This morning, we're continuing with the series, Confidence in God and His Word Produces Obedience. Confidence in God and His Word Produces Obedience. And this morning, we'll start with looking at Ezekiel 2 verses 1-8. Ezekiel 2 verses 1-8. And He, God, said to me, Son of Man, stand on your feet and I will speak with you. And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. And I heard Him speaking to me. And He said to me, Son of Man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. I send you to them, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God. And whether they hear or refuse to hear, For they are a rebellious house. They will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions." Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you, Be not rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you." May the Lord use and bless his Word this morning. Once again, we will be looking at some passages of Scripture to help us rightly understand that confidence in God and His Word produces obedience. In other words, As we ponder these things, we are looking at the life of faith. In other words, there's much confusion in Christianity today, not because God is unclear, but because we are unclear. We confuse the difference between walking by flesh and walking by our own abilities with a walk of faith. In other words, only as we walk by faith will we have confidence in God and confidence in His Word. And only as we walk by faith will we walk in a path of obedience. As we pondered last week, our obedience must be the fruit of our believing and trusting in God and His Word to be true. Not that it contains truth, but it is true. Our obedience cannot be conditional upon the response of man. We must not become pragmatic in our evangelism. Obedience is our response of faith towards God and His Word. Too many today that claim to be Christians have a democratic view of God and the Bible. And what I mean is, what the majority says is true must be true because numbers don't lie. which leads people to try and only talk about what is popular or comfortable to fallen man. But that way of thinking is not of faith, but of the flesh. God is truth and only speaks truth. By faith, this must be our foundation to stand on. Everything else is shifting sand. Our primary source of hope as we preach Christ is that God will always be faithful to His promises. If we misunderstand God's character, if we misunderstand God's nature, if we misunderstand who God is, then we will never trust His Word and we will always live in fear of man. This is why it's so important to make sure what covenant we are getting our promises from. Because all the promises of God in the covenants of works are dependent upon man's obedience. Obey and be blessed. Disobey and be cursed. But all the promises of the covenant of grace are dependent upon Christ's obedience to do the will of God. This is why salvation is by grace through faith and not of our works. There are many writings today that claim to be Christian Gospel writings. And they are no more than the law written in words with grace sprinkled in. In other words, if we misunderstand the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, we will look at the covenant of works, we will hear the promises, and we will seek to achieve these promises by what we do. rather than walking in the freedom that Christ has purchased by all the promises of God being yes and amen because Christ Jesus has obeyed perfectly the covenant of works. And we stand in the covenant of grace by what He did, not by what we do. In other words, when people profess faith, we are not creating a new covenant. We are proclaiming that the covenant that God has revealed to us is worthy of us believing it. It is worthy of us praising God for it. In other words, salvation must be every day reminded to us that it is all of God, it is all of grace, and it is all finished in Christ. So as we preach to the world, we need to cause them to feel the sting of the law that condemns them in their guilt and rebellion, and then point them to Christ as their only hope. But if the church mixes the law and the gospel, we have no words of wisdom to give to the world, and we have no words of wisdom to give to each other. That's why it's so important to make sure that we understand not only what the covenants are, but also what covenant we are in. Every single person who believes not in the Lord Jesus Christ remains in the covenant of works, remains condemned by Almighty God, remains under His wrath remains under his displeasure and are not at peace with God. But every single person who by faith is in Christ is always at peace with God, is always forgiven by God, and always is loved by God with an everlasting love. Too many times, the church thinks God's love is conditional upon their obedience rather than being freely given on the obedience of Christ. If we do not preach Christ, or if we are not preaching Christ, we have to ask the question, why? In other words, do we see in Scripture the command upon only the apostles, only upon pastors and elders, only on missionaries, only on evangelists, only on a select few, or do we see in the Scriptures a command that God's church from the moment that we believe the Gospel or to be preaching the Gospel. So again, if we do not preach Christ, or if we are not preaching Christ, why? Is it because we are afraid of man? Is it because we are trusting in ourselves and therefore have no ability or no confidence? Is it because we do not trust Christ? Is it because we do not think that God can save wicked sinners? Is it because we are rebelling against God and His commandments? Or is it because we do not yet know Christ? So let's here refresh the words of God. And first and foremost, I pray that we would be in awe of Him in such a way that leads us to walk by faith in obedience to our King. In other words, If we truly are in awe at God's majesty, if we are in awe at God's sovereignty, if we are in awe of His holiness, then it must produce an obedience in us or we are not in awe of the God of the Bible. In other words, to see God rightly is to be changed. In other words, the demons see God, the demons believe that He exists, and they disobey every single day. They have a clearer picture of God than we do because they have seen Him face to face. But they hate Him. So it's not a matter of just merely condescending in our mind that there may be a God, that there may be a Gospel, that there may be a Christ, that there may be a man who died on a cross, but there must be faith that rests in the God of the Bible, that rests in the Gospel that the Bible declares, that rests in the Jesus that is preached on every page of the Bible, so that our faith is in God, not in ourselves. And what we find is that when we rest in that God, our resting produces obedience. In other words, we don't want to be confused and think that our resting in God produces drifting. Our resting in God produces a lack of movement. Because when those things happen, it's not because we're resting in God, it's because we're resting in ourselves. Resting in our own laurels. Resting in our own goodness. Resting already in the things that we've done. What we need to understand is that when a heart of faith rests in God by faith alone, by grace alone, for the glory of God alone, what happens is obedience is most definitely produced. And it's produced because that heart understands that God being sovereign, God being altogether lovely, God being holy, requires His children to be obedient. In other words, it's the parent that misunderstands the law that doesn't require the child to be obedient. And most assuredly, we don't want to produce that understanding about God. God is not a parent who misunderstands what the law is. God is not a parent who misunderstands what's required of His children. So to rejoice about being adopted by God must produce obedience. To rejoice in the love of God must produce obedience. And again, not an obedience that is earning our salvation, but an obedience that is the fruit of our salvation. That's why there's so many warnings in Scripture to stop drifting, stop looking like the world. Why? Because those things happen when we rest in ourselves, resting something else rather than resting in God. There is a soul rest that is required of all believers in God Almighty. But that soul resting in God produces activity by that same faith. Because faith is a grace gift by God, but it is accompanied by all other graces. There is no such thing as saving faith without faith that causes obedience. They cannot be separated. So the moment that God gave you your faith, you cried out to be saved. That was your first act of obedience. You cried out in repentance. That was an act of obedience. You cried out and praised God that He was able to save a sinner like you. You rejoiced in the love of God that was reaching to you in the Gospel. Those are acts of obedience. But they're also acts of worship. Because we're praising God for who He is, but in our praising God for who He is, it produces a life that looks like Him. In other words, the church is the image of God on earth. And if we are to reflect the image of God, it must be in obedience, love, and worship. It can't happen by accident. It doesn't happen by us merely being humans. It happens when we walk by faith, Not trusting in ourselves, not trusting in man, not being afraid of man, but living in a holy fear of God that produces an allegiance to desire to obey the Holy One of all the earth. And so as we read these passages talking about God's requirement upon Israel being the God of Israel, we can most certainly say that God is the God of the United States in one sense, that He is the only God that exists. But as God reveals Himself as the God of Israel, He does so in a two-fold way. He is most certainly the God of Israel, the physical nation, because He called that physical nation out of Egypt. But He is also the God of Israel in a more beautiful sense that God is the God of the Israel of God, meaning the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. If we misunderstand that there is only one head, one Lord, and one God over the church, then we'll fight who has the authority to tell us what to do. But we have one Lord, one Father, one Spirit, one baptism. Why? To produce an obedience in the church that leads to a unity in the church. In other words, if we're not loving God and we're not loving each other, there's no unity. If we're not loving God and we're not loving each other, then there's no understanding of the gospel. If we're not loving God and loving each other, then we're totally misunderstanding what it means to be in Christ. Because the body can't be in Christ and the spleen be fighting with the heart, or the arms say to the leg, we don't need you, or the eyes say to the ear, you're useless. In other words, the body finds its significance because its head is altogether lovely. And the body finds its beauty in the other parts because we realize that the body is the Bride of Christ. And if Christ so loves the Bride, we have no option but to love the Bride. Because to hate the Bride is to hate yourself. And it goes back to the picture in Ephesians 5 that no one hates his own body, but loves it and cares for it. So just as Christ Jesus loves the church, so too does the church love itself. Not for itself's sake, but for Christ's sake. So let's look at Ezekiel 2 and some other passages this morning, and be reminded that when God is at the center of our faith, when God's Word is seen as altogether true, then what is produced is an obedience in the face of opposition, not merely an obedience in comfortable circumstances. Because as I said, we become very pragmatic in our evangelism. We actually look for people that are actually leaning towards God rather than going after people that hate God. Loving the unlovable. Because that's what grace does. It's what grace did to us as God loved us, even though we were His enemies and dead in our sin and trespasses because of what Christ did. So too, the church goes out in love, not because the world is worthy, not because the church is worthy in and of herself, but because Christ Jesus is our Lord and He commands it. So Ezekiel 2, starting in verse 1. And he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you. And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet and I heard him speaking to me." Now this may seem like a strange dream or a vision. It may seem like it has no application to our lives, but it is a beautiful picture of what happens every day when we walk by faith. When we walk by faith, we not only hear God speak, but we obey God's commands. So as God is speaking to Ezekiel, the Spirit enters him and picks him up and causes him to obey what God just said. In other words, when we hear God command, we also should cry out in prayer, God, work in us what You command so we can do what You want us to do. But we don't do that by our own power. We do that because we understand that as the church, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. So as God's Word comes this way, The Spirit of God in us works in us and through us to accomplish God's purpose. In other words, we're not left alone with the commands of God like we were when we were in the covenant of works. Because God promises, I will never leave you or forsake you. So when you hear laws, when you hear commands, when you hear God telling us what to do, if we try to do that in the flesh, we should feel overwhelmed. We should feel inadequate. We should feel incapable of doing what God requires. But when we hear what God requires by faith, we do what God requires because we understand that it's not us primarily doing it, but the Spirit working in us and through us. But that doesn't eliminate us. That doesn't take away secondary causes. It establishes them. So when God tells Ezekiel to stand on his feet, the Spirit doesn't move in him in such a way not to fulfill that, but the Spirit moves in him in such a way that he's now standing on his feet. And God said, stand on your feet and I will speak to you. And he says, as the Spirit set me on my feet, I heard Him speaking to me. In other words, this place is in Scripture that God says, do this or do that, and you will hear Me. You will see Me. You will enjoy Me. You will follow Me. You will obey Me. You will be transformed into the image of My glorious Son. So the opposite must also be true. that when we hear God and ignore God, those things will not happen. When we hear God and disobey God, those things will not happen. Not because God is not sovereign, but because God wants us to walk by faith, not by sight. In other words, God loves us too much to let us succeed when we walk in the flesh. Because if God let us succeed in the flesh, then we would boast in us. But if God only gives us the victory by the power of the Spirit according to the truth of the Word, then when we succeed in our obedience, we end up praising God, not man. We end up trusting God more, not man. In other words, throughout Scripture, there is this command for the church not to fear man, not to fear the world, not to fear the devil. Why? Because the world isn't real? Because man isn't real? Because the devil isn't real? Of course not. They are most definitely real. They most definitely are our enemies. But the reason why the Bible says, don't fear them, is a reminder that God Almighty is greater than them. The damage that God can do to you is not just to your body, but it is the casting of your soul into hell. The worst that men can do to you is torment you and kill you. But they cannot touch your soul. The Bible says, fear Him who is Lord over the body and the soul. And when we realize that God Almighty loves us and cares for us and provides for us, why would we not want Him to do heart surgery on us? Why would we not desire Him to work through us to accomplish His great purposes? Again, God does not need us. but He has chosen to use us to build His kingdom by His church. What a great and glorious privilege it is to be the mouthpiece of God. What a great and glorious privilege it is to be the hands and feet that serve the church, that go into the world and serve the needy and the poor and those that need our assistance. But all of that is meaningless if we do it in the flesh. All of that is meaningless if we do it for the praise of our own name. It all has eternal value when we do it by faith for the glory of God. So that little phrase in verse 2 actually shows how God works in us every single day. Lord, command what You will, but grant what You command. And He does so not by picks He does, but He does so by the work of the Spirit and by the walk of faith. Verse 3, And He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against Me. We need to be reminded. that no matter how hard the world kicks against us, no matter how hard the world kicks against the church, we need to understand primarily that they're rebelling against God Almighty. If we don't, we'll see all their arrows directly pointed at us. We'll see all their weapons of warfare pointed directly at us, and we'll misunderstand that it's not all about us, and we'll be filled with worry and fear and doubt. But if we keep as a primary understanding that this person that we desire to witness to, this rebel sinner, this God-hater, is rebelling primarily against God even when they're afflicting our body, it will help us rest in God and rest in His Word in such a way that we will press on and not be hindered by their persecution. Verse 3 continues, and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day." In other words, in this passage, we need to see the continual faithfulness of God. He doesn't say to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, I'm sending you these people who always obey Me, who always love Me, and I'm sending you to encourage them because they already do what they're supposed to do. No, He's sending Ezekiel to a bunch of rebel sinners that refuse to listen. Again, we in our flesh would say, why go? If they refuse to listen, why go? Why do you continue to send prophets, God? Why do you persistently send your prophets to them? Why keep going if they refuse to listen? One, it's their only hope. And two, if it's what God commanded, who are you, O man, to question God? See, there's too many times when God is working in us a desire to witness, a desire to share the Gospel, a desire to be obedient, and we sit and we ponder for hours, why? Why should I do this? What would be the outcome? What might happen to me? What would be the result of me doing this? What would happen if I actually did what I feel like God's requiring of me? And if the first answer that comes back to your mind isn't because God said so, then you're going down a path that won't lead you to obedience, but just to ponder all the days of your life. Again, our obedience to God can never, can never be pondered at what might be man's response. We can't preach the Gospel to the church only if she's ready to obey. We can't witness to the world if only they're ready to believe at that moment. We do what we're called to do because God Almighty has commanded us. Look at v. 4. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. In other words, the fathers were up until this day, and so are the children. In other words, this whole family of Israel is nothing but rebel sinners. This is a group of people that have continually transgressed against Me to this very day. And God says, I send you to them, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord." This needs to correct much of the evangelism that's done in America. We think it's about what we say. We think it's about what we do. It's not. Our evangelism must be, thus says the Lord. The King is coming. Repent. The end is near. Repent or perish. According to God's law, you're guilty. According to the Gospel, unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will remain under the wrath of God. And yet the church seems to be afraid to say that. Those are just basic Gospel truths. But we're afraid to say that because we have a greater opinion of the world and her power than we do of God. Because if we understood the power of God, if we understood the majesty of God, the world would grow strangely dim. But because it scares us every single day, it is the evidence that we don't trust God. We don't have the confidence in God that we should have. And again, I would argue it's because our Christian walk is a mingling of faith and flesh. Until the day you die, that's what it's going to be. Until the day you die, if you don't realize that your Christian walk is a mingling of fleshly disobedience and faithful walking, then you will never fight against the fleshly obedience. You'll just kind of baptize it into the Christianity that you believe God's calling you to. That's why Jesus says you must die daily. Why? Because there's still fleshly desires in you. There's still fleshly desires in me. There's vain glory. There's hopes of being exalted to the top of the pile of Christianity in all of us. And then there's a false humility. There's a pride that says, oh, I can't do these great things for God. I'm just not capable. And again, we looked at that last week. That's an offense against God's power. That's an offense against God's commandment. Not boasting that you're so humble that you can't do it. Look at verse 5. And whether they hear or refuse, for they are a rebellious house..." It's like God's telling him and he has to remind him. Just a few verses before, he's already said that they were a rebellious house, but he says it again. And whether they hear or refuse to hear, remember, Ezekiel, they are a rebellious house. So whether they hear or refuse to hear, they will know that a prophet has been among them. When we go out into the world and witness, and we leave, are they convinced that a prophet of God has been among them? Are they convinced that a child of the King has been among them? Are they convinced that a son and daughter of God has been among them? Because they should! When we speak, thus says the Lord, and we share truths about God, about the Law, about the Gospel, they should understand this isn't our opinion. This is a declaration of Almighty God. And we don't come as servants of Providence Baptist Church. We don't come as servants of our own name. We come as servants of the living God. And if you forget my name, if you forget our church, you must be reminded. God Almighty has brought His kingdom near. And you need to repent and flee to Christ, or you will perish. If they don't understand that you and I are representing the living God, then they'll just say, well, that's his opinion, that's her opinion, well, that's their radical church, that's their whatever. But we need to understand that we are not sent on a fool's errand. We are not sent by human powers We are sent by Almighty God with eternal truths that God uses to save His church and uses to condemn the world. Both of those things He does when His church opens her mouth. And this is what Ezekiel is being called to. Verse 6, "'And you, son of man, be not afraid of them.'" He does not tell him to be not afraid because I'll protect you. He doesn't say be not afraid because nothing bad will happen to you. God most certainly will protect us, but not in the way that we often think He should. What God does when we go into the world is He protects us so that we don't lose our faith. He protects us in a way that if the world takes our life, our soul will not perish. Those are the most important things that you and I could ever understand. Because when we have a disease that will take our physical life, we need to finish the race, we need to finish this walk of faith that our faith may not fail. It's most assuredly loving and kind to pray for a loved one, to pray for a stranger, that their physical affliction may leave them. But it is most assuredly more loving to make sure that whatever circumstance they're in, their faith doesn't fail. Because if God so chooses to remove a disease from a body, if God so chooses to heal a crippled body, if God so chooses to even raise the dead to life, and they have not faith, they will perish for all eternity in a hell, in a wrath that is much worse than cancer, that is much worse than any disease or imprisonment that our body can endure in this life. If the church doesn't understand that being in Christ, that having our soul kept, that having our faith in the hands of Almighty God is the most precious gift that He can do for us, then we will misunderstand what God has to do for us. And we'll get angry at Him when we have something physically wrong with us. We'll be angry with Him when someone does something mean to us. We'll be angry with Him when we stub our toe. We'll be angry with Him when the day doesn't go the way we think. We'll be angry with Him when it rains when we think it should be sunny, or when it's sunny and we think it should be raining. Because the world will be at our beck and call, rather than us at His beck and call. So God Almighty says to Ezekiel, as a representative of the whole church. He's not different than us. He's just a man just like us. And God Almighty says to him, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words. Because what the world uses to attack the church primarily with is her words. Calling us a fool. Calling us ridiculous. Being stupid that we would actually believe an old, outdated book. And then we backpedal. I only believe parts of it. We need to understand that when the world uses its sharp tongue to poke at us, the reason why it can't conquer us is because we're in Christ. And when we fear the world, what we're saying is, as I'm standing in front of this person, they're bigger than Jesus. As they speak horrible, evil words to me, they're bigger than the promises of God. That's what fear says. Now, we would define it many other different ways, but that's what fear means. When we're afraid of the world, when we're afraid of their words, what we're saying to God is, they're bigger than you and their words have more power over me than yours. Now, we would never say that with our lips, but that's exactly what we're saying when we live in fear of man. That they're bigger. They're more dangerous than God. God doesn't stop there. He doesn't say, don't be afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words. He says, though briars and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions. In other words, He says, don't be afraid of them when you're in excruciating pain. Don't be afraid of them when your body is being afflicted. Don't be afraid of them when their words cut you to the marrow of your bones. When your own family hates you because you love Jesus. When your employer fires you because you love Jesus. When your own country says that you're a cult because you love Jesus. We need to understand that no matter how deep those thorns go, no matter how deep those briars go, no matter how hard that scorpion bites, God is greater still. That's why Jesus, as He goes to the cross, and the thorns are driven in His brow, and the whip is ripping His flesh off His body, as their spit is dripping off His face, He opens not His mouth. Why? Because He is loving His Father in such a way that those things pale in comparison to the sweetness of fellowship He has with the Father. They hurt. If we create a crucifixion, if we create the last hours of Jesus as something that He just went through and didn't feel because He's the God-Man, then we misunderstand the whole understanding of His humanity. None of us have ever experienced physical pain like He experienced in the last hours of His life. But every single one of us in this room has whined more than He whined in the last hours of His life. If anybody had the right to complain, it was Jesus. Because He was perfect. He was pure. He was just. He was holy. He didn't deserve it. But He was doing it for you and for me. His act of love put His physical comfort on the back burner. His act of love was driven by a joy set before Him. If your understanding of Christianity is, I want God to make me comfortable, I want God to make me famous, I want God to make me wealthy and healthy, then I'll serve Him, then you need to go to a different church. Because that's not the Gospel. And I pray it's never preached in this church. I pray that God would strike us down and remove us from the face of the earth before we ever preached like that. Because there are millions today gathered all over the world conjuring up all these requests to ask of God before they move. The whole health, wealth, and prosperity movement is an anti-Christ movement. They're looking for signs and wonders before they do what was required of them. Be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions." Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house." In other words, before Ezekiel goes, God is being completely honest with him. Ezekiel, I am sending you to a rebellious house. I am preparing you. Don't be afraid of them. Don't be afraid of their words. And don't be dismayed by their looks. Because all of us have had the look, haven't we? All of us have had looks towards us by the world or by other people. They're looks to kill. They may not say anything, but they can tell with their eyes. They hate your God. They hate your Gospel. They hate your Christ. And they think you're a fool. And our flesh goes, oh, I don't like that. Oh, that makes me feel uncomfortable. But God has never promised us comfortable flesh in this life. He's promised us most assuredly Most assuredly, glorified, healthy, God-honoring flesh in heaven. Never to suffer again. Never to be ashamed again. Never to have the affliction of the world upon our flesh again. But never has He promised that here. Never. David didn't write his psalm from a padded, cushy chair. David wrote his psalm that we read this morning from hiding from Saul as Saul's men were sent to kill him. And he didn't say, oh God, I don't like this. This is uncomfortable. Get him away from me. He worships and calls God his strength and his fortress and his refuge. The modern church doesn't think like that today. And we need to stop going to the modern church to find out how to be the church, and we need to go to God and find out what it means to be His children. We need to dig deep into the Scriptures and understand that on every page, His character and nature is exalted. And if you don't like His character, and you don't like His nature, and you don't like His laws, then I may have to say very boldly and clearly to you that you are probably not a Christian. Because one of the characteristics of a Christian is that you love the nature of God. That everything about His character becomes beautiful to you as you see it with the eyes of faith. It is a repulse to our flesh, most definitely. But that's not who we are to be, right? When we walk by faith, God is altogether lovely. When we walk in the flesh, God can become our greatest enemy. shake our fist at Him, and scream that we hate Him, because we're seeing Him by fleshly eyes, by sinful eyes, rather than the eyes of faith that says, you are altogether lovely. Everything about your character is beautiful. Everything about your nature is divine and holy and righteous. Speak to me, I pray. If we don't love God, then we don't want Him to speak to us. What was Israel's response when God spoke to them in the wilderness? Moses, don't let that happen again, ever, please. That's what the unbeliever wants to say every day. Don't let God speak to me, please. I don't want to hear it. It either terrifies them or disgusts them. But the church? Our mouths and our hands should be open every day. Oh God, speak to us. But not with new dreams and new visions and new private words. But on the pages of the Scripture, every single word is God Almighty speaking to you. If you ever sat down and read Genesis to Revelation, God would never stop speaking. All of it is God speaking. So unless you and I have exhausted God speaking from Genesis to Revelation, how dare we cry out for God to speak to us new words? How dare for us to say, well, God, you just haven't instructed me enough about what you gave me. I need more. That's rebellion. That's fleshly thinking. So God wants Ezekiel to be very, very clear in his understanding. Do not be afraid of them as you go. Do not be afraid of their words. Do not be afraid of their looks. Do not be afraid of their tools of torture. Because that's what the briars and the thorns and the scorpion point to. They're tools of torture. Do not be afraid of them, for they are a rebellious host. Look at verse 7. And you shall speak My words to them. Seems like a simple phrase, but guess what? My words and your words can't help the world. My words and your words can't strengthen the church. We need God Almighty's words to do what our words are incapable of doing. We need to take God's Word and we need to feed it to the world. Declare it proudly and boldly, unashamed, because they are the words of our King. We need to take those words to our brothers and sisters in the church and lift them up as they're feeling weak. Encourage them as they're feeling frightful. God's words are able to create out of nothing. That's what the whole point of the creation account in the book of Genesis. That's why the liberal church wants to make it a fable. Because they don't want God's words to be creative. They don't want God's words to have authority. Because if God's words have authority, then they're in trouble. But if the creation story is just a myth or a parable, then they're starting to soar away at the authority of the Word of God. Because God created ex nihilo, out of nothing. So when you and I take God's Word and bring it to a sister or a brother, we're expecting the Almighty to speak words of life to that person. When you and I take the Gospel to the lost sinner, we're expecting God Almighty to speak words of life to that person. To speak life into nothingness. To bring life out of death. To bring light out of darkness. So God is clear, Ezekiel, you shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. Again, your obedience to God, My obedience to God, cannot be conditional on somebody else obeying. We can't just gather for Bible study, gather for church, when we're all going to obey. Guess what? None of us ever do always obey, do we? We can't always go do missions work when we know that they're going to respond to the Gospel, because without God causing them to respond properly, they never will. But the church will never grow and the world will never be saved if the Word of God is never preached. That's not my law. That's God's declaration. God promises to accomplish the building of His church and the saving of sinners by the preached Word. Ezekiel, go preach My Word to them. Whether they listen or whether they don't listen, that is not the point. God commands the world to listen. God commands the church to listen. But when we speak as the prophet, as the apostles did, as the pastors do, as elders do, as Christians do today, our speaking cannot be conditional on what the response of man might be. Our preaching must be driven that God Almighty has given me something to say, and if I don't say it, my bones are on fire within me. Because that's what the prophets of old said. If I keep my mouth silent after God speaks to me, it's as if my body's dissolving on the inside. I can't help but speak the truth. And we see that all the way through Scripture. God reveals, God saves, and His people preach. And then He reminds them one more time, but you, son of man, are not the rebellious house. You, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you." When we go to the Scriptures to read the Scriptures, we must open our mouth of faith and dine on the Scriptures as the bread of life. That's what it means by faith to eat Christ. We not only eat on Him, but we eat with Him. Only by faith. We're not cannibals. But we also are not Christians if we're not dining on and with Christ. He is the bread of life. He is the water of life. We must eat Him and drink Him. But as we eat Him and drink Him, we are also in fellowship with Him. And so Ezekiel is being sent on a mission by Almighty God. And the only audience Ezekiel has to worry about is an audience of one. And if Ezekiel keeps his eyes on the Lord, if Ezekiel's faith is resting in God and His Word, then obedience will be produced. And he will love the people of Israel. And he will love the church. Why? Because there's no way we can love God and not love His church, and there's no way we can love God and not preach the gospel. So if you're not loving the church, and if you're not preaching to the sinners around you, I have to ask the question, do you really love God? Or are you confusing your love for God with earning your salvation? Earning your justification or your sanctification? Or building up points to get a better glorification? In other words, our faith must rest in God alone for our salvation. Our faith must see God as the only sovereign. That's what the Scriptures say. He's the only sovereign. Now, there's words that are used calling kings and princes and presidents the sovereign of their country, which they are. But they are all submissive to the only sovereign. If the church doesn't understand that God is sovereign over everything, we will be petrified when we go out there. We'll even be petrified in front of each other. But if we understand that God is sovereign, then we will do His will in the church, and we will do His will in the world. When God speaks, His people are commanded to listen, obey, regardless, regardless, if they are the only ones that do so. So many times we feel God pressing upon us with glorious truths, and we cry out in our flesh, yeah, but what about... God instructed Ezekiel even more. Flip over to Ezekiel 3. Ezekiel 3 starting in verse 16. Many times the church doesn't like to go here because It's not a very pretty passage. It's glorious. But it shows our filth so much of the time. Ezekiel 3, starting in verse 16, And at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, you shall give them a warning from Me. If I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity." This is what makes us uncomfortable. Because there are people on the other side of the world that have never heard the gospel. So liberal Christianity wants to say, well, if they've never heard the gospel, God can't hold them accountable to the gospel. Therefore, if God can save them by the light that they have, we're relieved of speaking. But this passage says, if you don't speak what God tells you to speak and they die, they die because of their iniquity. If somebody somewhere whether they're five feet from you or 5,000 miles from you if they hear not the gospel they die in their sin and They die because of their iniquity and they go to hell because of their iniquity But in this passage God says because you did not speak to him to save his life But what does he mean by that does he mean that the world is? Being saved by us as the ultimate the primary source definitely not Definitely not. But look what he says at the end of verse 18. But His blood I will require at Your hand. In other words, if you and I are not preaching the Gospel as God gives us opportunity to preach the Gospel, then their blood when they perish is on our hands. And I would argue that the church most often has bloody hands. But I want to make it clear at the beginning, I am not trying to lay a guilt trip so that we go witness because we're guilty. I want us to understand that Christ had to die for this too. That He suffered on the cross of Calvary because the church is ashamed to open Her mouth. Because the church has bloody hands. See, Christ didn't only die for the sins that we committed before we were saved. We need to be reminded that Christ died for the sins that we commit after we're saved. Again, the liberal church says, well, this is why we have to have a doctrine that says when you sin, you get lost, and then you get saved again, and you sin, you get lost, and you get saved again, because God's people can't sin. Or you have to create a doctrine of holiness where you become holy this side of heaven, and you only do good, and therefore you're convinced that you don't have bloody hands, because you're perfect and you do what you're supposed to do all the time. But that's a misunderstanding of this passage. The church most definitely has bloody hands, because we are weak and fleshly, But Christ died for this sin. And if you're not rejoicing that Christ cleanses your bloody hands daily, then I would suggest you're not understanding the beauty of the cross, nor the responsibility of the Christian. Because if we run away from missions, it doesn't give us neutral hands. It gives us bloody hands. If we run away from injustice, It doesn't cause us to walk in justice. It causes us to drift and not care. Because the Christian is called not only not to do injustice, but to do justice. Not doing sin doesn't mean we're being obedient. So if we no longer speak about false Gospels, that doesn't make us obedient if we're not speaking the true Gospel. If we don't murder with knives and guns and swords, it doesn't mean we love our brother and sister, does it? See, we need to understand that to walk away from the law is to walk away from a tool that God still uses today to prick our hearts to say, this is how much you need the cross today. It stuns me every week, the songs that Dave picks. Because if your heart wasn't rejoicing before we entered this sermon, because only Jesus is the place that we need for everything, then you're not hearing any of this. But if your heart was rejoicing as you sang that only in Jesus are we who we need to be, only in Jesus are my sorrows turned to joy, only in Jesus do I find hope and purpose in this world, then none of this makes sense. I've heard some people preach this passage and others from Ezekiel and make people feel so guilty that they run out and do missions every single day, but they do it in the flesh and there's no joy and there's no hope. They just don't want blood on their hands. But I've also heard people say, well, we live the victory-forgiven life and the church never has bloody hands. This was for an old time, an old period. I disagree. If you and I close our mouths, our hands are bloody and they need to be washed. Verse 19, "'But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.'" See, it's not about the response of the wicked. Most assuredly, we should want the wicked to repent and believe. Most assuredly, we should be praying for people to be saved. We should be praying that they would run to Christ. But your act of witnessing, your act of speaking the truth cannot be dependent upon their actions. Because the wicked didn't respond in both of these verses, and yet one verse, their hands were bloody, and in the other verse, God says, you've saved your soul. The wicked perished in both verses. But the church was altogether lovely only in one verse. Verse 20, again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Why? because you have not warned Him. He shall die for His sin, and His righteous deeds that He has done shall not be remembered, but His blood I will require at Your hand." That's why I believe in church discipline. That's why I believe church discipline reflects the love of God declared in the book of James. When James says when someone goes after a sinner and pulls him back into the fold, pulls him back into the body, he says a love covers a multitude of sins. And what the liberal church wants to say? Don't call sin, sin. Don't judge. That's evil. Just say nice things and it'll be okay. No, it won't. We have to call sin, sin, especially when it's in the church. God says the judgment of mine will start with the church, not start with the world. That's why it disgusts me every time the church is always condemning this worldly business or this worldly organization. Until the church is purified, we should look at the church. Look at our rebellion, our sin, and go forth with the Gospel. Because the gospel is what saves them, not by conforming their business or their thing that they do into Christianized ways of functioning. We shouldn't expect the world to look like the church. We shouldn't be surprised when the world looks like the church. But if we're not shocked to death when the church looks like the world, then there's something wrong. Our heart covets what these big mega-churches that lust after the opinions of man have. Right? There's times that we look at their buildings, we look at their supplies, we look at their abilities to do different things, and our heart says, oh, if we had those resources! Oh, if we had that building! Oh, if we had those numbers! And you need to be washed of your idolatry when you think that way. Because the bride of Christ does not exist in building and things. It exists in Christ Jesus, even if we're worshiping in a cave, because people want to kill us. And we've got that wrong as Americans. We have it all together, flipped upside down, what the definition of church is anymore. If we don't see that stumbling block as God's grace, when we're running after sin and God puts a stumbling block in our way, we usually curse God, don't we? for not letting us run or be ourselves or have some freedom. And yet God's saying, I did that so that they would turn from their injustice. When politicians claim to be Christians, and claim to be members of churches, and then proclaim injustice as their mode of getting things done, Publicly, that church should say, that person has been excommunicated from our church, and this is not acceptable behavior. But First Baptist Church Little Rock, Arkansas didn't do that with Clinton, did they? The Catholic Church didn't do that with Kennedy, did he? The church is ashamed to show her authority. The church is ashamed to say, thus says the Lord, this is not the life of a believer, and we will not let the public appearance of the church be defamed as you promote this, that, and the other injustice. If this is who you really are, then you're not a part of this fold. One time a drunk man came up to Charles Spurgeon and declared his excitement to meet him as he passed him on the street and said he was a member of his church. And Spurgeon said, yes, you must be a member of my church, but you're not a member of Christ's church. When we go out there, we go out there as His representatives, whether we care or not. When we come in here, we should come in here as Christ's representatives, whether we care or not. That's the reality. God's name's at stake out there. God's name's at stake in here. How we live with one another affects our view of God. How we live out there affects their view of God. And when we're ashamed of Him, when we're afraid of them, their view of God is, He's this pitiful little religious lucky charm, that if you want to have Him, that's okay, but if I don't, that's okay, because I have my way of thinking I'm right with the power of the universe. Too many times we think that we're our ambassadors rather than Christ's ambassadors. Verse 21, "'But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.'" That fits exactly with what James is preaching in James. I wonder if James is using this passage to preach what he's preaching on the brother going to get a brother in sin and love covering a multitude of sin. It fits perfect. In other words, whether you're in your home, whether you're at your workplace, whether you're doing leisure things, whether you're at church, we need to rightly understand far better than we do that we are God's representative in all those things. And when we sin, when we act in fleshly ways in the home, in our workplaces, in our leisure, and in church, then those people that saw us in our rebellion need to hear us in our repentance. That's why we are to confess our sins one to another so that we may be healed. That doesn't mean the private sins that you do in your private acts, in your private dark places, need to be proclaimed to the hilltops and scare everybody. They need to be confessed to Almighty God most assuredly. And you need to find someone to counsel with and to walk with you in these trials. But I've seen so many people take that beautiful passage, talking about public repentance to keep the peace in the church, and turn it into a display of their own wickedness, and then throw Jesus in the end of it and say, well, Jesus saved me. As everybody stands there, hearing of a half hour of vulgar sin, as if that's what we're supposed to boast in. If you sin and someone sees it, you go to that person and repent, not because you care about your name, but because you care about the King's name. And trust me, people will respect you more for that in the church, but they'll hate you more for that out there. The more the world sees Christ in you, the more they'll hate you. That's why Cain killed Abel. It is the tension that has existed from the beginning of the church and it will exist to the end of the world. The more that you desire to live a righteous life, you will be persecuted. That's why those wolves that preach a different gospel are to be called wolves. And yet when we do that today, we're the bad guy for saying someone's a wolf and that's not nice. We should never be offensive in the worldly understanding of being offensive, but we should always be truthful, even if it's offensive. If we love one another, you have to be truthful. You can't say, well, I love you and then lie to the person. You can't say, well, I love you, my neighbor, my lost friend, my lost relative, my lost co-worker, and oh, I hope you find joy in Buddha or Allah or Hinduism or whatever. It's not love. Because they're not going to find joy in that. They're not going to find truth in that. They're not going to find peace in that. But you're going to be accused of being judgmental when you tell them that they won't find them there. But guess what? That's a loving act, isn't it? If someone said to you, I'm going to go home and make a strychnine shake. I've heard they're delicious. And you don't say, well, that's going to kill you, you know. And that seems like a silly example, but that's what the world's doing. The world stands before us every day. Look at me! I'm a homosexual! I love men! Cheer me on! I'm a hero! And the church goes, nothing. The world goes, yay! Look how bold they are! And the church just, nothing. Because we're afraid to look like the bad guy. We're afraid to call sin, sin. Why? Because inside of us, by flesh, we still coddle sin, don't we? But if we're not fighting the fight of faith for our own sin, why would we ever fight the fight of faith for our neighbors or our loved ones or strangers? By faith, we respond to God in obedience regardless what everybody else does. By faith, we say, yes, Lord, here I am. But when we walk according to the flesh, We respond by hiding from God like Adam did. Adam went from hearing everything that God said to hiding from God and never wanting to hear from Him again. And yet God graciously pursued Adam, didn't He? I believe Adam became a believer. But he didn't become a believer because Adam chased God. Adam became a believer because God chased Adam. Or like our brother Moses, when he relied on his own abilities to speak rather than God sending him to speak. If we have a problem speaking and God sends us, maybe He wants to either overcome our problem by faith, or He wants to use us in that problem. I hope some of you took the time to watch the video of Johnny Faris and hear his words. of truth and love and the glory of God. Because guess what? God didn't change Him into a healthy human being to say those, did He? He used Him in His affliction. He used Him as He could barely get out words that made sense. And I'm not making fun of Him. I'm saying that was beautiful. Because in that condition, He honored God. He didn't say, well, God, if You get me out of this bed, if You give me a body that works, then I'll praise You. No, He said, yes, Lord. I'll do whatever you give me the ability to do." And from his bedside, he's counseled people that we look to as leaders in the church. They were struggling with their Christian walk, and he, from his bed, counseled them in such a way that they're still leading and they're still feeding. Don't wait for God to make you physically what you think you need to be. By faith, say, yes, Lord, here I am. Because if you're waiting to be the most eloquent speaker, you'll never open your mouth for God. Or you'll do it in arrogance. Oh, God chose me because I'm such an excellent speaker. Why does Paul time and time again say, I did not come to you with lofty words, or human intelligence, or human philosophy? Paul, I'm sure, was a great speaker. And Paul, I'm sure, knew what he was talking about. But he didn't want the people resting on his ability On his talents, he wanted people resting on God and God's Word. Not on gimmicks or tricks. Or, maybe we'll act like our brother Peter, when God was graciously giving him a glimpse into his life. How many in this room know what tomorrow is going to bring? None of us. And yet God, as He's graciously telling Peter, Peter, when you get older, They're going to take you to a cross and they're going to crucify you. That's how you're going to die for My glory, Peter. God was graciously giving him a glimpse, giving him a warning. This is what's coming in your life, Peter. You are going to preach the truth. You're going to live for the truth. And they're going to kill you for it. Instead of saying, Lord, You're so gracious and kind to show me what my life will be. Instead, he says, what about John? What about Him? We say we want God to speak to us, and as soon as He does, we always say, what about that person? Why ain't I like him? Why ain't I like her? Why ain't I like them? Why isn't our church like theirs? God molds us one by one. Your faith connects you to God. My faith doesn't connect you to God. And God molds you by that faith. But He molds you as you submit to Him speaking to you. Not worrying about somebody else or what they think or what they'll do. Peter didn't enjoy the blessing that day because he was worried about John. He was worried about what others would have done to them. But we don't want to act like Adam or Moses or Peter when they did so in their flesh, do we? We have a perfect example of a man being the image of God. And it's Jesus Christ. As Jesus lived every second of His incarnation, He displayed the glory of God. He was the exact representation of the image of God. Everything that Jesus did was in obedience to God, loving God, and worshiping God. Everything. Because if it wasn't, then He isn't the image of God, and if it wasn't, then we don't have a Savior. Because He's either the perfect Lamb of God, who obeyed God perfectly and joyfully, or we have no Savior. It's why the liberal church, again, wants to make Him just a good teacher, just a good man. They don't want Him to be the God-man. They don't want Him to be the representation of what the church is being called to. But that's the promise in Romans 8. You and I and Christ are being transformed from one degree of glory to another into the image of the Son. And so as you read the Gospels, as you read the testimony of the apostles in the letters, what we see is a real man really living for the glory of God. Again, none of us are called to be Christ in the sense to be another Savior. But all of us When we say we're Christians, we're called to be Christ-like because that's what the word means. When you say, I'm a Christian, you're saying, I bear the image of God. But can we really defend every action that we do as bearing the image of God? Certainly not. When we walk by the flesh, we bear the image of what? Fallen Adam. When we walk by faith, we bear the image of God. Jesus declared by His life and by His words that He was here not to do His will, but to do the will of the Father who sent Him. Now, that doesn't mean the Son didn't have the same will as the Father. That's not the argument. The argument is, as Jesus stood before the people, He wanted them to hear without question, My life reflects the will of the Father. And my joy reflects my desire to do His will more than the devil's and more than the world. Jesus never cowered to man. Jesus never feared man. Jesus never hedged His words because He was afraid what people might think or say or do. Jesus said and did everything He did in perfect obedience to the Father. He is the head. We are His body. If we are to be Christians, if we are to be Christ-like, we must walk as Jesus walked. Not in the soupy, sappy way or the what-would-Jesus-do movement, but a God-honoring walk of faith. Trusting not in ourselves, trusting in God. Loving not ourselves, but loving God. This is the walk of faith that God requires of us, to walk according to His will with joy and thankfulness. If you do what you're supposed to do with no joy and no thankfulness, you still need the cross to cleanse you of that sin. Because unthankful, non-joyful obedience is not faith obedience. You will know faith obedience because your heart will be filled with joy in the midst of sorrow. Your heart will be filled with joy as the world hurls insults at you. Your heart will be filled with joy as you're attacked for your Christian walk. Your heart will be filled with joy as you see Jesus as altogether lovely. God gives us so many, so many reminders, so many barriers, so many stumbling blocks to stop us trying to live our Christian walk by the flesh. John says if you don't love the church, you don't love God. That's a stumbling block, right? But there's a movement out there in American wink-wink Christianity that says you can hate the church and love God. You can do it however you want to do it. The church is of no importance. It's impossible to live a Christian walk without the church. It's impossible for you and I to make the finish line without each other praying for us. Impossible. I want to close by reading, and I just want to read them. I don't want everybody trying to flip to all these passages, but what I want us to see in the words and life of the Apostle Paul, that he's living how God told Ezekiel to live. The first one comes from Acts. You can look these up later. Acts 20.17 and following. Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, this is Paul, and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials." that happened to me through the plots of the Jews." Most definitely, Paul was serving the church. But he's making a different point here. He's saying he served the Lord with all humility and with tears. Verse 20, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable. That's why pastors are called to preach the whole counsel of God. Why? Because if they listen to their congregation, if they listen to the world, if they listen to the wider congregation of the church in America, then they'll shrink back from preaching things that are uncomfortable. Why? Because we don't like to be uncomfortable. So we can't be servants of the Lord if we're determining what to say by listening to the people rather than listening to God. So Paul says, I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable. And so the question you have to answer, the question I have to answer is, what's profitable in the Scriptures? All of it. All of it. There's nothing not profitable from Genesis to Revelation. We have tons of material. how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house." So Paul's ministry was public. He was preaching the Gospel publicly, and he was ministering to the flock of God from house to house. Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Definition? Jews need to be saved. Gentiles need to be saved. Why is it up for debate today in the church? I'm not even talking about what the world says. It's up for debate today. There's Christians today that say the Jews don't need to be saved. That they're already God's people. We need to help them rebuild the temple. We need to help them get red heifers back in Jerusalem. We need to help by making them a physical people again. We need to fight back the Syrians. We need to fight back all these people that are coming into physical Israel so that they can be where God wanted them to be. And we don't give a rip about their soul if we think that way. Because God is no longer cared about what plot of sand people's feet are on. God cares who your feet are on. Either your feet are on Christ Jesus by faith, or they are on shifting sand any place in the world. And so Paul preached to Jews and Gentiles because the whole world needs to be saved in Jesus. Verse 22, And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me." It's as if God Almighty is testing Paul. Do you want to preach for me? Do you want to preach My words if these things await you? And what was Paul's answer? I most surely do. There are people laying at Paul's feet at different times in the book of Acts and other places, begging him, holding on to his clothes. Don't go, Paul! Don't go! They're going to kill you! And he says, what are you doing to me? In other words, they weren't helping him to do what God required of him. They were making him weak. Wanting him to be fearful. But that's not the life that God called him, even on the first day that he was saved. So being led by the Spirit, he heads right into the teeth of the lion. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. Oh, if the American church would believe that. That this physical tent that we have is of no value. nor is it precious to us. We're getting a new one, a better one. Now, I'm not talking about being abusive to this, being a masochist. I'm talking about, don't live to protect this tent, because it's only temporary. It has an expiration date. We don't know what it is, but it has an expiration date. So Paul says, I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. We'll never be good witnesses to the gospel if we love this tent. We'll never be good witnesses to the gospel if this body means more to us than Jesus does. Paul says, if I can just finish this walk of faith, if I can just finish this race that Jesus set before me, then the Gospel will be preached and I can die in peace. But there's more. And now, behold, I know that none of you among you whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Why? Because he believes what the Spirit's telling him. That when you leave here, death awaits you. But the declaration that's next is stunning. And if we twist it the wrong way, it doesn't help us. But if we see it in the glory that it's meant, it should empower us. Paul says, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you. Why does Paul say that? Because of Ezekiel. God told Ezekiel, if you don't preach the Gospel, your hands will be bloody. If you don't preach to the church when they go into sin, your hands will be bloody. So Paul has just said, I haven't hesitated, I was not constrained from preaching you the whole counsel of God, and now I can say to you as I leave, I'm innocent of all of your blood. Was Paul saying that he was holy and sinless and did nothing wrong? Of course he wasn't. But if we rightly understand Scripture and interpret Scripture, Paul is most definitely declaring what God said in the book of Ezekiel. That he faithfully blew the trumpet to the world, the Jews and Gentiles, and to the church. And as he leaves this church and he leaves this region, you can say, my hands are innocent. They're empty of blood. And I don't think anybody in this room can say this morning that we're innocent of our neighbor's blood. We're innocent of all our co-workers' blood. We're innocent of all our relatives' blood. Because there is no way that we have preached the Gospel the way that we should. And so I am not trying to lay guilt on you so that you go witness in guilt. I'm trying to exalt glory So you go witness for the honor of your King. Because guilty witnessing is fleshly witnessing. Witnessing for the glory of Jesus, as a servant of Jesus, for the glory of God, there's no greater place to be. All of life should be a symphony that comes out of us that God is holy and we love Him and we trust Him with everything that we are. That isn't to say that all of life is to be church, but all of life is to be most definitely lived for the glory of God. So Paul says, therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, and then he defines to make sure that I wasn't twisting what my explanation was, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. So he says it before, then he makes a declaration, And then he says it again, for I did not keep back the counsel of God from you. See, the problem with the American church today is we're keeping back the counsel of God from each other, and we're keeping back the counsel of God from the world. And that's not healthy for anybody. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood." Who did he call, according to this passage, before he left? The elders. And so as Paul leaves, as an elder, he says to the next generation of elders, listen, my hands are clean because I preach the Word and I'm counseling you. Let your hands be clean by preaching the Word. Care for the flock that God has made you a shepherd over, not because you bought it, not because you earned it, not because you were hired, but because Christ Jesus purchased it with His blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them." See, the church, when she falls asleep, doesn't leave the church in the hands of God. She's already in the hands of God. But when pastors fall asleep, she leaves the church in the hands of wolves. Because when pastors are silent, the wolves will speak. When pastors are silent, the church will go elsewhere to find food. And they will listen to twisted words and things to have their ears itched and their back scratched. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And I now commend you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." Paul leaving the church had the possibility of the church being filled with sorrow because they didn't have the Apostle Paul. But as Paul leaves, he says, I leave you with the thing that you need most, the Word of God. And the Word of God is able to strengthen you, and able to sanctify you, and able to make you a member of the church universal. You don't need me. You need God and His Word. See, this is how different Christian gurus develop such huge followings, because the following thinks, I can't live without Him. I can't live without that man preaching. And therefore, churches start having main places and satellites and this and this. Why? Because nobody can live if that man's not preaching. Now, praise God that He raises up men to preach the Word. But guess what? The church should have the attitude, I can't live without God and His Word. Not with men. Men don't give the church life. God does. Men don't come up with words to strengthen her. God does. It would not fit with our age and our time. It would cause more trouble than good, but I can understand why preachers in different ages would have pulpits that were so high and wore black robes and wore white wigs and nothing stuck out pretty much but their mouth. Because they were making a statement to the church, I'm just the mouthpiece of God this morning. I'm not your Savior. I'm not leading you into the Promised Land with my abilities. But I give you the Word of God. And what's the one thing that you see in modern architecture for churches that has completely disappeared? The pulpit. It's gone. I knew people down south that the pastor, his first day on the job, took a screw gun and L brackets and screwed the pulpit to the floor. And they made a declaration, if this pulpit is ever moved or done away with, I'm gone. Not because he worshipped the pulpit, but because he understood if the pulpit became secondary, then the church would be destroyed. There's more churches worrying about where the basketball hoops go, more worried about having see-through pulpits so people can see their cool outfits, than they are being understood as being mouthpieces for God. If there is no preaching of the Word, there is no church. If there is not the right administration of the sacraments, there is no church. And if there is no church discipline, there is no church. Those are the characteristics of a healthy church. The Word goes out. Obedience is displayed. Paul said, "'For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.'" When you go out witnessing, do you believe that the gospel has the power to save their life? If you don't, then don't bring the gospel to them, please. Because when we bring the gospel to somebody, and in the back of our mind we say, I don't think this is going to work, I don't think the gospel is going to save them, I don't think they can be conquered, their sin's too great, then you're not being faithful to God when you go. You're living in the fear of man. So Paul says, I am unashamed. I am not ashamed. I am joyous of the Gospel, because it's the power of God. So Paul would use the simple words, the words that a child could understand, because he understood that in those words was the very power of Almighty God. He didn't have to use 75-cent words to baffle people to prove that he was an intellect. He used simple words, believing that there was an all-powerful God that could use those words to save lives. Paul said, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But it's the words of the cross that they need to hear. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved." To us who are being saved. To us who are being saved. The problem with our hearts so many times is that we're satisfied with how much we've been saved, and we don't care about being saved. We rejoice in our justification, sure. But we become stagnant in our sanctification. We start to drift in our sanctification. We start to drift in our walk of faith. But Paul says, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. There are some songs that claim to be Christian that talk about the cross in such a way that it's a fine line. But they make an idol out of the cross. But there's songs that talk about the cross. There's songs that point to the cross because they believe it is the power of God to save. In other words, when you were singing this morning about the cross, and about finding hope there, about finding peace there, and then the later verses says, because it's only Jesus. That's the point. It's not the wood that saves you. It's not the nails that save you. It's the Jesus that willingly put Himself up there to be pierced for our transgressions. We don't act like a Roman Catholic and go out and get a piece of the cross and wear it around our neck like that little piece of rotting wood is going to make us holy. We don't hope to find the nail someplace and then carry it like an icon through the church. This touched Jesus' skin. We worship the Jesus that allowed sinful, rebel sinners just like us to take a hammer and drive into His holy flesh nails that would pierce His flesh and rend His meat and cause Him to be in agony like we have never experienced. To mock His holy name as He hangs there to save those He came to save. I love the line in the song by Shane and Shane, when they hung you there, you did not recant. In other words, Jesus came fully knowing what awaited Him, knowing more so than Paul did as he went to Jerusalem. Jesus set His eyes like flint to go to Jerusalem, knowing that He would be lifted up, knowing He would be crucified, and He went anyway for the joy set before Him so that He could purchase a people for the glory of God. It's not the soupy song, oh, when Jesus hung there, all He could think about was me. Garbage. When He hung there, all He could think about was God. Jesus declared in His life every single day, I am here to do the will of the Father. The cross is the will of the Father. The cross displays the love of the Father. But the cross also displays the wrath of the Father. Jesus endures the Father's wrath, not because He was displeasing, but because you and I were displeasing. It was your sin, it was my sin, that He willingly took upon His body so that we might be saved. Therefore, when we go out into the world and we take their insults, we take their looks, we take their hatred, we take their nails, we take their briars, we take their thorns, we take their scorpions. Why? Because we're acting Christ-like. Because that's how God has determined to save the church. That's how God's determined to glorify Himself in the world, when the church acts like Her King, laying Her life down for another. Jesus says it is the greatest act of love to lay your life down for your friend. If you're not making yourself uncomfortable to love each other in this room, then you're not loving each other in this room. You must go out of your way to be loving. It doesn't happen by accident. You have to go out of your way to be involved with your brothers and sisters. You have to be intentional in the way you spend your time to be involved in the lives of the church. If we are not being intentional, we are being sinful. For the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of the age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? This is why we shouldn't be afraid to debate anyone, no matter how many PhDs they have after their name, because God Almighty has already declared that they're a fool. And He's already declared that we have the mind of God. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. If you say, well, so-and-so's smart. Through the creation, through the things made, they'll find the Creator and they'll be saved. Well, then you're going against what Scripture says. The Scripture says if you leave somebody to the creation to be saved, then they will most definitely suppress the truth on unrighteousness and never be saved. But God has determined to save sinners through what we preach, even though they think it's folly. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdoms, but we preach Christ crucified. We have to stop trying to come up with gimmicks to get people in the front door. We have to stop trying to come up with gimmicks to get people to come to church. The only way we should want people to come to church is by bringing Christ to them, and they should come willingly because they want more of Christ. We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It's not saying that God is weak. But whatever you think man is at the pinnacle of his strength and wisdom, God is greater still. Paul says, and when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, not of men, but of God. And in my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. See what large letters..." He closes out Galatians this way. "...See with what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand, It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised. And only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. There are people all over this land, all over this world, making rules and forcing them on the church for one reason. They don't want to be considered fools for the cross of Christ. that rather make up man-made rules to conform the church rather than thinking that their whole life's work is just preaching about Christ and the cross. They do it so that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh And yet, as Christians, we're never to boast in our flesh, are we? We're to boast in the King that our faith rests in. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, Peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God." That's the church. In other words, any other religion that claims peace with God, except by walking in this rule that we're saved by faith, by Christ, according to the gospel, is not pronouncing the peace that God gives, but the one that man gives. And if we read the Old Testament, God comes down hard on those false prophets who preach peace, peace, and yet they weren't sent by God. So every rabbi that stands up this morning and pronounces peace to their congregation is a liar and a false prophet. Every prophet of Islam that stands up this morning that says, peace be to God, is a liar because the peace be to God is not on them. And every person that claims to be a Christian pastor that stood up this morning with a different way to get to God, with a different way to be holy, and a different gospel to preach, is a false prophet because the peace of God is not on him. We need to be clear. Only those in Christ Jesus are Christians. Only those who know Christ Jesus are Christians. Only those who profess faith in the living, that Christ Jesus are Christians. That's narrow. But the church is millions strong. We have to stop worrying about, what about the number that don't believe? What about the majority? What about, what about, what about? There's only one person you need to be worried about this morning, and that's God. What does God say to you? What does God say to your soul? What has God commanded you about evangelism, about your family, about church, about this, about that? That's the only one that matters. And what you'll find is the God that commands is the God that gives. And the God that gives is described as being one that loves with a love that's everlasting. There is no one in this world that will ever love you with an everlasting love. that will no one be in this world faithful to you like God is faithful to you. And there is no one in this world that has the power that God has. May we have much joy in proclaiming the gospel. May we have much joy in making much of Jesus. And may we have much joy as we decrease so that Jesus, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the only head of the church, may be exalted. Let's pray. Father, we do stand in awe at Your beauty and Your glory and Your Word, and yet, Lord, there are many times that we think our way is better than Your way. There are many times we have an opportunity to speak and we remain silent, and an opportunity to remain silent and we speak. Father, we praise you that the cross is sufficient for cleansing us of both of those. Father, help us to be a people that love and trust you in such a way that the gospel is just sweet food to us each and every day, that repentance is just normal in our life because we see sin as ugly and we see you as altogether lovely. Father, repentance will never happen unless we see You rightly. Exalt Yourself this morning in the truths of Your Word. Exalt Yourself this morning in the hearts and minds of Your children. And lead us in the way of repentance. Lead us in the way of restoration and health. Lead us in the way of faith so that we can come to the end of our life, whatever day that may be, and be able to say, like our brother Paul, that we are innocent of everyone's blood, because we faithfully preach the truth. Father, I praise You for the way that You use us to build Your kingdom, because Your kingdom is only built as You work in us and through us. Father, forgive us for the times that we boasted in ourselves Forgive us for the times when we pointed to ourselves. Forgive us for the times that we made much of us and little of You. Father, we praise You that You did pursue us, that You are pursuing us, and that You will continue to pursue us with Your love. Father, help us this week to be about our Father's business, to act in all the places that you take us in ways that honor our King, and to repent when we don't. Fill our mouth, Lord, this week with words that exalt your holy name, and tear from our mouth words that dishonor you. We ask these things in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen.