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You can be seated. How are you
doing tonight? Blessed? All right. All right. All right. Three chapters tonight. That's
why I was asking how you were doing tonight. You like how we
did that before? Just checking with you. It was
kind of a taking your temperature just before I let you know that
we're doing three chapters tonight. So I hope you brought your pajamas
and toothbrush. And now we're doing this. We're doing this. So I chose
to take and tackle these three chapters together because they're
actually a continuation of this vision that God gave Ezekiel
that commenced in chapter eight. And these visions that God gave
to Ezekiel came by way of this supernatural transporting of
Ezekiel who at the time was captive in Babylon. And God, in the realm
of the supernatural, takes him and transports him back to Jerusalem. And the temple in Jerusalem kind
of takes him back to his old stomping grounds, in a very interesting
way, and showed him many things. And what we're about to see tonight
is a smattering of prophetic parallels with other prophecies
that poignantly point to God's judgment at the time of the end. Yay. Well, maybe I should hasten to
say that what we're going to see in these chapters, and even
as we go through these chapters, well, let me say it like this.
I hope, I pray, I think, all of us, myself included, myself
especially maybe, that we would view these chapters through the
lens of this, the last hour, an end of human history as we
know it. So we're going to see a lot of
these parallels that I mean very powerfully and even profoundly
point to our day, today, the world we're living in at this
time, at the time of the end. So why don't we pray and we'll
ask God to bless our time together in this word, if you would join
with me. Father in heaven, thank You so much. Lord, as Capono
prayed, this is our time. We need so much to have this
time. We're very protective of it because
it's the time that we can come together as a body of believers
and worship and fellowship. And now the teaching of Your
Word, Lord, and the hearing of Your Word, and taking heed to
Your Word. And there's so much here in Your
Word that You want us to see, with eyes to see, hear, with
ears to hear. And so Lord, we're just looking
to You to minister to us. And as You do, we readily admit
that our minds will wander and get distracted. And please don't
let the enemy do that. keep us focused by the Holy Spirit
so that we don't miss anything that You have for us tonight. Lord, we're really with great
anticipation looking to You to speak in that still small voice
of the Holy Spirit. Get our attention, keep our attention
as only You can, Lord, because Your servants are listening.
So speak, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, let's
jump in. Chapter nine, verse one. Then he called out in my hearing
with a loud voice, saying, Let those who have charge over the
city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. And, verse
two, suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate,
which faces north, each with his battle axe in his hand. One man among them was clothed
with linen and had a writer's ink horn at his side. They went
in and stood beside the bronze altar. By the way, Ezekiel would
have been very familiar with the layout of the temple, which
is still standing at the time. it hasn't yet been destroyed,
it will be. And he was now, if you remember, being trained for
priestly service in the temple. And he's now being taken back
to the very temple that he would have at age 30 served his priestly duties in that which
he was being trained for. He started the training at age
20. He's taken captive to Babylon,
it's believed in his mid-20s. And now some, maybe six months
has passed by, and here he is now being taken back to Jerusalem. And God is in a way showing him
what could have been, what would have been, And it is my belief
that Ezekiel is thanking God for removing him, relocating
him, uprooting him. And even if it meant being taken
captive to Babylon, because had he stayed, he would have witnessed
firsthand, probably not been alive to talk about it, he would
have witnessed firsthand the imminent destruction coming upon
Jerusalem as God's prophesied. And I wanted just to kind of
insert that because we're all, I think again, myself included,
we're too quickly disconnecting ourselves from the passage. I mean, we're reading God's Word
and there's again, I call it this disconnect because we don't,
we don't really see what's behind all of it. We're even dismissive
of disconnecting with the emotions of this young man, Ezekiel, And
what this must have been like for him, how hard this must have
been on him to see now what's going to happen, this vision,
what's going to happen to his beloved Jerusalem and the Holy
Temple of God still standing there in Jerusalem. So please
don't, don't miss that or dismiss that. Verse three, now the glory
of God, of the God of Israel, had gone up from the cherub,
where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And he called
to the man clothed with linen, who had the rider's ink horn
at his sight. And the Lord said to him, go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,
and, interesting, put a mark on the foreheads of the men who
sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. Wow. Here's our first prophetic parallel.
It points to the seventh chapter of Revelation during the seven
year tribulation, where the 144,000 are sealed on their foreheads. This is this prophetic parallel
fulfilled then literally, but yet to be fulfilled future literally
as well. So what is this mark? Well, this is very interesting.
This is where it gets really interesting. So This mark on
the forehead was the Hebrew letter T or tau, which was in the shape
of a cross on the forehead, to seal specifically those who sighed
and cried, grieved, hearts broken, devastated. because of what? The abominations that were taking
place in the temple. And they were so grieved. And
God has this guy with this marker to seal, protect specifically
these individuals with the mark on their forehead. Sounds like
the mark of the beast, right? Well, get this, Satan is the
counterfeiter. I think we get so caught up in
the mark of the beast, we forget that the mark of the beast is
actually a counterfeit, a false counterfeit of the true mark
of God. Think about that. Let that sink
in. Because these 144,000 are going to be marked. They're going
to receive a mark in their forehead. So I'm the mark of the beast.
It's the mark of the Christ. What's going to happen with those
that are marked? Nothing. What's going to happen
to those who are not marked with this mark, but marked with the
mark of the beast? Everything. One more thing here,
and I know we talked about the counterfeit authenticating the
genuine last week, but I I think I'd be grossly remiss if I didn't
at least point out that the Revelation 13 mark comes after the Revelation
7 mark. And I know that's deeply profound
that seven comes before 13. But God first marks these 144,000
and nothing happens to them because they are sealed with that mark. And it is reminiscent of, watch
this, the cross that marked the Israelites doors in the shape
of a cross with the blood of the lamb. So the angel of death
would pass over them and they would be saved and spared. That's the mark. this mark. And so too is this true for them
then, as Ezekiel has shown this vision, of these individuals
who sighed and cried. I like that. I don't know, Capone,
that could be a song. Just I'll leave that there, just
saying, sighed and cried over the abominations that took place
in the temple. Well, verse five, To the others,
he said in my hearing, Go after him through the city, and here
it is, kill. Do not let your eyes spare nor
have any pity. Utterly, verse six, slay old
and young men, maidens and little children and women, but do not
come near anyone. on whom is the mark and began
at My sanctuary. So they began with the elders
who were before the temple. You have to bear with me on this
one because we have here a second prophetic parallel. I have several. You might find more, which would
be great. But here's one that I found and
it's not so easily seen at first read. But it is a, well I dare
I say an uncomfortable prophetic parallel, even an unpopular prophetic
parallel, by virtue of how it speaks to the time of the end
when judgment begins in the house slash family of God. Now hang
on to that for a moment because this is first Peter 4 17. And we just finished first and
second Peter in a verse by verse study. But listen to verse 17
chapter four, first Peter, for it is time for judgment to begin
with the family or house of God and If it begins with us, what
will the outcome be for those who do not obey the Gospel of
God? Okay, a couple of things here.
First, I want to clarify something here that's missed in our understanding
culturally, and it has to do with the word house. In the Middle
East in that time, and it's really still the same in modern times,
when you say the house of, you're not talking about a structure
or a building, you're talking about a family. So when I was
growing up, as a kid, and all of my relatives would come over
to our house for dinner, they would say something like this
in Arabic, we're going to go to the family or house of the
father of Wahid. We're going to that family. Here's another illustration,
and I'm hoping this will make some sense. Please help me, Holy
Spirit, make some sense out of this. The Saudi family, it's
the house of Saud, not a house. It's the family of Saud, the
Saudi family, the house of Saud, Beit Saud. Dar Saud, the house
or the family. So when you read first Peter
17, don't see it as the house of God, the church of God. It's
the family of God. Because this is not the house
of the Lord. This is not His house. We're
His house. We're the temple of the Holy
Spirit. We house the Holy Spirit, if
you prefer. We're the family of God. So the
judgment is going to begin in my family, my people, the brothers
and sisters in the family of God, the Children of God. So
That kind of changes the complexion a little bit, right? Because
it's kind of generic when you say the house of God. Well, judgment
begins in the house of God. And we put the growl into it
and everything. But when you understand that
God is saying that I'm going to begin this judgment within
My people first, my sanctuary. Oh, did you catch the end? Let me just read it real quick
again of verse six. So they began with the elders.
Ooh, that's what I mean by uncomfortable. Because the elders, the teachers,
the pastors, they're held to a higher standard and judged
more strictly, as James would say. So that's where I'm going
to start now. Here's where I'm going with this.
And I said all of that to say this. I think that's happening
right now. Would you agree? There's already
now, I think, the heavy hand of God's judgment on His people. And it's beginning with the elders
and the pastors and the leaders. And the heavy hand of God is
coming down on the people of God, the family of God. And I would even venture to say
that over the last maybe three plus years we've seen this. Again, it's very, this hits home,
no pun intended. But I've watched it. There's
kind of a sifting. I'm not separating. I'm not talking
about weeds from tares. I mean, these are brothers and
sisters. These are Children of God. These are, these are believers. They're part of the family of
God. But it seems that God is going to set His own house, His
own family in order before He goes to the outside of His family. And as Peter writes, It's going
to start with us. And can you imagine if it's going
to start with us, what it's going to be like for those who are
not of us? But that makes sense, right? And is that not consistent with
who God is and how God is? When you get into the pastoral
epistles, as they're affectionately referred to, Titus and Timothy,
where they have the qualifications for the elders, They have to
have their house in order. Their families have to be in
order. Because you cannot lead in the church of God if you are
unable to lead in your own family. You're basically disqualified.
Because how do you expect to have a leadership position in
the church if you're not taking that leadership position in your
home? If your house is not order, your
family is not in order. If there's disorder, then you're
disqualified. Because everything that God does
is decently and in order. And there has to be, I'm going
a little bit further, but maybe I need to. And this is why I
just kindly ask that you bear with me. Just a little bit on
this real quick. This God ordained authority structure,
I tell you, this is why it is,
I believe, that God is now bringing about the judgment on His own
people, chief of whom are the leaders who have, you'll forgive
me, abdicated their God given authority as pastors and elders
and leaders of the church of God. And God has to deal with
that. He has to set that in order because
right now there's disorder that will always ensue because the
authority structure is the glue That's what keeps everything
in place. And when you are outside of the
spout where God's blessing comes out, you'll have nothing but
chaos and disorder. I wonder why, perhaps, could
it be that we need look no further than to this for the condition
of the church of Jesus Christ today. Sunday, I'm going to preach. I'm not
going to. We don't have, we have three chapters to go through.
Stop doing that. Maybe this is another topic for
another time. Let me just kind of close this
file real quick so we can move on and suffice it to say that
this is one of those principles that you don't break, it breaks
you. You go up against it, it's not going to end well for you.
God has set in order His structure. And when you don't fall in line
with that, or you abdicate your responsibility for that, well
then God has to, has to come in and get His own house in order,
His own family in order. And that's why the judgment will
begin. In my sanctuary, says the Lord, And among my elders,
says the Lord, it will begin with my family. Verse seven,
Then he said to them, this gets a little bit graphic, Defile
the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go out and they
went out and killed in the city. So it was that while they were
killing them, I, Ezekiel, was left alone and I fell on my face
and I cried out and I said, ha, Lord God, will You destroy all
the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem? You've got to know this is just
heart wrenching for Ezekiel. to be shown all of this. Then
he said to me, verse nine, The iniquity of the house of Israel
and Judah is exceedingly great, And the land is full of bloodshed,
And the city full of perversity. For they say, The Lord has forsaken
the land, And the Lord does not see. And, verse 10, As for me
also, my eye will neither spare, Nor will I have pity, But I will
recompense their deeds on their own head. Just then, verse 11,
the man clothed with linen, who had the ink horn at his side,
reported back and said, I have done as you commanded me. So the chapter ends with what
I'll refer to as the final report. Or if you prefer the final account. Why do I emphasize that? Because God said it, that settled
it. Let it be said, let it be done. I did what you commanded me to
do. It's done. Those are reporting back. There's
an accounting that's taking place here. Chapter 10 verse one, And
I looked, and there in the firmament that was above the head of the
cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having
the appearance of the likeness of a throne. Then he spoke, verse
two, to the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in among
the wheels under the cherub. Fill your hands with coals of
fire, from among the cherubim, and scattered them over the city. And he went in as I watched. Now, verse three, the cherubim
were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went
in, and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of
the Lord went up from the cherub and paused over the threshold
of the temple, and the house was filled with the cloud, and
the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory. And the
sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court,
like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks. Then it happened,
verse six, when He commanded the man clothed in linen. Man,
I would love to have seen this guy. Had to be awesome, right? So when he commanded the man
clothed in linen, saying, take fire, hang on to that fire for
a minute, take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,
that he went in and stood beside the wheels. And the cherub stretched
out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the
cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of
the man clothed with linen, who took it and went out. the cherubim
appeared to have the form of a man's hand under their wings. And when I looked, verse nine,
there were four wheels. This is going to sound an awful
lot like chapter one. That's because it's an awful
lot like chapter one. It's the same vision. Four wheels
by the cherubim, One wheel by one cherub and another wheel
by each other cherub. The wheels appeared to have the
color of a barrel stone. As for their appearance, verse
10, all four looked alike, as it were, a wheel in the middle
of a wheel. When they went, they went toward
any of their four directions. They did not turn aside when
they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing.
Hey, them are some wheels, They did not turn aside when they
went. And their whole body, verse 12,
with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that
the four had were full of eyes all around. As for the wheels,
they were called in my hearing, wheel. That's a firm grasp of the obvious. Verse 14, Each one had four faces. The first face was the face of
a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the
face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the
cherub, in verse 15, were lifted up This was the living creature
I saw by the river Kabar. And he's going to repeat that
again here in verse 16. When the cherubim went, the wheels
went beside them. And when the cherubim lifted
their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also
did not turn from beside them. When the cherubim stood still,
the wheels stood still. And when one was lifted up, the
other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature
was in them. Then Verse 18, the glory of the
Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over
the cherubim. And the cherubim, verse 19, lifted
their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. He's watching
all of this. When they went out, the wheels
were beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate
of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was
above them. This is the living creature I
saw under the God of Israel by the river Kibar, and I knew they
were cherubim. Each one had four faces, and
each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man
was under their wings, and the likeness of their faces was the
same as the faces which I had seen by the River Kibar, their
appearance and their persons, they each went straight forward. So that ends chapter 10 with
yet another prophetic parallel that points to how it ends with
Ezekiel's vision of the four creatures of John's revelation
vision. Let me expound just briefly on
that. And we did go in depth into this
in chapter one. But we have these same four living
creatures that are in the vision, in the revelation given to John
And these four living creatures with their four faces, their
appearances are a powerful, profound, prophetic picture of the four
Gospels. And also in the shape of a cross,
the cross of Christ is all throughout. And it's such a powerful prophetic
picture. And God is giving Ezekiel this
vision, this revelation. Why? Because He knows Ezekiel
is going to need this, as we've talked about. He's going to need
this to get through that which God has called him to. He's preparing
Ezekiel for that which is being prepared for Ezekiel, just from
here on out. And we'll see, oh yeah, next
week, spoiler alert, chapter 12. It's going to be very interesting
because he's basically now on the front lines. and visual prophecies. But he's eyeball to eyeball and
belly to belly, more so belly to belly for guys like me, with
all of these mockers, scoffers, all of these false prophets that
were telling the people there in Babylon, hey, you guys don't
buy houses, don't have Children, don't get too settled. We're
not going to be here that long. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Jeremiah, 40 plus years, said, no, we're going to be here for
a while. In fact, at my age, I'll never see Jerusalem again.
I hear Ezekiel got to see it. God took him on a round trip,
you know, to Jerusalem. But, and he got
to see it. And from what I hear, you don't
want to see it. And but all of these false prophets
were telling the people that were taken captive there in Babylon,
hey, don't listen to Jeremiah. Don't listen to Ezekiel. Don't
listen to Daniel either. Because Ezekiel is now tasked
with this calling to preach the truth and prophesy truth that
Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. You ain't going back. And even
if you were to go back, you would have nothing to go back to, because
it's just a matter of time. And it's going to be burned,
burned with fire. That's another prophetic parallel.
And this comports with Peter again. The first destruction
in God's judgment was with the flood, not again This time it
will be by fire and it will be a fire so intense with such heat
that it will melt the elements. It's going to be destroyed by
fire. A picture, a type of a prophetic parallel. And Ezekiel is being
shown this. Why? Because the time is coming,
not too far away, where Ezekiel is going to be in the, no pun
intended, heat of the battle. in the midst of all of this.
And he's prophesying this. And then it happens. It happens. And those captives in Babylon
know and hear about that which happens in Jerusalem to Jerusalem,
their temple. Oh, God would never do that.
We're His people. This is His temple. This is His
city. That's not going to happen. Don't
listen to them. Oh really? No, it will happen. And then it does happen. And
Ezekiel is going to need a strength that only comes from God to be
able to remain steadfast and stand strong in the face of all
that is going to come at him, all that he will be faced with,
all that is going to come against him. And God is giving him this
to strengthen him before he needs this. And God does that in our
lives, does He not? Because God knows the end from
the beginning. God knows what's coming in your life. and He loves
us so much, He does not want us to be ill prepared. So He's
going to go before us because He is for us, and He's going
to prepare us for that which is prepared for us. And like
with Ezekiel, He's going to allow us to see things, to strengthen
us. So there's a sense, really a
discernment of sorts, whereby you just have this sense that
God is readying me and steadying me for something. And then it
happens. And you're like, okay, now I
get it. Thank You, Lord. Because I would have been completely
blindsided by this had You not gone before me and prepared me
for this. And it's always proportionate.
And by that I mean God will proportionate to that which He's preparing
you for, He will equip you for. He's going to give you everything
you need so that you have what you need at the time that you
need it. I mean, as a parent, wouldn't
you do that for your kids? Hey, you're going to need this.
So you give what they, you know they're going to need to them
so they have it when they need it. Because I would rather you
have it and not need it than need it and not have it. And
I would be derelict That's a horror. I hate that word, by the way.
It's one of those words that just sounds horrible, doesn't
it? It's one of those words that
just, you, you're derelict. What's derelict? It's one of
those, never mind, just I don't know. Pray for me. Chapter 11 verse one, Then the
Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Lord's
house, which faces eastward. There's a lot of specificity
here. You get the impression that Ezekiel kind of knew the
layout, the lay of the land. So he brought me to the east
gate of the Lord's house. A lot of memories there. I'm
sorry, I'm kind of parenthetically speaking for Ezekiel. So he's
brought to the east gate. Oh, can you imagine Ezekiel reminiscing? Oh, I remember. This is, this is my old stomping
grounds, man. The east gate of the Lord's house,
which faces eastward, which is why it's the east gate. And I
read the verse. I'm not, that's, I didn't. And
there at the door of the gate were 25 men. Remember these guys? Among whom I saw Jazaniah the
son of Azur, And Pelletiah the son of Benaiah, Princes of the
people. Now watch this. And he said to
me, Son of man, These are the men who devise iniquity and give
wicked counsel in this city, who say the time is not near
to build houses. This city's the cauldron and
we are the meat. In other words, we're protected
as meat in the midst of the cauldron. We're untouchable. we're invincible. Nah, it's not near. It's not going to happen. Is that not a prophetic parallel?
How pronounced is this prophetic parallel? This goes back to what
I just shared with you about the judgment of God being first
in the family of God. And You've got pastors today
who are basically saying, nah, we've got another 50, 100 years. Really? Nah, it's not near. Nah, it's not going to happen. Oh yeah. Yeah, we've got to,
you know, think about the next generation. Excuse me. This is
the last generation, the chosen generation. We are at. How about that? Yeah. No, it's not. This is not. 50 years. How do you get even
20 years? I'm even going to say 10 years.
How do you get to 10 years from now? Pastor, you're getting a
little bit, you're kind of sounding a little bit like they said.
No, I'm not. No, I'm not. Sorry if that sounded
mean, but I'm not. And here's why. Because look
at just the last 10 years. Hello? And by the way, it's not an equivalent.
You cannot take the next 10 years and superimpose them on the last
10 years. It doesn't work like that. because
there's this speeding up. What's happened in the last 10
years has been exponentially faster and swifter, and it will
make the next 10 years untenable, for lack of a better word. What
do you mean? Well, first of all, you exceed what the Bible says
the time of the end will be like. Because the Bible describes what
the end will look like and be like. And that's now. Am I right? That's like right
now. This is why I refer to Bible
prophecy as having a shelf life, an expiration date. It's a strike
while the iron's hot. Everything is in motion now.
The momentum is there. Everything is in place. You can't
just push the pause button because the fast forward button has already
been pushed. It's on fast forward. And if
you fast forward another 10 years, you're past the point where the
Bible says this is the time of the end. This is the point of
the end. Just in 10 years. Can I just take it one step further?
Why not? We'll get there. Don't worry.
Don't look at your watches. 10 years ago was 2013. Oh, that was a long time ago. 2000, 10
years ago was 2013. Can I just ask you lovingly,
humbly, rhetorically, how much has happened since 2013? Well, let's just try to put it
into perspective. The technology, just the technology alone, 2013. Let me ask you this quick. Well,
do you own an electronic device that you acquired in 2013? Do you still have that? Thank
you. That answers my question. Case
closed. Enough said. I don't know why I do that to
you and to myself, but I do. Therefore, verse four, moving
right along, prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. Then the Spirit of the Lord fell
upon me and said to me, Speak. Thus says the Lord, Thus you
have said, O house of Israel, For I know the things that come
into your mind. You have multiplied your slain
in this city, And you have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore,
verse seven, Thus says the Lord God, Your slain, Whom you have
laid in its midst, They are the meat, And this city is the cauldron. But I shall bring you out of
the midst of it, You have feared the sword, and I will bring the
sword upon you, says the Lord God. And, verse nine, I will
bring you out of its midst, And deliver you into the hands of
strangers, And execute judgments on you. You shall fall by the
sword. I will judge you at the border
of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. This city, verse 11, shall not
be your cauldron, Nor shall you be the meat in its midst. You see what God just did there?
Here they're using this, this analogy, this saying at the time,
you're as safe as meat in the cauldron. And God said, no, you're
not. That's what you think. Oh, really?
Well, you're not the meat in the midst of the cauldron safe.
No, you are the cauldron, and I'm going to take the meat and
out of its midst, and I will judge you at the border of Israel.
And you shall know, verse 12, that I am the LORD, for you have
not walked in My statutes nor executed My judgments, but have
done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all
around you. This is sadly yet another prophetic
parallel that's tucked into these verses. And it's that of the
last days church becoming like the world all around it. And
that's all. I won't, I could, you know, I
could. I'm very capable. It's a gift.
I won't, but I will say this. You don't have to look too far. The church has become like the
world to win the world, but will never win the world. Because
why would the world want to go to the church when it's like
the world? Let me try that again. I can maybe say the same thing
a better way. So the church has become like
the Gentiles all around them. So we need to kind of get with
the program here. We need to up our game and we
need to get some fast moving music and And we need to keep
it moving, keep it fast. We need to be relevant, relevant.
That's what we need to be relevant. You know, seeker sensitive. We
need to be seeker sensitive to the culture. So we just got to
tone it down, kind of soften it up. So it's more amicable,
more palatable. So people will want to come because,
I mean, Come on, you think people are going to want to come on
a Thursday night no less. You know what's on TV on Thursday
night? This is before Netflix. I know I'm old fashioned. Wait, for what? Well, there's
going to be this really neat heart for worship, worship leader
that loves the Lord with all of his heart. That's going to
just simply worship and lead people into worship. Wait, you
don't have a band and a smoke machine and a strobe light? No,
not here. Wow. And then you're going to get
a guy, get a load of this guy. He's going to get up there and
he's going to go on and on and on in the Old Testament. You know the Old Testament? The
thing about the Old Testament is it's old. Come on, three chapters. Yeah, no, that's not for me. I'm not feeling it. Oh really? So here's the pastor now, and
I do feel genuinely sorry for them because I know of the pressure
that is on them. So they lose confidence in the
power of the Word of God. And they resort to all of these
other gimmicks and become like the world under the banner of
wanting to be attractive to the world, sensitive to the world. And so the world's going, well,
why bother? I mean that There's no difference. There's no contrast. There's
no, I mean, you're too much like the world God is calling me out
of. You're bringing me right back
into it. And by the way, it's, when the church tries to compete
with the world, it ain't going to happen. And this is my, this
is personally my problem, the problem I have. And this is between
me and the Lord. I'm just being very open with
you. I have a real problem with motion pictures that try to compete
with satanic Hollywood, because they end up doing more damage
than good. The acting is horrible. I'm sorry.
It's horrible. And it's, you're trying, wait,
you're trying to, no. Why don't you just preach the
Word? Stop trying to be like them. Be like the Gentiles all around
you. Do according to what they do. Well, this is what the world
does. Well, don't do that. Why do you want to do that? You're
watering it down. You're marring it. You're profaning
it. You know what profaning means?
It means to make common. You're bringing it down to a
lower level. That's profane. You're making
it common. It's sacred. It's holy. It's
holy. And one last thing. Famous last words, one last thing,
you know. And again, I do know the pressure,
and I'm not above it. It is crushing the pressure as
a pastor, especially in this world that we're living in, to
acquiesce to this and lose confidence. And you know what? I'm just going
to keep my hands to the plow. I'm going to preach the Word.
I'm going to stay true to the Word of God. because the Word
of God will never return void. And I don't care. I might be
in Ezekiel. Or how about the book we just
finished before Ezekiel, Lamentations. Is that even a book? Yeah. How
about the book of Numbers? What's that about? Numbers. One of the most fascinating books
in all of the Bible. How about you just trust the
Word of God and the God of the Word and let Him do what He's
going to do? Because God's Word is alive.
You don't have to help God out. Just let the Word out. Let the
lion out. I hate clocks. There's no clocks
in heaven, by the way. Do you know that? Right? Makes
sense, right? Because it's eternity. There's
no time. Nobody's going to have a watch
in heaven, that alone. Verse 11, This city shall not
be your cauldron. Did I already do that one? I
did. And you shall. I already did that one. Okay,
well, why am I going backwards then? Verse 13, Now it happened
while I was prophesying that Pelletiah the son of Benaiah
died. Then I fell on my face and cried
with a loud voice and said, oh Lord God, will You make a complete
end of the remnant of Israel? One of the reasons why I wanted
to bring in the emotions of this man, this young man, Ezekiel,
is because he knew these guys. This wasn't just his old stomping
grounds. These are, these are his friends. and He knows them. Can you imagine
how hard that would have been? I would venture to say He knew
this Pelletiah, the son of Benaiah, and he dies. No wonder Ezekiel
cries. What? Will you make a complete
end of the remnant of Israel? Again, the Word of the Lord came
to me saying, verse 14, Son of man, verse 15, your brethren,
your relatives, your countrymen, and All the house of Israel in
its entirety are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem
have said, Get far away from the Lord. This land has been
given to us as a possession. Therefore say, verse 16, Thus
says the Lord God, Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles,
And although I have scattered them among the countries, Yet
I shall be a little sanctuary for them, in the countries where
they have gone. Don't miss this in verse 15. They're the ones that said, get
away from me, Lord. I'm not going to force myself
on them, Ezekiel. I'm not going to make a complete
end of them. I am going to be a little sanctuary for them in
the countries where they've gone. I'm not going to forsake my people.
They've forsaken me. they've turned their backs on
Me. Therefore, verse 17, say, Thus
says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble
you from the countries where you have been scattered, and
I will give you the land of Israel. And they will go there, and they
will take away, ah, all its detestable things and all its abominations
from their Ooh, can't wait. Did that happen? You better believe
it happened. Then, keyword verse 19, then
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within
them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give
them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes, and
keep My judgments, and do them, and they shall be My people,
and I will be their God. This is what I've wanted all
along, Ezekiel. I want to restore them. And this is a magnificent prophetic
parallel that points to the end, when at the end of the tribulation,
God restores Israel. He's going to restore them. The
whole house of Israel, family of Israel will be saved. At the
end of the tribulation, when He restores them, they shall
be My people and I will be their God. Here's the thing, Ezekiel,
I have an everlasting covenant with them. You know what an everlasting
covenant is? Again, I know deeply profound,
but it's a covenant that lasts forever, forever. And it's a covenant. And God
can't break His covenant with His people. God is not through
with the Jew, as some would have you to believe, by the way. It's
a very demonic teaching, false teaching called replacement theology,
where the church replaces the Jew as God's people. Don't do that. No wonder you've
got to go through the tribulation. Because if you replace the Jewish
nation and the purpose of the tribulation is for the salvation
of the Jewish nation, then I guess you're going into the tribulation.
That's why the replacement theology false teachers will never talk
about or teach a pre tribulation rapture. They can't, because
it doesn't fit their twisted theology. They've twisted eschatology
into a false prophetic pretzel. Wow, that got a ring to it too. Take that note too Capone. I
don't know if you can work that in. Pretzel and cried and sighed. That's too much. Verse 21, But
as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable
things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds
on their own heads, says the Lord. God, it's their choice. Choose you this day whom you're
going to serve. As for me and my house, my family,
we're going to serve the Lord. It's your choice. I've given
you free will. I'm not going to force my will
on you. So it's your choice. So verse
22, Ezekiel continues, this is the flight, return flight. So the
cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them,
and the glory of the God of Israel was high above them. And the
glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood
on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city. Then,
verse 24, the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision
by the Spirit of God into Chaldea to those in captivity. And this
time at least he didn't take them by the hair, No, on the
trip there to Jerusalem from Babylon, he picks him up by his
hair. Come on, let's go. Well, this
time he just takes him up. I don't know, maybe they ripped
the hair out. Never mind. Brings in a vision by the Spirit
of God. He's taking back to now Babylon, to those in captivity.
And the vision that I had seen went up from me. So, verse 25,
last verse, I spoke to those in captivity of all the things
the Lord had shown me. Who's he talking about? Well,
now that he's back, he's sitting with the elders. Remember he
was in the house with these guys. his friends. And he's just been
taken and shown all of these things. And now he's taken back
and he's going to now speak to them about all the things the
Lord had shown me. That's the last prophetic parallel
we end with. And it points to the end, which
speaks to the paramount importance of speaking about and teaching
on Bible prophecy. Now, you know, I could go on
another hour just on that. I won't. There's hope. But there's
another one for you. I hope it doesn't sound like
I'm beating up on the church. I'm really not. But this is an
indictment on the church. you would not even believe, and
I'll close with this, you would not even believe the voluminous
emails and comments we receive on a daily basis. I'm not exaggerating
when I say this. It's over 1000 emails that we
receive or comments on a daily basis. Do you know what percentage
of those say something to this effect? Nobody's talking about
Bible prophecy. Yeah, because I guess they think
we've got another 50 years. So just chill out, calm down,
carry on. Nothing to see here. Nothing
to see here. Excuse me, you're not going to
talk about Bible prophecy? at a time when Bible prophecy
is being fulfilled at breakneck speed? What is up with that? Boy, I tell you, the Lord has
to and has. He's always so gracious and gentle
when He does. But He's just had to settle my
heart. And I think I've shared this before. That's not on me. That's not on me. What's that
to you? When Peter was all upset about
Jesus telling John something. There was a, I know they loved
each other, Peter and John. But I think at the beginning
they had issues, those guys. I don't think, I think it was
a testy relationship between Peter and John. Because you read
John's gospel and he's not very, doesn't shed Peter in a very
favorable light, you know. It's like, and it's very subtle,
you know. And the disciples and Peter,
No, for real. And not just once, several times.
The disciples and Peter, you know, and then when on Resurrection
morning, on that Sunday morning, John in his gospel makes it very
clear that he got to the tomb before Peter did. I don't know. I'm just saying there's something
there. So what's your point, Pastor? And will you please close
like you said? Yes, I will. Um, you're in a time for which the
Bible has more to say than any other period of time in human
history. And you're not talking about
it. Here's how God settled me and has to, it's a process continually,
key word continually. when John was told by Jesus,
just between the two of them, Peter heard it. And then Peter
went to Jesus and said, what's up with this? And what was Jesus'
response to Peter? What's that to you? Well, guess
who's Peter in this story? Lord, they're not teaching Bible
prophecy. What's that to you? You just
do what I've called you to. You don't worry about them. That's between me and them. That
settles me. It's kind of like good. It's between you and God, bro.
He just said it's between you guys. But anyway, I better end. I'm going
to get myself in a lot of trouble. I'm already in trouble. Capone,
come on up, stand up. Thank you for your grace, your
patience. You're very gracious to me, very patient with me and
my idiosyncrasies, of which there are many. Father in heaven, thank
You. Wow, wow, wow, wow. A lot here
tonight, Lord, and certainly it parallels everything that
is happening in our world today, and rightfully so. Lord, I pray
that we'll take this to heart and take heed to this. And Lord, if anything, I pray that
it just brings into clearer focus Bible prophecy in the time of
the end that we're living in now. Just the parallels that
resembled the time of the end for them then, and how it looks
and is at this time now. So Lord, thank You. Thank You
so much for showing us that which You showed to Ezekiel, so that
we could see what's coming. And if anything, I'm sure it
had the effect on Ezekiel that it should also have on us. And
that effect was to have Ezekiel just finally let go of his beloved
Jerusalem and the temple that he would have served in. Lord,
I pray that that's the effect that this has on us, that we
let go of this world, the things of this world, knowing that we're
not here for much longer at all. that we would not hold on too
tightly, because this is not our home. We're just passing
through. Thank you for that much needed
reminder, Lord, tonight, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Prophetic Parallels Pointing to the End
Series Mid Week
Pastor JD explains how Ezekiel's visions are prophetic parallels with other prophecies that point to the judgment of God at the time of the end.
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Prophecy Website: http://jdfarag.org
| Sermon ID | 512231711215516 |
| Duration | 1:08:06 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Ezekiel 9-10 |
| Language | English |
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