Amen. Let us turn to Ezekiel chapter twenty-two. Ezekiel chapter twenty-two. Looking at verses thirteen to verse thirty-one. We'll especially look at those verses but we'll read the chapter in its entirety. That's page 899 in many of the blue ESV Bibles. Page 899 in many of the Bibles. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Chapter 22. We'll read from verse one. We will focus on verses 13 to the end. Let us hear the word of God. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, And you, son of man, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations. You shall say, Thus says the Lord God, a city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself. You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed and defiled by the idols that you have made. You have brought your days near. The appointed time of your years has come. Therefore, I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you. Your name is defiable. You are full of tumult. Behold, the princes of Israel and you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you. The sojourner suffers extortion in your midst. The fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy names and profaned my Sabbaths. There are men in you who slander to shed blood and people in you who eat on the mountains. They commit lewdness in your midst. In you, men uncover their father's nakedness. In you, they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife. Another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law. Another in you violates his sister, his father's daughter. In you they take bribes to shed blood. You take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion. But me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God. Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst. Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it. I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you. And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the LORD. And the word of the LORD came to me, Some of man the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, and tin, and iron, and lead in the furnace. They are dross of silver. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem, as one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace to blow a fire on it in order to melt it. So, I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD. I have poured out my wrath upon you. And the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured human lives. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. Her princes have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common. Neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. And they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves, tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. and her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, Thus says the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads. the lord god. So far, the reading of god's holy and infallible word. Dear congregation of our lord Jesus Christ in the past in the people in the history of god's people, god has used the image of a refining furnace silver and silver and he's used this to speak of god's deliverance for his people and of them as his treasured possessions and so, for example, when Moses is speaking to the people just before they enter the promised land, Moses says this in Deuteronomy four verse twenty but the lord has taken you and brought you out of to be a people of His own inheritance, as you are this day." And there are other texts as well in the Old Testament that speak with this kind of language. Israel is God's precious silver, His treasured possession. The furnace is Egypt, from which God delivered them. So, in our text tonight, we have what the warning of Deuteronomy chapter eight verse nineteen foretold. Deuteronomy eight verse nineteen. Moses said this to the same people. He said, and if you forget the lord your god and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you And so the Lord, hundreds of years later, will now make the promised land, the furnace. The furnace will no longer be Egypt, the furnace will be Jerusalem itself. and no longer are god's people is silver delivered from the furnace of egypt they are now the waste product that's what the end of verse 18 means my my great great grandfather i haven't i haven't even double checked what his generation was was a smith he was a blacksmith i am not uh so the image of this Uh text does not come naturally to me but even just look at it. Verse eighteen, the end of verse eighteen, the dross of silver. That means everything except the silver. The dross of silver is the waste product. It is that which is refined out. They are no longer the precious silver of god delivered from the furnace of Egypt. They are now in They are now the dross of silver, which is everything but the silver that is refined. And so, where there is sin, the sin which has been pouting up through the years and the centuries of rebellion, the sin for which God will now destroy this wicked generation, It is pictured vividly in our text and our theme is this. The wrath of god must be satisfied and we're going to look at first cap images of judgment. That's mostly the image of the blacksmith of the smelting uh iron but there is uh another brief image as well and then you know, what is god's wrath coming against? It's god's wrath against sin. It's our second point and then our third point is the question. Is there a man to stand in the breach? Is there a man to stand in the breach and if we think about sin and deliverance from sin, Uh we're we're going to look at that answer in detail but I think even our younger members, they know the answer that we are working to and our one and only savior. Uh but first, we look at the images of judgments and that god's wrath is against sin. Beginning with point one, images of judgment. And especially it is this image of the furnace, of the smelter, of the smith, verses 17 to 22. And God himself is the blacksmith. He is the one who is gathering the metal together. He's the one who is blowing the fire to increase the heat. And again, I'm not the blacksmith. It's not the easiest for me to grab ahold of this text. It has been pointed out that you can work through even the various stages of the reclining process. You can pick them out from these verses. I'm just going to focus on the big picture. And the big picture is this. God is gathering the raw materials together. We see that especially in verses nineteen and twenty and god is melting those metals down. He's blowing on the fire to increase the heat and we see that especially at the end of verse twenty through verse twenty-two uh but which is the verse that kind of summarizes it and gives a summary of the process, the people are not the precious silver, they are only the dross of silver. And as the people are gathered together, like the smith gathers together his raw materials, when they're gathered together into Jerusalem, they're only being gathered together into the furnace. As we sometimes see in the word of God, the picture is defined for us. Look in verse 19, the end of verse 19. Behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. In other words, there's no need to guess, there's no need for interpretation. That's what leads into verse 20. The furnace is Jerusalem. So, when Nebuchadnezzar comes with his armies and he's coming in the very near future, when the people flee to the city walls and seek refuge in the city walls of Jerusalem, God is saying, all you are doing is coming into the furnace of judgment. Jerusalem will not stand. Jerusalem will not save you. There is another matter which is not left to interpretation and that is the repeated reference to the wrath of god. See at the end of verse twenty, the middle of verse twenty-one, and at the end of verse twenty-two, what is the fire of the furnace? It is the fire of the wrath of god. It is not left to interpretation. This defines for us. brothers and sisters, as precious as the covenant promises of God are. And as especially set up and blessed the city of Jerusalem was, the Scriptures make it clear that we cannot presume upon covenant promises as precious as the celebration of the covenant of baptism is. We cannot presume upon the covenant promises. There cannot be presumption. We cannot be assuming what God will or what God must do. We might assume that because we go to church we are safe. We might assume that because my sin is not the same kind of sin as other people, that everything is fine. These are two common and dangerous presumptions which are rebuked and taken down in our text. Do you presume upon God? Just because you have been baptized, just because you have partaken of the cup and bread of the Lord, that in itself cannot make you righteous. There must be humility. instead of presumption. There must be true repentance whether you are part of the covenant community or not part of the covenant community. The call is the same in the matter of there must be true repentance, true trust in god. This is one of the texts that makes that truth uncomfortably clear. Jerusalem is the furnace. The fire is god's wrath. and there's a second briefer image in verse twenty-four. Uh very simply, it is the image of rain as judgment and so we have an allusion to the flood of Genesis but again, God is saying, no, it's the covenant land. It's the promised land which needs to be cleansed. And so, as I once sent a flood of judgment upon the world, saving only eight persons, I am now sending the rain of judgment to cleanse, to clean the promised land. It is the very promised land itself which has been defiled and must be cleansed. There is no room for any smugness with God. One cannot deny God, one cannot pretend with God, one cannot presume upon God. We must only be humble and kind with the humility of true faith before God. It is the only stance that we can have before Him. Then we can have assurance instead of presumption. then we can have assurance instead of... assuming and we'll talk about that more towards our conclusion but for now, let's come to our second point. God's wrath is against sin. We have these very clear images of god's wrath verses seventeen through twenty-four and in the verses on either side of that, we have catalogs of sin. The wrath of god never comes without reason before the fall of Genesis three before sin, there was only only very good blessings and then even immediately after the fall, what does god do? He has to leave out of the garden but he does not immediately put them to death. Immediately, his grace is shown. The first seed of the gospel is declared in their presence and ever since the fall, we see time and time again, the patience of god, slow to wrath, slow to punish sin, and abounding in mercy and steadfast love. And so it's coming, not haphazardly, it's coming for a reason. There's, we might say, two catalogs of sin. One is in verses three to 13, that's been called the first catalog of sins. And just to very quickly summarize it, it's been summarized, this relates especially to the holiness code in the book of Leviticus. There's a whole series of moral and ceremonial sins. and and that's the reason why god's hand will strike. God says, I will strike my hand uh and this is what because of the blood that is in your midst and that language of blood takes us back to to the first two and three and and four and and and ties it together and it says, it's because of this first catalog of sins. That's why my that judgment comes. And then there's a second catalog of sins in verses 23 to 29. So we have one catalog of sins before the images of judgment, and we have a second catalog, a second list of sins after the images of judgment. And in verses 23 to 29, the focus is especially upon injustice. uh and uh the abuse of positions of authority and influence. Uh verse twenty-five uses the word prophets. Uh many uh commentators agree that uh it should be the word princes there and even specifically a reference to the royal house and so we move from the the perversions of those who should be This relates back to chapter 19 and the lament for the princes. We didn't look at that chapter, but it relates to that if anybody reads chapter 19 and wants to make this connection. But instead of being noble lions, They are just predators with their teeth tearing the prey and devouring human lives. But then it moves from the princes, the royal house, to a rebuke of the priests, verse 26. a rebuke of the princes, verse 27, and now it's a Hebrew word that refers more broadly to any political leader, and then a rebuke of the prophets, verse 28, and then a rebuke of the people of the land, verse 29. The people of the land is almost a term in the Hebrew, it's about as close as you can get to referring to the middle class of ancient Israel. It's a very small group of people who still have certain measures of influence and authority. And so it's a focus on injustice especially. We can think of the oppression of widows from verse 25 down through the acts done without justice at the end of verse 29. And so what happens when we put these things together? There's other things going on, but we're not gonna zoom in on any of the details. Broadly speaking, we have a first catalog of sins, which includes all kinds of moral and ceremonial sins. And we have a second catalog of sins, which is focused on sins of injustice and a lack of mercy. Ezekiel is comprehensive. in his rebuke of sin. Ezekiel is balanced in his rebuke of sin. There are there are all kinds of sin in this world and it's very easy for us to to zoom in on certain kinds of sin or certain areas of sin. but Ezekiel gives a full and And this, again, is the reason why the judgment is coming. It is true that not every single individual in Jerusalem was involved in all of these things. But to think back to the language of chapter 9, verse 5, there were only a few who groaned over all the abominations that were committed in Jerusalem. There were only a few who saw all these sins and groaned and mourned. and were saddened at the sin of the land. This is why judgment comes. But then before we come to our third point, brothers and sisters, again, we must have a full view of sin. And what would the apostle Paul tell us in Ephesians chapter two, he would tell us that this means that we don't just read a catalog of sins and think, well, that's the sin of another, that's the sin of another, that's the sin of another. It means that we see that we are all dead in sins. That's the link to Ephesians two verse one. And more directly related to our text is the apostle Paul saying two verses later in Ephesians two verse three, he says that we were all By nature, children of wrath. What does that mean? It means that we're all under the wrath of God's sin. Each one of us, apart from God, is under the just penalty of the wrath of God against sin. We need a savior. And now we come to our third point. god's wrath. Is there a man to stand in the breach? Well, first, let's think about what the breach is. In chapter twenty-one, there's an image of judgment which is tied to the sword of an army and there's reference to the sword of king Babylon but there's especially this truth that the sword is god's own sword. It's god's own by using the image of the breach in the wall. In verse 30, Ezekiel has really come back to that image of the sword in chapter 20, because this is a military image. In days of old, you didn't have missiles that you could fire, you didn't have planes, and you couldn't parachute. The wall was a critical part of the city's defense, and it was very difficult to attack a walled city. But what happens when there's one breach in the wall? What happens when you're sitting in the city that's been besieged and and the the wall has been keeping the end of the army away from you but now their siege weapons have worked and there is one breach. There is one hole in the wall. Well, what's of the invading army, the entire sword of judgment is going to descend on that one point. It's all going to be focused in on a single breach. And the invading army is just going to pour through it and try to punch through that hole to get it to the wall. You've survived through the lack of bread with the siege and now there's a breach in the wall. Now, it's not just a siege that cut you off from bread but now the entire force of the enemy is focused in on one point. If a soldier defending the city stands in You can't expect a single soldier to stand in that pole and to defend against the entire invading army pouring into one point. A soldier knows to stand in the breach. That's a sacrificial position. How long will he defend the city? But of course, it's a picture. from the reality of ancient warfare, which is really a spiritual picture. And that is clear in verse 31. What are we still talking about? We're still talking about a breach, a hole into which what is poured out? God's indignation, God's wrath. Verse 31 makes it clear. Verse 30 is a spiritual picture. Now, brothers and sisters, do you see exactly where this text takes us? Do you see Jesus on every page of scripture? Do you see Jesus very clearly on this page of scripture? There is a breach. There is a hole where the entire wrath of God is going to be poured out onto a focused point. Is there one man who can stand there to defend all of the inhabitants who are within the walls. Where is a single place that the wrath of God was poured out on a focused, single person? It's Jesus Christ on the cross. and it's the very wrath of God which is poured out on that one breach, that one hole where hanging on the cross, which was a sign of taking the curse. Jesus Christ said, I will suffer hell. I will ascend into hell. The very God against him will be poured out on one person, on one place, and focused in. It's a sacrificial act. It's an act which takes Jesus Christ to his death. Where is the man who can stand in the breach against the wrath of God? He is not yet alive in the days of Ezekiel. He is the Messiah. And he will come. And he will willingly stand in the breach for your sins and for my sins. All the wrath of God is poured out upon you. And there is a sacrificial death. And then, you see, it's, it is, it is a picture which takes us to Christ and it takes us to Christ in a very specific way. It's a, it's a picture of his propitiatory sacrifice. It is the wrath of god poured out on Jesus Christ. And it is as the apostle Paul once said in 2 Corinthians five verse twenty-one, for our sake he made him, Jesus Christ, to be no, to be so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So we said earlier, there is a difference between presumption and assurance. What is the critical difference? It is to have our eyes upon Jesus Christ. It's to have our eyes upon that cross where he stood at the breach for our sins. And so presumption assumes that my own sins are not a big problem, but assurance looks only to the righteousness which is not my own, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Presumption assumes that my place, my residence within the walls of Jerusalem, my pew within the church gives me peace, but assurance looks for peace. only at the place of Golgotha where Jesus Christ died on the cross. Then we look at what Jesus Christ has done and we know that he not only died on the cross, he not only took the wrath of God against sin, but he also rose from the grave. He also went out in victory and he won life for all his people. He didn't just stem the tide, he also rose to give life and deliverance. So, brothers and sisters, see the reality of the weight of the wrath of God and the very specific way Ezekiel 22 anticipates Jesus Christ and his work of propitiation, taking the very wrath of God upon himself. So, see the way to the wrath of god. No need for true repentance but if you repent, then know there is life. Christ did that willingly. He stood in the breach out of his love for us. It's not how you see Christ. you, delivering you, saving you, sacrificing yourself. for you. He is the only righteousness. He stands in the breach. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our lord. There are many ways for us to of Christ's work on the cross. Tonight, may the truth of his wrath bearing sacrifice be very clear in our hearts and minds. and may we indeed repent and trust in him, the only righteous one. and may we rejoice in his great