In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: We've come as far as verse 22. That's where we're going to pick up. Now, we're going to speed up a little bit. We're going to try to do a few chapters tonight because we're going to walk through the narrative parts of it kind of quickly. But then when we get to the prophetic parts, we'll slow down and we'll take a little greater time to make sure we unpack the details of those things because Ezekiel's a wonderful book.

Oh, I had a prophecy update. Can I give it to you guys before Sunday? There is a teaching going on in Iran right now among the Imams that this will be the last Ramadan that they're going to celebrate while Israel is still in existence. The Imams are predicting by July the 8th of this year, Israel will no longer exist. So Psalms 83, I'm not saying July the 8th, but are you kidding me? We're living in exciting times.

You guys got to hear it first on Wednesday nights. Don't tell anybody. They'll have to wait until Sunday. But that's what's going on right now. They're teaching this will be the last time that Islam has to deal with Israel on their High Holy Day because Israel won't exist for the next Ramadan. There will be people that won't exist, but it won't be Israel. They haven't read the right book; they read the wrong one. The Quran may say that, but it's not the Word of God, is it? Amen.

Every single week, some news is popping up and it's so exciting to see the times we're living. Anyway, let's get to Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 3. Put your finger on verse 22. Let's pray. Father, we so need that work of your Spirit in our hearts and our minds, leading us and guiding us into all truth as we study your Word. We love your Word, Father. We would just ask again tonight, it's even going to be in the text this evening, that you would give us ears to hear.

As Jesus said as he's writing to the seven churches, an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. I'd like to add to that, Lord, by saying in these final moments in the last days, may we be awake, may we be alert, may we be watching and waiting, anticipating, and Lord, may we be prepared. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

We'll get a little bit of a background run at this. Remember chapter 1, Ezekiel is part of the captivity of this second captivity as it were, as Nebuchadnezzar has to go back to Jerusalem after the first siege of 605 and he has to quell an uprising in 597 BC. At this time, he brings the priests into captivity and all of the instruments of worship in the temple, and Ezekiel is now in tow.

Daniel went in the first wave of captivity; Ezekiel comes in the second. So, it's important for us to understand what's going on as we move now into this next section. We know for a hundred years before this, Isaiah was warning the people that God was going to judge them for their idolatry if they didn't stop and repent.

One of the things I want to make note of tonight is that God is long-suffering. For a long time, He will warn and He will continue to warn. Sometimes the warnings start soft and kind of quiet and they ramp up, as we've been seeing in the book of Ezekiel. It starts with Isaiah, and now as it's getting closer to God's judgment, then you have Jeremiah, you have Ezekiel now, and you have Daniel.

These prophets are warning the nation of Israel that because they are firm of heart, they are hard of heart, and they are stiff of neck, He's saying, "You need to listen." So, God is sending this prophet to the captivity. We're going to see why tonight because there were still false prophets back in Jerusalem that were prophesying that things were going to go well.

They said that God was going to give them victory over the king of Babylon and that those who had been led captive, Jehoiachin, Ezekiel, and Daniel and his gang, are going to be brought back to Jerusalem and God's going to restore Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet says, "No, you fail to understand. God is judging you. You're under the judgment of God because you were supposed to be God's representative. You were supposed to be a light to the nations. You had the light. You're worse than the nations roundabout. They sinned in the darkness, but you're sinning in the light. You should know better."

Because you don't know better, I'm going to make you—we're going to get in the next couple of chapters as we move through it tonight—because you should have known better, I'm going to make you, my people, an example to the nations roundabout. There's no nepotism here. If you sin as my people, I'm going to judge you just like I'm judging the nations. In fact, I'm going to make an example of you and the nations are going to be in awe of what I do to you because I'm not a respecter of persons. In fact, you should know better.

What we need to get from this tonight is we're going to see a few things. God is judging the nation that we live in. We know from prophecy in the last days He's going to judge it. We've been warned in the last days there's going to be a falling away from the biblical faith. There's going to be an apostasy. False teaching is going to come into the church. Doctrines of devils and seducing spirits are going to rise. Deception will be afoot. The love of many will grow cold and lawlessness will abound.

We're seeing all of those things take place. We're living in a time where God is judging not only America, God is judging this world. Now, how does that affect us? We're going to see tonight. God's judgment won't land on us because we are the redeemed. We are the remnant, as it were. As we're seeing the sunsetting, we should be all the more encouraged to be a witness.

We should be like the prophet. In chapter 1, God gives Ezekiel this wonderful experience with Him. Mind-boggling and mind-blowing, he faceplants. God has to raise him up. Well, we're going to see him do that again. It will be the second time. I think part of that is once it was by the river Chebar and now it's going to be in the plains. God is saying, "I am with you no matter where you go." It's not geographical; it's personal. It's intimate. We'll see that.

After he raises him up, he gives him instruction, which I think is important. He puts his hand on him, he stands him on his feet, he fills him with the Spirit, and he tells him, "Now you go and you preach my words. You go and say, 'Thus saith the Lord what I have said,' and don't fear their faces because I'm sending you to a rough crowd. I'm sending you to thorns and thistles and scorpions. They are going to be firm of face, hard of heart, and stiff of neck, and they may not listen. Probably they won't."

Nonetheless, it doesn't matter if they hear or don't hear. They need to know that there is a prophet in the land, someone speaking for me. That's for two reasons. Number one, God will never judge until He's warned. He's warning this nation through those people that are standing in pulpits that have not compromised God's Word and are saying to a nation, "You need to wake up. Jesus is going to come soon and remove the church and then judgment is coming."

God never judges without lengthy and patient warning. Maybe in your own life, you've been doing some stupid things. You're doing things you shouldn't be doing and you think because the consequence of it hasn't come quick that maybe God's okay with it. He's not; He's just long-suffering. You need to get that thing right. You need to repent and be broken over that thing.

Because this didn't happen quick, over a hundred years ago, you have Isaiah. Now you have Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the warnings are intensifying and they're not listening. So, the judgment's going to come. He tells them that, and he says, "Don't be rebellious like them," and He sends them.

Then he lays this onus on this prophet as we ended last week. He's not laying the same onus on us because He says to Ezekiel, "If you see someone sin a sin unto death and you do not warn them and they die in their sin, their blood is going to be required at your hand. You're going to be responsible for that."

Then he goes through that whole onus. What I want you to know—then he talks about delivering himself from the blood of all men. Even Paul said that. But what delivered us was the blood of Jesus. So, you're not going to have to stand for another man's sin because you didn't warn them, but I think some of the tears wiped from our eyes when we get there will be people that we should have warned and we didn't.

I don't think we're completely removed from this onus. I don't think it's to the same degree in the Old Testament as in the New Testament because in the New Testament, Jesus said, "When I go away, I'll send another comforter and when that comforter comes, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, He's going to convict men of sin and of righteousness and of the judgment that is to come." In the Old Testament, the Spirit wasn't doing that. The Spirit would come upon prophets, upon kings, and it would leave prophets and kings.

It wasn't a permanent thing because even David, when he sinned, King David said, "Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me" because it was possible. But with you and I, when we're born of the Spirit, it's not possible. We also have this Holy Spirit out in the world convicting men of sin. So, greater onus on the Old Testament prophets than on the New Testament saints. Still, we are told in Matthew 28, are we not, to go into all this world and preach this gospel to every living creature?

Are we not commanded to do that? Are we not commanded to share our faith? Are we not told we're living epistles read of every man? Are we not responsible to some degree for this generation and for the salvation? Are we not responsible to warn? I think we are. At least I take it as a pastor very seriously. I would rather have everybody mad at me and an empty church and stand before God and say, "Well done. At least they heard my words from a man of God. You warned them; you did good."

You weren't perfect, but you're good and faithful and you did a good job. Now I can judge because they were warned. So, we ought to warn people. You know what? More than just warning them, we ought to tell them there's a way out of that hopelessness and darkness. There's a way out of that brokeness and that shame and that pain. There's one who stands ready to forgive you and put something in you that's outside of you that will complete you. It ain't the things of this world.

I tried the first twenty years of my life to drive those things of the world that are square into a round hole and both that and this got damaged. Amen. How many went through that? But then you found out there was a part that was missing in your life that had the perfect fit and it's called being born again, Jesus coming and setting up residency in your heart.

We ought to be warning. So, we came through that and now as we come to verse 22, he's going to take Ezekiel to another place. Ezekiel's going to have another experience. Let me kind of give you the background as we're going to go through chapter 5 tonight; we're going to get that far. As he has this next experience, then he's going to be told, "They're not hearing. So, you're going to show them."

There are going to be three illustrated sermons that are going to last like 430 days, well over a year, that he's going to perform in the presence of the captivity to warn them about what God is doing. He will become not just a prophet, but a portrait. He's going to show them because they're not hearing.

He's going to do it in such a way that they're going to come and say, "What is that crazy prophet doing?" and they're going to look at it. Because you know as well as we're going to see tonight that sometimes things can go in one ear and out the other, right? Sometimes we have a problem hearing, especially men sometimes. We have what we call selective hearing. Amen.

We got a dial, man, where you can go like women or men. We hear if we hear hunting or fishing or camping or quad riding or hanging out doing guy things, man, we got excellent hearing. But then when sometimes the wives and the women are talking, it kind of goes from excellent hearing to "wah, wah, wah, wah."

Max, you know what I'm talking about. He's the one who told me all this stuff. Max is the one who told me about this; that's how I learned it, was from Max right there. You see Georgia elbowing him. Then Jason, he reminded me of it and then of course Carl just exemplifies it. But the problem is sometimes spiritually we do that. When God is warning, when God is instructing, we turn the dial to another channel and we're not listening.

When we don't listen, then God will illustrate it in living color because it can't go in one eyeball and out the other. When it goes in your eyeballs, it goes into your mind; there's no way out. A lot of what God will do when you don't listen is He'll give you life application. It will be in living color and there's going to be three of those as we walk through these next verses.

Then he's going to tell us when we get into chapter 5 why these three illustrated sermons, why they are going to come upon you in reality and what they mean. So, that's kind of the outline of the book. Let's pick up in verse 22. Again, Ezekiel says, "The hand of the Lord was there upon me." This is the third time he's going to say the hand of the Lord was upon him and the idea is that there is an unction.

You see, again in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit didn't set up residency. It would come upon prophets, it would come upon kings, it would come upon certain men at certain times and certain women. There were prophetesses. Deborah was a prophetess. I think even Esther, as we studied Esther, and even as Ruth is ministering to Naomi, I think there's a real work of the Spirit in some of these women.

But it could come on and come off. So, he's saying, "This is the third time the hand of the Lord, the anointing of God, the unction of the Spirit was upon me and he said unto me, 'Arise, go forth into the plain.'" No doubt this is the plain of Shinar. "And I will talk with thee there." I think one of the things God is trying to say to Ezekiel is it's not a position and it's not a place.

God speaks to him and he's walking by the river Chebar. Must have been a gorgeous place. You can look it up; to me it looked like a canal. I think of rivers like the Sacramento River or the Nile River, but this is more like a canal. I was so disappointed when I went to Africa and I was waiting to cross the Jordan River. I wanted to sing that song, "Swing low, sweet chariot," really mess up the bus when we cross the Jordan River.

We'd already crossed it and they said, "We just crossed the Jordan." I said, "Where? What? You mean that creek?" Yeah, that was the Jordan River. Whoa. These guys are living a very sheltered life if they don't know what a river looks like. Anyway, he's walking by the river Chebar and God ministers to him, opens up heaven. Now he's going to go up into the plains and God's going to speak to him again. So, it's not geographical and it's not the position of your body. I think it is the position of your heart.

God can put His hand on you and speak to you anywhere you're at. I love it that my prayer life is so present. There are times when I will kneel and pray, there are times when I'll lay on my face and pray, there's times when I walk and pray, there's times when I stand and pray. There's times when I pray by myself, there's times when I pray with the elders every week and there's times when I pray with a group of people and it'll happen again tomorrow at 9:30. But when I'm all by myself, I can pray and I can feel, as it were, the hand of the Lord upon me, strengthening me, guiding me, giving me wisdom.

He goes up into the plain, listen to verse 23. "Then he arose and went forth." He's obedient. By the way, if you want to hear God's voice, you have to be obedient to the last commandment He gave you. If you're not hearing God's voice, I will tell you, go back to the last thing you heard Him say because He has this tendency not to say anything else until you're obedient to the last thing He said.

How many have found that to be true? As he's obedient, just a few of you raised your hand. As he's obedient and he goes to the plain, he says, "Behold, the glory, the presence, the Shekinah, the awesomeness of God of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw there by the river Chebar, and again I faceplant."

I don't think this is something we're going to see that you get used to. When God manifests Himself to you, I think you lose all control of your faculties and I think the only proper position is on your face. We see it in John, we see it with Isaiah, we see it with a lot of these guys that have this kind of an experience.

Then again, this is the second time he's going to tell us, "The Spirit entered into me and it set me upon my feet." God stands him back up and he spake to me and he said unto me, "Go shut thyself within thy house." Now, I read to an ad nauseam and I'm not sure that I agree with all of the commentators, but I think what he's saying is, and you can agree or disagree, you be a Berean and you search it out for yourself, I think the first thing he's telling him is, "This ministry that I'm calling you to as a prophet, as one who has been sent to warn, as one who's been sent to warn and bring people back to repentance back into fellowship with the true and living God, this is going to be for you, Ezekiel, a time of isolation and a time of loneliness."

The ministry can be a very lonely place, especially if you're sent to minister to people that are hardheaded, that are firm of faith, hard of heart, and stiff of neck, who won't hear. The second thing I think it is is an analogy that, "Listen, Ezekiel, you're isolated. I'm communicating with you, but you're isolated because the people have isolated me. They've shut me out. So, I want you to sense that. I want you to go into your dwelling, shut the doors. I want you to sense the isolation because that's what I sense."

As we read through these next verses and then through these next chapters, what you will find is God's heart is broken. In fact, the jealousy that He has because of His great love and as we have rejected Him as a people, in fact, not only rejected Him as we've sought out other gods and actually gone a-whoring after other gods and we've committed spiritual adultery, God's heart is broken.

In His jealousy and His fury, He's going to deal with it like any jealous man. We'll read a Proverb when we get to that point that would describe this because it's part of the Word of God. So, He says, "Go shut yourself in."

I think that's the proper meaning of verse 24 because listen to verse 25. "But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands on you." They're going to lock you up, bro. Not only are they not going to want to hear you, but they're going to want to isolate you. They're going to want to imprison you. They're going to want to cast you as far from them as they can.

Listen, "Thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put you in bands, in chains. They're going to arrest you and they shall bind you and listen, you shall not go out among them." They're going to isolate you, they're going to separate you. This is going to be a lonely ministry as far as people go. They're going to bind you, they're going to imprison you, they're going to arrest you. They're going to put you as far away from them as they possibly can because they don't have an ear to hear.

Sometimes it can be that. It can be that in your family. How many have been rejected by your family or friends? It's been a lonely place, hasn't it? But you know what? It's bearable. Let me let you in on a little secret. It's more than bearable as long as you know this relationship is right.

I think one of the things God wants to free us from is the need for people's approval. Think about that for a moment. In fact, doesn't the Bible say that you don't fear what man can do? Don't fear man. The fear of man is a snare, Proverbs says. We have to get to the point in our Christian maturity that we fear no man, that we don't need any man's approval as long as God's approval is upon us. That has to be enough.

I think that's what He's saying to Ezekiel. "Listen, Ezekiel, my approval on your life has to be enough. I'm sending you to hardheaded people. I'm sending you to people that are rebellious. They're not going to listen to you. In fact, they're going to plug their ears and push you away from them. They're going to arrest you and put you in prison. They're going to do everything to get rid of you. It's going to be a lonely place. It's going to be a place of loneliness and isolation and rejection. But you need to be okay with that."

Then He says in verse 26, "And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth." I think sometimes God needs to do that for us because you want to strike out, don't you? You want to say some things. God just says, "Ezekiel, when they do this to you, I'm just going to stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth so you don't get stupid." How many have ever prayed, "Lord, stick my tongue to the roof of my mouth because I'm about to get real stupid here"?

Then you don't have to go through that whole apology and repentance thing. So He says, "Listen, when they're doing this to you, I'm going to stick the tongue to the roof of your mouth that you can't say anything. But when you do open your mouth, when I do release your tongue, what I want you to say is 'Thus saith the Lord God.' I don't want you giving your opinion or you spewing your anger or you spewing any kind of venom because you've been rejected. Listen, I'm going to shut your mouth for you because this is going to be a difficult ministry, no doubt.

"And when I do release your tongue, you better say 'Thus saith the Lord.'" Then He reminds them at the end of this chapter, chapter 3, He says, "He that heareth let him hear." It's like what Jesus was saying at the end of every one of the seven letters in chapter 2 and chapter 3 of Revelation. But Jesus adds in the New Testament, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying unto the church" because they didn't have the Holy Spirit in their hearts in the Old Testament. He's saying, "Let them hear what the prophet would say because the prophet represented that in those days. He that hath an ear, let him hear, and he that forbeareth, he who won't hear, then let him forbear for they are a rebellious house." Man, I know what I'm sending you to, Ezekiel.

Then he says this: "Okay, they're not going to hear. Get that in your head. So, now I'm going to give you three illustrated sermons. If they don't hear, then I'm going to have you do something that they see because it can't go in one eyeball and out the other. It may go in one ear and out the other, but it can't go in one eyeball and out the other because listen, you don't see—can I give you a little biology lesson? You know you don't see with your eyeballs, right? You see with your mind.

"Eyeballs are transmitters. You see, you can see—if you went blind right now, you could still see. You can close your eyes and still have imagery come before you. Well, where did that imagery come from? Well, it came through the eye gate, but it goes into the mind and it is recorded in the mind. Once it is recorded in the mind, you can shut your eyes, but you still see it. It's still there."

He's saying, "Listen, because they will not hear, you're going to give them some pointed, illustrated, and when we get through these, they're pretty pointed, three very illustrated portraits of the judgment that is to come. So, once it goes in their eye gate, it goes into their mind and then I can deal with it."

So he says in verse 1 of chapter 4, "Thou also, son of man, I know you're just a man again, take thee a tile." You might have a footnote in your Bible that says a brick. It's not a brick. This is like a slab of rock; this is a slate. It's fairly decent size because he's going to have him build a model of Jerusalem on it and then build a siege against it.

He's going to put Jeremiah, the one who speaks for God, on the outside of it. He's going to bring judgment on the city of Jerusalem on the other side of this wall or barrier that he's going to put up. The imagery, so you'll know that when we read through it, the imagery is God is going to judge Jerusalem for their sin. There's going to be a barrier between Jerusalem and their God because of their sin.

God's not going to answer their cries or answer their pleas. He's going to bring that judgment no matter how much they cry because they have been warned for over a hundred years and now it's coming. So, that's the imagery.

I dare to bring this up, but I'm going to. There's another place in the New Testament that talks about when people don't hear, that you're supposed to be a portrait. Now, ladies, this commandment is to you. I'm thinking it through right now. I don't know if I want to do this; I might just move on, but I don't want any trouble. Don't need any emails. Some of you ladies think—not the ones that are here on Wednesday nights, the other ones that come on Sunday mornings. That'll get me out of something, hopefully I can get to the car tonight before you guys get to me.

But some of you think that by nagging your husband, there could be a benefit. You can nag your husband to death, but you'll never nag him to life. Understand? First Peter chapter 3, when you read that instruction given to a woman, he's saying the same thing to you ladies as he said to Ezekiel. "If your husband isn't hearing, be an illustrated sermon."

Well, let's just read the first two verses. "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word," and that's an interesting construct in the Greek. It could be a believer with bad behavior or it could be a husband who's not saved. It could be either. It's interesting when you look at it. Listen, stay on track here. But you know, ladies, you've had those moments, if you've been married more than thirty seconds, you've had those moments where you look at your husband and say, "Man, he's not acting like a Christian. So, my job is to be the Holy Spirit and nag him into sanity."

You can nag him to death, but you cannot nag him to life. Oh, by the way, ladies, listen. The Holy Spirit didn't leave town and leave you in charge. There is still a Holy Spirit. So he says, "If you are married to a man who's an unbeliever or believer with bad behavior, listen what they say. If any obey not the word, they also may without a word, that is without a word spoken, may your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth and the only time it should be open is when God wants to speak through it to your husband. Not you, like Ezekiel, but the Lord."

Without a word spoken, he may be won by the conversation, the idea is the lifestyle, the character, how you're living out your faith, "while they behold," here it is, "while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." What is he saying? He's saying, "Listen, illustrated sermons work in the Old Testament; they also work in the New Testament."

Men, you're not off the hook either. The Bible says as we go out into this world that we are epistles read of every man. What does that mean? People of this world that don't know God are watching us and they're drawing their conclusions of the Lord by what they see in us. We are illustrated sermons. Illustrated sermons will work when speech doesn't.

We had this African doctor that we hired when we were doing a lot of ministry in Uganda because what we would do is we would put up a medical clinic, a free medical clinic, we'd have the people come, we'd treat them, and while they were there we'd do open-air preaching. Then when they would come, we'd invite the pastors and we'd do pastoral training there for the pastors and teach them how to inductively study the Bible and walk through the Bible with them.

One night we were sitting around talking with the African pastor who was trained in China. He had a Chinese wife and he had Black-anese kids; that's what he called them. Just a wonderful guy. I just was asking him, "How in the world is the church growing so great and so massive? How are they multiplying in China when it's illegal to preach the gospel?"

He said, "That's the problem with American evangelism. You think it's what you say instead of how you live." He said, "We live our lives before the Lord and God blesses us and our neighbors come and ask us, 'Why are your crops growing and mine aren't? Why are my kids sick and yours aren't? Why are you happy and I'm just overwhelmed with stress?'" They say in China, "It's not illegal to answer a question. It's Jesus. We've given our lives to the Lord and His blessing is upon us."

I think it was Spurgeon that says, "Preach the gospel everywhere you go and speak if necessary." You see, this is the idea here. So, if they're not hearing, show them. Illustrate it. So he says, "Thou son of man, listen, take thee a slab of slate, lay it before thee, a portrait upon it of the city of Jerusalem. Build this kind of like a model there, lay siege against them, get the little army men and you lay siege against the city that you just built, build a fort against it and cast a mount against it as though the camp is encamped around it, set the camp there against it, and the battering rams against it roundabout.

"Make thou unto thee an iron pan." This is not an iron pan like we think of a frying pan. In those days, an iron pan was just a piece of metal hammered out flat. You would put it on top of your rocks. You can see this in Africa to this day; you put this big piece of metal on top of the rocks and underneath it, you put a fire and that whole thing turns into what we would call today a griddle.

"So, take this plate of steel and set it for a wall, a wall of iron between thee and the city because I want them to understand there are enemies that are going to come against them. You've already had two of those incursions. There's a third one coming and when the third one comes, it's going to be devastating because they're not going to leave anything. It's going to be very devastating." 586 BC, when he had to go back for the third time, he devastated Jerusalem.

He says, "Make them to understand I'm not their help. This wicked king and this wicked empire of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, he is my man to bring judgment upon you because of your sin. We are separated and as though an iron wall is between me and you because you're not hearing my word through my prophet." Jeremiah was to lay on one side, we're going to see for like 390 days, on his right side he was to flip over for 40 days.

Those days, we're going to see in the Scripture, equaled years. When you look at the nation of Israel, the ten northern tribes, for 390 years they were in complete rebellion. You look at Judah for 40 years, they were in complete rebellion. So, every year they were in rebellion, Jeremiah had to lay there part of that day on his side to show them, "You have fallen and you're not listening. Because you're not listening, there's an iron wall between me and you and judgment is coming."

That's what we're going to see when we go through this. You set this face against them and it shall be sieged them and thou shalt lay siege against it and this shall be a sign to the house of Israel. They weren't listening. Let me read you something back in Jeremiah chapter 28. Jeremiah is there prophesying and Jeremiah in chapter 28, when you look at the chronology of it, Jehoiakim, the vassal king that was set after the first invasion in 605 when Nebuchadnezzar set siege to Jerusalem coming back from the Battle of Carchemish where he destroyed Pharaoh Necho, as he laid siege to it, he sets up this vassal king Jehoiakim.

He hears his father Nabopolassar is sick, so he hurries back home. When he gets back home, he hears that Jehoiakim has kind of tried to rebel. So he comes back again the second time and he finds that Jehoiakim is already dead. Maybe somebody threw him off of a building and he's dead. He sacks the city, he takes Ezekiel, he takes the priests, he takes the vessels of worship from the temple, and he also takes Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, just so that he breaks the line of the kings of Jerusalem. He sets up Zedekiah, this wicked man, to be the next vassal king and then he goes back.

When Zedekiah is the king, he has these false prophets that are coming and saying, "Things are going to be fine," prophesying smooth things, easy things, things the people wanted to hear. That's why God is giving these illustrated sermons, because they're not listening to the prophets. So let me show you what's going to happen. Let me read to you just by way of reminder Jeremiah chapter 28, verses 10 through 17.

"Then Hananiah," which was a false prophet, "Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and he broke it." One of the illustrated sermons back in Jerusalem that was being given by the Lord is that Jeremiah put a yoke on him and says, "Listen, God's going to bring us under the yoke of the Babylonians and you need to submit to that because this is God's doing. God is bringing judgment and the easiest way out of this is submit to it, lest he has to destroy Jerusalem. You need to submit to that."

So the false prophet takes this wooden yoke off and he breaks it in front of the king. They're in the king's court. The king has called Zedekiah for the prophets and Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people saying, "Thus saith the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within the space of two years." The prophet Jeremiah went his way. "Oh, Trump's coming back, man. He'll be back before three years. Things will be smooth; things will be well. Republicans will be back in office."

If that's your hope, that's a sad hope. You better not be looking out; you better be looking up because ain't nothing fixing the judgment of God that's coming on this world for the sin that they've committed. Look at the millions of babies that have been aborted. Look at what they've done to marriage, what they've done to gender, what they've done in every way. This world is so corrupt you can't fix it.

The swamp is too deep and it's too far-spread for a man to clean it up. But there's a King of Glory's coming with a rod of iron. He's going to not only drain the swamp; the swamp won't exist. Amen. That's what was happening. These false prophets were prophesying, "Hey man, things are going to get better. Zedekiah is going to lead an army against Babylon. God's going to crush Babylon, crush Nebuchadnezzar." Then he's going to send all the instruments of worship, and they're going to come back, and everything's going to get back to normal again; the priests will come home.

Listen to what he says. "The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah saying, 'Go and tell Hananiah saying, Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast broken the yoke of wood, but thou shalt make them a yoke of iron.'" Put that iron plate right there. They're not going to break that. "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon your neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, and I have given him the beasts of the field. Everything that is yours, I've given to this man as a possession.'"

Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, "Hear now, Hananiah: The Lord hath not sent thee. You are a false prophet." I'm not a prophet. I'm a pastor, I'm a teacher of God's Word. I'm a student of eschatology. I'm a student of prophecy. I'm telling you right now we've come into the time where God is going to judge this world for its sin because it is ripe. We're not going back and it ain't going to get better, not for this world. It will for you and me because we're going home.

But it's going to get worse and worse because God is judging the sin. You cannot shake your fist in the face of God and murder children; the blood is crying out. You can't do what he did to marriage and to gender, to lie and cheat and bribe and steal. Psalm 2 says God sits in heaven and He laughs because He's going to have them in derision. He said, "You have sown the wind and you're going to reap the whirlwind."

I hate to be that kind of a messenger, but listen, the message is that for the world. It's not for you and me because guess what before the Antichrist can come on the scene, guess where we go? We get to go home. But when He comes for us, He better find us about His business like He said to Ezekiel, being a faithful messenger. Amen? A faithful messenger. May God give us hard heads so that we can butt heads with this world and not be hurt like He did for Ezekiel.

He says, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke upon you and upon all nations to serve this king. He's my man." Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, "Hear now, Hananiah: The Lord hath not sent you, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. You're making them to trust in man and man's reason, man's government, man's ability and not the true and living God."

Listen, I got one purpose and it's not to be political. I want to keep pointing you to Jesus. I want to keep pointing you up. I want to keep reminding you the things that are going on right now are fulfillment of prophecy. We're coming to the end of it; the church is going home. God's going to deal with Israel again. He's going to deal with the unrighteous and the wicked. We're coming back after we've had dinner with Dad to set things up. That's the order of things. Make no mistake about it.

Listen, I don't care if Trump gets back in office again, and he may. Don't think I'm a false prophet if he does because one of the things I've considered is when they say peace and safety, how much of the church would say if Trump got back home, "Oh man, we're home. We're free. He's going to straighten it all out"? Boom, we're gone.

I don't want to wait three years. I don't want to wait three minutes. Have you had enough of it? Listen, we're not appointed unto wrath. We're going to go home. But he says, "Hananiah, you false prophet, you have caused the people to believe a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth." This is the Lord speaking to this false prophet. "This year thou shalt die because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord." This year, Hananiah, Jeremiah is saying, "You're going to die." Thus saith the Lord.

In fact, earlier it says, "If I'm a true prophet, it will happen because you have led the people into a lie. You didn't tell them the truth." Oh, and by the way, Hananiah the prophet died that same year, seven months later. The Bible records. In the midst of this rebellion, He's giving this portrait. Here's Jerusalem, here's an iron wall between you and me. I'm not going to rescue you. I'm putting a siege against you, I'm bringing the sword against them, oh, and by the way, Nebuchadnezzar will be successful because of your sin and your rebellion.

This is the picture. Then he says this in verse 4: "Lie there also upon the left side and lay there the iniquity of the house of Israel according to the number of days that thou shalt lie upon it; thou shalt bear their iniquity." Because Israel has actually fallen down—they're not standing for the Lord—I want you to lie down there 390 days on one side, the days of the iniquity of Israel. Then flip over on the other side for 40 more days for the iniquity of Jerusalem.

One day for each year. Now, he wasn't there all day long because we're going to see at some point He told him to get up and do another illustrated sermon. So, maybe he clocked in the time clock, went out there for six or seven hours, did this, then went back and did something else. But these are illustrated sermons that are going on during this time.

Then He says verse 5, "For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity according to the number of their days, 390 days." That's how many years the kings of Israel were in rebellion against the Lord in the ten northern tribes. Then He says, "After that you shall bear their iniquity the house of Israel and then when that's accomplished, verse 6, lie again on your right side; thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, the two southern tribes, 40 days because for 40 years their kings were wicked against the Lord as I have appointed thee each day for a year.

"Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem and thine arm shall be uncovered and thou shalt prophesy against them. And behold, I will lay bands upon thee and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another till the end of these days of the siege" because He wants him to understand—He wants them to understand—that God's not moving on their behalf. He will sit still.

So He said, "I'm going to make sure you sit still to make the message of this illustrated sermon right." Now we come to number two, second illustrated sermon. Get this one. In fact, how many have read ahead? You'll see that Ezekiel kind of protests part of it and God modifies it for him. But watch this. "Take thou also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, rice, and put them in one vessel."

Not only is He going to bring a sword against them and besiege the city of Jerusalem and destroy it, lay it waste, but there's going to be a famine. Israel was never allowed, it was not kosher in their dietary laws, to mix all of these things together. But what He's saying is food will be so scarce that you're going to try to cobble together whatever you can to eat.

In fact, when we go through this next illustrated sermon, it will equal out to about eight ounces of bread per day per person and about a pint of water. They're going to live on bread and water because God's going to bring a famine. In fact, Lamentations, Jeremiah says it; in fact, it's prophesied in other portions of the Scripture, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, that when this siege is set and the famine comes to Jerusalem, they're going to eat their own kids. They're going to become cannibals to survive and it will be a horror to the nations roundabout them.

How sad when we don't listen to what God has to say, the degree and extent He has to go to get our attention. He said, "Put it all." Oh, and by the way, have you seen lately on the news? They're predicting we're not going to have enough food to feed the world very shortly. Did you see that? How many knew or have known that the Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe?

In fact, how many know—I'm from an agricultural background; I was studying to be a world history teacher but also an agriculture teacher and I know these things. How many know where the majority of the fertilizer we use in America comes from? We can't grow crops without fertilizer. We have so depleted our soil and so engineered our seed that we have to chemically stimulate those things and by the way, our seed don't reproduce.

If you use these hybrid seeds, what is left over in the tomato afterwards will not grow. They're predicting a shortage of food worldwide in the next months and a year to come. Earthquakes, famine, pestilence, birth pains. We'll be fine here. We'll become Native Americans again. We'll send out hunting parties. You guys will have backstrap and venison and ham. These pigs around here don't have enough fat on them to make bacon, but you can have sausage.

We'll make sure you guys get taken care of because God will bless us. He'll even take the worst shot like Big Gary and make him a good shot so that we can get the right amount of meat and He'll take me who's a better shot and make him even better. Then Carl, we'll just send Carl out; he'll kill everything and bring it home for us.

Then gardens and chickens and eggs. Listen, man, we don't live in California, we live in Northern California. Amen. We are the rednecks up here, man. We know how to survive these things. Amen. All these quails around here in the church parking lot and the geese that fly overhead. Man, we'll cook their goose.

You will be okay. You'll be fine. Don't sweat it. But this is what He's going to do. He says, "And you're going to have to scrape it all together, listen carefully, and you're going to make your bread therefore accordingly to the number of the days thou shalt lie upon thy side. So, for the 390 days on one side, the 40 days, the 430 days, you're going to make enough bread for those days that when you're lying out there, you're eating eight ounces of bread a day and you're only drinking a pint of water a day."

Those are starvation rations. In fact, it's interesting how this correlates to the New Testament because in the Roman Empire under rationing for the Roman soldier, this was about what they ate. This is the thinnest of rationings that you can survive on and not die. "The number of days shall thou lie upon thy side, 390 days, and then you shall eat it.

"And thy meat which thou shall eat shall be the weight of 20 shekels a day for the time thou shalt eat it." That's about eight ounces of bread because that's what he's making with this stuff. "Thou shalt drink also water the measure a sixth part of a hin," which is just a little over a pint. How many know that a pint of water a day is not enough? How many know that? How many know you should be drinking water from the moment you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed at night?

Yeah, you're just big bags of water. You know that? You're not—if you are overweight, you're not overweight, you're just over-full. You've just got too much water. But we're supposed to drink a lot of water. It flushes our system, it purges our system, it gets rid of the toxins, it helps digest the food. You need water to survive and they're going to a ration.

"Thou shalt drink water by measure a hin from time to time and thou shalt eat it as barley cakes. You're going to make these cakes of bread. Thou shalt bake it with the dung that cometh from a man in their sight." What? Well, because all the animals will be gone. All the fuel will be gone. The only thing that will be there in Jerusalem when this siege, when I put the sword to it, that can burn as fuel will be human feces and you're going to cook your food.

He's going to tell us when we get to chapter 5 why. He says, "You have defiled my temple with your idols. And to me as your God, for me to accept your worship from your defiled hands is the same for you to eat meat that's cooked on human feces." He's given them an illustrated sermon because you as my people should have an undivided heart. You as my people should keep my statutes and follow my commandments, walk in my ways, but you have defiled my temple.

Now, let's just get through the part where Ezekiel protests because he does protest this. "What? Are you kidding me? I gotta cook this stuff on human feces?" He says there in verse 13, "And the Lord said, 'Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles whether I shall drive them.' Then said 'Ah, Lord God! Really? Behold, my soul hath not been polluted. I'm not—are you kidding me? Wait a minute here. For from my youth up until now I have not eaten that which defileth itself or of torn pieces, neither came there of abominable flesh to my mouth. I've never even eaten things like that. Now you want me to eat something that's cooked on this?'"

I do protest. God listens to it and he says, "Okay then." He said unto me, "Lo, I have given thee cow dung." Really? How about briquettes? No, no, no. Cow dung for the man's dung. "Will substitute that, that thou shall prepare thy bread therein."

Moreover, He said unto me, "Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem." This is the second plague. I'm going to bring a famine. "And they shall eat bread by weight with care," because this siege of the sword I'm bringing against them will be long, "and they shall drink water by measure with astonishment, that they may want bread and water and be astounded one with another and consume away with their iniquity."

We'll have to leave off there tonight, but we know from history, we know from Jeremiah as he writes Lamentations. In fact, let me just read it to you, chapter 4, because I don't want to come back to this part of it, the famine part. We'll pick up with the next illustrated sermon in chapter 5. But in Lamentations, Jeremiah the prophet says in chapter 4, verse 10, bringing them warning, he says, "The hands of a pitiful woman"—and the idea is a woman who's her heart is broken because what she has in her hand is a dead child that starved to death.

He said, "The hands of a pitiful woman have sodden their own children; they boiled their own children for meat. They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." Man.

You know, I have a prayer that I pray often with the Lord. Lord, keep me on a short leash. Deal with me quickly. Don't let me get a run at this; don't let me on a long leash. Slap my hand early; discipline me quickly because I never want to get to the point where You have to do this to get my attention.

Because for a hundred years—and we'll end with this—for a hundred years, God had been warning, God's heart had been breaking. The jealousy and the zeal of the Lord, He had quelled at the absolute abomination that was being committed by His people until He can't stand it anymore.

In fact, Proverbs 6:34 says this: "For the jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance." Listen, those emotions we have because we're created in the image of God, they come from the Lord and that same feeling of being betrayed, that same feeling of being rejected, that same feeling of the holy things that I've given you for you to defile them, "Don't you understand that I the Lord am a jealous God and I'm jealous concerning the things of you that you have broken my heart? And I've warned and warned and warned and warned and you haven't turned."

Because you have not turned at my warnings, now you're going to reap my wrath. When we get to the third of these plagues, He's going to tell us just how extensive it will be. A third are going to fall by the sword, a third will die from famine, and a third will be scattered to the wind. But there will still be a remnant. We know that because as we move on in the Old Testament, you still have Jews. We still have them today.

But God's going to devastate them for their sin. I would warn you tonight—and man, I warn myself and warn me. I have my elders pray for me; warn me. We don't ever want to get so firm of face, hard of heart, and stiff of neck. We don't want our ears so stopped up that we don't hear what God has to say that He has to send to us an illustrated sermon. Amen.

Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and they follow no other." May we be the sheep of His pasture. Amen. Listen, we all mess up. How many messed up this week? Okay, let me look around. How many messed up this week? Okay, because I just want to get okay, and the ones that didn't raise their hands, you know what you are? You guys are getting it, man. I have both of mine up all the time. Why do you think I worship like this, Lord? I'm a mess.

In fact, Lord, I agree with him; I'm dirt. I'm His dirt. I agree with Psalms 119. Here's the deal. Repent. Be broken and contrite. Understand your righteousness is from Him. He wants relationship with you, not religion. Just stay there. Open your heart's ear to His voice. Find that place alone with Him where He can speak to you and hear the correction from a loving Father who wants the best for you and turn at His correction.

May God give us an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church because you will find a loving Father willing and ready to not only forgive but to restore, just like when the prodigal came home because that's who He is. But if you stiffen your neck, firm your face, and harden your heart and you don't listen to those cries that He sends out, those warnings, then illustrated sermons are coming your way. Amen. Because He won't give up on you.

You know, I came home one time a long time ago when we were first married; my wife was in there beating something on the counter. I'm going, "What in the world is going on in there?" and it looked like a hammer to me and she's just whack and whack and whack and I, "What in the world are you doing?" She goes, "I am marinating this meat; I'm making it tender." Well, I never known to do that. I just—listen, I'm a carnivore. I got carnivorous teeth. You just throw that hunk of meat on the fire, flip it over a couple of times and put it on the plate, man, and I'll eat it.

"What are you doing to it?" But then I found out, man, that's really good. But you know, God has to do that sometimes to us, doesn't He? How many have been marinated? You see the look in that thing? It's got like these little triangle spike things on it and I'm going to tell you my head—if I were to shave my head, you could probably see it on Todd, he doesn't have much hair anymore. But on my head, if I were to shave it, you would see all of those marks because God has had to marinate my pumpkin many times. Amen. But I thank Him for it. I thank Him for it. Amen. Let's stand and pray.

Read ahead. Hey, listen, I finished chapter 3 and got all the way through chapter 4. I'm—oh, Father, we love you so much. As we go through these things and we see these warnings, Father, may they be warnings to us as well that we never have to get to that place. So speak to our hearts, Lord, and just turn up the volume if need be so that we might hear and we pray it in Jesus' name. All God's kids said. Amen.