Good morning, everyone. Take your Bibles now, if you would, and join me in Psalm 30. Psalm 30, a psalm of David, as we again come before the throne of grace contemplating our own fallenness, our own sinfulness, our own depravity, how far we have fallen short of God's glory, but also contemplating how wonderful His grace and His mercy is to us, that He would send His own Son to die. that He would forgive us of our sins, that He would not treat us as we deserve to be treated. And so, David says this morning, I will extol You, O Lord, for You have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried to You for help and You have healed me. O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol. You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. As for me, I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved. By your favor, O Lord, you have made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face. I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy. What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it tell of Your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness that my glory may sing Your praise and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to You forever. Bow your heads this morning. And think upon the great mercy of your God, who has saved your life from the pit, who has redeemed you, who has given you His grace and His love, who has not allowed His anger to burn upon you but for a moment, but has given you a lifetime of everlasting salvation. Think upon His goodness this morning. May His kindness lead you to repentance as you confess your sins before Him. And thank Him for the greatness of His grace. Father, this morning we come into Your presence praising Your holy name. We come having been surrounded in the world around us with temptation, with immorality, with wickedness, with rebellion against You, surrounded with people who are indifferent to You, surrounded by people, Father, who could care less about whether or not You are their God. Father, we have been surrounded with busyness. We have been burdened down with hardship. Some of us have had very difficult things happening in our lives. And Father, our souls grieve and our souls ache. And Father, we come before Your throne this morning seeking the grace and the mercy that we so desperately need. We praise You that You have saved us. We praise You that You have redeemed us and reconciled us to Yourself. And that by Your great love, You have given us the right to be called Your children. We praise You that You are our Heavenly Father. and that You have showered us with every blessing that is in the spiritual heavenly places. And Father, we ask this morning that as we contemplate all of that, as we revel in all of that, as we soak in the goodness of Your grace, Father, that You would remove all of the distractions of our lives from our minds. That this morning You would take the burdens of our hearts and that You would cause them to be lifted by Your goodness. That You would cause our countenance to be lifted to You That You would lift the weight of the strain and the hardship of sin in this world off of our shoulders and cause us to turn from mourning into dancing. That Lord, You would cause our souls to cry out to You as our God. And that we would be filled with gladness and filled with praise by Your Holy Spirit. Lord, sometimes we come before You, as Paul says in Romans 8, and we don't even know how to pray. But Your Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words. And so we turn to Him this morning and submit ourselves to Him and ask that our prayers and that our lives and that our worship to You today would be pleasing to You and would bring You glory and bring You honor and be a right praise that is fitting of Your holiness. Father, we come also to You acknowledging our weakness, acknowledging our frailty, acknowledging that apart from You we can't do anything. acknowledging that it is in you and you alone that we live and breathe and have our very being, and that if you were to lift your hand from us, Father, we would simply cease to be. And so we confess, Father, with glad hearts, that we are dependent upon You, and we submit ourselves to You this morning and ask for Your grace and Your providence in our lives. And Lord, again, as we enter into Your courts, into Your tabernacle, into Your presence, into the holy place that is made without hands, Father. May our praise to You bring You pleasure, and may You be pleased to give Your grace to us and to meet every need that our hearts have, and may we be satisfied with You as with nothing else, we pray in Jesus' name and to Your glory. Amen. Please rise and receive God's Word. This morning I'll be reading Ezekiel chapter 10. and give your careful attention to God's word. Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim. There appeared above them something like a sapphire, in the appearance like a throne. And he said to the man clothed in linen, Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with the burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks. And when he commanded the man clothed in linen, take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, he went in and stood beside a wheel. And a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings. And I looked, and behold! There were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like a sparkling barrel, and as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness, as if a wheel were within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of the four directions, without turning as they went, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without turning as they went. And their whole body, their rims, their spokes, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, and the wheels that the four of them had. As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels. And every one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was a human face, and the third face the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Khabar canal. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them. When they stood still, these stood still. And when they mounted up, these mounted up with them. For the spheres of the living creatures was in them. Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Kibar Canal, and I knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces and each four wings, and underneath their wings the likeness of human hands, and as for the likeness of their faces, They were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the Khabar Kanal. Each one of them went straight forward." And God's people said, Amen. Well, the last time we were in the book of Ezekiel together was a few Lord's days ago when we looked at chapters 8 and 9. And today, we're going to pick up with where we left off then And we'll be covering chapters 10 and 11. All four of these chapters, chapters 8 through 11, go together because they all form a single vision that Ezekiel was given and that he saw regarding the abominations that went on in the temple of Jerusalem and the judgment of God that came because of them. So you remember back in chapter 8, several weeks ago, that Ezekiel was taken up from where He was, there by the Kavar Canal, there in Tel Aviv, there in Babylon by the Euphrates River. He was taken up, literally grabbed its head by the locks of His hair, and taken up to the place between earth and heaven. We don't know where that is. We don't know what that looks like. All we know is that God took Him somewhere where He could show Him a vision of what was going on in Jerusalem. And these two chapters this morning are the latter part of that same vision. In what we've seen already in chapters 8 and 9, Ezekiel was given a divine perspective of the temple in Jerusalem and what was going on, especially in the northern part of the temple near where the altar was and the holy place and the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant. The abominations that were taking place very near to the very presence of God in the temple. There was a giant statue of an Asherah, you remember, a pagan fertility goddess. and it had been installed by the altar gates as if it were guarding the gates of the inner courts to the temple itself. And then inside the courts of the temple, somewhere inside of a secret room, a secret chamber within the temple complex, these men, these elders of the city were inside with pans full of fire burning incense to images of animals that were carved on the walls. They were invoking an ancient Egyptian ritual of animal worship, seeking the help of false gods in order to bring them along in their trials and their tribulations. And then there were women who were weeping to Tammuz, which was an ancient Babylonian practice of worshiping the dead in hopes of benefiting the living. And there inside of the inner courts of the temple, just outside of the holy place, more of the leaders of the city, more of the elders of Israel facing eastward, facing with their backs, remember, to the holy place itself, with their backs to the presence of God, who was seated upon the mercy seat there in the Holy of Holies. They were lifting their faces, instead of worshipping Him, lifting their faces to the rising sun, worshipping the creation instead of the Creator. We've seen other references to the abominations and the kinds of horrific things that went on in and around the temple. Molech worship, for example, involving sometimes even human sacrifice, even the sacrifice of infants being passed through as burnt offerings to this false god. ritual immorality was going on, even homosexual prostitution going on inside of the temple of God in Jerusalem as a part of the cultic fertility worship of the pagans that had been imported and brought into the temple as defilements. And so the people of Jerusalem, the priests, the leaders of Jerusalem, the leaders of the people themselves were completely unrestrained in their rebellion against God in Ezekiel's day. And the lengths to which they would go in order to gratify their flesh were so blatant, and they were in such flagrant violation of God's law, and they had such disregard for God, that God was incensed against them in His anger. And so in His anger, in His jealousy, it says in chapter 9, God summoned these six executioners. And they all had weapons in their hands, and beginning with the temple, they went throughout the city of Jerusalem, slaughtering everyone that they found without mercy, without pity. And then you remember, of course, that in the midst of that horrific scene of God's justice being absolutely poured out against His own people without restraint, there was this wonderful glimmer of hope. As a seventh person was introduced, a man wearing linen clothing, priestly clothing, And he was carrying not a weapon, not an implement of death, but a writing kit, it says. A satchel on his belt with pens and with bottles or vials of ink in it. And he was commanded to take the pen and to go throughout the city and to place a mark. You remember it was the tav, the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the one that is shaped in the form of a cross. and to place that mark on the foreheads of everyone in the city who groaned and who lamented over the idolatry that was being committed there. And those who were marked were spared. We're not told exactly how many people that was, how many people were spared, how many people were marked. We're only told that this priestly figure returned and reported that he had done his job. However many there were, however few there were, This man had marked the faithful ones. And that brings us this morning to chapters 10 and 11, which again, are the second part of this same vision that Ezekiel has been caught up in and has been given by God. In the midst of all of this great and terrible judgment, and in the wake of this little glimmer of hope and mercy, Ezekiel now says, look at chapter 10 and verse 1, he says, Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, there appeared above them something like sapphire in the appearance like a throne." And what follows, what Joe read for us just a few minutes ago here in chapter 10, should seem very, very familiar to us because we've seen it before. We've heard many of these words before. What Ezekiel is seeing here in chapter 10 is the same glorious vision that he saw of God enthroned upon this chariot back in chapter 1. All of that from the living creatures to the spherical wheels to the heavenly expanse and the throne of God that's like sapphire that was mounted upon it. All of the magnificent descriptions and all of the wonderful details that go beyond words that are a part of this vision are designed to highlight the greatness and the supremacy of God. It's His omnipotence that's being shown. It's His omnipresence and His omniscience, His majesty, His transcendent glory that are all on display here. God is sovereign. God reigns in majesty from heaven and nothing can deter Him. Nothing can stop Him. He goes forth and He does whatever He pleases and no one can stay His hands. That's the message of this vision. In chapter 1, Ezekiel saw God coming enthroned on this great and majestic chariot that he was at a loss for words to describe, remember. And the wings of the living creatures that were carrying the chariot along were beating, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many waters, like the overwhelming, deafening sound of a waterfall if you were standing right underneath it, drowning out all other noises with its power. And God was coming from the north, remember from chapter 1, from the direction in which Israel's history, their enemies had come from. And He was coming in a great whirlwind of divine judgment against the people of Israel. That's what He saw in chapter 1 as He was sitting among the exiles, hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem there in Babylon. And now He sees the same thing again. Only in this recasting of that first vision, there are a few details that are slightly different. First of all, remember that in chapter 1, the creatures that sat at the base of this chariot by the wheels of the chariot, the ones with the four faces and four wings each, the ones that sparkled like burnished bronze radiating the glory and the holiness of God as they served Him, in chapter 1, they are simply called the four living creatures. They aren't identified beyond that, but here in chapter 10, Ezekiel recognizes them and realizes that what he's seeing are cherubim. The cherubim, in God's Word, in the Bible, are powerful, angelic beings whose primary function is to guard the holiness of God. In the book of Genesis, it's the first place in chapter 3 that we encounter cherubim. After Adam and Eve sinned, after they ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They were driven out of God's presence and exiled from the paradise that they had been created to enjoy. And God says, Moses says in Genesis 3.24 that God drove them out, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life. They were guardians. They were preventing Adam and Eve from coming back into the Garden, or anybody else, from coming back into the Garden and eating of the Tree of Life and attaining immortality. In Solomon's temple, you remember, there were these two massive golden statues of cherubim that were installed in the Holy of Holies. Their wingspan 30 feet each. And they sat there guarding the Holy of Holies. And then on the mercy seat itself, on the lid that was on top of the Ark of the Covenant, there were these carved images of golden cherubim. And God in His glory sat in between them as He indwelt the temple. And don't forget, As you're thinking about that and trying to picture that in your minds, these golden angelic beings that are guarding the holy place, that are guarding the glory of God from defilement, don't forget that Exodus 25 and Hebrews chapter 8 teach us that everything about that earthly temple was carefully and specifically and meticulously designed so that it would be a pattern, a copy of the heavenly throne room of God. The reality of what is going on in heaven. The earthly temple in the Old Testament was a copy of that heavenly temple where God sits enthroned between actual cherubim. In the Old Testament, He sat between golden statues. But in the heavenly reality, Psalm 99 says that He sits enthroned in heaven upon the cherubim, the actual living angelic being surrounding Him and fending off all impurity. The cherubim are powerful, majestic, angelic beings. Just think about that spectacular description of them here in Ezekiel 10, and back in chapter 1, these massive, magnificent, four-winged angels with four faces each, shining and radiating the blinding glory of God who is enthroned immediately above Him, and they carry Him wherever He will go. And their entire purpose and their entire existence is to serve Him. and is to guard Him and guard His glory and holiness from all defilement. And they do that with divinely invested power and authority. They are the chief warrior guards of the host of heaven. You wouldn't want to cross these beings, in other words. They're magnificent. And so please, first of all, as you understand what Ezekiel is contemplating here and seeing here in this vision, take the image of cherubs that you may be familiar with. Take Raphael's cute little babies that have wings on their backs, all sweet and soft and adorable. Take the sort of romantic image of Cupid, the cherub in a diaper with his bow and arrow, going around and casting love into people's hearts. Take those images and banish them from your minds. Because they have nothing to do with what the biblical cherubim are. These are frightening creatures. These are magnificent, majestic creatures that radiate the fearful holiness of God. And those other things are just figments of an artist's imagination that don't even come close to portraying what these beings are. And here in chapter 10, they are explicitly identified as the living creatures who bear up this throne and carry this throne of God. And then notice one other difference here in chapter 10. from what we saw in terms of this vision of God's chariot throne back in chapter 1. In chapter 1, Ezekiel saw the throne coming from the whirlwind out of the north and immediately above the expanse on the throne itself was God Himself. This Being who Ezekiel couldn't even describe, he had to just say He had the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when he saw it, he fell on his face in reverence and worshipped. But here, notice, in chapter 10 and in verse 1, Ezekiel sees the cherubim, and he sees the expanse above their heads, and he sees the throne that looks something like sapphire above that expanse, but then he stops in terms of his description, doesn't he? He doesn't go on to speak about the one who is on the throne in the vision, does he? Why not? Why doesn't He say what He said back in chapter 1? That on this throne is the One who has the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. Because in this vision, in chapter 10, when the chariot throne appears, God isn't on it yet. Because God is still in the temple. God is still enthroned in the Holy of Holies between the golden figures of the cherubim on the mercy seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant. And that's where He's been, remember, for almost 400 years since Solomon dedicated the temple. 2 Chronicles records what happened after Solomon got done building the temple and consecrating it and offering sacrifices in the dedication of it and praying. And it says in chapter 7 of 2 Chronicles that as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and all of the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. God's literal presence visibly came in and dwelt in the temple and sat upon the mercy seat. And it was so glorious that none of the priests could go anywhere near the temple. They couldn't go inside. because it was so full of the glory of God. And when all of the people saw this fire come down and saw God inhabit His temple, they fell on their faces on the ground and they praised God. And they praised Him for His goodness and for His love to them, because that is what His presence with them meant. That is what it meant that He was indwelling His temple. It meant that His goodness was with them. It meant that His loving purposes toward them would be absolutely assured because He was there in their midst protecting them, providing for them, atoning for their sins, loving them. God was there to grant mercy to His people as they offered sacrifices to Him, as they prayed to Him, as they confessed their sins to Him. God was there in their midst in the temple to give strength to them as they came before Him and prayed to Him and sought Him out by faith. God was present with them because they were His people. And because He wanted to be near to them. He wanted for their hearts to be like David's heart in Psalm 63. He wanted for His people to find Him, to cry out to Him for help, to pour out a heart that can't be satisfied with anything or anyone but God. David says, oh God, He doesn't just say, You are God. You are the God. He says, oh God, You are my God. He says, earnestly I seek You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh pants for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. David says, so I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and Your glory. Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. That's what God wanted from His people. That's the response to His presence that He desired. He wanted them to cry out to Him, to draw near to Him, to drink deeply of His goodness and love to Him, and to praise Him. But that's not what He got from them, was it? No. In Ezekiel's day, the people, even the priests themselves in the temple, weren't looking upon God in the sanctuary. Quite literally, From chapter 8, they had their backs turned to Him and they were looking at the creation. They were looking at the Son instead of looking to the glory of God enthroned upon the cherubim in the temple. They had their backs to Him. They were weeping for the dead instead of worshiping the living God. Their souls were not thirsty for Him. They were not satisfied with Him. Instead, they satisfied the lusts of their flesh with idols. And by worshiping animals and creatures and things that God had made, And so now in chapter 10, the throne, God's throne is brought from heaven, borne up by the living cherubim, and it's brought in order that God can leave that temple. And this is so dreadful to contemplate, because God no longer desires to be near His people in Jerusalem. They've rejected Him. They've despised Him. And so now in chapter 10, God is abandoning them. He's moving out. He's removing His goodness. He's removing His mercy and His lovingkindness and His patience and His power and His glory. He's taking it from their midst and leaving them to their own devices. You simply cannot overestimate the massive significance of this vision of God taking His leave of the temple and of His people. This was an absolutely earth-shattering thing for the Israelites. In fact, turn in your Bibles for a moment back to 1 Samuel and chapter 4, keeping your thumb in Ezekiel chapter 10. But look at 1 Samuel chapter 4 this morning to get something of a taste of the significance of what it means that God is abandoning His people, that God is leaving, that He will no longer be present with them. In Old Testament times, when Israel would march out to battle against an enemy army, God would sometimes literally go with them. Literally, He would command them to actually carry Him onto the battlefield by carrying the Ark of the Covenant out of the tabernacle and with them into battle. And whenever He commanded them to do that and whenever they trusted Him and obeyed Him and placed themselves in His care, then they couldn't lose. They couldn't be defeated in battle. Even if they were outnumbered, their enemies would be vanquished. And so the very presence of the Ark of the Covenant would strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. Now in 1 Samuel chapter 4, there had been a battle between Israel and the Philistines. And Israel had lost the battle. And the Philistines had killed over 4,000 Israelite soldiers. And so the elders of Israel, on their own initiative, not because God commanded them to, but because they acted on their own initiative, decided to go and to get the Ark of the Covenant and bring it out of the sanctuary and onto the battlefield so that they could be victorious. But see, God hadn't commanded them to do that. They had done it arrogantly. They had done it presumptuously. And look what happens. Verse 4 of 1 Samuel 4, so the people sent to Shiloh, that's where the ark was, that's where the tabernacle was, and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the Cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Eli is the high priest, his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. And as soon as the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all of Israel gave a mighty shout so that the whole earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, what does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, a god has come into the camp. And they said, woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods. These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. So you see what happens. The Israelites send people back to Shiloh and they take the ark Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, come to look after the ark. But again, this wasn't something that they did in obedience to the Lord, in honor to the Lord, in faith to the Lord. This was something they did selfishly. Something they did arrogantly. And God didn't honor it. Look at what happens down in verse 10. The Philistines become afraid because the ark has come. buckle down and become courageous, the Philistines do in verse 10. So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated. And they fled every man to his home and there was a very great slaughter for their fell of Israel, 30,000 foot soldiers. And the ark of God was captured and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. God didn't honor Their arrogance, did He? They acted on their own authority. They did not submit themselves to God. They took matters into their own hands, and so God did not honor their pride, and He allowed a massive defeat. And the worst part of that defeat was that the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, and it would no longer be in the tabernacle. The presence of God had been removed from the people. And I want you to see, and this is what I want you to get from this event, in verse 12, a Benjamite man runs from the battlefield to bring word of this defeat back to Shiloh, and he comes stumbling into town. He's covered with dirt and his clothes are all ripped, and the whole place is in an uproar as he tells about what happened on the battlefield. And Eli, he's 98 years old, he's blind, and he's sitting by the tabernacle because he wants anxiously for the Ark of the Covenant to be brought back. And he hears all the commotion and he demands to know what's happening. And look at verse 17. The Benjamite gives him the report. He who brought the news answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people. And your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead and the ark of God has been captured. And look at Eli's reaction in verse 18. As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died. For the man was old and heavy, and he had judged Israel forty years. Do you understand? It's not the news that they lost in battle. It's not the news that 30,000 foot soldiers had been slaughtered. It's not even the news of his own two sons' death that does him in. It's when the man says, in spite of all of that, the ark of God has been taken, that Eli pitches backward an alarm off of his chair and breaks his neck and dies. That's what is most traumatic to him. And then verse 19, mentions Eli's daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife. She's just gotten this terrible news. Again, 30,000 dead. The battle's lost. Among the dead, her husband, whose baby she is carrying in her womb. This is devastating for her. In addition to which, now that Eli, her father-in-law, has heard of it, he's fallen off of his chair and broken his neck and died. The high priest of Israel is gone. And v. 19 says that when she heard the news that the ark had been captured again, not the news of her husband's death, not the news of the 30,000 deaths, but the news of the capture of the ark, she was so traumatized that she went into premature labor and gave birth to the baby right there on the spot. And v. 20 says that she died as a result of giving birth to that child. And look at v. 21. The last thing that she does having just experienced all of that unbelievable trauma, the last thing that she does is to name her son. And what do you suppose she would name him? Her husband's just been killed on the battlefield. Maybe she would name him Phineas, but she doesn't. Eli, her father-in-law, the high priest, whose name means, My God, has just died before her very sight. Maybe she would name him after Eli, but she doesn't. as brutal as their losses were to her, on that day, she names her child after the most significant event, the most traumatic thing that had occurred, she names her child Ichabod. In Hebrew, the word for glory, the glory of God's presence that sat upon the mercy seat, is the word kavod. And she names her child Yechavod. Literally, the glory is gone. The glory has departed. And she names him that saying, the glory has departed from Israel because the ark of the Lord has been captured. That's how serious, you see, that's how significant and impactful of a thing it was that God's glory is no longer here in the camp, in Shiloh, in the tabernacle, in the holy place. And flipping back to Ezekiel now, see, that's exactly what is going on and what Ezekiel is seeing in his vision in chapter 10. The chariot throne appears and in verse 4, the glory of God comes up from the cherub, up from the golden figures of the cherubim on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. It ascends up off of that place where it has sat for the last 400 years and it goes out of the holy place and out of out of the place where the priests did their work and out into the courtyards and into the very threshold of the temple itself, so that the inner courts are absolutely filled with the brightness of God's glory that was once veiled from the people's sight. Can you imagine the impact that that would have had on the people who were watching? And then, as this is happening, God speaks. In verse 6, He addresses the man who was clothed in linen, the very same priestly figure who had gone through the city in chapter 9 and marked the foreheads of the people who were appalled by the idolatry that were going on. But now, God commands this same man not to do something merciful, but to do something devastating. He tells him to go and to approach this chariot. Would you do that? Go and stand by the chariot, go and stand by the cherubim, and go and reach in between them, God says. In between the wings of these majestic beings and in between the wheels of this glorious chariot, and take fire out from underneath, the fire of the very glory of God, and then take that fire and scatter it over the city of Jerusalem. The implication is pretty clear. It's not a sign of mercy. It's a sign that God is going to rain fire down upon Jerusalem just like He rained it down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, we won't take the time to turn this morning to chapter 16, but in Ezekiel 16, God goes so far to say that Jerusalem's little sister is Sodom. Brutal. that Jerusalem and Sodom are related, that their characters are alike, that their sins are the same, and that just as He had poured out His wrath on the city of Sodom, so He will pour it out against the city of Jerusalem. And so the man takes the fire directly from beneath the glory of God's throne and he goes out to scatter it on the city. And then look at verse 18 of Ezekiel 10. Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out with the wheels beside them and they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord and the glory of the God of Israel was over them." God is leaving the temple of Jerusalem. He kind of goes slowly, almost reluctantly, almost haltingly, out of the Holy of Holies to the threshold, and from there on to the chariot atop the real cherubim, and from there to the east gate of the temple courtyard where he pauses as Ezekiel is given the rest of the vision in chapter 11. But then finally at the end of chapter 11, God leaves the temple entirely. And in fact, He leaves the city altogether. Look at verse 22 of chapter 11. Then the Cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is to the east side of the city, onto the Mount of Olives, outside of the city limits. Jerusalem is now effectively totally doomed. You see, they are cut off from God. Cut off from His power. Cut off from His glory. Cut off from His goodness and His strength and His lovingkindness. God has abandoned them and left them with the empty hope of the idols that they were worshiping and for which they had abandoned Him. And when the Babylonians come in 586, B.C., the city is at their mercy. There's no God to protect Jerusalem. There's no divine warrior. There's no one to rout them in battle. God will not be there to fight for His people. He will be watching their destruction from the hilltops to the east. Just like in 1 Samuel 4, God will not honor the arrogance of these people. And that's precisely what's happening and being told here. They had come to be arrogant in Jerusalem. They had come to develop this false sense of security because of His presence in the temple. They came to believe that He was going to protect them no matter what, that they could get away with murder, and they tried to, literally. They were taking advantage of His goodness to them. They thought that they could commit greater and greater sins, whatever they wanted to do, and there wouldn't be any consequences because God was there. And His mercy would cover them. And His strength would protect them. In fact, look at how this audacity and this arrogance displays itself in chapter 11. In verse 1 of chapter 11, Ezekiel is shown a group of 25 men. Verse 2 says that they're advisors. They're leaders of the people. They're elders of the people. These are the king's most trusted high council of Jerusalem. Princes of the people, it says. but they were dispensing wicked counsel and devising iniquity, verse 2 says. What they were doing was spreading this false sense of security among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They were telling the people that everyone in Jerusalem was safe because they were in Jerusalem, because that's God's chosen city, and because they were the favored ones that God was protecting. In fact, what they were doing was telling the people that it was the exiles over in Babylon, Ezekiel among them, who had suffered the worst of God's wrath. They were saying that God had poured out His judgment on the exiles, but favored the citizens of Jerusalem by leaving them there and protecting them in this city. They were sort of putting themselves off as being more righteous than the exiles. In verse 3, the elders of the people say, the time is not near to build houses. Your English translations all say something similar to that, I think, but that's not the sense of what these men are saying. The word time doesn't appear in the Hebrew there in verse 3. Literally, it just reads, it is not for the near to build houses. And the near is a reference not to time, but to space. They're contrasting themselves as the ones who are near in Jerusalem with the ones who are far off with the exiles. In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah sends word to the exiles in Babylon and tells them to go ahead and build houses for themselves because they're in exile and they're going to be there for a while. And so here in Ezekiel 11, the elders of Jerusalem are reacting to Jeremiah's instruction and saying, it's not for the one who is near to build a house. We already have houses. The exiles are the ones who have been cast off. And they're the ones who need to build houses to protect themselves. We already have homes and we already have protection guaranteed. We're the ones God has preserved. That's what they say explicitly down in verse 15. Look at the end of verse 15. The inhabitants of Jerusalem have said this about the exiles. They have arrogantly said to the exiles, go far from the Lord because to us, this land, Jerusalem, Israel, is given for a possession. See? See, they're saying we're the favored ones because we're the ones who are still in Jerusalem. They're the ones who are far away from God. And that's exactly what they mean at the end of verse 3 when they say this. They say, this city is the cauldron and we are the meat. Now don't get the wrong impression in your minds of that statement. That isn't a statement of humility. They aren't saying, God has lit the fire and we've sinned and our goose is cooked. That's not what they're saying here at all. It's the opposite. In fact, look at verse 7. God says, therefore, thus says the Lord, your slain whom you have laid in the midst of the city, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it." What they're doing is they're thinking of Jerusalem being like a great big cooking pot. A big metal iron pot that would in fact protect them. Something that they could hide inside of. A big rugged thing that would guarantee them safety, and they were thinking of themselves as the meat, That's a statement of value, see? When you were cooking, you would put all the good stuff, the choice meat, into the pot and you would throw all of the undesirable and worthless stuff out onto the fire to fuel the flames. And so again, they're contrasting themselves with the exiles. They think that the exiles are the undesirable ones, the worthless ones, the ones to be thrown on the fire, but that they are the choice meats, the ones to be savored and saved, the ones who are safe inside this big iron pot that no one can get inside of. Safe inside the impregnable walls of Jerusalem. But look what God says in verse 9. I will bring you out of the midst of it. and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you, and you shall fall by the sword. And I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. This city shall not be your cauldron. You can't hide here. Nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. You're not worth anything. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord, for you have not walked in My statutes, nor obeyed My rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations around you. God says, you think you're safe in here? I'm going to pull you out. And I'm going to take you to the border of this land that you think is your guarantee of safety. And I'm going to cause you to fall by the sword. That happens in 2 Kings 25 when Nebuchadnezzar breaches the walls of Jerusalem and leads all of the citizens of Jerusalem out to the border of Israel, to Riblah, and slaughters them all there. Now here's where the tide turns in this vision. Ezekiel has seen the abominations. He's watched the slaughter. The glory has departed. God has exposed the pride and the hardness of the hearts of the people of Jerusalem. And as he's seeing all of this happen, in verse 13 of chapter 11, Pelletiah, the son of Benaiah, dies. Pelletiah was one of the princes of the people. He was a central figure and a pillar of the community in Jerusalem. And his name in Hebrew literally means those that God delivers. That's what his name means. And as Ezekiel is seeing all this unfold and prophesying, he sees this person whose name means those that God delivers drop dead to the ground. That's kind of an alarming thing, right? And so Ezekiel cries out, Oh Lord God, will you make a full end of the remnants of the house of Israel? I mean, if Teletiah, the prince of the people, the one whose name means God will deliver a people, if he dies, who is going to be spared? See, Ezekiel is absolutely desperate here and he throws himself down on his face and he begs God to be merciful to Jerusalem for the sake of sparing a remnant. And how does God answer? Does God say, okay, I relent? Does God say, I will spare a remnant out of Jerusalem? He goes one beyond that even. Look at verse 15. Son of man, your brothers." He's talking to Ezekiel. And he's talking about his brothers, his kinsmen. He's talking about the exiles. Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, go far from the Lord. To us this land is given a possession. Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone." Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel." Not the people in Jerusalem. Not the prideful ones. Not the haughty ones. But the exiles. The remnant will come from the exiles themselves. I think, can you imagine what those words would do to Ezekiel? at this moment in his life, as he's broken and overwhelmed over what he's seen, as he's been shown in such graphic detail how angry God is with His people, as he's begun to think that God's judgment might just stamp out the whole nation altogether, to now hear that God will preserve a remnant and that God has by sending them to Babylon so that they wouldn't be destroyed. when He pours out His judgment on Jerusalem, when the axe falls. You see His mercy mixed in with His judgment? How He remains steadfastly faithful even through His sovereign purposes of justice? And here's the best part. Here's how His faithfulness will absolutely triumph over their faithlessness, their sinfulness. Verse 19, when the remnant is saved from among the exiles, God gives this promise. and I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in My statutes and keep My rules and obey them and they shall be My people and I shall be their God." Isn't that a wonderful hope? Isn't that a glorious hope? You see, I think Ezekiel is sitting here and saying, even if you do save a remnant God, we're sinful people. We're going to break Your law again. We're going to sin more. And then what? And God says, then what? Then I'll fill your hearts with My Spirit and change you so that you're not hard-hearted. I'll not only forgive you, I'll purify you. I'll sanctify you. I'll cleanse you so that you will walk in My statutes and ascribe praise to My name. What a great hope. Now, if you know your history, You know that that didn't exactly happen when the Babylonian exile ended. Prophets in the Old Testament like Zechariah and Malachi show us that even after the exiles came back to Jerusalem, most of them remained hard-hearted. The sin did continue. The idolatry did return. The immorality did persist all the way up to Jesus' day. In fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus does precisely what God does in Ezekiel chapter 11. Jesus, disgusted with everything that's going on in Jerusalem and in the temple of God, Jesus walks right out of the temple, He walks right out of the city, and He goes just like God did and stands on top of the Mount of Olives. And looking down at this city full of self-righteous, arrogant, hypocritical Israelites, what does Jesus say? He says, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. the city that kills the prophets, the city that stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not come. And so see now, your house is left to you desolate." You see, the Israelites are as stiff-necked and as hard-hearted as ever, even in Jesus' day. But here's the wonderful difference. In Jesus' day, their hard-hearted wickedness would come to a climax as they delivered Him up to be crucified. And it was His crucifixion, it was His sacrifice, it was His shed blood that brought in the New Covenant and fulfilled this promise of new hearts and a Spirit put within and transformation from stone to flesh. Sins were forgiven once for all. Dead souls were brought to life by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His Spirit was made to dwell within the temple of human hearts, turning them from hard stone to soft, pliable flesh. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise in Ezekiel 11.19. It's by His grace that we're saved. And it's by His grace that we're not only spared from death, but given newness of life, given changed hearts that live according to His law, not because we're afraid of Him, but because we love Him. Because by His Spirit, we have been transformed by the power of His love for us. You see how Jesus Christ has done everything in securing our redemption. We deserved the fate of the Israelites in Jerusalem in Ezekiel's day. We were no less sinful than them. We were no less idolatrous than they were. We worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. We turned our backs on God. We despised Him. We walked away from Him like sheep. We went astray, each of us after our own way, and He poured out the full measure of His wrath from Heaven only not on us, but on His own Son. He marked us for mercy by His own blood on the cross. He's the Good Shepherd who has laid His life down for the sheep. And the best part is this, that His salvation is so complete and so perfect that no one can ever snatch us out of His hand. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He will never abandon us because He is perfectly satisfied with the blood atonement of His Son. He accepts us. He forgives us and He is cleansing us and sanctifying us and transforming us. And so today, be satisfied with Him. Don't be satisfied just to know about Him. Be satisfied to know Him, to love Him, to be loved by Him. Cry out to Him. Say that He is not only the God, but that He is your God. Seek Him earnestly, Psalm 63. Seek Him earnestly, Psalm 42, as the deer longs for the water and don't be satisfied with anything else in this world. Look upon His power and His glory as it manifests itself in your life and give Him praise. Not just the praise of your lips, but the sacrificial praise of a broken and contrite heart and a surrendered life. He demands all of you. He expects all of you. And He gave His Son to purchase you and to redeem you and to cleanse you. And so whatever you're struggling with today, whether it's pain, whether it's loss, whether it's suffering, whether it's guilt, whether it's shame, fear, God is your refuge. God is your strength. God is your fortress. God is indwelling His temple and He will never ascend from the throne of your heart and depart and leave you abandoned. turn to Him for strength and be satisfied with Him. Father, we love You this morning. And we praise You for the fulfillment of all of these things that Your Son, Jesus Christ, came to give. We praise You for His shed blood. We praise You for His crucified body. We praise You, Father, that in Him and in Him alone, there is no condemnation and we can have absolute assurance that You are our God and You will never leave us nor forsake us. And so, Father, by Your Spirit, heal the complacency of our hearts. Transform our spiritual apathy and laziness into a zeal and a passion to seek You out and to find You and to be satisfied with You and to live our lives in pursuit of Your glory. And Father, as we do this, may You be praised. We ask in His name, Amen. Let's stand together, please. And I want to turn to number 382. Wow, I can't read my bulletin. Number 689 in your hymnals. Be still, my soul, and confess to the Lord that He is your God and that by His presence your soul is still and content and satisfied.