In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: This evening, we're going to do chapters 5 and 6. I guarantee it. We don't want to linger long in the judgment of God upon a rebellious, stiff-necked, firm-faced, hard-hearted people. So, we'll just move through it quickly because none of you are that way. There's not a one of you that is stiff-necked, hard-hearted, or firm of face that God would have to deal with.

But it's interesting because there are two things here that He's going to tell us: one in chapter 5 and one in chapter 6. This is the reason why He has to bring this judgment upon His people. By the way, just to give you a reminder, He has sent prophets now for almost a hundred years and has been warning them to give up and flee from their idolatry. We're going to see how God views idolatry and the effect that we, who are His people, have on the world around us when we fall into those things.

Let's pray and then we'll dive in. Father, we thank You so much for Your word this evening. I'm really excited about this particular study, especially as we get into chapter 6. There's something about Your heart and Your character that is revealed to us that maybe we've never considered. Lord, I pray that as we look at this, You would take it and plant it deep upon our hearts. Speak to us, Lord. In the things that You share with us this evening, we pray that You would give permanency to those things. We pray it in Jesus' name. And all God's kids would say, Amen.

Let me get you up to speed because I think it's important that we always stay in context. As we're moving through, especially the first three chapters, I love those first three chapters. Those first three chapters of Ezekiel are chapters I read often to remind me, as a pastor, that my responsibilities are before the Lord. It doesn't matter if people hear or don't hear; I'm responsible to speak.

In chapter 1, just by way of reminder, we saw there that as God chooses Ezekiel to be a prophet, we know that he was scheduled to be a priest there in Jerusalem. But because of the Babylonian captivity, he comes away with the second of those insurgencies that Nebuchadnezzar leads to quell an uprising in 597 BC. He comes now as one of the captives to Babylon. He's walking along the edge of the River Chebar, and God opens up heaven to reveal it to him because He's going to reprogram him from being a priest to a prophet.

He has this wonderful experience as he's caught before the very throne of God. He sees God in all of His glory. He sees the cherubim, he sees the spinning wheels, and he sees everything that represents the Holy Spirit and the gospel. He face-plants at the end of chapter 1, just overwhelmed in the presence of God.

In chapter 2, we have this wonderful scene where the Lord picks him up, makes him stand, puts His Spirit in him, gives him a message, and sends him. He says, "Now you say, 'Thus saith the Lord.' Oh, and by the way, I'm going to send you amongst people that are firm in heart and stiff in neck. They're going to be like thorns and scorpions. But whether they hear or don't hear, you speak My words because, at the end of the day, they need to know that there's somebody in the land that has spoken for Me. You're the prophet."

So, He sends Ezekiel. Then, as we came into chapter 4 last week, it begins the three illustrated sermons that He gives Ezekiel to preach to the two southern tribes of Judah and, ultimately, the ten other tribes up in Israel. So, he has more of a wide range as a prophet. Now, just by way of reminder, Isaiah had been warning Israel and Judah for almost a hundred years before this. We're going to see tonight that the warning is: you, as My people, need to put away your idols.

Then we're going to see how, when we fall into idolatry, it affects the heart of our Father. I think sometimes we don't understand how our sin affects the heart of our Father. It doesn't just affect us; it affects the heart of our Father. That's what He's going to talk about.

As we went through chapter 4, the first two of those illustrated sermons were, number one, He says, "Now, I want you to take a piece of slate, and I want you to build a model of the city of Jerusalem on it. Then, I want you to set a siege against it because of their rebellion. I'm going to bring a sword; the Babylonians are coming."

Listen, they've already come the first time in 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzar set siege to Jerusalem on his way back from the battle of Pharaoh Necho there at Carchemish. He set siege to Jerusalem, set up a vassal king, and left to go back to Babylon because word had come to him that his father, Nabopolassar, was sick. So, he sets up this vassal king, Jehoiakim, and he rebels.

He comes this second time in 597 BC to quell the riot. He finds Jehoiakim has been killed; maybe somebody killed him. But he finds him dead there. When he takes the second group of exiles, Ezekiel is in that. This time, he takes the son of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, with him to break the line of the kings. Then he sacks the temple and takes all the instruments of worship and all the priests. So, Ezekiel is taken back.

They're warning because the third time, when he goes in 586 BC, he's going to destroy the place. He's going to level it; he's going to level the temple. It's all because of the hardness of their hearts and their unwillingness to repent and turn from their idolatry. In fact, there were false prophets in the land. Jeremiah tells us at the time, they were saying, "Hey, don't worry. God is going to crush the king of Babylon. He's going to bring Jehoiachin back and make him the king, and all the instruments of worship are going to come back."

They're prophesying good things, easy things, things you want to hear, and not the truth. The truth is God is judging this, and you need to submit to His judgment. You're going to go to Babylon, and you're going to be there for 70 years. Then you will be released to come back and to rebuild what's left of Jerusalem.

This is kind of going on, and Ezekiel now is told to give these three illustrated messages to them. The first is: take this slate, build a model of Jerusalem, and lay siege against it. Put a piece of iron between you and it because you're the one representing Me and Jerusalem. This wall will let them understand that I am not for them. I will not help them; I am against them. I'm bringing them into judgment.

The second thing you do is take a jar and fill it with different kinds of grain, with beans, rice, and wheat. Fill it and measure it out, and measure out water, because there's a famine coming. We know historically that when the Babylonians came the third time, they besieged the city. As we're going to see in 586 BC as we walk our way through Ezekiel, they besieged the city, and famine came to the city, not just the sword. In fact, we're going to see tonight that the famine was so heavy that they did some abominable things. In fact, God's going to say that His judgment's going to be so heavy on them that what they do during this time will shock even the nations around them.

Then the third thing, as we come into chapter 5, is He's going to tell him to take a sword and shave his head and shave his beard. We're going to see tonight that it was unlawful as a priest, as part of the Levitical priesthood, to let a razor touch your head or your beard. But we're also going to see from the scripture that when that happens, it's a sign of mourning. It's a sign of being tainted or defiled.

So, we pick up in chapter 5, and He says, "Thou, son of man." Now, this is the third of these illustrated messages. No doubt, he's got a crowd following him. For 390 days, he lay on one side in front of this model city that was besieged. Then he flipped over for 40 days. For over a year, he's laying out there on one side and the other in front of this model preaching that judgment is coming. You need to repent.

He wasn't there all day long, but probably punched the clock eight hours a day. Then he went and got the jar and the grain and metered that out to show them that famine is coming along with the sword. Now this third illustrated sermon, as it were, the Lord says, "Thou, son of man." Again, He's reminding him he's just a human being. That title is used over 60 times in the book of Ezekiel. It's a way of God saying to Ezekiel, "You're just a man."

"But you're My man. You're just a man, and in My presence you face-planted, but I picked you up. I make you to stand. You're just a man, but I put My Spirit in you. Although you're just a man, I gave you My message. Because you're just a man, you still better be obedient, son of man."

"Take thee a sharp knife." Now, the word here in the Hebrew is not knife; it's a sword. King James translates it a knife because it would probably look better if he was shaving with a knife. But can you imagine how odd it would look when a man takes a sword, sharpens it razor-sharp, and he begins to shave himself with a sword?

There's a purpose in this we're going to see. He said, "Take thee a barber's razor and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard. Then take thee the balances to weigh and to divide your hair." He's going to divide it into three parts. These three parts that he divides his hair in will represent the three judgments God's going to bring against Jerusalem. We're going to see that as we walk through the rest of chapter 5 on into chapter 6.

He's to shave his head, he's to shave his beard, he's to take the hair in front of all of the audience watching, he's to divide it into three sections. Each one of those are going to represent the three judgments that God is going to bring upon Jerusalem for their idolatry. Then He says, "Thou shalt burn with fire a third part of it." Just smoke a third part of it because a third part of the people in this city are going to die by the edge of the sword. They're going to perish; they're going to be consumed by the sword.

You burn a third part of it in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled. A third will have died from the siege. Then He goes on to say, "And thou shalt take a third part of it and smite it with the knife." To smite it with the knife is to dice it up, to minimize it. That would represent the famine that's going to come that He talked about with the jars of grain and the metering out of the water. We're going to see tonight that when they besieged the city, it got pretty rough inside of Jerusalem.

The second third part represents the famine, and the third part represents those being scattered. He's going to say that even a pestilence will go out after those wherever they go. Wherever they go, it will still affect them. Then He's going to say, "Out of that group, I want you to take in your apron a small part," which is a remnant, because God will always have a remnant. If He didn't spare a remnant, then we wouldn't have the lineage for Christ to come through the house of David.

God always has a remnant, and I pray we're part of that. If you haven't looked around and noticed, God is judging: wars, rumors of wars, famine. They're predicting in the next near future, just months down the road, that we're going to be in a famine like the world has never seen in our generation. I don't know how many of you know, but Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. Did you know that? And they're not producing because of war. How many of you know where our fertilizer comes from? I was an agriculture minor and a history major in college. How many of you know where most of the fertilizer that we use in America comes from? Russia. It's not coming here; the farmers are worried. We have engineered seed, we have engineered soil, and we have to have those things to grow.

As you look around and you see these things, you've got to understand God will always have a remnant. Those people that didn't compromise, those people that didn't get involved in idolatry. Even through those times when He's judging, just like He did in Egypt, He knows how to take care of those that are His. So, this is a time to make sure you're His.

He's going to talk about that, and then He says this in verse 3. "Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number and bind them in thy skirt." This is that remnant. A third is going to die by the sword, a third are going to die by famine, a third are going to be scattered to the wind, and pestilence is going to go out after them and destroy them. The idea is you can't run from God.

Listen, when God is dealing with you, you can't run from Him. David said, "Where can I go that You're not there? If I go to the heavens, You're there. If I go to the innermost parts of the earth, You're there." You know, listen, there's no geographical place that you can run from God. The best thing is to stop, fall on your knees, repent, and just get right because He's quick to hear that. But you can't run from Him.

His promise is there will be a remnant, even through this judgment. Verse 4, He says, "Then take of them again, even of the remnant, and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them with fire." They're still going to go through the trials, even the remnant. "For thereof shall the fire come forth unto all the house of Israel."

You know, we may be the remnant. We may be those people that are doing our best to serve the Lord, we're walking the best we can in holiness, we're keeping a short list of wrongs suffered to the Lord, we're repenting, we're seeking to walk in the Spirit, and we're obedient to His word. But it doesn't mean that we're not going to go through the same fire. Because that fire that can destroy one person can purge and purify another. Sometimes we need the fire, and the anvil, the hammer, and the oil to put temper in us. So He's saying, "This judgment is coming. It will be threefold."

Then He gives us in verse 5 the first reason for this judgment. When we get to chapter 6 in verse 9, He's going to give us the second reason tonight. We're going to wade through these judgments just to get to these two verses. But the first reason why He says it is necessary for God to judge His people in Jerusalem is because of the position that Jerusalem was supposed to hold as it was a light to all nations.

When you think about it, there is one focal point of the entire universe, and it's Jerusalem. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord are continually upon it. In fact, we are required, we are commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. There's something very special about that city as we're going to see tonight. Listen to what He says. "Thus saith the Lord God: This is Jerusalem."

It is to be set aside, it is to be consecrated, it is to be dedicated. It is the city of Almighty God. It's to be the light not only of nations and of the world; it is to be the light to the universe as God even speaks through it. As He calls His people to it, He even speaks to His creation in spiritual realms. It holds a very special place. He said, "This is Jerusalem." The idea is, this is very special, and you have defiled it.

"I have set it," God says, "in the midst of the nations and the countries that are round about it." It is a beacon of light, it is a beacon of hope. It is to be where God can shine His gospel to the whole world through His people. Now, we can read in Psalm 48, I'll only read you one. Psalm 48, verses 1 and 2, says this. And some of you that grew up in Assembly of God churches, when I got saved, I went to an Assembly of God church, and we used to sing this song every other Sunday. Psalm 48.

It says, "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, and in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation." It is situated that the whole universe is focused on it. In the last days, God says that Jerusalem will become a cup of trembling and a stone of stumbling for all nations around it as they try to deal with it.

"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." It's where Jesus will come back and put His foot and roar like a lion, and it will split. It's where He will rule through the millennial reign on the throne of David. It's the place where the Messiah came to be crucified to pay for the sins of the world. Do you not think that all heaven and earth is not focused on that city? It's the city of light. It's the city of hope. It's the city where Christ died. It's the city where Christ will return. It holds a special place in the universe, as it were.

God says to His people, "I gave you that city. It's My city. It's the city of God. It's where My presence dwells. It's where the Ark of the Covenant was to be. It's where the temple was built. It's where My Son died on Calvary's cross. It's where He's going to return. And look what you have done to My city."

He's going to tell His people, "I'm judging you because you sinned against light. To you was committed the oracles of God. To you was delivered the word of God. To you were given the prophets. It was to you that I called Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldees to be a special people unto Me, and I gave you this special city. You should have been a light to all of the nations, just like the church is to be in the New Testament."

Instead of being a light to the nations, you became like the nations. In fact, He's going to say you became worse than the nations. You sinned against light, you sinned against knowledge, and listen, I sent prophets to warn you. I've been warning you. I am slow to anger. I've been warning you through Isaiah a hundred years earlier. I've sent Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel; these are My prophets. We don't know how many other prophets there were there that weren't recorded. As we study through the minor prophets on Wednesday night, some of those were there at that time warning.

They would not turn, and so God is bringing this judgment, first of all, because you have polluted My city. That's the thing with shaving of the head. In fact, in Jeremiah chapter 48, verses 37 and 38, listen to this. "For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped." Now, some of you, I know you're bald, but you didn't shave your head. But if you did it on purpose, it's a sign of mourning.

So it says, "For every head shall be bald, and every beard shall be clipped; upon all the hands shall be cutting, and upon the loins sackcloth." It's a sign of mourning, it's a sign of being broken, it's a sign of being contaminated, and you're repenting for that. "There shall be lamentations generally upon the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein there is no pleasure, saith the Lord."

That's why He's told him, "Shave your head in front of all of them. Take a sword and shave your head to show them before Me they are unclean, and I have no pleasure in them. Set a siege against Jerusalem because I'm bringing a sword. Demonstrate a famine because there's going to be a famine when that siege comes. But shave your head, Ezekiel, with a sword to show them that in My eyes, I have no pleasure in you."

In fact, Leviticus tells us in Leviticus chapter 21, verses 4 and 5, listen carefully. It says this, "But he shall not defile himself." He's speaking of the priest. Now, He's setting up the priestly order, and one of the things He says to the priests—which Ezekiel would have been if Jerusalem hadn't fallen, and God just took him from being a priest now to be a prophet—as Ezekiel is shaving his head, can you imagine in his own life what he's thinking? "God, I'm a priest. It's against the Levitical law for me to shave my head."

"But I know as You're telling me to do this, it's because You are demonstrating Your great displeasure and how, as God's people, they are defiled, just like a priest that would shave his head is defiled." It's a message that they would have understood. It's a message. "But he shall not defile himself," speaking of the priests, "being a chief man among his people, to profane himself." Because if he shaved his head, it's a sign of him being profane or defiled.

What Ezekiel is trying to say to the people is, "In God's eyes, you are profane and you are defiled. And you've been that way a long time. They shall not make baldness upon their heads, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beards." It was against the Levitical law for a priest to do that, and now God's asking Ezekiel, "Shave it, man, and shave it with a sword because I want these people to know, as we're going to see when we get to chapter 6 tonight, they have broke My heart."

See, that's the second thing. Not just because Jerusalem is the city of God. He put His name on that city, He put His presence in that city, He sent His Son to be crucified in that city. His Son is returning to that city. He will rule and reign from that city for a thousand years. Then the new Jerusalem comes down, the eternal Jerusalem. He says, "You have turned that beacon of light into something more corrupt than the world. This is Jerusalem. Did you not know it? Did you not understand it? This is My city. I set it in the midst of the nations."

Listen to what He says in verse 6. "And she"—He always speaks of it in the feminine because He speaks of us, the church, in the feminine. I get alone with the Lord, I'm praying, and I say, "Lord, I thank You that I'm the—" and it's hard for me to say this. "I'm the bride of Christ." I mean, think about it, guys. Is that not difficult? "Lord, I thank You that I'm Your bride." Somehow in the world we live in, that just doesn't want to come out right. But what I'm talking about is the intimacy, the relationship that we have with Him.

"But she," because Israel was God's wife and the church is Jesus's bride, so it's always in a tender way referenced in the feminine. "And she hath changed My judgments," My laws, My statutes, My commandments. "She hath changed My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, more than the wicked heathen nations around them have they changed My laws and done more abominable than they. And My statutes more than the countries that are round about her. She should have been a light, and she was not a light; she was the opposite of light. She did things more disgusting in My eyes than even the nations were doing."

"For they have refused My judgments and My statutes; they have not walked in them. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, ye have not walked in My statutes, neither kept My judgments, neither have ye done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I, even I am against thee, and I will execute judgment in the midst of thee and in the sight of all the nations."

"I'm going to have to discipline My people," God is saying. "And all the nations are going to see it." Now, there was a fear of all the nations round about when they were coming into the promised land, was there not? Remember Rahab when they came to Jericho? Rahab said, "We've heard of you guys. We've heard of your God." Every place they went, there was a fear. God said, "I will put a fear of all nations concerning you."

Because they would say, "What nation has a God like this? What nation has a God that can part a sea and drown their enemies in the bottom of it? Who? What God can send a fire up from the tabernacle by night to light this nation of millions of people and a cloud by day? Who can feed these people for 40 years in the wilderness? Have a rock follow them around?" They heard of the miracles. Who was like unto this nation that defeated Og, the giants of the land, and the Zamzummim, and all of those other people? Who is like unto this God who works miracles?

And even when the nations around them tried to send their prophets to curse them, only a blessing came out. Who was like unto this God? You were to be that light. And because you weren't, I'm going to discipline you in front of these nations. We're going to see as we go through the text, they're going to say, "And they're going to be in awe." Because I have to.

In the New Testament, what does it say? "Judgment must first begin where? In the house of the Lord." Listen, we're to live better. We're to be a light. And when we don't, we need to repent with sackcloth and ashes. Amen? We can demonstrate to the world even in our failures, can we not, who God is through our repentance?

But we can't be like the world. We can't invite the world into the church. Sadly to say, Paul told us in the last days there would be an apostasy, a falling away from the biblical faith because the church would try to be like the culture and be culturally relative instead of changing the culture. We're never called to be like the world; we're called to be the salt and light of the world. Amen?

So, this is what He's saying. This is what you've done. And because you've done that, this is why this judgment is coming. And I want you to know that I'm against you. Oh, you can have your services. You can do your thing. You can still go to church. But I'm not there. "Ichabod" across the door; I have left the building. I only want to be with people who have humble and broken hearts and who tremble at My word. I want to be where My word is being honored. Ezekiel, I told you, you go and speak, "Thus saith the Lord." It better be the word, and if it's not, then you're going to be rebellious.

So, it's not that we are a perfect people, because God knows we're not. Even when He set up the Levitical priesthood in the first opening chapters of Leviticus, He presupposes that His people are going to make mistakes. That's why you have the sin offering and the trespass offering. But when you sin against the Lord, you confess. It's what we see in 1 John chapter 1, verses 8, 9, and 10. If you say you don't have a bent to sin, you deceive yourself.

But if you will confess—homologeō—agree with God that what you did was not right and you broke the heart of the Father, you've sinned against His commandments, you've grieved the Holy Spirit, so you confess. The Bible says you agree—homologeō—you confess your sin. And when you do, guess what He does? He is just and He is faithful to not only forgive but to cleanse you, to take that thing from you.

We're going to see as we go through this, these judgments are strict and they're severe. But I want you to know, when we get to the end of chapter 6, I'm going to make a statement—well, I'll just make it now. Israel never committed the sin of idolatry after this judgment of idolatry ever again. They messed up in some other areas, but idolatry was never a part of Israel ever again because God put them in the fire. Then He put them on an anvil, and He took His hammer and He forged them into something He could use. Then He dunked them in the oil to put temper in their life. We're studying that in James chapter 1 with the men on Monday night, and that's God's process. They will never commit the sin of idolatry ever again.

They'll do other stupid stuff like rejecting the Messiah and becoming religious, but they'll never commit idolatry. Sometimes God in our lives, in your life and mine, when there's something in our life that can destroy us that breaks the heart of God, He'll take you through the fire. He'll put you on the anvil, and He will beat the living sin out of you. Then He'll dunk you in the fire to put some temper in you. Then He'll hone you to razor-sharp perfection so that you can be an instrument usable in His hands.

Look at Peter. Denied the Lord three times, blasphemed the third time that he ever knew the man. Jesus appears to him after the resurrection and says, "Peter, do you love Me?" Peter is so shame-based at that moment, he probably couldn't even look the Lord in the eye. He says, "Lord, You know that I like You." You've got to look at it in the Greek. It's interesting because God asked him, "Do you agapaō Me?" And he says, "Lord, You know I phileō You. I like You. You're okay."

It's that song that used to get sung in the 70s, "Jesus is just alright with me." No, He's not! He's the Savior. He's the King of Glory. He's Almighty God. He's not "just alright." I used to listen to that song. "Jeremiah was a bullfrog." No, he wasn't! He was a prophet. He wasn't a bullfrog. Oh, he was pronouncing "you're going to croak" if you don't repent, but he wasn't a bullfrog. Where do people get this stuff?

Where was I at? Okay, yeah, where was I at? Verse 9. Okay, there we are. "And I will do this thing," He's saying. "I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do anymore the like, because of thine abominations." He is going to break them of the sin of idolatry.

When we were in Israel, we went up to the northern parts. You guys remember when we walked through that kind of a maze where the creek was running along, and then we finally came out into this opening, and we sat down and had the Bible study by this kind of a platform? We didn't know where we were at. We'd never been there before. But then we found out during the Bible study that we were at the base of the calf that they built in the ten northern tribes and committed idolatry, there in the groves and in the mountains. Spiritual adultery.

This is what's going to break the heart of God. Because when we go after idols—and by the way, can I say this before we get there? We will finish chapter 6 tonight. We're going to move through the judgment part quick because I just want to tell you why it's there. I've got plenty of time. Don't be looking up there, Jason. In fact, I think Jerry told me she was going to take the clock down tonight, or Dawn did, somebody did. It's still up there; I'm still seeing it.

Something happened Monday night that was really strange. We were—I looked up at the clock and it was 7:38 and I usually go to 8:00. We got in a groove or something; we got transported in time. Five minutes later, I look up and it's 8:01 because we were talking about the fire, and the anvil, and the hammer, and the oil that you get dunked in. How God beats the sin out of us and how He forges us into something He wants us to be. Guess what? That's what's before us. We can segue right into it tonight because I guarantee you, if you've got something going on in your life that will lessen your effect in this world as a light of God and that will hurt your life, God is going to beat the sin out of you. Amen? How many have had the sin beat out of them before? How many remember? How many got hammer marks still on you? Yeah. I love God. I love the Lord. I love the Holy Spirit.

So, let me go on; we've got to get through this. I wish you guys would stop interrupting me. Here we go. "Therefore, the fathers shall eat," listen carefully. This is how bad it's going to get during that famine. I'm going to put a siege of a sword against Jerusalem. "Therefore, the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers, and I will execute judgment in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into the wind."

When Jeremiah records Lamentations chapter 4, that's exactly what he says. He says this, "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children." That means they boiled them and ate them. That's why it's going to be a shock to the nations around them when God judges them. And I'm going to tell you, when He's done—see, we look at that and we think, "God, I thought You were a God of love. I thought You were a God of mercy. I thought You were a God of forgiveness. Didn't You tell Moses that I am the Lord long-suffering and merciful, kind?"

Well, the greatest kindness God can do for you and me is if there's something in our life that will destroy us, it's to beat it out of us. And like I told the men on Monday night, a quote from A.W. Tozer, A.W. Tozer said that God will hurt you sometimes, but He will never harm you. Because sometimes it's necessary to get something out of you that's ingrained in you that shouldn't be there, to put you in the fire to heat you up, to put you on the anvil and hammer away on you till He forges that out of you. Then He dunks you in the oil of the Spirit to bring those molecules back to a place of temper where you can hold an edge, where you're not dulled by the things of the world.

So, He said, "This is how bad it's going to get." When the Babylonians besieged the city there in 586 BC, and you run out of food, you're going to turn to cannibalism and the whole world's going to be shocked. It says in verse 11, "Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God: Surely because thou hast defiled"—listen carefully—"you have defiled My sanctuary with all thy detestable things and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall Mine eye spare, neither will I have pity."

I'm going to diminish you because the people in other places, when people pass by and see you, they're going to hiss. Because somehow in the human mind, the most detestable thing a human being can do is cannibalism. How many know about the Donner Party? Why do you know about the Donner Party? How many know about the soccer team that crashed up in the Alps in the plane? How do you know that? Because it shocked us to find out they ate each other. Shocking. Because you have to become the lowest of the lows of a human being. You have to be in such detestable condition. Can you imagine eating your son?

God said, "Listen, because of your idolatry, because that is one of the most detestable things that any human being can do to another human being. But I want you to know, that's how I feel when you—what you did to Jerusalem and what you did to My temple. It's that detestable to Me." Man, it makes us think about sin a little differently, doesn't it?

Verse 12, He reminds them, "A third part of thee shall die of pestilence, a third part with famine and consumed in the midst, and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part to the wind, and I will draw out a sword even after them. Thus shall My anger," God is saying, "be accomplished, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted," saith the Lord. "And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in My zeal, when I have accomplished this in My fury concerning them."

Now, we read that and we go, "Oh!" Well, let me tell you something. I've got to stop here for a moment. I've got to read you a few verses because you're never going to face that as a Christian. Did you know that? Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 9, that we are not appointed unto wrath. Why is that? Why is it that you and I, even when we sin, will never face the wrath of God as a Christian? Because the blood of Jesus Christ has already covered it.

You see, what you and I need to know in the New Testament is God's wrath was poured out against us. This will make you have a new appreciation for Galatians and Ephesians, especially as we go into chapter 4. He's going to be telling us on Sunday morning, "Okay, because God has done this for you, this is how you ought to live." Because you've got to understand God was angry with our sin. Listen, Habakkuk says His eyes are too pure to look upon sin. He's too holy, even with the people that He loves.

What did He say to Moses when they came to Mount Sinai? He said, "Put a fence around the bottom. Don't let them come too close, lest My holiness break out because I'm an all-consuming fire and consume the very people that I've led out of bondage." Because that's the nature of our God. He is absolutely holy. He is an all-consuming fire. He's a just God. What does that mean? The scales have to balance. And when He says, "The wages of sin is death," that's exactly what He means.

So, how does He fix the problem? One of the greatest solutions in the universe, so great that the devil didn't even get it because he thought when he crucified the Son of Man, he had won. He didn't get it, that that was the plan all along. That the wrath of God that was meant for you and me would be poured out upon Jesus Christ, and He would take it all without admixture. The wrath that should have been ours was poured out upon Him, and He took it. And He died in our place. Then He rose again to show us that if you give your life to Him, He is a life-giving Spirit.

So in the New Testament, we can say, "Yes, God's wrath was poured out on a substitutionary Lamb, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world." Not cover it like in the Old Testament—kāpar—but to take it away. Well, let me just read you a couple verses. I do want to get through chapter—I don't like this judgment stuff. There's reasons for it and we need to look at it. But Romans chapter 3, verse 25, it says, "Whom God hath set forth," speaking of Jesus, "to be the propitiation."

I've told you propitiation, what it means many times. I'll tell you again tonight, just in case you're new. It's not expiation. Expiation is when a debt is paid. Propitiation is much greater, much deeper than expiation. Propitiation means not only is the debt paid, but whatever emotion that could have been because of the violation, that emotion has been settled.

And so when Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross, not only did He pay for our sin, but whatever emotion of wrath or anger God would have against the sinner was settled. So that Romans chapter 5 says, "Having been justified by faith, you now have peace with God." That's not the peace of God; He talks about that too. But peace with God is that God will never be angry with you again because you are in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus is in you.

And the wrath of God has been met. It was met in Christ. He took it all without admixture. He took the full brunt of it, past, present, and future. Can you imagine why He cried out in agony? Can you imagine why the Father had to turn His back on His own Son for the first time in history, if you can call it that, in the eons and ages before? Before there was a creation, there was never a separation between God the Father and God the Son, the eternal Word. But at that moment, for six hours, He was separated from the Father, and He cries out in agony, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? Why have You forsaken Me?" And He did it because of the sins of the world, yours and mine came upon Him, and He satisfied the anger of the Father.

In the Old Testament, He says, "You're going to get My anger." In the New Testament, "I'm going to put My anger on My Son." Unimaginable. Philippians chapter 2 is a passage I've looked at over and over and over. It's unimaginable to me that God, the second person of the Trinity, would take on human form to suffer and die, a horrible death where He rejected, beaten and bruised, mocked, and suffer and die. When at a whim's notice, He could have called legions down to remove Him from the cross. And yet He didn't. And what nailed Him there were not those spikes; it was His love for you and me.

For God so loved the world. I can't get past it. I can't get past it. It's the thing I find myself, when I'm alone with Him, thinking about the most. "Lord, why would You love someone like me like that?" And all I ever get from Him is, "I have My reasons." Well, I sure haven't given You very many.

"The propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness." God being righteous. Why? "Because He has given remission of sins, He's removed our sins that were past through the forbearance of God." Now, let me prove this in the Old Testament because the prophet Isaiah—oh, and by the way, he's the prophet that's been warning these guys for a long time—says this. And you guys know this passage, but I just want to read it to you. We'll start in Isaiah 53. We're just going to read verses 4 through 11, and I'll try not to make too much commentary in it because we've got more stuff we've got to get through tonight.

"Surely He has borne our grief. He," speaking of Jesus, "carried our sorrows. Yet we did not esteem Him, but stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. In fact, the punishment, the wrath of God for our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed." The word is sōzō; we were saved.

"All we like sheep," all we like sheep have gone astray. Sometimes we can be "shreep" and creep and a lot of other things. "All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone's turned to his own way, and the Lord had laid—listen to this—the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." You know what iniquity means? You know what transgression means? It's stepping over. You know the line's there and you step over it willfully. You know what sin means? It means you're doing your best and you still mess up and you miss the mark. But iniquity is what happens when sin and transgression are unrepented and they put a twist in you. You're twisted by it. And He said He put that, the iniquity of us all, upon Jesus.

"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? He was cut off from the land of the living, and for the transgression of My people was He stricken. He was made—He made His grave amongst the wicked and the rich in His death," the tomb there, "because He had done no violence, neither was there deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He had put Him to grief. When He shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days—listen carefully—and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul, and He shall be satisfied." Satisfied concerning what? Your and my sin. It will satisfy. Not only remove the transgression, but it will remove any anger God has toward you and me. "He shall be satisfied. By the knowledge of My righteous Servant, He shall justify many, and He shall bear—He shall bear the full brunt without admixture—the wrath of God for sin."

I just have to stop at this point because some of you might be freaking out saying, "Man, God's angry, God's upset, man. Look what God does." No, no, He was angry and upset 2,000 years ago. And Jesus took it, and He took all of it. So much so that we can read in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, "By one sacrifice He has perfected forever them that He made holy." And then we move down to verse 17, "And your sins and your iniquities I remember no more because the blood of Jesus covered it."

Aren't you glad you're living in the New Testament? If I was in the Old Testament, I'd be broke. All my sheep would have been down there at the tabernacle. Amen? Especially in traffic. You know, you head down there on your donkey and somebody, their donkey pulls out in front of you. You've got to have extra sheep with you just because you know now you've sinned again, you've got to sacrifice some more.

But He said, "Listen, I'm going to judge you until My wrath is satisfied." And I thank God every day that His wrath concerning me was satisfied. Not in me and not on me, but on His Son. That's why I love Jesus. It is the name that is above every name.

Verse 14, "Moreover I will make thee waste, a reproach among the nations round about thee, in the sight of all who pass by. So it shall be a reproach and a taunt"—that's the idea of the hissing—"and an instruction to them, and also an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgment in thee in anger and in fury and furious rebuke. I the Lord have spoken it. When I shall send upon them evil errors—arrows—of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and I will send and destroy you, and I will increase the famine upon you, and I will break the staff of bread. So I will send upon you famine and evil beasts." Bigfoots are going to show up. "Evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee, and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee, and I will bring a sword upon thee; I the Lord have spoken it." That's pretty harsh, isn't it? But I tell you, they never committed idolatry ever again. Not a one of them after this.

We're not going to get chapter 6, are we? If that pastor would stop getting hung up. Let me just say something and then we'll come back and look at it. I want to do verse 9 of chapter 6. It's just some more judgment on down. But we come to the second reason why He's doing this. And I just want to say this tonight, and I'll say it again—well, I won't say it again next Wednesday night. Oh, I forgot to say, we won't be having Wednesday service next week because we're having Good Friday. And so, same time, same station, but on Friday. And then we're going to talk about what we're talking about tonight. That there's a God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to suffer and die. I don't think we can hear that enough, can we?

You know, when people say to you, "You know what? You're just—you're a sinner. You messed up. You are messed up." And they begin to accuse you, just take it. Do the same thing that Martin Luther did in the Wittenberg Castle. Do you know the story? That Satan literally showed up one evening in the cell when Martin Luther was in there and began to accuse him to his face.

And the story goes that at that moment, Martin Luther said, "Stop, wait a minute, let me get pen, let me get paper, I want to write this down. So go ahead and start accusing me." He wrote down the sins. And when he got to the end, he said, "Satan, is that it? Is that all? Is that all you've got? That's all you've got, right?" He goes, "Yes. Isn't that enough?" Then he took the inkwell and he poured it over the transgressions. He said, "Covered in the blood of Jesus." And then what was left of the inkwell, he threw it against the wall because Satan was standing there. And the stain is still there to this day.

When Satan accuses you, get your pen and pad out and say, "Let's hear it. Let's have it." Because only you who are born again by the Spirit, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, can say at the end of that, "Already dealt with. Covered in the blood. Washed." Who are you to judge another man's servant? Before the Lord he stands and falls, and yea, the Lord is even able to make him to stand. Amen?

But I want you to know when we sin, there's another side to that. I'll bring more commentary to this next week, but verse 9, let's just read it. "And they that escape of you shall remember Me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives." And this is why: "Because I am broken with their whorish hearts." I like some more literal translations that say, "You have broken—" God is saying, "You have broken My heart with your whorish ways, with your idolatry."

And so when I repent—and I have to repent often—I have in my mind a procedure that I go through. And for me, repentance is not a quick thing. "Lord, I'm sorry," and move on. It's not that at all for me. Because I understand that my sin has broken my Father's heart. So, this is what I do—and you can do what you want to do when you sin, and I hope you don't have to sin very often and have to do this. But I go to the Father, I say, "Father, I confess. I acknowledge. I agree with You that I violated Your word. I broke Your commandments. I'm guilty. And I know I broke Your heart. Not just Your commandments; I broke Your heart."

"I broke Your heart because at that moment, I loved that sin more than I loved You. And it's idolatry. It's spiritual adultery. And I broke Your heart, and I'm sorry. And Jesus, I didn't consider at that moment what it cost You to pay for that sin. And my heart is grieved that I thought so little of You that I would do that." And then I say to the Holy Spirit, "Forgive me for grieving You. Forgive me for quenching You because You warned me and I didn't listen. And I went ahead and I did it. I transgressed. And I've grieved You. And I get it. And I don't want to be that man. I don't want to be that man."

So, repentance shouldn't be a light thing. It should be a heavy thing. Why? Because at that moment when we transgress, we break the heart of our Father. We break His heart. That's why we feel that distance. Not that we're not saved, because it's a covenant. It's just like when husbands and wives get in an argument, there's no "touchy-the-toes." There's a breach in fellowship, but there's never a breach in the covenant. But I don't like feeling that distance.

And so I've asked the Lord over and over in my life, "Put more of the fear of God in me." The fear of God for me is the fear to break my Father's heart. Because He deserves more than that. Amen? You'll see sin differently when you look at it through that lens. And we'll get some more of that next week. Amen?

Let's stand, we'll pray, I'll close you out in a song because I took up Todd's time, I took up Jessica's time, I took up the keyboard and the people—I took up everybody's time. I'm good at that. Just pray for when we get up to that men's retreat because they only gave me 45 minutes for each of the main sessions. They don't know me. They would have never asked me to come and speak. But I pray that penetrates your heart. I pray you look at sin differently when you understand how it breaks—your Father's not angry; He's broken. God's people have the potential and capacity—do you understand?—to break your Father's heart. I think it breaks His heart sometimes the way we husbands treat our wives and the way wives treat their husbands. I think it breaks His heart when we so flippantly get involved in sin and not feel that conviction. And so, just think about that next time when you're tempted. "Man, I don't want to break the Father's heart. I do enough accidentally; I don't need to be doing it on purpose." Amen?

So let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your word tonight. And may it be sufficient. May it cut deep. May it do its work. May it go right into the soul and spirit. May it bring healing and health to us, Father, as we look at these things. Lord, we love You that You love us so much that You'll do whatever it takes to get us from this side to the other side. And in fact, even if it entails discipline, You're good to do it, Lord, and we thank You for it. And so, Lord, bless these people. Give permanency to the things we've studied this evening. May they not go just into our heads, but into our hearts. May we muse over them and meditate on them, and may we glean the truth that You have for us from them, we pray, in Jesus' name. And all God's kids would say—Amen. Okay.