In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: I want to pick up the speed as we go through some of the narrative. There are some things we want to see here tonight. After we pray, I will give you the outline or the main points in those three chapters, and you will see it in the context as we walk our way through it. As we get to those parts that are very prophetic and have to do with the time we are living in, we will stop and spend more time there. But when we are in the narrative, especially in the judgment parts of this thing, we want to move quickly through it.

Aren't you thankful this evening? We just celebrated it last Sunday—that Jesus took the wrath of God that was ours so that we will never have to face it. In the Old Testament, their righteousness was based upon their performance. In the New Testament, our righteousness is based on Jesus' performance. Amen. Because he took the wrath of God for us, I just want to say that before we get into this because this is going to be pretty rough tonight as we are seeing how God is dealing with this rebellious people.

In the Old Testament, you know that Israel was the wife of God. At one point, he sought to just divorce her because of her spiritual adultery, which is idolatry. We are going to see that in the book of Ezekiel, thirty-nine times the word idol is mentioned. It is only mentioned eight other times in the rest of the whole Old Testament. But thirty-nine times he is going to deal with this thing of idolatry. We will look at it this evening, glean what applies to us from it, and then we will just thank God that we are New Testament saints and not Old Testament. Amen.

We are thankful that we are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, that we have passed from death to life and from wrath to blessing. Amen. I would have never made it in the Old Testament. I would have been broke. I would have had to be a sheep farmer, and I wouldn't have had enough sheep to get through the week, much less the month. Why did you say amen about me? Why did you do that? Let's pray.

Father, we thank you tonight for your word and what we're going to see this evening. Lord, there are things we're going to see about your nature and character that we might not have thought about or considered, but it's going to come to the fore this evening. Lord, just speak to our hearts as we endeavor to get through these three chapters. Take them as a section and then move to the next couple or two or three at a time as we move through this part of Ezekiel. Just help us this evening, we pray. Give permanency to those things that you say, and may your Spirit speak to us. We ask in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

As we have been walking through the last couple of chapters, chapter four and chapter five, Ezekiel was given three illustrated messages to give to Judah and Israel. He is a prophet to both, all twelve tribes. We know the ten northern tribes will be led away by the Assyrians in judgment because they never repented. The two southern tribes, the Babylonians will come. In fact, when we come now to chapter six and seven, especially when we get into seven, it is the third siege that the Babylonians make against Jerusalem.

The first was 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzar was coming back from the Battle of Carchemish where he defeated Pharaoh Necho. As he comes back, he lays siege to Jerusalem. He conquers it, sets up a vassal king, Jehoiakim, and then he hears that his father is sick, so he hurries back home because his father Nabopolassar is dying. He dies, and then Nebuchadnezzar becomes the king. Jehoiakim, the vassal king that he sets up, rebels. He comes back up in 597 BC and again deals with the uprising.

This time, he takes all of the priests with him. That is where Ezekiel comes. Daniel was in the first with his three companions. Ezekiel is in the second of those sieges against Jerusalem. But they are still going to rebel under Zedekiah. The third of those, which we're going to be reading about in a few moments, in 586, is where he burns the temple to the ground. He literally sacks the city.

The judgment that God is going to bring using Nebuchadnezzar as his instrument is because, as we are going to see this evening as we move through these three chapters, it is because of idolatry. Let me say something about idolatry this evening. I personally feel like, at this stage in my walk with the Lord, every thing that I do that would qualify as a sin, a transgression, would still fall into the category of idolatry because what I am saying at that moment is that I am worshipping something more than I am worshipping the God that saved me. And that's idolatry.

In chapter six, we are going to find out that our idolatry, our sin, our rebellion, it breaks the heart of God. Then in chapter seven, we are going to find out this evening that God's Spirit will not always strive with man. He will warn and warn and warn. He is long-suffering. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that because God is not dealing with something quickly and severely and suddenly, he is okay with it. In fact, he is going to say as we walk through this section, do they think it is a light thing for them to commit idolatry and set up these idols in my tabernacle, in my temple, and defile my place so that I have to move away from it because my eyes are too pure to look upon it? Do they think it's a light thing?

Maybe you are sitting here tonight and you are dabbling in things or participating in things you shouldn't be dabbling or participating in. Be warned tonight because just because God is long-suffering in dealing with that doesn't mean at one point he is not going to jerk you up by the neck, as it were, and deal with it. It's better to humble yourself quickly. Stay on a short leash. How many have ever been on a long leash, and you got a good run at it, and God had to yank you out? After that happens, it only happens once in your life, and then you'll be praying for a short leash. You just want to stay close because it hurts.

But again, chapter seven is that God will not always strive with man. He will warn and warn and be gracious and long-suffering and kind and merciful, but there comes a time, if you persist in your rebellion, he will deal with it. Then in chapter eight, he tells us why he is dealing with it. God is such a just God; he will always give you a reason. Not that he owes us a reason, but he is going to say to Ezekiel, have you seen? Have you seen? Have you seen? He is saying there is a problem. Have you seen what they are doing?

In fact, he will tell Ezekiel to dig through the walls, as it were, of the holy place where you can see into the imagery of the mind of these, my priests, and see the things that are going on. This is why my judgment has come. Just by way of reminder, Isaiah was warning Israel—all twelve tribes as a whole, the ten northern and two southern—Isaiah was warning Israel because of their idolatry for a hundred years before this. Then God brings on the scene Jeremiah, who is in Jerusalem. He is still there to this point.

He is warning the people: you need to listen to the Lord, you need to accept this punishment that he is bringing because Nebuchadnezzar is an instrument in his hand to discipline us. You need to submit to that discipline; you need to change your heart. Ezekiel is in the village areas of Babylon warning the people because they are still connected to Jerusalem. You have got Daniel and his three companions up in the palace, and they are warning the people. Listen, God is bringing his judgment because of idolatry.

I personally believe that God is bringing his judgment upon this nation and upon this world for the things that they are involved in. The things that this world is involved in today—and we only know pieces and parts of it—but abortion is enough. Homosexuality should be enough. Those things are called an abomination before the true and living God. And just the corruption, politically, economically, the lies; it demands the judgment of God. God is going to judge this world very quickly and very soon, I believe personally. We are seeing the pieces falling into the place, but before he judges, he is going to remove the righteous. Guess who that is? We are going to go home soon. Amen. We're going home soon.

So that is the outline. Chapter six, God is going to let us into an insight of his nature and of his character that is humbling to me. He is going to tell us as we go through this chapter that our whorish ways—when we make other things our priority instead of him, when we fall into idolatry—it breaks the heart of God.

I think that if we can wrap our heads around the fact that it does that, I don't think sin will be as attractive to us. At least that's what I pray for in my own life: that Lord, help me to see what sin does to you, not just what it does to me. Because so many times, we will repent because we got caught, or we repent because consequences come. But may we go beyond that and see that when we sin, when we transgress, when we fall into idolatry—and I think that every sin that we commit is in some sense at the root idolatry because we're choosing that thing over the Lord—that it breaks the heart of God.

When we come to chapter seven tonight, we're going to see that God is long-suffering, but there is a limit to it. Then he is going to deal with it. We're going to see in chapter seven he deals with it so that he might bring us back into relationship. Seven times he is going to say that they might know that I am the Lord. This discipline being meted out is to bring them back into relationship with him that they might know that I am the Lord. In fact, when we get into that same chapter, chapter seven—I think it is chapter seven or chapter eight—nine times he is going to say that judgment is coming quickly. It's coming. The end is at hand. You have run out of the rope; you are at the end of the rope. No more.

So let's just dive in and see. I think we can get through these three chapters. We'll see. Listen carefully. Chapter six begins, "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying." This is interesting because over and over, Ezekiel reminds us this is the word of the Lord coming to him as a prophet. The favorite address that God uses as he addresses Ezekiel is son of man. That just means you human being. I understand you are frail, you are a human, you are just a son of Adam, is the idea.

But as a son of Adam, Ezekiel reminds us that what he is saying is, "Thus saith the Lord." He says, "The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel." We're going to read about the mountains and the valleys, the groves, and the high places. This is always a reference to where they set up their altars to idols.

In the opening parts of verses one and two, as he is being instructed in chapter six, he is saying, I want you to set your face as my prophet against idolatry. "Against the mountains of Israel, prophesy against them. And say, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places." God says because you, when you were warned, you didn't deal with the idolatry, I'm going to deal with it.

That's why you want to learn to turn quick. Deal with it when God warns you and you can deal with it; don't wait till he has to deal with it. Amen. Get the short leash syndrome, not the long one. He says in verse four, "And your altars." Now, notice what he says: "Your altars." Because there was only one altar that was to be worshipped on in all of Israel, and that was in Jerusalem. It was there at the temple.

But they had set up these altars in the high places. In fact, when we went to Israel, you remember when we went through that maze, along that stream and creek, and we popped out? There was this platform that we sat down by and we had Bible study. As we're sitting on this platform, we look behind us. There's nothing on a top of it, but that's where the calf was erected to be worshipped by the ten northern tribes in those groves and in those beautiful places. They would set up these altars, and God calls them your altars because they don't belong to him.

I wonder how many times in application for us, we set up altars in our life that God says, that belongs to you, it doesn't belong to me. I have nothing to do with that. And by the way, you should have nothing to do with that. It's an altar to something that has nothing to do with me. And so he says, "And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols." Listen carefully to verse five: "And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars."

Several things that are noteworthy here. God is saying because you have defiled me, you defiled my temple, you defiled my altar, and you set up your altars where you committed idolatry, worshipping strange gods, going a-whoring away from me—this is the word he will use in a few moments—then I'm going to defile your altars.

We know that in Judaism, if you touched a dead carcass, you were what? Defiled. The Lord is saying because you have heaped these gods up in the high mountains of Israel and in the valleys and in the groves, I'm going to heap up on those altars dead carcasses. I'm going to defile them, I'm going to break them down. The scattering of the bones is always symbolism—and Israel would have known this—the scattering of the bones is always a symbol of shame.

Remember when we get to chapter thirty-seven, the valley of the dry bones? Remember Ezekiel is taken to a high mountain and he says, can these bones live? Well, why was Israel scattered? Because now he is speaking of the time we're living in as they are being gathered back together because their rejection of the Messiah; God scattered their bones. God is saying because you didn't turn at my reproof, and I've been reproving you for a hundred years. I sent Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel to you, and you didn't listen.

And you built those altars and you defiled my sanctuary. He is going to tell us that his sanctuary was so defiled that he had to leave it and write Ichabod across it. He said because you have done that, I will defile your altars. Verse six says, "In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols"—again, thirty-nine times this term idols, which means a detestable thing. It's interesting in the Hebrew, it's a hard word to kind of track down the origin of, but it means something that is detestable, something that literally makes the Lord ill. It's a detestable thing. We in the New Testament would say it's an abomination.

These idols are an abomination to the Lord, a detestable thing. Thirty-nine times this word will be used in the book of Ezekiel. Only eight other times in all rest of the Old Testament. This word idol, he says, listen, your idols may be broken and cease. When God gets done with this—and we're going to see as we go through chapter six, seven, and eight—you're going to shake your head when you leave here and go, man, that is severe. That is severe. But I will tell you this: after they went through this, Israel fell into other traps and other sins, but they never committed idolatry again.

Sometimes God will go to great lengths, listen, in our own personal life here in the New Testament. He will go to great lengths to break us of something so that we never do it again. It may seem severe. We're going through James with the men on Monday nights, and in chapter one it says, "Count it all joy when you fall into divers trials, knowing that the testing of your faith is producing something."

Peter talks about fiery trials. We were telling the men that God sometimes will put you in the fire, heat you up, put you on an anvil, and hammer away, shaping and molding you, and then he'll dunk you in oil to put temper in you. The process is not pleasant, but the product is what God is after. God's after a people that will serve him. So he's going to run them through the fire, he's going to put them on the anvil, he's going to hammer away with his hammer, and then he's going to dunk them into the oil so that he can put something of himself in them. He'll do the same for you and me.

He's saying here, listen, this is what's going to happen. Your images will be cut down, and your works will be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you. Here's the first time: "And ye shall know that I am the Lord." Seven times in the next two chapters, we are going to read that phrase. "That you might know." I'm doing this so that you would know that I am the Lord your God. You forgotten that; I'm going to remind you. How am I going to remind you? Fire, anvil, hammer, oil. I'm going to discipline you.

Here's the promise in verse eight: "Yet will I leave a remnant." Because you remember back in chapter five, he said a third by the sword, a third by famine, and a third will be cast to the wind. When they get cast to the wind, I'm going to send a sword after them. Remember when he shaved his head? He just took a few of the hairs and put it in his apron, and the rest of them were burned. What he is saying is although I'm going to bring a severe judgment upon Israel and Judah for their sin, there's still going to be a remnant left. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a King David, we wouldn't have the lineage of the Messiah, we wouldn't have the nation of Israel to this day.

But he says, "I will leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries." Several times we've had to read where God's had to do this; he had to do it in the Old Testament and he had to do it during the days of Jesus, scatter them, the diaspora, because they rejected the Messiah. They were scattered.

Verse nine says, "And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives." God said I'm going to brand on your hearts something of me. It's going to be difficult. I warned you for a hundred years and you didn't listen. I sent great prophets, major prophets, not just minor prophets. I sent minor prophets, too, because most of the twelve minor prophets are dealing with this same issue here, but you didn't listen.

But I'm going to do a thing, and when it's done, wherever those that are a remnant are scattered, they're going to remember me. They're going to look back to Jerusalem and mourn because of what I have done, what I had to do. Because I am—listen carefully, this is the thing I don't think we get. This is the thing I've been asking the Lord more and more to teach me. Sometimes I can be pretty dull and pretty dense and just not aware. How many feel like you're that way sometimes? It's like you know that there's a truth, but it's just beyond your ability to grasp. I mean, you know it here, but you need to know it here. This is the thing that I'm asking the Lord for constantly. Lord, show me this, teach me this, put this in me.

Because I think sometimes I can be too flippant when it comes to sin. I think I can be too carefree. I think because we're living in the age of grace and we understand that our sins are paid for and the Spirit never leaves us although sometimes he has to convict us, I think sometimes we don't take sin as serious as we ought to take it. Can I get an amen?

I'm talking about God's people who love him. I'm not talking about people who are just religious. I'm talking about people that are born again of the Spirit, washed in the blood, that have relationship with the Father. Isn't it sometimes that we can just take what Jesus has done for us for granted? We don't understand the effect our sin has on our Father. Listen carefully to this, and may God give you better ears to hear than he has in the times past. That's what I'm praying for myself. "Because I am broken with your whorish heart." God says I'm broken. You broke my heart.

It's interesting because there's a Hebrew word that we get almost a New Testament Greek word from this. You'll remember it in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 where it says when somebody dies, we don't sorrow as others who sorrow who have no hope. That's the same word. It's the grief that comes when there's death that visits the family, when there's a loss, when there's something that is separated you from somebody that you love and care about. And God is saying when you sin, because I love you so much and that sin has separated me from you, you have broken my heart. It's like a death has taken place.

I think we ought to, in fact, in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 4—we'll get there in the next few months, actually, we were there. You guys should be paying attention. I'm not backing up all the way to chapter four. But in chapter four, verse thirty, it says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit by whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption." Do you understand that we have the capacity as human beings to break God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? We have the capacity as human beings, because he loves us so much, to break the Trinity's heart.

Have you ever thought about that when you sinned? That it's not just, Lord I'm sorry, Lord forgive me, and you move on. No, you've broken the Father's heart. That's why I told you last week, when I repent, I don't just say I'm sorry and move on anymore. Early in my Christian life, I used to do that. But I've been asking for more of the fear of the Lord, more of an understanding of my relationship with him and what sin does, not only what sin does to me and the consequences I have to pay for it, but what it does to my Father.

So when I do sin—and don't look at me like I'm the only one, because there's times where the flesh man gets out, man. You're doing your best to keep him in the coffin. How many has the flesh man got out this week? You get a hold of him and you'll put him back in the coffin. You got a screw gun in your pocket and you're trying to put the screws down on the lid of the coffin, and you find out he's got one too and the screws are coming back up like the cartoon. You're just trying as fast as you can to keep the lid screwed down, and every once in a while you're not as fast as he is. He gets out and he does stupid things.

And the Spirit man is grieved, and the Spirit man repents to the Father. But when you repent to the Father, I think part of repentance ought to be, Lord, my Father, I violated your law, I broke your commandments. And not only violated your law and broke your commandments, I broke your heart. And I'm asking you to forgive me. And Jesus, I didn't consider at all when I was doing that thing what it cost you to pay for that: the beating, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the mocking, your Father turning his back on you for six hours as you hung on the cross. Would you forgive me?

And oh, by the way, Holy Spirit, you warned me. I didn't listen, and now I've grieved you. I've grieved the heart of the Father. Chapter six of Ezekiel brings to the fore, I think in a masterful way, like no other passage of Scripture. Because all through the Bible we're talking about the consequences of our sin, how it affects us, how God has to discipline us. But I want you to make note of this this evening, that it breaks the heart of the Father. And that's what he is saying here; it breaks his heart.

Let's read that again, verse nine: "And they that escape shall remember me among the nations, whether they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a-whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for the evil which they have committed in all of their abominations, and they shall know that I am the Lord."

That's the second time that phrase is used. But the context is this: once God gets done disciplining them, how many have been disciplined by the Lord? When you wake up to the fact of what you've done, it breaks your heart, too. He said they're going to loathe. In fact, how many have things you've done in the past you don't even want to talk about because it bothers you so bad? It's not because you're ashamed so much as that you realize what it did to your Father. And it breaks your heart to even think about it.

That's why in—and we're going to get to that passage in Ephesians—I can't promise you when, but we're going to get there when we go through the book. But there's a passage in Ezekiel that says it is a shame even to talk about those things that are done in darkness. Why? Because we understand that at that moment of weakness, we broke the Father's heart. He said when I'm done disciplining you, you're going to lament, you're going to loathe the thing that you've done, and you're going to know. You're going to be brought back into relationship; there's going to be restoration.

So there's always God bringing to the fore three R's: he will make you to remember him, then you will repent, and then there's restoration. God's always about that. So those are the three things that kind of go together as we look at this. So he says, listen, "And you shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto you." It's going to produce something. It's going to produce you remembering me, you returning to me, and me restoring you.

And then he says this in verse eleven: "Thus saith the Lord God; Smite thy hand and stamp thy foot." You know, poor Ezekiel, man. Can you imagine the things he's having to go through? And Jeremiah, the things he had to go through? And so he says, when you get a crowd gathered up, Ezekiel, I want you to clap and tell them. And I don't think he just did it like that. I think he was stamping his feet and clapping his hands.

He said, I want you to draw attention to yourself because I want you to tell them, listen: "Alas," listen carefully, "alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel." He's telling us why this judgment is coming. It's because of you. Because later on we're going to find out in Ezekiel that the Lord's going to say, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will you perish?" saith the Lord of Hosts. "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." You brought this on yourself for your abominations.

"Alas, alas for the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. He that is afar off shall die of the pestilence; he that is near shall die of the sword." When Nebuchadnezzar goes up in 586 BC and he besieges the city with the sword, those that are inside of the city, they fall into famine and pestilence. In fact, we read some of the gross things that they did; they turned to cannibalism.

There's disease and pestilence and famine. Many of them die by the sword who try to escape the city. Those in the city die of famine, and those who finally escape, the sword chases them down. And he says this: "He that is afar off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near of the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall you know"—here's the third time—"that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, and on the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and around every thick oak, the places where they did offer sweet savor to all their idols."

You see, the sweet savor was the offering that was meant to be given to God. You read it back in Leviticus, when you bring the wave offering and the peace offering, those things were supposed to be given to the Lord. And he says you gave what belonged to me to idols. "So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make their land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their habitation: and they shall know that I am the Lord." Always trying to bring them back.

How many went to Israel with us? Remember we were down by the Dead Sea? That's the wilderness of Diblah. Man, there ain't nothing grows down there. I mean, it is barren as barren. There's nothing that grows down there, and in fact, even the sea is dead. That's why they call it the Dead Sea. And so he says, I'm going to make it like that.

Then chapter seven, "Moreover the word of the Lord"—now, this is God telling them, listen, you've worn my patience out. I've been long-suffering. You remember when he introduced himself to Moses? When Moses asked to see the Lord, he said, well, you can't see me and live, but I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock. When I pass by, my glory, you can see the hind parts of my Shekinah. Not my body parts or my manifestation, but the hind parts of my glory. And just seeing that, you remember Mo was aglow when he came down off the hill, freaked everybody out, and they made him put like a towel over his head until the glory kind of faded away.

But as the Lord passes by, he tells Moses what his name is. He said the Lord, the Lord thy God, gracious and merciful, kind and forgiving. Long-suffering to thousands of generations that love me, but to those who hate me, he said, I will not withhold my wrath. That's his name. To you and me tonight who love him, who don't want to sin although we find ourselves falling short: mercy and grace, love and forgiveness, kindness. But to those who hate me—when we watch some of this stuff going on TV, there was a gay pride parade, and there was a gal that had this rainbow-colored sign and it said, I'm a proud gay woman and I love the fact that I'm going to hell. There's a foolish person who has no idea what they're saying.

See, you can only shake your fist so long in the face of God without getting a response. And the response you're going to get you ain't going to like. "Moreover the word of the Lord," chapter seven. In fact, in Genesis chapter 6 verse 3—they may put it up on the screen—there's an interesting phrase there that kind of goes along with this chapter, where God says, listen, "My spirit will not always strive with man." I'm not going to continue to convict and convict and send prophets and speak and you not listen. Because your flesh, because if you don't walk in the spirit and you continue to walk in the flesh, then I'm going to take matters a little deeper, a little firmer.

"Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel." Listen carefully. In fact, verse two down to verse twelve, most scholars think was sung. It was like a song that was sung. It was a lament, it was a funeral dirge. It was something that was to be sung to them. The prophets would sing it because it's reminding them that God's judgment is impending. It's coming. Listen carefully. In fact, nine times we're going to read in the next few verses, "It's coming. It's come. The end is coming."

And it says, "An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land." That means all of it will be judged, North and South. "Now the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways." Now notice as God is talking about the impending judgment that is coming, he's going to remind them all the way through this section: this is a recompense for your behavior. This is me responding to your ways. If you would have turned, that's all that was necessary—just turn. Turn ye, turn ye, why will you perish? But because you wouldn't turn, you brought this on yourself.

How many had dads that would take you in the bedroom when he had to discipline you and say, this hurts me more than it hurts you? My dad was an engineer and he was just so methodical. He would give you a list of rules: "These are the rules, and if you keep the rules, these will be the rewards, and if you break the rules, this will be the punishment." In writing, nonetheless. And so if you broke a rule, you got sent to your room, and he would just wait you out for a while, just let you sweat it.

And then he'd walk in and sit down next to the bed with you and he'd say, "Now what did I say?" and he'd make you repeat the rule. And then, "What did I say I would do if you broke the rule?" and then he'd make you repeat the punishment. And then he would say, "This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you." And sometimes I wanted to say, "Well, then turn around and let me give it to you then." And my dad never spared the rod, and he did not spoil the child. And then afterwards he would hug me and say, "I just don't want you to grow up to be lawless like this world."

But you did this, you broke the rules. If you would have kept the rules, there was a list of rewards. Isn't that what Deuteronomy 28's all about? If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and my commandments and my precepts, then a blessing will overtake you. You'll be blessed in every aspect of your life. As you go through that first half of Deuteronomy 28, but then he says if you don't keep curses, bad things. And he goes through those. So it's like what Joshua said: choose you this day whom you're going to serve. If it doesn't seem good to you to serve the true and living God, then go serve the gods of the world and see how it works for you.

And so he's saying, listen, listen carefully as we walk through this. "Mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity on thee: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee." You see, you did this. This is coming on you because of your behavior. "I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know"—here's the fifth time—"you shall know I'm doing this so you shall know that I am the Lord. I am disciplining you to bring you back to that place where you understand who I am."

Verse five, "Thus saith the Lord God: An evil, an only evil, behold is coming." Because up in Jerusalem, Jeremiah is still there. Jeremiah is still prophesying, Jeremiah is still dealing with Zedekiah, the new king of Israel. He's still dealing with the false prophets because the false prophets are coming before the king and they're saying, "Oh, listen King, God's going to crush Nebuchadnezzar under your hand, Oh King. God's going to bring back all the instruments of worship and the priests. God's going to bring back Jehoiachin and he's going to make him the king again. God's going to restore us and God's going to smite our enemies."

And Jeremiah was saying, listen, that's not going to happen. God is judging you, he's punishing you. You better submit to it. And so the false prophets in the land were prophesying smooth things, easy things, that there's going to be a restoration, when in reality, things are never going to be normal again. We're moving quickly toward God judging this world. And we're moving even quicker toward him removing the church. Because of the sin of this world has reached the nostrils of God, and God does not measure time by seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years; he measures time morally.

And when his judgment or people commit such whorish things that demand his judgment, then he will judge. You look around in this world today, listen: it's no different than Sodom and Gomorrah. Thank God that we get delivered. Don't look back lest you be salty. Don't look back. So he's saying to them, listen: "Only evil, there's no good coming, behold it come. The end is come and the end is come; it watcheth for thee and behold it cometh." It's watching and it's waiting; it's just right there ready to pounce on you is the idea.

"The morning is come unto thee, oh thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again upon the mountains. Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will recompense thee for all thine abominations. And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways, and according to thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and you shall know"—here's the sixth time—"and then when I'm done, you shall know that I am the Lord that has disciplined you."

And you know, it's a tragedy when God's people get to the point where God has to do this. Because he doesn't want to do this; he wants to be long-suffering and kind and forgiving and gracious and merciful. That's his character. But he won't leave his people like they are, and if they rebel and turn stiff-necked and firm of face and hard of heart, he will do whatever it takes to get your attention that you would know that he is the Lord. Amen.

So we read on in verse ten: "Behold the day, behold it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded." It's come to the full. I warned you for a hundred years and now it's come to the full. "Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them. The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn: for the wrath is upon all the multitude thereof." It was a song that was sung from verse two to verse twelve. And maybe Ezekiel went through on his way singing this song. It's a funeral dirge. He sang, listen: God's judgment is here. There's no escaping it. It's reached its full, and it demands his justice.

Do you think this world has reached its full yet? 4,000 babies a month are being aborted. The innocence. And now there are laws on the books that when a baby is born, you have up to fifteen days to decide whether you want to keep it or not or euthanize it. Oh yeah. Just when you think it can't get worse. And yet Malachi, in the book of Malachi, it tells us that the reason why God hates divorce and he loves marriage is because he looks for godly offspring. Those children that you raised and your grandchildren, they belong to the Lord. You were just the mechanism to bring them into this world, but he knew them before you knew them. In fact, he knew them before there was even a twinkle in your eye; he knew them from everlasting.

So these are the things that are going on. So he says in verse thirteen, "For the seller shall not return to that which is sold although they were yet alive: for the visions is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return." He says, listen, it's going to happen so quickly and so suddenly that nobody's going to be able to go back and get anything. We're told that with the rapture: two in the field, one will be taken, one will be left. When God seeks to judge, it comes suddenly, it comes without warning. Although he's been warning, when you don't listen, it will come suddenly, it will come shockingly, it will come surprisingly. "Neither will he be in the strength let then him in the iniquity of his life."

"They have blown," listen to this, "they have blown the trumpet." See, this is what I've been really driving home to you guys: listen, this is the time where you ought to be warning people. Jesus is coming soon. Look at the things that are coming to pass in the Middle East. Look at what's going on in the world. Look at your Bible and look at the prophecy as it's being fulfilled. Listen, we need to blow the trumpet, we need to warn people. Listen, Christ is coming to first remove the church and then he will come to judge this world. You need to get in while you still can; you need to get in the ark before the door is shut because it's going to rain. Amen.

We need to be about that, because listen to what he says. This is interesting, verse fourteen: "They have blown the trumpet, the idea of warning, the watchman on the wall, even to make all ready; but none goeth to battle." None responded to the trumpet that was blown. God said, I sent a warning. The watchman on the wall blew the trumpet. They sounded the alarm. And yet none made themselves ready for battle. "For my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof because they did not heed my warning."

Verse fifteen, "The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within." When he came in 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, they besieged the city. The sword was without, and because they besieged the city so no food could come in, a famine was within. So a sword without, famine within. "He that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him. But they that escape," this is what he was saying back in chapter five when he did the illustrated messages, "but they that escape and shall be on the mountains like the doves of the valley, all of them mourning, every one of them for his iniquity."

God is going to bring them to that point of repentance. "All hands shall be feeble, and the knees shall be weak as water." God said I'm going to break you till you repent. You see, he doesn't want to destroy; he just wants repentance. "They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon their faces and baldness upon their heads." This is a sign of repentance. God is going to bring them to that point.

"They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity." God always has a pattern, and it's interesting when you study through the Old Testament: when God seeks to discipline, he removes blessing.

And what is blessing? Shelter, peace, food. Everything that comes from him because he's the God who sustains. He just pulls his hand back. And all the prognosticators are saying by this summer, the world is going to be in a shortage of food. The world. Did you know that? The bread basket of Europe is the Ukraine. In fact, some of you may know or some of you may not know, I've said it before, that most of the fertilizer that we use to grow our crops in America is produced where? Russia. We're going to have a shortage of energy; there won't be enough fuel for the farmers to plow the fields or for the truckers to deliver it. There won't be enough food to feed the world. And God will get this world's attention.

And you may be thinking, well, what about us? When God sought to judge Egypt, what did he do for his people in the land of Goshen, which was just right next door? Like Nevada City, Grass Valley. When all of those plagues came upon Egypt, none of them came into the land of Goshen. This would have been—I would have liked to have been there. Because it's a darkness that covered the land so they gnawed at their tongues, it was so dark, this evil darkness, and yet in the land of Goshen, light. So at some point there was a place where it was light and dark. Could you have stuck your finger into the darkness and pulled it back? Could you have stuck your arm in there and felt it? Oh, the flies and the frogs, the blood that was in everything, the rivers, the fountains, the pails, the pots—everything in Egypt, but none of it was in the land of Goshen.

In fact, the cows were dying in Egypt, but they were multiplying, multiplying—not just surviving, multiplying—in Goshen. Do you think God doesn't know how to take care of his people while he's judging? What did he do for Lot when he sent the angels down there to judge Sodom and Gomorrah? He protected them. Man, I got the best security going. It's out of this world. And it didn't cost me a thing. I am secure in Christ Jesus. Amen.

So bring it on, God: flies and blood and frogs and darkness. I'll be just fine, and so will you. But he says he's going to deal—what verse was I in? I got carried away there for a moment. Verse twenty, twenty, twenty. Yeah, twenty.

"As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it," listen carefully, "he set it in majesty: but they made the image of their abominations and their detestable"—that's idols, detestable things—"therein." God said, I set the beauty in Jerusalem, the city of our God, the tabernacle, the temple, the ark of the covenant, the glory of the Lord. I set that in Jerusalem, and what did you do? You brought in the detestable things and you set up your idols in my city. You set them up in my temple. You set up in my dwelling place. "Therefore have I set it far from them."

Because you did that to my temple, I'm sending Nebuchadnezzar and he's going to destroy it. He's going to burn it down because you already defiled it. And by the way, what cleanses better than fire? I'm going to cleanse my temple. You defile it, I'm going to burn it down. And Nebuchadnezzar did. "I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey"—old Nebbie in the game—"and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil."

I'm going to give it. You know, that's one of the things they said: "God, they're worse than we are. Why would you use those people to judge us? They're worse than us." No, they're not. You sinned in light. You sinned in light. You should have known better. And so I'm going to use the wicked of the wicked to come and you're going to be a spoil for them. "And they shall pollute it." You polluted it; they're going to destroy it.

"My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place," the Holy of Holies. You polluted it. "For the robber shall enter into it and defile it." They're going to go in. Only the priest, the High Priest once a year could go into that place. It was a sacred place to the Lord. And he said now I'm going to send Nebuchadnezzar and his soldiers in, and they're going to strip everything out of the temple and they're going to take it back to Babylon because this is what you did.

And watch verse twenty-three: "Make chains." Now, it's a play on words in the Hebrew. It means you have made your own chains. You put yourself in bondage. I didn't do it. I wanted you to be free. I wanted you to be blessed. "So make a chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen and they shall possess their houses. I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease and their holy places shall be defiled." You've defiled mine; I'm going to defile yours.

"Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace and"—listen, they're not going to find it—"there won't be any." It's like what it says in Proverbs, when Wisdom cries out and you don't listen. When it seeks you in the concourses and in the streets of the city and you don't listen. When it cries out, turn this way, and you turn the opposite. He said then one day Wisdom will laugh at you when you're in your calamity because you didn't listen.

And then he says this in verse twenty-six: "Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor upon rumor; then shall they seek a vision of the prophets." Yeah, they're going to look to the prophets. What does the Bible say? You know, that's why we're going to put the book of Revelation on a thumb drive on this pulpit, and we're going to say "After rapture, break and play." Because they're going to seek the prophets then.

We need to leave a testimony behind, but they'll seek the prophets, but the law shall perish from the priest and the counsel from the ancients. "The king shall mourn, and the princess shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do unto them after their ways, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and"—here's the last and final time, the seventh time—"that they may know that I am the Lord."

All of this is to bring them back. We're not going to get to chapter eight. I'm pretty happy I got through chapter six and seven. I moved right along. At least we get two chapters. But when we read ahead in chapter eight, because in chapter eight—it's interesting, I wish we could have done it tonight because it kind of goes with chapter six and seven—because now God is reasoning with Ezekiel saying, Ezekiel, this breaks my heart to have to do this, but have you seen what they've done? Have you seen what they're doing? Have you seen what they're involved in? Do you see?

In fact, they said—that is those who were God's people doing wicked things, we'll see it next week—they said God doesn't see what we're doing because we're doing it in the dark. And he really doesn't even care about us. And that's why God has to say to Ezekiel, Ezekiel do you see? Do you see how it's affected me, how it's broken my heart? What they've done? Have you seen what they have done?

What they've done to my city, that's the city of the great God. What they've done to my temple, what they've done to the holy place where I dwell? Have you seen what they have done? And they think it's a light thing that they should do this and that I wouldn't respond. I'm going to tell you, I read this and I understand that we're in grace, I understand God has forgiven me, I know my sins are paid past, present, future, and I'm resting securely in Christ. I get that. But I'm going to tell you, this still puts a little fear of God in me. Amen.

You think about that. We're not Old Testament saints, we're New Testament, but it doesn't put just a little fear of God in you? The fear to disappoint him, the fear to break his heart. And I think what it does for us as we read through the Old Testament, although we're under a different covenant—we're under the covenant of grace, not the law; we're under a covenant where Jesus performed for us and he's imputed his righteousness to us. In the Old Testament, you had to perform or you died. The soul that sinneth shall surely die.

But still, we should approach sin fearfully. And sin, that sin might become exceedingly sinful to us as we understand, listen, as we understand how it affects God our Father, what it cost Jesus Christ to pay for it, and how it grieves the Holy Spirit. Do you know the Holy Spirit lives in us? In the Old Testament, he would come upon kings and prophets, but he could leave. Remember after David had sinned with Bathsheba, committed adultery, then had her husband murdered? Remember that his prayer to the Lord was, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Create in me a clean heart." Because there was the capacity, there was the capability God could have just removed the Holy Spirit from David.

But with you and me, he can't because there's a promise with our covenant: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So everything that we do, we involve the Father, we involve his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, we involve the Holy Spirit in it. In fact, there's a verse in the New Testament that says if a man be joined to a harlot, don't you know that you've joined Christ to that harlot? Because he can't leave. And it breaks his heart.

So may God give us a different understanding. I think when we have this understanding of sin, not just that it brings consequences to us, but it has a consequence in our relationship to the Father, that it breaks his heart, I don't think sin will be so appealing anymore because it breaks his heart as though there was a death in the family. He goes into mourning, breaks his heart.

And I'll tell you for me, I'm learning this. I'm asking Father, increase this knowledge in me, increase this understanding, because I never want to look ever again at my Father's face in my times of prayer. I don't want to see disappointment. I want him to look at me and say well done. Not perfect, but good, good and faithful servant. I don't want to break his heart. Listen, I spent too much time in my early Christian walk trying to figure out things, falling and failing and breaking his heart. I don't want to do it anymore. Amen. I just don't want to. Mikey doesn't like it because I know it breaks my Father's heart. Amen.

Well, let's stand and we'll pray. Read ahead. I'll be happy if we can get two chapters a night. We'll move through this as quickly as we can, because who wants to talk about judgment and all of this for a month? But the lesson learned is, if God is talking to you about something, listen. Amen. Listen. Ask for a short leash, don't get a long one.

Our dog, man, that stupid dog, that dog, we got one of those leashes that recoils and it's like twenty-five feet long. And he'll see a cat or a squirrel and he'll take off, and I can see Kyle, she's bracing herself as she's walking, and man, I get ready. Because when he gets to the end of it, he gets a good yank. But he'll do it again and again. Dude, are you kidding me? So there's a little locking mechanism. When I take him out, I'll lock it so he has to stay close.

And I've asked the Lord, I'm out walking the dog and I said, I'm just like this stupid dog. So what I need you is lock that thing so I have to stay right by your side. Don't let me run away twenty-five feet. You can get a pretty good head of steam up, and man, when you get yanked up, you get yanked up. And I don't want to be yanked up anymore. Amen.

Father, thank you for your word and all the warnings that the Spirit gives us as we teach and study through it, Father. God, give to me, give to us, a deeper understanding of how our sin affects you, how when we fall into idolatry and we love the things of this world and the things of the flesh more than we love you, how it breaks your heart. Give us that understanding, Lord, we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. All God's kids would say, amen.