Now open them up, look at Ezekiel chapter number eight. Ezekiel chapter number eight. Ezekiel chapter eight, let's begin reading in verse number five. Ezekiel chapter eight, verse number five, then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lift up mine eyes the way toward the north and behold northward at the gate of the altar the image of jealousy in the entry. He said, furthermore unto me, son of man, send thou what they, see us now what they do. Even the great abomination that the house of Israel committed here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary. Return thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court. And when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, son of man, dig now in the wall. And when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door. And he said unto me, go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw and behold every form of creeping things and abominable beasts, abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them 70 men of the ancients of the house of Israel. In the midst of them stood Jezaniah, the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, the Lord seeth us not. The Lord hath forsaken the earth. Our father, I pray that you'd bless us today. I pray that you would guide and direct us in our study of the Word of God and help us, Lord, to get a full vision, a clear vision of you. In Christ's name we ask it, amen. In over 40 years of ministry, I have yet to find a single problem, whether it's spiritual, emotional, or behavioral, which does not have of a root of origin, or at least in part, to an unbiblical view of God. In Ezekiel chapter number eight, Ezekiel was shown 70 ancients, or 70 old men of Israel gathered in a darkened room of the temple prior to leading in worship. They were surrounded by images of abominations, by idols of other gods, ministers of God with instruments of holiness in their hands to God, but fixing their eyes and their hearts on sinful objects. What was their reasoning? Well, it's dark down here. The Lord can't see us. The Lord doesn't know what we're doing here. Now, let's pause and ask a junior church question. That means everybody should get it. You get that, right? Is it true that God doesn't see? Is it ever true that God doesn't see? It's never true. We like to think that, we like to say that, we like to kid ourselves or deceive ourselves, but the fact of the matter is there is nothing that God does not see in full, that there's nothing that God does not know. In spite of all of their qualifications for ministry, they had the advantage of maturity, their association with other ministers, they had titles of respect, they had theological training, they did all kinds of things to their advantage, yet they held, they harbored, they cultivated false views of God. Wow. That's gonna mess everything up. It always has, it always will. Number one, the bad news. The bad news. Go to Romans chapter number one. Romans chapter number one. I always seem to start this way. Teach Sunday school, let them quiet for a few minutes and then this happens. I don't know what it is. Romans chapter one. Go to verse number 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God had showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things." He said, man has always known there is a God. That's what these verses are saying there. They've always known that. They've always understood that. faulty or unbiblical view of God will always lead to sinful living. Anytime you get in your head a picture of a God who's not real, or a picture of God of your own making, a picture of a God that you would like to have, It's gonna lead to sinful living. You see, we're told here very clearly that they knew of God. Two things in verses 19 and 20 tell us that every person ever born knows that there is a God. Those two things are conscience and creation. Conscience and creation. They know because it's in them. He said, everybody knows that there is God. You are born with the knowledge There is a God. You have to teach a child, there is not a God for him to become an atheist. Because automatically in every one of us, we believe there is a God. That is why when anthropologists gone all over the world and every remote section of the earth, they found people who believe in something. People worship something. People will understand that there is something bigger than they are. They get it, it's inward, it's conscience. It lets them know. That's why people know automatically that there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong. We know that without the Bible. We know that without God, because God created us with conscience. Then there's creation. If you just look at creation, you realize it's pretty amazing. And it's absolutely too complex to be put here by accident. Wow. Just too complex. If you study biology, If you study these things, you begin to realize that the human body, that a single cell in a living organism is too complex just to have arrived here purely by chance and accident in time. It doesn't work that way. There are too many things that are irreducibly complex, meaning There are five, six, seven, eight things that take place in a cell that if you remove one of them, the cell dies. They can't come one at a time. And yet evolution wants to teach they arrived here one at a time. And we could go on and on and on and on and creation. The world around you lets you know there is a God. Okay, so we're told here that all men from the beginning of time knew of God. They also knew what God wanted. Look at verse number 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They knew what God wanted. They didn't want what God wanted. They wanted what they wanted. That's always the case. It's always been the case. That always will be the case. That is the case right now. They knew God. They knew of God. They knew what God wanted, but they didn't want what God wanted. So what'd they do? They changed their God. they changed their God. Verse 23 says, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. So they knew of a God, they knew what this God wanted, they didn't want what God wanted, so they made themselves gods who were more like them, who would let them do what they wanted them to do. They molded, they shaped, They formed gods into their own liking. Where does this always lead? Into sin. Always. Whether they're gods of stone, gods of wood, gods of metal, or gods of the imagination. Any faulty, unbiblical view of God leads to sin. Any sin. All sin. Gross sin. Abominations. Was the way that he put it. We bring down God to a God that we can live with. And God allows us to do what we want to do. and we go off into sin. That's the pattern. That's what takes place so very often. Too often. The sad fact is it can happen in the lives of Christians. Yeah, we get the idea that God is God and we're sinners and we need a savior. We trust Jesus Christ as our savior. But as we start to live, we start to go on and we start to move on and we start to think. You know, maybe. There's a form of Christianity out there that's better suited to me. Better suited to what I want to do. Better suited to the way I think. better suited to the way I live. And we start to come up with a God of human imagination and we begin to worship him. And we go off into sin because that's what we're wanting to do in the first place. But this lessened, lowered view of God allows us to. Is it really God allowing us to do that? Absolutely not. but always leads to sin. Number two, the good news. Go to Isaiah chapter number six, Isaiah chapter number six. Which brings us to point number two, the good news. The good news. Isaiah chapter number six, Let's read verse number one. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts, then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips and that iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I. Send me. Isaiah's life. Was changed. Completely changed. after he saw God. The real God. Now here's a preacher here who realizes he's got a faulty view of God. Here is a preacher here, read Isaiah chapter 5 in your leisure and he's preaching, he's preaching hard. He's saying, woe unto you, and woe unto you, and woe unto you, and woe unto you. He does it five times in the previous chapter. He's preaching hard against the sins of the people. He sees God, and the first words out of his mouth are, woe is me. Woe is me. He realizes he's striving, he wants to do what's right, he wants to please God, he wants to serve God, but even he is not seeing God for who he is. God gives him that vision. And he sees God in his reality and it changes him. Okay. Listen to me now. You can too. But the view of God you will get is on the pages of this book. You're not going to have a dream. You're not going to have a vision. You're not going to see God any kind of mystical way. If you do, you had too many peppers before you went to bed. Okay? It's just that simple. All right? God does not speak to us in that form anymore. There won't be an audible voice. You will not have a vision. You will not go into a trance. And anybody who says that they did or do, they're lying to you. Please understand that. God tells us in this book who he is and what he wants from us exactly. So if you want to see God, the real God, the true God, the only God, get into the Bible. Read your Bible. Understand your Bible. Take your view of God from the source. Because this book says, this is me. Come find out who I am. I will let you know very clearly, understand me. Okay, he saw God for who he was. In the first four verses, he saw God high, lifted up, holy, his train filled the temple. This was all language speaking of how important the king was. And he saw God high above every human king that ever existed because he is God. He sees God, and then in doing so, he sees himself. He sees himself. Woe is me. I am undone. By human comparisons, I can guarantee you, Isaiah was a pretty good guy. Amen? He wouldn't have been in the position to get this vision of God if he weren't. He was probably better than those ancients that Ezekiel had seen. He was better than many of the men doing the job in the temple in those days. He was a good guy when you compare him to other human beings. OK, we can probably say he was a really good guy. But that's where the comparisons end. Because we cannot compare ourselves with other human beings. We must compare ourselves with God. Amen. He sees God. He realizes. I'm not what I should be. I am not everything that God wants. And he comes under heavy conviction. Those weren't just words that kind of came out of his mouth. What was me? You know, his head bowed. You know, as he got that glimpse of God, he realized. I haven't arrived. I'm not there. that woe is me is real. He found forgiveness and a purpose in his life. God said, who can I send to tell of me? And immediately he volunteered, send me. I'm changed now. I've seen you. I don't look at myself the way I did before. I'm changed. Send me." That can happen to you, too. We get the right view of God, and it will change us completely. Where do we get it? In the Bible, and that's why you need to be here at church. Now, you're here this morning, so pat yourself on the back. Can you reach it? We're usually pretty good at that, patting ourselves on the back. That's great. We need to hear the Word of God. We need to see God so that God can change us. Amen. Number three, the right views. The right views. Let me give you two attributes of God and a response so we can see Biblically. So we can see God for who he is. We need to understand the goodness of God. God is good. Amen. He is good. Go to Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34, verse number eight, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Go to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Verse number 68. Psalm 119, verse number 68. Thou art good and doest good. Teach me thy statutes. Go to Psalm 145. Psalm 145, verse number eight. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all. and his tender mercies are over all his works. Amen. We see the goodness of God clearly when we realize we're a sinner who deserves hell, but can gain forgiveness when we trust Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, because Jesus Christ paid the sin penalty for us. Amen. We realize God's goodness when he saves us. We realize God's goodness when we receive his forgiveness for our sins. Amen. We realize it. Go to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, verse number one, have mercy upon me. Oh God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. When we understand that God will forgive us, God has mercy, God has compassion, God does love us, that he is good, we come to him and receive his great. God is good. Amen. There's no question about it. I think of the prodigal son who took his inheritance when he was young and left the family and went away to live his life. And he partied until the money ran out. Then he ended up in a pig pen, you know the account. In that pig pen, eating what the pigs wouldn't, he realized, I had it better with dad. The Bible says when he came to himself, I did better at home. What am I doing here? I'll just go home. Beg forgiveness. Won't ask to be brought back into the family. I'll just ask to be a servant. Because they have it better than I have it right now. He starts heading home and it's clear that dad was good. Because dad's a picture of God in this account. And dad's looking for him every day. That's why he sees him afar off. Dad sees him turning into the driveway. Dad sees him a far long way off. And what's dad do? He starts running. That kid never makes it to the front lawn. Dad catches him before he gets two or three steps in. And he starts his speech. I've sinned. I'm not good enough to be a member of the family anymore. Make me a servant. He stopped. My son is home. Amen. What a picture of God. God is good. God is forgiving. And we need to understand that the Bible says, whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy. And when we come to God confessing and forsaking, we can't have mercy. We shall have mercy. Amen. God is good. But God is also holy. He's good, but he is holy. Go to 1 Peter chapter number one. First Peter chapter number one, verse number 16, verse 15 says, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. God is holy. What is holy mean? Set apart and above sin. Now, how much sin would it take to make something unholy? Just a minuscule amount. Makes it unholy. Remember the old illustration about the brownies? We won't go there. God's holy. Holy, holy with a W before the first one, completely. Holy with out sin at all. Isaiah. Saw God. in his holiness, and it radically and permanently changed his life. Amen. God is totally and completely separated from and above sin. And what's his command to us? Be ye holy. Isaiah sees God high lifted up, it is transcendent holiness, and doesn't look around and say, wow, they're really bad, God. He didn't say that. He sees God and says, I'm really bad. I'm not what I should be. I'm not there yet. Oh, we're good at the they're really bad. We're good at the, that one doesn't have it right, and that one doesn't have it right, and they don't have it right, and we're good at that kind of stuff. God doesn't want us doing that. Because we're to be concerned about me, and my relationship with God, and my portrayal of God in this world. Isaiah sees God in his holiness and it changes him. Our response to the goodness of God and to the holiness of God should be the fear of God. The fear of God. That is, in all actuality, a proper balance between his goodness and his holiness. Emphasizing the goodness of God to the exclusion of holiness will lead to trivializing sin and justifying our hanging onto it. Well, God is good. He won't care if I do this. God is good. I can ask forgiveness. God is good. I can go on in my sin. I can live my own life. I can do my own thing and God will forgive me. I'm going to heaven anyway because of Jesus Christ. It'll be okay. No, it's not. Emphasizing the holiness of God to the exclusion of the goodness of God will keep us from running back to him. Okay, Adam and Eve, they sinned. They did the wrong thing. Which way did they run? away from God. They ran away from God. Which way should they have run? To God. Because He's holy, no doubt about it. But He is good. Amen. Wow. So, in conclusion, We need to realize this morning that first of all, God is good. Amen. When you are right with him, he has promised to provide, to protect, to guide, to direct, to make his presence known in your life. Understand, he is good. When you are right with him, God's promised to take care of you fully and completely. Amen. When you're not right with him, he is waiting with open arms for your repentant return to him. Wow. That's amazing. He said, Book of James, you draw nigh to me. You take one step to me and I'll step towards you. And I've got a bigger step. What a Savior. What a God. Even when things go wrong in life, and let's face it, they do. He promised to work all things together for good. To them who love him. To them who are the called according to his purpose. Amen. We as Christians can say better than anybody, God is good. Amen. But God is holy. When you do wrong, he promises chastening. he will discipline his erring child. But understand, that's because he's good. Doesn't mean the absence of goodness at all. It's because he is good and loving and holy. God commands, commands, he demands that you live a holy life. and will discipline you if you don't." Wow. We like the goodness of God part, and we should, but we tend to forget the holiness of God part. Because like all people of all ages, we want to do what we want to do. God said, no. Be ye holy. for I am holy. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter number 12. Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, we're of all our partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection than the father of spirits and live? For they, verily for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceful fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Go to verse number 25 of Hebrews chapter 12. See that where you refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things which are shaken, as of things which are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Wow. Yes, God is good. But when we do wrong, he will chasten us. Because He loves us. And He knows what's best. And we need to trust Him and do what's right. It begins with conviction. When you do wrong, if you're saved, the Holy Spirit begins to move in your heart and tell you, not in an audible voice, you know He doesn't do that. But you know when you've done wrong. And the Spirit reproves you. And you know that voice inside you that says, you blew it. You're wrong. You're in sin. Get it right. If we will stop and get it right right there, God doesn't have to go any further. Because that's his purpose is our getting it right with him. Amen. If we go further, if we continue in sin, we ignore the spirit of God, we continue in sin. He chastens us. OK, he spanks us. Hebrews 12 uses the word scourge. Think about the beatings that Jesus took. That's a scourging. OK. Wow. What a picture there for us. Now, as a parent, as a administrator of a Christian school, as a teacher, as having all kinds of experience working with kids, you have to understand something. If the pain of the punishment does not exceed the pleasure of the crime, they're gonna do it again. Period. End of discussion. It's over. If the pain of the punishment does not exceed the pleasure of the crime, they'll do it again. Every single time. Okay, parents, if you're disciplining your children and they're not changing, you're not disciplining your children. It's pretty simple. Who knows that better than God? Nobody. And he doesn't do it for the pleasure of hurting us. He doesn't do it because he's mean He does it because he loves us and doesn't want us to go back. Amen. Amen. That's what we need to get. That's what we need to understand. He chastens us. And if we continue in sin, that chastening will get more severe because God's trying to get our attention. Look up. If we continue, the Bible says he could call us home. Okay, we die. 1 John 5, 16 says there's a sin and a death. In Corinthians, associated with the Lord's Supper, we talk about all the time, he says, are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." They've died because they took the Lord's Supper with sin in their life. Wow. Do you remember Ananias and Sapphira? They came into the church and they lied about what they were giving God, what it was sold for. They lied about the entire account of selling land and giving to the church. They lied about it. And what did they happen? They dropped dead on the spot. If God worked in that way today, you know what happened? I'd be preaching to an empty church. That's a joke. We'd all be in trouble, amen? But understand, God chastens us for sin. Amen. All so he can show you his goodness. by forgiving and restoring you to a right relationship with himself." Wow. Wow. I love the C.S. Lewis book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the picture of Christ in there as Aslan, the lion. Lucy's wondering about Aslan, she asks, is he safe? This roaring lion safe? The answer comes back is safe. No, he's not safe. But he's good. But he's good. That is the fear of the Lord. Amen. Why would we as believers. Go back to sin. Why would we who are striving to do right and striving to sin decide we're going to kind of lessen our view of God so we can do what we want to do? No. Paul says in Romans 3, verse number 18, why'd they do those things? Because there's no fear of God before their eyes. We need to have, at all times, a right and accurate, a complete view of God. For then we'll get an accurate view of who we are. Stay in this book. Read it. Study it. Understand it. Get it. And you keep your view of God correct. It will change your life. Amen. But we got to do it. It's up to us. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you, Lord, for your holiness, your hatred of sin, and your promise to punish it. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness, who sent Jesus Christ to take that punishment for us. Wow. How they meet at that one place. Your holiness and your goodness is astounding. Lord, help us to keep a proper view of you before our eyes at all times that we might live a life that pleases you and points others to you at all times. Guide and direct right now as we make decisions. Reveal to us where we're wrong that we might make it right. Reveal to us how we can do right because we're now saved. We've got the word of God. We've got the Holy Spirit of God. Lord, show us. how to draw even closer to you this morning. Bless us in Christ's name, we ask it, amen. With every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. This morning you say, pastor, I'm saved. I've trusted Jesus Christ as my savior. I know beyond any shadow of a doubt, my sins are forgiven. I know. that I'm going to heaven, I know Christ. Pastor, I'm saved and I know it. Put your hand up, testimony of that fact. You're saved, you know it. Amen, God bless you, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Christian, have we altered, lowered, changed our view of God to accommodate something wrong in our life, or we've altered it so we can go in that direction. Oh, we don't need to do that. We need to keep a right view of God before our eyes at all times. You say, pastor, pray for me. Help me to see God for who he is. Anyone like that? Pastor, pray for me. Put your hand, put it back down. Amen. God bless you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Amen. Maybe you're here and you've never been saved. You never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior. You don't know your sins are forgiven. You don't know that you're going to heaven because you don't know Christ. You say, Pastor, pray for me. Just slip your hand and put it back down. Pastor, pray for me. I don't know. I'm not sure anyone at all. Just pastor, pray for me. Our father. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for all that you've done. I pray that we would understand the goodness of God, the holiness of God, and have the fear of God before our eyes all the time. Guide and direct and bless the decisions that are gonna be made. And I pray that you'd help us all to live lives that are holy, pointing to you. Bless us now in Christ's name, we ask it. Amen. Let's all stand, grab a song book, turn to page 388. 388. If God has spoken to your heart, if there's something he wants you to do, as we sing, talk to him. As we sing, pray to him. Don't put it off. Make that decision. God is good. God is holy. We need to have a proper view of him. You need to speak to me about salvation, I'll be waiting for you right down front. Baptism, church membership, whatever it might be, you need to speak to me, I'll be waiting for you right down front, right now. Verse number one, what does God want you to do?