If you'd like to obey your heads and pray with me.
Gracious Father, we ask that you might send your spirit to us now as we have your word
in front of us so that as we hear, give us this blessing we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
On the eve of a desert storm in January 1991, President Bush Sr. said it was America's
responsibility as the leader of the world to protect Kuwait.
It would seem from that statement that the United States had a particular view of itself.
Before they, and I think that view flows out of a little bit of their history, because
they had won the Second World War, they were the economic powerhouse of the world at the
time and they had Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Maybe there was a culture of arrogance and presumption that they would always be on top
of the world.
Is it justified?
When you think about in reality, in terms of the world history, they had been a world player
for about 90 years.
In that time, they were defeated in Vietnam.
They'd been sorely bruised in Korea, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
And yet you get a sense, if you've ever visited the United States, that there will always be
on top of the world.
Part of it is also of their theological framework, where, like on their banknote, in God we trust,
but the assumption is that God is always on our side.
We are the good guys against the bad guys.
Now, United States, in the grand scheme of things, might not be justified thinking the
way that they do, but two and a half thousand years ago, God's people did.
They had, in fact, had the promised land and they had been on top of the world for a thousand
years.
Something that Hitler wanted to do.
And Israel had been there for a thousand years.
And maybe they thought they were always going to be on top because in the middle of their
capital, Jerusalem, stood a temple.
And in that temple, God ruled and God would never allow his city to fall.
Such was their arrogance and their complacency and apathy as the people of God.
It, in fact, came to an abrupt ending, as we saw last week in 597 BC.
The Babylonians swept through Judah, captured large elements of the aristocracy and the
academics and the leaders, and they took them off to Babylon, one of which was Ezekiel.
And so the question is that, well, what's going back in Jerusalem?
What's happening back there in Jerusalem?
How are they getting on?
Those who weren't deported, how are they getting on?
Well, as it turns out, they thought that everything was still okay.
As I mentioned last week, there are people like the prophet Hananiah back in Jerusalem
saying things like, don't worry, be happy.
We've still got the temple.
It's still there.
God's still with us.
We'll never be defeated.
Those who were deported were probably the ungodly ones.
It's a terrible arrogance.
Because as we discover here that all is not peace and safety back in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel is commissioned.
We're doing basically chapters 2 to 32 today.
So it would be great if you had your Bibles in front of you.
And my extensive reading is going to be hopefully packaged down into something slightly over 30 minutes today.
So have your Bibles in front of you.
Ezekiel is commissioned in chapter 2.
He is told that what is in front of him is an extremely difficult task.
In fact, it says that if he'd been called to be a cross-cultural missionary,
it would have been a whole lot easier job than being the pastor of these people.
It says this in chapter 3, verses 5 to 7.
You are not being sent to a people who are obscure speech and difficult language,
but to the house of Israel.
Not too many peoples are obscure speech and difficult language,
whose words you cannot understand.
Surely if I sent you to them,
they would have listened to you.
But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you,
because they are not willing to listen to me.
For the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate.
The message of these chapters that we're scanning today is that God is angry with his people.
They are hardened to his word.
And in chapter 16, you can see why God was feeling the way he was.
You don't need to move there.
I'll give you a bit of a picture.
He paints a terrible picture in chapter 16 of this relationship between God and his people.
The story there in chapter 16, the analogy is of a baby.
A little baby girl that's cast aside in her birth.
She's been born and thrown aside into the bushes.
She's still covered in all the muck from birth,
crying out, just dumped there, uncared for, unloved, abandoned.
And then God comes along and takes up this little girl.
He washes her.
He nurtures her.
He protects her and comforts her.
Nourishes her as she grows up.
God, watch this little girl grows up into her childhood and then into adulthood.
And God adorns her with jewellery and lavishes love on her.
But instead of love and appreciation and faithfulness in return, she becomes a prostitute.
She, in fact, rejects her divine lover, if you like.
And so God feels like the husband's scorned, the rejected husband.
Chapter 8, flick over there, describes, if you like, how their unfaithfulness to God works itself out.
But the first three verses reveal that Ezekiel receives visions of God,
where he's taken from the Kibar River to Jerusalem.
And he gets a vision of what God wants him to see back in Jerusalem.
And he's taken to the temple in Jerusalem.
He's shown three things in the temple in Jerusalem.
The first is in verse 5.
Then he said to me, son of man, look towards the north.
And so I looked.
And in the entrance north of the gate of the altar, I saw this idol of jealousy.
And so he's standing inside the north gate.
Ezekiel looks to the north as instructed.
And he sees what is most likely the statue of a Canaanite mother goddess.
A crude Canaanite symbol of fertility.
It is referred here as the idol of jealousy.
Because if Ezekiel had instead looked to the south,
he would have seen, standing there in the opposite from this idol,
in full view of this idol, a symbol that represented God's presence in his place.
You see, Yahweh, the husband of Israel, joined to her by solemn covenant,
had demanded exclusive allegiance from his people.
Exclusive devotion.
And yet, like a brazen hussy, she was openly committing adultery in his house.
In fact, in the living room of the house, in full view of her husband, as it were.
Then down in verse 10, Ezekiel has shown another thing.
So I went in and I looked and I saw portrayed all over the walls,
all kinds of crawling fiends and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.
And so, not only this crude fertility symbol, but in God's temple,
Egyptian animal gods are being worshipped.
It also says there, linked with that, that while they are appearing,
there are priests there while appearing to perform service to Yahweh,
each one of these priests, the elders of the people,
are pursuing their own personal idols and preferences in his house.
And so, bit by bit, Ezekiel was just more shocked by what he saw.
Behind each door of the temple, gradually, God was bringing him in,
showing him more and more detestable things.
He showed another thing in verse 16.
So, step by step, God is bringing his prophet Ezekiel closer to the central sanctuary of the temple,
the holy of holies, and God draws Ezekiel's attention to a group of men,
standing, most likely the priests again,
standing on the very threshold of the temple buildings.
This is the place where these people would normally plead to Yahweh for the pardon of the people for their sin.
Forgive us, Lord, for our idolatry and our arrogance and our sinfulness.
And here they are, standing there, but instead they've got their backs to the altar,
and instead they're looking to the east and they are worshipping their son.
Verse 17 sums it up.
Have you seen this, son of man?
Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do detestable things they are doing here?
Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger?
Look at them putting the branch to their nose.
Now that last phrase is pretty difficult to understand,
but it most likely means they're a stench to my nose.
Instead of being in the temple and in their worship,
being a fragrant offering to the Lord,
they are a stench to his nose.
They're rebelling against God,
they've got their backs to God,
they're prostituting themselves with God,
and they're doing it all in the name of their religion.
And it stinks, is what God says.
And so in chapter 9,
the glory of God is avenged.
It was what was read out to us a moment ago.
And it is a terrible chapter that describes
God devastating his people in judgment.
In verses 1 and 2,
we're introduced to seven soldiers.
These are not human soldiers.
They are seven archangels
whose normal function is to defend God's people.
And here they are, given new orders.
Their job now is to, in fact,
stop protecting God's people
and to attack God's people.
It is to execute judgment on them.
And then we notice something happens in verse 3.
This is, take note of verse 3.
Now the glory of the Lord of Israel
went up from above the cherubim,
where it had been,
and moved to the threshold of the temple.
Notice that.
Notice that point.
It's the first step of God withdrawing from his people.
And what happens when God withdraws from his people?
Verse 5,
Five, the seven soldiers execute judgment on them.
Without showing pity or compassion,
slaughter old men, young men and maidens,
women and children,
but do not touch anyone who has the mark.
Notice verse 4.
The godly are afforded protection.
Then the Lord called to the man,
clothed in linen,
who had the riding kit at his side,
and said to him,
Go throughout the city of Jerusalem
and put a mark on the foreheads of those
who grieve and lament
over all the detestable things that are doing in it.
Notice the criteria that God uses
to instruct these men
to distinguish between those who receive judgment
and those who receive the mark.
Notice the criteria.
It is those who grieve and lament
over all the detestable things that are done.
That's the difference.
What God expects of his faithful people
in days of national, moral, and spiritual degeneration
is descent.
That's what he expects of his people.
He expects us to emphatically reject the values
and the practices of a pagan, irreligious, secular world.
That is, a refusal to be conformed by them.
He looks for a measure of disgust
and a deeply felt sense of horror and outrage
of what is happening in his world.
A feeling of distress and grieving and lamenting.
Let me just clarify that, what I've just said.
God is not impressed by Pharisees.
What God seeks are people who express their rejection
and their moral outrage
not by a sanctimonious, holier-than-thou attitude
but by an agonizing sorrow of heart.
A person who has an agonizing sorrow of heart
actually recognizes there is, in fact,
solidarity in all sin.
That is, I am a sinner too.
That is, they feel ashamed and disgusted
with their society
rather than simply for their society.
When you're disgusted with your society,
you will do whatever you can,
like we looked at last week,
Jeremiah 28, 29,
I can't remember exactly where it is,
seek the blessing of the city.
You will work for God's glory in the city.
When you're disgusted for your society,
you withdraw away from them
and have your little holy club.
And the picture here, as we can see,
moving to chapter 10,
goes from bad to worse.
As the slaughter continues
and the fire takes hold,
Ezekiel watches the glory of God
makes its next move
in departing from the people.
Chapter 10, verse 4
describes what we already know.
God has moved from the most holy place
to the edge of the temple precincts.
Then down in verse 18,
then the glory of the Lord
departed from over the threshold of the temple
and stopped above the cherubim.
And then there's a further move in verse 19,
while I watched the cherubim spread their wings
and rose from the ground,
as they went,
the wheels went with them.
They stopped at the entrance
to the east gate of the Lord's house
and the glory of the Lord of Israel
was above them.
And so the unthinkable has happened.
God has left his temple via the east gate.
God is not there.
It is shocking.
And notice what happens
when God leaves through the east gate.
Standing at the east gate
is a group of pompous men
engaging,
they're engaged in planning their future,
apparently unaware
of the mayhem in the city
that's soon going to be upon them.
They are there
complacently assuming their safety.
When the Lord himself,
their only possible protector,
passes straight by them
as he exits the temple
and they didn't even notice.
How easy it is
to be so involved in religion
and not have God,
not even notice that he's not in it.
how easy it is
to sing the songs
and pray prayers
and say confessions
and not even
notice that God's not in it.
And then in chapter 11,
flick over there,
chapter 11 verses 22 to 23
comes the final move.
Then the cherubim
with the wheels beside them
spread their wings
and the glory of God
of Israel was above them.
The glory of the Lord
went up from within the city
and stopped above the east,
the mountain east of it.
The glory of the Lord
went up from within the city
and stopped above the mountain
east of it.
We are to conclude from there
that it was from that east mountain
that the glory of the Lord
departed
from his land.
And with his departure
from the mountain
east of Jerusalem,
God handed his city
and his nation
over to be destroyed
and it happened
in 586 BC.
Nebuchadnezzar had had enough
and so had God.
Do you remember
what I said last week?
That I said that the whole
prophecy of Ezekiel
is bookended by
by one word.
It is the Lord is there.
In chapter 1 verse 4,
even in pagan Babylon,
God was there
for his prophet Ezekiel.
And the last phrase
of Ezekiel
names the city
where God permanently
dwells with his people.
It is the Lord is there.
And these chapters here
that we've just read out to us
in chapter 9 especially
is a picture
of what happens
when God is
not there.
The glory of the Lord
has departed
and so chapter 9
is barbaric.
It is awful.
But perhaps it is
only by painting
such a barbaric
and a gory scene
that the reality
of God's judgment
can be brought home
to us
with sufficient
emotional force.
Ezekiel doesn't
just want us
to think about
this message.
He wants us
to feel
its reality.
Multiply this
massacre
in chapter 9
millions of times
and you get
something of the
reality of the
nightmare of hell.
Hell
hell is where
God is not
for all of
eternity.
It's not just
a matter for
debate.
It's a reality
to be felt.
My friends,
the plight of the
lost should
profoundly
disturb us.
It should
drive us to
your knees.
See what Ezekiel
does in response
to the slaughter
in chapter 9?
Verse 8,
while they were
killing and I
was left alone,
I fell face
down crying out,
Oh,
sovereign Lord,
are you going
to destroy
the entire
remnant of
Israel in
this outpouring
of your wrath
on Jerusalem?
Even the
prophet expresses
identification
with the people
under judgment.
Are you going
to destroy
all of us?
He feels
the burden
of judgment
and it
moves into
crying out.
I don't
believe that
we can speak
about judgment
without praying
for mercy.
And if we
can speak
with judgment
without praying
for mercy,
I don't believe
we've actually
felt the weight
of judgment
in our own
hearts.
God's
judgment
is
and so
friends,
let us
not forget
here that
judgment
begins with
the people
of God.
It is
their sin
that has
been exposed
and they
are now
faced with
a choice
here.
They can
either be
moved in
grief and
repentance
for their
sin or
they can
brazenly
deny the
truth,
mock the
messenger,
harden their
hearts against
God and
further their
rebellion.
No doubt
it is a
terribly
painful and
a threatening
thing to
be faced
with personal
sin.
There is a
fear,
I believe,
in us all
that our
true sins
might be
exposed and
therefore our
reputation
might be
heart-tarnished.
to be
confronted with
sin is a
devastating
encounter with
reality.
When God
really reveals
the blackness
of our
hearts, it
is devastating.
It is a
ruthless
ripping away
of our
mass of
pretense,
mass that
are so easily
put up with
religion,
but it
is also a
profoundly
defining moment
with our
relationship
with God.
In that
moment we
are faced
with a
stark
choice.
One
option is
to fall
face down
before God
in grief
and shame
and be
comforted
only by
the humility
and repentance
that led
the psalmist
to plead,
remember not
the sins
of my
youth and
my rebellious
ways.
According to
your love,
remember me
for you,
O God,
are good.
How could
the psalmist
make that
request?
Because he
was secure
in the
reassurance
that if
you, O
Lord,
kept the
record of
sins, O
Lord,
who could
stand?
But with
you there
is forgiveness,
therefore you
are feared.
And so
their option,
two options,
fall down
in repentance,
second option
is to
continually
move
stubbornly
in sin,
ignoring all
warnings and
all pleadings
and face the
consequences
to fall
on those
who arrogantly
unrepent.
that is
the choice
that we
face today.
Did you
hear my
prayer when
I began?
I wasn't
just trying
to make a
filler here
so that
we're lined
up with
the Mandarin
congregation.
As we
open your
word today,
do not
harden our
hearts.
That is
the choice
that we
face.
Whenever we
are challenged
by other
people or
directly by
the Holy
Spirit over
our sinful
actions.
So,
friends,
perhaps even
today as
we've read
God's
word,
these
scorching
chapters,
maybe our
hearts have
been moved
to a more
profound
awareness of
the sin
that lurks
in the
hidden
recesses of
the present
of our
hearts or
the past
of our
hearts.
Perhaps
we have
been convicted
by the
idolatry
that is
our drive
consistently
for security
in the
West.
Maybe the
flirtation
with sexual
license that
we call
freedom.
Maybe the
arrogance and
the complacency
and the
false security
that feed
off our
relative
wealth and
comfort.
If the
Holy Spirit
has exposed
any parts
of our
hearts,
past or
present
of sin,
then deal
with it
as such.
Do not
like the
exiles,
blame other
people or
blame God.
Do not,
like so
many today,
explain it,
excuse it,
or try to
put it into
some kind
of modern
perspective.
Sin is
sin and
when it is
exposed,
we are left
to one of
two mutually
exclusive
alternatives,
repentance
or hardening.
And so
today,
if you hear
his voice,
do not
harden your
hearts as
Israel did.
for those
of us who
are acutely
aware of
the Holy
Spirit's
conviction of
sin,
aware of
failure,
desiring to
walk with
the Lord
with confession,
repentance and
obedience,
and you're
feeling the
weight of
their sin,
there is
something
absolutely
essential that
you need to
hear from
this text.
It is
true that
there is
anger in
God's
heart that
will bring
judgment,
but there is
also pain
and a
great desire
for reconciliation.
There are,
in fact,
glimpses of
hope in
these chapters
as well.
Back in
chapter 3,
for instance,
when God
commissions
Ezekiel as
his mouthpiece
to his
people,
he says
this to
them,
to him,
to Ezekiel,
son of
man,
I have
made you
a watchman
for the
house of
Israel.
Ezekiel
there is
called a
watchman by
God.
A watchman
is needed
only in
times of
danger.
They're the
person who
stands on
the city
wall as
a lookout
and warns
the city
of any
enemy
approaching.
That's
their job.
They push
the alarm
button.
And so
there's a
profound
irony here.
As the
watchman for
Israel,
Ezekiel
is being
appointed as
such to
that position
by
Israel's
enemy.
It is
God who
is Israel's
enemy at
this point,
but it
is God
who puts
Ezekiel in
the position
of watchman
in that
place to
ring the
alarm bell
to tell
the people
of his
hostile
intent.
And this
tells us
that while
God is
glorified in
judgment,
he never
delights in
the destruction
of the
wicked.
You see,
God's anger
is not one
of his
eternal
attributes.
It is a
function of
his holiness.
sin.
His anger
comes into
existence
because of
sin and
his anger
is quenched
when sin
is dealt
with to
his
satisfaction.
His love,
on the other
hand, is an
innate divine
attribute,
which is why
the psalmist
says in
number 30
verse 5,
his anger
lasts only a
moment,
but his
favour
lasts a
lifetime.
There's also
further hope
in chapter
11.
Right before
the glory
of God
makes his
final departure
to that
mountain east
of Jerusalem,
he makes
this promise
in verse 17,
chapter 11.
This is what the
sovereign Lord
says,
I will gather
you from the
nations and
bring you back
from the
countries where
you have been
scattered,
and I will
give you back
the land of
Israel again.
They will
return to
it and remove
all its vile
images and
detestable idols.
I will give
them an
undivided heart
and put a
new spirit
in them.
I will remove
from them
their heart of
stone and give
them a heart
of flesh.
Then they will
follow my
decrees and be
careful to keep
my laws.
They will be
my people and
I will be
their God.
what God
promises there
before his
final exit,
he says,
I will
return.
He promises
to return.
He promises
to be
there again.
And true
to his
promise,
five centuries
later,
the glory of
God came
back.
John 1.1
says,
in the beginning
was the
word,
and the
word was
with God,
and the
word
was God.
And then
down in
verse 14,
it says this,
this word
who is
God,
this word
became flesh
and he made
his dwelling
amongst us.
We have
seen his
glory,
the glory
of the
one and
only,
the glory
which departed
five centuries
earlier,
has come
back,
and he
has come
from the
father full
of grace
and truth.
So who
is this
word?
Who
is God?
Who
is this
word?
Who
has come
to us?
Who
is this
word?
Who
is full
and
grateful
of
grace
and
truth?
Verse 17
tells us,
grace
and truth
came
through
Jesus
Christ.
God
returns
in all
his glory
to fulfill
his promise
in the
person
of Jesus
Christ.
God
but as
the glory
of God
departed
unnoticed
by most
so it
came back
unnoticed
by most.
John
says he
was in
the world
and the
world was
made through
him and
the world
did not
recognize
him.
He came
to that
which was
his own
but his
own
rejected
him.
Even
the historic
people of
God
rejected
him just
like they
did
in
Ezekiel's
day so
they did
it again
when he
came back
to Jerusalem
they rejected
him again.
But instead
of taking
up his
sword and
executing
God's
judgment
on the
streets of
Jerusalem
again this
time he
took up
a cross.
He
willingly
turned
God's
anger
away
from his
rebellious
by placing
himself
under the
white
hot
judgment
and anger
of God
for the
sin of
the world.
And as
he climbed
up that
hill and
hung on
that cross
for the
sin of
the world
he cries
out in
a loud
voice
my God
why have
you forsaken
me?
As
his
judgment
fell the
father turned
his back
on his
son.
God was
not
there
for him.
But when
God's
anger for
our sin
was
satisfied
he was
there
three days
later when
he brought
Jesus back
from the
grave
triumphant
over death
and the
consequences
of Christ
taking up
that cross
and not
his sword
is as
John writes
a little bit
later
for God
so loved
the world
that he
gave his
one and
only son
that whoever
believes in
him shall
not perish
but have
eternal
life.
Those who
mourn their
sin have
a safe
refuge
from that
sin and
its consequences
in Jesus
and so if
that is
you
you are
marked
with the
sign of
the cross
and as a
little bit
of information
the mark
that was
placed on
the foreheads
of the
people in
Jerusalem
in Ezekiel's
day was
a Hebrew
symbol for
the cross.
If you're
someone who
mourns your
sin and
feels the
weight of
your sin
you are
marked with
the sign
of the
cross
you are
safe in
him
and so
remember
this
some 40
days
after Jesus
rose
again
he
departed
again
the glory
of God
departed
again
in exactly
the same
place it
did five
centuries
earlier
just east
of the city
of Jerusalem
on the
Mount of
Olives
and as it
departed
it didn't
part in
judgment
this time
it departed
with blessing
and he
says to
his
disciples
surely I'm
with you
always
to the
very end
of the
age
God is
here with
us now
Amen