Lord of the Mountains (Ez 6)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:04.240 Brothers and sisters, let's turn, in God's word, now to Ezekiel, 2 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:24.260 Ezekiel chapter six, to take just a moment to remind you of the context. 3 00:00:25.899 --> 00:00:31.539 The warnings that God gave to Israel, the calls that he sent to 4 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:36.770 them, through profit after profit, through their kings, through various means, 5 00:00:37.729 --> 00:00:45.609 were not heeded, and the curse of the covenants that he had promised and 6 00:00:45.689 --> 00:00:52.039 that they had agreed to take upon themselves if they disobeyed were and we're now 7 00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:56.079 about to come upon them. And Ezekiel here is called, as the Lord's 8 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:02.799 Prophet, to pronounce these curses on the people of God for their failure to 9 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:07.709 obey as he had called them to do, for their failure to obey as 10 00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:12.510 they had themselves agreed to do and we're obligated to do. And as we 11 00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:18.349 see in Ezekiel six and as we will continue to see in the coming chapters, 12 00:01:18.469 --> 00:01:23.260 their failure was no small thing. Need the Lord is perfect and holy 13 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:29.260 in every way, and even the smallest sin is an offense against him, 14 00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:33.450 even a smallest breaking of the law breaks the whole law because of his perfection. 15 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:38.329 But he but here we are not talking about the smallest of sins. 16 00:01:38.650 --> 00:01:44.609 We are talking about things, some much greater and worse than that. And 17 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:51.840 so, in righteous anger, the Lord speaks to his people and and this 18 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.680 is how he speaks. Ezekiel, chapter six. Let us give our attention 19 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:02.670 to God's word. The word of the Lord came to me, son of 20 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:07.269 man. Set to your face, toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy 21 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:10.909 against them, and say you, mountains of Israel, hurry here the word 22 00:02:12.669 --> 00:02:15.539 of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God, to the mountains and 23 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:21.379 the hills, to the ravines and the valleys. Behold I even. I 24 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:25.460 will bring a sword upon you and I will destroy your high places, your 25 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:30.090 altars shall become desolate and your incense alters shall be broken, and I will 26 00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:36.569 cast down your slain before your idols, and I will lay the dead bodies 27 00:02:36.650 --> 00:02:39.210 of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones 28 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:44.680 around your altars. Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the 29 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:49.159 high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your 30 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:54.319 idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down and your works wiped out, 31 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:00.710 and the slain shall fall in your midst and you shall know that I 32 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:06.629 am the Lord. Yet I will leave some of you alive, when you 33 00:03:06.750 --> 00:03:09.389 have among the nations, some of you escape the sword, and when you 34 00:03:09.469 --> 00:03:14.699 are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me 35 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:20.099 among the nations, where they are carried captive, how I have been broken, 36 00:03:20.139 --> 00:03:23.340 over their wharring heart, that that has departed from me, and over 37 00:03:23.419 --> 00:03:28.569 their eyes that go whrring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in 38 00:03:28.569 --> 00:03:31.009 their own sight, for the evils that they have committed, for all their 39 00:03:31.050 --> 00:03:37.849 abominations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not 40 00:03:38.129 --> 00:03:43.800 said in vain that I would do this evil to them. Thus says the 41 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:47.840 Lord God. Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say alas, because 42 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:53.120 of all the evil abominations of the House of Israel, for they shall fall 43 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:57.669 by the sword, by famine and by pestilence. He who is far off 44 00:03:57.750 --> 00:04:00.150 shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, 45 00:04:00.590 --> 00:04:05.310 and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus 46 00:04:05.389 --> 00:04:10.780 I will spend my fury upon them, and you shall know that I am 47 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:15.740 the Lord when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every 48 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:18.860 high hill, on all the mountain tops, under every green tree and every 49 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:25.810 under every leafy Yoake, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. 50 00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:30.970 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and 51 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:35.930 waste and all their dwelling places, from the Wilderness to riblow. Then they 52 00:04:36.009 --> 00:05:00.310 will know that I am the Lord Mountains, which are spoken of here at 53 00:05:00.350 --> 00:05:08.500 the beginning of this of this chapter. Mountains hold a special place often in 54 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:15.139 our lives and in the lives of people throughout the world. Mountains are a 55 00:05:15.259 --> 00:05:21.250 place to, as Jake Russian Majon said, escape from the heartless machinery of 56 00:05:21.329 --> 00:05:28.449 the world. Once, describing his climb to the matter Horn of Italy, 57 00:05:28.529 --> 00:05:31.930 he wrote we sat on the Italian summit with our feet over Italy and our 58 00:05:31.970 --> 00:05:36.000 backs to the little wall of summit of snow, a little wall of summit 59 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:41.120 snow, and let our eyes drink in the marvelous beauty of that scene. 60 00:05:41.959 --> 00:05:45.959 What a wonderful help it is and all discouragements, what a blessed gift of 61 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.629 God to be able to bring before the mind's eye such a vision as that. 62 00:05:53.310 --> 00:05:57.350 No do no doubt right. It is a beautiful thing to get up 63 00:05:57.389 --> 00:06:00.829 high. Right. What do we call on top of Mount Lemon? Summer 64 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:05.259 Haven. Right, it is a place of rest. It mountains give us 65 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:12.259 a perspective. They kind of human size our world a little bit. That 66 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:15.339 can seem so crowding and when we get up high, when we see things, 67 00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:23.009 we begin to see things maybe a little more clearly. One year and 68 00:06:23.129 --> 00:06:28.009 Fourth of July, my family went up Mount Lemon to watch the fireworks and 69 00:06:28.089 --> 00:06:32.879 we had this vision that they would be bursting before our eyes. It wasn't 70 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:36.600 the case at all. There these little puffs of smoke way down below, 71 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:42.639 just barely coming up over the trees. Those are real perspective in that we 72 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:46.439 didn't realize how close they are to us, even on the ground, how 73 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.949 high this, this mountain, really is, how small we we are and 74 00:06:50.029 --> 00:06:56.230 we weren't even on the top. Bendy halfway up. Mountains help us feel 75 00:06:56.230 --> 00:06:59.829 our human size. Nature in this in many ways is like this. They 76 00:07:00.670 --> 00:07:05.500 they indeed help us to feel closer to God as we experience the his expression 77 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:13.300 of his power is my in them. Mountains also provide safety and refuge. 78 00:07:14.660 --> 00:07:16.930 If you've ever had a chance to see the cliff dwellings at Montezuma as well, 79 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:24.009 or and Walnut Canyon, you can see how mountains can give a people 80 00:07:24.730 --> 00:07:30.240 tactical advantage over enemies and predators. They can provide protection against the sun and 81 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:35.480 the rain. Proverbs Thirty Twenty Spit Twenty six peaks of the wisdom of the 82 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:41.120 Rock Badger. The Rock Badgers are a people, not mighty, yet they 83 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:46.310 make their home in the cliffs. All that to say, mountains, like 84 00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:50.750 other parts of God's creation, impress upon us the glory of God and when 85 00:07:50.750 --> 00:07:56.670 we live and and it is good to be near them, it is good 86 00:07:56.790 --> 00:08:01.860 to enjoy them. They impress upon us the glory of God and other attributes 87 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:07.060 that he has, the safety he offers, the protection he gives to those 88 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:13.329 who trust in him. But what happens when, instead of enjoying God's creation, 89 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:18.329 you turn it into an idol? What happens, instead of enjoying a 90 00:08:18.490 --> 00:08:28.160 mountain and finding rest and seeing yourself and the perspective in God's perspective? Instead 91 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:33.600 of mountain or other aspects of creation become places to worship the creation as though 92 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:39.919 it were itself the Creator? What happens when we begin to take creation, 93 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:45.870 silver, gold, wood whatever, and fashion it into things that they then 94 00:08:45.950 --> 00:08:52.629 worship it prate. This is a common experience, of course, in the 95 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:58.980 history of mankind. We go up sometimes to the high places, not to 96 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:05.460 give God praise, but to strengthen ourselves against God, either through idols or 97 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:16.610 through our own selfdetermination. We climb to build. We climb to build achievements. 98 00:09:16.450 --> 00:09:22.970 Sometimes we build to achieve. Think of the Tower of Babel other such 99 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:30.080 endeavors. Instead of getting human sized, man often trimes to become godsized by 100 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:35.480 interacting with creation, which is of course an insane thing, an impossible thing, 101 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:39.870 but a thing that we do nonetheless. And this is the path that 102 00:09:39.149 --> 00:09:46.509 Israel chose. Israel chose to take the high places around them, and the 103 00:09:46.590 --> 00:09:50.389 valleys and the ravines and and trees and other things and turn them into places 104 00:09:50.549 --> 00:09:58.179 for and of for idolatry, and idolize them as well. Indeed, through 105 00:09:58.259 --> 00:10:03.379 this whole land, which was supposed to be barked by God's holiness and the 106 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:07.809 place where he put his name, where his sacrifices were offered, where his 107 00:10:07.049 --> 00:10:13.730 priests would minister, I'm all, according to his perfect specifications, according to 108 00:10:13.809 --> 00:10:18.690 a land taken from heaven itself, delivered on a mountain top, and God's 109 00:10:18.450 --> 00:10:26.720 in God's amazing power. Instead, they turned this place into a place of 110 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:31.399 idolatry. They turned it into a place of chasing after other gods or, 111 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:37.710 to use the words that the scriptures use, whoring after other gods. They 112 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:41.309 left their husband, they left their God, they left the one who would 113 00:10:41.309 --> 00:10:43.710 love them, who would rescued them out of Egypt, who had brought them 114 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:48.149 out of a people that they did not know, set them in a place, 115 00:10:48.190 --> 00:10:54.340 promised to give them honey from our rock. And they worshiped the rocks. 116 00:10:54.379 --> 00:10:58.539 They worshiped false gods. They worshiped gods of the magic, gods of 117 00:10:58.539 --> 00:11:03.179 their own imaginations. Kings and rulers and priests established themselves and their own power, 118 00:11:03.409 --> 00:11:07.889 wanting their own ways and there, at their own times, the mountains 119 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:13.769 and hills became an abomination. The whole land was filled with rebellion against God, 120 00:11:13.370 --> 00:11:18.370 just as it was when God kicked the Canaanites out before Israel came, 121 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:24.120 for the very same things. And so he calls his Prophet to speak out 122 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:31.279 against those place in an against those places and what those places represented. Son 123 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:35.830 of Man Verse One, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy 124 00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:41.309 against them. Say You, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the 125 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:45.870 Lord Yahwagh, the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God, to the 126 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:48.460 mountains and the hills, to the ravines in the valleys. Behold, I 127 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:54.779 even I will bring a sword upon you and destroy your high places. Here 128 00:11:54.980 --> 00:12:00.100 is God as the mighty divine warrior, who is going to take back what 129 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:05.009 is rightfully his, take what has been stolen from him, not just the 130 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:11.370 land, not just the places, but his bride, his people, his 131 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:16.120 children. Their hearts had been captivated by idols. They had let their hearts 132 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:22.080 be captivated by idols, and now God was going to crush it all down. 133 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.799 You want to see how powerful your idols are, see your dead body 134 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.070 strewn around your idols. This is what God expresses here. He tells us 135 00:12:33.110 --> 00:12:37.309 to look at them and see them for what they are. They are brainers 136 00:12:37.429 --> 00:12:43.460 of death, they are bringers of judgment and his wrath. I will scatter 137 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:48.980 your bones around your altars, he says in Verse Five, and repeats in 138 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:54.100 number and number of other places, like verse eleven, the last, because 139 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:58.330 of your abominate your evil abominations of the House of Israel, for they shall 140 00:12:58.450 --> 00:13:03.850 fall by sword and famine and pestilence. He says, wherever they turn they 141 00:13:05.370 --> 00:13:11.250 will fall. This judgment that he speaks weeks of, this judgment that goes 142 00:13:11.289 --> 00:13:18.000 out, is his judgment against sin, and it's his judgment to teach us 143 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.960 who he is and what we ought to do. So we think about our 144 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:30.789 own idolatry and our own sin. People wonder why God does these things. 145 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:45.220 Why does God soul fiercely defend his his honor, defend his name, prosecute 146 00:13:45.299 --> 00:13:52.179 the law? Why is he so strict judge when it comes to idolatry and 147 00:13:52.299 --> 00:13:56.730 all these things of which we've been speaking? We don't have to guess. 148 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:01.370 The scriptures tell us why. If we have ears to hear and eyes to 149 00:14:01.490 --> 00:14:07.730 see and let them press on our hearts, we will understand why God does 150 00:14:07.929 --> 00:14:13.200 this and why he did number one. He tells us in verse eleven that 151 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:18.720 it is because of the evil abominations. He's not just a little bit angry. 152 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.480 He's not like the false gods of Greek and Rome and other places, 153 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:28.149 of Greece and Rome and other places, capriciously doing this or doing that thing 154 00:14:28.309 --> 00:14:33.590 because he happens to feel like it or someone's pressuring him into something. No, 155 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:37.269 he does it in righteous ad judgment for evil little things that have been 156 00:14:37.350 --> 00:14:41.419 done. I won't ask you to raise your hands, but you might in 157 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:46.860 your mind raise your hand if you have experienced injustice in the world and been 158 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:50.500 frustrated by it. Have you ever had something stolen from you, even something 159 00:14:50.700 --> 00:14:56.649 small, and nothing ever happened? Find that frustrating? Maybe worse things have 160 00:14:56.769 --> 00:15:01.730 happened. Maybe people have been abused you, maybe you have been fired wrongfully, 161 00:15:01.929 --> 00:15:09.679 maybe you have a had money stolen from you or not paid. If 162 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.960 we some of these things are very present in our minds. Some of us 163 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:18.440 are very angry, maybe even tonight, over these kinds of things. For 164 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:22.269 others of us, if we think we can quickly recount and on many, 165 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:26.190 many other things that have happened to us and that we see in this world, 166 00:15:26.669 --> 00:15:28.990 things that break our hearts and we make we think, why doesn't anybody 167 00:15:30.029 --> 00:15:35.019 do anything about this? And we think about judges who take bribes and we 168 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:41.340 think about judges who wink at sin and and play favorites, and it frustrates 169 00:15:41.379 --> 00:15:46.100 us, it makes us mad. We Want Holiness, we want righteousness, 170 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:50.090 we want justice, and here God is exercising it. And then people say, 171 00:15:50.169 --> 00:15:56.529 well, I don't like that. God is a just judge. He 172 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:00.450 is. He just is because he's good, and that's what goodness does. 173 00:16:02.250 --> 00:16:07.360 It judges rightfully. God doesn't see evil abominations and say well, what can 174 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:15.200 you do? It's humans after all. He is patient, he is long 175 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:18.309 suffering, he waits, he's tender, he's gracious, but he also is 176 00:16:18.509 --> 00:16:23.029 just and he does not weakens wink at sin. The reason why God is 177 00:16:23.110 --> 00:16:27.429 acting in this way, the reason why God does these things, is because 178 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:33.299 of the evil abominations of the people. Number two, the idols have captured 179 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:37.779 the hearts of his people and he wants to show them that the idols are 180 00:16:38.379 --> 00:16:47.610 nothing. Much like much like Elijah calling, allowing the priests of the prophet 181 00:16:48.210 --> 00:16:52.210 bail or the Prophets of the God bail, to call down fire upon the 182 00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:56.850 sacrifices. And they call and they whip themselves and they beat themselves and and 183 00:16:57.049 --> 00:17:03.599 nothing happens. Elijah comes and the whole thing blows up and smoke after dousting 184 00:17:03.640 --> 00:17:07.960 it with water. And if you don't know that that story, you should 185 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:10.680 go and read that. This is one of God, one of the things 186 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:15.150 that God does is we get tied into the things of this world. We 187 00:17:15.390 --> 00:17:21.509 follow after false things, after false God's and he wakens us up to the 188 00:17:21.670 --> 00:17:26.869 reality that something bad has captured our hearts. Now you may or may not, 189 00:17:27.029 --> 00:17:32.460 I hope you do not have idols in your homes. If you do, 190 00:17:32.859 --> 00:17:36.539 you should get rid of them. But you should also get rid of 191 00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:41.059 the ones that are in your hearts, those ones that clamor after certainty, 192 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:45.490 the ones that clamor after money, the ones that clamor after fame or powers, 193 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:49.369 a perfect relationships or peace in every way, or great health and the 194 00:17:49.490 --> 00:17:52.410 thing that you think about all the time and you strive for all the time 195 00:17:52.490 --> 00:17:56.490 and you go after all the time. You should get rid of those. 196 00:17:56.690 --> 00:18:03.200 They are dangerous, they will hurt you and God, God, is after 197 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:10.000 the hearts of his people, and so he is going to show not only 198 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:14.430 his people but even us tonight, and the world that back then as well, 199 00:18:14.789 --> 00:18:18.869 that these idols are nothing and those who cling to them, if they 200 00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:23.750 truly do cling to them, will die. They will suffer the fate of 201 00:18:23.910 --> 00:18:32.339 those who want to cling to dumb and foolish things. This shows us God's 202 00:18:32.380 --> 00:18:37.660 great power and it shows us his love in verse seven, in verse thirteen 203 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:41.130 and in verse fourteen. He tells us this is reason number three. He 204 00:18:41.289 --> 00:18:47.130 tells us that they will know, or then they will know, that I 205 00:18:47.529 --> 00:18:52.210 am the Lord. When God brought his people out of Egypt, he did 206 00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:56.039 that to show them that he was their Lord and God. And you know 207 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:03.039 who else got to see that? Egypt? Egypt got to see on full 208 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:07.160 display that their gods, their power, their priests, their magic was nothing 209 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:15.430 compared to the God who wanted his people to go free. Powerful over rivers, 210 00:19:15.549 --> 00:19:21.869 over animals, over death, over wind, powerful even over the great 211 00:19:22.109 --> 00:19:30.940 supposed God King Pharaoh himself. Nothing was going to stop Yahweh, and he 212 00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:34.420 uses that name here. I am the Lord, I am I am, 213 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:40.650 I am Yahweh, that name that he gave to Moses, as they as 214 00:19:40.730 --> 00:19:47.450 he was commissioned to leave the people out of Israel, which is array of 215 00:19:47.529 --> 00:19:51.250 reminding us that he wants himself to be known not just as the one true 216 00:19:51.329 --> 00:19:56.119 God, but the one true God who has promised himself to this people. 217 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:03.359 And that creates a little bit of tension, of course, because God has 218 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:11.269 promised himself to this people that he is now judging. How will these how 219 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:15.509 will God keep his promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to be a father 220 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:21.940 to them, to make them, to make them father of many nations, 221 00:20:21.980 --> 00:20:26.460 a blessing to the whole world? Well, he does it by teaching this 222 00:20:26.579 --> 00:20:33.140 lesson, but he also does it by preserving a remnant. We read that, 223 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:38.970 according to His grace, that he will yet leave some alive. There 224 00:20:40.089 --> 00:20:44.930 is no reason that God must do this, except for the promises of grace 225 00:20:45.569 --> 00:20:51.160 that he had previously made. He will leave some alive so that what does 226 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:56.880 he say? He says, then those who escape will remember me among the 227 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.359 nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their warring 228 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:07.509 heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go horring after their 229 00:21:07.549 --> 00:21:11.309 idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight, for the evils 230 00:21:11.430 --> 00:21:15.069 they have committed, for all their abominations, and they shall know that I 231 00:21:15.869 --> 00:21:23.579 and the Lord notice that two things in particular that he mentions here. He 232 00:21:23.740 --> 00:21:32.180 wants them to know something about him and something about them. What does he 233 00:21:32.259 --> 00:21:38.210 want them to know about him? That he has been broken over their horring 234 00:21:38.369 --> 00:21:47.089 hearts? God is not just a judge, he's a lover, a lover 235 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:49.559 is a few of his people, a husband to his people who these are 236 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:56.319 the apple of his eye. His heart is broken, he says, and 237 00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:00.200 this is an expression of his law. He's not just some sort of terrifying, 238 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:06.269 abstract power. He is the one who carried them and, even as 239 00:22:06.309 --> 00:22:11.309 a father carries his children through of the Wilderness into this land where they have 240 00:22:11.430 --> 00:22:18.299 now committed all of these abominations, his heart is broken. That's what he 241 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:22.740 wants them to know about him, and what he wants them to know about 242 00:22:22.779 --> 00:22:33.890 themselves is their sin. When, when folks become members of our church, 243 00:22:34.049 --> 00:22:37.490 we have these member vowels, as you know, and one of them is 244 00:22:37.529 --> 00:22:42.609 that I abhor and humble myself before God, and that's really strong language. 245 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:48.519 Abhorr and humble myself before God because of my sin, because of my sinfulness. 246 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:56.160 Do we really mean that? Well, this is the kind of language 247 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:03.069 that God uses here. He wants them to see the sin in the depths 248 00:23:03.150 --> 00:23:11.309 of their heart and he wants them to be loathsome in their own sight and 249 00:23:11.549 --> 00:23:17.339 over their eyes that go whrring after their idols. This is the thought, 250 00:23:17.539 --> 00:23:19.779 this is the feeling that you have right before you cut off your hand. 251 00:23:19.940 --> 00:23:22.579 Before so that you can go to the Kingdom of God. To you, 252 00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:27.369 is an expression Jesus use right. Better to enter the Kingdom of God with 253 00:23:27.410 --> 00:23:32.490 a missing an eye than to go onto the Kingdom of God preserving them. 254 00:23:32.970 --> 00:23:36.410 Or better to go into the Kingdom of God missing a hand than to go 255 00:23:37.009 --> 00:23:41.089 having then to be excluded. Having both your hands. If you're right, 256 00:23:41.170 --> 00:23:45.440 eye cause you to sin. Pluck it out. It's that kind of hard, 257 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:48.680 it's that kind of express and that is being expressed here. It sicks, 258 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:56.430 it's serious. God is not calling us to self harm here. What 259 00:23:56.589 --> 00:24:00.309 he is calling us to is a sense, deep, deep, deep in 260 00:24:00.470 --> 00:24:06.069 our souls that say, I will do what it takes to get away from 261 00:24:06.109 --> 00:24:11.339 sin. I will do what it takes, I will loathe these things in 262 00:24:11.460 --> 00:24:18.420 myself, I will abhor them and I will humble myself, knowing that he 263 00:24:18.779 --> 00:24:22.099 is the Lord and he loves me and this is not the life that he 264 00:24:22.140 --> 00:24:30.609 has called for me. This is why God did these things. He did 265 00:24:30.690 --> 00:24:33.049 them out of his love, he did them out of his justice, he 266 00:24:33.170 --> 00:24:37.049 did them because he wants us to understand who he is and who we are. 267 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:44.839 So what hope is there in all of this? What possible hope could 268 00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:52.069 there be? When we see our sins, we truly loathe over them and 269 00:24:52.190 --> 00:24:56.309 we hate them and we abhor them and we abhor the evil one all that 270 00:24:56.430 --> 00:25:02.549 he does to tempt and try and and persecute the saints. We get a 271 00:25:02.589 --> 00:25:07.259 little bit mad, we get upset over the things that break our relationship with 272 00:25:07.380 --> 00:25:11.700 the Lord. We don't baby them and coddle them and say well, maybe 273 00:25:11.740 --> 00:25:15.140 another day. No, we go after them, we get after it. 274 00:25:15.299 --> 00:25:23.130 We put to death the things of the flesh. We hate those things and, 275 00:25:23.250 --> 00:25:30.769 beloved, we do that because God has promised us forgiveness, because he's 276 00:25:30.769 --> 00:25:37.440 promised US repentance, because he's promised us hope. In Jesus. The the 277 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:42.640 tiny little glimmer of hope here in this passage are these people that the Lord 278 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:51.509 allows to persevere. As much destruction and righteous desolation is there is, there 279 00:25:51.549 --> 00:25:56.549 are those who will who will be sent out and through all of this, 280 00:25:56.750 --> 00:26:00.230 will come to repentance in their hearts and they will cry out to the Lord 281 00:26:00.869 --> 00:26:06.660 Save us, and he will save them and through those people he will preserve, 282 00:26:07.140 --> 00:26:11.859 as we know through the rest of Scriptures, a remnant through which a 283 00:26:11.140 --> 00:26:17.900 son would be born on Messiah would come who would set everything right and would 284 00:26:17.900 --> 00:26:26.089 establish for himself a kingdom, a city would last forever, a city that 285 00:26:26.210 --> 00:26:32.849 could never be shaken by by man's sin and man sinfulness, because he has 286 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:37.680 the son of God and son of Man. Would establish himself as the king 287 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:45.559 forever and would establish all of us in his righteousness forever. In a moment, 288 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:49.390 I'm going to ask you to seeing this Great Hymn about about Zion. 289 00:26:49.869 --> 00:26:56.589 Glorious things of the are spoken. Zion, city of our God, heaven 290 00:26:56.670 --> 00:27:02.299 itself, and the Kingdom of God that mountain is established, the new Jerusalem. 291 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:07.140 In these heavenly places they are strong because they no longer depend on our 292 00:27:07.180 --> 00:27:14.660 obedience. Salvation is always been that way. God didn't have a separate plan 293 00:27:14.900 --> 00:27:18.609 here in the Old Testament, but he did have a picture that he wanted 294 00:27:18.650 --> 00:27:23.490 us to understand, a picture written in history itself, that we could understand 295 00:27:23.609 --> 00:27:30.680 his holiness, his justice and His grace. And so what is the call 296 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:34.920 to us? What is the application? It is to understand God as he 297 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:41.880 is. It's to look at the Cross of Christ and see all of the 298 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:45.349 judgment that's pictured here in is eqil six as that judgment which Christ faced. 299 00:27:45.710 --> 00:27:52.589 One sin for all final so that we would never be judged again. God 300 00:27:52.710 --> 00:27:56.990 says and Romans Eight, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who 301 00:27:56.990 --> 00:28:02.980 are in Christ. Jesus Paulso tells us in Romans that Christ died for us 302 00:28:03.259 --> 00:28:07.619 while we were yet ungodly, while we were still in our sins, while 303 00:28:07.619 --> 00:28:11.970 we were still in our paganism. Oh, you're still worshiping the ourselves and 304 00:28:12.130 --> 00:28:17.690 the creation and our ideas and our plans and all the rest. God saved 305 00:28:17.730 --> 00:28:21.930 us out of that. He broke the chains of sin and he rescued us 306 00:28:22.730 --> 00:28:27.039 into a new and everlasting life. This is what God has done for us. 307 00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:33.240 The Same God who brings these judgments here in these equal six brought them, 308 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:37.519 and much worse, on the Cross for Christ, the Christ's cross for 309 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:42.150 you. And so if you're looking for salvation for your sins, which all 310 00:28:42.190 --> 00:28:47.710 of you ought to be, look for them in Christ. Look for them 311 00:28:47.789 --> 00:28:52.230 in the same God who does these things and provided, once and for all, 312 00:28:52.470 --> 00:28:56.940 final judgment for sins in his own son, and know that when you 313 00:28:57.059 --> 00:29:03.380 put your faith in him, you will be saved. And there's no fearing 314 00:29:03.539 --> 00:29:07.299 this judgment or the worst judgment that is to come for all. Judgment has 315 00:29:07.380 --> 00:29:12.450 passed in Christ. Let's pray together