All right, well if there's none, let's look back in Ezekiel then and we'll open up with a word of prayer and ask God to help us. We'll look at a few things and maybe if you have something you got that you wanna give away, we'll look at it and see. what we have. So let's pray. Thank you, Jesus, that we can come before you and bring other people to you and bring needs before you. Thankful that we know that you are deeply concerned with that which concerns us and for the mere fact that we're concerned with what you're doing. So Lord, we just ask you to help us. We ask you to speak to us tonight. We ask you to reveal things that would be beyond our capability of piecing and putting together and hearing and seeing. You're the one who opened this up to Ezekiel. You're the one who opened it up to everybody that's ever seen anything or heard anything from you. You had to do the opening. So Lord, we are here again before you. We open it up your book. Now we ask you to give us the ability to understand it, comprehend it, and we thank you for it. We know that it's alive and living. And it's got a fresh word of you for us tonight, and we're just gonna thank you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, anybody, anything that, before we jump into some stuff, any questions on this morning, or anything that has just puzzled you or been a prize to you that you wanna give away, that could help us all. Anytime we're reading through any of the scriptures, you always want to connect real, living, live people to the setting, that these were people in a bad way, in the sense that they've been totally displaced and relocated from their home. I mean, you try to put yourself in that situation, even when not just our actions but actions of previous generations have led to what's going on in our life and here we are in a foreign land with nothing that we possessed previously. All we have is the skin on our backs and the people that are with us and not everybody that was with us is with us that we've lost some along the way and here we are five years into this thing that's going on that we still don't know and can't understand. I think in one of the Psalms reading, do y'all remember in the Psalms reading? It's 137. 137. He says, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept. when we remembered Zion, the city of God. We hung our harps up upon the willows in the midst of it. Now, Ezekiel was by the river Chabal, right? That canal. For there, those who carried us away captives asked us, to sing a song, and those who plundered us requested some joy, some mirth, saying, sing us one of those songs of Zion. Almost like, here it is, these people who have mistreated us, these people who have been harsh with us, asking us to sing. And we become like a means of entertainment for them. And then he says, how shall we sing the Lord's song in what? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. Now see, that is one of the problems that we see. Here's a group of people who was gonna have a hard time getting over what happened to them. But remember, Jerusalem and that temple was their everything. God wasn't their everything. What they had was everything to them. Now we know the setting, it would be anybody from a particular place that's lived there all their life and had to be relocated. Some people would be glad to leave, but other people would hate the fact that they leave. So this is some paradoxical stuff that we see being said that they don't care for the people who took them away and asking for the song. But they say, and how can we sing? And we could only sing if we don't forget Jerusalem. Now he hadn't really said much about the Lord, has he? It's just about the place. It's like a song of fools, matter of fact, from that perspective. And he says in verse seven, remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, tear it down, uncover it, raise it, raise it. That means to uncover, to tear down, to strip it away, to make it bare to its very foundation. O daughter of Babylon who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you as you have served us, happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. If you really process that whole Psalm there, not one time do they ever in this as it is written, they're not asking the Lord to do something in them to glorify Him in where they are. Everything's been about what? This is a song that even though it's in our singing, it's in this hymn book, and it's led by the Spirit, we get in a glimpse of the spirit of the people that Ezekiel's ministering to. And he's ministering to a people as he told Ezekiel what? They are self-centered. They're stubborn and they're not gonna pay attention to what you say. And the only asking of the Lord of anything is not deal with us in our sin, but what? Deal with everybody else's problem. Deal with everybody else how they mistreated us. Not how we neglected you. You follow with me. That's the group of people that he is dealing with. And I think this psalm is left in here for us to make us recognize that this is how the people are thinking. Is that the thought process is all about them and what they've lost. Not what they could still gain in their walk with the Lord. But it's about what needs to be done to those who have misused and abused and mistreated. They still don't see themselves as the problem. Everybody else is the problem. And when he says, remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, uncover it, tear it down, empty it. Remember, Edom was a distant cousin. Esau was whose brother? Jacob's brother, but remember the book of Obadiah Obadiah is a book written to Edom and God does tell them in the day that the enemy came in You consented with them and you took advantage of the people when they tried to flee you attacked them and you took their stuff from them and because of this perpetual animosity in Edom in Esau which Esau members a representation of all humanity without the Lord and That's the picture. Humanity without the Lord has the idea is to what? Tear it all down. Discredit them. Tear it all down. Tear it all down. So they recognize that they do have an enemy, but they still don't see themselves as an enemy of God. They can't see it. And then, oh, daughter of Babylon, the product of Babylon, when he says, happy are the ones who take your little ones and dash them against the rock. Man, that's an ugly picture, isn't it? It's an ugly picture. That's basically saying, as the Old Testament would, or they would hold on to, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, it's not saying we're gonna dash them, that's something to point out, that's something to remember. They're saying that, remember what God says in Proverbs 16, four. All the world and the fullness thereof, even the wicked, belong to the Lord, and they are there for the day of destruction. So the idea of happy or the wicked who have no problem doing this when they eventually get to dash your children, because it's coming. Babylon's going to have their heyday as well. And the Medes and the Persians are going to come in and do exactly what they did to Jerusalem. What they did to everybody else, the Medes and the Persians are going to do it to them. and they're gonna destroy them. Well, God's already told us that was gonna happen. So remember, he tells us things before it happens, so when it happens, we know why it happened. That's right. But it's important when you read that because they call these Psalms curse Psalms. There's a name for it. Impeccatory Psalms is what it's called. Look that definition up, Steph, what that is. We'll look at it in a minute. It's a specific name that when you go through looking at these Psalms, and these Psalms have that kind of spirit like kill them, Lord, destroy them, Lord, defeat them, Lord, bury them, Lord. What's it? Impeccatory, that's it. That's the kind of psalm. It's a psalm dealing with a curse. Place a curse on them. Oh, she's looking up AI, Mr. Billy. Yeah, and it's the idea is Fulfill your curses upon them. Yeah, this is one of them. Can you imagine? Can you see the picture? Taking newborn infant babies and dashing their heads against stones and rocks and they they're asking God to do that. Not saying that They would do it, that's something to point out. Let's read it again because I have read this and I've read where people have just ridiculed it to death, say, how can anybody say they're a believer and think this away? But notice this, and remember, we talked about this Wednesday night. We're not here to speak for, the word speaks for itself. But he says, happy the ones who repay you as you have served us, happy the ones who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. Not saying we're gonna be the ones to do it, but we know some heathen, wicked nations gonna come in and do what you've done to all these other nations. And they're gonna reap what they sow, that's a given, we know that, but it's just important to also recognize and why that is so valued among the wicked. Because the wicked, remember everything about the wicked is their posterity, that they pass their things on to the next generation. their posterity, that they want them to be like them. And you find that like in Psalm 17, Psalm 14, Psalm 10, all bring that out. But the point I'm making is that the people in Babylon are still thinking and operating from a self-centered way of thinking. And the focus is on Jerusalem and the focus is on that temple. And if we can't remember the temple, we don't want to remember anything. If we can't remember the beauties of Jerusalem, go ahead and take away all our abilities of singing. Remember, what Ezekiel's message is, God is still God, whether you're in Jerusalem or Babylon. God still has a purpose in what He's doing. God still has a future plan in what He's doing for the people. You that are in Babylon are only going to be there for 70 years, but what 70 years to the whole scope of the plan and redemptive work of God. It's just a, it's just a dot on the scale though. The dot is living people. It's living people. It's a generation, 70 years worth of people. I mean, Mr. Billy 78 years old, Brother Shannon 78 years old. So imagine at eight years old being pulled away and you then many were gonna die in Babylon. They would never go back home. Some would be born in Babylon and be brought back home at a young age. But there's gonna be a lot of timeframe in those 70 years while they lived there. And that's why he told Jeremiah to tell them to go ahead and plant. Go ahead and build houses. Go ahead and marry. And establish yourself because you're not leaving. You're not leaving. And many of them would never return. God was going to take them and spread them out all over the world from there. Look over in Jeremiah 24. Go to Jeremiah 24. So Psalm 137 would be a tagline to put near Ezekiel to give us a little glimpse of what was happening. But Jeremiah, one book back, two books back, 24. Notice what God says. This is where some of these difficult challenges come. You gotta keep in mind, how many prophets had God sent to these people prior to this? Well, There's so many of these leaders and elders in those days. You know what they watched happen and had heard happen? What did God do to the Northern Ten Tribes? Didn't he take them away? And he kept warning the Southern Two Tribes, Judah and Benjamin, the same thing's gonna happen to you if you don't get your act straight. Remember, they watched this area and stripped them away. There was no Northern Ten Tribes. It was occupied by foreign nations. Now all you got is Judah and Benjamin who make up Judah now, Jerusalem being the center. And when you recognize the fact, even Jeremiah stated that in Jeremiah chapter three, he told them that those in Judah are living worse than they did in Israel. And that if what was preached to them in Israel were preached to you in Jerusalem, they would have repented. They would have gotten right with the Lord, but you're worse. Why? Because not only did you see what took place to them, you know what happened to them. You've had more time and more opportunity to respond positively to God's message, but you chose to keep what? Pushing back at it, pushing back at it, pushing back at it. And you rejected who? Isaiah's message, Amos' message, Micah's message, Habakkuk's message. It's been one prophet after the other that I've sent to you that you keep saying no to, no to, no to. Look in verse number one of Jeremiah. The Lord showed me, and I mentioned this this morning, there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord. After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the Christmen and the Smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are at first ripe. The other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, and they were so bad. Then the word of the Lord said to me, what do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see figs. The good figs, very good, and the bad figs, they're very bad, which cannot be eaten. They pass saving, they are so bad. Verse four. Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good. Isn't that something? Sent to Babylon for what? Their own good. So the people that hung their harps and said, we don't want to sing, they don't realize they were sent over there for their own good. Into the land of the Chaldeans. Verse six, for I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land, and I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Maybe that was one of the responsibilities given to Jeremiah, to tear down, to pull down, to plant, to pluck, and to plant again. He says, then I will give them a heart. Notice what God's gonna do. I'll give them a heart to what? Know me. See, I did this for their good. that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their what? Whole heart. Verse eight. Now, as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus says the Lord, so will I give up Zedekiah. See, Zedekiah was gonna be the last of the three kings that Nebuchadnezzar would overthrow. Zedekiah actually has, each of these guys got other names. These kings changed their names, like the Egyptian king changed their name. Then Nebuchadnezzar's gonna change their names. And they changed their names because they are vassals of theirs. They're under their authority. But Zedekiah, after 11 years, is gonna rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar's gonna pull him out, and he's gonna put all his kids in front of him. You know what he's gonna do? He's gonna kill him and poke his eyes out. Why? Because Israel, in the first part of their journey, who was leaders in Israel in their first part of their journey from the days of Joshua on? Prophets were their leaders. God used prophets to speak to them. Well, that didn't last. What did they want? They wanted kings. So kings led them. And where did that lead them? To where we see here. And then who led them in the last part? The priesthood did. So you see, prophet, kings, and priest, and none of it worked out. None of it worked out. So what did God do? The Son of Man came to the earth, who is what? Prophet, priest, and king all in one, and he'll shepherd his people, amen? He'll shepherd his people. So it's just great pictures that we see what man attempts to do, and then what God'll do for man on our behalf. But verse number eight, The bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are bad. Surely thus says the Lord, so will I give up Zedekiah the King of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem, who remain in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. Remember, there were some that run to Egypt, but what did God tell them when you go to Egypt? What am I gonna do? I'm gonna find you and I'm gonna kill you there. But not only am I gonna kill you there, but innocent Egyptians are gonna die too because you went there when I told you not to go. You're gonna be the demise of other people. Verse number nine, I will deliver them, notice what God's gonna do, verse nine, the rotten, the rotten figs. I, God, will deliver them to what? Trouble. Into all the kingdoms of the earth. It will be for their harm to be a reproach and a byword and a taunt and a curse. in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword and the famine and the pestilence among them till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers." Man, you see what? The goodness and the severity of God. God was gonna what? Make himself known to one? and he was gonna drive another away in the trouble. Well, that was gonna be reflective in how they responded to what? His message. Look in Jeremiah 27. These are all things that we wanna reflect upon and think about. Gotta remember, Ezekiel's living at this time. Ezekiel is alive. Ezekiel was born during the days of Josiah, which is a neat thing to consider when you're really studying all these things and pulling all these things together. Remember, Josiah was that king that took over the throne from Manasseh at eight years old. And at 18 years old, he set out a decree that we need to clean up this place. And what the people were doing, they were taking and sacrificing their children in the Valley of Hinnom. And they were doing some, I mean, some absolute atrocities in those days. Well, they begin to clean up the temple. And while they were cleaning up the temple in some closet that had debris in it and things piled up in there, they going through it and guess what they find? They find the first five books of the Word of God. They find the Bible. They wasn't using the Bible. Now, did they do all the other things? Were they doing some of the other things that religious people do? Yes. Did they have their songs? Yes. Did they play their music? Yes. Did they sacrifice and people do all those things? But they didn't have the Word of God. They didn't have a guide to go by. Well, when they find the word, they dust it off, bring it in. And when Josiah, the 18 year old boy said, read that book to me. They sat there and read that word to him. And the scripture says that his heart became so tender and pliable before the Lord. that he said, woe is me, that God, we are headed for trouble. Trouble is coming. We gotta get things right. We gotta get things right, right now. And he began to proclaim and order reforms to go out everywhere. And he called every priest to come back to Jerusalem and he gave orders for them. And if they didn't show up, he said, kill them. If they didn't come and wouldn't come, kill them. Get everybody back and he gave orders and there was a reformation take place and see and Ezekiel was living in those days. He was a young boy growing up during that time frame that all that was going on when the book was found again. and the word was going forth. Now one of the oddest things though, Jeremiah and Josiah are the same age and came up at the same time and were doing the work of the Lord at the same time, and Jeremiah never mentions anything about this great reformation that is going on. Why? Because the reformation that was happening was happening from the top, from a political ruler That was ordering everybody to get right, but it wasn't happening at the grassroots level. Everybody was doing what the king said, but they didn't want to do what the king said. They did it because the king said to do it. Jeremiah saw through it. And Jeremiah was preaching to the people at the grassroots level that their hearts needed to change. And you know what the people who are saying, look at all the change that is going on. Look what everybody's doing. But Jeremiah is saying, yeah, but your heart ain't right. heartache. You do win but your heart's not right. So you know Jeremiah became a guy who nobody wanted to listen to. They didn't want to hear what he had to say because he wasn't in tune with the times of what was happening. Well here comes Ezekiel who is taken out of this environment for his own good and then planted in Babylon at Tel Abib along that River Jabar. But he says in verse number 1 of Jeremiah 27, In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiachin, remember this is the king that was on the throne when Ezekiel was 25 years old and taken away, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Thus says the Lord to me, make for yourselves bonds and yokes and put them on your neck and send them to the kings of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the Ammonites, to the king of Tyre, to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and command them to say to their masters, and the reason that is is because Jehoiakim only served for three months. He was only on the throne for three months when he began to reign when Nebuchadnezzar took him captive and brought him to Babylon. Verse 4, And the command that came to their masters, and said to the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Thus you shall say to your masters, meaning these rulers, I have made the earth, God says. I've made man and the beast there on the ground. And by my great power and by my outstretched arm, I have given it to whom seemed proper to me. So if you've been an authority, I gave it to you for a reason. But here's the thing, times are changing. Verse six, and now I've given all these lands into the hand of who? Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beast of the field, I have also given him to serve him. So you had two powers coming up, the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The Egyptians were the power in the west, the Babylonians were the power in the east. And these two armies, these two nations were colliding with one another. Little bitty old Judah sat in the middle. Now what God had been doing is keeping everybody at bay. But Judah kept rejecting, rejecting, rejecting, rejecting. You know what? God removed his hand. But he put his hand on who? Nebuchadnezzar. And he gave all this to Nebuchadnezzar. And that's what he's gonna say here. Now you gotta keep this in mind. Ezekiel is gonna prophesy to these same nations. in Ezekiel when he writes to them. But verse number seven, so all nations shall serve Nebuchadnezzar, his son and his son's son, until the time of his land comes. Because Nebuchadnezzar is gonna be on the timeframe too. And then many nations and great kings shall make Nebuchadnezzar's sons' sons serve them. And it shall be that the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation, I will do what? I will punish, verse eight, says the Lord, with the sword, with famine, with pestilence, until they are consumed by his hand. Verse number nine. Therefore, remember this is what Jeremiah was working against, this is what Ezekiel's gonna work against. Therefore do not listen to your own, what? Or your diviners, or your dreamers, or your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who keep telling you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy what? A lie to you to remove you far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish. But the nation that bring their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let them remain in their own land says the Lord and they shall till it and dwell in it. They'll just do it for Nebuchadnezzar now. Now, these are important for us. This is an important message, not only for us, but it was an important message for Ezekiel to recognize that, hey, what's happening right now and where we are is not by accident. Nebuchadnezzar just didn't come up on the scene out of nowhere by himself. God raised him up. God gave him this authority. God's removed us out of the land. As Jeremiah told us, he did it for his good, our good. You know how the scripture says in Romans 8, all things work together? For the good of those that what? That hadn't changed. It's the same principle back then. Those that love Him and do according to His will, all things what? Work together for the good. So if God displaces you out of your land and puts you in Babylon, a foreign land, it's for your own Good, why? Because God's fixing to destroy it and everybody there, and he's getting you out before it happens. So that's a good thing God was doing. So you see how important this would be for Ezekiel to grab a hold of these things, and also, remember, this was preached to them before it all happened. They had this word, but how many people in Babylon was actually walking in the word that they had? It's like, does God have a word for us today? But we don't see every day people walking in the Word that God has for us, right? A lot of times they don't even know what He said. I believe there's a good chance the people in Babylon and Tel Aviv near that canal, near that river had no idea what Jeremiah said, what he prophesied. They was in the dark on it. Now just because they were in the dark on it doesn't mean that God still held them responsible that they could have known it. Remember, Jeremiah rose up, as the Bible says, for 24 years, morning and evening, and preached. And nobody repented. So the message was proclaimed, but the message wasn't received. message wasn't heard. So now you go into a foreign land and you're in the dark on this, you'll say things like this, we might as well hang up our harps on the willows because we can't sing anymore because we're not where we're supposed to be. Well no, it was a good thing God planted you where you are. It is a good thing, and you don't have to be in Jerusalem to sing. You can sing right where you are, right? Remember Paul and Silas? Where were they at when they were singing one night and an earthquake came? Where were they at? They'd been blocked up in prison. They'd just been beaten earlier in the day. They were wounded and hurt, and they're not out on the streets proclaiming the gospel or going from city to city. Now they've been confined and changed in the inner prison, but what were they doing at midnight? Man, they were singing praises to God. Singing praises to God. Why? Because they knew everything God was doing was a good thing. And that they were right where they were supposed to be doing, right where they were supposed to be doing. And it would have some consequences. It would have some troubles that come along with it. But God was sovereign over this. And you see that throughout the book of Acts. Every time they would find themselves, and even previous to that, they were praying to God to show up in a mighty way, to do things that they couldn't do themselves, to validate His message and His messengers, and do a wondrous work. When they were threatened, they didn't rebel against those that threatened them, they just gave it to the Lord and said, they did that with your son, God. but they did it according to your plan, just like they're doing it according to your plan with us, and we're gonna submit it to you. And great grace fell upon them all, amen. You see, grace could have fallen upon this group, but because they were so caught up in the circumstance, they missed the creator of it and who was behind it. and why all these things are so fundamental. Just from some reading perspective for yourself, 2 Kings chapter 22 to the end of the book will give you the story of these settings and these invasions and what was coming. But it's been prophesied again and again. It'd take us months to go through and look at every detail of what God had been telling them was coming. And now here they are. It's happened. They're in it. And that's where we then want to relate to the people that are in it and say if they only knew what God said, they would have a whole new spirit about them. If they only knew. what God was revealing and had revealed, their life would be totally different in where they were at. They wouldn't see where they're at as just mere misery and so hard to deal with that they couldn't celebrate and rejoice in what God is doing. Yes, nobody wants to be displaced from their home, but God had a better plan for me. And God made a promise, He's gonna bring me back. And if He doesn't bring me back, He's gonna bring people close to me back. Why? Because I'm gonna keep instilling Him in them and what He's done for me and what He's doing. And so all these things. And New Testament, look. Go to Romans chapter number 15. I try to always remind myself and all of us when we're walking through these truths like this is that they're for our good. To read them, look in 15. 15. Three. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches, the offenses of God Those who reproached you fell upon me." He became the reproach. Is Ezekiel going to be a reproach? He will be. Is God going to do some things for Ezekiel that Ezekiel is going to need God to do? Yes. Is some of the things God does in Ezekiel going to make it hard for him? Yes. Remember we've already said God's going to give him a hard forehead and a hard face and he's going to look like he's unbreakable, that he's unrelenting. He's not gonna stop doing and saying what he's saying, but the people are gonna hate him for it because what he's gonna keep telling them is that he's getting to the place where they have the unimaginable thought that God is not gonna eventually destroy that city. He's not gonna destroy that temple. But we know God's plan for it all. He is going to tear it down. He is going to destroy it. But all their people kept saying there's no way God is going to forsake that city and going to tear down that temple. We had to. Why? Because everybody was putting their stock in it and they were missing him. So God was going to take it all away. Take it all away. But he says in verse four, for whatever things were written before, beforehand, we're talking about Old Testament, truths, they were written for what? They were written for our learning, that we can learn from them. One of the main objectives that we learn is that through the patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have what? So the scriptures, as we learn, should build hope in us again and again and again. Why? Because the scriptures are unwavering truth. To the detail, you can count on the fact that God had told him what he was gonna do, did what he told him he was gonna do, and exactly how he was gonna do it, and it all come to pass. So you can take God at his word. He's trustworthy. He's trustworthy. When people trusted him, he blessed them. When they rejected him, they had to suffer the consequences of that. You can trust him, he's trustworthy. You can cling on him by the word, by the word. It's how Jesus leaned in on the Father. That's how he became a reproach, because he trusted the Father and trusted his message. So I just always remind myself of that, for whatever things were written were written for our learning that through the patience, the endurance, and the consoling work of the scriptures, we might have hope. The scriptures produce life in us. And we're not just talking about letters of the law, that'll produce death in you. We're talking about life here, that people in real settings, real circumstances, real situations, in dire straits, in troublesome times, found great hope in God's presence and His promises, entrusted Him through the hardest things in life, and God always God can't fail right he cannot fail and you can count on him. He won't fail either something fails. It ain't him It's more likely us failing or some other Situation failing but God can't fail and if his promises don't look like they coming through some of them are still yet to be done others is I'm looking at the promise the wrong way and But God is always true. He cannot lie. And the scriptures give us what? Much comfort. Amen. Look over in chapter 11. I told you I'd bring this up. This is the advantage of reading the way that we do, of really picking up the whole picture of God at work. Why? Because if you listen to a lot of preaching on the radio, if you listen to a lot of preaching on TV, You know, those preaching, if they wanna keep an audience and they wanna get their resources, they could only focus in on the greatest of the goodness of God. And they're not gonna tell you about the severity of the things of God. I mean, they gotta keep you in goodwill with them for you to stay happy with them. And they have an audience that they are proclaiming to, but we gotta be balanced when we tell the things of God. We can't be all severity, because God ain't all severity. We can't be all goodness. Because there is severity even with His goodness. And that's what Paul was drawing out in Romans 11. Look what he says in verse number 20. I'll just read there. He said, Because of the unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. So don't be haughty. This is Romans 11 20. Remember Paul was illustrating the difference between Israel and the Gentiles. The branches that were broken off and the branches that were grafted in. He said you was grafted in because of a divine purpose and don't ridicule the Jew. They were blinded temporarily for a purpose. So if you keep pointing a finger at them and like, man they are in bad shape, look what they've done. He says you're getting haughty in your spirit because you didn't get to where you are on your own either. God initiated this in you and He'll do something with them in the future day. Verse 21, For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. not to say that these natural branches belong to him. He's talking to them about a nation, not individuals in that nation that were his. He's just talking about national Jew and then the Gentiles. Verse 22, therefore consider, this is something that we've got to ponder and think on, what the goodness and Severity of God. On those who fail, it was what? Severity. But towards you, He showed you what? Goodness. If you continue in His goodness, otherwise you also may be what? cut off, because you not continuing would be evidence that you've not actually received His goodness. That's the picture here. I mean, we believe in if ever saved, forever saved is the idea. Why? Because God's salvation work in the individual is an everlasting work. It's based on His righteousness, not ours. But we're talking about a nation who God promised in a future day, for an example, if you go down a little bit further, Look in verse 25, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. Least you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel as a nation until the fullness of the nations of the world has come in. Now see, Ezekiel is going to deal with this in what? 36 and 37 with the Valley of Dry Bones. It's talking about national Israel. Verse 26, And so all Israel will be what? God's gonna speak to those dead bodies and they're gonna come back to life one day. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my covenant with them when I take away their what? See, to be made right with God, sin has to be taken away. And the only way sin's taken away is through the righteousness of Jesus, through the blood of Jesus. Well, those that don't receive Jesus, their sins are not taken away. Well, national Jew don't receive Jesus, but one day they'll see for who He is. That's the valley of the dry bones. Chapter 36 says He's going to take the heart of stone out, give them a heart of flesh, In other places, like we read in Jeremiah 24, when he says the goodness of those that he's gonna give them a new heart and he's gonna make them, they're gonna know God. That's God at work there. And that's what all this is talking about right here. Verse 28, the Jew currently concerning the gospel, they are what? They're enemies. But they're enemies for what? Your sake. That's why you can't get haughty in this. This was a plan of God, not as much as them, but God at work in this. But concerning the election, God's eternal plan, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are They don't need to be repented of. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Meaning if they didn't disobey, God wouldn't turn to us. But in their disobedience, what did he do? He turned to the Gentiles and offered us this grace in Christ. Verse 31, even so, these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. That is, once God's done bringing all the Gentiles in, he's gonna turn back to the Jew again, for God has committed them all to what? See, that's part of the what? Goodness and severity. God has committed them all to disobedience. That he, God, might have mercy on all. Meaning the rest of the world. Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable. or his judgments and his ways past finding out. That's no different than what we said this morning about that image that Ezekiel saw. God is the otherness of God. Nobody like him, right? He's unique, just right here. His judgments are past finding out. But the thing is, the God who's not like us became like us so that he could what? Rescue us from ourselves. What we're reading in Ezekiel, Paul is dealing with right here. It's the same things that he's bringing to light. We just have, when we take Paul's writings and we take Ezekiel's writings, we can see things even more clearly. We can see what we're looking at here in these things. That's why we know that what, through the reading of the Old Testament, we learn and that we have hope. Why? Because clarity begins to be brought to light. God's word does that for us. So these are some really, really rich, good, valuable teachings that we can't separate out of our life because so many of the things he's gonna prophesy hadn't even happened yet. They're still yet to come. But when they come, we can say like we were talking about before the service, like Isaiah said, I told you in advance before they happen. So when they happen, you know why they happen, right? Let's look at those real quick before we go. We'll wrap it up. Look and go back to Jeremiah 42. Excuse me, Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. Littered all through Isaiah, God keeps telling us what he's going to do. Remember, y'all remember that good king Hezekiah? What did Hezekiah do in the last few days of his life? Y'all remember? All of it plays into what we're reading right now. Remember Hezekiah invited this little bitty country and their leaders to come in and he showed them everything he had. They were on the uprise. They were a little bitty old group of people who wasn't much at the time. But they sent an envoy to Hezekiah because they heard he was healed, they brought him a gift. Remember God healed him and gave him some extra years? So they come over and send a gift as an envoy, as ambassadors of this nation. Well, Hezekiah is proud of what he's got. And these extra years that God's given him and all this goodness that he has, he flaunts it and shows it off. So he takes the king of Babylon and his envoy and he parades him through and shows him everything he's got. And God says, would you show? Would you show those men? Hezekiah said to Isaiah, he sent Isaiah. Isaiah comes in and says, would you show them? He said, I showed them everything. Isaiah said, oh man, everything you showed them, they're gonna carry it away. They're gonna take it away. Those men that you just showed are gonna carry every bit of it away. You showed your goods. You know what Hezekiah says? That's okay. It won't happen while I'm living. My sons will have to deal with it. Well, yeah, they did. They had to deal with it. It happened just the way the prophet said it was gonna happen, so that when it happens, everybody knows why it happened, right? This was all a God thing. This was all a God thing. Now, the Babylonians have no idea that this is all being worked out by God. But can you imagine when they saw all the gold and all the silver and everything that this little king of Judah has acquired? I mean, he's nothing like the Egyptian king or maybe the Assyrian king. Judah's just a little bitty old, little bitty old place now. They ain't got a whole lot to them, but they got God's favor upon them, got God's protection on them. Everybody tried to overthrow them, couldn't overthrow them at that time because it was a God thing. But now he let the enemy in even though he didn't know he was an enemy. He thought he could be an alliance to him. Can you imagine those leaders on their way back to Babylon on that so many days, so many mile journey back over there thinking, one day we're gonna have things like that. One day, why? Because they were growing, they were spreading their wings and they were conquering little bitty communities and nations and things and they're getting bigger and they said one day we're going to have all this gold. Not necessarily Hezekiah's gold, but in their mind they're thinking that if we get big enough we can take his too. because that's how they all functioned in that way. And in every nation today, if we would just let our guard down, they'd come in and take everything we got, right? Isn't that what people do? Yeah. So, but in all these, see how all these things kind of just overflow into, there's so much backstory to it. Isaiah 42, eight, I am the Lord, that is my name. Yahweh, Jehovah, God, self-existent. And my glory, my splendor, I do not share, or will I not give to another, nor my praises to a carved image. Behold, see, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare, and before they spring forth, I will what? tell you of them. Why? He wants you to know who's doing it. He doesn't want you to give credit or anybody give credit to a false idol or a false God. He is gonna reveal it. Not as much as for your sake, but for his name's sake. Look over in 48. Man, Isaiah is one of them rich books that just keep telling us more and more about this great God. 48. Three, I have declared the former things from the beginning. And we know he has, and we take that all the way back from the beginning of time, basically saying there's nobody could do that, but I've done that. They went forth from my mouth and I caused men or them, the prophets, whoever it is, to hear it. Suddenly I did them and they came to pass. That is, he told them in advance before it happened, and he still does that today. Because I knew that you were hard-hearted, obstinate, rebellious, couldn't see, and your neck was like an iron sinew, you were stiff-necked. And your brow was what? Like brass or bronze, you had a face like flint, like he was gonna do like stone, like he was gonna give Ezekiel. Verse five, even from the beginning, I have declared it to you, before it came to pass, I proclaimed it to you. For fear, or lest you should say, my idol has done this, or my carved image, emoldened image, have commanded them. God said, oh no, we're not gonna let that happen. Verse nine, for my sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise, I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. God could have easily done that, couldn't he? But for his name's sake, he didn't. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I've tested you in a furnace of affliction for my own sake, for my own sake I would do it. For how should my name be profaned and I will not give my glory to another. So a lot that God has done, not only would it be for the good of those that are his, but a lot that he's gonna do is for his own namesake, for his own namesake. They just couldn't capitalize on it at the time. Why? Because they didn't know what he said, right? Even Habakkuk, when we read the story of Habakkuk, Habakkuk tells us about the Babylonians. And when Habakkuk saw the vision of the Babylonians coming in, Habakkuk was so stunned by it, he's gonna tell God, God, you're not allowed to do that. What he said, God, you can't do this. This is not you. You don't use the wicked that way. And God says to Habakkuk, somebody has misled you. Somebody has misinformed you. Somebody told you a lie, Habakkuk. Now you're my prophet and I'm sending you to go tell this story, what's coming. But I know your heart's wounded because you had a whole nother idea of who I am and what I am and what I can do or can't do. But you think it's bad and you think this vision's bad, it's only gonna get worse. Habakkuk said that he would wrestle with it and he did. He said, I'm gonna go up on the rampart and I'm just gonna wait for God to speak to me. It was a blow, it was a crisis. of conviction for him, because he'd been told God would never do this. And you can see as you come up through life and people tell you all about God, but they never tell you that about God. And when God tells you he's gonna do it, and everybody else told you he can't do it, there's a head-butting that goes on there. There's a crisis created. Well, it was a crisis for him. Well, he wrestles with it, but he wrestles wisely with it. And he comes to the conclusion when God spoke to him, he said, wait a minute, now I see him. And what I've learned in this, God could do whatever he wants. He can do it whatever way he wants, with whoever he wants, however he wants, whenever he wants. And what he's gonna find me doing when he does whatever he wants, he's gonna find me praising him. And I'm gonna praise him. and I'm gonna praise him. He says, when this happens, if everything falls apart, I'm gonna praise him. If every crop in the field dies, I'm gonna praise him. If every beast of the land falls to the ground, I'm gonna praise him. If everything collapses financially in every other way, I'm gonna praise him. He can do what he wants. whatever he wants. But what he's going to find from me, he's going to find me praising him in the midst of it. Simply because he didn't harden his heart, but he went before the Lord and wrestled with what he was told and what he'd heard and asked God to change his heart. He said, I'm going to wait on God. And God showed him what he was going to do and why he was doing it. And he come to the clear conclusion, hey God, you can do Whatever you want. What I'm asking you to give me though, I'm asking you to give me deer's feet, hind's feet. That whatever obstacle and stumble and stone I've gotta go over, you give me feet to overcome it. Because I wanna praise you, amen? I wanna praise you. I wanna give you glory. That don't sound like the folks in Psalm 137, does it? Don't sound like the people Ezekiel's gonna be ministering to. But it sounds like a person who's wrestled with the things of God and said, God, change me and use me as a blessing wherever I'm at. Now, Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, they were a different breed now. They'd been over in Babylon for a little bit and they done said it in their heart, they wasn't gonna defile themselves, but they were gonna praise God. And they was gonna give God glory. And they got put to the test. And in every test, God proved himself strong, amen? He brought them through the lion's den. He brought them through the fire. They interpreted dreams, seeing things other people couldn't see. And you're going to find out Daniel's reputation run far and wide because Ezekiel knew about him. And Ezekiel clarified or classified him in there with Noah, with Job, and Daniel. He puts the three together. And he says in that, talking about interceding, how Noah was an interceder who went and preached to the people. Job stood before that world in his day and was righteous, and even though he was under the attack of the enemy, he still was gonna give glory and praise to God. Well, Daniel did the same thing, and God told through Ezekiel, even if those three men were standing here today interceding, it wouldn't stop the judgment that's gonna fall upon Jerusalem. Nothing is gonna hold it back. So Ezekiel knew about Daniel, and he knew about him in a powerful way, and he gave God glory for what was going on in Daniel's life. So Daniel was one like Habakkuk, like a Jeremiah, like an Isaiah, like a Micah, who stood when nobody else was standing to proclaim, thus saith the Lord, that God said, he's gonna make his way known. and he's gonna use a little person like me to do it. And what a blessing, amen. Stay the course, stay the course. Father, we bless you tonight, we thank you. I ask you to help us as we walk through these great promises and prophetic truths that are still yet to happen that we would see us in the midst of it do our best to relate to where they were at, but not miss what they missed in the fact that you had given them clear word of what was coming and why you were doing what you were doing, the blessings in doing what you were doing. They were just in the dark on it, or they refused to hear it. And I pray that we won't be stiff necked or hard hearted and not hear your message for us even this day. So Lord, I praise you and thank you and ask you to use us in Jesus name. Amen. Love y'all.