Welcome to our midweek service at Calvary Baptist Church of Tujan. Also welcome all those in tune with us via internet and FM here in town. Please open your handouts on number 389. 389. I am resolved. 389. I am resolved no longer to linger charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have all o'er my sight. I will listen to Him, listen to glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I welcome to Thee. I am resolved to go to the Savior, leaving my sin and strife. He is the true one, He is the just one, He hath the words of life. I will listen to Him, listen to glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I welcome to I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful unto each day. Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth, He is the living Way. I will hasten to Him, hasten to God unfree. Jesus, greatest, highest, I welcome to Thee. I am resolved to enter the kingdom, the path of sin. Friends may oppose me, force me, beseech me, still will I enter in. I will listen to Him, listen to glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to I am resolved and all will go with me, come friends without delay. Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit, we'll walk the heavenly way. I will listen to Him, listen to glad and free. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we can hasten to come to Thee. We're thankful that we can know the truth, and we can run to the truth, and we can be saved by the truth. and we can walk by the truth. We're thankful for that truth that is given. And as is recorded in the Old Testament, that it says the truth has fallen in the street. And I'm afraid that in our world today, the truth has fallen in the street in many places. People are not that interested in it. And we pray for wisdom. We pray for boldness. We pray for steadfastness to remain true to Thee. and that others would see the importance of the truth in these last days. We pray for our world and our country as we are certainly being given warning signs with what's going on in Israel at this time and with what's happening in Ukraine and in parts of Africa and in Canada and United States with the anti-Semitism. We are certainly being warned that the end is near. And we pray, Father, that we could help others to know the truth in these days of grace. We do pray for our country of Canada. We do pray for many to be saved. We pray that we would be faithful to Thee and be able to reach into this area and see others coming and learning the truth. We do pray for the nation of Israel. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for Mr. Netanyahu, that he would be saved. For many others in that country, pray for the families that have lost loved ones in the invasion on October 7th, as well as the soldiers that were killed just today. We pray, Father, for the families that many would get saved in these days of grace there. And we ask that thy will be accomplished in our country with the many Jew haters that we have, realizing that the curse of God is upon those that hate Israel, and we pray, Father, that people would wake up and see the importance of listening to Thee and knowing Thy peace and blessing. We do pray for our outreach. We pray for those that live stream with us. We thank Thee for them. Pray that they would be blessed as they spend time in Thy Word with us. Pray for our devotionals that go out every day. Pray that they would be a help to people. And just pray, Father, that we would be faithful to Thee and encouraged in Thee as well to be strong and steadfast in these last days in which we live. So may Thy will be accomplished here, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 393. 393. Take my life and let it be. 393. Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee Take my hands and let them move At Thy impulse of Thy love At Thy impulse of Thy love Take my faith and let them be Sweet and beautiful for thee Take my voice and let me sing Always, only for my King Always, only for my King Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for thee. Not a mite would I withhold Not a mite would I withhold Take my love, my God, I pour At Thy feet this treasure store Take myself and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee And over to 475. 475. Redeemed. 475. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim Thee Redeemed by the blood of Thy love Redeemed through His infinite mercy His child and forever I am Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of Thy love His child and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, No languish my rapture can tell. I know that the light of His presence With me doth continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed His child and forever I am I think of my blessed Redeemer I think of Him all the day long I sing for I cannot be silent His love's in the name of my soul Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed His child and forever I am I know I shall see Him, His beauty, The King in whose law I delight, Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps, And giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, ♪ Redeem, redeem ♪ His child and forever I am Take your Bibles and turn to Ezekiel chapter two. We started looking at that passage last week. Ezekiel chapter 2, and we'll read the whole chapter again just to keep the context in mind, and we're going to be looking at verses 6 through 10 this evening, but we'll read the whole chapter. We'll stand please for the reading of God's Word. And we'll do alternate reading. I'll read verse one, you read verse two, and I'll read verse three, and we'll finish up the chapter that way, okay? So I'll start with verse one. And he said unto me, son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. the Spirit entered into me, and he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. for they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord. And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are a rebellious house, yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. Thou shalt, man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions, be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, for they are most rebellious. But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee. Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house. Open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. And when I had looked, behold, and hand was sent unto me, and lo, a roll of a book was therein, and he spread it before me, and it was written with in and without, and there was written therein lamentations and mourning and woe. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word, thankful for this message that was given to Ezekiel many years ago, but a message that is still important for us today to study and to understand, thankful for their love and care for the nation of Israel throughout history, and how that even though the nation of Israel rebelled against thee, yet thou didst send them prophets that would remind them of the importance of the truth. And we're thankful today that we have thy word and thankful that the New Testament tells us that there will be pastors, evangelist pastors and teachers who also are called upon to preach the word and to be instant in season and out of season. And we know that even as the Apostle Paul was on the earth and even as he was challenging Timothy with those words, there were many places he went where thy word was out of season. And we know that today it is becoming more and more out of season. But we're thankful that thy word reminds us, and the Holy Spirit also works in the hearts of those that are saved, to remind us that thy word is always in season for the saved person. It would be wise for lost people to turn to thee and be saved in these days of grace. So we pray that thy will would be accomplished as we look into these verses. We do pray for each one that's listening today and those that will listen later on, that each one would consider carefully what their position is before thee. And each one would know thy peace and truth, and we pray that others would want to come and learn the truth in these days of grace. And we do look forward to the soon return of thy son, Lord Jesus Christ. May thy will be accomplished, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this evening is Prepared for a Hard Message. Prepared for a Hard Message. One of the things that we find in the Bible is that there are not very many true men of God around. There never have been and there certainly are not even today. It would be good for people to read the book of Amos. In the book of Amos God directed Amos, who was a sheep herder. He was not a prophet, but he was a sheep herder. But he was a man that was chosen by God to write the book of Amos. And God began in that book by speaking about the nations that surrounded Israel. And he pronounced a woe on many of those nations. And as Amos was doing that, the nation of Israel was quite content to hear about God's judgment upon the nations around Israel. But then as Amos continued on in his book, God directed him to direct his woe towards Israel. And that is where the rubber hit the road. That's where the Jews didn't like what they were hearing. They were okay with God judging others, but they didn't want him judging them. They didn't want him pointing out their sins. They wanted to be told they were good. And we're living in a time today where people are quite content to be reminded of other people who are wicked, but we don't want God's word to be made too personal. And so many people, they take offense when the word of God starts to speak to their own hearts. And one of the things that we know is that God's word is a spiritual book. So it is designed by God to speak to our hearts. It's designed by God to be applicable to each one of us. And when we look at the book of Acts in chapter seven, we have a man called Stephen. Stephen was called by God to preach a very powerful message to his own people. And he was faithful, he preached that message. And as we look at what Ezekiel was told about the nation of Israel in his day, Stephen found very much the same thing in his time. The Jews were rebellious. They were like a scorpion. They hated what he had to say as he began to zero in on them. And they took him and dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death. But Stephen was a man of God. He was faithful and true to God. So as we look at this passage today, We too must understand that the Word of God is going to cut to the heart. Those that don't want to hear it, they're going to be offended. They're not going to appreciate when it makes personal application. Those who love the Lord are going to learn. It's going to cut us too sometimes, but we're going to learn, and we're going to grow, and we're going to be stronger in the Lord. And so we need to be encouraged to be faithful to the Lord and not discouraged because of the many who will take offense to what God's Word says. Many people, when they die, are going to be going straight to hell because they rejected the Word of God. That's a sad thing. And so it's important for us to continue to learn and grow and pray for other people that they might want to also know the truth. So the first thing that we want to look at in this text tonight from verses 6 through 10 is don't fear the wicked. In verse 6 it says, And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee. and thou dost dwell among scorpions, be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house." So Ezekiel was told right up front, as he is beginning his public ministry, he's not guaranteed by God he's going to have an easy road. He's not guaranteed by God that the people are going to love him, they're just going to come flocking to him, and they're going to appreciate what he has to say, and many people are going to turn to God because of Ezekiel's preaching. He's warned here by God that the people he's going to go to, which are his own people. They're not the Ninevites that Jonah was told to go to. They're not the Syrians. They're not the Assyrians. They're not the Egyptians. They're his own people, the Jews, that he was told to go to and preach the word of God to them, as it says in verse four, that they need to know, thus saith the Lord God. And so, Ezekiel is told here that he should not be afraid of the people, not be afraid of their words, even if they would challenge him, even if they would holler out at him. Now, we don't hear that much in our churches today that people vocally speak against the preacher as he's preaching. I remember in one church that I pastored, there was a woman in there, and we were studying on the marriage matters, and in 2 Peter chapters, or 1 Peter, I believe it is, chapter three, where Abraham, it talks about, or Sarah called Abraham Lord, and this woman piped up right as I was teaching, and said she would never call her husband Lord. And so, of course, we already knew them a little bit, and we knew that that was not a surprise. Yeah, 1 Peter chapter 3. It was not a surprise to her that she was not submissive to her husband, and made it known to everybody that was there that there was no way that she was going to submit to him. But you don't hear that very often. Most people, even if they don't like what the preacher says, they just keep quiet and maybe they just decide, I'm not coming back anymore. And that has happened to me more than once. And it's always an opportunity to examine what I'm doing. Am I obedient to God? Am I in the flesh? Am I allowing him to lead me? And those kinds of things are important. But it's also important not to be intimidated by those who don't want to hear the truth. God doesn't want us to be like politicians. He doesn't want us to do a poll and see what are people thinking? What do they tolerate? And then to be careful that we stick within the parameters of what people will accept and only preach that. I believe that's one of the important reasons, for me at least, why God has led me to most of my teaching and preaching is expositional. And I believe that that's the reason for that is because when you do expositional preaching, you cover everything and you cannot skip. topical preaching, the preacher can pick a topic, and he can pick certain verses from the Bible that he likes and thinks will fit, and he might spend time in prayer, and he might suggest that God led me to use these verses, but generally there are other verses that are left out that are just as applicable, but they kind of get skipped over, and you find that in churches where there's topical preaching, you find that the majority of the people in those churches are pretty weak in their Christian lives. because they're only getting the feel-good type of stuff. They're not really getting the full meat, the whole counsel as the Apostle Paul talks about. And so it's very important to listen to what God says. And here in this passage, Ezekiel was being prepared for a difficult ministry. And God uses descriptive words. He says there, be not afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee. Now, briars and thorns, they hurt you. And you don't want to walk through a thorn bush because it's got thorns on it. And if you walk through, it's going to tear your clothes, and it's going to tear your skin. You're going to be bleeding. Ezekiel is told here, though briars and thorns be with thee. So even though he might face some difficult times, even though his body might be harmed by the people, he was not supposed to be afraid of them. And then it says, and thou dost dwell among scorpions. Now, scorpions, they have a tail that stings. And they can snap that tail and sting you. And again, it doesn't feel good. Now, we know that when Jesus was on earth, that at the end of his life, they used whips and they tore his skin off of his body. We know that Peter and John in the book of Acts, they were whipped and they were left bruised and bleeding. We know that the apostle Paul was also whipped and left bleeding at times. And none of them stopped preaching because of the difficulties they faced. And Ezekiel here is warned and told that he shouldn't allow these things to influence his message. It says in verse six again there near the end, starts off, be not afraid of them. And then it says, be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. So even though the people might sit there as they're watching and listening to Ezekiel and their faces, you can tell when somebody doesn't appreciate what you're saying. You can see it on their faces how that their facial expression changes. And sometimes they can become, they can look quite mean at you and it can be intimidating. when they do that. But Ezekiel here is told not to be dismayed at their looks, not to allow this to interfere with his message, not to back off just because people don't like what he had to say. And that's important for us today as well as we go through our days, whether it's me as the pastor here, whether it's you in your workplace or wherever you are, we should not allow the enemies of God to intimidate us into being quiet. Because the message that God has today is very important. And when we know God, his love dwells in us. And it's because His love dwells in us, that's why we want to tell other people the truth. We don't want other people to be deceived and end up in eternity in hell. We don't want that. We want people to know the truth. We want them to know God's forgiveness and God's blessing. And so it's very important for us to be willing to speak the truth always with love, yes, but love does not mean that we always try to make people smile. There are people that have joined us in the past and they've quit coming because they don't find that I agree with them in what they're doing. And that's not what a godly pastor does. He doesn't just pat people on the back and say, well, you're doing a good job, just keep doing what you're doing and we're glad that you come and keep coming because we want your money in the offering and blah, blah, blah. No, that's not what it's about. It's about telling people the truth so that they can know God's peace and forgiveness, that they don't have to spend an eternity in the lake of fire. So the second point that we get from this passage is that God's word is our defense. God's word is our defense. In verse 7 it says, and thou shalt speak, notice the next word there, my words. So Ezekiel was off the hook here. He didn't have to try to make up a message. Even though, as it says in verse 6, he would be attacked, it wasn't that he was going to be attacked because he was inventing his own message. He was simply the mouthpiece that God was using to give the people His word. And so in verse 7, and thou shalt speak my words unto them. And that's the important thing, that we need to speak God's words unto the people. That's why it's important to memorize scripture. That's why it's important to have a Bible. that you can use. In today's world, it's very easy. When I first started as a pastor, I had a New Testament. I had several of them and I carried one in my pocket all the time in case I would meet somebody, I at least had the New Testament with me. I have a Bible in our vehicle that I can use if I'm going to talk to someone. But now we have it so handy, our phones. You can have a Bible on your phone, the complete Bible. And that's even easier now because if you can't remember the reference, as long as you can remember one or two words, you just punch those words in and do a search and it'll come up with the verse that you're looking for. So we have it quite handy today when it comes to witnessing. And you can have your phone with you at your job, wherever you are. You don't have to concern yourself when you have a Bible in your pocket. And if you're working in the field or working as a mechanic or working as a welder or whatever, and the Bible drops out into the mud, well, now it's kind of tainted, kind of stained. But your phone, you can carry it in a pouch and it's not gonna fall out and you can have it ready to use at any time and at all times. So it's pretty handy the way we have it now, but it is important for us to use God's word. Let people understand that what we're saying comes from the Bible. It's God's Word. And when we're using God's Word, as Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 28, Isaiah chapter 28 in verse 10, it says there, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, hear a little, and they're little. So when we're speaking about the things of God, we're not in a hurry to rush through and just get through the book. We want people to have an understanding, so we need to take our time and work line upon line, precept upon precept. We need to take the time and let the person understand what we're saying. In Isaiah chapter 28, verse 13, it says again, but the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. So God's word was powerful to the nation of Israel and Isaiah's day, they didn't appreciate it, and so it caused them to fall backward. It didn't need to do that, but it did that because it didn't want to hear the truth. In Ezekiel's day, too, the people didn't want to hear what God had to say. But Ezekiel was told to speak his words, God's words, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are most rebellious. So again, Ezekiel wasn't supposed to adjust his message based on what the people believed, what they accepted. His message was to be true and faithful regardless of whether the people wanted to hear it or not. You see, the beauty of God's word is that sometimes it takes a long time for someone to actually respond favorably to what God says. And the spirit of God is working, even though on the face of the person, you see them scowling at you. If you're using God's word, you can be guaranteed that God is working in their heart because you're using his word. So you can be guaranteed that that word is not going to fall flat. If you just try to read somebody's poetry or make some kind of humanistic argument, that's going to fall flat most of the times. People can shoot that down. But if you can take God's word and you use God's word and give that to somebody, when you walk away or when they walk away from you, They cannot cast off God's word. It's powerful. It has His power in it. And He will do His work. Either that person will be condemned and will end up in eternity in hell, or that person will at some point be broken and know God's forgiveness and peace. And I go back to the man that years ago when I was pastoring a church and I was putting an article into the paper every week, and one of the men that was reading the article, and I didn't even know him at the time, but he was reading the article and he told me later on, because he got saved, he told me, you know, I used to pick up that paper and I would read that article just so I could get mad at you. I didn't even know him. And he never told me that at that time. But later on, I don't remember how it happened now, but later on I met the man and he got saved. And we would have Bible studies together. He changed. But there was a point in his life where he did not want to hear the truth. And back then, the good thing was that the articles I put into that newspaper, they didn't edit out the scriptures. Today, When I put an article in the newspaper, if they don't like what I'm saying, they edit out the scriptures. So it's no longer that you put your message out and they just put it in. Because today, in our world today, the laws of our land are such that even if the publisher doesn't agree with what you say, they can be sued for publishing something that the government says is hate literature. So it's not just the writer that gets sued today, but even the publisher can get sued. So they're scared. They don't want to be sued. They don't want to have to go to court. And so they're very careful as to what they're going to put in, even if they were going to try to be fair to the writer and let the person put in what they want to put in. So it's becoming more difficult today to print an article into a paper, even when you pay for that article to be put in. I've had newspapers that have taken out scripture or taken out parts of the scripture and made the article nonsense even after I paid to have the article put in. And so it's getting more difficult in that way to publish an article. I'm thankful that on our website, we can put on that website what God's word says. Nobody's messing with it. Nobody's changing it. It's getting put in as God says. And what I put down in my notes, what I upload onto the site, it's there. And people can do with it what they want. They can smack it down if they want to. They can turn away from it. They can avoid it. Whatever they want to do, they can do that. But at least what's there is the truth. And that's important. that we get the truth out to people, that they have access to the truth, and that they can then consider. And so here in verse 7, the important thing Ezekiel needed to know is that he needed to speak God's Word. It wasn't up to him to adjust the message if people weren't listening. It was up to him to speak God's Word. And then the third thing that we have is that the man of God cannot be a compromiser. The man of God cannot be a compromiser. In verse eight it says, but thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee. Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house. Open thy mouth and eat that I give thee. So this verse tells us that God's word has to be a part integrated into the messenger's life. Ezekiel was told to eat it. When you eat something, whatever it is that you're eating, it becomes a part of you. Your mouth chews that stuff, your saliva gets mixed with that food that you're eating, and then you swallow it, it goes into your stomach, and then your stomach digests that food, it goes into your bloodstream, and your body begins to absorb that food, and if you've eaten bad food, it's gonna have a bad effect on you. If you've eaten good food, it's gonna help to strengthen you. And so God's Word is the same thing. When a person is saved, as Ezekiel here was, and when he's called to be a spokesperson for God, you have to believe what you're saying. It doesn't help to be an apologetic preacher, always apologizing for what you're saying. You need to speak the truth. You need to speak with conviction. and let the chips fall where they may. And so Ezekiel here is told, as a son of man, he's not God, as a son of man, my words, or what I say unto thee, be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house. So Ezekiel was going to be different. And he needed to be willing to stand alone if need be. And so do you and I. We're saved. We need to be willing to stand alone and understand that that's exactly what's going to happen at times. We're going to be alone. But yet we're never really alone. And we need to eat God's word. We don't have to take and tear the pages out and literally eat them. But we need to absorb them into our lives and they need to be part of us. So that when we're answering people, we are answering them from the Bible. It becomes so much a part of us. that we speak the truth of God's Word to everybody we talk to. We are ready to give an illustration for this and that and whatever, and we're willing to reference God's Word. In verse 9, it says, So now, God has told Ezekiel to speak his words, So now God is going to give him his words. He's got a role. In Bible times, the Bible was written on scrolls. That's a role. And you notice the importance of this word, as we see in verse 10, and it says, and he spread it before me and it was written within and without. Both sides of the role had God's word on it. God had a lot to say. When I was in Bible school, we had to write a lot of papers, but one of the rules was that you could not write on both sides of the paper. Only one side. And I thought, that's a lot of waste of paper. Why can't we write on both sides? But the instructor said the reason they didn't want that is because depending on what you're using, and back then we had ribbon typewriters, we didn't have computers, and of course a ribbon typewriter, there's more ink that goes on, especially if your ribbon is new, and so it kind of bleeds through the paper. So then if you type on the other side of it, when the instructor is reading it, he's reading it in a hurry because he's got 30, 40 papers to read. So he's not really spending a lot of time reading what you're saying. He's just looking for certain things in your article, in your paper. And so if he has to read it and it's bleeding through from this side and from that side, it makes it more difficult to read it. And so that was the rule. So, nowadays, with the printers that we have, they don't use so much ink when it's printing, and it doesn't bleed through, and it wouldn't be an issue. Even our Bibles, you know, it's pretty thin paper, but it doesn't bleed through. And you can read what's on the other side. And this role that Ezekiel was given, it was written within and without. And there was written therein lamentations and mourning and woe. So no jokes, no poetry, no philosophy. Three things. Lamentation. Lamentation is an expression of grief. That's what lamentation is. It's an expression of grief. So there's nothing exciting here that Ezekiel is given to speak. Nothing that's a bedtime story that's gonna put you to sleep. It's grief, it's hard. Mourning, again, is it's sighing due to grief. So lamentation is an expression of grief. Mourning is sighing due to grief. When you go to a funeral, if you know the person that has died, oftentimes people will be sighing with grief. They'll be crying and they'll be moaning, you know, be making sounds like that because they're deeply touched by the loss of this person. Well, Ezekiel's message was going to be that kind of a message. You're going to be a difficult message because the nation of Israel, as we've already learned, they're rebellious. A rebel doesn't want to hear the truth. And when the messenger has to speak to the rebel, he doesn't want to have to say what he has to say to the rebel. So it's a hard message to give. It's a necessary message to give, but it's a hard message to give. And then woe. And woe is wailing. Woe is something that is a warning that is given that you're going the wrong way and there's consequences for going that way. You're going to get hurt. It's not going to work out well for you. So that's the message that Ezekiel is given here as he's given this book that he's told to eat it. And so Ezekiel's message, and as we go through this book, you're not going to find any jokes in the book of Ezekiel. In fact, anywhere you go in the Bible, you're never going to find any jokes in the Bible. A lot of preachers think that they have to tell a joke every now and then to kind of loosen people up, to keep people from getting too weighted with the message. They don't want people to be too heavy, laden with the message. They want to lighten it up a little bit. But God's Word will do its work in the heart of the person. A person that comes to listen to the message whose heart is right with the Lord, who wants to just continue to grow in the Lord, he's going to have a completely different response to the Word as the next person who's fighting against God and is sitting there and hearing it, and it's hitting him like a hammer. It's just pounding on him. And he's maybe got some tears, and maybe he's fidgeting. He can't sit still. And he's maybe clearing his throat every once in a while because he can't quite handle what he's receiving. And it's not up to the preacher. to try to soften the message for that person and to try to keep that person from fidgeting because the message is hitting him hard. It's up to that person to finally break and say, okay, God, I'm done fighting. I'm just going to do what you tell me to do now. And so Ezekiel here in our text, his message was a powerful message. His message was a very sobering message. It was not something that was easy for him to give. It was not going to be something that was welcomed by the people. But it was a message that the people needed to hear. And so it is with you and I. If we're saved today, And God has led us to talk to a person, whether it's your boss or a co-worker or your neighbor, whatever it is. God has a message that he wants you to give to that person. If it's a co-worker, you get to know that person. You get to know what they're about. God wants you to give them a message of truth. He wants you to help them to see that what they need is God's truth. That's what they need. And that's what's going to give them peace in their hearts. And so that's what we need to be willing to do. As we have opportunity, we need to be willing to help people to know the truth. Now, when you're on the job, you can't stop and say, now I'm going to take my Bible out And I'm going to witness to you, even though the boss has told you, I want you to go and do this and that, and you're standing there and talking to your co-worker. That's not what you're supposed to do. But as you're working, or during coffee break, or during lunchtime, there's opportunities to be a testimony. But you don't rob your boss of the time that he is paying you. and say, well, witnessing is more important to me than going out and combining or cultivating the field or fixing that piece. I'm just gonna talk to this person now. No, no, that's not how you do it. You honor your boss, you give him the time that he's hired you for, but God will give you opportunities to be a witness to coworkers and others as you honor him. in your workplace. Because if you are robbing your boss, then he's going to get upset with you for a good reason. And that's not what you want. You don't want to get him upset with you because you're stealing from him. If he gets upset because you're telling him the truth, that's one thing. But if he gets upset because you're stealing from him, that's not a good thing. So Ezekiel here was going to have a message for the people of Israel, a message from God, and the people would understand, as we're going to see, that he's going to be saying many times, thus saith the Lord. He was going to have a message that the people needed to hear. They didn't want to hear, but they needed to hear it. And God was going to use that message in Ezekiel's time, but it's also for every generation since then. That's why we're studying it now, because it's a message that we need to hear. Every Christian needs to be willing to stand up against the pressures of the ungodly who don't want to hear the truth. Every rebel needs to understand that's exactly what you are. When you say no to God, you're a rebel. You're fighting against the true God. You're a rebel. You need to repent. You need to get saved. The longer you rebel, as God says of these people here, they're not only stiff-necked, but they're stiff-hearted. Says in verse four, they're impudent children and stiff-hearted. That's what these people were like. They had grown hard and harder and harder against the truth. and Ezekiel was sent to them to help them to see the importance of turning back to God. So as we go through our days, the message that we have for people is God's Word. It's not our own, it's His Word. Let's honor Him, let's be faithful to Him, and let's trust Him to do His work in His time. Let's not be results-oriented and thinking, well, if I get the wrong response, I must be doing something or I've got to figure out a different way. Let's be faithful to God. Let's honor Him. And let's let Him be glorified as we are faithful to Him. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have Thy Word. We're thankful we can study Thy Word, thankful we can proclaim Thy Word. I pray that Thy Word would be to those of us that are saved, that it would be an integral part of our lives. It would be governing us, first of all, and then we could be using that word as well to speak to others, that they would be able to see that we're not putting on a show, that we're actually believing what we're saying. We're convinced that what we have is the truth. and that we want them to come to see the need to know the truth. We're not actors, we're genuine. And we do pray for those that thou dost send along our way. Most of them are unsaved people, lost people. And we pray, Father, that we would have boldness and a genuine love for the people. We pray that people would get saved in these last days. that we could be a help to people to know Thy peace and blessing. But help us to be faithful, regardless of what their response is, to be faithful to Thee, glorifying Thee, allowing Thee to be exalted in the lives of others. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.