Episode Transcript
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You'll eight and nine. I'm so
I'm reading two chapters tonight. I'm Ezekiel
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eight and nine. So, as
I read these, I promise you that
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if you check out at the beginning, you're not going to get anything.
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It's dense and strange and complicated in
some ways. But if you if you
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strive to listen and to listen carefully, I think you will understand. I'm
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you'll be able to follow it and
of course I'm will go through it as
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I preach, and I'll help along
the way there. And Kids, I
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promise that you will. I'm here
some very interesting things in these chapters,
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things that you will have questions about
and want to know more about. So
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let's give our attention to God's word
now, and Ezekiel eight and nine.
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In the sixth year, in the
sixth month, on the fifth day of
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the month, as I sat in
my house with the elders of Judah sitting
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before me, the hand of the
Lord God fell upon me. There then
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I looked and behold a man that
has the a form, that had the
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appearance of a man. Below what
appeared to be his waist was fire and
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above his waist was something like the
appearance of brightness like gleaming metal, and
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he put out the form of a
hand and took me by a lock of
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my head, and the spirit lifted
me up between heaven and earth and brought
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me, in visions of God,
to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the
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Gateway of the inner courts that faces
north, where was the seat of the
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image of Jealousy, which provokes to
jealousy. And behold, the glory of
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God of Israel was there, like
the vision that I saw in the valley.
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Then he said to me, son
of man, lift up your eyes
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now toward the north. So I
lifted up my eyes toward the north and
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behold, north of the altar gate
in the entrance was the image of jealousy.
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And he said to me, son
of Man, do you see what
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they are doing, the great abominations
that the House of Israel are committing here
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to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will still see greater abominations.
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And he brought me to the entrance
of the court and when I looked,
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behold there was a hole in the
wall. Then he said to me,
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son of man, dig in the
wall. So I dug in the
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wall and behold there was an entrance
and he said to me, go in
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and see the vile abominations that they
are committing there. So I went in
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and saw and there engraved on the
wall all around was every form of creeping
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things and bloathes and beasts and all
the idols of the House of Israel.
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And before them stood seventy men of
the elders of the house of Israel,
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with Jahs and IAH, the son
of Shafun, standing among them. Each
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had his censer in his hand and
the smoke of the cloud of incense went
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up. Then he said to me, son of man, have you seen
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what the elders of the House of
Israel are doing in the dark, each
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in his room of pictures, for
they say the Lord does not see us,
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the Lord has forsaken the land.
He said also to me you will
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still, you will see, see
still greater abominations that they commit. Then
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he brought me to the entrance of
the North Gate of the House of the
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Lord, and behold there sat women
weeping for Tammas. Then he said to
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me, have you seen the SOCM
of men? You will see still greater
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abominations than these, and he brought
me into the Inner Court of the House
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of the Lord. And behold,
at the entrance of the Temple of God,
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between the Porch and the altar,
there were about twenty five men with
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their backs to the temple of their
Lord, of the Lord, and their
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faces toward the East, worshiping the
sun toward the East. Then he said
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to me, have you seen this? O Son of man? Is it
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too light a thing for the house
of Judah to commit the abominations that they
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commit here, that they should fill
the land with violence and provoke me still
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further to anger? Behold, they
put the branch to their nose. Therefore,
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I will act in wrath. My
eye will not spare it, nor
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will I have pity, and though
they cry in my ears with a loud
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voice, I will not hear them. Then he cried in my ears,
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or then he cried in my ears
with a loud voice, saying bring near
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the executioners of this city, each
with his destroying weapon in his hand.
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And behold, six men came from
the direction of the upper gate, which
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faces north, each with his weapon
for his for slaughter in his hand,
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and with them was a man clothed
in linen with a riding case in his
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waist and they went in and stood
beside the bronze altar. Now the glory
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of the God of Israel had gone
up from the Cherub on which it rested
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to the threshold of the house.
And he called to the man clothed in
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linen who had the writing case at
is waste, and the Lord said to
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him, pass through the city,
through Jerusalem, and put a mark on
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the foreheads of the men who sigh
and Groan over all the abominations that are
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committed in it. And to the
others, he said in my hearing,
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passed through the city after him and
strike your eye shall not spare and your
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and you shall show no pity.
Kill old men outright, young men and
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maidens, little children and women,
but touch no one on whom is the
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mark, and begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who
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were before the house. Then he
said to them, defile the house and
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fill the courts with the slain.
Go Out, and they went out and
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struck in the city. And while
they were striking, and while they were
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striking and I was left alone,
I fell upon my face and I cried
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Ah, Lord God, will you
destroy all the remnants of Israel in the
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outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem.
Then he said to me, the guilt
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of the House of Israel and Judah
is exceedingly great. The land is full
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of blood, the city full of
injustice, for they say, the Lord
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is forsaken the land and the Lord
does not see. As for me,
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my eye will not spare, nor
will I have pity. I will bring
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their deeds upon their heads. And
behold the man clothed in linen, with
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the riding case to at his waist
brought backwards, saying I have done one
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as you commanded me it. God
bless his word to us. So,
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about fourteen months after the opening vision
that Ezekiel has, he is not in
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the valley as he once was,
but he is now with the elders of
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Israel at his house when he is
taken into a vision. Ezekiel doesn't say
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here, the word doesn't say here, why the elders were with him at
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this point in time, but we
see a couple other instances in the book,
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in Chapter Twenty in particular, it
mentions that they were inquiring of the
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Lord, and that's probably what's happening
here as well. The elders are coming.
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Remember, Ezekiel is in exile,
these elders in exile, and and
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they are coming or during the time
of the exile, and they come and
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they are perhaps hoping for a good
word. But, as we know from
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Ezekiel's ministry, his prophetic ministry,
so far his word has not been a
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good one in the sense of a
comfortable one or a pleasure of one or
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all, or a very hopeful one. No, it is a vision that
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is hard, a vision that is
full of the wrath and fury of God,
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a vision that is full of idolatry
and abominations and Gil that is just
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heaped up the people God says are
exceedingly guilty. You know in your life
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that there are sometimes you do things, sometimes other do other people do things
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that you kind of go that was
bad, but we can overlook it,
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and the other times we go that
was pretty bad. And then there are
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other times it's like as guilty as
sin, as we say, right,
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it's just beyond obvious that what has
been done is just over the top,
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outlandishly wrong and evil and must be
punished. And it's those cases in particular
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that are not when our that are
so wrong and so evil and so awful
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when in the world they go unpunished. It tends to drive people crazy.
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It makes us so angry and so
upset when great evils are done. Sometimes
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they're very public and we see them
in our society and our culture, and
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sometimes they're their private. Some things
are known only within a family when such
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and such brother or such and such
sister or a parent does something that is
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just way out there, really wrong, and everyone says this has to be
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dealt with, and dealt with now
that. That's where Israel is at.
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They have been warned over and over
and over again what has been gone that,
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what is going wrong. They have
been called to repentance over and over
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again, and now the land is
full of bloodshed and violence and idolatry,
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and the Lord says enough, the
measure of sin has reached its top.
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Judgment is coming. And so as
these elders come and are meeting with is
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Equel, it is at this moment
when the hand of God, he says
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in Verse One, Falls Upon Him
and he sees this same one whom he
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saw at the beginning. He sees
this one who has the appearance of brightness
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like gleaming metal above his waist and
fire bow before, when you have this
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vision of him, he the rainbow
was also wrapped around him and he was
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seated upon the chair of Beam,
seated upon these great wheels of Wrath and
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judgment. That same one is now
speaking to him again and it marks a
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new section in the book of Chapters
Eight, nine, ten and eleven.
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Word, of course, looking at
the first two of those tonight. And
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this, I believe, is the
Lord, the Lord, Lord who has
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commissioned Ezekiel, the Lord seeks,
speaks in judgment. The Lord, that
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same Lord who is also spoken of
in revelation, crowned with glory and honor,
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to whom all the angels Cheruban worship
and Adore our God, who is
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now coming in judgment. He in
verse three, he puts out the form
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of a hand and takes him by
his hair, a lock of his head,
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and the spirit is amazing picture.
The Spirit Lifts Ezekiel Up between heaven
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and earth, it says, and
he is caught up in the visions of
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God to Jerusalem. So his not
physically in Jerusalem, but the Lord is
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giving him visions by the spirit of
God to see Jerusalem and he's going to
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take Ezekiel on a tour, but
not a nice tour where he points out
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various architectural features and reminds him of
interesting facts and history, but it is
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a tour of Abominations, a tour
of idolatry. It is, in a
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way, the God presenting to the
Prophet the evidence of why he is about
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to do what he is about to
do. Lord has done this already in
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the book and he does it again
here in this vision. And as he
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does, as he gives him this
tour, he gets closer and closer to
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the presence of the Lord in the
temple. He starts at the North Gate.
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I'm just outside of it, and
we read that as he looks towards
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the north, this is in verse
five, He sees, north of the
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altar gate, in the entrance,
the image of Jealousy. We doesn't say
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exactly what this is, but this
is you taking that language of image and
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an idol very likely standing there at
the entrance, on the just outside the
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entrance to the gate, standing as
a kind of guard, and this provokes
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the Lord to Jealousy. You can
understand why. Imagine that let's say you're
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married and at spouse and your spouse. Before they go to bed at night,
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they take a little picture of another
man or another woman and they put
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it right there by their bed and
they smile at it and they they love
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it and they're just so filled with
it. Would tear your heart out,
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wouldn't it, if your house was
in love with this other person? Well,
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here is the temple of the Lord, the place where God has said
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his presence among his people, the
place where God has said I will be
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with you and you will be with
me and together we will be intimate together,
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and there is this image of another, of another God. Ezekiel is
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then taken further into the the the
temple complex, and he's placed at the
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entrance of the temple courtyard, outside
a wall, perhaps some kind of dirt
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or something, and he sees a
hole in the wall and he's told to
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dig and he digs through. And
what does he find? As he as
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he looks in, he finds a
secret room. And well, we find
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is that the idolatry is not just
out there in the peep among the people's
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are outside of the temple, but
it's inside the temple complex. To there
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are in there. This is verse
seven. And following he digs in the
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wall. He sees these vile,
vilebominations. And what does he see?
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In verse ten, it says engraved
on the wall he's looking in, all
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around was every form of creeping things
and loathsome beasts and all the idols of
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the House of Israel on what comes
to my mind they're are those pictures of
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the the the the Egyptian pyramids.
Right, walls covered with idols and pictures,
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all the things that they they would
worship. But notice what it says.
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These are the idols of the House
of Israel. Say what Israel's Nus,
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but the House of Israel's not supposed
to have idols. So unified have
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they become that these now belong to
the people. They're no longer the idols
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of Canaan, they are the idols
of Israel and they are there in the
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house of the Lord. And not
only does he see the walls covered with
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these things and graves, somebody took
the time to cut and cut and impress
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and design and create this thing.
He sees in there of the seventy men,
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of the elders, but just people, but the elders, people who
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were in charge, people who are
called to guard and protect, watch and
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rule, the elders of the House
of Israel, offering incense, each of
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them participating in this idolatrous worship.
And this not only the the the ezekiels
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told this, not only is happening
here, but it is what they are
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doing in the dark, each in
his own room of pictures. The elders
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of Israel are saying, and this
is repeated a few times in the chapters,
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the Lord doesn't see, and I
think that's meant in two senses.
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One, they feel that the Lord
has rejected them, so they can do
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what they want. They also feel
that they can do what they want because
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he's not watching. He's not looking, they are going to go after their
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own idols. The Lord does not
see this. They say he's forsaken the
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land and so they've given themselves over
to abominations. But, as we see
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in this vision, the Lord does
see. The idol outside the gate is
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not protecting them from the wrath of
the Lord. The idols that are there
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inside the gate and the elders worshiping
these things and are not protecting them from
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danger. They are creating a very
dangerous situation. This tour of abom nations
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continue in verse fourteen, where he
is brought to the entrance of the North
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Gate of the House of the Lord
and they're the women, are seen weeping
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for Tammas, when commentator says,
weeping for Tamas was a Babylonian ritual marking
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the death and entrance into the underworld
of yet another God, the idea being
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that you would go down into the
underworld and then from that underworld would come
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new life and fertility and and these
kind of things. The Romans and Greeks
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had similar kind of ideas. And
here in the temple they are weeping and
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mourning, hoping probably to reduce somehow
the the death that they are experiencing,
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but instead they are bringing death on
themselves. And finally, if it weren't
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bad enough, all over this temple
complex, men and women, elders,
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lay people. This is awful false
worship in the very temple of God.
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He's brought then, in Verse Sixteen, into the inner into the Inner Court
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of the House of the Lord,
and what does he see? He says,
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between the Porch and the altar,
the porch that entered up into that
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temple and the altar that was outside
of it, there were about twenty five
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men, but instead of them going
into the the inner courts and going into
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worship the Lord who was in that
innermost place, their backs are to him
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and they're bowing down and worshiping the
sun toward the East. The most holy
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place in all the world, the
place where God has set his name and
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promised to dwell with his people,
has become overrun with idolatry and paganism.
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They have literally turned their backs on
God, worshiping the Sun, when right
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behind them is the one who made
the sun, who set it in its
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place, the ruler of the one
who rules the day in the night.
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And the Lord has had enough.
I will act in my wrath, he
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says. I will not spare them, I will not have pity, like
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he did with Sodom and Gomorrah,
like he did in the days of Noah.
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When this full measure of sin has
reached its top and overflowed, God
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says enough and he will not relent. And though they cry in my ears
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with a loud voice, I will
not hear them. And then in Justine,
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then he cried in my ears with
a loud voice, saying bring near
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the executioners of the city and then
what we see are these six men.
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These again, these are in his
vision, these six, the six men
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and one clothed in linen like a
priest. These six are going to pass
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through the city, much like God
passed through the cities in Egypt, passing
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over those who were covered by the
blood of the lamb, but passing through
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and executing judgment on all who did
not have who are not marked by the
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Lord. And they will not spare
they will kill and bring judgment on the
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young and the old, men and
the women, adults and the children.
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Only those who are not marked by
this man with the linen, by this
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priest, with the writing tablet,
only they will be spared. All else
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will be given over to but your
judgment, their just judgment, in their
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idolatry. This is what's coming.
And at the end of all of these
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things, we see that the Lord
comes through, comes out of the this
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most holy place, and he comes
to the entrance of the town, entrance
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of the temple. And then what
we will see next time. I'm sorry,
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let me read that. In Verse
Chapter Nine, Verse Three, the
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Glory of the God of Israel had
gone up from the Cherub on which it
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rested to the threshold of the house. Remember that when Solomon prayed in the
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construction of the Temple, the Lord
descended on this place and a great cloud
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of smoke and much like he did
on Mount Horeb when he gave the law,
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he descended on this place. But
now he's moving and he's moving away.
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He moves off of the Cherub,
off of that place where he is
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in the most holy place, and
now the glory of the God of Israel
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moves on which it rested. He's
on the move. The wheels are turning,
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the wheels of justice are turning,
and now he moves to the threshold
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of the house, and what we
will see in the coming chapters is that
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he's leaving. The Glory of the
Lord is departing from Israel, his protection,
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his love, his place on them, his keeping his name. He's
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leaving and he will bring down his
wrath upon them. Enough is enough now.
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I wish I could tell you that
the Lord did this and the world
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never fell into idolatry again, that
we learned our lesson, that the weed,
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gentle ailes and Jews alike, we
looked at this moment in history and
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we said not doing that again.
Idolatry, not for us, but of
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course you know that's not true.
The idolatry and that abomination, violence and
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bloodshed, these continue to this day. All over the world and even here
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in our own city. There are
many, many, many people who refuse
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to worship the Lord, who turn
their backs on him every day and worship
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the creation instead of the creator.
People we know, maybe someone or some
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of you here, people going after
custom made spiritualities, their own paths,
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their own ways, their own ideas. People are culture praises people who are
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open to multiple paths of spirituality,
multiple paths to God. Our culture makes
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it sound all very nice. It's
not very nice. It's an abomination to
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the Lord and it will bring judgment
the Lord returns. We have a radio
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station, maybe more than one,
I don't know. It regularly plays and
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calls people to submit themselves to energies
and powers of various kinds. We have
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friends and family that worship ancestors.
About a block from here there's a restaurant
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with an idol in it. You
can go and put fruit in front of
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it, you can go and purchase
all kinds of idolatrous things. It's it's
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not hard to find. And of
course there's not just images but gods of
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money, power and fame, people
that will sacrifice everything and anything for these
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things, money in particular. All
over people who are sack will sacrifice their
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time, their money. There are
their energy, their family and their friends.
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I'll sacrifice their happiness so that they
can get money. It's insane,
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but it happens all the time.
What we need to know and understand from
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this vision is how dangerous this path
is. The world makes it sound all
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Nice, and surely in Israel they
did as well the Lord. He's not
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taking care of us. The land
is suffering of all Bob Bother's, all
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this and all that. Let's be
open minded, let's find different ways,
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let's not oppress people with this one
singular truth of Yah way. Let's affirm
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people and in their idolatry. Let's
affirm people in finding their own paths and
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their own ways. But the Lord
is very, very plain and clear on
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these points. First, Corinthians ten
fourteen says you cannot drink the cup of
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the Lord and the Cup of Demons. You cannot serve both God and money.
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Jesus says these things are offensive to
God. We cannot downplay them.
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We cannot ignore them. The world
will say it's not a big deal,
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the Lord doesn't see it doesn't matter. These excuses have been tried before and
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they have failed. In all this
is equel feels very alone. He feels
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very alone and as the House of
God is defiled, he falls on his
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face and he feels like he's left
all alone. And sometimes we can feel
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that way as well. They can
feel like God has abandoned us, like
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he's left us in a world that
is so focused on its sin. Sometimes,
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refusing to fallow after the gods of
this world creates uncomfortableness, persecution,
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suffering Christians find themselves and concentration camps, they find themselves without their heads,
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they find themselves and all kinds of
difficult places, in jail and elsewhere.
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They find themselves separated from their family, from their wealth. These things happen
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and we feel the pressure to go
along and get along. But what this
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history teaches us, what this vision
about this history teaches us, is that
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God is strong, that God is
just, that God does in fact see.
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It also teaches us some other things, and all close with this.
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One thing it teaches us is that
God is immensely patient with us. At
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any one of these sins, he
would be right to strike any one person
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dead in a moment. Totally Fair. God is perfectly holy, he is
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perfect in every way and he is
so, so patient. How long would
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you wait for somebody to fill your
house with all kinds of people and things
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that don't belong there? If your
neighbors are just started coming over all the
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time and taking things that rightfully belong
to you, including your family members,
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the people that you loved? How
long would you let that go on?
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Probably not very long. And here
are these people in the House of the
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Lord. Has He been forgetful?
Does he not care? Why are they
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not all dead already? It's because
he's very, very patient, because he's
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calling them to repentance, and the
Lord is doing the same for us even
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tonight. This judgment that came,
would would that is pictured here and would
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come upon God's people and is like
it came upon the world in the days
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of Noah, like it came upon
the people in Sodom and go mora.
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These things are just fore tastes.
They're like little models of the great judgment
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that will come upon all the earth. Finally, and forever when Jesus returns.
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It's a warning. It's meant to
wake us up. It's meant to
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make us see that we cannot just
go on in our sin. But it's
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also meant to make us see how
patient God is. So let us not
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presume on his kindness and his forbearance, but instead let us turn to him
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in repentance. It also teaches us
that God is just. He does not
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leave the guilty unpunished. He's not
like a king who refuses to protect his
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people. He's not like a king
who refuses to uphold righteous law. He's
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not like a king who fails to
protect those who are depending upon him the
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most. God is not like that. When God goes to avenge his people,
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who trust him, when God goes
to uphold his law, when God
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refer, when God protects his people, God is being good. It's called
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Holy War for a reason. It's
God going forth, as that great night
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that is so often pictured and our
stories and myths, you know, the
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great hero going and vanquishing all forces
of evil to protect those whom he loves.
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That is something we cheer on.
We have hundreds, I guess,
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now, of Superhero movies about these
things right. But this is the true
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superpower, the one true living God. That's what he's doing, and that
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should both bring fear to all of
his enemies and great hope and safety to
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all who are protected under him.
It also reminds us, loved, that,
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as the scriptures say, vengeance belongs
to the Lord. Sometimes we get
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a little anxious about things not happening. Why is so and so not being
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justly prosecuted? Why are these things
so unfair and nothing's being done? I'm
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going to get in there and take
care of these things, and the Lord
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says, slow down, don't worry, I'll take care of business. He
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knows how to take care of things
and he will do it in his proper
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time and his proper way. We
don't need to take all of God's work
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into our hands. We need to
trust God the he will do what it's
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right and he will do it in
his right time. Our job right now
358
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is to turn and repentance, to
turn away from our idols and turn to
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the Lord, a turn away from
the idols and turn to the Lord and
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tell everybody in the world about Jesus, that there is time and a savior
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to come, that the God who
is going to reign injustice and fire on
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the whole world, has already come
into the world and died on a cross
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to forgive us of our idolatry,
to forgive us of our grossests, adultrees
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and abominations, to mark us with
the blood of the lamb, who comes
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into the world to save us from
our sins. There is a little bit
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of light in this passage and it's
in that writing tablet of this this priest,
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this one clothed in linen, as
he goes through the city and he
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looks for the people that are mourning
their lostness, mourning their sins. He
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00:36:00.090 --> 00:36:07.639
marks them and they will be saved. Ezekiel will not be alone, he
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00:36:07.719 --> 00:36:13.119
will not be the last one saved. Indeed, God promises to save a
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multitude of people, not only from
Israel, but from all the world tongues
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and and tribes, from all the
families of mankind. And though things seem
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very dark in this particular moment and
in history, and though they are very
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dark at this moment, God will
not fail to fulfill his promises to Abraham
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and Isaac and Jacob. He will
not fail to fulfill his promise to David
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to a stablish one to reign on
the throne of God forever, when Jesus
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comes into the world, to be
to Tavernacle with us, to be the
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God man, to dwell with us
now and forever. God fulfills those promises.
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He takes upon himself our sins so
that we would not have to face
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his judgment but would be called justified
through Christ. This vision is given to
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us now so that we might repent, now, so that we might stop
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saying the Lord does not see and
come to realize how much he sees and
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how much he loves. The end
has not come, but the end will
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come, and no one of us
knows how much time we have left.
385
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So, beloved, let our hearts
be broken and let us turn to the
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Lord with gratitude and thankfulness and repentance. Let's also go to our neighbors,
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those who are lost, those who
are enslave to their idols, and speak
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00:38:00.119 --> 00:38:05.920
to them the good news of the
grace of God, as well of the
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wrath to come. Let's pray
