Faking Faith

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.080 After fourteen remain standing, if you're able, and we will read some of 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:12.269 this, some of this chapter, this first half. So this is versus 3 00:00:12.750 --> 00:00:28.980 one. Through eleven, Ezekiel, Fourteen won through eleven. Then certain of 4 00:00:29.059 --> 00:00:32.899 the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me, and the word 5 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:36.850 of the Lord came to me. Son of men, these men have taken 6 00:00:36.929 --> 00:00:41.929 their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of the iniquity, of 7 00:00:41.969 --> 00:00:46.929 their iniquity, before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by 8 00:00:46.969 --> 00:00:52.759 them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, thus says the Lord 9 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:57.159 God. Any one of the House of Israel who takes his idols into his 10 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:02.719 heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes 11 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.150 to the Prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him as he comes 12 00:01:06.230 --> 00:01:08.989 with a multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts 13 00:01:10.030 --> 00:01:14.670 of the House of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols. 14 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:19.260 Therefore say to the House of Israel, thus says the Lord God, 15 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:23.060 repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your 16 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:27.900 abominations. For anyone then of the House of Israel, or of the strangers 17 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:33.489 who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into 18 00:01:33.530 --> 00:01:37.650 his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and 19 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:41.969 yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him. I, the Lord, 20 00:01:42.010 --> 00:01:45.969 will answer him myself and I will set my face against that man. 21 00:01:46.730 --> 00:01:49.359 I will make him a sign and a by word and cut him off from 22 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:53.680 the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 23 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:57.480 And if the Prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the 24 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:01.629 Lord, have deceived that Prophet and I will stretch out my hand against him 25 00:02:01.870 --> 00:02:06.390 and will destroy him from the midst of my people, Israel, and they 26 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:09.550 shall bear their punishment. The punishment of the Prophet and the punishment of the 27 00:02:09.629 --> 00:02:14.870 inquirer shall be alike. That the House of Israel may no more go astray 28 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:20.379 from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they 29 00:02:20.419 --> 00:02:24.460 may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord. 30 00:02:24.539 --> 00:02:50.879 God, you may be seated. Well, we have here in his equal 31 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:59.030 fourteen as a really, really the sad situation. The elders and other people 32 00:02:59.270 --> 00:03:02.310 from the House of Israel were coming to prophets, the Prophets of the Lord, 33 00:03:04.550 --> 00:03:09.030 Ezekiel among them, to inquire of the Lord. A good thing, 34 00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:15.500 you would think, right to go and seek the will of God, to 35 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:19.379 go learn the word of the Lord. That would you would think, would 36 00:03:19.379 --> 00:03:23.060 be a good thing. But it wasn't really the word of the Lord that 37 00:03:23.139 --> 00:03:29.009 they were after. Ezekiel doesn't say what they were after exam exactly, but 38 00:03:29.169 --> 00:03:36.370 he tell does tell us about the duplicitous nature of these people, halfheartedness and 39 00:03:36.490 --> 00:03:42.759 which they were coming to in to come and meet with God. He identifies 40 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:49.639 three things. Are Two things and one summary of the two that will focus 41 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:53.560 on this evening and will think about both what they were doing and the Lord's 42 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:58.990 response to it and the Lord's reason for that response. So first, what 43 00:03:59.189 --> 00:04:04.789 were they doing? The Lord reveals to Ezekiel two things. They had taken 44 00:04:04.949 --> 00:04:10.860 idols into their hearts, they had set a stumbling block of iniquity before their 45 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:16.220 face and through these things they had separated themselves from him. The first of 46 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:20.860 these things they had taken idols into their heart arts. Now before, you 47 00:04:20.899 --> 00:04:26.170 might remember that Ezekiel had been taken to the temple in a vision the temple 48 00:04:26.250 --> 00:04:29.290 of God while it was still standing, and he was given a tour of 49 00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:33.529 that temple, almost like a spy right with special x Ray Vision, he 50 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:38.250 was able to see what was going on inside this place, and what he 51 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:45.079 saw was abomination after abomination. The House of the Lord was filled with idols. 52 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:49.040 Now here we see where that was coming from in a spiritual sense. 53 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:56.990 They hadn't just accidentally put up a statue here an idol over there. They 54 00:04:57.069 --> 00:05:03.589 had brought the idols into their hearts. The internal idolatry had given expression to 55 00:05:03.629 --> 00:05:08.500 an external idolatry, and that's, of course, how it always works. 56 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:15.060 They were worshiping these false gods and it wasn't a pretense, and even if 57 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:19.579 it were, it would be of course wrong. They had taken an not 58 00:05:19.939 --> 00:05:34.410 taken, these idols into their hearts. A second thing that they did is 59 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:41.240 Ezekiel describes it as they set us stumbling block before their eyes. He said, 60 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:44.920 a stumbling block before there, or they set stumbling block before their eyes. 61 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:49.269 This is another their way of referring to idolatry, but it reframes it 62 00:05:49.430 --> 00:05:53.870 in a way, so and say it in the first place. He says 63 00:05:53.870 --> 00:05:58.310 it takes them into their hearts. Now he talks about the idols as being 64 00:05:58.750 --> 00:06:00.910 like in front of them, which is, of course, how they would 65 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:04.139 have worshiped these idols. That's how we all worshiped idols. We look at 66 00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:06.939 this thing, we have, this thing that we're after, this thing that 67 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:12.540 were there worshiping, and they would look at this idol and they would think 68 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:16.300 of this, this or that God and they would say so and so will 69 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:19.889 help me, so and so will make things right. And maybe you can 70 00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:26.529 imagine. Some of these idols were maybe beautiful in some way right, covered 71 00:06:26.569 --> 00:06:30.889 in gold or silver, perhaps chains, perhaps set in a beautiful place. 72 00:06:30.610 --> 00:06:35.839 If you ever seen an actual physical idol that somebody has created, usually there's 73 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:42.360 some care that go that is put into that im you can find them around 74 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:46.189 town and here INTUC son or in people's homes. The places where they're set 75 00:06:46.269 --> 00:06:50.430 apart right, maybe in a restaurant or in a hallway in a home, 76 00:06:50.910 --> 00:06:55.550 a place where there's a special table in a special covering and a special bowl 77 00:06:55.709 --> 00:07:00.500 and things of good quality. They set these things before their eyes. But 78 00:07:00.819 --> 00:07:04.740 but God reframes it. He says, you know, take your glasses off, 79 00:07:05.379 --> 00:07:12.379 your crooked glasses and and see things rightly. What you'll see is the 80 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:16.250 idol is in fact a stumbling block. That's how the Lord identifies it. 81 00:07:16.329 --> 00:07:19.970 It's not some wonderful, beautiful thing that ought to be treasured. It ought 82 00:07:19.970 --> 00:07:26.290 to be identified as a stumbling block, something that will make you fall. 83 00:07:28.329 --> 00:07:31.839 Now, when we walk around, we are always being careful, usually less 84 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:36.160 we're reading or on our phones or something like that, we are careful about 85 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:43.120 stumbling right it can be very bad in some cases. We try to be 86 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:46.509 it is wise to be aware right where we walk and how we walk, 87 00:07:46.629 --> 00:07:49.589 and if there's something in our path, we move it out of the way, 88 00:07:49.870 --> 00:07:54.310 we move around it. Perhaps you go on walks in your neighborhood and 89 00:07:54.389 --> 00:07:57.949 you're one of those helpful people that kicks the landscrape gravel, you know, 90 00:07:58.029 --> 00:08:01.459 back into other people's yards. You know this is something we're just aware of. 91 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:05.500 It's a part of our life. We avoid stumbling, but then sometimes 92 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:11.100 we don't. Sometimes we put the stumbling block right in our path, close 93 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:16.050 our eyes and then start walking, and that's essentially what the people were doing 94 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:20.889 with these idols. This was the idols as God wants us to see them 95 00:08:20.970 --> 00:08:28.920 or not some good thing. Nor are they even a neutral thing. They 96 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:35.200 are a stumbling block thing, a thing that will make us fall, and 97 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:39.519 indeed it did make them fall. And this is one of the great and 98 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:46.269 very sad things about this passage. Israel had just these people that were coming 99 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:52.429 to Esequel, were coming to him in Babylon, the elders of Israel and 100 00:08:52.590 --> 00:08:56.019 others that were coming to him and to false prophets to seek who word of 101 00:08:56.059 --> 00:09:00.059 the Lord, who had idols in their hearts and idols before their eyes, 102 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:07.419 are people who had just been cast out of Israel for idolatry. It shows 103 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:15.450 you how idols capture our hearts, enslave us, how dangerous they are. 104 00:09:16.370 --> 00:09:18.850 Will come back and think about that a little bit more in a moment. 105 00:09:20.529 --> 00:09:24.679 Now. One of the things that's really important to remember about idolatry is that 106 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:30.120 it really can be everywhere or anywhere. It can be attached to anything. 107 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.679 Perhaps you've you can notice this by thinking about all the names of Gods that 108 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:41.429 are out there. I'm even within a particular system of religion, you might 109 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:48.389 have dozens, hundreds, thousands of God's, named and unnamed. I think 110 00:09:48.470 --> 00:09:54.899 that's one it's one way that we can remind ourselves of how keen we are 111 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:58.379 to make idols. It's not just a threat here or there, but we 112 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:03.860 can make them out of anything, and that's important to remember. That idolatry 113 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:09.649 in any place you find it, and any false religion, and then time 114 00:10:09.769 --> 00:10:16.610 is religion is expressed falsely. That idolatry is is not ultimately about the object. 115 00:10:18.009 --> 00:10:24.960 Idolatry is about getting things you want or think you need. Right, 116 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:31.159 we have a god, supposedly, a God for the harvest and a God 117 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.600 for the moon and a God for the sun and a God for this slithering 118 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:39.149 thing and a god for fertility and a God for an on and on and 119 00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:41.750 on it goes, because these are the things that we think we need, 120 00:10:41.750 --> 00:10:45.429 these are the things that we think we need to have, to obtain, 121 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:50.740 and so when we go and we seek them out, it's not so much 122 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:54.100 about the thing that's there, it's it's what's in our heart as the thing 123 00:10:54.139 --> 00:10:58.779 we're after. And when you remember that, none of us are left off 124 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:03.620 the hook. None of us can look at the idols of other people in 125 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:09.610 their homes and their places of business and go huh, such rubes right. 126 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:13.009 We can't look at that and say well, good thing, I don't do 127 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:16.730 that well, I am glad you don't do that, if you don't do 128 00:11:16.809 --> 00:11:20.840 if you don't do that, but we're not off the hook because ultimately they're 129 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:26.960 doing the exact same thing we do when we covet things, which is idolatry. 130 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:31.799 The scriptures say covetousness, when we when we are discon tent about things, 131 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:37.870 when we think there's something that we need to have an order for us 132 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:41.590 to be okay. And, as I've said, idolatry can come in so 133 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:46.860 many shapes and forms, just to list a few, to kind of get 134 00:11:46.940 --> 00:11:52.779 your minds and your hearts going a little bit, your consciences, think about 135 00:11:54.059 --> 00:11:58.860 the opportunities that we crave. Sometimes, maybe it's a particular job or an 136 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:03.129 opportunity to travel or living in a certain place, that that is just the 137 00:12:03.450 --> 00:12:07.210 thing that we feel like we need, the thing that we're driving for, 138 00:12:07.409 --> 00:12:11.250 the thing we obsess about, the thing we think about in research and spend 139 00:12:11.289 --> 00:12:16.200 all of our time and energy on. And maybe you would say, well, 140 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:20.120 I don't spend all my time on it, but you know, you 141 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.919 know when too much is too much. You know when your heart is going 142 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:31.750 after the wrong things and inordinate ways. Maybe if it's an opportunities. Maybe 143 00:12:31.830 --> 00:12:37.190 it's particular achievements, a particular degree or a particular promotion, or maybe even 144 00:12:37.269 --> 00:12:43.710 just the appreciation of someone. How many people have gone to great lengths just 145 00:12:43.870 --> 00:12:48.940 to get a ad a boy, from their dad or their mom? How 146 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:56.740 many people have done even really despicable things to get the affirmation of someone else? 147 00:12:58.809 --> 00:13:05.570 This reminds us that sometimes that are idols are also relationships, a particular 148 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:13.559 type of friend that I must have, a particular kind of spouse or or 149 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:20.120 something else. Then, of course, there's things, possessions, houses, 150 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:26.590 Gadgets, deals, harvests, whatever. There are things that are related to 151 00:13:26.669 --> 00:13:30.789 our bodies that we think that we must have, that we must need, 152 00:13:31.029 --> 00:13:35.149 a physical touch, cure from a disease or being able to look a particular 153 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:39.990 way or not look a particular way. These things that we be crave, 154 00:13:39.190 --> 00:13:43.059 these things that we cove at, these things that we say, if I 155 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:48.299 don't get this, I'm not going to be okay. Whenever we're thinking those 156 00:13:48.340 --> 00:13:56.809 kinds of thoughts, you know that you're slipping into idolatry, but God wants 157 00:13:56.929 --> 00:14:01.250 a hundred percent of you. He doesn't want just a little bit of you 158 00:14:01.529 --> 00:14:03.850 or some of your time or some of your love or some of your trust. 159 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:09.850 He doesn't want to be the source of most of your joy or most 160 00:14:09.889 --> 00:14:16.360 of your hope. God desires to be everything to you and he wants everything 161 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:20.600 of you. He wants you to love him with all of your mind, 162 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:26.230 with all of your soul, with all of your strength. But in I 163 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:31.389 am this idolatry and idolatry that was in their hearts, and idolatry a stumbling 164 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:35.990 block that they put there before their eyes. They were separating themselves for God, 165 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:41.179 from God, as he says here, and that's what happens. You 166 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:46.139 can't serve two masters, and this is a lesson that the scriptures teach us 167 00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:50.580 over and over and over again. A lot of times we tend to think, 168 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:54.570 well, I can, I can serve God in this way. I'll 169 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:56.769 go inquire of the prophet, I'll I'll go to church, I'll read my 170 00:14:56.809 --> 00:15:00.889 Bible, I'll do this or that good thing. And indeed those are good 171 00:15:00.929 --> 00:15:05.570 things. Not Want to discourage you from them, but to go from them 172 00:15:05.649 --> 00:15:09.919 and go to them in in a hypocritical way or in a way that is 173 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:16.080 not actually trusting the Lord, is not good. And when we do that 174 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:24.909 we separate ourselves from God, we separate ourselves from the only sorts of the 175 00:15:24.070 --> 00:15:28.470 things that we need, the things that we desire, the things that he 176 00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:33.429 wants us even to have. So this is what these people were doing. 177 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:37.580 They were going to these prophets with idols and their hearts, a kind of 178 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:46.539 a fake faith, a pretense of religion. How does God respond? Well, 179 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:48.899 the first thing he does, or one of the things he does, 180 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:52.490 is he shows them that he, he and not they're idols, is the 181 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:56.970 one true God, and he does that in a number of ways. He 182 00:15:58.129 --> 00:16:00.649 says he will do that in a number of ways. One is his power 183 00:16:00.730 --> 00:16:08.519 over people. Unlike the false gods, which can't really do anything because ultimately 184 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:15.240 they're just expressions of our covetousness and our false worship. They can't provide the 185 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:22.269 things that we want, but he can. He is powerful and he says 186 00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:30.230 he will even send a lying prophets to go speak to those who desire lying 187 00:16:30.309 --> 00:16:34.539 prophets, those who go with halfhearted hearts and those who go on to the 188 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:41.179 prophets not really seeking after God. He will. He will confuse them, 189 00:16:42.259 --> 00:16:48.490 he will give them over to their own selfdeception. We also see his power 190 00:16:48.529 --> 00:16:52.769 over Providence. He says, I will cut you off from my people, 191 00:16:52.809 --> 00:17:00.559 perhaps meaning a kind of excommunication, a dismemberment of a person from the body, 192 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:07.119 and perhaps he means even death there. Either way, he promises to 193 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:11.559 cut off these people who go to him in this way and to make them 194 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:15.589 a by word. You know what a by word is? It's a, 195 00:17:15.869 --> 00:17:19.589 you know, sort of a everybody knows that kind of person. Or like 196 00:17:21.869 --> 00:17:26.269 one example I came across and thinking about this passage was lot's wife, right, 197 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:29.990 the sort of symbol. Or Sodom and go more is another one. 198 00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:32.460 You know, you just say Sodom and go more and everybody knows what you 199 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:37.579 mean. Right. That's what God will make you if you go after him 200 00:17:37.579 --> 00:17:42.700 in these ways. He's that powerful. He's powerful over what people think, 201 00:17:42.740 --> 00:17:51.089 about how they act. He's powerful over Providence. He's powerful to judge these 202 00:17:51.170 --> 00:17:56.569 people go to God in this sinful way. They bring idols into their hearts, 203 00:17:56.609 --> 00:18:00.559 they bring idols into the temples, thinking that God doesn't see, thinking 204 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:06.720 that God is like the idols that they serve, incapable. But it's not 205 00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:11.240 true, is it? We read in First Samuel Sixteen seven. The Lord 206 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:17.470 sees not as man sees. Man Looks at the outward appearance, but the 207 00:18:17.630 --> 00:18:23.029 Lord looks on the heart. Psalm seventy nine and other places like Jeremiah Eleven, 208 00:18:23.109 --> 00:18:27.420 talk about God is the one who tests the heart and the mind. 209 00:18:29.339 --> 00:18:36.220 He's a tester of hearts and minds. First, excuse me. First, 210 00:18:36.220 --> 00:18:41.009 chronicles twenty eight nine says the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and 211 00:18:42.130 --> 00:18:49.170 every thought. You can't hide from that kind of God. He's not a 212 00:18:49.369 --> 00:18:52.970 god of wood and stone, he's not a god of gold and silver. 213 00:18:53.009 --> 00:19:00.240 He's a God who can penetrate past every pretense, past every show, into 214 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:06.519 the depths of your heart and know exactly what is going on there. God 215 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:11.509 is going to show that he is the one true God in his control over 216 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:17.710 events and people and his power to judge, in his power to discern. 217 00:19:18.710 --> 00:19:22.950 We're going to see that even in these actions, as these men, these 218 00:19:22.990 --> 00:19:26.539 elders of Israel, these men who are supposed to be leading, who are 219 00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:30.779 supposed to be overseeing, guarding, protecting the people. Instead they're going with 220 00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:36.660 idols in their hearts, idols before their eyes, going to a prophet saying, 221 00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:41.410 tell me a word of the Lord, but God knows what is going 222 00:19:41.529 --> 00:19:45.650 on and he will punish them. He will also punish, he says, 223 00:19:47.289 --> 00:19:52.529 the ones that speak these false words. Remember, Ezekiel is one among many 224 00:19:52.609 --> 00:19:55.880 prophets, and many of those prophets, as we've seen in other places, 225 00:19:56.119 --> 00:20:00.440 where false prophets, bad prophets, lying prophets. The people of Israel had 226 00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:07.390 set up a whole false system of religion, false places of worship, false 227 00:20:07.589 --> 00:20:12.789 priests, false laws fall and, of course, false idols. There were 228 00:20:12.910 --> 00:20:17.630 people everywhere who are willing to say anything for a buck, who are willing 229 00:20:17.710 --> 00:20:25.220 to cat hurt those who are downcast. I'm not protect those who are innocent 230 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:29.980 but take bribes and these kind of things for their own gain. The whole 231 00:20:30.099 --> 00:20:33.819 system is going to come crashing down. It already has, which is the 232 00:20:33.940 --> 00:20:37.369 shame of all this. Right, it already has in Israel and now here 233 00:20:37.410 --> 00:20:45.089 they are in Babylanche with the same sorts of things. They have separated themselves 234 00:20:45.130 --> 00:20:47.970 from God, they have put a stumbling block before their face, and he 235 00:20:48.130 --> 00:20:52.960 responds by saying, I will set my face against you and I will separate 236 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:56.720 myself from you. And in these ways, in these parallel ways, that 237 00:20:56.839 --> 00:21:02.799 God is responding to their actions. We see his perfect justice. They set 238 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:07.470 a stumbling block before their face, so he sets his face against them. 239 00:21:07.549 --> 00:21:15.990 They separate themselves from him, he separates himself from them. They seek after 240 00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:21.500 other gods. He shows by his power and his putting them down that he 241 00:21:21.619 --> 00:21:26.579 is the one true God. But God does something that they don't do. 242 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:30.460 In other words, it's we have a we have a way in which there 243 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:36.329 isn't a parallel in this passage, and that's the call to repentance. The 244 00:21:36.450 --> 00:21:38.529 people are hard hearted, the people are acting in the all these ways. 245 00:21:38.930 --> 00:21:45.809 God responds in his Justice, but he also calls them to repentance, and 246 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:53.119 that's an amazing thing. They're thinking again about these people being in Babylon. 247 00:21:55.839 --> 00:22:00.079 I think it's worth spending a moment to observe that sometimes, when judgment and 248 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.630 discipline comes into our lives, we tend to say things, where we can 249 00:22:04.789 --> 00:22:10.230 say things like, well, might as well just give up. It's all 250 00:22:10.430 --> 00:22:14.470 over, the worst is happened, I've been abandoned by God. I might 251 00:22:14.509 --> 00:22:17.900 as well just give myself over to the world, to my flesh, to 252 00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:22.059 the devil. We have a way of, instead of learning from our discipline, 253 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:30.250 doubling down on our disobedience. Instead of noticing our losses, we we 254 00:22:30.450 --> 00:22:33.730 double down on them. Instead of noticing our defilement and seeking cleansing, we 255 00:22:33.930 --> 00:22:38.490 cover ourselves with more filth and we sin, on and on and on. 256 00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:47.839 But here are these people, cast out of the presence of God and Israel, 257 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.160 cast out into this foreign land, and yet God is still speaking to 258 00:22:53.279 --> 00:23:00.950 them. God is still calling them to repentance. Isn't that amazing? He 259 00:23:00.109 --> 00:23:06.509 is still calling them to repentance. On the one hand, he's saying you 260 00:23:06.710 --> 00:23:11.390 think the worst has come, it hasn't. You keep going this direction. 261 00:23:11.630 --> 00:23:19.059 There is still more judgment to be had. But there's this other thing that's 262 00:23:19.059 --> 00:23:22.940 also true. You may think there's no more hope. You think that God 263 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:27.250 has left his people, that you are abandoned, that you are in this 264 00:23:27.410 --> 00:23:32.529 foreign place, that you are no longer with him, but that's not true 265 00:23:32.609 --> 00:23:37.730 either. God is not so he's not like their idols, which are tied 266 00:23:37.769 --> 00:23:41.440 down to stupid blocks and stone. He can move anywhere, he can do 267 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:48.640 anything and he can give hope. And even the darkest places, the most 268 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:55.789 isolated places, the most disorienting places, when we think we are so far 269 00:23:56.029 --> 00:24:02.750 gone, God is still calling us to repentance, at least while we're still 270 00:24:02.869 --> 00:24:06.950 here, while we still have breath to breathe, while the Lord has not 271 00:24:06.990 --> 00:24:17.500 yet returned in judgment. And this called repentance is a wonderful thing. When 272 00:24:17.539 --> 00:24:23.369 Jesus comes to inaugurate the new covenant, we see many of these things in 273 00:24:23.569 --> 00:24:29.690 him, and I want to think about just one story with you where I 274 00:24:29.769 --> 00:24:32.970 think we see a lot of these elements all together, and that's a story 275 00:24:33.009 --> 00:24:37.930 of the woman at the well. You remember the secrets in her heart, 276 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:44.000 right, her five husbands. I believe it was these things which she was 277 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:48.960 known by, These things which she had begotten a reputation for, and she 278 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:55.309 comes to the well, she meets Jesus there, the Prophet Greater Than Moses, 279 00:24:55.470 --> 00:24:59.269 right, the very son of God, right, and she tries to 280 00:24:59.309 --> 00:25:03.390 have this like theological conversation with him. Well, I don't know this mountain 281 00:25:03.549 --> 00:25:07.099 or that mountain. We worship here, we worshiped there, and Jesus cuts 282 00:25:07.259 --> 00:25:15.140 through it all right, just like he does here in Ezekiel Fourteen, when 283 00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:18.900 he speaks to these these prophets, these false prophets, and he speaks to 284 00:25:18.940 --> 00:25:22.369 these people who were coming and Oh seek a word of the Lord will have 285 00:25:22.410 --> 00:25:26.930 a discussion about theology. Yada, Yada. I know. No, I 286 00:25:27.089 --> 00:25:32.009 know what you're doing, I know what's going on in your life. He 287 00:25:32.130 --> 00:25:37.279 says to them, he says to her, he shows his power in this 288 00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:48.599 and and he reveals himself in this way and he calls her to repentance and 289 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:52.390 she goes away and she says, he said things that I write, he 290 00:25:52.670 --> 00:26:00.150 knew these things about me. And she goes and she tells people about him. 291 00:26:02.349 --> 00:26:06.859 The Lord calling people even when they are sort of at the brink or 292 00:26:07.500 --> 00:26:11.660 far past where we think there's any hope of return. There are many examples 293 00:26:11.700 --> 00:26:18.450 of this. Peter after his three denials of the Lord, after being told 294 00:26:18.569 --> 00:26:22.769 that he would do these things, after saying that he would not do these 295 00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:29.529 things, and the Lord calling him back to himself. Many, many, 296 00:26:29.609 --> 00:26:34.240 many examples. As long as we are breathing, as long as the final 297 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:38.640 Jay of judgment has not come, as long as the Lord is still calling, 298 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:45.480 there's time. Even the harshest of disciplines that we face in this life 299 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:51.750 are not necessarily the end. Even excommunication, even being cut off from the 300 00:26:51.829 --> 00:27:00.029 church and from God's people, it's meant to lead US toward repentance. If 301 00:27:00.069 --> 00:27:04.259 we have your seer, if we wake up from our stupors, if we 302 00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:11.220 wake up from our covetousness and idolatry and see our God who is at work. 303 00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:17.730 Jesus, of course, not only revealed himself to this woman at the 304 00:27:17.849 --> 00:27:21.650 well and to Peter, he not only revealed that he, as God, 305 00:27:22.490 --> 00:27:27.250 was the seer of hearts, the forgiver of sins, the one calling to 306 00:27:27.369 --> 00:27:34.759 repentance, but he's the one that actually secured these things for us. Our 307 00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:40.559 idolatry, as we see from Ezekiel Fourteen, as we experience in our lives, 308 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:44.279 as a way of capturing our hearts, doesn't it? It holds US 309 00:27:44.349 --> 00:27:49.269 fast, it holds US down. There's only one power, only one person 310 00:27:49.309 --> 00:27:56.109 who has the power to break that. Who in the world can break the 311 00:27:56.230 --> 00:28:03.660 power of idolatry? Who can change a human heart from exchanging the glory of 312 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:11.140 God for creeping things and man made things? The only one who can break 313 00:28:11.180 --> 00:28:15.529 that powers, of course, God himself. And that's what the Lord does. 314 00:28:18.450 --> 00:28:22.849 The promise here in Isekiel is not only seen in the called repentance, 315 00:28:22.930 --> 00:28:26.559 but in the promise of God. He says, I will do these things, 316 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:34.200 that they will know me that they will defile themselves no more. That 317 00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:37.599 probably would be a prayer worth praying. Lord, help me to stop defiling 318 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:44.109 myself. They would defile themselves no more, that they would love him, 319 00:28:44.390 --> 00:28:49.430 that I would be their God and they would be my people. That's what 320 00:28:49.549 --> 00:28:55.269 he secures for us in Jesus, when he comes and he takes on the 321 00:28:55.390 --> 00:29:00.579 punishment that we deserve, when he is cut off for our sins, for 322 00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:11.769 Ir Idolatry. It's a great sadness that when Jesus was crucified, he was 323 00:29:11.890 --> 00:29:15.650 mocked as though he were a false god, king of kings. Right, 324 00:29:15.769 --> 00:29:19.529 they put over his king of the Jews, they put over his cross, 325 00:29:22.250 --> 00:29:26.559 but Jesus was the king of the Jews and the King of the gentiles, 326 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:32.799 the King of Heaven and the Lord Yahwey. He is the one who came 327 00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:37.160 to reveal himself as the one who has the power to do all of these 328 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.349 things, and it's that God who is come in love. It's that God 329 00:29:41.390 --> 00:29:45.789 who has given himself up for you, that wants all of you. So, 330 00:29:45.950 --> 00:29:49.390 when God says I don't want idols in your heart, I don't want 331 00:29:49.470 --> 00:29:56.019 idols before your eyes, I want all of you think about what a blessing 332 00:29:56.180 --> 00:30:04.819 it is to hear that if you got your dream job, your dream relationship, 333 00:30:04.859 --> 00:30:07.809 your dream school, you don't say, well, I'm sorry that I 334 00:30:08.329 --> 00:30:12.930 got these things right. If you, let's say you're trying to apply and 335 00:30:14.009 --> 00:30:18.369 get into a school and then they you get into the school, you don't 336 00:30:18.369 --> 00:30:25.240 say, how selfish of them to want me right now. If that's true 337 00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:27.079 for these things that we have, think about how much more this ought to 338 00:30:27.240 --> 00:30:32.720 be true of our desire for God, for God to speak of us and 339 00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:38.109 say I want all of you, I want you to belong to me. 340 00:30:38.750 --> 00:30:42.349 I am going you have my attention, you have all my love, you 341 00:30:42.470 --> 00:30:48.390 have all my blessing in my life, you will have everything you need. 342 00:30:49.059 --> 00:30:55.259 What higher thing could we possibly want? And this is what God wants to 343 00:30:55.420 --> 00:31:00.779 give us. The God whom we've offended, the God whom we've broken his 344 00:31:00.900 --> 00:31:07.250 laws, the God whom we've replaced with false gods. That God is expressing 345 00:31:07.329 --> 00:31:14.009 his love towards these people, even in this moment, even in their idolatry, 346 00:31:14.049 --> 00:31:18.250 even in their false religion, even in Babylon. And if you can 347 00:31:18.289 --> 00:31:21.880 do that for them, they're surely he can do that for us here. 348 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:27.839 And he does. He promises to you tonight His grace. He promises to 349 00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:37.309 you his himself, when you repent of your sins and turn away from your 350 00:31:37.390 --> 00:31:41.029 idols and toward him. May God grant us to do just that. Let's 351 00:31:41.029 --> pray