. A little bit shocking. If you read it in its more direct and frank. [00:47:41] In a more direct and frank translation, I think you would probably be a little bit shocked by it. But it is a very beautiful picture he paints of the Lord passing by and seeing this little outcast child thrown out, not wanted at birth, weltering in its own blood. [00:48:01] And how he takes courage, compassion upon it, how he draws the child to himself, how he brings her up and finally how he marries her, and how her beauty goes out to the ends of the earth, her renown. And then once she feels and knows that she's beautiful, she starts to play the harlot. And then there's the whole record of her harlotry, how she didn't. She didn't receive payment, but she actually paid her lovers to come and to be with her. Oh, it's a terrible story. [00:48:40] Not of falling into a trap, but of deliberately going out to compromise herself. And he sees Israel. Her whole history is portrayed in this unfaithful by, saved, redeemed, ransomed in the most wonderful and gracious way by the Lord, but repaying it all with unfaithfulness at every turn of the way, at every opportunity. [00:49:10] And then in chapter 17, you have another picture of two vultures. [00:49:14] The first vulture takes a little top of the cedar, takes it away to Babylon and plants it there, and it becomes a lowly vine. But as the vine grows, so it looks to a stronger vulture, and the stronger vulture comes and seizes the lowly vine and takes it away to its abode. [00:49:38] And really it is an allegory depicting Israel's relationship on the one side with Babylon, on the other side with Egypt. [00:49:52] I leave that with you too. [00:49:55] All these. Ezekiel draws lessons from all these things. [00:49:59] Then in chapter 18, you have a whole chapter which is certainly rather frightening, on individual responsibility. The refrain in this chapter 18 is, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. [00:50:11] They have been saying that if a father sins, his son will die. The Lord says, rubbish, the father sins, he shall die. [00:50:21] If the Son turns to the Lord, he shall live. If a righteous man, once saved, starts to commit sin, he will find judgment. [00:50:30] But if a man who has been wicked turns to the Lord, he shall be saved. [00:50:36] It's the doctrine of personal and individual responsibility that is Ezekiel hammers home, can't hide anyone else. [00:50:47] The whole question is that we've each got a responsibility to God. [00:50:54] In 19, you have Judah's Last Kings, the history of Judah's Last Kings. And then from chapter 20 to the end of chapter 23, you have a gathering up of all these past chapters, from chapter 12 right through to chapter 19. [00:51:14] In chapter 20, from verse 1 to 45, you have the history of God's people. It's a remarkable chapter, and it reveals that Ezekiel was not a fool. I mean, he wasn't just of dull intelligence. He was a man who knew and understood the history of his people. [00:51:36] And he was able to go right back to Egypt. And he was able to point out that in Egypt, if it had not been for the grace of God, they would have been given up. He points out that in the wilderness, if it hadn't been for the grace of God, they would have been given up. He points out that in the land they would have been given up if it hadn't been for the grace of God. And now he says, if it wasn't for the grace of God now in exile, we should be given up. [00:52:01] It is a record of apostasy all the time. It is rebellion, it is murmuring. The Lord does something. For a few moments they are thankful, but very quickly it dies out because they're groaning with the conditions they've got. They're groaning with the provision of the Lord. They don't like Egypt, so he takes them out of the wilderness. They don't like the wilderness. They prefer to be in Egypt. He takes them out of the promised land. They don't like the promised land. They'd prefer to go back into the wilderness. [00:52:29] And so it goes on. It takes them into exile. Oh, dear. They want to be back in the land. Then when at last it comes to return to the land, they would prefer to stay in exile. So it goes on murmuring, groaning all the time. [00:52:43] Story of apostasy, story of idolatry at every conceivable opportunity in Egypt, then in the wilderness when they made a molten calf, then in the land now in exile, it's a story of idolatry all the way through. Then he points out a story of compromise all the way through from the beginning. All the time they are committing adultery, as he puts it, playing the harlot, first with the Egyptian, then with the Assyrian, now with the Babylonian, all the way through. [00:53:22] A question along that line. [00:53:26] So you see, there's really, in many ways, Ezekiel has a tremendous amount to say, which is based in fact. [00:53:36] In chapter 20, from 45 right through to the end of 21, he speaks of the coming judgment. And then in chapter 22, he depicts Jerusalem's sinfulness again. And lastly, chapter 23, he speaks there of two sisters, a holah and a hol, Samaria, or Israel and Judah. And he says that Judah, in the end, turned out to be more wicked and evil than her sister Israel. Both of them played the Harlot. [00:54:15] So you have this remarkable record. And the final is found in chapter 24. It is the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecies. He hears that the siege from the Lord. He hears that the siege is about to begin. [00:54:31] And as he warns them that Jerusalem the last, the fulfillment of his prophecies has come. [00:54:40] His wife dies. [00:54:43] She is called in this chapter the delight of his eyes. And the Lord says, she shall die with a stroke. [00:54:50] And he told him that he was not to mourn, he wasn't to weep, he wasn't or anything like that. He was to get up the next day, he was perfectly happy, and he was to go out. Now I would like to see some of the husbands in this room if they were called upon to such a task. When people belittle and despise the saints of the Old Testament, I wonder whether it really lives at all, whether their lives and circles live to us at all. [00:55:18] The point is this. If you were told that a loved one of yours, someone really very close to you, were going to die tonight to go to be with the Lord as a sign, however much you trusted and knew the Lord would not be an easy thing for you to come tomorrow morning with your face washed and everything in order, and smiling and just pretending that it was all very little. It was all alright. [00:55:40] That's what the Lord told Ezekiel. And I want to point out to you that all this question of judgment and everything wasn't an easy thing for Ezekiel. It was something that was right inside. [00:55:50] It meant a lot to him. [00:55:53] He had to go a hard way to fulfill it. [00:55:56] Now the next section. Oh, it's not there. The next section of ezekiel from chapter 25 to 32 we can pass over very swiftly indeed because it is almost self explanatory. The key to this section is found in chapter 28 and verse 24 to 26. [00:56:19] It is all to do with the judgment of the nations in 28 and verse 24 to 26. [00:56:30] And he says, and there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are round about them that did despite unto them. And they shall know that I am the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God, when I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob, and they shall dwell securely therein. You read to the end of that chapter. That is the key to this section, it is all to do with the judgment of the nations. But the judgment began at the sanctuary. [00:57:09] Now mark that. [00:57:11] It began at the sanctuary, and now it's moving right out to the nations. All around, all the nations are being judged. Ammonia, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt. [00:57:28] And do you know that again and again the little refrain comes in almost every one of them except Edom, and in many of them quite a number of times, that they may know I am the Lord. The judgment of the nations is for that reason that they may know that I am the Lord. [00:57:45] Judgment begins at the house of God. But. But Peter says, what shall be the end of those that believe that? If it begins with us who are saved, what will the end be of those that are not saved? [00:57:58] Well, there it is. [00:58:00] It shows you again that what is to the people of God purifying and refining to the world is destroyed. [00:58:12] The judgment that comes to the people of God purifies the rain, but the judgment that comes to the world destroys it. [00:58:20] And then the last portion is those six chapters from chapter 33 to 39, the restoration and the Recovery of God's people. [00:58:36] In chapter 33, you had the duty of the watchman, the duty of the watchman. [00:58:43] Now, this is a very wonderful chapter. For in this chapter, a runner comes a man who's escaped from the siege and he saw the actual destruction of Jerusalem and he fled. And he's come all the way to Ezekiel with the news some months later that Jerusalem has been destroyed. Now, that meant that all Ezekiel's prophecies had been fulfilled. [00:59:06] Now, the people who had only listened to him scornfully and listened to all the false prophets that were prophesying the exile about that they were going to go back in a few months. Not to worry, that's what we're told. They were saying to them by Jeremiah. [00:59:19] Now it was all proved wrong. Jerusalem was razed to the ground. There wasn't a stone left on a stone, and no one left alive except, as it's put, the common sort, a few of the common sword. That's all. [00:59:32] The whole thing was at an end. The national life of the country destroyed and devastated. [00:59:42] Now, beautifully, really, in this solemn point of his life, at the beginning of this next phase of his ministry, all to do with the restoration and recovery of God's people, Ezekiel speaks of himself as the One. [00:59:58] And I think it's very beautiful, because on the one side he reminds us that he has solemnly warned them of everything that was to take place he said that the Lord said to him, if he didn't blow the trumpet, if he didn't warn those to whom he was sent, their blood would be required at his hand. But the trumpet's been blown. [01:00:20] All these preceding chapters were the clarion call of Ezekiel to flee from the wrath that was coming. [01:00:27] He had cleared himself of the blood of every one of them in a way that, I'm afraid, that many of us here have not. [01:00:36] But the wonderful part about the watchman is that he's not just a messenger of doom or of gloom. [01:00:43] The watchman's on the walls. That's the idea. And he can see the door. [01:00:48] And now comes the great transition in Ezekiel's ministry over from denunciation and judgment right over to recovery and restoration. [01:01:00] He now becomes a watchman of a different kind. Before he saw what was coming, and he warned again and again of what was to take place. [01:01:09] Now it all happened. He's still a watchman. Now he bids them look up. [01:01:17] There's hope. There's a door that's coming. God is going to restore. [01:01:24] Then in chapter 34, you have the shepherdhood of God contrasted with false shepherds. A very beautiful chapter. It springs out of the watchmanship of Ezekiel. He speaks of himself as being appointed a watchman, and out of this grows this thought of false watchmen. [01:01:43] He changes the figure. False shepherds. But he doesn't contrast himself with them. Oh, no. He contrasts with them. The shepherdhood of God. It's a wonderful chapter. 34. You go home and read it. Wonderful chapter. These men, he says they couldn't care less about the straying ones. They couldn't care less about those that are lame. They couldn't care less about the diseased ones. They are only there to feed themselves and clothe themselves and look after themselves. [01:02:12] He says God isn't like that. Although God righteously has permitted them all to go into exile, he's going to restore them all. God is a shepherd. God will go out after them all, and he will bring them back from every country to which they've been driven. And he will care for them again, and he will guard them. It's a wonderful chapter that 34, depicting the love and the grace of God. [01:02:38] Do read it. There are few prophets who have been so solemn in their denunciations and so clear in their warnings, who have depicted so beautifully the tenderness of the Lord in judgment, judgments taken place. That's all right, says Ezekiel. God has a shepherd heart, and his shepherd heart will transcend in the end everything else. And though he has driven you away to the ends of the earth. Yet. Yet will he go after you and bring you back again. He's not like a false shepherd. Out of this comes another wonderful thought. In chapter 35 and chapter 36, it is the removal of antagonistic forces and the restoration of Israel. [01:03:21] In these two chapters, Edom is mentioned. [01:03:25] It's a remarkable one, really. It talks of Edom and why should it single out Edom? It's already spoken of Edom in one of the judgments on the nations. Why should it single out Edom? But he does single out Edom and he singles out Edom as amongst other nations who have been one of the influences that has caused Israel to sin. [01:03:47] Now, when the Lord's on the move to restore and recover, he'll wipe out those vantage points of sin. Satan, Edom is going to be destroyed and so is everything else. [01:04:07] The people of God will be restored. [01:04:10] Now those two chapters are wonderful, particularly chapter 36, all to do with the recovery and restoration of God's people after judgment. But a new and a wonderful vault comes in which has actually been mentioned by Ezekiel before, but he expands it here. I will put a new spirit within you. I will give you a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. Here there is a new character. Now listen, this is the character of the cherubim. [01:04:39] You remember? [01:04:40] Inside the cherubim was a living breath. All the time they quivered with life, they throbbed with life. The wheels whirled with life because within them was the spirit of life. [01:04:51] Do you remember that? Within the living figures was the life. Living figures, living creatures, everything was alive because the spirit of God was in it. [01:05:05] Now, you see, Ezekiel says, how can you have a character that is depicted by. On the one side the lion, on the other side the ox. On the other side a man. On the other side an eagle. How can you have these qualities? How? I will put a new heart within you and a new spirit inside of you. [01:05:29] A new heart character, a new spirit, a new motivating force inside the wheels and the cherubim. [01:05:39] Ezekiel's going to do a new says, the Lord's going to do a new thing to you. Don't you worry. He departed from you because you were altogether different to the cherubim. [01:05:48] But don't you think the Lord's let go of you? He's going to make you like the cherubim. He's going to make you the embodiment of what the cherubim symbolize in every way. A new heart, a new spirit, a new creation. [01:06:04] And all those antagonistic influences removed. [01:06:09] Go on to chapter 37. And I can almost hear some of you saying, as you will of yourselves and as we do of the church today, and as they did then, of the situation around them. They were in the spirit of the Lord took up Ezekiel, and he came into a valley. And there it was. It was one vast graveyard. That's all. Evidently, it was an army. Now, mark this. It was an army that had been slain. They were never buried. [01:06:34] This is the vision he saw. [01:06:36] Now, this was the host of the Lord. You know who the host of the Lord were? They were the people of God. And here they were dead, dry bones, no flesh, no sinews, nothing. [01:06:50] Not even the bones joined to the bones. [01:06:52] Just mountains of dry, dead bones. [01:06:58] The Lord said to Ezekiel, well, Ezekiel, see what you said. [01:07:02] What do you see? I see a valley of dry, dead bones. [01:07:06] Do you think we can do anything about this, Ezekiel? [01:07:09] I don't know. [01:07:12] Then the Lord says, ezekiel, you're to go and speak my word over these dead bones. [01:07:18] And Ezekiel goes like Moses over the Red Sea, and he speaks the word of God. And suddenly there was a noise like thunder. And all the bones started to jump. [01:07:28] And all the bones went to each other. Every bone to the right bone. You know the old song, I'm afraid I can see many of you. Each bone fitted to the right bone. And then slowly, as he watched, he saw the sinews come up upon the bones and then the flesh come over the bones, but they were still not alive. [01:07:49] Then the Lord said, go and speak again. Prophesy again. [01:07:55] And then suddenly the breath of God came in and they all stood up. [01:07:59] Now, what is that a story of? [01:08:03] They came out of their graves? [01:08:06] It is the story and vision of national. [01:08:10] National regeneration. Or resurrection. [01:08:15] Oh, if only you and I could capture the atmosphere when Ezekiel was there with those exiles. You know, as far as they were concerned, the nation was dead. [01:08:27] It had been buried in a terrible grave, and it was all over. [01:08:34] You just think what would happen if the Houses of Parliament and the whole center of the city here was destroyed beyond any, without a vestige of anything remaining in it except mounds of rubble. And you and I and every single one of us scattered to the ends of. Of the earth. Most of us would have lost most of our families. We would just be scattered at the ends of the earth. And then some man came amongst us and said that it was all going to take place again. There was going to be a new city. The land was going to be built. Westminster Abbey was going to be there again. And the Houses of Parliament were all going to be rebuilt. You would say, oh dear, it's impossible. [01:09:15] How do you reintegrate a nation that's smashed? [01:09:19] How do you restore something scattered to the ends of the earth? How can you bring them out when now they're all speaking other languages and they're all scattered and all amongst different. Got different customs and everything else, though they're still Jews? It's an impossible thing. The Lord said it would happen. [01:09:36] He had brought his people to the deepest point that they could possibly reach death, that he might prove that power of his resurrection, recovery, restoration is always on the basis of resurrection. Always. [01:09:56] And so when you come to this chapter, you come to this wonderful fact that Brother Shaw read in the chapter to us. The regeneration leads to God's dwelling place and sanctuary. That's what it's all for. We're born again to be this dwelling place, this vessel for the glory of God. [01:10:14] It's for that reason. [01:10:15] And so you come to the last two chapters of this section 38 and 39. What are they? You read them. Gog and Magog. And who, may I ask? Agog and Magog. Gog is the prince. Magog is the land or nation. [01:10:30] Who is Gog and Magog? [01:10:34] I want to say that whatever you might feel about these two chapters, and they're taken up in the word of God by other prophets, particularly in the book of Revelation, in what we call Armageddon, this whole thing again and again becomes the basis of much further revelation. But I want to say that whether we believe it's an actual battle that's going to take place, or whether we don't, whether we believe it's something that has taken place or hasn't, is yet to be fulfilled. I think we can say one thing of this I'm convinced in keeping with Ezekiel's ministry all together, particularly with the last nine chapters, these two chapters symbolize the endless conflict, endless conflict over the purpose of God. Here is Gog, and he marshals together an immense army, and up he comes against the land. [01:11:29] Now they're back in Ezekiel's vision, they're back in the land. The cities rebuilt, the temples there, the nations reconstituted and all are so peaceful. There's no walled cities, there's no bars, there are no locks. And then this tremendous army move up against them to eliminate them. [01:11:49] Do you know the story? [01:11:50] You read through those two chapters? It's a tremendous deliverance from God. It takes them a long, long time to better. [01:11:58] So long they just don't know what to do when anyone finds a bone or two, they have to put up a signpost so that the burials and a whole army of official burials, according to Ezekiel, go around the land afterwards. And when they see this thing, they bury them. [01:12:14] What does that all mean? [01:12:17] What does that really have to say? I believe it speaks to us very simply of a tremendous conflict over the purpose of God. Tremendous conflict over the purpose of God. [01:12:30] And the thing that Ezekiel saw was the final triumph of God. Whatever else had this Armageddon, all the nations of the world gathered to do into the one last final conflict to sweep the people of God out of existence. And that will be the occasion of God's greatest and when he delivers his people in their entirety, the final overthrow of evil and the final triumph of God. Ezekiel closes there. You know, there's a 13 year break between chapter 39 and chapter 40. 13 year break as far as Ezekiel's concerned. You know, when he came to chapter 39, he thought he was finished. [01:13:16] He thought with that last great vision of Gog and Magog being overthrown, that was the finish and the finale of his ministry. Thirteen years later, the Lord told him to say a good deal more. We shall see that again just in a few weeks. But that's the last note upon which he thought he had finished. A final overthrow of evil and the final triumph of God.