Through the Bible (Ezekiel 8-11)

so uh we're back to ezekiel doom and destruction are you guys ready why don't you turn to ezekiel chapter eight as we resume our study this evening ezekiel chapter eight interesting that um you know ezekiel is such a heavy book because of really sin and idolatry and the debauchery of the people of israel during that time during ezekiel's day but it does sadly as jeremiah the book of jeremiah and lamentations we've seen this parallel of the culture of the men of judea and a parallel with the culture of the men and women of portland oregon and and the united states of america and uh really globally around the world we see the same exact things happening um it's not that far people say the bible's an old book with ancient stories of ancient people how can we relate well it's kind of profound how we still relate to these people we're doing the exact same things they did and the reason that is important to study the book of ezekiel is to realize the very curses that the people were placing upon themselves because of their sin you know some of it is sort of not even really god cursing them it's their own sins are cursing them you know it's funny be sure of this your sins will find you out it's not that god will find you out he already knows everything it's when your sins catch up to you it's it's the repercussion of sin and we'll even see some of that tonight uh in ezekiel's understanding of what happens to the jews during this time period and and so there's much to learn but ezekiel's interesting because you know he's sort of the priest uh the son of buzi uh remember we looked at him in the chapter one uh but he's also a prophet he should have been a priest in jerusalem uh but because of the destruction of jerusalem and the deportation of ezekiel ezekiel's writing his you know visions and the prophecies of his book from the chaldean area just outside of babylon and and he's writing these visions and things that the lord is speaking about the jews um they're still uh in the time of ezekiel there's still a bunch of people in judea in jerusalem jerusalem hasn't been totally destroyed yet it's hard for us because we already saw the total destruction of jerusalem when we were reading jeremiah so we have to rewind in history a little bit and go back to before jerusalem was destroyed and ezekiel's seeing these visions and he's speaking them to a small group of people by the river of kedar there in babylon a small group they're hearing you mean jerusalem's going to be destroyed and everyone's going to die i mean this is all news still to them you and i kind of know what happened because of the book of jeremiah and history but ezekiel gives a little bit of a different perspective perspective and perhaps even this is where ezekiel gets tricky the mystic ezekiel is he's talking about judea and jerusalem but it's almost like you can sense the gaze of ezekiel goes past that even and maybe even to the very end of time it's like ezekiel's prophecies pertain to the jews in jerusalem but it's also that it it pertains to the jews during the tribulation period and even the millennial reign and then ezekiel is going to just totally go off on the millennium and end his book talking more about that so it makes ezekiel interesting it's not just speaking you know of that area uh in that time of 586 bc ish um but it's it's actually gazing even into our future and ezekiel's going to touch on themes that have to do with the future history we haven't really seen a lot of that yet but as we get later into the book we're going to touch on some very interesting prophetic themes that have yet to even happen in the world and we're seeing those things come together we'll touch on a little bit of that tonight as well so in chapter one we saw this vision uh you know with the cherry bim and the wheels within wheels and the glory of god floating along with these cherubim and these wheels and we we looked at that that's going to come into play tonight again we're not going to spend a lot of time revisiting that so if you missed chapter one you'll you might want to go pick that up or else tonight will be a little bit more difficult to understand because that that whole wheel within wheeled cherubim situation with the glory of god the capad it's coming back uh and we got to see that again tonight um but uh we begin where we left off after ezekiel's been giving all these object lessons and field trips and stuff like that um you know telling the jews here's what's going down here's what's happening and he was doing it more uh in almost like a pantomime words weren't effective anymore for the jews the people of israel were rejecting the words of the prophet so the prophet started doing these strange deeds we saw him lying on his side in the days of judgment we saw him running around chasing his hair in the wind that he cut off with a sword like crazy stuff but it was all meaning important things to uh the people and there were lessons that we saw right up to here in chapter eight now chapter eight through eleven sort of comes as a package deal if you wanna put them together it makes sense because this is really the vision that he's given concerning the judgment and it's a very clear vision about what's going to happen to the jews and it's chapters 8 through 11. so we have our work cut out for us tonight and we're going to find this to be somewhat of a hair-raising experience let's take a look it says in verse 1 of chapter 8. 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 that the hand of the lord fell upon me there now this tells us something about the way the jews lived in israel they they lived in homes you say well of course they did but remember they're in captivity but this tells us and we've talked about this in babylonian history they didn't throw you in prison or a dungeon if you were a captive of war but their goal was to assimilate you into the culture so they'd bring you into babylon and they'd give you a house and you'd have a place to live and the smartest and the brightest of the group like daniel shadrach meshach and abednego they would live in the courts of you know the king king nebuchadnezzar and this was the way they would try to assimilate rather than imprison all their enemies they would say man you can come and live with us or you can die it's your choice we'll give you a house or we can slaughter you in the street whichever one you choose that's kind of the way they did it and most of we'll we'll choose the house thank you and and it was really kind of a no-brainer judgment in fact historically by the way the babylonians were maybe even the best at this throughout history of taking their conquered people and making people glad about it you say brett that didn't happen to the jews oh it sure did do you remember when you know uh artaxerxes gave the command to go and restore and rebuild jerusalem and the jews were free okay jews you can leave babylon go home a tiny fraction of them came back the rest of them stayed in babylon they were walking like babylonians talking like babylonians they were you know they were like oh babylon or whatever their song was they were totally hook line and sinker man they loved babylon and it's a picture of you and i as well and you and i have to be careful not to be lovers of this world that's an important thing to remember we are called you and i are called to be strangers in a strange land pilgrims sojourners we're not supposed to be super comfortable here and say you know you know this is what it's all about being here and i i do wonder these are interesting times one of the things i might talk about i've got too many things to think about on prophecy update this friday night um i i i don't even know how to narrow down the topics but um but one topic that i've been thinking about and i might touch on a little bit um is um that not only are we comfortable here in this world as christians the church in america and we've assimilated into this world remember the bible told us that we're in this world but we're not supposed to be of this world but i think there's some things that the church of jesus christ more than just the obvious ones there are some things that the church has become very much of this world not just in the world but they've become very much of the world and you say yeah but they're watching movies and listen to music and well that that could be true too but but there's actually something maybe even more sinister and more uh dark that the church of jesus christ has assimilated in and uh we will touch on that maybe friday night but we see that here with the the jews in babylon they love babylon they started assimilating so this kind of shows us here's ezekiel sitting in his house with some of the elders of israel in his living room and they're all just sitting there talking they're free to do that because that's the way the babylonians did it so that speaks a little bit about the situation but then suddenly something happens to ezekiel in this little meeting in his house with his buddies as the leaders of israel um is so the lord says he fell he fell upon ezekiel there verse two then i beheld and lo a 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 he put forth the form of an hand and took me by a lock of mine head and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens and brought me in the visions of god to jerusalem to the door of the inner gate that looked toward the north where there was a seat of of the image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy and behold the glory of the god of israel was there according to the vision that i saw in the plane i told you it was a hair-raising experience he took took him up by a lock of his hair and he picked him up by his hair when i was in life saving i used to teach life saving at a college level believe it or not water safety instruction and water life-saving but they're used i don't think we do it as much anymore but they used to have a carry the hair carry i think you do it only in the worst case scenario now where you just uh if a person's panicking and freaking out instead of just coming up to them and letting them punch you in the face and knock you both out you grab them sort of by the hair on the back of the head there was we even practiced this you know you'd get your hand right about here and you'd grab as much as you could and then you at arm's distance just toe them by the hair um that way they can't get to you and punch you or freak out um is that still taught in water so any iwati safety people here uh they used to teach that they also before that they used to teach you punch them in the face uh anybody old enough to remember that it used to they used to do that if they're freaking out give them a good punch in the chin knock them out and then you take them into safety that that that was dropped somewhere in 1983 i think that that's the way we used to do things punch people but all that to say uh here the lord picks up ezekiel by the hair and brings them between heaven and earth and he sees this interesting vision and one thing there's a bunch of stuff here that we could really talk about it already is kind of chocked full of stuff he brought him to see these visions of god and he brings them to the north looking toward the north the north gate of jerusalem and and it says here that the image of jealousy was provoked to jealousy what is that that's a strange phrase but if you're a bible student this may not be so strange one of the big mistakes people make is thinking that jealousy is always wrong or evil did you know there's good jealousy and there's bad jealousy if you're jealous because your best friend has a you know beautiful girlfriend and you don't and you're jealous well that's sin and wacko and stupid stop it but there's actually a righteous jealousy um and and god exhibits righteous jealousy he's a righteous god well how could god be jealous i've mentioned this before but it it's it's one of the more famous people of today that left the true faith of jesus christ because of this one line in the bible our god is a jealous god and so oprah winfrey as a young woman heard that by her pastor and she said well i can't serve or believe in a god that is jealous and that's where she went off into this crazy new age stuff that she's been into all these years and it's sad because some of you ladies have listened to her book clubs and stuff i know there's there's all these millions of women who love oprah and some of you are here i know you're not out you're like why is brett talking about about hoopra because she's pretty much satan incarnate no i'm just kidding just just kidding just messing with you guys no she's she is into new age it's it's a a new age is an old lie it's enlightenment and becoming like gods and all this stuff and oprah's totally into that stuff but she doesn't believe that jesus is the only way you can find her on youtube saying i don't believe there's only one way to heaven through jesus like she says all this stuff and she she believes it where did her faith get derailed she used to be a baptist where did that get derailed when she heard the pastor say god is a jealous god so heartbreaking because god being jealous is he's not jealous of anyone he's jealous for someone that is you he doesn't want to see satan take you and work you over and mess you up and god is jealous for you it's a little bit like when i'm a mom and a dad a parent sees that your the daughter is dating a young man uh you know her uh 19 year old daughter's dating a 32 year old guy who lives in his parents basements playing you know video games and and and suddenly the parents become sort of jealous for her in in the sense that they want so much more for her they don't want some guy that's living with his mom and her in his basement uh playing video games at 32. she just doesn't want that the mom and dad don't want that they're jealous because they love their daughter and they want what's better for them that's another way of saying jealous and in that way god he's not jealous of anyone he's jealous for his people now how do i know that uh you can jot some of these places down but uh maybe you can remember uh some of these scriptures ezekiel pardon me uh exodus chapter 34 uh this is where the lord talked with moses and said this in exodus 34 13 he says but you shall destroy the altars and break down their images and cut down their groves for thou shalt worship no other god for the lord that is jehovah whose name is jealous is a jealous god his name is jealous that's one of the names of god is jealous and he obviously he's not jealous of these gods that are fake and dumb he's jealous for his people that's the idea and that's what the bible says it's not that he's called jealous uh you know like he's got a jealous streak no his name is jealous that's an important feature of who god is deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 15. it says but gesturin waxed fat and kicked and waxing fat grown thick that were covered with fatness and then he forsook the him who made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation and they provoked him to jealousy with strange gods with abominations provoked him to anger these people were you know living large fat and happy on their gods and goddesses of paganism and there in deuteronomy 32 the lord says you've provoked god to a jealousy provoking to a jealousy against those false gods now they're false gods but we know behind those false gods is a a true evil one satan himself and his demonic you know henchmen uh they're all alive and well and um and the lord doesn't want his kids to get ensnared by the evil one so it's an endearing thing of god that he's jealous for you that he wants to protect you from such stupidity and such destruction um and so that's the idea of god being a jealous god and and i hope that nobody gets derailed by that not understanding you know what what the biblical definition of this idea of jealousy is now that brings us back to ezekiel 8 and it maybe gives you and me an idea of what's going on here when it says they come to the gate of the north that looks toward the north um where there was a seat an image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy that would be one of these images set up right there at the northern side of the temple mount where the temple was now the temple by the way in ezekiel's time was not the size of jerusalem as it is today and when we talk about these east gates and north gates and what have you in the south gates and the southern steps it was really mostly the temple mount we're talking about it wasn't the greater city of jerusalem so when you talk about the northern gate we're talking about the northern side of the temple and at the northern side of the temple the lord indicts the people saying you've got these altars to these pagan deities that provoketh to jealousy it's the same jealousy talked about there in exodus 34 in deuteronomy 32 the same jealousy and that's why you know ezekiel says it's an image of jealousy which provokes to jealousy and then in verse 4 as we read it it says and behold the glory of the god of israel was there according to the vision that i saw on the plane now that's the good news we're about to see what the bad news is the glory of god is there but now we need to conjure up the description that we were given in ezekiel chapter one of what what was the glory of god does anybody remember where was the glory of god sitting anybody okay the mercy seat's a good answer because we do know that the kebab the glory of god was over the ark of the covenant that is true biblically but in ezekiel's case there was an interesting sort of shift of where the glory of god was and it was very mysterious and weird anybody do you remember the cherubim and the wheels and the glory of god dwelt where the cherubim were and where the wheels were in the midst of the like this really mysterious thing it's like it's almost like um the glory of god was being sort of carried around by these cherubim and these wheels within wheels gyroscopic like ezekiel's pretty mis mystical uh in his visions here but the reason i mention that is you almost have to realize that's what he's talking about in verse four the glory of the god of israel was there according to the vision that i saw in the plane what was the vision that he saw in the plane chapter 1 verse 28 is probably the epicenter of what i'm talking about there so we got to get back i know it's been a few weeks uh we got to get back to that idea and we'll get we'll get another description almost repetitively tonight of what that sort of looked like um but the glory of god is is there with these cherry bim and and here's what makes me a little nervous it's movable it's almost like um if you could sort of picture you know you're you're in a military situation and you're in battle and suddenly these blackhawks come and they land and you all start loading up and you're getting evacked out and that's got to be a good feeling when you've been in the heat of battle to to finally be lifted out of there but everything's just kind of there but it's not actually flying yet that's the sense we get right here we get this gyroscopic wheels within wheels and these cherubims with these fluttering wings that sound like a hurricane remember the the wings of these cherubim and and the glory of god all there and it's just kind of hovering there is it going to stay or is it going to go and i think the the sense is the glory of god is about to depart and the question is what does that mean for the jews so so this is kind of the imagery that we saw in chapter one that i want you to be thinking about as we kind of continue here in chapter eight well verse five goes on and says then said he unto me son of man lift up now thine eyes 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 he said furthermore unto me son of man see us thou what they do even the great abominations that the house of israel committeth here that i should go far off from my sanctuary but turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations so he says listen ezekiel do you see these images these altars that have been built to these pagan deities and they're right here in my sanctuary and he's like yeah i see him and you think i'm just going to stay here that's kind of what the lord's saying you my glory is just going to dwell in this place where paganism is happening and he says i'm going to show you worse things and then we looked at this several weeks ago on a weekend service the image chambers of imagery remember we talked about the the minds of the elders and the leaders of israel the ancients and how they saw they were looking at pornography basically they were into all kinds of evil lustful sinful stuff going on in this recesses of their minds and the lord showed easy let's refresh our memory verses 7 through 12 is what we looked at uh oh three weeks ago or so maybe four it says in verse seven and he brought me to the door of the court and when i looked behold a hole in the wall then said he unto me son of man dig now in the wall and when i dig in the wall behold the door and he said unto me go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here so i went in and saw and behold every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of israel portrayed upon the wall round about and there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of israel and in the midst of them stood ja oz ania the son of shaphen with every man his censer in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up then said he unto me son of man hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of israel do in the dark every man in the chambers of his imagery for they say the lord seeth us the lord seeth us not and the lord hath forsaken the earth these people were doing it they thought they were doing it in the dark in the secret places you know of uh of the chambers of their imagery but the lord says i see all this stuff the story is told of a young soldier in 1942 with his commanding officer getting on a train together the only two available seats were directly across from uh a very attractive young lady who was traveling with her grandmother and so the four engaged in conversation and the soldier you know kept the young lady they kept kind of eyeing one another and what have you and suddenly the train went into a tunnel sending the train car into total darkness immediately two sounds were heard the first sound was the smack of a kiss and the second sound was a smack of a hand on a cheek the grandmother thought i can't believe he kissed my granddaughter but i'm glad she gave him a slap he deserved it the commanding officer thought i don't blame the boy for kissing the girl but it's a shame that she missed him and hit me instead the young girl thought i'm so glad he kissed me but i wish my grandmother hadn't slapped him for doing it as the train broke into the sunlight the soldier couldn't help but smile he had managed to kiss the pretty girl and slap his commanding officer and get away with both john 3 19 says men love the darkness because their deeds are evil uh the dark deeds that we like to do in the dark so that nobody knows that nobody sees but god sees it he sees it all and that's the problem we think we're pulling stuff off getting away with it but as it turns out the lord sees everything and and really tonight you might think lord are there things that i do that i think are in secret that somehow i think i'm hiding from you and from everybody else but we talked about this everything's naked and open before him with whom we have to do the bible says in the book of hebrews well this is what's going on so so not only is there bad enough stuff going on on the temple mount but it's even in the imagery of the the minds of the elders the ancients of israel and ezekiel's seeing all this ugliness and and it's really giving ezekiel an accurate view of why the lord is judging the jews at this time why babylon is you know conquering the jews it's because they'd given themselves wholly over to sin and the lord is going to redirect them with punishment verse 13 he said also to me turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations that they do then he brought me to the door of the gate of the lord's house which was toward the north and behold there sat women weeping for tammuz then said he unto me hast thou seen this o son of man turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations than these and he brought me into the inner court of the house and behold the door of the temple of the lord between the porch 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 worshipped the sun toward the east then said he said unto me hast thou seen this o son of man is it a light thing to the house of judah that they commit such abominations which they commit here for they have filled the land with violence and returned to provoke me to anger and lo they put the branch to their nose therefore will i also deal in fury mine i shall not spare neither will i have pity and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice yet i will not hear them there is a point of no return where a person can you know frustrate the grace of god and his kindness where the lord says i can't let this continue the wrath of god does come at some point and here we see this the lord saying time's up now now there's a couple things that they're doing and you and i may say well what's the big deal so the women are weeping for tammuz and and the men are in the temple kneeling away from the temple and toward the east toward the sun were they muslims worshipping toward mecca no that would come a long time later do you know them that islam started 600 years after the time of christ islam is a new religion compared to christianity uh by 600 years and it's a new religion you know compared to you know judaism by 2 600 years so like it's really interesting or i should say 3 600 years you know like it's really a crazy thing to see uh how people act like islam uh you know the christians steal stuff from islam and stuff like that that's ridiculous but this idea of praying toward the sun toward the east was common by pagans in those days and they were people who were worshiping the sun the rising of the sun in the east and they were sun worshipers now if you extrapolate what that really meant it really had to do more with them worshiping creation they were worshiping god's creation and putting sort of or deifying the sun and what have you the egyptians did the same thing there was a lot of people in pagan practices that worshiped the sun they believed the sun was the giver of life and made things grow and blah blah blah now today you say well good thing that we're not worshiping the sun anymore do you know that really earth worship is the same thing today there are people today that i've taken you know what what we might call just being responsible dwellers on the earth which we're supposed to be the bible says you and i we're supposed to be good stewards of the earth that we uh that we live here and but but at the same time we can use the resources of this earth um there are extreme environmentalists who have taken this to a religious level and i hope none of you especially those of us from the portland area here have been sucked into really this it's just a paganism that's still going today um do you any of you guys old enough to remember the i think it was a butter commercial or something uh where the lady was there and she says it's not nice to fool with mother nature and then lightning and and mother earth and mother nature and all this stuff and and like you don't mess with her uh but that was like the beginnings of something that actually went from kind of a goofy thing to people pretty much worshiping the earth and um and there's there's a real element uh today that we've sort of called falsely science about the earth that i think we have to be really careful not to to worship the earth the bible says in hebrews chapter 2 that the lord is going to eventually destroy this earth he's going to fold it up like an old garment like an old piece of piece of clothing and he's going to put it away and the lord's going to do that the earth that we live on is in fact temporary so if you're worshiping it there's not much of a future in that if you're worshiping god he is eternal and he will not let you down does that mean we should trash the earth well of course not but we definitely should be worshiping the earth at the same time and i think that's something that we have to be kind of careful about now there's the worshipping of the sun toward the east we see here ezekiel talks about but what's this thing about the women weeping for tammuz well this is that uh interesting babylonian paganism uh that started way back in the book of genesis do you remember uh there the story of nimrod some people call him nimrod and some people call him nimrod the hunter because that's one of the way that one of the translations calls it but he was actually a warrior not hunting gazelles and deer and what have you he was a hunter against the lord is a better translation he was sort of against god nimrod was the first uh sort of uh dictator you might say uh and and according to babylonian lore i'm not saying this is a true story but it's amazing how it's stuck throughout history um uh there was sort of this immaculate conception that this woman named samuramas became impregnated miraculously and uh was the queen wife of nimrod the hunter as he's called but the nimrod of genesis was um this this world leader it's where they were building the tower of babel that whole thing but um his wife you know they say and i don't believe this i have to say this over and over again because one time i was telling this story about samurais nimrod tammuz and some girl was listening to the teaching and she went home and told her boyfriend pastor brett believes in this miraculous birth of taboos and semoramus and that's what nathan creek believes so the the guy came the next sunday he was shaking him so upset you believe himself what are you what i was like what are you talking about man uh you know maybe you should have been here uh before you come telling me i believe in semaramus and tammuz so anyway i'm saying this this is not true but this was what the paganism of babylon believed and by the way if you're interested in this it's not armchair reading but there's a guy named alexander hislop who wrote a book in the 1800s called the two babylons and he goes into this in painstaking detail about what their beliefs were but there was a whole series of pagan celebrations around the birth of tammuz but also tammuz died and apparently rose from the grave now now some of you might say but that sounds amazingly like the story of jesus only the babylonians were believing that you know uh thousands of years before christ came now this is where the secular world by the way and if you're a college student listen to me closely because they love they relish talking about stuff like this they love saying now see jesus was just an invention sort of mimicking other traditions throughout the history of the world and there's all kinds of things like that one of the big ones you'll hear the epic of gilgamesh there's a story of a flood and an original woman and a man and it's sort of this grotesque version of sort of the story of the flood and adam and eve and all this stuff um but but they're the boast of the college professors gilgamesh is older than the bible and so the bible just borrowed the story and sort of cleaned it up and put it in the judich bible and that's their whole argument about why the bible's so unreliable because it's just really a plagiarism against the epoch of gilgamesh and what have you here's the thing that's so funny about that they're they're jumping to a conclusion that because there's ancient stories about an original couple and a flood uh that that was the accurate one and the bible's the wrong one those stories that actually did happen the flood of noah and adam and eve they did happen they were passed down by oral tradition see i could equally say as a pastor well the echo of gilgamesh just kind of confirms that there was a story that happened that was something like that we just believe the bible got the story right like there's not that big of a leap like you can't use that as proof that the bible's wrong just like i can't use the the the bible and say it's exactly sure because of the bible says it there's other ways to defend the bible when it comes to creation and adam and eve and noah and all that stuff it's not even that hard but it's funny how these college professors will use this and now this story of simmer amaze virgin birth death and resurrection could it be that satan himself is well what is he called he's a liar and a counterfeiter that shouldn't shock us that throughout history satan has tried to mimic the work that god has or even the plan of god you know that was revealed all the way back in you know genesis chapter 3 the proto-evangelium which is a fancy way of saying the first mention of the gospel that you know the serpent the snake satan his head would be crushed by the seed of the woman the woman doesn't have the seed the word seed is sperm the woman doesn't carry the seed how is a a child going to be born seed of the woman will that be the virgin birth and the virgin birth would produce the messiah who would then save the world from its sins and crush satan it was all part of god's plan it shouldn't shock us that the satan the enemy tries to sort of mimic and sort of do counterfeits of those things by the way all the counterfeits whether you're talking about the babylonian situation or um or gilgamesh they're all ugly interpretations and they're dark i love the lightness of the bible but all that to say now this is this is where it gets kind of strange this the worshipping of semoramus and tammuz translated from the babylonian culture and the persian culture and it eventually went to from the persians and it moved up to a place called pergamos and when you study the seven churches in the church at pergamos they were corrupted by the same paganism by the way pergamos but it went from pergamon pergamos then into rome and this ancient pagan babylonian religion mystery babylon some people call it uh samurais tammuz and all that and it spread throughout rome even egypt and even the middle east and and there's different names now uh throughout history whether it's venus and cupid isis and horus it's all the same religion just different names uh astrath and vale they're all part of this same you know uh paganism so all that to say uh but but it became the epicenter in babylon and the romans became worshipers of samurais tammuz and that whole thing and they adopted all the festivals and feasts and what have you the whole system uh makes up basically the old roman empire and their the way they worshipped until about 3 12 a.d by the way before when christ came and paul brought the gospel to rome and the christian church started to scatter around rome and around the world christianity was largely made illegal uh there were ten waves of horrible persecution for 300 years uh of the christian church like it wasn't just paul being you know beheaded in rome it was from then on man the romans they were trying desperately to douse and to kill christianity but the more they persecuted the church the more um the church thrived and they were hiding out in caves and you know worshiping god and and you know the even the the graves there in the tombs uh that's one of the places i took a group to uh to rome as we go down into the catacombs and the reason that's kind of fun is there's there's millions of graves under the under rome and you can walk around in there even to this day but that's where the church would go down and meet secretively so that the romans wouldn't persecute them or kill them when constantine came along in 312 a.d constantine was needing a better army and some help uh some people believe this was a political decision some people believe he had a real spiritual enlightenment and saw the sign of the cross and on this sign conquer um but it was at that point constantine said you know what christianity is no longer illegal and you christians join me and by doing that the christians were finally like wow we can come out of the graves now we can come out of the caves and they went from the caves and the sackcloth to the silk and the palaces and christianity started to become accepted in the roman empire because of constantine it would only be a short time thereafter they would make christianity the legal religion of rome now the reason this is interesting is because all these priests of the paganism of rome they said hey what are we going to do you know christianity is now the religion what are we supposed to do you know we've got our our temples and our pointy hats and our purple robes and our uh you know traditions of simeramis and tamaroos tammuz and the east estate where we celebrate tammuz's resurrection in saturnalia is where we celebrate um the birth of tammuz and uh december 25th and the yule log that we throw on the fire showing his resurrection and the cross buns and and and all this stuff you say bro what are you talking about well this is what they did these priests were like what are we gonna do and they're basically the romans said no no sweat man we're just gonna make you you can still do all that stuff but it's gonna be instead of tammuz it's gonna be jesus we're going to christianify everything and so you know the the whole thing changed to be christmas was december 25th where jesus was born now interestingly we know jesus wasn't born december 25th even the nominal bible student knows jesus was born in april um more of a springtime deal there when they would have had the people coming to taxes and we know the time when jesus came to jerusalem um so why did we adopt the 25th because that that fit with the roman priests and those things whenever you see the roman catholic church and you wonder why why do they do that it's so so not in the bible it usually has something to do with the adopting of christianity by these priests from back in 3 12 a.d uh if you don't believe me read alexander hislop's book the two babylons and it's really quite a quite a amazing story now by the way why do you celebrate christmas then brett christmas trees that was a babylonian thing and and you know christmas and all that the good reason i do is because i think it's been saved we we turned it around to jesus most people that celebrate christmas we're still saying yeah it's all about jesus the real savior not tammuz now you should definitely not have a christmas tree do not have a christmas tree if you're worshiping tammuz and samuramas okay get rid of the tree burn it it's of satan but if you're having a christmas tree for other reasons because you just like the smell and it's fun to decorate and having presents and all that stuff that's great now you'll notice i celebrate christmas but you won't find me celebrating halloween and there's a very simple reason brett halloween has you know evil origins christmas has evil origins what's the difference big difference christmas was saved halloween wasn't halloween is still all about all hallows eve and ghouls and goblins and wishes and the evil and all that stuff and there's a very evil history behind all hallows eve and so we don't celebrate that here you won't find you know jack-o'-lanterns on our stage here uh during halloween uh because we think that's dumb uh and it's satanic uh and we like worshiping jesus you know so we we have a harvest festival where we thank the lord for his good things that he's done for us in instead of all that other stuff so but the reason i bring all this stuff up is because this is what the jewish women were doing in jerusalem when ezekiel receives this vision these women are weeping for tammuz it was a part of the festival where tamus died and they're all weeping for tammuz they're into this babylonian paganism now here's what's interesting uh mark my words on this the lord's saying you want to worship babylonian religion i'll give you babylonian religion in fact i'm going to relocate you to babylon and you're going to go there and you're going to become very familiar with the chaldean babylonian paganism like it's really sad sometimes there's a point where a person they want something so much the lord says okay i'm going to give it to you you're going to get what you want and it's not because he's being mean it's because we become so insistent on what we think we want and there's a point where the spirit of god will not always strive with man these women are weeping for tammuz they're going to be weeping for 10 minutes in babylon for real because of what they're doing we're going to see more of that the way the lord works that out as we continue this uh this narrative of the story so these these women are weeping their men are worshiping the sun and the lord says man you guys are gonna be uh toast you're gonna be taken into captivity chapter 9 the vision continues it says he cried also in my ears with a loud voice saying cause them that have charge over the city to draw near even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand and behold six men came from the way of the higher gate which lieth toward the north and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand and one man among them was clothed with linen with a writer's ink horn by his side and they went in and stood beside the brazen altar so he's seeing this vision of jerusalem who are these six men and who is this one clothed in linen linen speaks of what in the bible purity or righteousness so there's one with an inkwell which speaks of maybe the word but purity but it's a it's a man among them among who well i believe it's very possible and i'm not going to spend a lot of time giving you my reasons why necessarily but uh it gives you food for thought stuff to study if you want to go deeper i believe these are very possibly six angels with swords drawn coming into jerusalem with who's the one in white linen possibly the holy spirit um brett angels coming with swords well that's what angels do i hope you understand that you know we we think angels are these little white fluttery things that look like cotton candy no do you remember in the bible one angel kills 185 000 soldiers in one night slaughters them on the mountains of jerusalem one angel in the book of revelation puts one foot in the ocean and one foot on the continent and says any questions and then is gonna crush everyone like like forget the little buttery angel you know that just got his wings because a bell ring or something like that that's just so like i almost wonder i mean we laugh at that but i almost wonder if if that's satan going let's let's let's make these angels look really fluttery and like where's the flyswatter you know but angels are nothing you mess around with uh jot ii thessalonians in second thessalonians chapter 1 verse 7 and 8 it says this and to you who are troubled rest with us when the lord jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not god and they them that obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ who shall be punished with an everlasting destruction what is second thessalonians talking about christ's coming he's going to come with angels during the tribulation period and we'll punish these people these angels that are vengeance taking angels uh we we need to remember that angels are not little fluttery things that should be laughed at um so i believe it could be the holy spirit the white linen uh with these angels with swords drawn coming to jerusalem to say you guys are toast because of your paganism uh but check this out this might really confuse people verse three and the glory of the god of israel was gone up from the cherub wherein where upon he was to the threshold of the house that's the temple and he called to the man clothed with linen might be the holy spirit which had the writer's incorn by his side and the lord said to him go through the midst of the city through the midst of jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof brett these angels must be demons because they're getting the mark of the beast on their forehead don't be confused by this question who came up with the idea of the mark of the mark on a person's forehead anybody whose idea was that huh god people are nervous antichrist no it's not antichrist he didn't come up with that idea it was god who came up with the idea of marking the believers with a mark on their forehead jot down revelation chapter 7. it says in revelation 7 verse 2 and 3 it says i saw another angel this is the tribulation period ascending from heaven the east having the seal of the living god and he cries with a loud voice to the four angels who are given power to hurt the earth remember these are angels that are not fluttery things they're going to hurt the earth and the sea but it says do not hurt the earth neither the sea nor the trees until we have sealed the servants of our god in their foreheads that's god's idea chapter 13 of revelation the antichrist comes up with a harebrained idea of the mark of the beast and puts it on people that are on his side and puts a mark in there for it and on their wrist but that's only remember satan's a duplicator an imitator uh you know plagiarizer that's who satan is but god marks these hundred and forty four thousand jehovah's witness no i'm just kidding they're not jehovah's witness uh that's one of the dumbest things i've ever heard have you ever had i watched our person come to your door yes we're proud to be part of the 144 000 no you're not because the bible says who they are they're they're 12 000 people from each of the 12 tribes of israel and they're listed right here in revelation 7 by the tribe like the lord's going to say there's going to be these people from this tribe and these rulers and that tribe they're now that if you tell this to jehovah's witnesses they're at your doorstep with their watchtower magazines and you say you're not part of the 144 000 because they're jews well we are jews we're the lost tribes that's what they that's what they say and to me that's easy because that's just wacko and you can just forget it because that's the dumbest thing there's there's no such thing as the lost tribes of israel that's people making stuff up now um but these are jews during the tribulation period they're gonna have a mark a seal in their forehead what does that look like i have no idea but the lord's gonna do it and then the antichrist is gonna come with the beast the false prophet all these guys are gonna come with their mark of the beast 666 that's only a sort of a counterfeit version of what god's going to do with these 144 000 jews um what are those 144 000 jews i don't have time to go into it tonight you can go back and listen to our teaching in revelation chapter 7 and i do an in-depth study on that but it is interesting here in ezekiel we see this angel coming and marking the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that have been done and so there's a few people that are going to be marked as on god's side by this maybe the holy spirit and these angels with swords verse 5 and to the others he said in mine hearing go ye after him through the city and smite let not your eye spare neither have ye pity slay utterly old and young both maids and little children and women but come not near to any man upon whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary then they began at this ancient men which were before the house and he said unto them defile the house and fill the courts with the slain go ye forth and they went forth and slew in the city so this is where ezekiel you kind of wonder is he talking about jerusalem in 586 the final crushing of jerusalem and the the lord is sort of metaphorically saying in the babylonians that would slay everybody man woman and child the babylonians that did that could be that could be what he's sort of referring to in a spiritual kind of context but it also could be his gaze going past into the tribulation period the same thing's going to happen the mark's going to be put on their foreheads there's going to be people that will be set aside for protection by the lord same scenario is going to happen in jerusalem during the tribulation period this is where we start to see ezekiel's gaze go just past his time and into future even in our time so it's somewhat of a mystery but i see both uh perhaps being referred to here verse 8 and it came to pass while they were slaying them and i was left that i fell upon my face and cried and said ah lord god this is the second time he did remember the first time he did this was when he was supposed to cook food with human waste remember that oh lord god it's kind of like you know oy vey or whatever like like you know are you kidding me uh like that's kind of what he's saying and he can't believe what he's hearing and every time he sees something it just breaks his heart or freaks him out he says oh lord god he goes on in verse 8 will thou destroy all the residue of in of israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon jerusalem then said he unto me the iniquity of the house of israel and judah is exceeding great and the land is full of blood and the city full of perverseness for they say the lord hath forsaken the earth and the lord seeth not as for me also mine i shall not spare neither will i have pity but i will recompense their way upon their head and behold the man clothed with linen which had the inkhorn by his side reported the matter saying i have done as thou has commanded me you know it's interesting about the holy spirit if this man with inkwell and the linen is the holy spirit one of the things about the holy spirit that's kind of interesting to me is a radical submission to the first and even the second part of the holy trinity um how can you say that brett a submission to well isn't it interesting that when you see the father the son and the holy spirit you always see the holy spirit deferring to both the father and the son and and this is important now remember when jesus said the holy spirit's coming john chapter 14 john chapter 16 he said the spirit of truth is going to come he shall glorify me one of the things the holy spirit does is always does what the father in heaven wants and what jesus it's pointing to in glorifying jesus that's why i can't stand with these churches that are all about the holy spirit when you hear a church talking more about the holy ghost and people that one sign is they're flopping on the floor and swinging from the chandeliers and stuff you know kara's maniacs um you know we're careless we're we're charismatic as church go we believe in the power and the manifestation holy spirit we're just charismatic with a safety belt that's the bible but there's some it's all about the holy ghost you go to a church holy ghost holy ghost and and the holy ghost gets all the credit and all the glory but you're missing the whole point read what jesus said about the work of the holy spirit he the holy spirit shall glorify me the son and so the work the true work of the holy spirit in the church is to make jesus bigger and to be seen and to be understood and to be remembered and worshiped that's what the holy spirit does so if the holy spirit's moving in a church so that jesus is being glorified mission accomplished but if the holy spirit's moving in a church and and people are claiming it's the holy spirit just just for the wow factor it's people just making stuff up and doing weird things read your bible on this one remember paul had to correct the church in corinth because they were all about speaking in tongues a manifestation of the holy spirit and and they were abusing that manifestation and he had to say man i'd rather you speak you know um regular words you know and that people can understand than you know than 10 000 words of tongues he said tongues are the least of the gifts the corinthians made it the biggest of the gifts because it was the wow factor um see we have to put things in perspective when it comes to the bible i find it interesting that this linen person with the inkwell and why the ink well because it's the spirit that gives us the bible the holy spirit god breathed the word of god you know the word of god is linked to the holy spirit and maybe there's that tie but the the reason i'm more and more convinced that this is the holy spirit with the angels with the swords is because of the last phrase i have done as thou has commanded me that that sounds to me like the way the holy spirit reacts to the father well verse 10 chapter 10 verse 1 then i looked and behold in the firmament there was above the head of the cherry bims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of the throne now as we read about the cherry bim and the wheels i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this part because this is almost word for word what we went over in chapter one but this is a reminding us of what that was okay so let's let's get through this in verse two and he spake unto the man clothed with linen and said go in between the wheels even under the cherub and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherry bims and scatter them over the city and he went in my sight he went in in my sight now pause for something i forgot to mention in chapter one we were never told it was cherubims it was only here that we learned it was cherubims you guys remember that um it's kind of interesting that now we find out those are called cherubims but they're the same ones talked about in chapter one now verse three the cherry bomb stood on the right side of the house when the man went in and the cloud filled the inner court then the glory of the lord went up from the cherub and stood over the threshold of the house and the house was filled with a cloud and the court was full of the brightness of the lord's glory and the sound of the cherubim's wings was heard even to the outer court as the voice of the almighty god when he speaketh and it came to pass when he had commanded the man clothed with linen saying take fire from between the wheels from between the cherubims and he went in and stood beside the wheels and one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims and took thereof and put it in the hands of him that was clothed with linen who took it and went out and there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings and when i looked behold the four wheels by the cherubims one wheeled by one cherub another wheeled by another cherub and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of barrel stone or green and as for their appearances they four had one likeness as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel when they went they went up on their four sides they turned not as they went but to the place whether the head looked they followed it and they turned not as they went and their whole body was their backs and their hands and their wings and their wheels were full of eyes round about even the wheels that they for had now this is new information the eyes on the wheels and what have you so this is again really uh you know we we could dive into this again but you know the eyes speak of insight and and knowledge and knowing and seeing these cherry bombs have eyes everywhere so they see things and they can they've they're we saw them as these insightful knowledgeable wise beasts there before the throne of god now with these wheels and wheels sort of gyroscopic thing as they're coming down they're they're here in jerusalem on the temple mount uh verse 13 as for the wheels it was cried unto them in my hearing o wheel and every one had four faces the first face was the face of a cherub the second was the face of a man the third was the face of a lion and the fourth was the face of an eagle now some of you say bret i protest um was it the first one supposed to be an ox there's two theories on this one and i'll just give you what they are some people say this was a copyist error and instead of saying sheriff it should have said ox you know in the copying of the manuscripts over the centuries others say no no no the cherub the main face of the cherub was that of an ox and that's kind of an interesting thing if that's true but in this account different than chapter one we see the the first face being spoken as a cherub is it an ox jared you can look that up there's all kinds of debate over what this is all about but you've got in this case the cherub the man the face of a lion the face of an eagle verse 15 and the cherubims were lifted up this is the living creature that i saw by the river of kiba kibar and that's chapter one and when the cherubims went and the wheels went by them and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth the same wheels also turned not from beside them when they stood these stood and when they were lifted up these lifted up with themselves also for the spirit of the living creature was in them then the glory of the lord mark this note it check it out then the glory of the lord verse 18 departed from off the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubims and the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went out the wheels also were beside them and everyone stood at the door of the east gate of the house the lord's house and the glory of god of the god of israel was over them above this is the living creatures that i saw under the god of israel by the river chibaar or kibar and i knew that they were the cherry bombs everyone had four faces apiece everyone four wings and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings and the likeness of their faces was the same faces which i saw by the river of kibar appearances and themselves they went everyone straightforward now i know this is kind of heavy and there's all kinds of crazy stuff that we're seeing cherry beams and wheels within wheels but just picture this massive interesting hovering thing going down to the temple mount and the glory of god coming out of the temple and sitting on this thing and then it starts to rise up and move away from the temple mount what do you think this is talking about this is basically saying the lord's saying i'm out of here and it's it's sort of the royal uh godly processional with these cherubims and the wheels and the insightful eyes and all the stuff that sees it's all the lord saying because of all the darkness in this town of jerusalem and because of my people's evil i can't coexist with that can light dwell with darkness what fellowship does you know evil have with righteousness and the point is the lord's saying i'm heading out of here this is that sense i was talking about earlier as as this massive machinery of cherry bims and wheels is starting to lift you get the sinking in your heart hopefully to understand god's presence is leaving the jews leaving israel and it's going to be gone for a long long long time i know it's late but we've got to finish chapter 11 because this is the part of the vision we don't want to chop this up so let's let's tackle chapter 11 quickly here so moreover the spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the lord's house which looketh toward the eastward and behold the door of the gate five and twenty men among whom i saw jayaz ania the son of azur and pelotia the son of banaya princes of the people then said he unto me son of man these are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel on the city these guys responsible for all the wickedness verse 3 which say it is not near let us build houses uh this city is the cauldron and we be the flesh therefore prophesy against them prophesy o son of man and the spirit of the lord fell upon me and i and and said unto me speak thus saith the lord thus have you said o house of israel for i know the things that come into your mind every one of them so now it's directed as the glory of god starting to depart from jerusalem the the main guys that are the the you know head honchos of jerusalem that are evil that have brought all this evil in now the lord's looking at them and ezekiel's saying i see you guys and i know what's going on in your brains evil verse 6 you have multiplied your slain in the city you have filled the streets thereof with the slain therefore thus saith the lord god you are slain whom you have laid in the midst of it they are the flesh this and this city is the cauldron but i will bring you forth out of the midst of it you have feared the sword and i will bring the sword upon you saith the lord god but it's funny how wicked men have their fears the lord says yeah you be afraid like i love how the lord for his people people that have repented and turned to him they say he says fear not i'm with you i'll never leave you or forsake you but for the people to rebel against god the lord says be afraid and the very things you're afraid of be more afraid like that it's it's just the truth you got to understand god is righteous and he doesn't just wink at people that have rejected him and man i could go on and on at people in our culture that have just flown in the face of god and said you know abortion is is great and there's lies that will will conjure up uh you know to make sure that abortion you know roe versus wade is you know passed and and then millions 61 million babies you know killed in our country since roe vs wade and there's evil people who've conjured this up in their minds and i believe that those people who you know gave this horrible narrative and made the world think that abortion is okay even though it's not a total abomination against god those people are going to have to stand before god someday and this is the kind of thing that i see it's the same stuff really the wickedness of abortion is the same kind of paganism that these guys were doing and the lord's not going to wink at that now good news for the repentant sinner the person who repents and says lord i've sinned against you and i i want to be forgiven the lord is quick to forgive and he puts a seal on your forehead and he saves you and you're marked as one to be saved but the person who's unrepentant man you don't want to be in the line of fire that's kind of what we're seeing here this is a scary thing and the lord's basically telling these guys yeah i know what's in your brain be afraid verse six you have multiplied your slain in the city you have filled the streets thereof with the slain is that where i left off huh verse nine thank you it's hard to hearing uh i can't say how many people um just reply to that but but few a few few that are in our room socially distanced here um verse 9 i will bring you out of the midst thereof and deliver you in the hands of strangers and will execute judgments among you you shall fall by the sword i will judge you in the border of israel and you shall know that i am jehovah the lord this city shall not be your cauldron neither be the flesh in the midst thereof but i will judge you in the border of israel and you shall know that i am the lord for you for you have not walked in my statutes neither executed my judgments but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you and it came to pass when i prophesied that pelatea the son of banaya died then i fell down on my face and i cried with a loud voice and said oh lord god i wonder if ezekiel knew old pelatia i wonder if he knew him personally and thought what i didn't realize he was that sinful and oh lord he's dead now um will thou make a full end of the remnant of israel he asked again verse 14 the word of the lord came to me saying son of men thy brethren even thy brethren the men of thy kindred and all the house of israel holy are they unto whom the inhabitants of jerusalem have said get you far from the lord unto us is this land given in possession therefore now verse 16 mark it well this is important therefore say thus saith lord god although i have cast them far off among the heathen and although i have scattered them among the countries yet will i be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come boy what a we could talk about that so basically from the time the jews would be scattered all over the world and jerusalem would not be a place of worship for them the lord says guess what they're still going to be my people and i'm going to have a little sanctuary for them in their own homes i will be their little sanctuary until what well verse 17. therefore say thus saith the lord god i will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you've been scattered and i will give you the land of israel verse 17 that last phrase mark it well because that should end the arab-israeli question our israelis occupiers of the holy land no they're the only people group in the world that can say god gave us this land only the jews we can't say it as portlanders we didn't we took this land from the blackfoot indian or the the various indian tribes that were here uh we did that just like everybody else in the world it's always funny to be these sanctimonious people that act like you know certain people are occupying because everybody in the world is occupying their country they've taken it from someone somewhere in history like everybody's guilty it's so stupid that we don't acknowledge that the only people in the whole world that can say that they purchased their land that they were given their land by the world the league of nations right after world war ii the holocaust everybody felt guilty so they said israel jews you can have this land they were given their land it was desolate and barren there was just a few bedouins that were there and the jews said you can the bedouins you guys can stay here they weren't even outing the people that were there that didn't even want to be there and so the world gave them they purchased the land and then god says by the way i give you the land strike three anybody who says israel doesn't have a right to exist it's really a demonic sort of notion that the jews should be cast into the sea that's like the iranians and joseph biden certain people believe that israel has no right to the land i'm not joking uh the biden administration is not pro-israel they're they're more pro-palestinian arab than they are and that was that's unfortunate it's going to hurt us as a nation i believe well verse 18 and they oh by the way this whole thing about the scattering of the jews and the re-gathering ezekiel's got a ton more to say about this later on we're going to get into this we're doing a deep dive into that here in a few weeks verse 18 and they shall come thither and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abomination thereof from thence and i will give them one heart and i will put a new spirit within you and i will take the stony heart out of their flesh and i will give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes keep my ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and i will be their god but as for them whose art walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations i will recompense their way upon their own heads saith the lord god question when will god do a heart transplant there with the jews anybody right somebody said it during the tribulation period that's when the jews will see that jesus was the messiah that's where all of israel will be saved at the time of the fullness of the gentiles romans 11 25 it's when the rapture of the church happens the tribulation period the jews are enlightened that jesus is the messiah and then he will give them a new heart and he will they will be his people again but right now blindness has happened to them uh verse 22 then did the cherubims lift up their wings okay remember the cherry rims were about ready to leave hovering there now we got this final message but now we're about to see the lord's presence depart so the cherubims lifted up their wings the wheels beside them and the glory of the god of israel was over them above and the glory of the lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city anybody know what the mountain on the east side of the city is called mount of olives kind of a big deal if you're into like area 51 forget about that the mount the mount of olives is one of the most amazing places on earth because it's where um it's where here the glory of god left israel with the cherubim and the wheels and ezekiel it just off it goes from the mount of olives out of the east gate up the hill up the mount of olives where did jesus you know where where did where did he ascend into heaven from the mount of olives where's jesus going to come back and touch his foot back on the earth the mount of olives where did jesus in human flesh come and they cried out hosanna and he rode into jerusalem where did he come from the mount of olives like the coming and going of god's presence has everything to do with the mount of olives and it's kind of an amazing thing but this might be one of the most impressive yet cherubims and wheels and the glory of god and it's just coming and it's just going up from the mount of olives what a scene verse 24 afterward the spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the spirit of god into chaldea that's where he was back back at the hall of justice he goes from you know the river kibar into this vision of jerusalem and the mount of olives and he's oh and now he's back at keybar that's what's going on the lord brings them back to chaldea to them of the captivity so the vision that i had seen went up from me then i spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the lord had showed me kind of a heavy thing but in a nutshell because of the crazy sinfulness of the people god says i'm out of here and his presence departed from the people and the bible even the book of romans teaches you and me if we want to live evil lives and do evil sinful stuff the lord's spirit will not always strive with man and and can light have fellowship with darkness can righteousness have fellowship with evil the answer is no so you and i if we want to have christ's presence in our lives we need to stay prayed up and run from sin and when we do sin be quick to confess your sins to the lord and say lord forgive me and give me a fresh start because man i want the lord with me at all times but the lord's hand is not short then he cannot touch you his ear is not death that he cannot hear you but it's your sin that separates you from god that's what isaiah 59 tells us in verse 1. so you and i have the honor and the privilege of having god's presence and the holy spirit in our lives and on our lives but if we let our sin just go unchecked and and keep going with that don't be shocked if you think man i just don't feel like god's in my life anymore because he may not be well bro did you lose your salvation it's so funny people get all into the technicals can you lose your salvation once ain't always saved all that all i know is this the bible gives us enough to say don't be playing around with sinful stuff because the lord's glory is not going to stay in that place of sinful darkness we need a blessed are they which are hungering and thirsting after righteousness for who who are they they are the ones who are going to be filled that's what jesus said there's so much we can learn from ezekiel's little visions here in these chapters but uh but one of the glorious things is you always get a sense of the lord's mercy and his grace because he's not going to forsake these people even though a lot of them are going to be destroyed because of their own sin the jewish people god still has a plan and a purpose and we're going to see that unfold as we continue our study so let's pray and then we'll call it a night lord we are thankful for your word um what a mysterious book seeing all these visions of ezekiel and what these cherubim mean and the wheels within wheels but we do see this impressive sense of your presence in jerusalem and the very sad departing of your glory and lord we know that your word makes it clear that blindness has happened to israel and they've been under this sort of glorious existence for many many decades and centuries and even millennia but we know you have a plan for the jews still and we know that you're going to save all of israel at some point but lord how thankful we are that we have your glory in our lives lord i pray that we have more of you less of us i pray that we would be hungry and thirsting after righteousness that we might be filled with your presence with your life with your goodness lord bless your church help us to remember and learn from these people who made such a horrible mistake to just depart from your ways give us that lord i pray that new desire to follow after you so bless these your people as we go our way tonight in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 32,106

Rating: 4.7898088 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: m-092J8p4LE

Length: 79min 4sec (4744 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021