Through the Bible (Ezekiel 14-16)

grab your bibles and get comfy and well let's get to our study in the book of ezekiel uh we left off last time in ezekiel chapter 14. so let's turn there ezekiel 14 for our study some people might say the bible's redundant um because it takes a theme and sometimes really camps out on that theme for a long long time and you might say man we're getting tired so this is tiresome or tiring but i think sometimes that's the point um it's almost like the lord would want us to get weary of the behavior that we're seeing over and over and over again from the children of israel and hopefully so much so that at some point we recognize those human nature tendencies that we see in the people of israel we see the same tendencies in us that's the thing that i think is so profound is that the old testament as many thousands of years ago people haven't changed all that much oh some of the things have changed as far as you know their exact actions but what was behind their sin same old same old we're doing exactly the same stuff that they were doing um we're doing the same stuff today and and um and we're going to see that again tonight and we're going to start right there in ezekiel chapter 14 as it's where we left off now ezekiel is going to deal with an issue um here in ezekiel 14 where the people they they needed to be told of their ugly condition um isn't it funny how we often think we're better than we really are um it's a little bit like i remember when when i was a kid growing up and i'd be playing my electric guitar with my you know 400 watt pv musician amplifier 4. uh i think it was four eight inch speakers if i recall maybe 12 inch speakers i forget but it was a big cabinet with a amp head huge you know 80s rock and roll and i had my guitar and man when i was in my room playing i thought i was in front of you know carnegie hall or whatever or in some stadium playing my guitar and i thought i sounded awesome and my dad would just poke his head in the door say hey brett um you always sound better to yourself than you sound to everyone else now some parents would say that's horrible parenting that's so discouraging and you're going to hurt his little you know self-esteem and all that my dad knew exactly what i needed to hear he knew that i needed to realize there's there's a reality and um you know and i'm so thankful for that kind of an upbringing because um first of all you got to remember to be humble and not think you're as good as you really are the children of israel they have sort of put on a happy face they've put on a religious face to sort of cover the horrible sin that they were committing i was reading about the tomb of uh king tutankhamun there in egypt king tut and i was marveling once again at the what an amazing archaeological find that was to begin with but when they found the sarcophagus or the coffin as we might call it um what an amazing find that was um they took it was huge this huge gold you know sarcophagus and as they opened the first one up there was another coffin inside that coffin um the first coffin was big it was beautiful it was covered by the way this is amazing it was covered it was wood covered in gold the first layer and and the egyptians uh poured five gallons they said of this sappy oil black stuff kind of a tar over the gold to preserve it uh to keep it from you know getting bad like as all this gold they got it all shiny and gold and then they covered it with black tar so they peeled the tar off and found this perfectly preserved gold coffin they opened that one and there's another golden coffin inside that one and so they opened that one and there was another golden coffin the difference was the first one was wood covered in gold the second one was wood covered in gold the third one was just solid gold the coffin so when they cracked that one open they found golden clothing covering this mummy it was golden clothes and that's where you'll see that most famous mask um of king tut if you google it you can see it it's uh it's the mask of king tut and um and it covered his um you know his face so he had golden clothes golden face but when they pulled that off what did they find a deteriorated skeleton with a leathery skin uh and it was kind of a horrifying thing you can put as much gold on that as you want but it's still dead it's still you know putrefying it's still decaying uh even though the egyptians you gotta give them credit for you know their embalming practices and they they did preserve amazingly i mean if that if you're into that sort of thing i'm not because when i die this body whatever it's all about going to heaven uh it's not about trying to make my body on earth all awesome like the egyptians did well all that to say i was thinking about the egyptians practice of trying to make this dead body beautiful with coffin after coffin layer after layer gold after gold but it was still death and i feel like that's really where the people of ezekiel are at there's death all around them jerusalem is dying because of their sin and it's putrifying and decaying but they're trying to put a happy face on it and they're covering it up with even a pseudo religion they had sort of this you know oh yes worship the lord and oh yeah ezekiel we love you and you're awesome and good for you you're prophesying of god and they started putting on this this face but it was still death and that's part of what these next chapters are going to be dealing with ezekiel's going to call them out and say no you guys are horrible and he's not going to pull any punches you're going to hear tonight maybe that these jews during this time might just be some of the most horrible people that ever lived on the earth overstatement well who would you say is the most horrible people that ever lived on the earth well you might say the men of sodom and gomorrah they might have been the most because god i mean what city did god just say yeah that city's gotta go uh and so fire and brimstone crushes the city and it's just erased from history and nobody knows where it even was people have ideas archaeologically but nobody's really confirmed for sure but man just a little brown spot on the earth where sodom used to sit because god said i'm done with them well brett surely the jews weren't worse than the men of sodom we're going to see the lord says you want to bet tonight the jews are going to get pretty much hammered by ezekiel with the truth and if the truth hurts well you got to deal with it and really the jews are going to have to deal with this and ezekiel is going to lay it out heavy so let's pick it up here in ezekiel chapter 14 verse 1. it says then came certain of the elders of israel and to me and sat before me now pause for a second remember ezekiel it was one of the earlier deportations from jerusalem into babylon so ezekiel is in babylon and the elders of israel are in babylon these are some of the first deportees there's still a remnant in jerusalem but they're going to be crushed later in 586 bc in that final wave and that's that's going to be the end of it but ezekiel remember he's there in babylon sitting with some of the elders of israel and it says in verse 2 and the word of the lord came unto me saying son of man these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should i be inquired of at all by them therefore speak unto them and say unto them thus saith the lord god every man of the house of israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet i the lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols that i may take the house of israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols interesting what's the lord going to do he's going to meet him right where they're at you want idols i'm going to meet me now the question is what is the lord saying here uh according to your idolatry that's going on in your heart see that's the interesting thing it seems that maybe these jews that have been deported from judah with ezekiel and earlier with daniel shadrach meshach and abednego those that those deportations it seems that maybe they didn't bring their physical idols but the idolatry that they were worshiping that those idols represented were still you know percolating in their hearts they were still worshiping those idols in their hearts which is the only thing that matters uh that's what's going on in there you know it's interesting because um we've talked about that that's where these people might be more relatable to us today because you don't have hopefully a moloch idol in your backyard where you sacrifice babies on the arms of it hopefully you don't have a buddha or a bail or a asterisk or a diana or idols you know sitting around that's that's a christian doesn't do that but you know you might say in those days excuse me a good jew wouldn't do that either and so now they're in babylon in captivity and these elders sit down before ezekiel acting you know like we want us we want to hear from the lord we want to talk with you ezekiel and inquire of the lord and lord says really you want to talk to me well i'll meet with you according to your idols and and that might mean that he was going to be silent because idols are silent or the lord might punish them according to how many idols they were worshiping in their hearts but the idea is the lord's not going to deal with them but breth they're coming sincerely wanting to hear from the lord no that's the problem they were playing games with god and saying yeah ezekiel we want to we want to worship the lord we we want to come and hear from you meanwhile in their hearts sin was rampant you know this is a hard thing i've had to kind of reconcile this in my own personal ministry because there are times where you have to say is there is this person that's coming to inquire the lord or ask for help or prayer or whatever should we even entertain those thoughts or those inquiries or desires that's a big question and and there's been times where the lord has revealed to me with certain people you need to stop praying with them you need to stop giving them advice until they're willing to repent of their sins i'll tell you a story of a guy that i was this is you know decades ago there was a guy that would come to church every sunday with a big bible and it was marked and had markers and colors and he just had the look of a just good christian guy smiling hey worshiping lifting his hands at worship and then he come up hey press i need you to pray for i'm going through some really hard things with this and my finances and the problem was i'd counsel this guy enough to know he had a problem with lust and he was living with girls he'd have girls move in with them uh and they'd just stay for a while and then they'd leave and then he'd get another girl living with them and and he just kind of had this thing uh where he was unwilling to repent of something that was just sinful and wrong and he kept coming and so finally i he'd hey brad i need you to pray for me you know come up you come with the bible say i'd say wait wait before i pray with you have you have you made right the wrongs that you're doing with the area of sexual promiscuity and is there a girl living with you right oh yeah you pray you know me you know my struggle and i'm like yeah i do but i'm not gonna pray for you well why wouldn't you're a pastor you're supposed to pray for me and i i would say nope i'm not going to pray for you why well there's a couple reasons um i'll tell you what listen you make it right and break off your sins uh because the way of the transgressor is hard how can i pray for you to be blessed when i know that you're not going to be because of what the bible says the bible says that the way of the transgressor's heart and be sure of this your sins will find you out and so i've had to over the years tell people yeah i'm not going to pray for you usually i'll give them something to do hey get your living situation where you're no longer living with a girl outside of marriage having sex with girls outside of marriage uh because that's a sinful thing that's gonna hurt your life so i'm not gonna pray for you do that and then we'll come and talk and pray and i'll give you counsel but do that first i don't want to hear from you and the reason i tell you that is maybe you should be careful christian counselors you know people that are talking about their lives and trying to help them and we we could be you know trying to help them with the things they think are the problem when really there's other issues that nothing's going to change until they repent of their sins this is that kind of an occasion where ezekiel is going to be told basically yeah these guys want to inquire of the lord these guys want to hear from god through the prophet no we're not going to answer them that's the idea here because they were unrepentant they had they had their idolatry going on in their hearts their mind their emotions that the inner man the inner self was still totally engaged with sinful depravity god forbid that we have that kind of idolatry you know it's the same thing uh you know whether it's lust greed you know wanting to be prosperous or have a reputation uh you know like all those things that are sinful human nature kinds of things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life those kinds of things man that's those are things that go on in the heart of man we don't have the idols as much but they did in those days that represented those thoughts and notions but here it seems that these guys were having a good show on the outside of purity but it was in their hearts oh lord search our hearts like david the psalmist said search my heart o lord and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in your way everlasting this is really what we've got to do as a church is to search our hearts let the lord search out our hearts so that we don't make the mistake of thinking yeah lord we want to hear from you and we want to read your bible and we're going to go to church and everything's going to be great oh yeah so i have a little problem with with lust or a little problem with materialism or anger or whatever deal with the sin then go and and seek the lord that's kind of an important thing so he says i i the lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols interesting stuff um well um basically you know the lord might be saying some translations kind of imply you'll hear the voice of the idol which we all know the voice didn't have any idols or the idols didn't have any voice verse 5. um that i may take the house of israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their gods this shouldn't be a shocker to them because isaiah the prophet told them in isaiah 59 the lord's hand is not short that he cannot touch you and his ear is not deaf that he cannot hear you but it's your sin that separates you from god and these people are estranged from god now because of their sin understand the lord does not change he has not changed if we are sinful and living sinful lives willingly no there's a difference by the way between who somebody's who's struggling with sin or uh stumbles into sin uh there's a difference between that person who somebody's just taking up willfully sinning and saying yeah whatever i'm going to see i'm going to go to church i'm going to seek the lord but i'm going to keep my little sin over here healthy and strong that's unrepentance and so when you're not repentant of your sin you're not wrestling with your sin and you're just letting it find a home in your heart then the lord there's a separation that happens and that's the problem here the lord says i'm not going to meet you and i'm not going to hear you verse 6 therefore say unto the house of israel thus saith the lord god repent and turn yourselves from your idols and turn away from your faces from all your abominations for every one of the house of israel or of the stranger that sojourneth in israel which separates himself from me and setteth up his idols in his heart and put at the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me i the lord will answer him by myself and i will set my face against that man and will make us him a sign and a proverb and i will cut him off from the midst of my people and you shall know that i am the lord and verse 9 if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing i the lord hath deceived that prophet and i will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of thy of my people israel and they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity and the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him that the house of israel may go no more astray from me neither be polluted anymore with all their trans transgressions but that they may be my people and i may be their god saith the lord god if a prophet basically gives you any of these you know messages that are these people that have unrepentant hearts and they're still just totally doing idolatry you know and you you give a word the prophet gives a word to one of these people who he should be saying you know what uh you're out of it we're not gonna prophesy we're not gonna give the word of the lord to you if that prophet prophesies he's in trouble um and and the lord's saying if if a prophet gives that person who's still having idolatry in their hearts and he gives them a word from the lord then not only is that guy still in trouble but that prophet is now in trouble and he's a false prophet and the lord's going to wipe him out the prophet that's that's where i think we as pastors or if you're a christian counselor be careful um you know there's a fancy word we often use enabling but i think sometimes christian counselors we enable because we don't call people out on things that the world doesn't call people out on anymore things that the bible calls sin and the world says we celebrate that um and if you're a christian kind of well i got to be politically correct i got to be careful no that's a lie and you should not live a lie as a christian when somebody's living a lie in their sin an unrepentant christian counselor or whatever you need to speak the truth and hit the you know the nail on the head and say here's what you need to do thus saith the lord the word of god says even if it's not popular even if it's not hip and cool even if so-called science says that it's wrong we still speak what the bible says because the bible's correct and it always is um and so the prophet that goes and gives the words to these people um he's in huge trouble with god uh and they're false prophets i love ezekiel i love jeremiah i love isaiah these prophets that were willing to speak the truth even when other prophets were giving more fluffy words that everybody loved to hear ezekiel jeremiah you know isaiah they gave the words that nobody wanted to hear but they were still true nonetheless um and i think we need pastors today like jeremiah like isaiah you know like ezekiel who are willing to speak the truth in love of course but sometimes things sound pretty brutal when you read the bible it says here's what the bible says and speaking the truth is not always what people want to hear but we need to speak it nonetheless well i love how ezekiel he's calling these elders of israel out saying you guys have idolatry in your heart i'm not going to give you the word of the lord verse 12 so then the word of the lord came again to me saying son of man when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously then will i stretch out my hand upon it and we'll break the staff of the bread thereof and we'll send famine upon it and we'll cut off man and beast from it though these three men noah daniel and job were in it they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness saith the lord god if i cause noise some beasts to pass through the land like locust is the idea there and they spoil it so that the it destroys it makes it desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts though these three men noah daniel and job if they're in it as i live saith the lord god they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters only they shall be delivered but the land shall be desolate or if i bring a sword upon the land and say sword go through the land if now this is amazing the lord is saying if i send locusts or if i send an army through the land with the sword the lord says sword go do this it's the nations obey god the locust obey god and so here if if um i can't keep reading without talking about why did we bring up noah and job and daniel well there's it's intriguing to me these are the greats and in fact you might even argue these are maybe considered to be the most righteous men that walked the face of the earth now we know they all sinned because they were men and all men sinned but as far as the bible goes it's hard to make an argument that noah was a sinner we do see him in a drunken stupor at the end dancing nakedly in his tent that was a little problem but but noah if you recall the lord destroyed the whole world everybody in it except noah was the one righteous man that god could find in the earth um and so we do give noah that that credit and say yeah god said he was righteous he was righteous daniel was a guy that was no record of sin in his book about who who he was he was just a solid bible-believing god-fearing kind of guy if you know what i mean so you got noah daniel and then of course job job is also a guy we don't have really a record of him sinning even though he went through horrible suffering and all kinds of adversity he never cursed god as satan said he would and he never uh you know did those things so as as far as jewish history goes now here's what's interesting remember daniel's still alive at this time and he's numbered with noah jobe and daniel excuse me in a way that's kind of us acknowledging that excuse me daniel was a legend in his own time that's kind of amazing now by the way daniel lived in babylon where ezekiel lived on the outside of babylon near the river kebar if you remember so whether they knew each other or were friends we don't know but it is interesting that ezekiel says man you got your job you got your you know noah and you got your daniel uh a legend in his own time these are righteous men now here's the point of bringing up these three dudes ezekiel saying even if those men were all together in the same city the lord would spare them because they were righteous but he wouldn't spare the city because of the sin that israel is doing now this is an interesting theme that we've seen in the bible because the bible teaches us over and over and over again the lord does not destroy the righteous with the wicked and we know that daniel job and noah were righteous they were declared righteous in the bible clear as a bell and the lord says i'm not going to destroy them now i can't speak for their children than their sons and daughters that's what it says here even you know their sons and daughters might be judged but not noah and daniel themselves and job because they're the righteous ones and that's an important thing to know you cannot be saved because your mother and father were saved if you're a christian because your parents were christians you don't know what christianity is there are people today this happens both in islam and in christianity oh i was born in america so i'm a christian in fact if you go to the muslim countries they'll say yeah you're all americans are all christians and we're and those of us that are married like uh no not at all what's a real christian versus a fake christian well uh that's a whole other discussion but a christian is someone who repents of their sin knows that they're sinners and believes that jesus christ died on the cross for their sins and accepts that free gift of salvation from god through jesus and it's by grace that they're saved through faith just believing that the cross was mighty to save from our sins and that's what a real christian is so just being born in america does not make you a christian in the same way the lord says even noah's sons and job's sons and daniel's sons um you know can't speak for them but we know that noah job and the lord would pull them out the righteous but the rest of the city would be crushed in judgment and wrath the reason that's important is understand you need your own faith you need to be declared righteous for yourself don't think you can ride on your mother's faith or your grandmother's faith coattails and get to heaven because they dragged you to church when you're six years old you must be born again the soul that sins it will die and we're going to see that in chapter 18 that you can't blame your parents for your sins we're going to see that as well but this is kind of what's being said you know the the three guys mentioned here noah job daniel are sort of the cream of the crop and lord saying man even if those dudes lived in these cities i'd still destroy the cities i'd pull them out because i never destroy the righteous worth the wicked by the way that's one of the reasons why i believe that the rapture of the church is going to happen before the tribulation because there's no greater time of the lord pouring out his wrath in all world's history even the flood of noah will not hold a candle compared to the tribulation period and the lord says i will not destroy the righteous with the wicked and so you as a christian who's declared righteous positionally in christ you and i can know that we're saved by grace and the lord does not destroy the righteous with the wicked so we're not i believe we're going to be taken out before the wrath of god is poured out on upon a christ-rejecting sinful world now very important to know that so that's why daniel jobe and noah are brought up here these these though these verse 16 you know um those these three men were in it as i live saith the lord god they shall deliver neither son or daughters they only shall be delivered but the land shall be desolate well he goes on in verse 17 or if i bring a sword upon the land and say sword go through the land so that i cut off man and beast from it though these three men were in it as i live say lord god they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters but they only the righteous ones they only shall be delivered themselves or if i send pestilence into the land and pour out my fury upon it in blood to cut off from it man and beast though noah daniel and job were in it as i live saith the lord god they shall deliver neither son nor daughter they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness for thus saith the lord god how much more when i send my four sword judgments upon jerusalem the sword and the famine and the noise and beast and the pestilence to cut it off from man and beast the lord's saying man how much more will i do this when i judge jerusalem for their wickedness and their sinfulness that's the deal so we have some very spiritual people here daniel job noah don't think you're going to be protected by your association with someone else just because you're associated with someone else doesn't save you from the wrath you need to be declared righteous like noah job and daniel the way by the way we get that comes from jesus christ who declares us righteous christ died for the ungodly that's us and we are robed in his righteousness that's how we are saved from the wrath of god but here ezekiel's saying don't be deceived just because you know daniel or because you know someone's spiritual that's not going to save you so watch out yet verse 22 behold therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth both sons and daughters behold they shall come forth unto you and you shall see their way and their doings and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that i have brought upon jerusalem even concerning all that i have brought upon it and they shall comfort you when you see their ways and their doings and you shall know that i have not done without cause all that i have done in it saith the lord god i believe the new international version what does it say there uh you know uh conduct and actions they uh you'll be comforted when you see their conduct and their actions now this is a tricky uh bit of phrasing but here's what it's saying um ezekiel's sitting there in babylon he says by the way there's a remnant that's going to come and he's talking about that third wave in 586 bc when nebuchadnezzar would bring the last group of jews over to babylon the jews that are in babylon are going to be tempted to say oh that's so unfair it's so sad that the these people are being dragged over by nebuchadnezzar and they died in the famine and their skeletons are laying on the hills of jerusalem and they're so sad but they're going to be comforted from that sorrow when they see how horrible these people behaved ezekiel says you'll see it when they get here you'll go oh we understand why the lord did all that and they deserved it this is an interesting observation that ezekiel's making that basically everybody's going to say let me just say a little phrase they're going to say righteous and true are the judgments of the lord does that ring a bell because that's what's going to happen at the end when when when people are being judged and the wrath of god is being poured out on christ rejecting sinful world there's this temptation for us to say oh it's so sad that people and are going to be in such horrible times of the tribulation and even the great white throne it's so sad that those people are going to be thrown into gehenna the lake of fire and hell that's so sad but as it turns out when we see the whole big picture we're going to say righteous and true are his judgments every knee will bow and every tongue we'll confess and say he is in fact the lord nobody is going to be able to say that's not fair when they see it and and we see the whole big picture we will be comforted that i think that's the same language that his equals given he's saying you got to be comforted when you see how bad these people were you'll say oh yeah they kind of deserved everything they got can you imagine getting to that place because right now it's hard for me to even fathom thinking that way the only reason i attempt to is because the bible says that's what we're all going to say no one will question god when we see the big picture and that's a good thing for us to remember for the here and now when something happens to someone well why does that happen to them don't know but righteous and true are his judgments and we should still be compassionate and helpful but we should never say that's just not fair you might say the world's not fair but but really thank the lord we don't get what we deserve what would be fair is for you and i to be in death and hell for all eternity but god in his grace will save anyone who repents of their sins and turns to the lord and and and will be marveling not as much that they didn't make it into heaven will be marveling that we did but but we'll acknowledge it was because of him righteous and true are his judgments so in sort of a microcosm the jews are going to see that when they get there the third wave arrives in babylon the jews will go yeah i see it now they deserve what they got that's amazing that they're going to get to that place well chapter 15 we looked at on sunday where we looked at the the true vine the fruitful vine versus the degenerate plant and ezekiel says israel you've become a fruitless worthless vine and we learned how to avoid that and to be fruitful on sunday and god cares about fruit and we looked at that if you missed that study you can look at it on youtube creek's youtube page or you can go to our website and it's right there on the front page as you scroll down about bearing good fruit well in chapter 16 now we're going to have perhaps one of the most picturesque descriptions of israel's debauchery maybe perhaps in all the bible god is about to reveal through ezekiel the horrible heart the horrible condition of israel and i there may not be any chapter that puts it worse than ezekiel chapter 16. and it's the thing that's tough is it's got 63 verses i wish that the the happy verses would be 63 and then this this negative stuff would only be eight uh like chapter 15 but um but this this gets bad and we're going to see it's broken down at first here into three divisions the lord's going to speak about jerusalem as a baby sort of you know rhetorically as an illustration when it was birthed jerusalem and then it's going to talk about jerusalem as a young woman and then it's going to talk about jerusalem as a harlot and what it became so it's kind of a bad story if you can picture that so let's start with the baby part verse 1 of chapter 16. again the word of the lord came unto me saying son of man cause jerusalem to know her abominations that's what ezekiel's got to do his assignment tell jerusalem and all the people in jerusalem what their abominations are again that's not a fun job as a pastor or as a preacher as a prophet of the old testament say here's one of the abominations of the lord because people they don't want to hear it but ezekiel has given that task and i again i i would implore um you know modern day pastors we need to be those that are willing to say these are the things that are an abomination to the lord and if you're unwilling to do that i think you're not fit for the pulpit you need to speak the truth now good news we we can always tell the gospel message and what happens to the repentant sinner and god's grace that's what i always land on because it's hard telling these abominable sins that god calls out even in our times but you can always land on that good news of the gospel but here's ezekiel tell jerusalem all their abominations yea here we go verse 3 and say thus saith the lord god unto jerusalem thy birth and thy night nativity is of the land of canaan thy father was an amorite and thy mother a hittite now pause for a second the jews aren't really related to the hittites they're canaanites uh you know remember all the amorites canaanites flashlights all those guys that they came moving in when they're how are they well this is a rhetorical thing talking about jerusalem as a city it's it's almost like personifying the city of jerusalem so before it was saved or really birthed in its infancy it was run by the canaanites in fact it was a group of canaanites that were related to the hittites and the jebusites and the amorites and all those guys but the the jebusites were the ones who lived in jerusalem uh under the father of gibus and you can read about this by the way in the table of nations in genesis chapter 10. that's where we can connect some of these dots of these people but the canaanites uh including the jebusites the jebusites were the ones that had jerusalem so in its nativity in its early stages it was jebusites it was canaanites that were there by the way do you remember when the jews got jerusalem it was when david first became king he gave the challenge there the scriptures tell us to go and take the city anybody who is willing of his army remember david had the mighty men and his army he challenged anybody who goes and takes jerusalem that's going to be the city of david that's going to be my city whoever takes that city will be my number one commanding officer of my army um and so that's where joab remember joab in the bible he's the guy who gets a small little group of seal team six guys and they find the city uh they find this little hole where there was a shaft underground it was it was a water shaft it might have been a sewage shaft we don't know for sure uh either one but there was a shaft the bible says and joab took his little army and they shimmied up the shaft they went up this shaft through rock uh and and came and popped out of the city uh and uh took the city from the inside out and that's how david conquered jerusalem and so joab became the commanding officer of the army um when we go to israel we go and see that shaft it's a shaft called warren's shaft a guy by the name of warren discovered it way back in the 1800s but that shaft is very probably the very shaft that joab shimmied up it's really cool and it would have been very difficult by the way to shimmy up that shaft if you look at it but he did took the city and david became the king of jerusalem it became the city of david by the way some of the best archaeological digs in the world right now are happening right there around warren's shaft and hezekiah's tunnel and the old city of david man if you haven't been to israel for i'm going to even say five years they've dug up so much since you were last there it's amazing like to go see the city of david out it's one of the most impressive archaeological digs in the world in my opinion but all that to say that's that's what happened here so the birth the nativity of jerusalem was canaanites uh run by the jebusites that's why it's it's saying that here in verse 3. and there in verse 4 as for thy nativity jerusalem in the day that was born thy navel was not cut neither was thou washed in water to supple thee thou was not salted at all nor swaddled at all none i pitied thee to do any of these unto thee to have compassion upon thee but thou was cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born and when i passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood i said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live yea i said unto thee when thou was in thy blood live in bible times they didn't have abortion as we do but they would do a similar thing if they didn't want a child they would take it leave it connected to the placenta and not wash it and they would just throw it out into a field and leave it there to die that's the way they did it in those days and that's the imagery the lord gives as what an abomination and how jerusalem starts um the umbilical cord was not cut the baby was not washed and cuddled and swaddled um salted what did they do to put salt on a baby the idea is they used to wash babies with a mixture of salt water and they felt the salt was good for the skin and was purifying and disinfecting even that's the way they looked at it in those days so they would wash a baby in a mild solution of salt water and get it all cleaned up and then put it in swaddling clothes but this this is a horrible picture that god paints and says this was your beginning jerusalem you were dead you were born aborted really you might say but i said the lord says live and because god said live jerusalem lived isn't that interesting now the funny thing about this is as tonight jerusalem is being attacked as we speak rockets are flying from gaza over into jerusalem and in tel aviv and the world harps against jerusalem and israel but it always amazes me the world's uh naivety when it comes to jerusalem's history jerusalem according to the bible god not of the koran in fact jerusalem is not mentioned one time in the koran the the muslims cared nothing for jerusalem until not that long ago the grand mufti yasser arafat's great uncle declared that jerusalem was the third most holy site in all of islam that was in recent history jerusalem has been mentioned over 800 times in the hebrew bible the old testament and it's also got the delineation where god says jerusalem is mine when did god adopt jerusalem as his right here when the baby was thrown out into the field to die god said nope live and then he says jerusalem is mine god's got his name on jerusalem and the reason i tell you this dramatic beginning of jerusalem is because it starts to get get you a sense of how important jerusalem really is to god now we're going to hear how jerusalem becomes a prostitute and all this but god still loves jerusalem and has a plan for jerusalem and we'll see this but keep this in the back of your mind as the world says jerusalem should be given to the palestinians ridiculous historically politically spiritually like you name the way people do not have a clue when it comes to the history of jerusalem but this is the way the lord says live so that's jerusalem in its infancy or as a baby now we're going to shift gears and the lord is going to describe jerusalem as a young woman verse 7. i have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field and thou wast increased and wax in great and thou art come to excellent ornaments thy breasts are fashioned thy hair is grown where whereas thou was naked and bare now when i pass by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was the time of love and i spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness yea i swear unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee saith the lord god and thou becamest mind what became mine jerusalem then verse 9 washed i thee with water yea i thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee and anointed thee with oil which is speaking of filling with the spirit i clothe thee also with embroidered work and shoddy with badger's skin and girded thee about with fine linen what does fine linen mean righteousness in the bible and i covered thee with silk i decked thee also with ornaments and i put bracelets upon my hands and a chain upon my neck i put a jewel on my forehead and earrings in thine ears and beautiful crown upon thine head thus was thou decked with gold and silver and thy raiment was a fine linen and silk embroidered work without its eat fine flour and honey and oil and thou waste exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect though through my comeliness which i had put upon thee saith the lord god um question when did jerusalem reach this beauty and this prosperity the clothing described here as royal you know the jerusalem's like this princess who becomes this glorious queen and the lord says i did this for jerusalem and so you have to ask the question when did this happen if you're guessing and if you said probably during the reign of solomon you were right jerusalem you know was taken when david became the king and then david pretty much conquered everybody around there david wanted to build a temple in jerusalem remember that but he couldn't because he was a war he was a military man and david had to stay in his lane remember david said i'm going to build a temple to the lord and nathan prophet finally had to come say no david no you're not so david when he heard he couldn't build the temple he went around and conquered everybody did what he was good at if you read the next chapter there in second samuel says and david killed and slew and slaughtered and you know wiped out and uh took spoil and like like it's just this chapter of david just wiping everybody out around them and he gathers huge wealth and then he stacks up all the wealth for solomon solomon comes and finally finishes the temple in jerusalem and it becomes gold has become like commonplace in jerusalem silver the bible says during the reign of solomon became like gravel you just throw silver on the ground because they had so much silver it was worthless because they had so much of it um people this even says here in our text the heathen came to see you remember the you know um the queen of you know there came and uh the queen of sheba she came and visited uh you know solomon and saw all his wealth and was so blown away like people came from all over the world to see solomon and his glorious wealth and the lord says i did that but it would also be solomon by the way who would start the downward spiral from jerusalem being this glorious queen that god had set up to do to be successful and by the way this goes with chapter 15 remember the lord said i planted you of a noble vine a fruitful vineyard was my plan and i tilled the soil and nurtured you and you were ready to go but you ruined it the lord says that's what's happening here for says i had put this upon you this glorious you know royal city jerusalem but that brings us to the third description now she comes from being this beautiful queen of jerusalem jerusalem is now to being a harlot verse 15. but thou distressed in thine own beauty and played the harlot because of thine renown and pourest out thy fornications on every one that passed by his it was and of thy garments thou didst take and decked this uh by high places with diverse colors and played us the harlot thereupon the like shall not come neither shall it be so thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver which i had given thee and made us to thyself images of men and did commit whoredom with them and took us thy embroidered garments and covered us and when thou set mine oil and mine incense before them my meat which also which i gave the fine flour and oil and honey where with i fed thee thousand set it before them for a sweet savor and thus it was saith the lord god in other words god gave them the oil and the incense and the flower and these people said thanks god and they worshipped the pagan deities with the same things that god provided for them boy we do the same thing and so moreover verse 20 thou has taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou has born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured is this of thy whoredoms a small matter boy we got to ask our own culture is this a small matter that we abort babies 61 million babies since roe versus wade it's going to be interesting because the issue is coming up again in our culture and i hope that the corruption that happened in the supreme court with roe versus wade way back there in the 70s i hope that somebody comes to their senses as medical science has come so far there's no denying that abortion is evil just just looking at it on a moral medical level let alone a spiritual biblical level so my prayer is that we wake up as a nation and figure out we're murdering babies it's worse than them throwing it out in a field like they did in this story we do worse today um and these are the gods kimash and moloch where they would take their babies and sacrifice that's what the lord's saying and and he asked rhetorically he says is this your is this your whoredom a small matter and the answer is rhetorically it's not a small matter to god god's saying this is a big deal that you're killing your children that's what god says here um and i believe he's going to say that to our culture as well verse 21 that thou has slain my children and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them and in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth when thou was naked and bare and was polluted in thy blood and it came to pass after all thy wickedness whoa whoa unto thee saith the lord god do you get the sense this is heavy i'm not sure i can read this with a heaviness that is required because god is in this heavy place saying you've been a against me and you've prostituted all the things that i've given to you and and now you're killing your own children whoa whoa unto you saith the lord jehovah god these are heavy words verse 24 that thou has also built unto thee an eminent place and hath made thee a high place in every street thou has built thy high place at every head of the way and has made thy beauty to be abhorred and has opened thy feet to everyone that passed by and multiplied thy whoredoms thou has also committed fornication with the egyptians thy neighbors great of flesh and hath increased thy whoredoms to provoke me and anger if you remember in isaiah 30 and 31 the lord says oh rebellious children of israel you turn to egypt rather than turn to me and so it's kind of a heavy heavy word he's calling them out on all the abominations that they had done just like he told them to do there in verse 2 he's doing it verse 27 behold therefore i have stretched out my hand over thee and have diminished thine ordinary food and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee the babylonians and to the daughters and the daughters of the philistines which were ashamed of thy lewd way um that thou has played the also with the assyrians because that was unsatiable by the way a sign of rebellion against god is to be unsatiable the word there might be discontent never happy with what god has given here god gave them everything they needed to be successful and blessed and they were unsatiable they kept driving to find a greater pleasure still and and i think that happens in our culture today where we get delirious with a insatiable drive uh to to get more pleasure and more happiness and more wealth or material goods and if i can just have more more and more then i'll be happy this was the condition of israel they were given everything gold was plus uh plenty silver was like gravel but they're like we need more and sexual satisfaction more more more and this got them into this place where god's calling them out it says you were verse 28 unsatiable yea those played the harlot with them and yet could us not be satisfied um when mick jagger saying i can't get no satisfaction what an anthem uh in the world at that time that has only gotten worse today but that's the mark of the unbeliever no satisfaction the true christian i think if they're honest and and healthy they're going to say jesus satisfies and jesus is all you need um he satisfies your thirsty soul well they said we can't get no satisfaction verse 29 and thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication with the land of canaan to the count and to chaldea and yet that was not satisfied herewith how weak is thine heart saith the lord god seeing thou doest all these things the work of an imperious woman and that thou built us thine imminent place in the head of every way and make us thine high place in every street and has not been as an harlot in that thou scornest hire but as a wife that committeth adultery which taketh strangers instead of her husband they give gifts to all but thou give us thy gifts to all thy lovers and hires them that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom and the contrary is in the from other women in thy whoredoms whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms and that thou give us a reward and no reward is given unto thee therefore thou art contrary wherefore o harlot hear the word of the lord thus saith the lord god because thy filthiness was poured out and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers with thy all the idols of thy abominations and by the blood of thy children which thou did give unto them behold therefore i will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure and with all them that thou hast loved and all them that thou hast hated and i will even gather them round against thee and will discover thy nakedness unto them that they may see all thy nakedness and i will judge thee as a woman that breaketh wedlock and shed blood are judged and i will give thee blood in fury and jealousy whoo heavy heavy language here um this is hard for us because today we um we struggle with seeing any problem with adultery we live in a culture that sort of says yeah people sleep around so i had an affair you know sorry uh hopefully it's not gonna ruin our marriage um you know this idea of the wife being an adulterous woman you know it's what we make movies about and people celebrate uh those kinds of things and um so it loses its teeth just a little bit here in this chapter but if you would this is like the lord saying you've done the worst thing you could ever do jerusalem you have made yourself like a prostitute but not a prostitute worse you're the wife who's married to a husband who who will sleep around with everybody around the neighborhood and and i'm going to call you out for that and we we kind of say see i i know some of you are thinking this is such a male chauvinistic book talking about this woman no there the bible doesn't pull any punches with men either there's all kinds of things about stupid men and men that do dumb things but here the lord uses this analogy of israel made up of men and women that live in jerusalem who are acting like the prostitute the adulterous wife and this is in some ways it seems that god is is speaking the worst thing that happens in humanity isn't it interesting that the lord says i hate divorce there's only a few things god says he hates divorce is one of them and the only legitimate cause for divorce in the bible according to the bible is for unfaithfulness in marriage when a husband or a wife is committing adultery and so here god is speaking one of the worst things can happen he's saying this is what israel you have done to me heartbreaking i i fear that our culture doesn't really feel the gravity of this horrific thing because we're an adulterous generation it's become commonplace we celebrate adultery we love fornication and so we're like what's the big deal here lord so she sleeps around a little bit whatever um no you've got to understand this is the most abominable thing that israel has done to god and he's using this as an analogy well he goes on in verse 39 and i will also give thee into their hand and they shall throw down thine imminent place and shall break down thy high places they shall strip thee also of thy clothes they shall take thy fair jewels and leave thee naked and bare speaking of the babylonians you might also include the assyrians 150 years earlier we'll talk about that perhaps in a minute verse 40 they also shall bring up a company against thee and they shall stone thee with stones and thrust thrust thee through with their swords and that did happen men women children slain in jerusalem with the sword and when they shall burn thine houses with fire and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women and i will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot and thou also shall give no higher any more so will i make my fury toward thee to rest and my jealousy shall depart from thee and i will be quiet and will be no more angry because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth but has fretted me in all these things behold therefore i will recompense thy way upon thine head saith the lord god and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations the lord says i'm going to put this an end to this but it's going to be brutal is the idea and it's going to cost them jerusalem's going to be destroyed most of the people are going to be killed just a remnant of israelis are going to be left well verse 44 behold everyone that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee saying as is the mother so is her daughter thou art thy mother's daughter that loatheth her husband and her children and thou art the sister of thy sisters which loath their husbands and their children your mother was a hittite and your father an amorite again speaking of jerusalem remember we're metaphorically talking about jerusalem and my elder sister is samaria your elder sister is samaria mark that and she and her daughters that dwell in my at thy left hand and the younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is sodom and her daughters so who are the sister cities of jerusalem sodom and samaria samaria was wiped out by the assyrians 150 years earlier and they were taken into captivity but there was a small group of people that mixed themselves with assyrians and jews and they became the samaritan people and by the time jesus came along the scene remember the story of the good samaritan or the samaritan woman um they were hated by the jews because they were sort of considered to be half-breed people jewish assyrians mixed and uh the jews loathed the the samaritans but they were judged the land of samaria was wiped out by the assyrians and then of course sodom you all know as the city that was destroyed by god with fire and brimstone during the time of lot well we're going to hear more about that verse 47 yet thou has not walked after their ways nor done after their abominations but as if that were a very little thing thou was corrupted more than they in all thy ways oh do you hear what god just said through ezekiel sodom and gomorrah was nothing compared to you jerusalem jerusalem by this time see we're still having a hard time feeling oh i feel so bad for the people of jerusalem and all the stuff that's happening but these guys make sodom and gomorrah look like mr rogers like like this is amazing how horrible jerusalem had become and god's calling out their abominations verse 48 as i live saith the lord god sodom thy sister hath not done nor she nor her daughters as thou hast done and that and thy daughters question quiz time what did sodom do what was sodom famous for that made them destroyed if you said homosexuality you are wrong there was rampant homosexuality because of their pride and because of their sin but the the sin that made sodom and gomorrah go down in fire and brimstone was listed right here here's where the bible tells us why god conquered or crushed sodom it says right in verse 49 behold this was the iniquity of thy sister sodom here it is pride fullness of bread abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy and they were haughty and committed abomination before me therefore i took them away as i saw good it's funny how we think of america as somehow better than sodom i think it was billy graham's wife who said if the lord doesn't judge san francisco he's gonna owe sodom and gomorrah an apology um and she's making the point that we have surpassed sodom and gomorrah like the jews did back in this day but i think the united states we the sins of sodom and gomorrah when you look at this pride is it america is america a prideful nation well all the other nations think so they call it the ugly american what about the fullness of bread yeah we've got all we're the richest country in the world um fullness of bread abundance of idleness was in our idleness is the devil's workshop we do stuff that we shouldn't do and so we sit around doing horrible things like the things we do today with our idle time is makes the makes even the sodomite blush and here's an interesting one neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy boy the gap between wealthy and total poverty is is widening here in america and we're seeing all these homeless tents and people um you know portland is just overrun with crazy just homelessness and poverty and we wonder what's going on it has to do with this haughtiness and this this attitude of pride and the lord says they've committed abominations so i took them out i believe that's coming during the tribulation period the whole world's going to be judged but man i feel like the united states we're leading the way on this one well the lord took him away so verse 51 neither has samaria committed half of thy sins but thou has multiplied thy abominations more than they and has justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which house done thou also which hath judge thy sisters bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they they are more righteous than you yea be thou confounded also and bear thy shame in the fast justified thy sisters man you're making sodom and samaria look good is what what ezekiel's saying through the lord's word verse 53 when i shall bring again their captivity the captivity of sodom and her daughters and the captives samaria and her daughters then will i bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them that thou mayest bear thine own shame and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done in that that's our comfort unto them uh their their comfort like they were that we talked about comforting on well the lord is righteous we don't feel so bad anymore for these people that's how they're comforting to them verse 55 when thy sisters sodom and her daughter shall return to their former estate and samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate then thou and my daughters shall return to your former estate now pause for a second question did samaria return to her former estate you might be able to say yes because after the you know syrian conquest years later the jews and some of those samaritans the half jew half assyrian came back and samaria even to this day is a thriving place but the thing that's interesting here is as sodom returned to its former uh glory well the answer is no after the fire brimstone thing we don't even know where sodom was i talked about that earlier but the question remains will sodom be brought back to its former estate and i believe it's possible yes because of this prophecy when sodom gets back to her former state so will israel in jerusalem it says here and so that hasn't happened yet samaria you can make the argument that it has sodom has it but when that happens i wonder if during the millennial kingdom somehow sodom will be resurfaced as a city during the millennial kingdom that's what we speculate on what the lord is saying here through ezekiel so verse 56 for thy sister sodom was not mentioned by the mouth in the day of thy pride before thy wickedness was discovered as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of syria and all that are round about her the daughters of the philistines which despise thee round about thousand thy lewdness and thine abominations saith the lord for thus saith the lord god i will even deal with thee as thou hast done which hath despised the oath in breaking the covenant man the the jews have broken the covenant with god and he calls them out now this is one of the heaviest chapters in the bible about the destruction of jerusalem and the sins and the abominations but even with all of that i'm thankful for the ending of this chapter verses 60 through 63 nevertheless this is a great word nevertheless i will remember my covenant with me in the days of thy youth and i will establish unto thee and everlasting covenant how long everlasting this is where we were talking sunday about the replacement theology wackoness god has an everlasting covenant even though the jews were worse than sodom like we could even give you the argument the jews did all these horrible things but guess what the lord says even still nevertheless i'm establishing my everlasting covenant with you verse 61 when thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters thine elder and thy younger and i will give them unto thee for daughters but not by thy covenant i will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt know that i am the lord this is that you know abrahamic covenant that god made with the jews saying i will bless you and i will make you an everlasting covenant where i will give you a king and that king will rule and reign for an everlasting kingdom this is the coming of jesus who's going to rule over jerusalem and this is the covenant of god to a very sinful group of people so i will establish verse 62 my covenant with thee and thou shalt know that i am jehovah the lord verse 63 that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth anymore because of thy shame when i am pacified toward thee for all that thousand saith the lord god when when is god pacified towards sinners that's that's the ending of this chapter he says you know when i am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done when would that happen well the answer is jesus dying on the cross romans chapter 5 verse 1 says this i'll just read it to you romans 5 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ christ um uh for colossians 1 verse 20 and 21 says this and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him i say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven and you that were sometimes alienated an enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now have he reconciled that's the thing this last verse of ezekiel chapter uh you know 16 is when he says when i am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done when's that gonna happen it's when jesus came and died on the cross for the sins of the world jews included jesus died for the sins of the jews but the jews remain in darkness and in blindness right now because blindness has happened to them but there's coming a day where the jews will see that jesus was the messiah and even though they were the most sinful of all when you read chapter 16 of ezekiel man worse than sodom worse than the samaritans and yet the lord says i'm still going to keep my covenant so we end on a high note praise the lord thankful that the lord is merciful and if he can be merciful to the jews who did these things guess what he can be merciful to you if you accept jesus die on the cross if you believe that he rose from the grave and you become a believer and a christian you too can be saved by his grace even though we're sinners uh you even could give some of you might give the jews a run for the money on your sins uh you may have had an abortion uh and you think oh man i've committed the unpardonable sin no if you confess your sins he's faithful to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness and you can be part of that everlasting covenant through jesus christ lord i pray tonight as we close our study off for the evening i pray that you'd help us to just recognize our own sinful tendencies um to see the abominations of the world that we live to recognize lord the the same uh things that we're drawn to culturally nationally forgive us lord as a nation for following the way of sodom and eve in the way of jerusalem but lord i pray that we your people will be given to believing your word humbling ourselves repenting of sin following your truth help us lord and when our spirit is willing and our flesh is weak give us strength lord to be victorious to walk in your truth so bless these people who've taken this time on this wednesday night to carve out study the scriptures bless them may your word bring forth good fruit in jesus name amen amen you

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Length: 73min 34sec (4414 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021