In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: Hey listen, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Ezekiel. We'll probably be in the book of Ezekiel until Jesus comes. There's 48 chapters. I'm not going to tell you how far we're going to get because I really don't know, but we're going to get as far as we get in the time we have allotted. Some of it is written in a narrative, some of it is very pointed prophecies that we want to look at.

Ezekiel is one of those books and I've been waiting to do Ezekiel again with you guys. It has probably the broadest scope of prophecy, I think even more so and in some ways in greater detail than Daniel. Now, Daniel and Ezekiel were contemporaries. They were part of the Babylonian exile, as it were, captivity. We're going to see that tonight. We're going to give you some background, we're going to do the introduction to the book, and we want to set the historical context to it so you understand what's going on and why it's going on.

Daniel came with the first siege that Nebuchadnezzar made against Jerusalem in 605. When Nebuchadnezzar goes back to quell an uprising, then it is Ezekiel and the treasuries of the temple that are brought into exile just several years later. It's interesting that Jeremiah is also a contemporary. Jeremiah will be prophesying in a time of absolute evil there in Jerusalem while Daniel and Ezekiel are in Babylon, and he remains there during the two captivities. He's warning people.

If you're a note-taker, let me give you really the message of these three contemporary prophets. They're categorized as major prophets for a particular reason and we're going to see that as we walk our way through these prophecies. Number one, when you study the book of Daniel, you find out that the message that Daniel brings prophetically to the nation of Israel is that God reigns in the affairs of men. He is Lord of all.

When you come to Jeremiah, his thrust and theme is God is judging the sin of his people. It's all about God's judgment that is coming and he speaks out against the false teachers of the day. But when you come to Ezekiel, it is the majesty and the glory of God. He is given in the first three chapters one of the longest single visions. He's going to tell us that heaven opens and the veil between these dimensions that we live in and the dimension where heaven is at, rolled back like a scroll. It opened like a door and he now is seeing into heaven.

He's seeing, as it were, the throne of God with the cherubim that John describes there before the throne. I've often thought when I'm praying because the Bible says when we pray, God hears from heaven. I think sometimes in our mind, we get this imagery that heaven is way out there somewhere, far away. I think we get that from some of the Jewish rabbis and writers of the Old Testament because they had a concept of the three heavens: the sky, space, and then where God dwells, somewhere out there.

That's why Paul said he was caught up to the third heaven, that place where God dwells. But the Bible says that his eyes are upon us constantly, his ears are in tune to our prayers. When you study Ezekiel and you see as he describes heaven opening, it's almost like the veil that separates the spirit world from this physical world has just been removed and that's just how close heaven is. It's right there. We live, the Bible says, and we move and we have our being in him.

The Bible says that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. That means that he literally can spend every moment of every day of your life and every person on the planet at the same time. We move in a realm so close to heaven and we should be in tune with that, those of us who are born again, who walk in the spirit, who are sensitive to spiritual things, and that have that wisdom that God's given us, that oida from God, that understanding and prudence.

We ought to live with the excitement that it's around us. There've been times when the Bible says when we gather together, angels are here every time the Gospel's preached. The whole balcony is full of them. This place is packed tonight, not just with you guys, but with angels. It's probably going to blow your mind that cherubim and seraphim are not angels. We get the concept of angels having wings from these descriptions. These are called creatures who live before the throne of God.

Seraphim are the fiery ones that fly above the throne and the cherubim are the ones who stand before the Lord. In fact, before Satan fell, he was categorized as a cherub. We're going to get a look at those tonight as Ezekiel sees this veil removed and heaven opened and the hand of God, which is an idea of the anointing of the Lord coming upon him. You and I have it at salvation. The Holy Spirit comes in us and he'll never leave us.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit didn't live in those people. It came upon kings and upon prophets and it could leave them. That's why David prayed after he'd sinned, "Take not your spirit from me." We'll never have to pray that because the promise to the church is that he will abide with us forever. So, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel are contemporaries. The thrust of Jeremiah's prophecies is the judgment of God coming upon sin.

There's a lot of application for the time we're living in because I think God's hand of judgment is upon this world and upon this nation. In Jeremiah's time, although he was calling men to repentance, there were false prophets saying, "Oh no, things are fine, things are smooth, things are easy. Those that have been led captive into Babylon, God's going to crush the king of Babylon and those people are going to come back and everything's going to be just fine."

I wonder if some Christians are thinking that about Trump. See, this is bigger than Biden, it's bigger than Trump. Didn't we learn the lesson from Daniel when he said that God humbled Nebuchadnezzar until he realized that God rules in the affairs of men? Sometimes, when he wants to exact his will of judgment upon a nation or upon a person, he puts over them the basest of people. I don't think we can get any baser than what we got. Amen?

I don't say that judgmentally. I say that as an observation. When you look at common sense, there is none in the leadership of this nation today and I personally think it's because a seducing spirit has been given to them because God's will is being worked out. We agree with Daniel. There is a God who rules in the affairs of men and nobody's in a position of authority that God has not put there for his purposes and for his plans.

The Bible says the spirit of God will not always strive with man. There'll come a time when God will judge if you don't listen. In the historical record in the book of Chronicles it says, "If my people would humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then from heaven would I hear and I would heal their land." The problem with America and the problem with the world today is not politics, it's the church. We sit in a state of apathy and we're not burdened for the moral condition of our nation.

We should become the salt and light we should be, out there trying to bring as many people to Christ as we can. If we did what we were supposed to do and were leading people to Christ, the tone and tenor of this nation would change quickly. Ezekiel is writing this book on July the first, 593. Daniel was born between 620 and 622 BC, which would have put him at the time of Josiah, king of Israel.

That's an important point because I want to set the stage for what is happening to bring God's judgment upon his people. If you ever do a study of the kings of Judah, you'll see very quickly that it was very hard for one generation to pass on to the next generation a relationship with the Lord. Manasseh, king of Judah, began as a man who did evil in the eyes of the Lord. But God broke Manasseh and he repented. He's one of the few kings that started off doing evil but actually turns his life and heart back over to the Lord.

His son, Amon, did what was evil. Finally, the nation had enough of him and they killed him and put Josiah in charge. Josiah ruled from 640 to 609 and he did what was right. He destroyed the idols, reinstituted temple worship, and brought the heart of God's people back to serve the Lord. But he made a mistake at the end of his life. He meddled in something he should not have meddled in and it cost him his life.

His son took over the kingship of the two southern tribes at the time Egypt was going up to the battle of Carchemish against the Babylonians. Let's read some of the background. In Second Chronicles 34, it says Josiah was 8 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem for 31 years. He had a lengthy reign. God blessed him because he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He walked in the ways of David his father.

David was one of those guys that messed up a lot but he was a man of a broken and contrite spirit. He repented and God said of David, "There's a man after my own heart." It doesn't mean that you have to be perfect, God sees your heart. Josiah declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. He kept his walk straight. He remained faithful for his entire life. Josiah was a godly man who took away all the abominations.

He removed every idol and everything that was an opposition to the true and living God. He forced them to serve under edicts and rules. All the days while he was king, Israel did what was right. One of the footnotes for that for you and I tonight is how important godly leadership is in the church, in our country, and in the home. As go the priests in the Old Testament and the pastors in the New Testament, so went God's people.

Today, as go the fathers and the husbands, so go the wife and the children. Men, you have been tasked with an incredible job. You are to be like Jesus in your family. You are the servant-leader. You're to be an example to the believer in prayer, in the word, in devotion, love, and consecration to the Lord. In Second Chronicles 35, it says that after Josiah had prepared the temple, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates.

You can run well for many years. We're getting toward the end of Josiah's reign and I think sometimes if we're not careful, we can become too confident in ourselves and not enough in the leading of the Lord. As Pharaoh Necho is moving toward this battle, had Josiah minded his own business, Pharaoh would have bypassed Jerusalem. But because King Josiah meddles in something that does not concern him, this pharaoh rebukes him.

He actually acknowledges that God is the one leading him and tells Josiah to go home. But Josiah doesn't listen. He meddles in things he shouldn't and he's shot through with an arrow and dies. His son for a short season, three months, becomes the king and then he's taken captive by Pharaoh Necho, who besieges Jerusalem on his way home from the battle. Then comes Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC. This is all during the time of God's judging Judah for their sin.

All the while, Jeremiah is warning and they're not listening. Pharaoh Necho's trying to do the right thing. He sends an ambassador to King Josiah saying, "I come not against thee this day but against the house wherewith I have war. For God commanded me to make haste." God is even in the affairs of ungodly men. There is a God in heaven who rules and none of this stuff has taken him by surprise, in fact he's orchestrating it. Not one prophecy will go unfulfilled.

We're being moved toward a one-world government. We ain't looking for the Antichrist, we're looking for Jesus Christ and he's going to come back and take us home soon. We're moving toward that moment. Pharaoh Necho's saying, "Now forbear to meddle with God. Josiah just go home." I wonder how many times we don't listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and we meddle in things that are against what God wants us to meddle in and we pay the price.

Josiah would not turn his face from him but disguised himself. You know something's wrong when you got to disguise yourself because we're called to walk in the light. Whatever we do, we should do it open-faced, without any shame. If you gotta disguise yourself when you're doing something, it ain't the right thing to be doing. Nevertheless, he disguised himself to fight and he hearkened not unto the words of Pharaoh Necho from the mouth of God.

The archers shot at King Josiah and he said to his servants, "Have me away for I am mortally wounded." The arrow struck him in a vital organ. They brought him to Jerusalem and he died and was buried. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Because up unto this point, he was a great king and a godly man. He reigned for 31 years and during his reign, Judah served the Lord. It says that Jeremiah lamented Josiah.

See, that's why it's important to put the context because now we have this major prophet on the scene at the death of Josiah. The steps of righteous men are ordered of the Lord. You have one of the major prophets of the Old Testament right there, he's mourning the death of Josiah because Josiah was a godly man. Josiah brought the nation back into a living relationship with the Lord and tore down all of the idols.

Then we find out what happens when Josiah fades from the scene. It's very difficult for a father to pass on to his son the fear of the Lord. I'm very concerned about that. When I was taking Micah out to Wyoming he had to go out ahead of his family to report for the army. As we were driving out there, we had this conversation. One of the things that concerns me for my children is they grew up in a Christian home.

They never knew the dregs of sin that I have. To some degree, they will never have the same relationship with the Lord that I have because they will never sense that being rescued from the pit of sin. They grew up in a home and at some point, my God became their God. They've never experienced the depths of sin as we did. We watched over them, we guarded them, we fed them and prayed over them and just pastored them.

Second Chronicles chapter 36 says that the people of the land took Jehoahaz, King Josiah's eldest son, and they made him king in Jerusalem. He reigns for about three months. Pharaoh Necho is on his way back from the battle of Carchemish and he will besiege Jerusalem. He's going to take Jehoahaz. This is one of the things they'll do: take the king with them into exile to disrupt the political system. So he's led away in bondage.

Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he began his reign and he reigned for three months. Pharaoh Necho put him down and they were a conquered people. Pharaoh Necho puts a burden on Israel that they have to pay a tribute of gold and silver. It says a hundred talents, that's a lot of gold and silver. The king made Jehoahaz's brother, Eliakim, king and he turned his name into Jehoiakim. This is where Israel starts going astray.

Jehoiakim did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. When Jehoiakim dies as he tries to bring up a rebellion, his son will do evil. He will go in the first siege captive. Then we're going to see tonight Zedekiah, another wicked king. There's three invasions: 605 BC, 597 BC—the one Ezekiel was held captive at—and 586 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar levels the temple. One of the things a conquering nation would do is take the intelligentsia.

They took the artisans, the skilled people, and the learned young men because it would reduce the ability to plan war against them. On the second siege in 597, he takes all of the instruments of the temple, all the instruments of worship, and he takes the priests. Ezekiel was a priest. When that doesn't work, he comes back in 586 BC and simply destroys the temple. It won't be rebuilt for 70 years.

Josiah reigned from 640 BC to 609 BC. Jehoiakim will reign as a vassal king. He'll reign from 609 to 598 and under his leadership there is a revolt against Babylon. Before Nebuchadnezzar can get there, Jehoiakim dies. When Nebuchadnezzar gets there, he leads Jehoiakim's son, Jehoiachin, into bondage. Ezekiel's going to say he was there during the captivity of Jehoiachin. Nebuchadnezzar sets up Zedekiah as the vassal king.

These kings all do evil in the sight of the Lord. From 609 BC to 586 BC, there was evil in the land. During that time there were false prophets prophesying prosperity. But God had a man, Jeremiah, that properly represented him. What a prophet this man was. It's important today that in the time that God judges America and this world for their sin, we remember the sin of this nation is grievous.

We have abandoned rule of law, we are murdering babies. We are flying in the face of God, the very first thing that he ever instituted which is marriage. Morality is out the window. That's why this nation is being judged economically. One of the things God does is take away the blessing and we're no longer a player on the world's stage. This is all God orchestrating this to bring in the Antichrist.

There always will be false prophets who're going to prophesy things that are not from the mouth of the Lord. At one point, God has to say to Jeremiah, "I don't want you saying any more 'Thus saith the Lord' because every kook in the land is running around saying 'Thus saith' when I have not spoken." How do we know here at Go Country Calvary Chapel that we're being obedient to the true voice of God?

We are following it book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. You can't get any more accurate than God's word. So when we say to you the word of the Lord, we actually can say to you the word of the Lord. We had to change the format on our website a number of years ago when Jason was here. He said, "I need you to listen just to the first few seconds of every book of the Bible just to make sure the volume was right."

I didn't realize that I start every message by saying, "Turn in your Bible," because it is the inerrant, inspired, authoritative word of God. Everything should be measured by it. That's why we study Bible doctrine here. You won't know who God is, what Christ is and his work, how you're saved, the work of the Holy Spirit, or where you're going if you don't study Bible doctrine. Jeremiah chapter 28 is when Josiah has left the scene.

Pharaoh Necho has made siege, he's taken away the first son, and Jehoiakim is the king and he's a wicked man. Jeremiah is the voice of God telling them they need to repent because judgment is coming. He's saying something completely different than the majority of the prophets. Listen to what the majority of the prophets were saying to Zedekiah. It says, "And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah."

I love how exact the Scripture is. It's telling you this happened on this month on this day in this year. Just like yesterday was Tuesday, 2/22/22. That won't happen again for another 400 years. Actually, it's never going to happen again because time will be no more soon. "In the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me." This man has the gall to speak in the presence of a true man of God.

There's something very arrogant about these false teachers. It's almost like there's no conscience or fear of God in them. They'll speak their lies right in front of somebody who will call them on it. Many times I've called people on it, "That is not right!" You need to call these false prophets out. Hananiah spake in the presence of all the priests and the people saying, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts."

Every kook in the land is saying "Thus saith" when God hasn't spoken. "The God of Israel saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. I'm going to destroy your enemies. I'm going to pull down Biden. I'm going to put Trump back up." I don't know what you're looking for, but I care very little about what's going on here and a lot about what's going on up there because this ain't my home.

I watch what's going on in Israel and Russia and all the rest and it's all prophecy and I want to warn you guys. I am so glad Mr. Biden is in office. I'm so glad for Kamala Harris, for Pelosi and Schumer, because they're going to make it possible for me to go home as soon as possible. But Hananiah's saying, "God is going to destroy the king of Babylon," when God is actually using the king of Babylon.

Within two years, this false prophet says, "will I bring again into this place the vessels of the Lord that have been led away captive." This is after the second siege. Daniel and Ezekiel are gone from Jerusalem. Jeremiah is still there listening to these false prophets and correcting Judah for their sin. "Within two years, they will bring again into the palace all the vessels of the Lord's house."

Listen to what he says, "And I will bring again to this place Jehoiachin, king of Judah, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." That is lies. That is prophesying out of your own mind. I see so many people today, I have people that want to befriend me and if it says "apostle" or "prophet" in front of their name, I don't even befriend them. Are you kidding me? You think you're smarter than the word of God?

There were only 12 of those men and they were very special because they were given a very special ability so that when they put pen to the paper it became Scripture. In the new Jerusalem, there are 12 foundations on that city and they have the names of the 12 apostles on them. Bill Johnson up in Redding is not one of them. There's no Bill on the foundations. But the men that Jesus chose will be there. No more prophets.

There are people running around today saying "Thus saith the Lord" when God has already spoken. At the end of this book, we have an onus: "Any man adds to or takes away from." We have the canonical document of Scripture. If God can inspire it, he could collect it and he could put it together. John is receiving a dictation from Jesus and he talks about the prophecy of this book. He's talking about the whole entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

So, we have the word of the Lord. Now, listen to Jeremiah's response in chapter 29. I think it's important to set the backdrop so you understand the times that Ezekiel is living in and what he's experiencing. Jeremiah says this, "Because you have said, The Lord hath raised up prophets in Babylon. Know that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David." There's still a king who sits on the throne of David.

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will send upon them a sword, a famine, the pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten, they are so evil." The prophecy of Jeremiah was God's judgment when everybody else around were prophesying smooth things, good things, and prosperity. "God's going to bless, we don't need to turn from our sins. We're God's people. We're saved by grace, we can live any way we want."

"If my people called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then from heaven would I hear." Jeremiah is saying no, judgment is on its way for the sin of this nation. "I will persecute them with the sword and with famine and with pestilence and I will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a curse and an astonishment."

When people see you, they're going to hiss at you because you have not hearkened to my words. You've listened to the prophets that told you what you wanted to hear and our country is full of them. The reason why judgment's coming is because you didn't listen to my words. Jeremiah was on the scene even during the days of Josiah when things were well. Ezekiel was on the scene. Daniel would have been born about the time.

There were men speaking for God and people weren't listening. "Rising up early sending them, but you would not hear. Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord. If you won't hear that, hear this, all of you of the captivity whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. Behold I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and he shall slay them before your eyes. I'm going to put an end to those who speak falsely in my name."

That's the scene that is before us as we come to Ezekiel. Josiah was a very godly king and for 31 years he led the nation in righteousness. He had a moment at the end where he meddled in something he shouldn't meddle in. An arrow pierces him, he dies. King of Egypt, Pharaoh Necho besieges Jerusalem and leads away his first son. He puts Jehoiakim as a vassal king and he does wickedly. After Pharaoh Necho leaves, then comes Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC.

He still allows Jehoiakim to be the vassal king. He gets word that his father is sick back in Babylon, so he makes haste to set up this vassal leader. When he gets back, he gets word that there's an uprising. When he returns, Jehoiakim is dead. Historians tell us that he took the body of Jehoiakim and threw it off the temple just to show that Nebuchadnezzar is in charge. Then he takes his son, Jehoiachin, back to Babylon captive, trying to break the lineage.

He sets up Zedekiah as king and these kings all do evil in the sight of the Lord. From 609 BC to 586 BC, there was evil in the land of Jerusalem. During all of this, you have Jeremiah prophesying and Ezekiel in Jerusalem. We don't know if Ezekiel ever makes it back to the holy land. He marries a wife of the captivity and ends up staying in Babylon, but he's God's man in Babylon just like Daniel is.

Daniel's message is that there's a God in heaven that rules in the affairs of men. Jeremiah's message is God judges sin and God will judge a nation for their sin if they don't repent. But Ezekiel's message is so wonderful. Ezekiel's message is that there's a glory and majesty to this king that we serve. He's going to portray him in all of his glory as heaven opens and he sees right into the very throne room of God.

He's going to walk us through human history, through the rebirth of Israel, the time we're living in, all the way through to the rebuilding of the temple in chapter 48. I hope that Jesus can take over for me when we get to heaven and finish teaching you about these things. We're going to take our best shot at getting as far as we can. I want to get through the first few verses tonight.

"Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year." Most scholars and commentators believe that what Ezekiel is saying is the thirtieth year of his life. That's when you would have started to be a priest. In Israel, you weren't thought to be able to have anything worth saying until you were 30 years old. You couldn't be a rabbi until you were 30. Your job until you were 30 was to keep your mouth shut and your ears open and learn.

Jesus began his ministry when he was 30. Daniel is telling us that at 30, if he were still in Jerusalem, he would have become a priest. He would have been of the priestly order. But now all the instruments of the temple have been sacked and he's in captivity in Babylon and God just repurposes him. "Okay, you were going to be a priest, that can't happen so now guess what, you're going to be a prophet."

So at 30 years old, in the fourth month, "as I was among the captivities by the river Chebar," Ezekiel was living out by this river, which is literally a canal that flows out of Babylon. He is out in one of the villages, out among the peasants. I think he took long walks along the river to pray and so he tells us on this particular day, "I was among the captivity by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God."

He's been stripped from his homeland and stripped of his ministry. He's heard the words, he was there when Jeremiah was prophesying and he knows that his people didn't listen and all of this has come upon them. Probably just like Daniel, he's studying the writings of Jeremiah and he understands this is a 70-year discipline. He might as well settle down and make himself at home, but he's going to seek his God.

He is in one of these prayer walks. There's nothing more important in your life right now. You need to find that place in your life where you can spend a bulk of time alone with the Lord listening to what God has to say. I go up into the mountains where my phone doesn't work. It's not because I don't love you, but when I go for a date with my wife, I don't want you along.

There are times where I just want to be alone with the Lord. Jesus often would leave the disciples and the ministry to go be alone with the Father. If Jesus thought it important to leave everything and get alone with the Father, how much more you and me? When Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice," when you get alone and get rid of all the distractions and amusements and just muse on the things of God, he speaks in volumes.

He will deal with the issues of your heart, satisfy your soul, put at rest your fears, and he will impart to you strength, understanding, wisdom, and prudence. The spirit leads and guides you into all truth. I love this about Ezekiel and Daniel. These were men wholly devoted to the things of the Lord and they let nothing come between them and that, no matter where they were or what their situation was.

I've had people say, "Well, I'm just too busy." Really? You're too busy for the Lord? I find out that I am the worst on productivity when I don't spend time with the Lord. I've been here 27 years and some of my pastor friends are just in awe that I've been here 27 years. I think I got another 10 good years left in me if you'll put up with me or until the Lord comes.

I found a secret. They that wait upon the Lord renew their strength. They mount up with wings like an eagle and they run and not grow weary. For me, there's one more part of that: you need the Holy Spirit to rebuke you when you get stupid. Like when you want to go out and meddle in things you shouldn't. I've learned to listen. He's telling us that he is on this prayer walk and heaven opens.

We're going to see next week some artists' renderings of what he's seeing. I don't think any of them do it justice, but you can kind of get in your mind what he's describing because John also described it. It's the throne of God, the sea of glass, the cherubim, and the glory of Almighty God. The theme of Ezekiel is God in all of his glory. As he's seeking the Lord, not caring about his circumstances or situation, heaven opened.

For three chapters, this man is going to describe what he sees as heaven opens. He's going to do his best to describe what these cherubim look like and the seraphim and these wheels upon wheels. By the way, these aren't aliens. This is not Chariot of the Gods. This is God revealing himself to a man who would seek him no matter what his situation or circumstances were.

Can you imagine being blown away? In fact, it says that not only did heaven open, but God put his hand on him. That means he enveloped him in his spirit so that he could comprehend and take in what he was seeing. I've never had that experience. I've had God talk to me and those times where God has humbled me. I've had times where I felt the only right place to be was on my face prostrate before the Lord.

I've had times where I've wept for my stupidity and I've had times I've rejoiced in what God is doing through me in the ministry. There's every emotion you can have. I pray out loud and I sing out loud in the mountains. It keeps the bears away. But I go for prayer walks and God renews my heart. I've asked for that and he says, "Not yet. Nobody could handle you now if you actually saw heaven open."

This man saw heaven open. The view we're going to get next week is God Almighty in all of his glory and these cherubim and what they represent. Are you excited? I'm so excited about Ezekiel! Guess what, we got through one verse! I'm happy. But you need to know the backdrop. So, let's just tie a knot. Understand that not so much unlike the time we're living in, we have false prophets prophesying smooth things.

We have God's people who were still going to the temple but were worshipping idols in the groves. There was lethargy, apostasy, apathy, and an unawareness of the holiness of God. They thought because God's judgment didn't come swiftly, he must have been approving of their behavior. Yet you had a man, Jeremiah, speaking truth to that nation. As a consequence of their sin, Daniel is brought into Babylon.

Daniel will actually influence two of the great empires of the world. So God used even that difficulty in Daniel's life to have him in the right place. Difficulty can put you in the right place at the right time to do the right thing. So we have Daniel talking about a God who rules in the affairs of men, but at the same time, Ezekiel is having a vision of the glory of God.

God is a God of judgment and he judges sin. Thank God that he judged our sin in Jesus. Thank God we pass from judgment to life. Aren't you glad for the cross? Aren't you glad that your sin has already been judged and because of that God's at peace with you? When he looks at you, he sees you in the righteousness of Christ through faith. But he's going to judge the sins of this world.

This world has lost its mind and lost its way. I saw this thing during one of those protests and I've never been prejudiced in my life. Some of my best friends going through school were black guys. We spent almost a million dollars out of this church ministering to Uganda. We love them. My dad was extremely prejudiced but I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body.

I would never judge a man by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I would agree with Martin Luther King Jr. I got a dream, I remember that one. But we've made everything about race. It's hatred, lawlessness, immorality, and killing babies. God looks down from heaven and says, "That doesn't fly with me. I'm a God of justice."

Just before he judges this world, because you and I aren't appointed to wrath, he's going to remove his church and his judgment is coming. Jeremiah had it right. But in the midst of God talking to sinful people about judgment, he had a man talking about how God rules and reigns in the affairs of men and another man trying to hold before God's people his glory.

I was thinking today about the struggles I have in my flesh and how I want to discipline those things. The Lord said to me, "It's not about turning away from those things, Mike. If you turn away from that, there'll always be something else. It's not turning away, it's turning toward." If you walk in relationship with me, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Ezekiel's going to tell us what it looks like to walk in the presence of God Almighty. Amen?