Amen. And we turn then to our text this evening, Ezekiel chapter one. Isaiah Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. And Lord willing, we will be in Ezekiel for about four months or so, enough to dig into much of it. We might say it this way, enough to dig into all the different parts of it from, visions, to sign acts, to parables, to what might be called mocking lamentations in the middle. There's a lot of different things going on. The plan is not that we're going to work through every single chapter, but that in spending some time we'll I'd be able to get, Lord willing, this big picture of Ezekiel over some months. And we begin with Ezekiel 1, and at least the three, if not the first four chapters, we'll just work through in order, is our hope. And that starts with Ezekiel 1, page 877, in most of the Bibles under the seats. And we'll be reading and considering this whole first chapter. In the 30th year and the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Kiber Canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans by the Kiber Canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north and a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually. And in the midst of the fire, as it were a gleaming metal, and from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was their appearance. They had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands, and the four had their faces and their wings thus. Their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces, and their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wings of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire. like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning and the living creatures darted to and fro like the appearance of a flash of lightning. Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction, their appearance was like the gleaming of barrel. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of the four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome. And the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. And when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. And wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went. And the wheels rose along with them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went. And when those stood, these stood. And when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Over the heads of the living creatures, there was the likeness of an expanse shining like awe-inspiring crystals spread out above their heads. And under the expanse of their wings were stretched out straight one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army. And when they stood still, they let down their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings. And above the expanse, over their heads, there was the likeness of a throne in appearance like sapphire. And seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist, I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist, I saw as it were the appearance of fire and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking." So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation, When we come into the book of Ezekiel, we come into a book full of details. Certainly the vision has many details, but we might just say, broadly speaking, that Ezekiel is one of those detail-orientated kinds of people. He certainly gives us a number of precise dates throughout his book, and that starts in verse 2. And what we see there is that this is the fifth year, five years into the exile of Jehoiakim. A very quick anchoring of where that puts us in the history of Judah. That means that the first wave of exile has happened. Jehoiakim has been dragged away by the Babylonians or the Chaldeans, as they can also be called at this time in history. Along with him has come many of the other important people of the land, including Ezekiel, the priest. He's the son of a priest. He's a priest. We see that in verse three. But the second wave of exile has not yet happened. Zedekiah, the uncle of Jehoiakim, is still on the throne in Jerusalem, even though he was literally placed there by the Babylonians. He is their puppet. The temple is still standing, although Jerusalem is in a perilous situation and much destruction of Judea has already occurred. But the temple is still standing. There's still a puppet king on the throne. but Jehoiachin and Ezekiel and many others have been dragged away in this first wave of the Babylonian exile. So that's the where, that's the when, and as we'll see, that has some impact on what the vision itself teaches us, but we say where and when, and then we say, well, what is this vision? What is going on here? But the theme of what appears here is, the theme is plain enough. It is that of a vision of the glory of God. It is that which tells us, and here is our theme tonight, to stand in awe of the transcendent majesty of the sovereign God. Stand in awe of the transcendent majesty of the sovereign God. And we're going to work through the division for our points. Our first point being God's attendance, verses 4 to 14, and then God's throne, verse 15 to the beginning of verse 26, and then God's glory. the end of verse 26 to verse 28. And so we begin with God's attendance. And well, now we have read the whole chapter. And so we know from the last verses that this is God's throne and these are God's attendance. But let us note that when Ezekiel is first seeing these blended sites, we don't know how long it took him to figure that out. If anything, We have a hint in verse 28 that he doesn't figure it out until the end. But as this vision begins, it begins with the attendance of the throne. It begins with these four living creatures. And let us also say here at the start as we begin to work through this vision that there are Some things which are difficult to capture in translation in such a way that some who are Hebrew scholars have said there's this sense where Ezekiel is at a loss for words and that almost comes through in the Hebrew for those who know it that well. But even that sense does come through in the English a little bit. And we see it by the use of these kinds of words, like, likeness, appearance, as it were. And we see those kinds of phrases throughout this vision. And what's that telling us? That's telling us Ezekiel is trying to describe as best he can what he's seeing. But really, he's at a loss for words. He can't really describe what is going on here. And this vision and Ezekiel's attempt to describe it begins with images of power, a storm cloud and bright flashings in verse four. And then it immediately moves to these attendants, these powerful creatures, these four living creatures. these angels. Now there's a number of reasons why we might say that these are angels, but Ezekiel doesn't say it exactly in these verses. But when Ezekiel comes back and has another vision of the four living creatures in Ezekiel chapter 10, he tells us there these are cherubim. What is implied here is said explicitly there. These are the cherubim, it's a class of angels. And so, what do we have with these four angels? Well, let us begin by noting two things that these angels are not. First, these are not little, gentle-looking babies with two wings. That's not what's going on here. Second, these are not gentle, lady creatures with gentle features and with a couple of gentle looking wings. That's also not what we have going on here. Those are the kinds of things we might see in popular depictions of angels, but that is not what we see here. And that is not the picture of angels that scripture ever gives to us. Indeed, angels are never portrayed as taking any kind of infant form, nor are they ever described as female in any way throughout any part of scripture. No, it is more appropriate to think of angels as warriors. And we even have that language near the end of the vision in verse 24 that they are have this sound like an army and that kind of warrior language comes through there but indeed as we just consider the description we sit back and we say this is more startling than it is comforting and as angels do perform more acts of service to God, they're God's servants They do more than just warrior tasks. They also bring comfort in various ways at various times, including to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. They also bring messages in various places and in various times. But even when they're bringing messages, we should not think of them as some gentle messenger. They are warrior-like messengers. They are startling messengers. Well, this general thinking about the startling and powerful nature of angels, it is especially true right here in Ezekiel 1. And you think about this. These are four living creatures, and they have four faces each. See that in verse six. There are 16 faces total then. They also each have four wings. So there's 16 wings total. For those four faces, they each have the face of four different creatures. Look at verses nine and 10. They each have the face of a man, of a lion, of an ox, of an eagle. The soles of their feet are like a calf and they are sparkling, verse seven. This is startling. It is, we might use the word strange or mysterious. It is an image of powerful creatures, powerful attendance, but also bizarre in a certain kind of way. But as we then sit back and think about that image, there are two truths which are plainly related to us. Okay, so what's going on? We have this, what are these startling angel creatures being described here? There's two things that are plainly related to us. The first is this, that the touching wings of the creatures, We see that their wings are touching. We're told that twice. First in verse 9 and then in verse 11. Well, this reminds us of the presence of God related to the people of Israel in the Holy of Holies. Because the cherubim depicted artistically on the Ark on top of the mercy seat over the ark and the Holy of Holies, we are explicitly told that they were depicted with wings that were touching. So of course only the high priest saw that, but the people of Israel knew that. That's related to us in the description of the temple and of the Holy of Holies. And so these touching wings remind us or are at least a hint to Ezekiel that this is a holy of holies like vision. And so again, we're not sure exactly at what point Ezekiel had an understanding that he was seeing a throne of God, but certainly looking back, he's going to get this hint. There's something related to the throne of God, to his presence in the holy of holies. Something like that is going on here. You have cherubim with touching wings. Another truth, which this vision speaks to us plainly enough, is that the four faces on each creature represent the whole visible created order. Well, who is man? Well, man is the head of the entire visible creation. Well, what about the lion and the ox and the eagle? Well, the lion is the king of the jungle. He's the king of the wild beasts. Who, what is the ox? Well, the ox is in many ways the powerful standout of the domesticated creatures. And what is the eagle? Well, the eagle can stand as a representative leader of the flying creatures. And so there's this symbolic representation of the whole created order. And seeing that these are God's attendants, God is teaching us through this symbolism of his attendants that God is sovereign over all creatures. God is sovereign over all creatures. Now these specifics come through, but the overall image is certainly intended to leave us with a sense of wonder and humility. We'll get to this, Lord willing, as we continue on, but I just want to look ahead to chapter three, verse 15, for a moment. Chapter three, verse 15. So this is after this vision and then the call, which is really a continuation of the vision in chapters two and three. And then as this is all coming to an end, what is Ezekiel's response to all this once it's all over? I see the end of verse 15 of chapter three, and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days. Now we don't have to actually see the vision the way Ezekiel did. So we're not going to be, you know, overwhelmed in the same way. I'm not expecting that we're going to go forward from tonight and you know, we're not going to be able to function for the next week. But for Ezekiel, he was literally not able to function for the next week. And so even as we can take out some truths which are related plainly enough through the symbols of God's attendance and God's throne, which we're coming to now soon for our second point, there's also just an overwhelming splendor and majesty and certain something that we cannot capture and we're not supposed to be able to capture. It is literally an overwhelming vision. Who are we compared to God? These splendid and mysterious living creatures are just his attendance to carry his throne. And now let's come to a more description of the throne itself. in our second point, God's throne. The creatures are strange, splendid, in many ways indescribable. And as we come now to the description of the throne, we can say the same kind of thing. First, we don't have the word throne until verse 26. And if we think about that again, and we say, well, when did Ezekiel realize this was a throne? Again, we don't know for sure, at what point he realized that. But as he's first seeing this, he might be thinking more in terms of a chariot than of a throne. And indeed, that is not wrong. There is a chariot element to what he's seeing here. And so some have called Ezekiel 1 the vision of God's throne chariot. It is a moving throne. and that movement is especially captured in the wheels. There are four creatures and there is one wheel, we see in verse 15, for each of those creatures. But then, should we say that there's four wheels, one for each creature, or should we say that there's eight wheels? Probably, we should say that there are eight wheels because for each of the four wheels they had, see the end of verse 16, as it were, a wheel within a wheel. We don't know exactly what that looks like, but whatever it is, it's these pictures of the wheel within a wheel, and they're able to move in any direction without having to change. It can go wherever it wants. And once again, we have this somewhat mysterious, somewhat indescribable image before us, but it relates to us certainly one plain enough truth. The truth that God, what did we see in the first point? God is sovereign over all creatures. Well, what do we see here? God is sovereign over all places. He's sovereign over all places. The wheels go wherever they want. They are not bound. They are not stuck in one place. No, on the contrary, they can literally move wherever they want without even having to change. There is movement. And there's certainly also splendor in that movement, so these aren't just any wheels, they are like gleaming barrel is the overall description of their appearance in verse 16. And they also have these eyes that are mentioned, and perhaps we should take the word eyes in verse 18. and just translate that sparkling, because the Hebrew word for eye can also be used to just describe something that's sparkling. And so we have this overall picture of gleaming barrel, verse 16. We have these eyes, which might just be more reference to the whole sparkling splendor of everything that's going on here. This is, just to understate it, this is a very colorful vision. And the throne itself has a beautiful color to it, because then the throne is over the wheels. And the throne also has another description of precious stones and beauty and color. And in verse 26, it says that the throne had an appearance like sapphire or lapis lazuli, the bright blue stone considered among the most precious of stones in the ancient Near East. And so we have this, we have these wheels that can go wherever they want and they're also beautiful and colorful and the throne is splendid and majestic that's sitting over it. And at this point, now we step back and we consider how unless Ezekiel was very mature in the faith. This would have been an absolute shock. And indeed, we know that for most of the people of Judah and Israel, this was an absolute shock. We're gonna see that throughout the book of Ezekiel because, all right, we need to put ourselves by the Kibor Canal for a minute. And we need to put ourselves in that time for a minute. Because the fact that God is everywhere present I think that's one of the truths which we understand fairly well in 2022 in the sense that it's a truth which we understand in a way different than the people of Judea did at this time. What did the Israelites think? We know from the book of Jeremiah, and we're gonna see it throughout the book of Ezekiel especially, that the people of Israel, were were trapped in this in this thinking that God had to be tied only to the promised land and only to the temple that God is especially in Israel and within Israel he's especially present in Jerusalem and within Jerusalem he's especially present in the temple now there there was something, there was a special presence of God there, but they're trapped in this thinking. And if we reflect back on what the world was at that time, what did the world think at that time? The world taught that everybody had their own local God. And everybody's own local God had a special power tied to your own local people and land. And that the only way, listen to this, the only way that power could be expanded was perhaps through conquest and victory. Who is Ezekiel? Ezekiel is a prisoner. He's in exile. He's not a conqueror. This vision is breaking down the false theology of the day. The false theology of the day which says our only hope is in the fact that the temple is still standing. Oh, we just need Jerusalem to conquer the Babylonians. That's our only hope. That's the only way it's going to work. And God is coming And through his prophet Ezekiel, he's giving this mysterious, majestic, beautiful, but also plain enough vision to say, no, I am not bound. My chariot goes wherever I want, and that goes beyond Jerusalem, it goes to the Kibar Canal and I can turn wherever I wish. And it's not just any throne, it's my throne chariot, it's my power. My people may be in exile here, but I am still the sovereign ruler here, even as I am the sovereign ruler over all the earth. This is the false theology. which God is calling Ezekiel to break down, to combat. And we'll speak about this more as we go through Ezekiel, but this is how false theologies often work. False theologies are often related to common thinking of the world that surrounds the church. The reason why Israel and Judah got so sucked into the trap of this thinking that God could only be in Jerusalem, it was because that was the thinking of all the false religions that surrounded them. And they had allowed this thinking to infiltrate them. And so they took Yes, God did give a special kind of presence to Jerusalem. That's true. And so they took that teaching and then they warped it together with the false theology of their day. And they said, well, then God is only here. And God is breaking that false theology down. My throne chariot can go wherever I want it to go. My authority and my power is everywhere. And it's for my people, not just who would be conquerors in some distant land, no, it's for my people who are prisoners in a distant land. Well, that's just an introduction to something we'll speak of more as we go. But this is two plain truths that shine through this shining, mysterious, majestic, and beautiful vision. God is sovereign over all creatures. Our first point, we see that especially in his attendance, his four living creatures. God is sovereign in all places. And we see that with the four or eight wheels that can go wherever God pleases. But as we come to our third point, the great majesty and mystery and power and splendor of the attendance and of the throne chariot, well, they are nothing compared to the one who is on the throne. And while Ezekiel was struggling to understand those things, As we come to the third point, Ezekiel is now barely able to make out anything. The glory of God is blinding and literally, as we saw from 3 verse 15, overwhelming. So let's come to our third point, God's glory. We look here in verse 26, and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And notice what dominates the language of verse 27 and 28. What dominates the language is this shining. glory. Ezekiel uses words like gleaming and then fire twice and then the brightness all around he says twice and putting all this shining glory together. Ezekiel now knows whom he is seeing. This is a vision, here's the key words in the middle of verse 28, of the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And so Ezekiel responds, in the only way that anyone should respond to a vision of God Almighty, he falls down on his face, verse 28. And so then as we see that, we know that to stand in awe is an expression of our language, but perhaps we should change our theme a little bit. Fall on your face. before the transcendent majesty of the sovereign God. And notice that even the powerful attendants of the throne have quieted themselves before God. We look back at verse 25 and it says, the angel stood still, they let down their wings. You know, when we come into a church, when we come into God's presence to worship him in a particular way, in a special way, gathered together as God's people. We're not always quiet. We do things like sing together, and that's because the Bible has told us to do things like sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs together. But we also have moments where we seek to just sit in silence together. Why is that? Well, that's also part of our worship together, because of passages like this. Because scripture calls us to be quieted before God. So that when the king is standing on his throne, his very attendants quiet themselves and the text may even hint that they're covering their eyes with their wings. It doesn't say that exactly, but it may be hinting at that. And how does the prophet Habakkuk say it? He says, let the whole earth keep silent before God. This is the glorious king of all the earth. Let us worship him with holy reverence and fear and awe, knowing that he deserves all of our worship, all of our respect, all of our attention. But now let us come back to what Ezekiel does say about the appearance of the divine being. For the description is not long, and it's dominated by these words of the brightness of the glory, but the little that Ezekiel does say about the form speaks to a simplicity of form. There's no wings. There's no multiplied symbolic faces. There's no other mysterious features. No, there's a simplicity to the divine King on the throne. The shape is simple. It is the shape of a man. See again the words of verse 26. a likeness with a human appearance. This is a man. This is a man who is worthy of worship. You know, Ezekiel is not rebuked for bowing down here the way John was rebuked when he bowed down before the angel, right? The angel said, no, don't worship me. No, this is God. Ezekiel falls down to worship and that is appropriate. This is man. Who is this? This is pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. This is Jesus appearing as a man in his divine splendor before he came to be born in the likeness of a man. This is one of those times when I say, if there's one thing you take away from the sermon tonight, let it be this next two minutes. Because I want us to contemplate this. This is an overwhelming vision of glory. The attendants and the throne are magnificent in their splendor and they pale before the shining glory of the one who's actually on the throne. And this is Jesus. So take Ezekiel 1 and take the overwhelming glory of Christ's position and person and then See a baby laid in a manger. See the son of a carpenter eating with sinners and calling them to repent, healing them, walking with his disciples without a home where he can lay down his head to rest. See this divine king of all the earth. Sovereign over all creatures. Sovereign in all places. Shining with a brightness of glory such that Ezekiel cannot see through the brightness of that glory and now see him with a crown of thorns on his head. And then nails in his hands and his feet. and hanging naked on a cross and dying in humility and pain with the very wrath of God poured out against him, though he had no sin. God is far above us. And Jesus Christ came and humbled himself to save us. The man on the throne of Ezekiel 1 is the same man who was the baby in Bethlehem who was the man on the cross on Golgotha. And then, if we go three days later and we think of the empty tomb, we say, no wonder the tomb was empty. Of course the king of all authority and all power is going to conquer the grave. The the part of the life of Jesus which is difficult to believe is not the resurrection when we understand who God is right in in the world the part that's difficult to believe is the resurrection there's acknowledgment that there was a man who was named Jesus and then you know, historians will say, yeah, he was probably born in Bethlehem, and he probably died outside Jerusalem, and he was crucified by Romans. But I can't believe in the resurrection. And what do we say? We know who God is, and we know the truth that God is related to us in his word. And we say, it is not hard to see that the God of the universe could conquer the grave. What is unbelievable is the fact that he died on the cross for my sins. and that the God of the universe humbled himself to save a sinner like me. And so we ask, who are you before God? Who is any one of us before God? We are sinners called to repent, called to trust and believe in the divine being who humbled himself to die for us. Jehoiakim might be in exile and removed from his throne in the most humiliating and painful way. Jerusalem is in peril. But God is still on his throne. And God is not in peril. And God calls each one of us, whatever the external circumstances of our life are, he calls each one of us to the same thing. He calls us to repent and believe and trust in him. Amen. Let us pray. Our great God, may we stand in awe. May we fall on our face. before your transcendent glory, you are high above us. And at the same time, let us have great joy