The Inadequacy of Three Holy Men (Ez 14:12-23)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:23.100 Ezekiel chapter fourteen. Will be reading the last half of this chapter, Ezekiel 2 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:32.979 Fourteen, verse twelve, through the end of the chapter. Let's give our 3 00:00:32.979 --> 00:00:38.250 attention to God's word and the word of the Lord came to me, son 4 00:00:38.329 --> 00:00:42.770 of man. When a land sends against me by acting faithlessly, and I 5 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:47.490 stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine 6 00:00:47.490 --> 00:00:52.439 upon it and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three 7 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:56.560 men, know, a Daniel and job were in it, they would deliver 8 00:00:56.679 --> 00:01:02.079 but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord if I cause wild 9 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:06.469 beasts to pass through the land and they ravage it and it be made desolate 10 00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:10.269 so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, even if these 11 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:14.069 three men were in it as I live, declares the Lord God, they 12 00:01:14.109 --> 00:01:18.549 would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the 13 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:23.459 land would be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land and 14 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:26.659 say let a sword pass through the land, and if I cut off from 15 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:30.459 it man and beast, though these three men were in it as I live, 16 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:36.569 declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. But 17 00:01:36.730 --> 00:01:41.530 they alone would be delivered. Or if I send a pestilence into the land 18 00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:45.129 and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it 19 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:48.920 man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel and job were in it as 20 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:52.719 I live, declares the Lord God, they would neither do. They would 21 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:56.879 deliver, neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives, 22 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:01.950 for their by their righteousness. For thus says the Lord God. How much 23 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:07.989 more when I send upon Jerusalem my for disastrous acts of judgment, sword, 24 00:02:07.349 --> 00:02:12.949 famine, wild beasts and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast. 25 00:02:13.990 --> 00:02:16.860 But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters 26 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:21.620 who will be brought out. Behold, when they come out to you and 27 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:27.099 you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster 28 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:30.810 that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. 29 00:02:30.449 --> 00:02:35.409 They will console you when you see their ways and their deeds, and 30 00:02:35.610 --> 00:02:39.090 you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done 31 00:02:39.129 --> 00:03:00.229 in it, declares the Lord God. He may be seated. If there 32 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:06.830 was a passage in scripture, it was fought all fire and brimstone. This 33 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:13.580 is certainly one of them. I can imagine Ezekiel almost yelling this passage, 34 00:03:14.539 --> 00:03:21.020 the rhetoric is so powerful, the parallelisms as he moves from one to two, 35 00:03:21.099 --> 00:03:28.169 to three to four different curses upon the land. If I would do 36 00:03:28.370 --> 00:03:31.250 this to the land and no one would survive, not even in this case 37 00:03:31.289 --> 00:03:37.250 as I live, declares the Lord God, would anyone survive except these three 38 00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:40.090 men and this one and this one and this one. And after he gets 39 00:03:40.129 --> 00:03:45.080 to all the end, after he gets to the end, he declares, 40 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:54.080 how much more will these things fall upon Jerusalem? This whole chapter, and 41 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:59.710 more that we will see, is very much a word of judgment. It 42 00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:05.150 is a word of the Lord against a faithless people, a people who have 43 00:04:05.310 --> 00:04:10.379 broken the Covenant, who have broken the things that they have promised to do, 44 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:16.939 the obedience that they have promised to give. As the Lord expresses this 45 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:23.740 and impresses in our heart, he does begin by talking about a hypothetical country. 46 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:28.970 This is the first thing that will consider, this hypothetical country. We 47 00:04:29.129 --> 00:04:32.529 read in verse thirteen, son of Man went, a land sends against me 48 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:39.439 by acting faithlessly, I will stretch out my hand against it. And then 49 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.279 the first of these four things, break its supply of bread and famine. 50 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:47.920 This hypothetical land is not necessarily Israel because, as we see in verse twenty 51 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:53.189 one when he says how much more in Jerusalem, right, his point is 52 00:04:53.269 --> 00:04:56.829 not to talk about Jerusalem here, but just he's saying, imagine a land 53 00:04:57.069 --> 00:05:01.589 which is done so terribly that as I send these that I'm sending these judgments 54 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:10.420 on them. And he lists for in this hypothetical land judged for its grievous 55 00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:15.579 sins. The first one is famine leading to death. We spoke about that 56 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:20.420 a little bit this morning and in light of some things that we're going on 57 00:05:20.610 --> 00:05:28.089 in the in the in Corinth, cutting off the food supply, people not 58 00:05:28.250 --> 00:05:31.410 being able to eat, animals not being able to eat, leading to death. 59 00:05:32.649 --> 00:05:36.720 The next curse after famine leading to death, is wild beasts leading to 60 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:45.000 death. Right we one of the advantages is of living in a city is 61 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:49.550 be protection from wild beast. We have strong houses the the wilderness. We 62 00:05:49.670 --> 00:05:54.149 go in camp and play in the Wilderness. But for most of human history 63 00:05:54.149 --> 00:05:58.269 the wilderness is a dangerous place. It's a place you don't want to go 64 00:05:58.589 --> 00:06:00.949 and if you go there you don't spend much time. And if you do 65 00:06:01.189 --> 00:06:05.540 go there, you you protect yourself, you take weapons, you're on guard, 66 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:09.860 you stand watch, because it's a dangerous place. Here. The Lord 67 00:06:09.939 --> 00:06:15.939 is talking about it land, a people, a quote, civilized place which 68 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:19.490 is now being that's going to say wild eyes, but that's not a word. 69 00:06:20.009 --> 00:06:26.009 It's being made wild as these beasts come in and ravage and destroy. 70 00:06:27.089 --> 00:06:31.009 It's no longer a safe place. It's returning on its returning to this wild 71 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:36.480 state. Famine leading to death, wild beasts leading to death, sword leading 72 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:43.399 to death, the ideas of armies and warriors and people coming in to put 73 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:47.389 the citizens to death, and then finally, plague leading to death, disease 74 00:06:48.509 --> 00:06:56.550 passing and spreading, causing one and another and another to die. We've seen 75 00:06:56.670 --> 00:07:00.310 places where the Lord has put these judgments on people. I'm ways in which 76 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:06.660 the Lord comes with either famine or wild beasts or sword or plague. We 77 00:07:06.779 --> 00:07:13.620 think of ways in the scriptures that are documented of him taking places which have 78 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:20.970 so grievously sinned against basic, basic laws that he executes his judge. And 79 00:07:23.050 --> 00:07:26.970 you think about the whole world in the time of Noah Im. You think 80 00:07:27.009 --> 00:07:32.839 about Sodom and Gomorah, you think about other examples and times, Egypt included, 81 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:39.600 when God sets his people three free by executing these judgments upon them. 82 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:44.709 And so this hypothetical country is set up. And in each of these cases 83 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:48.629 God says, if, if I cause these things to happen, then he 84 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:55.029 says, even if these three men were in it, and he lists three 85 00:07:55.110 --> 00:08:00.540 men, Noah, Daniel and Joe, even if these three men in it 86 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:05.660 the place, this city, would not be saved because of their righteousness, 87 00:08:05.259 --> 00:08:11.259 their riotousness, would not be enough to save anyone else, not even their 88 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:18.170 own children. In this we are beginning to learn that God, when he 89 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:24.050 judges, he judges fairly. He doesn't want to put to death. He 90 00:08:24.170 --> 00:08:28.279 doesn't want to put to death those who have done well, those who have 91 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:33.759 have obeyed, those who have followed him and done as he has asked. 92 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:37.559 He doesn't even want to put them death if there is, if there is 93 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:43.710 some chance in which a mediator could stand in and protect and safe. Jeremiah 94 00:08:43.789 --> 00:08:48.909 says a similar thing in his in his book he talks about the judgment coming 95 00:08:48.950 --> 00:08:54.909 upon Jerusalem and Moses and Samuel not even being able to intercede for the people. 96 00:08:54.740 --> 00:08:58.220 Remember, there was a time when Moses did God, after the Ten 97 00:08:58.299 --> 00:09:05.899 Commandments and the making of the Golden Calf, God was going to destroy his 98 00:09:05.019 --> 00:09:11.210 people and Moses interceded on their behalf and God stayed his hand. But here 99 00:09:11.330 --> 00:09:16.970 he says that even if these three men were in this place, in this 100 00:09:16.049 --> 00:09:20.409 hypothetical city, Noah, genesis six nine, says, a righteous man, 101 00:09:22.009 --> 00:09:26.559 blameless among the people of his time, job, a man offered as an 102 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:33.840 example to Satan of righteousness. I'm Daniel, a man living in in Babylon, 103 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:39.429 along with his along with his friends there, who held to the word 104 00:09:39.470 --> 00:09:43.990 of the Lord, and even very difficult circumstances, even ones involving and risking 105 00:09:45.110 --> 00:09:50.149 his own life, these three men, even if they were there this city, 106 00:09:50.389 --> 00:09:56.980 would not be spared. Why? Because it is so unrighteous, because 107 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:05.460 they have strayed so far, they have disobeyed so much. This is the 108 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:13.690 hypothetical country that Ezechuel, through the word of the Lord coming to him, 109 00:10:13.610 --> 00:10:20.450 speaks of. And then he speaks of a real play lace and he comes 110 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:24.240 to verse Twenty One and he says, for thus says the Lord God, 111 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:30.399 how much more when I send upon Jerusalem my for disastrous acts of judgment, 112 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:35.549 not one but all, for Sword, famine, wild beasts and pestilence, 113 00:10:35.990 --> 00:10:41.470 to cut off from it, man and beast. How much more will it 114 00:10:41.629 --> 00:10:46.110 be when he says these dreadful judgments? And why will it be worse? 115 00:10:46.350 --> 00:10:48.509 You have to ask. That's a question. Right. If this these this 116 00:10:48.549 --> 00:10:54.620 hypothetical country, is so awful, why is Jerusalem, this city where God 117 00:10:54.740 --> 00:10:58.299 has promised to place his name and dwell, why there? Why is it 118 00:10:58.379 --> 00:11:05.769 so much worse? One implication is because even the righteousness of these three men 119 00:11:05.850 --> 00:11:11.289 are not there, because the the situation is even worse than it was in 120 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:18.090 this hypothetical place that he mentions. As bad as it is in this example, 121 00:11:18.409 --> 00:11:22.360 it's even worse, he says, in Jerusalem. We might add that, 122 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:28.200 unlike the kingdoms of this world, God's special kingdom, the Kingdom of 123 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:31.990 Israel, was an a special covenant with him, a covenant which had been, 124 00:11:33.269 --> 00:11:37.190 I'm declared at Sinai, a covenant which was reinstituted before they went into 125 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:43.429 Canaan, where they took upon themselves the the blood, and they took an 126 00:11:43.509 --> 00:11:48.980 oath and they swore allegiance and obedience to go odd. They said, we 127 00:11:48.259 --> 00:11:54.100 will do this and if we don't, make all these curses that are listed 128 00:11:54.179 --> 00:12:01.649 here come upon us in chapter fourteen. Here, in this last half, 129 00:12:03.889 --> 00:12:09.730 we see God's way of expressing how far Israel has fallen. The murder rate 130 00:12:11.129 --> 00:12:18.559 so high, the idolatry rate so high, that it's over, much like 131 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:22.440 in the days of Noah, when things had gotten so bad that God said 132 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:30.389 enough enough. This is what was coming for Jerusalem. This is how far 133 00:12:31.149 --> 00:12:37.629 they had fallen. Not The end of the chapter, there's this, as 134 00:12:37.629 --> 00:12:43.899 if things weren't dark enough, this dark and sad twist, in a way, 135 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:50.899 a twist that vindicates God and reminds us of what he is emphasizing here. 136 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:56.539 Not only Israel's unrighteousness, but his righteousness. Is Judge, and it 137 00:12:56.620 --> 00:13:00.690 comes to us in this way. Verse Twenty Two, we read, but 138 00:13:00.889 --> 00:13:05.250 behold, some survivors will be left in it. This initially gives us a 139 00:13:05.409 --> 00:13:09.250 sort of sense of hope. Right, right, because initially we heard about 140 00:13:09.250 --> 00:13:11.330 how, if even these three men, no one would be left with them, 141 00:13:11.409 --> 00:13:16.360 and now he says, but some survivors will be let me pause here 142 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:20.000 and just remind you of something I wanted to say at the beginning, which 143 00:13:20.039 --> 00:13:26.840 is so sidebar. Remember that Ezekiel is not in Jerusalem. He is already 144 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:30.389 in exile. Remember, at the beginning of Chapter Fourteen, these elders and 145 00:13:30.549 --> 00:13:33.950 exile come to him and other prophets and seek this word. So they are 146 00:13:35.070 --> 00:13:39.149 hearing about things that are about to happen in Jerusalem. They're hearing about these 147 00:13:39.190 --> 00:13:43.980 things that will come. And what he's saying is some survivors from this event 148 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:50.299 will come. They will come out of Jerusalem to you here in exile. 149 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:56.769 So that's the historical situation that he's talking about here. And then what? 150 00:13:56.970 --> 00:14:00.809 Listen to what he says. Now back on our main track, he says, 151 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:07.009 and you will see their ways, you will see their deeds, you 152 00:14:07.169 --> 00:14:11.399 will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and for all 153 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:13.759 that I have brought upon it. So here's they're going to come out of 154 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:18.120 Jerusalem. These people will come out of Jerusalem. The exiles will see them. 155 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:26.230 The exiles will see them and they will have consolation in the righteous judgment 156 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:31.149 of God. They will have consolation in the disaster that has come upon it 157 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:35.870 when they see the deeds and the acts of these people verse twenty three. 158 00:14:35.909 --> 00:14:39.220 They will console you when you see their ways and see their deeds and you 159 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:43.700 shall know that I have not done without cause, all that I have done 160 00:14:43.779 --> 00:14:46.539 UN in it. In other words, he's not saying you will see them 161 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:50.259 and you will see, look, a righteous few I have spared. In 162 00:14:50.379 --> 00:14:52.450 other words, he's saying you will see them and you will go well, 163 00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:58.570 of course he destroy Jerusalem. These few people that are left out of it. 164 00:14:58.889 --> 00:15:03.649 They're horrible, terrible people. These people will come out and you will 165 00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:05.889 see their deeds and you will see your acts and you will say, I 166 00:15:07.049 --> 00:15:13.039 can understand why God has done what he's done. Even in his salvation of 167 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:16.919 these few people, we will see God will use that salvation as a way 168 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:24.350 to prove his righteous acts. That's how bad things are. God is not 169 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:30.429 saving a few because of their righteousness. He's saving a few because of their 170 00:15:30.509 --> 00:15:35.779 unrighteousness, not to save them, but to prove to the world, in 171 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:43.299 a way, on how far Israel had fallen. It's an amazing thing and 172 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:48.100 it's end and it tells us and it reminds us how deep our sin goes 173 00:15:48.860 --> 00:15:54.409 and how much we need God not just to be just but are justifier, 174 00:15:54.450 --> 00:16:00.769 one who who works in US some way, somehow to make us, as 175 00:16:00.889 --> 00:16:06.399 those who would not come under this judgment, to make us as those who 176 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:11.919 were innocent, to make us people who would not have to fear the righteous 177 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:19.350 wrath of God. When we think about the penalties which come upon the people, 178 00:16:19.669 --> 00:16:26.230 the perfection of his righteous or we come to think about the perfection of 179 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:30.350 God's righteousness in the judgment of God, one of the things that we come 180 00:16:30.830 --> 00:16:36.820 to see is that God does not act in a willy nilly fashion. He's 181 00:16:36.860 --> 00:16:41.100 not like the gods of mythology and the gods of idolatry, which do this 182 00:16:41.340 --> 00:16:45.860 and do that and it's all capricious and who really knows, and half the 183 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:51.649 time they're acting in sin themselves. Our God is not like that. When 184 00:16:51.690 --> 00:16:56.090 he comes and he excess exercises his justice, he does it perfectly and honestly. 185 00:16:56.210 --> 00:17:00.289 This should be a consolation to anyone who's ever seen a situation of injustice 186 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:06.000 and, you know, been torn apart in their heart. You can think 187 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:10.000 of examples in your own life and the around the world where we say this 188 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:17.029 thing is terrible. Why is nobody doing anything about this? How can something 189 00:17:17.309 --> 00:17:22.789 how can this continue to happen? Who will make this stop? God promises 190 00:17:22.869 --> 00:17:26.150 to make it stop. We see that here in Israel. We see it 191 00:17:26.309 --> 00:17:30.019 and Noah, and he promises that these things are the the rumblings, the 192 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:36.700 beginning is the foreshadowing of that great final day when everything and for all time 193 00:17:36.940 --> 00:17:42.339 will be accomplished before the judgment throne, the judgment seed of God. There 194 00:17:42.500 --> 00:17:48.210 is coming a time and a day when Jesus returns, when all will be 195 00:17:48.410 --> 00:17:52.930 made right and every unfair thing, every unjust thing, every oppressed person, 196 00:17:53.410 --> 00:17:56.809 all of it, the hid and stuff, the obvious stuff, it will 197 00:17:56.849 --> 00:18:03.160 all be made known and God will say no more, enough is enough, 198 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:08.799 not just for his people here in this time and place, before the whole 199 00:18:08.839 --> 00:18:15.190 world and for all time. If your heart's ever been broken, if you 200 00:18:15.269 --> 00:18:19.109 are hot at unfairness and injustice, if your heart is ever ached at will 201 00:18:19.190 --> 00:18:22.509 on and to see things set right, know that the Lord will set it 202 00:18:22.589 --> 00:18:26.900 right. He tells us that he does this right here and he promises to 203 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:33.900 do the exactly this at the very end. These same pictures of his wrath 204 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:37.940 that are pictured here are also pictured in revelation. is coming the end of 205 00:18:38.099 --> 00:18:48.049 time. But there's another why thing that this points us to, and that 206 00:18:48.250 --> 00:18:52.809 is our salvation, because not only do we see God's perfect righteousness and judgment 207 00:18:52.930 --> 00:18:57.720 poured out in the end of time or in these foreshadowing ways here before the 208 00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:03.119 end of time, but we also see God's righteous judgment poured out on his 209 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.680 very own son. Now, Jesus, of course, did none of these 210 00:19:06.759 --> 00:19:10.869 things. And if gentle but damn anual and Noah were righteous, Jesus was 211 00:19:11.230 --> 00:19:17.750 infinitely more righteous, blameless in every single way, perfect in every single way, 212 00:19:18.069 --> 00:19:22.349 not just before men but before God as well. When Jesus suffered the 213 00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:26.740 penalty of God's wrath, he didn't suffer it because he would owed it or 214 00:19:26.779 --> 00:19:32.420 because he deserved it in some way. He took it as a replacement, 215 00:19:32.500 --> 00:19:38.369 as a substitute for the sins of you and me. When we look at 216 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:41.529 a passage like this, or when we sing of passages like this in the 217 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:45.849 psalms and even as we long in some ways for the righteous judgment of God 218 00:19:47.250 --> 00:19:49.329 that all things will be set right, we also ought to think of the 219 00:19:49.529 --> 00:19:55.079 cross, so that we might not be terrified of the judgment to come and 220 00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:59.720 know that all judgment has already come for us. This righteous wrath of God 221 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:04.200 has been poured out on his son, on the son of God, and 222 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:10.710 he died. He was nailed to a cross, a cursed cross, he 223 00:20:10.869 --> 00:20:18.670 was mocked by men and he died. The son of God died, and 224 00:20:18.869 --> 00:20:22.180 he did that so that we would not have to so that, when we 225 00:20:22.380 --> 00:20:26.660 put our faith in him as our substitute, as our mediator, we would 226 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:32.460 go through this judgment, but not personally. We would go through this judgment 227 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:36.410 but through him and in him. That way we can come out on the 228 00:20:36.490 --> 00:20:40.650 other side, through him and in him, in a resurrection from the dead. 229 00:20:41.130 --> 00:20:45.890 We can become like a city rising out of the ashes, a temple, 230 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:51.640 a holy place set apart to God in a way that no one could 231 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:55.079 ever imagine, a city, a city of the Living God, that was 232 00:20:55.160 --> 00:21:00.599 once destroyed with famine and pestilence and sword and death on a cross and now 233 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:10.309 rising, rising to new and permanent life and as acting as our substitute. 234 00:21:10.349 --> 00:21:15.029 In this way, Jesus not only takes upon the drighteous and just judgment of 235 00:21:15.150 --> 00:21:21.140 God, not only does he take upon the God's execution of his righteousness, 236 00:21:22.819 --> 00:21:27.299 but he also gives to us his own righteousness. He becomes like a job, 237 00:21:27.859 --> 00:21:33.970 a Noah, a Daniel, except so much better, because he doesn't 238 00:21:33.009 --> 00:21:40.609 just save himself, he saves everyone who comes to him through faith. He 239 00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:48.119 saves not tens, we're s, or hundreds or thousands, but millions upon 240 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:56.160 millions of souls and gather the gathers them in to that great heavenly city, 241 00:21:56.279 --> 00:22:02.069 that Kingdom of God. When we hear passages like this and we hear this 242 00:22:02.230 --> 00:22:04.950 strong note of judgment, we ought to be warned in our ends. We 243 00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:08.829 ought to know that if we do not stand in Jesus Christ, we will 244 00:22:08.829 --> 00:22:15.150 stand in this very situation. We will stand under the righteous and just judgment 245 00:22:15.190 --> 00:22:19.259 of God, to the praise of his glory that he does not wink its 246 00:22:19.299 --> 00:22:27.779 Sim but in Jesus Christ and through his substitutionary work on the cross, we 247 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:33.890 can have a different perspective as well. We can stand before God and singing 248 00:22:33.049 --> 00:22:37.609 and rejoice with Thanksgiving in our hearts that we are those who have been saved 249 00:22:38.690 --> 00:22:42.569 and we are those who are brought out of judgment, not as those who 250 00:22:42.569 --> 00:22:48.759 are examples of exactly why the whole thing was destroyed, but his examples of 251 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.720 the new work that has become begun, as Peter puts it, new and 252 00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:57.319 living stones out of which this temple, to the Holy Temple of God, 253 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:02.750 will be built. When we think of ourselves as people that have come out. 254 00:23:03.390 --> 00:23:07.069 Think of yourselves as called as Pete, as Paul Talks about in Colossians, 255 00:23:07.269 --> 00:23:11.150 as those who have been rescued out of a dominion of darkness and brought 256 00:23:11.190 --> 00:23:15.940 into the Kingdom of the son of God. And as we consider these things 257 00:23:15.980 --> 00:23:19.859 about ourselves and our work and God's work in the world, let us fear 258 00:23:21.019 --> 00:23:26.019 God and rejoice in God. Let us bow before him and and fill our 259 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:32.329 hearts with his praise and sing of our rescue, of our salvation and of 260 00:23:32.450 --> 00:23:33.369 his amazing grace.