Sermon on 2025-10-12
at Calvary Chapel Portsmouth
Speaker = Pastor Barry Forder

The Book of Ezekiel
Part 5: Chapters 7 & 8
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So, the book of Ezekiel.

 You know, really as we study through these chapters this morning, I kind of want you to sit there with Revelation chapter 6 open at the same time, because as I've been going through this, it's incredible the parallels.

 It's as if what Ezekiel went through and the history that we're looking at here is just a model, a real event, hugely significant, but it's a model of all that is going to come.

 What we're seeing is God's judgment upon Israel, upon Jerusalem, and the things that God is decreeing is going to happen to the nation.

 And yet it's exactly what is happening and going to happen to this world.

 And so I want you to have those things in mind.

 I started trying to count last night the number of direct similarities, direct parallels between these chapters that we're looking at this morning, we're going to start in chapter 7 in a moment, and the things in Revelation.

 And I just lost count.

 There are so many.

 So have that in mind as we go through these things.

 We're looking, of course, at Israel and of these things that took place historically, about 600 years before Jesus came.

 But these things speak very much of the days in which we are living right now.

 So with that said, let me just give you as an introduction the fact that the rabbis argued that no one should study Ezekiel until he was at least 30 years of age.

 Because this stuff here is just so mind-blowing.

 And maybe we don't appreciate it when we're younger.

 I just hope and pray that the Holy Spirit gives us that kind of insight and understanding this morning so that we can at least grasp in part some of these things.

 And they also said that he who understood the winged chariot, that's what we saw in the first three chapters, or chapters 2 and 3 particularly, knew all the mysteries of creation.

 Well, that's an incredible statement too.

 And I've learned over the years that when these ancient sages and rabbis made these comments, we may look at that kind of like flippantly as if it was just a little remark, but actually there's probably far more truth in that than we understand.

 Just to give you a very quick review of where we've got to to give us a springboard into this study this morning, in the first three chapters we see Ezekiel's call and commission.

 In the first chapter there's Ezekiel's call to the prophetic office.

 If you remember he would have been a priest at the age of 30 and he's now in Babylon.

 At this moment when he would have entered the priesthood, had he been in Jerusalem, the Lord calls him and says, I have another job for you, another work.

 And we see this vision of the stormy wind and fire, the four cherubim, the wheels, and then the throne of the glory of Jehovah.

 And it seems that what we're seeing here is this chariot with these four living creatures on the corners and so on, and these incredible wheels.

And then in chapters 2 and 3, actually it's the commissioning of Ezekiel for the work that the Lord has for him.

 And it's the charge to speak God's word.

 And Ezekiel was actually told and commanded to eat the scroll, to digest it, to let it become part of you.

 Or in a sense, metaphorically, that's what we should all do with the word of God.

 We should be reading the Bible and let it permeate our thinking in every way.

 You know that's why in Psalm 119 we read there, that your word I've hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you.

 Because if God's word is hidden in our heart, if we are so accustomed to understanding and reading and letting it become part of our thinking, when we're faced with any challenge or difficulty or temptation, immediately there'll be a scripture.

 When we're faced with a situation that would otherwise maybe lead to doubt or despondency or despair, there'll be a scripture that will answer it.

 And the Holy Spirit will bring to our understanding or to our memories the things that we've read.

 God will, as Oswald Chambers used to say, will work out what we allow in.

 So allow God's words to affect us.

 And this is what Ezekiel's effectively being told to do here, to let God's word just become so much part of him.

 That's all he's speaking.

 And God, of course, as he does with each of us, with each of the commissions that God gives to us, promises to equip him.

 And then we see that he's taken in the spirit to the camp of the captives.

 At the time of this, he was in Jerusalem at the time of the prophecy, and he's looking forward to what he's going to be.

And then God speaks of his duties as a watchman.

 A watchman typically would be somebody who would stand on the walls and be ready for any attack of the enemy and would call out if the enemy was approaching.

 And that's exactly what he's to do, is to warn the people of the impending danger that they each face if they don't turn to God.

 And then we see a second vision of God at the end of chapter three.

 The next section that we looked at last week, chapters four from that point all the way through to the end of chapter 24, it's prophecies against Judah that are given before the final destruction of Jerusalem.

 So as we said a number of times, Ezekiel was taken captive in 597 BC.

 The first siege was some nine years or so earlier than that in 606 BC.

 That's when Daniel was taken captive.

 And then Nebuchadnezzar comes back again and Ezekiel and others are taken captive.

 And then finally in 587 BC was when the final siege of Jerusalem.

 There'll be more about that in the book as we go through, particularly from chapter 12 onwards we'll see details regarding that.

These are messages in the fifth year of his captivity that we're seeing here now.

 And these four acted out prophecies, and this is what we looked at in detail last week.

 There's firstly that picture of the siege of Jerusalem and then he's to lay on his left side and then his right side, symbolically bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah.

 And we saw that this is a staggering prophecy that goes right into the days in which we live, speaking of the judgment that God pronounced upon the people of Israel and the city.

 Some of them regard to the nation, some of them regard to the land.

 And we've seen this fulfilled, particularly in 1948 Israel became a nation again.

 In 1967 they recaptured Jerusalem.

 All these prophesied and given to us in this incredible book.

 And then the coming famine that was to occur is also prophesied.

 He's to act that out as well, along with the slaughter that would be accompanying the siege that is all given to us in chapter five.

 And then an explanation, an exposition, unpacking if you like, of the signs that God had given.

 And then in chapter six we see that warning to the land itself, as if the physical mountains and hills and valleys of Israel are being addressed in a personal form.

 And that then leads us to this section.

 And we'll see, I don't know how far we get, we may make it all the way through.

 Some of these are shorter chapters, but from chapter seven onwards then, this judgment that's declared upon Israel.

 In chapter seven we're going to see Israel's inescapable doom declared.

 And it's going to be four short oracles that Ezekiel is going to give, declaring that doom.

 And then the machinery, if you like, of destruction is already at work.

 This is already in progress, is what Ezekiel is going to warn the people.

 In chapter eight he views the idolatry taking place in the temple in Jerusalem, in a vision.

 So previously he'd been transported in a vision from Jerusalem to see what was going on in Babylon.

 Now he's in Babylon, he's going to get a vision of what's taking place in Jerusalem, and he's going to be shocked.

 And we're going to be shocked.

 And then we're going to suddenly realize that's exactly what's going on right now in the church in this country.

 And if God brought judgment upon Israel for their iniquity, he's going to do the same for the church in this country, and for the church in the world at large.

Chapter nine we see the slaughter of Jerusalem, but there's the promise that those that are righteous will be protected, preserved through this time of wrath.

 It's consistent with the way God deals with his people throughout scripture.

 In chapter 10 he's going to see these coals of fire that are cast over Jerusalem.

 It's going to be burnt, and then they're going to see the glory of God departing from the temple.

 So let me just give you an introduction to chapter seven then.

 Many Jews throughout, oh sorry, thought that Jerusalem would never be conquered.

 There are people in the church today that see the church as almost invincible, and so many have fallen for the lie of amillennialism, which has for centuries convinced many people that the church is going to conquer the world, that we're going to win the world, and then when it's all done and everybody's a believer, Jesus will come back.

 That's not what the Bible says.

 The church is not going to win the world.

 Jesus himself said that when he returned,  ???? he said, well, I didn't even find faith.????

 Jesus speaks of the many that follow after lies and fables, the many that will be deceived.

 Read through Matthew's gospel and look at the number of times the many are referred to as those that are caught up in the deception.

 Many are going to say to him in that day, have we not done this and that and so on, cast out demons and done miracles, and Jesus is going to say, I don't even know who you are.

 We have no relationship.

 There are many within the so-called Christian church that are deceived.

 They've bought into a kind of religious experience, but many churches, sadly, are little more than social clubs.

 They're places where people go and they meet with their friends on a Sunday and they chat and then they carry on their week as if nothing was different.

 Their lives are no different.

 It would be hard to tell them apart from people in the world.

 Their conduct, their language, their vocabulary they use is no different than the people of the world.

 Their attitudes towards godly things is no different.

 They don't spend any time in God's word and they call themselves Christians.

 Ezekiel is going to be addressing exactly that kind of attitude.

 And so, again, the Jews didn't think Jerusalem could fall.

 Surely, this is the city of the great king.

 This is the city where David and Solomon and so on.

 But Ezekiel announces this certainty that the city is going to fall.

 God will bring his judgment.

 And let me tell you now that God will bring his judgment, not just on this world, but on the church.

 Peter makes it clear that the season of judgment that is coming is going to begin at the house of God.

 That's what Peter tells us.

 And we are going to see God's wrath start to fall upon the church.

 And when I say the church, I'm referring to the false church, those that believe that they're okay.

 The Laodicean church, the things that's rich, that's in need of nothing.

 And, of course, you know God's verdict on the church of Laodicea given to us in Revelation chapter 3.

God says to them, I wish you were hot, I wish you were cold.

 One or the other, but you're neither.

 You're lukewarm.

 Have you ever drunk any lukewarm water? It's not particularly pleasant, is it? Hot water is okay.

 There's something quite refreshing about hot water.

Cold water is lovely.

 The girls know that if they're giving me a drink for tea time, and we nearly always just have water to drink, that I have mine with a bit of ice in it.

 I like cold water.

 But tepid water, it's horrible.

 And God is saying that to the church in the days that we live that is just like that.

 It's just unpalatable.

God had been long-suffering and merciful with Israel.

 He saved the city many times.

 You only need to read through the book of Kings to see how many times God had spared the city.

 But the people stubbornly refused to repent.

 And now the time for God's judgment had come.

 One disaster would follow another until the wicked city was destroyed.

 Straight away, think about Revelation chapter 6, how we start to see one disaster followed by another, followed by another.

As a tree blossoms, so Jerusalem's sin was full-grown.

 You know, when we see a tree in springtime, you see those buds come out.

 And it may be a few weeks, you're kind of waiting and waiting and waiting, and suddenly, we used to have a tree in our garden back in Kent.

 It was beautiful.

 And it was one of those trees that the blossoms would come out before the leaves came out.

 And it was just an absolute picture.

 But we would wait sometimes for two, three, four weeks, and all of a sudden, the blossoms, it was unmistakable.

 And we see the same thing, that Jerusalem's sin in a like manner was growing and growing and growing, and maybe not visible in a sense, but it starts to overflow.

 It gets to kind of a tipping point.

 The city was about to fall.

 And what we're going to see is that rich and poor were about to lose everything.

 Again, just like it's prophesied for the days in which we're living.

 And so we see Abiah was not to rejoice if they'd done a good deal, nor a seller mourn because they'd lost their property.

 And neither was the seller to hope that one day they would regain everything.

 God is making it really clear, they were all going to lose.

 And that the citizens of Jerusalem, therefore, might prepare for battle.

 But actually, preparation was going to be useless, because God had already decreed this, that Jerusalem was indeed doomed.

 And the people were trapped in this besieged city, were going to die of starvation.

 And those that were outside in the fields and the villages would be killed by enemy soldiers.

 And any who managed to escape would only face a miserable existence in their mountain hiding places, where they would be alone.

 Everywhere there would be a feeling of hopelessness.

 The money that the Jerusalemites had unjustly gained would be of no use to them when there was no food to buy.

 In despair, they would throw their money away.

 And their idols, these richly ornamented and very expensive idols, would be taken, stolen by the invaders, by the Babylonian army.

 And God's precious place, this city of Jerusalem, and the temple, was going to be profaned as these irreverent Babylonian soldiers would come in.

 And they would plunder.

 And we know that they would take all the cups and all the utensils, and they'd take those things away to Babylon.

 And ultimately, in the end, they destroyed the temple.

 And then terrified by the violence of the attack, the people would look on helplessly as the invaders seized their houses also.

 Neither religious nor civil leaders would be able to save Jerusalem from being overrun.

 The calamity would be a fitting judgment on the city for its religious rebellion and moral waywardness.

 That's a summary.

 Let's go through the text.

 Verse 1, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also thou son of man, thus says the Lord God, unto the land of Israel an end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

 And let me just pause for a second, because that's a strange expression used of the land of Israel.

 Because that expression, the four corners, is normally in reference to the whole earth.

 And it's one of those little, as the rabbis would call it, a "remez", a hint of something deeper.

 This is directly linking this with what we are seeing in Revelation 6, as God's judgment, an end, the end is coming upon the whole earth, the four corners of the earth.

 And when we talk about the four corners, we are not saying that the earth is a square or anything else.

 It's a globe, as Isaiah tells us, it hangs nothing in space, the circle of the earth.

 We're not going for that flat earth stuff, right? But it's just simply talking about the cardinal points, north, south, west, east.

 Verse 3, now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will recompense thee upon all thine abominations.

 We should notice that God's judgment is not unjust, it's in response to their disobedience.

 Because it's very easy to read these kind of things and almost be sympathetic and compassionate, and think, well, it's a bit harsh, isn't it? Well, not as we start to go through, and you'll see God lay out why he's bringing judgment.

 And as I said already, the parallels with the coming time of tribulation as we go through this are staggering.

 Verse 4, mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense thy ways, this is what you have done, upon thee, and thy abominations, the things that you've committed, that shall be in the midst of thee, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

 Well, that's an interesting statement, because that's exactly what we find in Revelation 6, of the judgment of the time of tribulation that's coming.

 People will know that God is bringing the judgment, and incredibly, they still do not repent.

 Verse 5, thus says the Lord God, an evil, an only evil, behold, is come.

 That verse, Adam Clarke puts it this way, he says, the great, the sovereign, the last exterminating evil is come, the sword, the pestilence, the famine, and the captivity.

 And yes, those are the things that we're going to see mentioned, and yes, they are the things that we see in Revelation 6 as well.

 The sword, the pestilence, the famine, the captivity.

 Read Matthew 24, read Revelation 6, and see the parallels with this.

Verse 6, an end is come, the end is come, it watches for thee, behold, it is come.

 The morning has come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land, the time is come, the day of trouble is near.

 And again, that expression is used of the coming tribulation as well.

 And not the sounding again of the mountains.

 What does that mean? That's almost a strange expression.

 Adam Clarke on that one says, the hostile troops are advancing, you hear a sound, a tumultuous noise, do not suppose that this proceeds from festivals upon the mountains, from the joy of harvestment, or the treaders of the winepress.

 It is the noise of those by whom ye and your country are to fall.

 So that reference in verse 7, again, and not the sounding again of the mountains, is simply saying, you know, through the mountains would come these shouts of joy or celebrations, as people were out just doing their job, and in the time of harvest, and getting ready for wonderful times.

 And Ezekiel's saying that's not all, the Lord through Ezekiel is saying that's not going to happen again.

 Those days are gone.

 That which we thought is normal has passed.

 Do you remember how, when we went into COVID, everybody was saying at the time how we will never return to normal? Well, we kind of have, in a way, in a sense.

 We don't tend to worry too much.

 I mean, I'm not sure the last time you anti-backed your hands when you were out in public, you may still carry something around, we do, we keep stuff in the car, just to be sensible really.

 But, you know, there was a time that every time you went into a shop, or a building, or anywhere, you'd be anti-backing your hands, and you kind of got obsessive with it.

 But we have kind of returned to normal now, largely, the world.

 But what God is saying to Ezekiel, and what we will find, we're getting to a time where things will go so far it will not go back to as it was.

 The things that we think are normal now will be forgotten.

 Verse 8, Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and recompense thee for all thine abominations.

 Once again, notice that God is going to bring a judgment that is proportionate to what they have done, in rebellion to him.

 And God says, And mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity.

 He says, I will recompense thee according to thy ways.

 You know, nobody is going to stand before God on judgment day and feel like they've been hard done by.

 Nobody is going to say, well, I don't think it was fair, I didn't really know, and nobody told me, and I never really heard the gospel proclaimed.

 God has given everybody the opportunity.

 We have our own conscience, and our conscience bears witness to the truth.

 Every one of us knows the law because it's written in our hearts.

 This is what Paul tells us in the New Testament.

 Everybody knows that it's wrong to murder, it's wrong to lie, it's wrong to steal.

 Everybody has a moral compass, just many people just choose to not look at it, ignore it.

God is saying, no, no, you're going to be judged according to your ways, and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee, and you shall know that I am the Lord that's mighty.

 You're going to know that this is God bringing this judgment.

 Verse 10, Behold the day, behold it is come, the morning has gone forth, the rod has blossomed, pride has budded, violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness.

 None of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs, neither shall there be wailing for them.

 The time is come, the day draws near.

 Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

 For the seller shall not return to that which he sold, although they were yet alive, for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return, neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

 They have blown the trumpet even to make all ready, but none goeth to battle, for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

You see, the trumpet would have been blown to warn of an enemy approaching, to prepare people for battle, or to announce that it was time to march out in battle.

 Interestingly, back in 2007, I had the privilege of going to Israel, and we went to the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, and in one of the cabinets there, they have these silver trumpets, and the person that was showing us around said that they'd actually taken those very trumpets to the Golan Heights, and they had been blown before Israel had launched its offensive against Hezbollah with the war that had just taken place in 2007.

 According to Scripture, that's what they were to do.

 They did it.

 It's interesting.

 But here, we're told that they have blown the trumpet, you know, nobody listened.

 How interesting it is that when we come to the time of tribulation, it will be after the church has been removed.

 The Lord will come, and He will take His own away before judgment comes.

 We'll be raptured.

 There'll be the blowing of the trumpet.

 We know from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

 But people will not acknowledge, they'll not respond to that.

 Now, there are many who believe that the trumpet that is blown in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 will only be heard by believers, and that may be the case.

 But certainly, the after effects will be seen and felt by everybody.

 As suddenly, millions of Christians are no longer here.

 But the world is not going to respond to that.

 There'll be the warning, but they won't respond.

 Just as here, Ezekiel is saying, effectively, the trumpet's been blown, but it didn't change you, didn't change anybody's attitude.

 You just carry on as you were.

Notice verse 15, the sword is without.

 That's exactly what we're told about.

 Jesus speaks about the sword in Revelation 6.

 He speaks of a great sword there.

 And the pestilence, again, Revelation 6 talks about that.

 And the famine, Revelation 6 talks about that.

 He that is in the field shall die with the sword, and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

 It's very interesting, isn't it? As you grow in your understanding of Scripture, you learn to take things seriously.

There are many expressions used, and it's easy to look at it and just go, well, that's just a figure of speech or whatever.

 But as you go on, you realise that God means what he says and says what he means.

 There's so many of these details, as we have a greater understanding, as we look back, we go, wow, that was exactly what God said.

 He did it in the way he said he was going to.

 Just because we don't understand, necessarily, this side of things, how it will play out.

 But notice how often a sword is mentioned.

 Which religion is it that tries to conquer by the sword? Look at the way they have conquered countless nations in history.

 Look at the way they are openly declaring they want to conquer and take over this country, and France, and Germany, and.

Is it any coincidence that we find this constant reference to the sword in regard to these end times events? Verse 16, but they that escape of them shall escape and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valley, all of them mourning everyone for his iniquity.

 All hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak as water.

 That expression there about the be like the doves on the mountains and so on.

 Again, Adam Clarke just says this, rather like mourning doves, and he gives us the Hebrew there, chased from their dove coats and separated from their mates.

 That's the expression, that's the idea that's trying to be conveyed.

 That people, there may be a few that escape, but they're going to be on their own.

 And it's going to be scary, there won't be anyone with them, they'll be on their own, they're left to figure out how they're going to live, what are they going to do, where would they go, what happens if they go anywhere, they're going to be captured now.

 So this warning that all hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak.

 Verse 18, they shall also grind themselves as sackcloth and horror shall cover them and shame shall be upon all faces and boldness upon all their heads.

 They shall cast their silver in the streets and their gold shall be removed, their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.

 This could be revelation we're reading here, but it is Ezekiel.

 It could be speaking of the days that we are about to go into, or the world is about to go into, but it's speaking of the days 600 BC.

 These events took place, so we know that just as these were literally fulfilled, what is coming will also be literally fulfilled.

 Again, notice, in the day of the wrath of the Lord, they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowls, because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity.

 In the book of James, James speaks again of the times to come, he says, go to now you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver, just as Ezekiel was speaking of, is cankered.

 That is to imply that it's corrupted.

 It's worthless now.

Verse 16 of Revelation 18, we read, alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour so great riches come to naught.

 Speaking of the judgment of this religious system that's going to be established as we move into the time of tribulation, as the world moves into the time of tribulation.

 Verse 20, as for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty, but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein.

 Therefore have I set it far from them, and I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, into the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall pollute it.

 My face will I turn also from them, and they, this is the strangers, shall pollute my secret place, for the robber shall enter in and defile it.

 As Ezekiel is speaking this to the people, many of them were thinking, oh this is nonsense, I don't believe this for a minute.

 Just as many in the world would see it like this now.

 They don't believe that there's a time of judgment coming from God.

 Verse 23, make a chain for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

 Look at that statement, we're going to come back to that.

 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses.

 I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled.

 Destruction cometh, and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

 Remember what we're told of the time it's coming.

 They say peace, peace, but there is no peace.

 The parallels again, just so many.

 Verse 26, mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor.

 It almost has that ring of the wars and the rumors of wars, doesn't it? And they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and the counsel from the ancients.

 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled.

 And I will do unto them after their way according to their desserts when I judge them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

 Now just as God did judge Israel in this way, so he will bring judgment upon the world.

 Israel are like a small model of what's the big picture ultimately is going to be with the world.

 Both are real, both this was fulfilled literally, what is coming will be fulfilled literally.

 Just to go back to that expression, full of violence, just to kind of paint the picture so you're not kind of ignorant of this, an estimated 458,000 international murders occur each year.

 That's nearly half a million, half a million people.

 And these are, this isn't to do with war, this isn't other things, this is just people who are murdered, who weren't necessarily doing anything wrong, but this, you know.

 Average out to approximately 52 people killed every hour.

 There's approximately 1,255 victims a day.

 Africa recorded the highest absolute number of victims with an estimated 176,000 homicides annually.

 The Americas recorded over 154,000 homicides, but had the highest rate of intentional killings per capita.

Asia accounted for 109,000 homicides, with Europe and Oceania having significantly lower counts.

 In regard to gender disparity as it's referred, men accounted for 81% of all intentional murders.

Women accounted for 19% of all murders, but a far higher percentage of killings in the home.

 54% of all killings in the home and 66% of all intimate partner killings.

Globally an average of around 140 women and girls lost their lives every day at the hands of a partner or close relative.

 Around 140 women and girls every single day are being murdered by a partner or close relative.

This is a daily estimate for 2023 based upon a separate UN women's report.

Men, (oh that's the same thing we just read), but notice the last statement there.

 Because it's easy to forget an estimated 73 million induced abortions occur worldwide each year.

 There's over 200,000 abortions every day.

 Do you see why when God was warning Ezekiel, saying that they were full of violence and this is why I'm going to bring judgment upon you, we can't sit here and think well that was then and that was terrible and Israel were awful.

 Because we're living in a world that in some ways has far surpassed what Israel were doing.

 And God will bring his wrath on this world.

 Based on the most recent data published by Open Doors, some of you are familiar with Open Doors, a ministry to the persecuted Christians around the world.

 It's documented an estimated number of Christians killed worldwide for their faith-related reasons.

 In recent years, 2024, 4,476 Christians killed.

 2023, 4,998 Christians killed.

 2022, 5,621.

 2021, 5,898.

 2020, 4,761.

 25,000 Christians killed just simply for being Christians.

And actually, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity argues that the number is much higher than that.

 There are many that are not reported.

 There are many that are not logged.

 And they reckon potentially the annual average could sometimes reach 90,000 or more.

 Do you understand when Ezekiel is told to tell the people they were full of violence and probably their reaction was, no we're not.

 And in the same way if we said that this world is overdue judgment, many people would say, well it's not that bad.

 And living in a place like we live, we see the odd problem.

 There are murders that we hear about from time to time here.

 There are crimes that are committed.

 But we're largely immune from some of the things that are going on in the world.

 But it is a sick and twisted place.

In chapter 8, let's just see if we can make a run through this chapter.

 A year and two months had now passed since God called Ezekiel to be prophet and by this time people were recognizing him as a prophet.

 And leaders among the exiles came to discuss their affairs with him.

 While the leaders were sitting and talking with him, Ezekiel was suddenly caught up by the Spirit of God and taken as it were to Jerusalem.

 Ezekiel knew immediately that these visions were from God because the first he saw was a vision of the glory of God which is just as he had previously seen.

 In his vision Ezekiel was taken to the temple where he was about to enter the inner court.

 He saw an idol that stirred God to jealousy.

 From there Ezekiel went by a secret door into a hidden room and there he saw a gathering of Jerusalem's leaders who were secretly worshipping pictures of animals painted on the walls and foolishly they thought that God couldn't see them.

 

In another part of the temple Ezekiel saw women carrying out ritual mourning as part of their worship for the foreign god Temus.

 And finally Ezekiel came into the inner court of the temple where he saw a group of priests who had turned their backs on the temple and were worshipping toward the east.

 Interesting isn't it? And that was an offensive insult to God.

 So let's look at the text.

 Verse one.

 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house and the elders of Judah sat before me.

 So again he started to gain respect, they're starting to listen to him.

 That the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.

 Then I beheld in lower likeness as the appearance of fire, from the appearance of his loins even downward fire, and from his loins even upward as the appearance of brightness as the color of amber.

 And this is similar to what he's already seen.

 And he put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem to the door of the inner gate that looks towards the north.

 Where was the seat of the image of jealousy which provokes to jealousy? Interesting, we don't know what this is.

 There are commentators that have speculated but there was some sort of image that had been set up.

 And clearly it's something that God detests.

 How interesting that in Ezekiel's time an image is set up and of course we know from revelation that an image is going to be set up in the temple.

 Again you can overlay these two accounts.

 If you were just to put a list of the bullet points it would be the same almost on both sides.

 And behold the glory of the God of Israel was there according to vision that I saw in the plain.

 And we'll see that explained in a moment.

 So Ezekiel now transported in his vision to Jerusalem.

 Again brought to see just how bad the situation really was and maybe even Ezekiel himself didn't really believe it or understand it.

 Verse five, then said he unto me son of man lift up thine eyes now the way to, sorry now the way toward the north.

 So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry, in the entrance.

 And he said furthermore unto me son of man seest thou what they do even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here that I should go far off from my sanctuary but turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations.

 I mean if this wasn't enough God is saying okay I'm going to show you something even worse than this.

And he brought me to a door of the court and when I looked behold a hole in the wall and then he said unto me son of man dig now in the wall and when I digged in the wall behold a door and he said unto me go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

 This is the temple.

 And so I went in and saw and behold every form of creeping thing and abominable beast and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about.

There was images around that were just of things that should not have been there.

 And the people were worshipping these things.

And there stood before them 70 men of the ancients of the house of Israel and in the midst of them stood Jasaniah the son of Shaphan or the son of Shaphan with every man his censer in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up.

 And initially you're going to think well they're worshipping God are they not? No sadly they're not.

 Then said he unto me son of man thou has seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark every man in the chambers of his imagery.

 What a scary word that is.

 It implies there's all sorts of things going on inside our heads in our hearts in our minds that are displeasing to God or study these individuals the things that they were allowing into their lives.

 For they say the Lord seeth us not the Lord has forsaken the earth.

 Interesting you'll see that in a moment I'll show you something else.

 He said also unto me turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations that they do.

 And then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which is toward the north and behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

 Then said he unto me has thou seen this O son of man? Turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations than these.

 Now we're just going to take a time out here because we may miss the scale of how abhorrent these things are but it's just getting worse and worse and worse.

 Chuck Smith in his commentary made this comment regarding this character Tammuz who is he? Let me try and explain.

 Some of you already know.

 He says come on I'll show you something that's really disturbing.

 See those women they're weeping for Tammuz not weeping for the desolation that was coming nor weeping because the sin that was rampant in the land not weeping because they'd come into such a moral decay but weeping for Tammuz the Babylonian god of resurrection.

 And it's kind of I like that because it kind of makes the point actually they should have been weeping because of the mess that things were in the moral decline but they weren't.

 These women were rather weeping for this false god, this idol.

 Charles Finnis Dake in his brilliant commentary puts it like this.

 He says Tammuz was a Phoenician deity known as Adonis by the Greeks.

 Originally he was a Sumerian or Babylonian sun god.

 The husband of Ishtar.

 I'll try and unpack this a little bit more in a moment but you can read on for now.

 Who corresponds with Aphrodite of the Greeks.

 Okay so basically what we're saying is that this individual Tammuz originally heralds from Babylon but has got twisted and names changed and so worshipped in pretty much all cultures from that point on.

 The worship of these gods was introduced into Syria in very early times under the designation of Tammuz and Ishtar.

 They appear in the myths of the Greeks as Adonis and Aphrodite and as Osiris and Isis of the Egyptians.

 The Babylonian Tammuz was represented as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar.

 And he became the symbol of winter.

 Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld to deliver him from the embrace of death.

 So this is the pagan mythology.

 This is what was believed of this individual.

 Okay try and put some flesh on the bones of this if we can.

 After the flood Noah, his three sons all come off the ark.

 Shem, Ham and Japheth.

 And from Shem, Ham and Japheth all the nations of the world are descended.

 And we have all of our mythology and idolatry and false religions all stem from this time.

 Okay one way form or another.

 Shem became also in other cultures known as Hercules.

 If you want the detail and all the references of this I really encourage you to get a book by Reverend Alexander Hislop called The Two Babylons.

 It is incredible.

 It's one of the best works on this.

 It's an old book, hard to read but it's incredible.

 And then he goes through just showing all these links.

 Shem was renowned as being one who fought against giants.

 Well biblically we know the context of that.

 He's also known as the lamenter.

 Why? Well because of the fact he was lamenting the iniquity that he was seeing growing in the world.

 Knowing what had happened before the flood.

 Knowing how God had sent the flood to destroy all the things that were on earth.

 To leave just Noah and his family who were genetically perfect.

 They're perfect in their generations.

 Doesn't mean they were without sin.

 It means that genetically they were perfect because God was trying to preserve the line down to the Messiah.

 We have Ham and we have Japheth.

 Japheth later becomes known or worshipped as Jupiter.

 And just for a second you can understand why these individuals would have been revered.

 Shem, Ham and Japheth lived long, long lives.

 And many would have known them.

 Even the likes of Jacob would have been alive at the time that these were still living.

 

And so the legends of great, great, great, great granddad Japheth or Shem or Ham would have spread.

 And so they became venerated, worshipped, idolized.

 And so their names get kind of twisted a little in different cultures.

 But it's no surprise that these individuals are the same characters that make up the mythology.

 Of course the stories get twisted.

 But Cush is the really interesting one.

 Now Cush we know was the son of Ham.

 And we know that the name Hermes is given to Cush.

 Which just literally means son of Ham.

 But also the name Mercury or Vulcan.

 Vulcan again the idea of the divider.

 Vulcan's hammer and so on.

 And of course this always brings us to the time of the Tower of Babel where the nations were the languages were divided.

 So it's no surprise that these names have to do with that dividing up of the nations with the languages.

 The name of Bel, which was the name that was worshipped in Babylon.

 And Belus, that means the confounder.

 Of course it links to the Tower of Babel where all these things got confused.

 Do you know the word chaos comes from the name Cush.

 That's where the name comes from.

 And Cush was a god or the god of confusion.

 Of course it links to the Tower of Babel.

 It's a fascinating study to get into this.

 We haven't got time to go into the depths of it but just give you an oversight.

 But then we know that Cush's son was Nimrod.

 And Nimrod is spoken of in Genesis 10.

 He was someone who was not godly, shall we put it that way.

 He established the first world government, dictatorship if you like.

 He's known in various different cultures by different names.

 Bar Cush or Bacchus.

 Bar being son of Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah.

 That Bar in Hebrew has this connotation of son of.

 So Nimrod or Bar Cush, Bacchus, the Roman god Bacchus is simply the son of Cush.

 Also the name Saturn, Kronos, Ninos, these are all names associated with Nimrod.

 But what we know is that Nimrod married a woman by the name of Semiramis.

 What later happens is that Nimrod apparently was out hunting one day and he died in the hunt.

 He got killed.

 Legend has it that it was Shem that actually killed him because of his idolatry, because of his iniquity.

 I don't have any proof for that but that is a legend that some of the Jews believe.

 Which certainly makes sense.

 And so all of a sudden Semiramis is queen.

 And now she's got a problem because now that her husband who's the king is no longer there, she can be robbed of her royal position of her power.

 But at this point she was pregnant.

 So she concocts an incredible story and you see Satan behind the scenes masterminding this to perfection.

 The story is that the child she is now carrying is her own husband who's now been killed reincarnated.

 So she's to give birth to this child who is named Tammuz.

 And from that point begins back in ancient Babylon the worship of the mother and the child.

 This is why the Romans were not at all surprised at the story of Jesus and the story of the virgin birth, the worship of a mother and a child and so on.

 Because to them it's like yeah it's just another one of those mother and child stories.

 They'd heard so many of them.

 And these permeate all cultures.

 It is an incredible move by Satan to lay down the smoke screen to confuse what would ultimately be the truth coming through.

 And so this Tammuz and there's a lot and we maybe when we get to Christmas time we'll talk about this because all of this links into the winter solstice which is a date that then got adopted and recognized as being Christmas.

 And there's much of that that's all caught up in this and typically this tree would be put into the fireplace and it would burn and so on or sorry a log would be put into the fireplace it would burn out and the next morning would be replaced by a nice trimmed tree and so on.

 And it had to do with kind of the the death of the winter brings but then the new life that follows on and so on.

 We'll talk more when we get to Christmas time because there's a fascinating things that we'll show you to do with all of this and why it fits into our biblical understanding and why there's a lot of scriptures actually make reference of these things.

 Semiramis is also known as Rea, Sebel, Diana of the Ephesians.

 You recognize that name and Artemis and so on.

 So there's a lot of history.

 So the point here is that in the study of Ezekiel that Tammuz was being worshipped by these women in Jerusalem.

 I mean it's a complete insult to God of God's plan of redemption.

 It's a twisted narrative to cause people to follow a deception.

 And verse 15 goes on and says, has, and also then he said unto me, has thou seen this? O son of man, turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

 I think how's it going to get much worse than this? 

Dake says this in his commentary, the greater abominations than the woman weeping for Tammuz was the worship of the sun by men who turned their backs on the holy of holies and the ark and faced the east like the fire worshippers.

 The image representing the sun was set up and worshipped by the elders of Israel.

 So the women were worshipping their false gods and the men were also worshipping towards the east and their false gods.

 And you think wow, how crazy, how foolish.

 We would never do stuff like that, would we? Well, this week, a few days back, the Vatican has built a prayer room for Muslim visitors.

 Yeah, seriously.

 I mean you can read this, a Vatican official has confirmed that the Vatican library now provides a prayer room for Muslim visitors.

 According to the vice prefect, his name, some cardinal, the library offered the space after being approached by Muslim scholars requesting a place to pray with a carpet.

 Now the move has sparked mixed reactions.

 Really? Why mixed? Online with some praising it as a gesture of hospitality and others raising concerns about the religious boundaries within Catholic institutions.

 All right, this is another quote.

 The Vatican Apostolic Library of Vatican City has announced that it is happy to provide Muslim visitors with a prayer room.

 In an interview with the Reverend Giacomo Cardinelli published on the 8th of October, just last week, an Italian daily Repubblica followers of the prophet Mohammed are assured that their worship is welcome in the sacred halls of the Vatican library, albeit in a separate room.

 Now I share this because it is so parallel to what Ezekiel was saying, that they were allowing the worship of false deities in the temple in Jerusalem.

 And we're seeing these kind of things going on.

 Now we may say, well we're not that bothered because this is the Catholic church and you know we recognize that the Catholic church has deviated and moved away from scripture in so many ways and so many people astray.

 The quote just goes on and says, of course some Muslim scholars have asked us for a room with a carpet for praying and we have given it to them.

 It's as bad as it is.

 Lovely.

There we go.

 Now, okay, so that's the Catholic church.

 But what about the church of England? What about our national church, if you like? Well, I'm sure this week you know that Sarah Mullally has been named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

 And whilst there are many that are saying how wonderful this is, it's lovely to see equality and all those kind of things.

Charles, King Charles, has congratulated Dame Sarah on her new role, which is of such importance in the UK and across the global Anglican communion, Buckingham Palace said.

 Interestingly, Archbishop Mullally's close involvement in and support for the introduction of prayers of love and faith, which allow clergy to bless same-sex couples, is arguably a greater concern for some conservatives than her gender.

 Yes, she is pushing for and advocating the blessing of same-sex couples.

 I mean, I'm sorry, and we can probably get in trouble for saying these things, but I'm going to say it anyway.

 The Bible teaches very clearly that God created man and woman.

 And he wants us to live in an environment where a man would leave his father and his mother, would be joined together to his wife.

 And that would be a union that would last until they die.

 And they were to produce godly offspring.

 Now, if you do not believe in God, then you are free to do whatever you want.

 You can go and live however you want to live.

 And you can say, I don't want any rules, any laws.

 That's fine.

 But understand that most of the rules and laws that we live by in the West, at least, derive from the Bible.

 They derive from the Ten Commandments and the other laws that typically the Jewish nation has given to the world.

 And the problem is, I had a really interesting comment a little while ago by somebody who was challenging an individual who was standing up for, dare I say, common sense.

 And saying, oh, you're against us and you're being very, you know, judgmental and bordering on hate speech and things like that.

 He said, no, no, no, look, you can live as you want.

 Because ultimately, he said, you are going to, without my help, you will put an end to your own belief system, your own ideology, because you can't produce.

 You can't have offspring.

 In time, you will just disappear.

 I don't have to do anything.

 Interesting point, isn't it? You see, there's another interesting argument that should be brought into this as well.

 Because ultimately, there are only two competent world views.

 One is the Earth or the universe and everything therein created itself.

 And that we are the product of time and chance and evolution.

 If that is true, the idea of same-sex relationships doesn't make sense from an evolutionary perspective.

 Because ultimately, it would just burn itself out.

 Okay, just forget emotion, just logically, it doesn't work.

 The only other option is that there is a God who created everything.

 And if God created everything, then God has the right to set the rules and the laws, and in Scripture, He has done so.

 And it is not just an Old Testament thing.

 Because in the New Testament, it is reiterated time and time again.

 God's plan for marriage and for the family.

 And if God is in charge, and God has set the rules, God has said how it should be.

 So again, that doesn't work.

 Once again, just for the sake of clarity, we do not hate any of these people.

 Because Scripture tells us we should love all people.

 And that we should pray for those that persecute us.

 Interestingly, on that one, it's incredible, isn't it? That there are Christians that are being arrested for praying on the streets.

 And yet Muslims can take over whole streets and put their mats down and pray, and nobody says a word.

 Apparently, we're not allowed to say anything against Islam, because it's deemed too controversial or it's deemed hate speech.

 But you can say whatever you want, apparently, about Christianity.

 It just doesn't make sense.

 The world is very mixed up and twisted.

 You see, Christianity embraces all.

 It loves all.

 But there is a dividing line.

 There is truth, there is deception.

 Also, our new Archbishop regarding abortion stated, and this was some time ago, so she may have tweaked or changed her view slightly, I don't know.

 But this is the quote that she said is often put out there.

 I would suspect that I would describe my approach to this issue as pro-choice rather than pro-life.

 Although if it were a continuum, I would be somewhere along it moving towards pro-life, when it relates to my choice, then enabling choice when it relates to others.

 Well, that's really a non-answer, isn't it, anyway? But ultimately, what she's saying is that if people want to go ahead and have abortions, then that's fine, that's up to them.

 My question here, of course, is what about the baby's choice? You know, one argument, women often say, you know, this argument, but it's my body.

 And there's one Christian commentator who used to often say, that's actually right, if you want to abort your body, you can.

 But it's not your body you're aborting, it's the baby's.

 It's another human life.

 Anyway, my point is, this is where our current new Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be leaning.

 And I saw this, you may have seen this this week.

 I'm talking again of Ezekiel and the things that were inside the temple, and I'm not suggesting for a second that Canterbury Cathedral is such a temple, certainly not.

 But I saw this and I thought, maybe this is divine judgment.

 Maybe God has allowed this in retribution because of the things that have been going on this week.

 And you may have heard that this thing's been dawned all over the pillars and the walls in Canterbury Cathedral.

 And they're quite terrible things.

 And these are quite blasphemous.

 I mean, some of these things are, is illness a sin? Do you ever regret your creation? And then why all the suffering? And then there was this next one.

 Where's this one? Why did you create hate when love is by far more powerful? These are blatant challenges against God that are adorned now around the walls of Canterbury Cathedral.

 And again, initially I thought this when I first saw, I hadn't read the story.

 I thought some vandals have gone there, got in there and done this.

 No, no, no, it's not as good as that.

 This was commissioned by the cathedral.

 And let me read the, I think it's sacrilegious was one person's response to graffiti style artwork inside Canterbury Cathedral.

 With not all visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site appearing to appreciate the new installation.

 Brightly colored writing asking questions like, are you there? And God, what happens when I die? Have been plastered on pillars and walls of the 579 AD founded building just days after Dame Sarah Money was revealed as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

 And by the cathedral's own admission, the artwork called Hear Us hasn't gone down well with everyone.

 Why is that? Would you like to see a picture of the artist? Seriously? All right.

 So this is a collaborative project led by this poet, artist.

 By the name of Alex Veles and the curator of the cathedral, Jacqueline Croswell.

 That's just one of the pictures of him.

 I read to this Alex Veles, who describes himself as non-binary, a queer vegan.

 That's apparently how he describes himself as an agenda goblin.

 Also uses that they then pronouns sparked global outcry from Christians for the art project, which has been described as blasphemous.

 J.D. Vance.

 I mean, we've got people in America commenting on how bad this country is.

 Seriously, think about that.

 J.D. Vance said the exhibit made the beautiful historical building really ugly.

 Wow.

 I did hear something.

 I just shared this because it might bring a smile to your faces.

 Speaking about the people that choose to use these certain pronouns, saying that, you know, it's interesting how so many of them have been pro-Palestinian.

 And one commentator said, well, maybe they should go to Palestine.

 Maybe they should go to Gaza.

 Maybe they should support them.

 And when they get there, they will quickly find that they're not they then, but there was, were.

Let's just read to the end of the chapter.

 And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house and behold at the door of the temple, the Lord of the Lord, between the port and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they worship the sun toward the east.

 I mean, you couldn't make this up.

 This was what Ezekiel was saying was going on.

 And we are living in days where it is absolutely as bad.

 Then he said unto me, has thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke me to anger.

 And lo, they put the branch to their nose.

 There's commentators that are not really sure what this means, but there could be the implication here of using it as a narcotic, as a drug, like cannabis, whatever, that type of thing.

 They're just out of their minds.

 They're provoking God to anger.

 Verse 18, the final verse of the chapter, Therefore will I also deal in my fury.

 Do you understand, having seen what we've gone through this morning, why God says, I'm going to deal in my fury? It kind of makes sense when we start to get the picture.

 I don't know about you, but the things we've looked at this morning leave me with this real sickening feeling in my stomach, thinking, Lord, you have got to do something.

 I saw a quote or a comment by somebody this week, and they said, the Lord is going to have to do something, because if I do, I'll get arrested.

 And I think that's the way that many people are feeling.

 And of course, we're not going to do anything.

 Christians are not prone to violence.

 We will not support or condone any violence to anybody.

 We're not against anybody, but we want to stand up for the truth of Scripture.

 So God says, Therefore will I also deal in my fury.

 My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity.

 And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

 That's what God says.

 Just as Jesus said, people are going to cry.

 Lord, Lord.

 And he says, I never knew you.

 Read ahead.

 We'll carry on from there next week.

 Father God, we just thank you for this opportunity to review the days in which Ezekiel lived, to look at the messages, the warnings you gave him for the people, and Lord, how we are Lord shocked in probably the same way Ezekiel was, that the abominations that are being committed in your house amongst people who would claim to be your people, Father, you brought judgment upon Jerusalem, upon Israel because of their iniquity.

 And we know Lord, because it's prophesied in your word that you will bring in likewise judgment upon the iniquity in this world.

 Lord, this world is given over to violence.

 It's given over to things that are so offensive to you.

 And Lord, we know you will not sit by and do nothing.

 So Lord, we pray for wisdom.

 We pray that you would teach us how we should respond and act in these days, how we should show love and grace to point people to the one and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the days that remain.

 We ask these things for your glory in Jesus name.

 Amen.

 Okay, God bless you.

 Let's go spend some time, fellowshipping over some teas and coffees.

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So, the book of Ezekiel. You know, really as we studied through these chapters this morning,

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I kind of want you to sit there with Revelation chapter 6 open at the same time, because

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as I've been going through this, it's incredible the parallels. It's as if what Ezekiel went

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through and the history that we're looking at here is just a model, a real event,

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hugely significant, but it's a model of all that is going to come. What we're seeing is God's

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judgment upon Israel, upon Jerusalem, and the things that God is decreeing is going to happen

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to the nation. And yet it's exactly what is happening and going to happen to this world.

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And so I want you to have those things in mind. I started trying to count last night

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the number of direct similarities, direct parallels between these chapters that we're

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looking at this morning, we're going to start in chapter 7 in a moment, and the things in Revelation.

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And I just lost count. There are so many. So have that in mind as we go through these things.

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We're looking, of course, at Israel and of these things that took place historically, about 600

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years before Jesus came. But these things speak very much of the days in which we are living right now.

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So with that said, let me just give you as an introduction the fact that the rabbis argued that

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no one should study Ezekiel until he was at least 30 years of age. Because this stuff here

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is just so mind-blowing. And maybe we don't appreciate it when we're younger. I just hope

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and pray that the Holy Spirit gives us that kind of insight and understanding this morning so that

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we can at least grasp in part some of these things. And they also said that he who understood the

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winged chariot, that's what we saw in the first three chapters, or chapters 2 and 3 particularly,

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knew all the mysteries of creation. Well, that's an incredible statement too.

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And I've learned over the years that when these ancient sages and rabbis made these comments,

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we may look at that kind of like flippantly as if it was just a little remark, but actually

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there's probably far more truth in that than we understand.

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Just to give you a very quick review of where we've got to to give us a springboard into this

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study this morning, in the first three chapters we see Ezekiel's call and commission.

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In the first chapter there's Ezekiel's call to the prophetic office. If you remember he would have

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been a priest at the age of 30 and he's now in Babylon. At this moment when he would have entered

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the priesthood, had he been in Jerusalem, the Lord calls him and says, I have another job for you,

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another work. And we see this vision of the stormy wind and fire, the four cherubim, the wheels,

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and then the throne of the glory of Jehovah. And it seems that what we're seeing here is

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this chariot with these four living creatures on the corners and so on, and these incredible wheels.

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And then in chapters 2 and 3, actually it's the commissioning of Ezekiel for the work that the

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Lord has for him. And it's the charge to speak God's word. And Ezekiel was actually told and

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commanded to eat the scroll, to digest it, to let it become part of you. Or in a sense, metaphorically,

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that's what we should all do with the word of God. We should be reading the Bible and let it permeate

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our thinking in every way. You know that's why in Psalm 119 we read there, that your word I've

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hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you. Because if God's word is hidden in our heart, if

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we are so accustomed to understanding and reading and letting it become part of our thinking, when

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we're faced with any challenge or difficulty or temptation, immediately there'll be a scripture.

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When we're faced with a situation that would otherwise maybe lead to doubt or despondency

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or despair, there'll be a scripture that will answer it. And the Holy Spirit will

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bring to our understanding or to our memories the things that we've read.

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God will, as Oswald Chambers used to say, will work out what we allow in. So allow God's words

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to affect us. And this is what Ezekiel's effectively being told to do here, to let God's word

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just become so much part of him. That's all he's speaking. And God, of course, as he does with each

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of us, with each of the commissions that God gives to us, promises to equip him. And then we see that

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he's taken in the spirit to the camp of the captives. At the time of this, he was in Jerusalem

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at the time of the prophecy, and he's looking forward to what he's going to be.

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And then God speaks of his duties as a watchman. A watchman typically would be somebody who would

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stand on the walls and be ready for any attack of the enemy and would call out if the enemy was

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approaching. And that's exactly what he's to do, is to warn the people of the impending danger that

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they each face if they don't turn to God. And then we see a second vision of God at the end of chapter

00:05:06.880 --> 00:05:13.359
three. The next section that we looked at last week, chapters four from that point all the way

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through to the end of chapter 24, it's prophecies against Judah that are given before the final

00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:28.720
destruction of Jerusalem. So as we said a number of times, Ezekiel was taken captive in 597 BC.

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The first siege was some nine years or so earlier than that in 606 BC. That's when Daniel was taken

00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:40.560
captive. And then Nebuchadnezzar comes back again and Ezekiel and others are taken captive. And then

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finally in 587 BC was when the final siege of Jerusalem. There'll be more about that in the book as we go

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through, particularly from chapter 12 onwards we'll see details regarding that.

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These are messages in the fifth year of his captivity that we're seeing here now. And these

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four acted out prophecies, and this is what we looked at in detail last week. There's firstly

00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:11.600
that picture of the siege of Jerusalem and then he's to lay on his left side and then his right

00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:17.760
side, symbolically bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah. And we saw that this is a staggering

00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:24.320
prophecy that goes right into the days in which we live, speaking of the judgment that God pronounced

00:06:24.320 --> 00:06:31.760
upon the people of Israel and the city. Some of them regard to the nation, some of them regard to

00:06:31.760 --> 00:06:37.760
the land. And we've seen this fulfilled, particularly in 1948 Israel became a nation again. In 1967 they

00:06:37.760 --> 00:06:44.880
recaptured Jerusalem. All these prophesied and given to us in this incredible book. And then the

00:06:44.880 --> 00:06:50.480
coming famine that was to occur is also prophesied. He's to act that out as well, along with

00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:56.880
the slaughter that would be accompanying the siege that is all given to us in chapter five.

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And then an explanation, an exposition, unpacking if you like, of the signs that God had given.

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And then in chapter six we see that warning to the land itself, as if the physical mountains

00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:16.160
and hills and valleys of Israel are being addressed in a personal form. And that then leads us to

00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:20.160
this section. And we'll see, I don't know how far we get, we may make it all the way through.

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Some of these are shorter chapters, but from chapter seven onwards then, this judgment that's declared

00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:33.200
upon Israel. In chapter seven we're going to see Israel's inescapable doom declared. And it's

00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:39.440
going to be four short oracles that Ezekiel is going to give, declaring that doom. And then the

00:07:39.440 --> 00:07:45.440
machinery, if you like, of destruction is already at work. This is already in progress, is what

00:07:45.440 --> 00:07:50.480
Ezekiel is going to warn the people. In chapter eight he views the idolatry taking place in the

00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:54.960
temple in Jerusalem, in a vision. So previously he'd been transported in a vision from Jerusalem

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to see what was going on in Babylon. Now he's in Babylon, he's going to get a vision of what's

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taking place in Jerusalem, and he's going to be shocked. And we're going to be shocked. And then

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we're going to suddenly realize that's exactly what's going on right now in the church in this

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country. And if God brought judgment upon Israel for their iniquity, he's going to do the same

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for the church in this country, and for the church in the world at large.

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Chapter nine we see the slaughter of Jerusalem, but there's the promise that those that are

00:08:31.440 --> 00:08:40.000
righteous will be protected, preserved through this time of wrath. It's consistent with the way God

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deals with his people throughout scripture. In chapter 10 he's going to see these coals of fire

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that are cast over Jerusalem. It's going to be burnt, and then they're going to see the glory of God

00:08:50.160 --> 00:08:56.400
departing from the temple. So let me just give you an introduction to chapter seven then.

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Many Jews throughout, oh sorry, thought that Jerusalem would never be conquered.

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There are people in the church today that see the church as almost invincible,

00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:17.280
and so many have fallen for the lie of amillennialism, which has for centuries

00:09:17.760 --> 00:09:23.760
convinced many people that the church is going to conquer the world, that we're going to win the

00:09:23.760 --> 00:09:29.280
world, and then when it's all done and everybody's a believer, Jesus will come back. That's not what

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the Bible says. The church is not going to win the world. Jesus himself said that when he returned,

00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:42.800
???? he said, well, I didn't even find faith.???? Jesus speaks of the many that follow after lies and

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fables, the many that will be deceived. Read through Matthew's gospel and look at the number

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of times the many are referred to as those that are caught up in the deception. Many are going

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to say to him in that day, have we not done this and that and so on, cast out demons and done

00:10:03.199 --> 00:10:07.599
miracles, and Jesus is going to say, I don't even know who you are. We have no relationship.

00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:12.400
There are many within the so-called Christian church that are deceived.

00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:19.600
They've bought into a kind of religious experience, but many churches, sadly, are little more than

00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:24.160
social clubs. They're places where people go and they meet with their friends on a Sunday and they

00:10:24.160 --> 00:10:32.640
chat and then they carry on their week as if nothing was different. Their lives are no different. It

00:10:32.640 --> 00:10:35.600
would be hard to tell them apart from people in the world. Their conduct, their language, their

00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.240
vocabulary they use is no different than the people of the world. Their attitudes towards

00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:46.960
godly things is no different. They don't spend any time in God's word and they call themselves

00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:54.560
Christians. Ezekiel is going to be addressing exactly that kind of attitude. And so, again,

00:10:54.560 --> 00:11:00.400
the Jews didn't think Jerusalem could fall. Surely, this is the city of the great king. This is the

00:11:01.199 --> 00:11:09.360
city where David and Solomon and so on. But Ezekiel announces this certainty that the city

00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:15.040
is going to fall. God will bring his judgment. And let me tell you now that God will bring his

00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:22.240
judgment, not just on this world, but on the church. Peter makes it clear that the season of

00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:28.079
judgment that is coming is going to begin at the house of God. 

00:11:28.160 --> 00:11:34.080
 That's what Peter tells us. And we are going to see

00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:40.320
God's wrath start to fall upon the church. And when I say the church, I'm referring to the

00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:46.320
false church, those that believe that they're okay. The Laodicean church,

00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:52.080
the things that's rich, that's in need of nothing. And, of course, you know God's

00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.480
verdict on the church of Laodicea given to us in Revelation chapter 3.

00:11:58.800 --> 00:12:01.760
God says to them, I wish you were hot, I wish you were cold. One or the other,

00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:07.840
but you're neither. You're lukewarm. Have you ever drunk any lukewarm water? It's not

00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:11.680
particularly pleasant, is it? Hot water is okay. There's something quite refreshing about hot water.

00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:19.840
Cold water is lovely. The girls know that if they're giving me a drink for tea time,

00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:23.840
and we nearly always just have water to drink, that I have mine with a bit of ice in it.

00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:29.520
I like cold water. But tepid water, it's horrible. And God is saying that to the

00:12:29.520 --> 00:12:34.400
church in the days that we live that is just like that. It's just unpalatable.

00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:44.160
God had been long-suffering and merciful with Israel. He saved the city many times. You only need

00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:52.720
to read through the book of Kings to see how many times God had spared the city. But the people

00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:59.200
stubbornly refused to repent. And now the time for God's judgment had come. One disaster would

00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:05.280
follow another until the wicked city was destroyed. Straight away, think about Revelation chapter 6,

00:13:05.280 --> 00:13:09.040
how we start to see one disaster followed by another, followed by another.

00:13:11.520 --> 00:13:16.880
As a tree blossoms, so Jerusalem's sin was full-grown.

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You know, when we see a tree in springtime, you see those buds come out. And it may be a few weeks,

00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.080
you're kind of waiting and waiting and waiting, and suddenly, we used to have a tree in our garden

00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:34.880
back in Kent. It was beautiful. And it was one of those trees that the blossoms would come out

00:13:34.880 --> 00:13:42.960
before the leaves came out. And it was just an absolute picture. But we would wait sometimes

00:13:43.920 --> 00:13:49.280
for two, three, four weeks, and all of a sudden, the blossoms, it was unmistakable.

00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:56.160
And we see the same thing, that Jerusalem's sin in a like manner was growing and growing and growing,

00:13:56.160 --> 00:14:02.400
and maybe not visible in a sense, but it starts to overflow. It gets to kind of a tipping point.

00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:07.280
The city was about to fall. And what we're going to see is that rich and poor were about to lose

00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:15.600
everything. Again, just like it's prophesied for the days in which we're living. And so we see

00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:21.920
Abiah was not to rejoice if they'd done a good deal, nor a seller mourn because they'd lost

00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:26.319
their property. And neither was the seller to hope that one day they would regain everything.

00:14:26.319 --> 00:14:31.120
God is making it really clear, they were all going to lose. And that the citizens of Jerusalem,

00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:37.440
therefore, might prepare for battle. But actually, preparation was going to be useless,

00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:43.280
because God had already decreed this, that Jerusalem was indeed doomed. And the people

00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:48.880
were trapped in this besieged city, were going to die of starvation. And those that were outside in

00:14:48.880 --> 00:14:53.360
the fields and the villages would be killed by enemy soldiers. And any who managed to escape

00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:58.240
would only face a miserable existence in their mountain hiding places, where they would be alone.

00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:06.560
Everywhere there would be a feeling of hopelessness. The money that the Jerusalemites had unjustly

00:15:06.560 --> 00:15:12.480
gained would be of no use to them when there was no food to buy. In despair, they would throw their

00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:19.760
money away. And their idols, these richly ornamented and very expensive idols, would be taken,

00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:25.840
stolen by the invaders, by the Babylonian army. And God's precious place, this city of Jerusalem,

00:15:25.920 --> 00:15:34.080
and the temple, was going to be profaned as these irreverent Babylonian soldiers would come in. And

00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:38.000
they would plunder. And we know that they would take all the cups and all the utensils, and they'd

00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:42.000
take those things away to Babylon. And ultimately, in the end, they destroyed the temple.

00:15:43.040 --> 00:15:47.760
And then terrified by the violence of the attack, the people would look on helplessly

00:15:48.560 --> 00:15:55.040
as the invaders seized their houses also. Neither religious nor civil leaders would be able to

00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:02.480
save Jerusalem from being overrun. The calamity would be a fitting judgment on the city for its

00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:08.160
religious rebellion and moral waywardness. That's a summary. Let's go through the text.

00:16:08.160 --> 00:16:15.040
Verse 1, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also thou son of man, thus says the

00:16:15.040 --> 00:16:23.520
Lord God, unto the land of Israel an end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

00:16:23.520 --> 00:16:29.520
And let me just pause for a second, because that's a strange expression used of the land of

00:16:29.520 --> 00:16:35.280
Israel. Because that expression, the four corners, is normally in reference to the whole earth.

00:16:36.640 --> 00:16:41.680
And it's one of those little, as the rabbis would call it, a "remez", a hint of something deeper.

00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:48.720
This is directly linking this with what we are seeing in Revelation 6, as God's judgment,

00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:54.640
an end, the end is coming upon the whole earth, the four corners of the earth. And when we talk

00:16:54.640 --> 00:16:59.680
about the four corners, we are not saying that the earth is a square or anything else. It's a globe,

00:16:59.680 --> 00:17:06.079
as Isaiah tells us, it hangs nothing in space, the circle of the earth. We're not going for that flat

00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:11.200
earth stuff, right? But it's just simply talking about the cardinal points, north, south, west,

00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:19.360
east. Verse 3, now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will

00:17:19.360 --> 00:17:24.640
judge thee according to thy ways, and I will recompense thee upon all thine abominations.

00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:31.520
We should notice that God's judgment is not unjust, it's in response to their disobedience.

00:17:31.520 --> 00:17:36.720
Because it's very easy to read these kind of things and almost be sympathetic and compassionate,

00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.960
and think, well, it's a bit harsh, isn't it? Well, not as we start to go through, and you'll see God

00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:48.160
lay out why he's bringing judgment. And as I said already, the parallels with the coming time

00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:54.560
of tribulation as we go through this are staggering. Verse 4, mine eye shall not spare thee,

00:17:54.560 --> 00:18:00.160
neither will I have pity, but I will recompense thy ways, this is what you have done, upon thee,

00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:04.720
and thy abominations, the things that you've committed, that shall be in the midst of thee,

00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:08.480
and you shall know that I am the Lord. Well, that's an interesting statement, because that's

00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:12.480
exactly what we find in Revelation 6, of the judgment of the time of tribulation that's coming.

00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:20.160
People will know that God is bringing the judgment, and incredibly, they still do not repent.

00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:27.920
Verse 5, thus says the Lord God, an evil, an only evil, behold, is come. That verse,

00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:33.520
Adam Clarke puts it this way, he says, the great, the sovereign, the last exterminating evil is come,

00:18:33.520 --> 00:18:38.800
the sword, the pestilence, the famine, and the captivity. And yes, those are the things that

00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:42.960
we're going to see mentioned, and yes, they are the things that we see in Revelation 6 as well.

00:18:43.520 --> 00:18:46.800
The sword, the pestilence, the famine, the captivity. Read Matthew 24,

00:18:46.800 --> 00:18:50.560
read Revelation 6, and see the parallels with this.

00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:59.920
Verse 6, an end is come, the end is come, it watches for thee, behold, it is come.

00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:04.960
The morning has come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land, the time is come, the day of

00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:12.240
trouble is near. And again, that expression is used of the coming tribulation as well. And not the

00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:18.560
sounding again of the mountains. What does that mean? That's almost a strange expression. Adam

00:19:18.560 --> 00:19:24.560
Clarke on that one says, the hostile troops are advancing, you hear a sound, a tumultuous noise,

00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:31.120
do not suppose that this proceeds from festivals upon the mountains, from the joy of harvestment,

00:19:31.120 --> 00:19:36.639
or the treaders of the winepress. It is the noise of those by whom ye and your country are to fall.

00:19:36.639 --> 00:19:41.840
So that reference in verse 7, again, and not the sounding again of the mountains,

00:19:41.840 --> 00:19:45.840
is simply saying, you know, through the mountains would come these shouts of joy or celebrations,

00:19:45.840 --> 00:19:50.159
as people were out just doing their job, and in the time of harvest, and getting ready for

00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:54.880
wonderful times. And Ezekiel's saying that's not all, the Lord through Ezekiel is saying that's

00:19:54.880 --> 00:20:01.280
not going to happen again. Those days are gone. That which we thought is normal has passed.

00:20:02.560 --> 00:20:06.640
Do you remember how, when we went into COVID, everybody was saying at the time how

00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:12.080
we will never return to normal? Well, we kind of have, in a way, in a sense. We don't tend to worry

00:20:12.080 --> 00:20:16.320
too much. I mean, I'm not sure the last time you anti-backed your hands when you were out in public,

00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:21.200
you may still carry something around, we do, we keep stuff in the car, just to be sensible really.

00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:26.560
But, you know, there was a time that every time you went into a shop, or a building, or anywhere,

00:20:26.560 --> 00:20:31.360
you'd be anti-backing your hands, and you kind of got obsessive with it. But we have kind of

00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:38.080
returned to normal now, largely, the world. But what God is saying to Ezekiel, and what we will find,

00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:43.679
we're getting to a time where things will go so far it will not go back to as it was.

00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:49.920
The things that we think are normal now will be forgotten. Verse 8,

00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:53.680
Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee,

00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:58.640
and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and recompense thee for all thine abominations.

00:21:00.320 --> 00:21:07.120
Once again, notice that God is going to bring a judgment that is proportionate to what they have

00:21:07.199 --> 00:21:14.000
done, in rebellion to him. And God says, And mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity.

00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:21.040
He says, I will recompense thee according to thy ways. You know, nobody is going to stand

00:21:21.040 --> 00:21:27.520
before God on judgment day and feel like they've been hard done by. Nobody is going to say, well,

00:21:27.520 --> 00:21:33.199
I don't think it was fair, I didn't really know, and nobody told me, and I never really heard the

00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:41.200
gospel proclaimed. God has given everybody the opportunity. We have our own conscience,

00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:47.680
and our conscience bears witness to the truth. Every one of us knows the law because it's

00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:52.000
written in our hearts. This is what Paul tells us in the New Testament. Everybody knows that

00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:58.480
it's wrong to murder, it's wrong to lie, it's wrong to steal. Everybody has a moral compass,

00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:01.120
just many people just choose to not look at it, ignore it.

00:22:04.560 --> 00:22:08.480
God is saying, no, no, you're going to be judged according to your ways, and thine abominations

00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:12.880
that are in the midst of thee, and you shall know that I am the Lord that's mighty. You're going to

00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:19.360
know that this is God bringing this judgment. Verse 10, Behold the day, behold it is come,

00:22:19.360 --> 00:22:26.560
the morning has gone forth, the rod has blossomed, pride has budded, violence has risen up into a rod

00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:33.280
of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs, neither

00:22:33.280 --> 00:22:39.440
shall there be wailing for them. The time is come, the day draws near. Let not the buyer rejoice,

00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:45.919
nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. For the seller shall not return

00:22:45.919 --> 00:22:51.600
to that which he sold, although they were yet alive, for the vision is touching the whole

00:22:51.600 --> 00:22:56.879
multitude thereof, which shall not return, neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of

00:22:56.879 --> 00:23:03.520
his life. They have blown the trumpet even to make all ready, but none goeth to battle, for my wrath

00:23:03.520 --> 00:23:10.000
is upon all the multitude thereof." You see, the trumpet would have been blown to warn of an enemy

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.760
approaching, to prepare people for battle, or to announce that it was time to march out in battle.

00:23:16.800 --> 00:23:20.879
Interestingly, back in 2007, I had the privilege of going to Israel, and we went to the Temple

00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:27.360
Institute in Jerusalem, and in one of the cabinets there, they have these silver trumpets, and the

00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:32.560
person that was showing us around said that they'd actually taken those very trumpets

00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:38.080
to the Golan Heights, and they had been blown before Israel had launched its offensive against

00:23:38.080 --> 00:23:44.080
Hezbollah with the war that had just taken place in 2007. According to Scripture, that's what they

00:23:44.080 --> 00:23:50.560
were to do. They did it. It's interesting. But here, we're told that they have blown the trumpet,

00:23:51.120 --> 00:23:56.720
you know, nobody listened. How interesting it is that when we come to the time of tribulation,

00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:02.159
it will be after the church has been removed. The Lord will come, and he will take his own

00:24:02.800 --> 00:24:07.840
away before judgment comes. We'll be raptured. There'll be the blowing of the trumpet. We know

00:24:07.840 --> 00:24:17.600
from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. But people will not acknowledge, they'll not respond to that.

00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:25.520
Now, there are many who believe that the trumpet that is blown in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4

00:24:25.520 --> 00:24:30.560
will only be heard by believers, and that may be the case. But certainly, the after effects will

00:24:30.560 --> 00:24:34.480
be seen and felt by everybody. As suddenly, millions of Christians are no longer here.

00:24:35.120 --> 00:24:40.320
But the world is not going to respond to that. There'll be the warning, but they won't respond.

00:24:40.320 --> 00:24:44.880
Just as here, Ezekiel is saying, effectively, the trumpet's been blown, but it didn't change you,

00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:48.160
didn't change anybody's attitude. You just carry on as you were.

00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:57.680
Notice verse 15, the sword is without. That's exactly what we're told about. Jesus speaks

00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:02.640
about the sword in Revelation 6. He speaks of a great sword there.

00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:08.720
And the pestilence, again, Revelation 6 talks about that. And the famine, Revelation 6 talks

00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:12.720
about that. He that is in the field shall die with the sword, and he that is in the city,

00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:18.480
famine and pestilence shall devour him. It's very interesting, isn't it? As you grow

00:25:19.120 --> 00:25:24.320
in your understanding of Scripture, you learn to take things seriously.

00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:31.280
There are many expressions used, and it's easy to look at it and just go, well, that's just a

00:25:31.280 --> 00:25:36.879
figure of speech or whatever. But as you go on, you realise that God means what he says and says

00:25:36.879 --> 00:25:41.920
what he means. There's so many of these details, as we have a greater understanding, as we look

00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:47.040
back, we go, wow, that was exactly what God said. He did it in the way he said he was going to.

00:25:47.840 --> 00:25:51.520
Just because we don't understand, necessarily, this side of things, how it will play out.

00:25:52.480 --> 00:26:00.320
But notice how often a sword is mentioned. Which religion is it that tries to conquer by the sword?

00:26:02.240 --> 00:26:10.320
Look at the way they have conquered countless nations in history. Look at the way they are

00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:16.560
openly declaring they want to conquer and take over this country, and France, and Germany, and...

00:26:19.600 --> 00:26:23.920
Is it any coincidence that we find this constant reference to the sword in regard to these end

00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:31.120
times events? Verse 16, but they that escape of them shall escape and shall be on the mountains

00:26:31.199 --> 00:26:36.000
like doves of the valley, all of them mourning everyone for his iniquity. All hands shall be

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:43.120
feeble and all knees shall be weak as water. That expression there about the be like the doves on

00:26:43.120 --> 00:26:48.639
the mountains and so on. Again, Adam Clarke just says this, rather like mourning doves, and he gives

00:26:48.639 --> 00:26:55.280
us the Hebrew there, chased from their dove coats and separated from their mates. That's the

00:26:55.280 --> 00:26:59.120
expression, that's the idea that's trying to be conveyed. That people, there may be a few that

00:26:59.120 --> 00:27:04.080
escape, but they're going to be on their own. And it's going to be scary, there won't be anyone with

00:27:04.080 --> 00:27:07.919
them, they'll be on their own, they're left to figure out how they're going to live, what are

00:27:07.919 --> 00:27:12.000
they going to do, where would they go, what happens if they go anywhere, they're going to be captured now.

00:27:13.760 --> 00:27:20.639
So this warning that all hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak. Verse 18, they shall also

00:27:20.639 --> 00:27:25.760
grind themselves as sackcloth and horror shall cover them and shame shall be upon all faces and

00:27:25.760 --> 00:27:30.960
boldness upon all their heads. They shall cast their silver in the streets and their gold shall

00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:36.160
be removed, their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of

00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:41.120
the Lord. This could be revelation we're reading here, but it is Ezekiel. It could be speaking of

00:27:41.120 --> 00:27:46.480
the days that we are about to go into, or the world is about to go into, but it's speaking of the days

00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:52.400
600 BC. These events took place, so we know that just as these were literally fulfilled, what is

00:27:52.400 --> 00:28:00.320
coming will also be literally fulfilled. Again, notice, in the day of the wrath of the Lord, they

00:28:00.320 --> 00:28:06.240
shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowls, because it is the stumbling block of their

00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:13.280
iniquity. In the book of James, James speaks again of the times to come, he says, go to now you rich

00:28:13.280 --> 00:28:17.760
men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your

00:28:17.760 --> 00:28:23.440
garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver, just as Ezekiel was speaking of, is cankered.

00:28:24.320 --> 00:28:29.760
That is to imply that it's corrupted. It's worthless now.

00:28:32.080 --> 00:28:38.480
Verse 16 of Revelation 18, we read, alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen

00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:43.520
and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour so

00:28:43.520 --> 00:28:50.400
great riches come to naught. Speaking of the judgment of this religious system that's going

00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:56.720
to be established as we move into the time of tribulation, as the world moves into the time of

00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:05.760
tribulation. Verse 20, as for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty, but they made the

00:29:05.760 --> 00:29:11.840
images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein. Therefore have I set it far from

00:29:11.840 --> 00:29:16.720
them, and I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, into the wicked of the earth

00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:22.159
for a spoil, and they shall pollute it. My face will I turn also from them, and they, this is the

00:29:22.159 --> 00:29:29.840
strangers, shall pollute my secret place, for the robber shall enter in and defile it. As Ezekiel is

00:29:29.840 --> 00:29:34.720
speaking this to the people, many of them were thinking, oh this is nonsense, I don't believe

00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:39.760
this for a minute. Just as many in the world would see it like this now. They don't believe that

00:29:39.760 --> 00:29:46.720
there's a time of judgment coming from God. Verse 23, make a chain for the land is full of bloody

00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:51.520
crimes, and the city is full of violence. Look at that statement, we're going to come back to that.

00:29:51.520 --> 00:29:56.320
Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses. I will also

00:29:56.320 --> 00:30:01.440
make the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled. Destruction cometh,

00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:08.240
and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. Remember what we're told of the time

00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:15.120
it's coming. They say peace, peace, but there is no peace. The parallels again, just so many.

00:30:15.120 --> 00:30:23.040
Verse 26, mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor. It almost has that ring

00:30:23.040 --> 00:30:28.560
of the wars and the rumors of wars, doesn't it? And they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the

00:30:28.560 --> 00:30:34.000
law shall perish from the priest, and the counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn, and the

00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:38.240
prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled.

00:30:39.040 --> 00:30:44.000
And I will do unto them after their way according to their desserts when I judge them, and they

00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:51.040
shall know that I am the Lord. Now just as God did judge Israel in this way, so he will bring judgment

00:30:51.040 --> 00:30:55.680
upon the world. Israel are like a small model of what's the big picture ultimately is going to be

00:30:55.680 --> 00:30:59.920
with the world. Both are real, both this was fulfilled literally, what is coming will be

00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:06.160
fulfilled literally. Just to go back to that expression, full of violence, just to kind of

00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:14.160
paint the picture so you're not kind of ignorant of this, an estimated 458,000 international murders

00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:23.600
occur each year. That's nearly half a million, half a million people. And these are, this isn't

00:31:23.600 --> 00:31:30.480
to do with war, this isn't other things, this is just people who are murdered, who weren't necessarily

00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:38.560
doing anything wrong, but this, you know. Average out to approximately 52 people killed every hour.

00:31:40.080 --> 00:31:46.959
There's approximately 1,255 victims a day. Africa recorded the highest absolute number of victims

00:31:47.600 --> 00:31:57.760
with an estimated 176,000 homicides annually. The Americas recorded over 154,000 homicides,

00:31:57.760 --> 00:32:01.280
but had the highest rate of intentional killings per capita.

00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:11.520
Asia accounted for 109,000 homicides, with Europe and Oceania having significantly lower counts.

00:32:11.680 --> 00:32:21.680
In regard to gender disparity as it's referred, men accounted for 81% of all intentional murders.

00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:33.120
Women accounted for 19% of all murders, but a far higher percentage of killings in the home.

00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:42.800
54% of all killings in the home and 66% of all intimate partner killings.

00:32:44.879 --> 00:32:53.679
Globally an average of around 140 women and girls lost their lives every day at the hands of a partner or close relative.

00:32:54.240 --> 00:33:05.840
Around 140 women and girls every single day are being murdered by a partner or close relative.

00:33:08.080 --> 00:33:15.200
This is a daily estimate for 2023 based upon a separate UN women's report.

00:33:18.320 --> 00:33:23.360
Men, (oh that's the same thing we just read), but notice the last statement there.

00:33:23.760 --> 00:33:34.800
Because it's easy to forget an estimated 73 million induced abortions occur worldwide each year.

00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:40.400
There's over 200,000 abortions every day.

00:33:41.760 --> 00:33:49.120
Do you see why when God was warning Ezekiel, saying that they were full of violence and this is why I'm

00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:55.199
going to bring judgment upon you, we can't sit here and think well that was then and that was terrible and Israel were awful.

00:33:55.199 --> 00:34:02.959
Because we're living in a world that in some ways has far surpassed what Israel were doing.

00:34:03.679 --> 00:34:07.280
And God will bring his wrath on this world.

00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:14.239
Based on the most recent data published by Open Doors, some of you are familiar with Open Doors,

00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:18.879
a ministry to the persecuted Christians around the world. It's documented an estimated number of

00:34:18.879 --> 00:34:27.439
Christians killed worldwide for their faith-related reasons. In recent years, 2024, 4,476 Christians killed.

00:34:27.439 --> 00:34:37.919
2023, 4,998 Christians killed. 2022, 5,621. 2021, 5,898.

00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:45.840
2020, 4,761. 25,000 Christians killed just simply for being Christians.

00:34:49.760 --> 00:34:57.840
And actually, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity argues that the number is much higher than that.

00:34:59.200 --> 00:35:02.800
There are many that are not reported. There are many that are not logged.

00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:08.160
And they reckon potentially the annual average could sometimes reach 90,000 or more.

00:35:09.200 --> 00:35:14.160
Do you understand when Ezekiel is told to tell the people they were full of violence and probably

00:35:14.160 --> 00:35:19.600
their reaction was, no we're not. And in the same way if we said that this world is overdue judgment,

00:35:19.600 --> 00:35:25.920
many people would say, well it's not that bad. And living in a place like we live, we see the odd

00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:31.920
problem. There are murders that we hear about from time to time here. There are crimes that are

00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:37.040
committed. But we're largely immune from some of the things that are going on in the world.

00:35:37.600 --> 00:35:41.280
But it is a sick and twisted place.

00:35:44.240 --> 00:35:46.960
In chapter 8, let's just see if we can make a run through this chapter.

00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:52.480
A year and two months had now passed since God called Ezekiel to be prophet and by

00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:58.960
this time people were recognizing him as a prophet. And leaders among the exiles came to discuss their

00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:03.520
affairs with him. While the leaders were sitting and talking with him, Ezekiel was suddenly caught

00:36:03.520 --> 00:36:09.920
up by the Spirit of God and taken as it were to Jerusalem. Ezekiel knew immediately that these

00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:15.200
visions were from God because the first he saw was a vision of the glory of God which is just as he

00:36:15.200 --> 00:36:22.960
had previously seen. In his vision Ezekiel was taken to the temple where he was about to enter

00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:29.600
the inner court. He saw an idol that stirred God to jealousy. From there Ezekiel went by a secret

00:36:29.600 --> 00:36:34.720
door into a hidden room and there he saw a gathering of Jerusalem's leaders who were secretly

00:36:34.720 --> 00:36:39.280
worshipping pictures of animals painted on the walls and foolishly they thought that God couldn't see them.

00:36:41.680 --> 00:36:46.000
In another part of the temple Ezekiel saw women carrying out ritual mourning as part of their

00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:52.560
worship for the foreign god Temus. And finally Ezekiel came into the inner court of the temple

00:36:52.560 --> 00:36:56.320
where he saw a group of priests who had turned their backs on the temple and were worshipping

00:36:56.320 --> 00:37:03.520
toward the east. Interesting isn't it? And that was an offensive insult to God. So let's look at the text.

00:37:03.520 --> 00:37:07.759
Verse one. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month,

00:37:07.759 --> 00:37:13.440
as I sat in my house and the elders of Judah sat before me. So again he started to gain respect,

00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:20.880
they're starting to listen to him. That the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. Then I beheld

00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:25.760
in lower likeness as the appearance of fire, from the appearance of his loins even downward fire,

00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:30.720
and from his loins even upward as the appearance of brightness as the color of amber. And this is

00:37:30.720 --> 00:37:36.880
similar to what he's already seen. And he put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head

00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:42.080
and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to

00:37:42.080 --> 00:37:49.600
Jerusalem to the door of the inner gate that looks towards the north. Where was the seat of the image

00:37:49.600 --> 00:37:55.759
of jealousy which provokes to jealousy? Interesting, we don't know what this is. There are commentators

00:37:55.759 --> 00:38:01.360
that have speculated but there was some sort of image that had been set up. And clearly it's

00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:07.360
something that God detests. How interesting that in Ezekiel's time an image is set up and of course

00:38:07.360 --> 00:38:13.279
we know from revelation that an image is going to be set up in the temple. Again you can overlay these

00:38:13.279 --> 00:38:18.960
two accounts. If you were just to put a list of the bullet points it would be the same almost on

00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:26.240
both sides. And behold the glory of the God of Israel was there according to vision that I saw

00:38:26.240 --> 00:38:31.600
in the plain. And we'll see that explained in a moment. So Ezekiel now transported in his vision

00:38:31.600 --> 00:38:37.120
to Jerusalem. Again brought to see just how bad the situation really was and maybe even

00:38:37.120 --> 00:38:44.640
Ezekiel himself didn't really believe it or understand it. Verse five, then said he unto me

00:38:44.640 --> 00:38:51.359
son of man lift up thine eyes now the way to, sorry now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my

00:38:51.359 --> 00:38:57.440
eyes the way toward the north and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy

00:38:58.160 --> 00:39:03.839
in the entry, in the entrance. And he said furthermore unto me son of man seest thou what they do

00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:10.000
even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here that I should go far off

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:15.680
from my sanctuary but turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations. I mean if this

00:39:15.680 --> 00:39:19.840
wasn't enough God is saying okay I'm going to show you something even worse than this.

00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:25.680
And he brought me to a door of the court and when I looked behold a hole in the wall and then he

00:39:25.680 --> 00:39:29.920
said unto me son of man dig now in the wall and when I digged in the wall behold a door and he

00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:36.640
said unto me go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. This is the temple.

00:39:37.040 --> 00:39:42.160
And so I went in and saw and behold every form of creeping thing and abominable beast and all

00:39:42.160 --> 00:39:47.040
the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about.

00:39:49.520 --> 00:39:53.440
There was images around that were just of things that should not have been there.

00:39:54.799 --> 00:39:56.480
And the people were worshipping these things.

00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:04.480
And there stood before them 70 men of the ancients of the house of Israel and in the midst of them

00:40:05.040 --> 00:40:11.360
stood Jasaniah the son of Shaphan or the son of Shaphan with every man his censer in his hand and

00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:16.160
a thick cloud of incense went up. And initially you're going to think well they're worshipping

00:40:16.160 --> 00:40:21.760
God are they not? No sadly they're not. Then said he unto me son of man thou has seen what the

00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:27.280
ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark every man in the chambers of his imagery.

00:40:28.240 --> 00:40:35.040
What a scary word that is. It implies there's all sorts of things going on inside our heads

00:40:35.040 --> 00:40:39.760
in our hearts in our minds that are displeasing to God or study these individuals the things that

00:40:39.760 --> 00:40:46.320
they were allowing into their lives. For they say the Lord seeth us not the Lord has forsaken the

00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:53.120
earth. Interesting you'll see that in a moment I'll show you something else. He said also unto me turn

00:40:53.120 --> 00:40:59.040
thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations that they do. And then he brought me

00:40:59.040 --> 00:41:04.080
to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which is toward the north and behold there sat women

00:41:04.080 --> 00:41:12.960
weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me has thou seen this O son of man? Turn thee yet again and

00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:16.799
thou shall see greater abominations than these. Now we're just going to take a time out here because

00:41:17.600 --> 00:41:22.880
we may miss the scale of how abhorrent these things are but it's just getting worse and worse

00:41:23.040 --> 00:41:31.920
and worse. Chuck Smith in his commentary made this comment regarding this character Tammuz who is he?

00:41:31.920 --> 00:41:36.640
Let me try and explain. Some of you already know. He says come on I'll show you something that's

00:41:36.640 --> 00:41:41.840
really disturbing. See those women they're weeping for Tammuz not weeping for the desolation that was

00:41:41.840 --> 00:41:47.520
coming nor weeping because the sin that was rampant in the land not weeping because they'd come into

00:41:47.520 --> 00:41:52.240
such a moral decay but weeping for Tammuz the Babylonian god of resurrection.

00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:56.400
And it's kind of I like that because it kind of makes the point actually they should have

00:41:56.400 --> 00:42:03.120
been weeping because of the mess that things were in the moral decline but they weren't.

00:42:04.160 --> 00:42:09.360
These women were rather weeping for this false god, this idol.

00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:18.080
Charles Finnis Dake in his brilliant commentary puts it like this. He says Tammuz was a Phoenician

00:42:18.080 --> 00:42:24.000
deity known as Adonis by the Greeks. Originally he was a Sumerian or Babylonian sun god.

00:42:24.720 --> 00:42:28.720
The husband of Ishtar. I'll try and unpack this a little bit more in a moment but you can read on

00:42:28.720 --> 00:42:33.360
for now. Who corresponds with Aphrodite of the Greeks. Okay so basically what we're saying is

00:42:33.360 --> 00:42:39.520
that this individual Tammuz originally heralds from Babylon but has got twisted and names changed

00:42:39.520 --> 00:42:43.840
and so worshipped in pretty much all cultures from that point on. The worship of these gods was

00:42:43.840 --> 00:42:48.880
introduced into Syria in very early times under the designation of Tammuz and Ishtar.

00:42:49.600 --> 00:42:56.560
They appear in the myths of the Greeks as Adonis and Aphrodite and as Osiris and Isis of the

00:42:56.560 --> 00:43:03.040
Egyptians. The Babylonian Tammuz was represented as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar.

00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:09.840
And he became the symbol of winter. Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld

00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:14.240
to deliver him from the embrace of death. So this is the pagan mythology. This is what was believed

00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:23.600
of this individual. Okay try and put some flesh on the bones of this if we can. After the flood

00:43:23.600 --> 00:43:30.640
Noah, his three sons all come off the ark. Shem, Ham and Japheth. And from Shem, Ham and Japheth

00:43:30.640 --> 00:43:38.560
all the nations of the world are descended. And we have all of our mythology and idolatry and false

00:43:38.560 --> 00:43:48.879
religions all stem from this time. Okay one way form or another. Shem became also in other cultures

00:43:48.879 --> 00:43:53.520
known as Hercules. If you want the detail and all the references of this I really encourage you to

00:43:53.520 --> 00:43:58.640
get a book by Reverend Alexander Hislop called The Two Babylons. It is incredible. It's one of the

00:43:58.640 --> 00:44:04.799
best works on this. It's an old book, hard to read but it's incredible. And then he goes through just

00:44:04.799 --> 00:44:10.160
showing all these links. Shem was renowned as being one who fought against giants. Well biblically we

00:44:10.160 --> 00:44:15.120
know the context of that. He's also known as the lamenter. Why? Well because of the fact he was

00:44:15.120 --> 00:44:20.400
lamenting the iniquity that he was seeing growing in the world. Knowing what had happened before the

00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:26.080
flood. Knowing how God had sent the flood to destroy all the things that were on earth. To leave just

00:44:26.080 --> 00:44:30.960
Noah and his family who were genetically perfect. They're perfect in their generations. Doesn't mean

00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:35.360
they were without sin. It means that genetically they were perfect because God was trying to

00:44:35.360 --> 00:44:44.640
preserve the line down to the Messiah. We have Ham and we have Japheth. Japheth later becomes

00:44:44.640 --> 00:44:50.240
known or worshipped as Jupiter. And just for a second you can understand why these individuals

00:44:50.240 --> 00:44:58.160
would have been revered. Shem, Ham and Japheth lived long, long lives. And many would have known them.

00:44:58.160 --> 00:45:03.919
Even the likes of Jacob would have been alive at the time that these were still living.

00:45:05.919 --> 00:45:12.479
And so the legends of great, great, great, great granddad Japheth or Shem or Ham would have spread.

00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:20.560
And so they became venerated, worshipped, idolized. And so their names get kind of twisted a little

00:45:20.560 --> 00:45:26.320
in different cultures. But it's no surprise that these individuals are the same characters that

00:45:26.320 --> 00:45:30.720
make up the mythology. Of course the stories get twisted. But Cush is the really interesting one.

00:45:30.720 --> 00:45:37.520
Now Cush we know was the son of Ham. And we know that the name Hermes is given to Cush.

00:45:37.600 --> 00:45:45.280
Which just literally means son of Ham. But also the name Mercury or Vulcan. Vulcan again the idea of the divider.

00:45:46.160 --> 00:45:52.400
Vulcan's hammer and so on. And of course this always brings us to the time of the Tower of Babel

00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:58.240
where the nations were the languages were divided. So it's no surprise that these names have to do

00:45:58.240 --> 00:46:03.280
with that dividing up of the nations with the languages. The name of Bel, which was the name

00:46:03.280 --> 00:46:08.240
that was worshipped in Babylon. And Belus, that means the confounder. Of course it links to the

00:46:08.240 --> 00:46:16.560
Tower of Babel where all these things got confused. Do you know the word chaos comes from the name Cush.

00:46:17.680 --> 00:46:23.040
That's where the name comes from. And Cush was a god or the god of confusion. Of course it links to

00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:28.160
the Tower of Babel. It's a fascinating study to get into this. We haven't got time to go into the depths

00:46:28.160 --> 00:46:35.120
of it but just give you an oversight. But then we know that Cush's son was Nimrod. And Nimrod is spoken

00:46:35.120 --> 00:46:42.960
of in Genesis 10. He was someone who was not godly, shall we put it that way. He established the first

00:46:44.160 --> 00:46:52.080
world government, dictatorship if you like. He's known in various different cultures by different

00:46:52.080 --> 00:46:59.120
names. Bar Cush or Bacchus. Bar being son of Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah. That Bar in Hebrew has

00:46:59.120 --> 00:47:06.960
this connotation of son of. So Nimrod or Bar Cush, Bacchus, the Roman god Bacchus is simply the son

00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:13.600
of Cush. Also the name Saturn, Kronos, Ninos, these are all names associated with Nimrod.

00:47:14.319 --> 00:47:18.960
But what we know is that Nimrod married a woman by the name of Semiramis.

00:47:19.680 --> 00:47:27.040
What later happens is that Nimrod apparently was out hunting one day and he died in the hunt. He got

00:47:27.040 --> 00:47:34.480
killed. Legend has it that it was Shem that actually killed him because of his idolatry, because of his

00:47:34.480 --> 00:47:38.720
iniquity. I don't have any proof for that but that is a legend that some of the Jews believe.

00:47:40.160 --> 00:47:47.280
Which certainly makes sense. And so all of a sudden Semiramis is queen. And now she's got a problem

00:47:48.240 --> 00:47:53.680
because now that her husband who's the king is no longer there, she can be robbed of her

00:47:53.680 --> 00:48:00.720
royal position of her power. But at this point she was pregnant. So she concocts an incredible story

00:48:01.280 --> 00:48:05.120
and you see Satan behind the scenes masterminding this to perfection.

00:48:06.080 --> 00:48:13.760
The story is that the child she is now carrying is her own husband who's now been killed

00:48:14.320 --> 00:48:21.760
reincarnated. So she's to give birth to this child who is named Tammuz. And from that point

00:48:21.760 --> 00:48:29.200
begins back in ancient Babylon the worship of the mother and the child. This is why the Romans were

00:48:29.200 --> 00:48:36.640
not at all surprised at the story of Jesus and the story of the virgin birth, the worship of a mother

00:48:36.640 --> 00:48:41.200
and a child and so on. Because to them it's like yeah it's just another one of those mother and

00:48:41.279 --> 00:48:46.240
child stories. They'd heard so many of them. And these permeate all cultures. It is an incredible

00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:52.560
move by Satan to lay down the smoke screen to confuse what would ultimately be the truth coming

00:48:52.560 --> 00:48:59.759
through. And so this Tammuz and there's a lot and we maybe when we get to Christmas time we'll talk

00:48:59.759 --> 00:49:07.520
about this because all of this links into the winter solstice which is a date that then got

00:49:07.520 --> 00:49:13.600
adopted and recognized as being Christmas. And there's much of that that's all caught up in this

00:49:13.600 --> 00:49:18.560
and typically this tree would be put into the fireplace and it would burn and so on or sorry a

00:49:18.560 --> 00:49:22.160
log would be put into the fireplace it would burn out and the next morning would be replaced by a

00:49:22.160 --> 00:49:29.440
nice trimmed tree and so on. And it had to do with kind of the the death of the winter brings but then

00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:34.000
the new life that follows on and so on. We'll talk more when we get to Christmas time because there's

00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:39.200
a fascinating things that we'll show you to do with all of this and why it fits into our biblical

00:49:39.200 --> 00:49:42.880
understanding and why there's a lot of scriptures actually make reference of these things.

00:49:43.760 --> 00:49:50.080
Semiramis is also known as Rea, Sebel, Diana of the Ephesians. You recognize that name and Artemis

00:49:50.080 --> 00:49:55.760
and so on. So there's a lot of history. So the point here is that in the study of Ezekiel

00:49:56.720 --> 00:50:05.280
that Tammuz was being worshipped by these women in Jerusalem. I mean it's a complete

00:50:06.160 --> 00:50:15.520
insult to God of God's plan of redemption. It's a twisted narrative to cause people to follow a

00:50:15.520 --> 00:50:24.480
deception. And verse 15 goes on and says, has, and also then he said unto me, has thou seen this?

00:50:25.760 --> 00:50:31.040
O son of man, turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

00:50:31.680 --> 00:50:34.400
I think how's it going to get much worse than this?

00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:40.960
Dake says this in his commentary, the greater abominations than the woman weeping for Tammuz

00:50:40.960 --> 00:50:47.440
was the worship of the sun by men who turned their backs on the holy of holies and the ark and faced

00:50:47.440 --> 00:50:52.800
the east like the fire worshippers. The image representing the sun was set up and worshipped

00:50:52.800 --> 00:50:57.520
by the elders of Israel. So the women were worshipping their false gods and the men were

00:50:57.520 --> 00:51:05.040
also worshipping towards the east and their false gods. And you think wow, how crazy, how foolish.

00:51:05.040 --> 00:51:12.560
We would never do stuff like that, would we? Well, this week, a few days back, the Vatican

00:51:13.200 --> 00:51:19.520
has built a prayer room for Muslim visitors. Yeah, seriously. I mean you can read this,

00:51:20.480 --> 00:51:24.320
a Vatican official has confirmed that the Vatican library now provides a prayer room for Muslim

00:51:24.320 --> 00:51:31.200
visitors. According to the vice prefect, his name, some cardinal, the library offered the space after

00:51:31.200 --> 00:51:35.920
being approached by Muslim scholars requesting a place to pray with a carpet. Now the move has

00:51:35.920 --> 00:51:42.720
sparked mixed reactions. Really? Why mixed? Online with some praising it as a gesture of hospitality

00:51:42.720 --> 00:51:46.800
and others raising concerns about the religious boundaries within Catholic institutions.

00:51:47.520 --> 00:51:51.840
All right, this is another quote. The Vatican Apostolic Library of Vatican City has announced

00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:57.040
that it is happy to provide Muslim visitors with a prayer room. In an interview with the Reverend

00:51:57.600 --> 00:52:03.440
Giacomo Cardinelli published on the 8th of October, just last week, an Italian daily

00:52:05.040 --> 00:52:10.320
Repubblica followers of the prophet Mohammed are assured that their worship is welcome in the

00:52:10.320 --> 00:52:16.080
sacred halls of the Vatican library, albeit in a separate room. Now I share this because it is so

00:52:16.080 --> 00:52:21.279
parallel to what Ezekiel was saying, that they were allowing the worship of false deities

00:52:22.240 --> 00:52:29.200
in the temple in Jerusalem. And we're seeing these kind of things going on. Now we may say,

00:52:29.200 --> 00:52:33.360
well we're not that bothered because this is the Catholic church and you know we recognize that

00:52:33.360 --> 00:52:38.000
the Catholic church has deviated and moved away from scripture in so many ways and so many people

00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:43.600
astray. The quote just goes on and says, of course some Muslim scholars have asked us for a room with

00:52:43.600 --> 00:52:48.400
a carpet for praying and we have given it to them. It's as bad as it is. Lovely.

00:52:53.120 --> 00:52:59.440
There we go. Now, okay, so that's the Catholic church. But what about the church of England?

00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:05.759
What about our national church, if you like? Well, I'm sure this week you know that Sarah

00:53:06.319 --> 00:53:12.319
Mullally has been named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. And whilst there are many that are

00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:16.800
saying how wonderful this is, it's lovely to see equality and all those kind of things.

00:53:19.440 --> 00:53:25.600
Charles, King Charles, has congratulated Dame Sarah on her new role, which is of such importance

00:53:25.600 --> 00:53:31.120
in the UK and across the global Anglican communion, Buckingham Palace said. Interestingly,

00:53:31.840 --> 00:53:38.000
Archbishop Mullally's close involvement in and support for the introduction of prayers of love

00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:43.440
and faith, which allow clergy to bless same-sex couples, is arguably a greater concern for some

00:53:43.440 --> 00:53:50.480
conservatives than her gender. Yes, she is pushing for and advocating the blessing of same-sex

00:53:50.480 --> 00:53:57.360
couples. I mean, I'm sorry, and we can probably get in trouble for saying these things, but I'm

00:53:57.360 --> 00:54:06.080
going to say it anyway. The Bible teaches very clearly that God created man and woman. And he

00:54:06.080 --> 00:54:11.680
wants us to live in an environment where a man would leave his father and his mother, would be

00:54:11.680 --> 00:54:17.600
joined together to his wife. And that would be a union that would last until they die. And they

00:54:17.600 --> 00:54:24.400
were to produce godly offspring. Now, if you do not believe in God, then you are free to do whatever

00:54:24.400 --> 00:54:30.160
you want. You can go and live however you want to live. And you can say, I don't want any rules,

00:54:30.160 --> 00:54:36.160
any laws. That's fine. But understand that most of the rules and laws that we live by in the West,

00:54:36.160 --> 00:54:43.759
at least, derive from the Bible. They derive from the Ten Commandments and the other laws that

00:54:43.759 --> 00:54:53.359
typically the Jewish nation has given to the world. And the problem is, I had a really interesting

00:54:53.360 --> 00:55:01.520
comment a little while ago by somebody who was challenging an individual who was standing up for,

00:55:01.520 --> 00:55:07.120
dare I say, common sense. And saying, oh, you're against us and you're being very, you know,

00:55:07.120 --> 00:55:12.240
judgmental and bordering on hate speech and things like that. He said, no, no, no, look, you can live as you want.

00:55:12.240 --> 00:55:18.400
Because ultimately, he said, you are going to, without my help, you will put an end to your own

00:55:18.400 --> 00:55:26.720
belief system, your own ideology, because you can't produce. You can't have offspring. In time,

00:55:26.720 --> 00:55:32.880
you will just disappear. I don't have to do anything. Interesting point, isn't it?

00:55:32.880 --> 00:55:37.520
You see, there's another interesting argument that should be brought into this as well. Because

00:55:37.520 --> 00:55:45.920
ultimately, there are only two competent world views. One is the Earth or the universe and

00:55:45.920 --> 00:55:54.320
everything therein created itself. And that we are the product of time and chance and evolution.

00:55:54.320 --> 00:56:07.280
If that is true, the idea of same-sex relationships doesn't make sense from an evolutionary perspective.

00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:14.480
Because ultimately, it would just burn itself out. Okay, just forget emotion, just logically, it doesn't work.

00:56:14.480 --> 00:56:19.920
The only other option is that there is a God who created everything. And if God created everything,

00:56:19.920 --> 00:56:24.080
then God has the right to set the rules and the laws, and in Scripture, He has done so.

00:56:24.080 --> 00:56:30.640
And it is not just an Old Testament thing. Because in the New Testament, it is reiterated time and time again.

00:56:30.640 --> 00:56:38.240
God's plan for marriage and for the family. And if God is in charge, and God has set the rules,

00:56:38.240 --> 00:56:44.879
God has said how it should be. So again, that doesn't work.

00:56:44.879 --> 00:56:49.919
Once again, just for the sake of clarity, we do not hate any of these people.

00:56:49.919 --> 00:56:56.640
Because Scripture tells us we should love all people. And that we should pray for those that persecute us.

00:56:56.640 --> 00:57:07.040
Interestingly, on that one, it's incredible, isn't it? That there are Christians that are being arrested for praying on the streets.

00:57:07.040 --> 00:57:15.200
And yet Muslims can take over whole streets and put their mats down and pray, and nobody says a word.

00:57:15.200 --> 00:57:21.120
Apparently, we're not allowed to say anything against Islam, because it's deemed too controversial or it's deemed hate speech.

00:57:21.120 --> 00:57:25.440
But you can say whatever you want, apparently, about Christianity. It just doesn't make sense.

00:57:25.440 --> 00:57:36.480
The world is very mixed up and twisted. You see, Christianity embraces all. It loves all.

00:57:36.480 --> 00:57:42.720
But there is a dividing line. There is truth, there is deception.

00:57:42.720 --> 00:57:48.720
Also, our new Archbishop regarding abortion stated, and this was some time ago,

00:57:48.720 --> 00:57:51.840
so she may have tweaked or changed her view slightly, I don't know.

00:57:51.840 --> 00:57:54.400
But this is the quote that she said is often put out there.

00:57:54.400 --> 00:58:00.640
I would suspect that I would describe my approach to this issue as pro-choice rather than pro-life.

00:58:00.640 --> 00:58:05.600
Although if it were a continuum, I would be somewhere along it moving towards pro-life,

00:58:05.600 --> 00:58:10.720
when it relates to my choice, then enabling choice when it relates to others.

00:58:10.720 --> 00:58:13.759
Well, that's really a non-answer, isn't it, anyway?

00:58:13.759 --> 00:58:19.279
But ultimately, what she's saying is that if people want to go ahead and have abortions, then that's fine, that's up to them.

00:58:19.279 --> 00:58:25.440
My question here, of course, is what about the baby's choice?

00:58:25.440 --> 00:58:32.480
You know, one argument, women often say, you know, this argument, but it's my body.

00:58:32.560 --> 00:58:35.600
And there's one Christian commentator who used to often say,

00:58:35.600 --> 00:58:38.640
that's actually right, if you want to abort your body, you can.

00:58:38.640 --> 00:58:44.640
But it's not your body you're aborting, it's the baby's. It's another human life.

00:58:44.640 --> 00:58:51.760
Anyway, my point is, this is where our current new Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be leaning.

00:58:51.760 --> 00:58:54.160
And I saw this, you may have seen this this week.

00:58:54.160 --> 00:58:57.600
I'm talking again of Ezekiel and the things that were inside the temple,

00:58:57.600 --> 00:59:01.840
and I'm not suggesting for a second that Canterbury Cathedral is such a temple, certainly not.

00:59:01.840 --> 00:59:06.000
But I saw this and I thought, maybe this is divine judgment.

00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:10.720
Maybe God has allowed this in retribution because of the things that have been going on this week.

00:59:10.720 --> 00:59:15.920
And you may have heard that this thing's been dawned all over the pillars and the walls in Canterbury Cathedral.

00:59:15.920 --> 00:59:20.800
And they're quite terrible things. And these are quite blasphemous.

00:59:20.800 --> 00:59:25.680
I mean, some of these things are, is illness a sin?

00:59:25.680 --> 00:59:30.960
Do you ever regret your creation? And then why all the suffering?

00:59:31.040 --> 00:59:35.600
And then there was this next one. Where's this one?

00:59:35.600 --> 00:59:41.600
Why did you create hate when love is by far more powerful?

00:59:41.600 --> 00:59:48.720
These are blatant challenges against God that are adorned now around the walls of Canterbury Cathedral.

00:59:48.720 --> 00:59:52.000
And again, initially I thought this when I first saw, I hadn't read the story.

00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:55.840
I thought some vandals have gone there, got in there and done this.

00:59:55.840 --> 01:00:03.200
No, no, no, it's not as good as that. This was commissioned by the cathedral.

01:00:03.200 --> 01:00:10.240
And let me read the, I think it's sacrilegious was one person's response to graffiti style artwork inside Canterbury Cathedral.

01:00:10.240 --> 01:00:17.360
With not all visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site appearing to appreciate the new installation.

01:00:17.360 --> 01:00:21.600
Brightly colored writing asking questions like, are you there? And God, what happens when I die?

01:00:21.680 --> 01:00:30.880
Have been plastered on pillars and walls of the 579 AD founded building just days after Dame Sarah Money was revealed as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

01:00:30.880 --> 01:00:37.920
And by the cathedral's own admission, the artwork called Hear Us hasn't gone down well with everyone.

01:00:37.920 --> 01:00:44.319
Why is that? Would you like to see a picture of the artist?

01:00:44.319 --> 01:00:51.520
Seriously? All right. So this is a collaborative project led by this poet, artist.

01:00:51.520 --> 01:00:56.640
By the name of Alex Veles and the curator of the cathedral, Jacqueline Croswell.

01:00:56.640 --> 01:00:58.480
That's just one of the pictures of him.

01:00:58.480 --> 01:01:04.080
I read to this Alex Veles, who describes himself as non-binary, a queer vegan.

01:01:04.080 --> 01:01:07.920
That's apparently how he describes himself as an agenda goblin.

01:01:07.920 --> 01:01:16.080
Also uses that they then pronouns sparked global outcry from Christians for the art project, which has been described as blasphemous.

01:01:16.080 --> 01:01:21.120
J.D. Vance. I mean, we've got people in America commenting on how bad this country is.

01:01:21.200 --> 01:01:22.560
Seriously, think about that.

01:01:22.560 --> 01:01:28.960
J.D. Vance said the exhibit made the beautiful historical building really ugly.

01:01:28.960 --> 01:01:31.839
Wow. I did hear something.

01:01:31.839 --> 01:01:35.120
I just shared this because it might bring a smile to your faces.

01:01:35.120 --> 01:01:43.279
Speaking about the people that choose to use these certain pronouns, saying that, you know, it's interesting how so many of them have been pro-Palestinian.

01:01:43.279 --> 01:01:46.400
And one commentator said, well, maybe they should go to Palestine.

01:01:46.400 --> 01:01:47.920
Maybe they should go to Gaza.

01:01:47.920 --> 01:01:49.600
Maybe they should support them.

01:01:49.600 --> 01:01:54.080
And when they get there, they will quickly find that they're not they then, but there was, were.

01:01:57.520 --> 01:01:59.520
Let's just read to the end of the chapter.

01:01:59.520 --> 01:02:06.799
And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house and behold at the door of the temple, the Lord of the Lord, between the port and the altar,

01:02:06.799 --> 01:02:15.279
were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they worship the sun toward the east.

01:02:15.279 --> 01:02:17.040
I mean, you couldn't make this up.

01:02:17.040 --> 01:02:18.960
This was what Ezekiel was saying was going on.

01:02:18.960 --> 01:02:23.759
And we are living in days where it is absolutely as bad.

01:02:23.759 --> 01:02:27.440
Then he said unto me, has thou seen this, O son of man?

01:02:27.440 --> 01:02:33.520
Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?

01:02:33.520 --> 01:02:38.800
For they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke me to anger.

01:02:38.800 --> 01:02:41.680
And lo, they put the branch to their nose.

01:02:41.680 --> 01:02:53.440
There's commentators that are not really sure what this means, but there could be the implication here of using it as a narcotic, as a drug, like cannabis, whatever, that type of thing.

01:02:53.440 --> 01:02:55.440
They're just out of their minds.

01:02:55.440 --> 01:02:57.200
They're provoking God to anger.

01:02:57.200 --> 01:02:59.680
Verse 18, the final verse of the chapter,

01:02:59.680 --> 01:03:03.680
Therefore will I also deal in my fury.

01:03:03.680 --> 01:03:09.040
Do you understand, having seen what we've gone through this morning, why God says, I'm going to deal in my fury?

01:03:09.040 --> 01:03:12.080
It kind of makes sense when we start to get the picture.

01:03:12.080 --> 01:03:17.120
I don't know about you, but the things we've looked at this morning leave me with this real sickening feeling in my stomach,

01:03:17.120 --> 01:03:21.040
thinking, Lord, you have got to do something.

01:03:21.040 --> 01:03:25.840
I saw a quote or a comment by somebody this week, and they said,

01:03:25.840 --> 01:03:29.360
the Lord is going to have to do something, because if I do, I'll get arrested.

01:03:29.360 --> 01:03:31.520
And I think that's the way that many people are feeling.

01:03:31.520 --> 01:03:33.120
And of course, we're not going to do anything.

01:03:33.120 --> 01:03:34.480
Christians are not prone to violence.

01:03:34.480 --> 01:03:39.120
We will not support or condone any violence to anybody.

01:03:39.120 --> 01:03:45.200
We're not against anybody, but we want to stand up for the truth of Scripture.

01:03:45.200 --> 01:03:47.920
So God says, Therefore will I also deal in my fury.

01:03:47.920 --> 01:03:52.240
My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity.

01:03:52.240 --> 01:04:00.160
And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

01:04:00.160 --> 01:04:01.200
That's what God says.

01:04:01.200 --> 01:04:04.160
Just as Jesus said, people are going to cry.

01:04:04.160 --> 01:04:04.879
Lord, Lord.

01:04:04.879 --> 01:04:08.640
And he says, I never knew you.

01:04:08.640 --> 01:04:09.359
Read ahead.

01:04:09.359 --> 01:04:11.040
We'll carry on from there next week.

01:04:11.040 --> 01:04:16.879
Father God, we just thank you for this opportunity to review the days in which Ezekiel lived,

01:04:16.879 --> 01:04:21.120
to look at the messages, the warnings you gave him for the people, and Lord, how we are

01:04:22.720 --> 01:04:25.440
Lord shocked in probably the same way Ezekiel was,

01:04:25.440 --> 01:04:30.160
that the abominations that are being committed in your house

01:04:31.040 --> 01:04:33.359
amongst people who would claim to be your people,

01:04:34.640 --> 01:04:38.960
Father, you brought judgment upon Jerusalem, upon Israel because of their iniquity.

01:04:38.960 --> 01:04:41.440
And we know Lord, because it's prophesied in your word

01:04:41.440 --> 01:04:46.960
that you will bring in likewise judgment upon the iniquity in this world.

01:04:48.080 --> 01:04:52.080
Lord, this world is given over to violence.

01:04:52.879 --> 01:04:56.799
It's given over to things that are so offensive to you.

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And Lord, we know you will not sit by and do nothing.

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So Lord, we pray for wisdom.

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We pray that you would teach us how we should respond and act in these days,

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how we should show love and grace to point people to the one and only Saviour, Jesus Christ,

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in the days that remain.

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We ask these things for your glory in Jesus name.

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Amen.

01:05:25.760 --> 01:05:26.560
Okay, God bless you.

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Let's go spend some time, fellowshipping over some teas and coffees.