great visions that God gave to the prophet Ezekiel. Now, if you were not with us last Sunday morning, you missed a very important introduction to the book of Ezekiel, for we introduced you to the man Ezekiel. Be sure and get the tape of that book, that sermon, if you can. They're provided for you free of charge as long as you bring them back. And if you want to buy it, I think it's a dollar and a quarter. Perhaps I'm right on that. A lot of people buy them from us because you can buy them here a dollar and a quarter cheaper than you can buy them downtown, and then they erase my sermon and use it for something else. So it's a good price, whether you want the sermon or not. But be sure and get it, because it's very important that you know who Ezekiel is, in order that you might understand the book. While everybody's getting located, I wanted to mention one or two things to you. You know, during the course of time God opens up the opportunity to be of ministry and to have ministry in other areas from time to time. It occurred to me that many of the church people don't know some of the other things that I have a part in. I'd like you to know so that you might be in prayer that God would bless and undertake for us in other ministries that he gives to us. One of the ministries that I have is to serve on the board of the United Missionary Fellowship, which is a faith mission. And we have missionaries all over the world, many, many missionaries that are out. I can't tell you just how many, around 150 now. And the Lord is blessing in that work. This past year I've been serving as chairman of that board. I want you to be praying about it because at the end of this month I'm going to probably have to go at least for a week down to Puerto Rico on some ministry with that mission and would like you to be in prayer about that. And then recently I was invited to serve as one of the members of the board of directors of the Grand Rapids Bible College back in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That's a long way away from home, but they asked if I would be willing to do this and I conferred with our board and the board told me to go ahead if I felt led so to do, and so I have accepted that ministry also. I'd like you to pray that God would bless and use me in this capacity as serving on this board to require going back a couple times a year. Won't have to be away on Sunday. But these are ministries that I want you to know about so that you can be in prayer about these things. I received an invitation from them this week, and so in October I'll be going back for another week of lectures to the student body at that school. They have around, this is not a large school, but around 700 students now, and it's always a privilege to go back and minister to those students. We'll be looking with them at the Book of Daniel, which is kind of interesting. Now, remember last Sunday morning, as we began to look at the Book of Ezekiel, We introduce to you this man, Ezekiel. Many people are totally unacquainted with him. And we found that he was a man of great dedication to the Lord. We found that he was a man who was willing to be and to do whatever God asked him to do, no matter how difficult the task might have seemed. God asked him to be willing to suffer, and Ezekiel was ready to suffer. God asked him to be willing to be laughed at, and Ezekiel was willing to be laughed at. God asked him to give up the most precious possession he had, his dear friend and wife. And Ezekiel was willing to do that. All of these things we find about this man in the book of Ezekiel. We ask ourselves, why? And I think the answer comes back to us in verse 3 of chapter 1. Ezekiel, you remember, was a captive in the land of Babylon, away from his own home, away from his people. living in a Jewish community in that foreign city. And it says that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And so Ezekiel was a prophet of God because of the fact that God's hand was placed upon him for a special ministry. Now you know from time to time I've listened to people who read these prophetic books and who do not believe that they really are the Word of God. And some have said, well, you know, the Book of Revelation, that's a book that nobody can understand. Actually, I can't even believe that that book of any of them is inspired. In fact, I heard a minister one time who said that he believed that the Book of Revelation was just the fanciful daydreams of an older gentleman who had passed his prime. I don't know what he thought about Daniel's visions, because they're very parallel to John's. The late Bishop Pike made this comment. He said, you know, in the Old Testament law, God had given certain potions that were to be used only by the priests. And he said, when you study the recipes of those potions, you find that they were hallucinogenic type of thing. And so as the priests would minister and partake of these potions, this is the thing that caused them to kind of have some of these wild dreams and visions which we find written within the pages of the Word of God. Hallucinations and mind-expanding drugs, so to speak. Well, that's all well and good, except one thing, and that is this. The medical research today and psychological studies reveal to us that it is absolutely impossible for two people to have the same hallucination. Do you know that? It is possible for two people or a number of people to see the same optical illusion, but it is absolutely impossible for you and I to hallucinate exactly the same. Now, there's a mathematical possibility that we might. Perhaps you and I might dream the same dream, one in a billion or something of this kind. But when we study the prophetic revelations of the Word of God, and we look at these great books of prophecy where we see these fantastic pictures, we look at men who wrote them. There was Isaiah, and then there was Ezekiel, and then there was Daniel. Remember, and then there was Jeremiah. Now remember, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were contemporaries, but Isaiah was 200 years before them. And then there was John, 700 years after, 800 years after Isaiah. And so we have these men giving to us these revelations over a period of 800 years, and yet their dreams and their revelations all fit together. They are not contradictory. But John saw the same creatures that Ezekiel saw. And Ezekiel saw the same beings that Isaiah saw. And there is not contradiction between them, but rather they complement and supplement one another. And so these are not men who got a hold of some kind of priestly potion and in a mind-expanding situation were off on some kind of a trip, as we call it today. Now, I think it's interesting to take note of some of the men that had these visions. And we mentioned them to you. There were other men who had visions of the Lord in the Old Testament. There was Jacob as he wrestled with the angel of God by the brook. There was Moses as he met with God on Mount Sinai. There was Isaiah as he was in the temple and he had this revelation of the glory of God. There was Daniel in this capital of Babylon who saw all of these great things that spoke of the future. There was the Apostle Paul who had a vision of the glory of God on the road to Damascus. There was John on the Isle of Patmos. And we find that one thing is common in the lives of all of these men and it is this, that as soon as they had the vision, and following the vision, they were men who from that point on were totally committed to God. As we study the lives of some of these men, such as Jacob, John, and Paul, we see that prior to these revelations, there was an up-and-down experience with some of them. But we find that following these revelations of the glory of God, there was one thing that characterized all of them, and that was that from that point on, there was a total, genuine commitment to God, of body, soul, and spirit. This experience was very real and very genuine in their lives. Now Ezekiel begins this first chapter by giving to us a brief picture of this first vision that he had. Now how would you like to have to preach on this vision this morning? You read it. You read it. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about it this morning because I think that this is one of the greatest visions that anyone has ever been privileged to see. And you know, Ezekiel reacted to it exactly the way that you would react to it and the way that every other one who's had a vision like this has reacted. Verse 28 tells us, gives us the story of what this vision is all about. In verse 28, the last part of the verse, Ezekiel says, the vision that I said was a vision and a revelation of the glory of God. Now we talk about the glory of God, and we sing about the glory of God, and we anticipate the glory of God, but dear friends, most of us this morning have no comprehension whatsoever of what the glory of God is really like. Who is God? God is holy. God is mighty. God is Oh, see, God is all-knowing. God is justice. God is sovereign. God is love. And all of the things that we know about God, they're great things. And one of the primary things that the Word of God reveals to us about God is this, is that God is spirit, that He's not physical. He's not a man. But God is spirit, John tells us, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the Bible tells us that one of the things that characterizes the presence of God is the brightness of His glory and of His righteousness and of His holiness. And the Bible tells us that the glory of God is so great and so marvelous that when mortal man comes into contact with it, he cannot live. And on every occasion in Scripture, when men are given a revelation of the glory of God, it is only just a brief glance. And on every occasion, men react the way that Ezekiel did. And what did Ezekiel do? He said, when I saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord, when I saw it, I fell on my face. And when Jacob saw the glory of God, he fell on his face. And when Daniel saw the glory of God, he fell on his face. And when Isaiah saw the glory of God, he fell on his face. And when John saw the glory of God, in Revelation chapter 1, he fell on his face. And when Paul saw the glory of God, he fell on his face. But dear friends, one of these days when you see the glory of God, you'll stand in His presence. Because, you see, God in that day will have given to you His glory. And this is one of the miracles of the future world that God has given to us in His Word, is that God has taken sinful men, and through the ministry of the cross of Calvary, God has given to us the ability to one day stand in the presence of the glory of God and reflect it back. Now, that to me is exciting. But a natural man cannot do that. No wonder that when Ezekiel came face to face with the glory of God, he fell down. But he got up. He got up a man who was changed from that time on. A man totally committed to the Lord. My, wouldn't it be great this morning, perhaps, if God would just give to each of us just a brief glimpse of his glory. Well, how did all this start? Well, he said one day he was there, and he said, suddenly God put his hand on me. By the way, I'm going to be reading to you and preaching to you this morning from the New American Standard Version of the Bible, because I find that it gives to you the picture of this image quite a bit better than you can see it there in the King James. And for some reason my mouth is as dry as a bone this morning, so I'm going to drink some of this elixir that has been prepared for me. Now, the first thing that I want to do is to give to you a brief summary of the vision that Ezekiel saw. The vision began one day when Ezekiel was looking up toward the northern skies. And he says, I looked and behold, a storm wind was coming from the north. Have you ever seen a great dark cloud suddenly descend? You know, there is nothing that's more awesome or terrifying and more ominous looking than a great huge black cloud that suddenly descends over a valley. You know, I had that experience last fall. I was coming down the mountain, the road over here, into the Rincon Valley, Montecito Drive, and you know how it is, you're up there and once in a while you can glimpse out to the trees, and suddenly as I came over Rincon Valley, one of the blackest, ugliest, most menacing clouds that I've ever seen, suddenly just loomed over and covered all of Rincon Valley. And you know, I kind of looked at that cloud and I had the feeling of doom. It sort of, Seemed like it might be an omen that the end of the world was about to arrive. You know what I mean? You ever had that feeling as you looked at an ominous sky? And as I looked at the cloud, it came down and it almost touched the hill on the other side of the valley. And just as it came close to the hill, bang! A bolt of lightning came out of the cloud and it struck a building on the top of the mountain and the building immediately went up into bright flame. And I remember I thought to myself, well, that's how Ezekiel's vision started. And it is, because that's what verse 4 says. Ezekiel said, I was looking, and behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually, and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of fire. And so Ezekiel said, I saw a storm cloud. And then he said, as I looked at that cloud, lightning began to flash and crash out of that cloud. And he said, as I watched it further, he said, the cloud began to draw nearer. And he said, I began to grip my full attention. He said, I began to realize that the hand of God was upon me and something was about to happen that I had never seen before. And then he said, I looked at the cloud, and suddenly as I looked, I saw some bees begin to come out of the cloud like bees I'd never seen before. They had four wings, and they had feet like calves, and they had hands like men, and they had four faces, and one was the face of a man, and one was the face of an ox, and one was the face of a lion, and one was the face of an eagle. And he said, as I looked at these bees, he said, I became engrossed in the sea." And you notice he mentions that they came from the north. Now, the north, in the word of God, speaks to us, especially in reference to Israel, as a place of mystery and as a place from which judgment came. Always, when God brought judgment against the nation of Israel, it came from the north. That's where the Assyrians came from. That's where the Philistines came from. And that's where the Babylonians came from. But you know, the North is also the place that the Word of God speaks of as a place where they were to look up and where they did look up for the presence of God. You know, it's interesting that when we talk about North today, we always talk about looking up North, don't we? Why do we go up North and down South? We never go up East or up West, do we? We never go up south. We always go down south and up north. In fact, we think that so much that I always think I'm going to save gas when I go to L.A. because I'm going downhill, and then I come uphill when I come back. It's so ingrained in me. North. You know, the Bible tells us that heaven is up. You say to somebody, well, which way is up? And so we say, well, up is that way. But now, wait a minute, there's some people in Australia this morning, and if we say to them, which way is heaven? They say, well, it's that way, because up is that way in Australia. I checked it on that map down there at the planetarium. I found a point just opposite us on that great big globe that they have down there. It's somewhere between Australia and the China mainland. And so we say to them, which way is up? And so up is that way and up is this way. It depends on where you are. But for everyone in the world, wherever they are, up is in heaven. Up is toward the north. And so the north is the place that symbolizes the habitation of God. The book of Job speaks to us about the great empty space out in the north. And the astronomers today tell us that of all the places in space there is one direction in which you can look and there's an emptiness in space and it's in the north. And I believe that the thing that God, that Ezekiel was bringing to our attention here is the fact that he became immediately aware as soon as this thing began to develop that this was a revelation that was coming from God. It was coming out of the north. And so he said, I watched, and suddenly these beings began to appear. And he tells us in chapter 10 that he later discovered what they were. In chapter 10, verse 20, he said, the beings which I saw were cherubims. You can look it up if you'd like to. But he tells us exactly what they were in the 10th chapter. And then he said, as I watched, and he said, suddenly, out of the cloud, I saw that these beings were pulling something. And he said, a wheel emerged out of the cloud. And then he said, as the wheel began to define itself, I began to see that there was a wheel inside that wheel. And it was an intricate machine. And what he was seeing here was a huge chariot. A chariot which was marching across the horizon of the earth. And he said, it was a chariot which was so great that the wheels touched the heavens and yet they touched the mountains at the same time. And then he says further, and as I looked at the chariot, he said, I began to perceive that in the chariot there was a great being, a spirit being. Then he said, as the chariot drew close, he said, I saw that inside the chariot there was a throne. And then he said, as it drew closer, I saw that on the throne sat a man. And that's the vision that he had. The old Negro spiritual says Ezekiel saw the wheel, and that's as far as they went. Ezekiel didn't see a wheel. Ezekiel saw the chariot of God marching across the history of humanity. You see, Ezekiel was living in a world which was troubled with the storms of violence. Oh, wouldn't it have been nice if Ezekiel could have lived today when we have organizations like the United Nations that solve all of our world problems and quell all of our wars and maintain peace everywhere. He wouldn't have needed the assurance that this vision gave him. Of course, you know I was being sarcastic. Because you read the newspaper the same way I do, don't you? And you know that we live in a world today which is just as uncertain. In fact, we live in a world today where people are talking not just about the end of nations, but we live in a world today when people from every hand are talking about the possibility of the end of the world. We live in a world today where people are well aware of the fact and some people are terrified that someday somebody's going to push the button and everything's going to go up in smoke. Now we've taken precautions. We have a hotline, don't we? But knowing the phone company as I do, I think it's probably going to be out of order when they want to use it. Now we have some dear folk here that work for the phone company and they do their best. But listen, my confidence is not in the hotline. And then we have the environmentalists and the ecologists and they tell us we have a hundred years at the most and we're going to have it all used up and this whole earth is going to be a vast wasteland of pollution in which nothing can exist. I don't buy that. I don't believe that. But on every hand there are people who are telling us that the end of the world is coming, and then along with that we have the religious fanatics and crackpots who are constantly making predictions that it's going to happen. Oh, why don't people listen to the Word of God? The Lord Jesus Christ said that this world was never going to be done away with. Oh, he said, I'm going to redo the old one someday. But he said, mankind is not going to be obliterated. He said, mankind is only going to be elevated into a future existence which is so great and so wonderful and so far beyond the concept of men and women today that it's impossible for me to fully talk to you about it and explain it. And the thing that Ezekiel saw here was a tremendously reassuring thing, because God was revealing to Ezekiel that in the midst of all of the uncertainty and in the midst of all of the things that were going to take place, both to his nation and to all of the nations around, he was saying, Ezekiel, I'm the one who's in charge. I'm on the throne. And he said, Ezekiel, nations walk and nations live and nations die according to my will and to my edict. He said, Ezekiel, if there's one thing that you should know about me, it is this, that I am sovereign and that I am the ruler of all that goes on in the universe and I totally control the affairs of men on this planet called Earth. Ah, you say, do you really believe that? I do. You know, we have the advantage that people didn't have in the day when Ezekiel lived. You know, when we get to chapter 24, you know what you're going to find in chapter 24? You're going to find in chapter 24 that God begins to give Ezekiel there prophecies concerning the nations surrounding Israel. And you know what he's going to do? He's going to give Ezekiel the job of being his real estate agent. And Ezekiel is going to have the unhappy task of giving out eviction notices. Now in the 17th chapter of the book of Acts, God says, I am the one who sets the boundaries of all nations and their habitations. And you know what Ezekiel did in the 24th chapter? He began to read out these eviction notices and he served them on all these nations. He said to six of those nations, because of your wickedness and because of your sin, your lease is up and you as a nation are going to go out of existence. And as we look back in history, every one of those nations went out of existence. When's the last time you read in your paper about the nation of Moab? When is the last time you read in your paper about the nation of Edom? You just don't run across too many Edomites today, do you? Or very many Moabites? When's the last time you read about an Egyptian? Ooh. That's another color. Yes. You know why? Because God said, Ezekiel, I want you to tell this to the nation of Egypt. I want you to tell Moab that they're finished. I want you to tell Edom that they're finished. I want you to tell Sire, Tyre, that they're finished. And he told them how they were going to end, and they all ended exactly as Ezekiel said they would. Every one of them. And he said, I want you to tell the nation of Egypt that I'm going to evict them for just a little while. But he said, I want you to tell them that I'm going to let them come back. And he said, I want you to tell them that they're still going to be here when I come back in the final end to be personal king and ruler over the earth. And you know, dear Christians, dear friends, it all happened exactly as God said it would. And the only one that's still in existence today is Egypt. God is sovereign in the affairs of nations, and I'm not worried this morning. about an atomic holocaust that's going to end humanity. I'm not worried this morning about communism usurping and swallowing up the world. I'm not worried this morning about an environment that's going to become so polluted that no man will ever be able to exist. No. Why? Because I have the assurance from the Word of God that God is sovereign in all of the affairs of the universe, that He is sovereign in the affairs of man, and God has promised to men who will believe and trust in Him an eternity. of existence with him. Now let's look at verses 5-14 and just take a quick look at the cherubim that Ezekiel saw because that's what he's talking about in verses 5-14. And by the way, what are cherubims? You know, many people think that cherubs are little baby angels. Sweet little baby angels that kind of look like cupids with wings on the back of them, you know, and bows and arrows and pink pudgy bodies and they smile and they shoot hearts into people. And you know, many people look at that and they think that that's what a cherub is. It's a baby angel. Nothing could be further from the truth. You see, as we study the Bible in reference to angels, we find that when God created the angels, He created various orders of angels. You say, why did God do that? I don't know, but He did. And so we find the order of the seraphim. Isaiah talks to us about them. And we find the order of the cherubim. And we find that the greatest of all of the cherubim was the anointed cherub, Satan himself. Satan was a member of this rank of angels, which is known as the cherubim, one of the highest of all the ranks of angels. We have the archangel, Michael. Only one in all of the Bible is given to us. We have Gabriel. Gabriel was a presence angel. We have many kinds of angels. And the Bible tells us that all of the angels are ministry and spirits whom God has sent forth to minister according to his sovereign will and pity. And so Ezekiel looks at these angels, these cherubim, and he sees them. And of course, being a Jew, he recognizes them for what they are. Because you see, when God had given the children of Israel the tabernacle as their place of salvation and forgiveness in the wilderness, He had instructed that within the Holy of Holies, in the place where the Shekinah glory of God would dwell among His people, that they were to build an Ark of the Covenant. And on the top of that Ark of the Covenant, there were to be two cherubims placed. And these cherubim were placed there because the cherubs in the Word of God are those angels that guard the holiness and the throne of God. You see. And they were placed there on the Ark of the Covenant where the blood of the sacrificial animal was sprinkled once a year on the Day of Atonement as a symbol of the fact that God is justice but that God is also merciful. You see. And so the cherub angels are those angels which guard and preserve and hover around the throne of God. And Ezekiel saw these angels. You can imagine what a spectacle it was to look up into the sky and to see a revelation like this. It was terrifying. It was frightening. But when a mortal man comes in contact with the glory of God, He is truly revealed for what He is. And as Ezekiel saw these things, he couldn't help but be fascinated by them. And so he mentioned some of the things about Him. He said, I noticed they had four faces. And the obvious question is, well, what do those four faces represent? Well, the Bible doesn't tell us explicitly, but it gives us indications in various passages of Scripture. And they represent four aspects of God's character. You see, everything about the angels that surround the throne of God give testimony to the character of God. And what God was giving to Ezekiel here in this vision was a total picture and revelation of who He is. And so they had the faces of men, which speaks to us of the fact that God is a God of wisdom and intelligence. It speaks to us of the omniscience of God, that God is a being of intellect, of tremendous intellect. And then it had the face of a lion, which speaks to us of the fact that God is king, for the lion is referred to in the word of God as the king of the beast. And God is sovereign. You know, I'm so glad that God is the king of the universe, aren't you? It's so wonderful and reassuring this morning to look up into heaven and to see that the affairs of men are really in the hands of a God who is not only sovereign, but who is also a God of love. And then they had the face of an ox, and the ox speaks to us of the service and patience of God. And then they had the face of an eagle, and the eagle speaks to us of discernment and wrath and judgment. For the eagle has an eye which is able to look down and spot a small rabbit from a great height and drop down and snatch it up. And the eagle in the Bible is used on many occasions to speak of God's discerning eye of judgment, as it swoops down from time to time when men have gone too far. in their rejection of God and His righteousness. And then they had four wings, and of course the wings speak to us of the fact that they are associated with heaven, the place of God, the abode of God. Wings in the Bible represent and speak to us of heaven and the habitation of God. And of course in their actions they demonstrate the sovereignty of God. You notice in verse 12 the Word of God says that they didn't operate according to their own will. But the Word of God says that they went straight forward wherever the Spirit was about to go. They would go without turning as they went. They operated completely according to the sovereign will of God. Nothing deterred them. Nothing held them back. And you know, it's reassuring to me this morning to know that things in this world are in the hands of a sovereign God and that no man and no nation and no people anywhere are able to deter the sovereign will of God. One iota. Verse 20 says, Wherever the Spirit was to go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels rose close behind them for the living For the spirit of living beings was in the wheels. And they had four wings, and the Bible says with two of the wings they used to propel themselves, and the Bible says with the other two wings they covered themselves. The covering speaks of the covering to bow themselves in adoration before God. This is what Isaiah saw. He said, I saw them with four wings and with two they did cover themselves as they bowed before the throne of God and they sang, holy, holy, holy. Speaking to us of the fact that God desires and wants from those of us who are his children, he wants us to worship him. And then after we learn to worship him, then he wants us to serve him. and to be what He wants us to be. And then, of course, it's interesting to note that Ezekiel says, and as I watched him, he said, the light and the glory of God just went up and down like torches. Look at verse 13. In the midst of the living being there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. And the fire was bright, and the lightning was flashing from the fire. And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning. And he said, wherever the living beings in verse 19 moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose from the earth with them. And he said, I watched and as the chariot of God marched across the history of man, he said, I saw that sometimes the chariot of God swooped down and touched the earth, and then sometimes it stepped up, and then sometimes it came down. And that's been the history of man. that God in His sovereignty has sometimes stayed in the heavens and He has allowed man to take His own course. Then there have been those times when God in His judgment has swooped down and He's destroyed the world with a flattening. There was that time when God swooped down and He smoked the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There was a time when God swooped down and He touched the nations at the Tower of Babel. And all through the history of man, the chariot of God has risen and fallen and risen and fallen across the course of human history and across world events. And so he said, Ezekiel, I'm on the job. I'm here. Verses 15 through 21, he describes for us the chariot. He says the wheels connect to the earth. The wheels are turning. This suggests to us that history changes, and the world changes, and time marches on. But God is present in all time and in all generations. We build today, but the history of the world is this, that all through the centuries men have sought to build a world of solidarity and peace and stability. But all through the history of man we look back today and we see the crumbling ruins of civilization after civilization that has attempted to build something lasting. And we as Americans today have to honestly look at the fact that our future is not nearly the future. that it once was. In fact, history professors teach us that most countries and nations do not even survive 200 years. And then he says, he said, I looked at the chariot and he said, as I watched it come, he said, I found that the wheels of the chariot were filled with eyes. Verse 18, As for their rims, they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes, round and about, speaking to us of the omniscience of God. God said, Ezekiel, I'm watching everything. The book of Proverbs tells us, The eyes of the Lord run to and fro upon the earth, beholding those things which are taking place. Oh, it's so good to know that God is a God of omniscience. as well as a God of intellect, as well as a God of sovereignty. And then he goes on, and he describes the surroundings to him there. Ezekiel said, and I looked, and he said, overhead I saw a vast expanse and a beautiful canopy. He said, I saw the firmament, the sky above the clouds, as a halo surrounding this thing, awesome, with the gleam of crystal extended over their heads. And he said, under the expanse of their wings, in verse 23, were stretched out straight one toward the other, and each one had two wings covering their bodies on the one side and on the other. And he said, I heard the sound of their wings, and it was like the sound of the abundance of waters, and it was like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army camp wherever they stood. Still they dropped their wings. He said, and this speaks to us of the fact that God is omnipotent, that He's all-powerful, that there is nothing that can stand against God. And there came a voice above the expanse that was over their heads. And now above the expanse that was over their heads was something resembling a throne. And on that throne, which resembled a throne high up, was a figure. And notice what he says, with the appearance of a man. Who is this man that's on the throne? There's only one man that it could be. And that is that God gave to Ezekiel here a revelation of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, of God who became man and died on the cross and rose from the dead and was resurrected. The Bible says that he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But the Bible then goes on to say, but therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. To me, it's a thrilling thing this morning to realize that as Ezekiel saw the throne of God, he saw seated on that throne a man, the man Christ Jesus. But the thrilling thing about that is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ said, where I am, there ye may be also. And in Revelation chapter three, the Lord Jesus Christ said, and for everyone that will believe in me, will I grant to sit with me on my throne. The book of Hebrews tells us that when God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, that he became a little lower than the angels. But the book of Hebrews tells us that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead in the glorified form that he has, that he was greater than the angels. And the Bible tells us that as he is, every one of us shall become. Now, dear friends, that is a picture of the grace of God. Here was God creating man, placing man on an earth. Here is man rebelling against God, deserving the wrath and judgment of God. And here is God in His grace dying for man and giving to man a salvation which elevates him far above his original creation. That's grace. God. taking man who had rebelled against him and giving to man his own throne to sit upon. How would you treat someone who defied everything about you? What would your reaction be to that individual? And of course the natural reaction of us would be to bring judgment upon that individual, wouldn't it? But God in his grace reached down to man who had sinned against him and picked him up and gave him his own throne. You say, Pastor, why? I don't know. That's the grace of God for you. That's the grace of God. And I think it's well for us to notice that the last thing that Ezekiel saw as he looked at this vision, he saw the omnipotence of God. He saw the omniscience of God. He saw the holiness of God. He saw the glory of God. He saw the tremendous revelation of God's character in justice and judgment. But the last thing that he saw was the love of God and the mercy of God. Because notice what he says, And I saw the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. And the rainbow in the Word of God is a symbol to us of God's promise of grace and mercy to every man and to every woman who will reach out and accept it. You know, Ezekiel did the only thing that man can do when he's confronted with the glory of God. He bowed himself before Him, and he accepted His grace and His mercy. And you know, that's where I want to be this morning. I want to be with Ezekiel. As I see God, I just am overcome at His glory and at His greatness. And I am rejoicing that God in His grace has offered salvation and forgiveness of sins and all of His glory to every man and every woman who will believe Him. This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our mission is to see the lost reached and believers transformed by Jesus. You can find out more information about us at our website at srbible.org. Or you can visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road in Santa Rosa, California. You can also reach us by phone at 707-538-2385.