I'd like you to imagine tonight you're 30 years old. For some of us, that's a great imagination. For some of you, you're still waiting for that. You're 30 years old, but you're in the lineage of the priests. And so it's your turn at age 30. You become a priest. You become a real priest. Your family's been a priest. You've been known that you're going to be a priest. And by now, you're 30 years old. You're supposed to be a priest. You're supposed to be one who's able to bring God's Word and God's truth to the hearts and lives of people and to bring the sacrifices of people to the God and to represent God for people. But the problem is tonight, as a person of 30 years of age, tonight you're sitting on the dusty plains of Babylon. You're not even near the temple. You're a thousand miles from the temple. There's no way that you can possibly do what all your life you knew you were supposed to do, be a priest of God. Tonight, at age 30, you just had your birthday. It's really hitting you that you're not going to be allowed to do what all your life you wanted to do. You're with the captives. You're in exile. The enemy is strong. Your nation is defeated. And with great sadness of heart, you're sitting alone that day on your birthday instead of a party. You're sitting all alone on the plains and the dusty plains of Babylon. You've moved away from your people even. You just want to bear this alone. And on the banks of a river, you're sitting alone, wondering, what's my life going to be like? I'll never be what I was supposed to be. My country has been defeated. Down deep, you know your God is strong. Down deep, you know your God will win. But tonight, you're not so sure. It really hurts. It really hurts. You'll never be able to do what you wanted to do. And as you're sitting there with sad eyes, You look across the dusty plains. And you notice there's a black cloud over there. And that's not the first black cloud you've seen come across the dusty plains of Babylon, because thunderstorms and even hurricanes are not uncommon there. And so as you look across the dusty plains, you see what seems to be a thunderstorm coming, but this one seems to be a real winner. There is something about it that immediately grabs your attention. As it comes whirling across the plains, you know this is going to be bigger than anything you've ever seen before. In fact, as it comes closer and closer, you somehow sense this is not a thunderstorm. There is something about it that is greater than a thunderstorm. There is something about it that is different than a thunderstorm. As it comes whirling towards you, you see this huge black cloud But out of it, what you thought was lightning, there is something much more dazzling, something much more bright. It's this black cloud that comes roaring towards you. All around the cloud there is a glow. And there are streaks of brightness that come flying out of this black cloud. And you understand that you are suddenly seeing something that nobody has ever seen. You are not looking at a thunderstorm. You are not looking at a natural occurrence. You're not sure what it is. And so as you stand there, and as it gets closer, you have seen this awesome whirlwind coming at you, and then as it gets even more close to you, you see that there is something about it that is awesome. You see that there are four living creatures that are moving along the bottom of this, right along the earth. They're like living creatures you've never seen. There is a sense in which they look like a human, and yet they're like no human you've ever seen. There's something about that that makes them very, very awesome to you. One thing, they each have four faces. And one face is looking this way, and one face is looking that way, and one face is looking that way, and one face is looking that way. So, no matter what angle you look at them, you're looking at a face. In fact, as these four living creatures come towards you out of this awesome whirlwind, you'll notice they not only have four faces, they have four wings. And as they come towards you, these four living creatures have their wings outstretched. And the tips of their wings touch the tips of the next one. And so there is one that is standing looking right at you. And there is one that is standing perpendicular to you. And there is one on the other side that is standing perpendicular to you. And there is one that is looking away from you. And as you look at these four living creatures with four faces and four wings, and the wings are touching, you recognize they form a square. And their feet, wow, never saw feet like that. They're like calves' feet, only they're dazzling bronze. They've been polished. They just dazzle as they move across the plains tonight. And as you look at the four faces, as they get closer, you recognize the one looking right at you has the face of a man, and the one on your right has the face of a lion on this side, the face of a man on this side, and the one who's standing here has the face of an ox on this side, the face of a man on this side, and the face of a lion on this side, and the one that's looking away from you has the face of an eagle on the back. And you recognize as you look at them, As you look at all of them, you can always see a face. The face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of an eagle. The four creations, the four creatures that have so impressed mankind for all time. Man, who is the chief of creation. The lion, who is the king of the beasts, the king of the jungle. The ox, who is the strongest. and the most powerful domesticated creature in the eagle, who we are still impressed with for his ability to rule the skies and to see everything that goes on. And out of this wonderful and awesome whirlwind comes four living creatures like you have never ever seen in your whole life. Besides their four wings, they have two hands. And they stand there. And they move across the plains. But there's an interesting thing as they move across the plains tonight, you are just overwhelmed at them. You notice that they don't really move. Somehow these four who touch wings, their legs aren't moving. Their wings aren't flapping. They're just moving. And you wonder how that could be until they get a little bit closer and you recognize that they have their wings outstretched. They're at the corner next to them, beside them. There are wheels. One at each corner. So when you look at it, when you're looking directly at it, you see a wheel and you see a wheel. And it's like a wheel within a wheel. And it's the wheels that are moving along the ground today as the four creatures are carried along by these four wheels and they move rapidly to and fro. They can go wherever the Spirit of God directs them. And they can go up, and they can go down, and they can go right, and they can go left, they can go forward, they can go backward, and they rapidly and harmoniously move in every direction. And these wheels, I'll tell you, they are awesome. Because they are so high. They are so tall. You can't quite reach them. They're way above you. And besides that, these wheels that are moving so rapidly in every direction have eyes all around the rim. They know exactly where they're going. They know exactly what they're doing. And with great rapidity, they are moving. And you say, what in the world am I looking at tonight? A whirlwind and four living creatures and some wheels, four wheels at the four corners of these four living creatures. And then you notice, as it gets closer, that there is a platform, a firmament that is above them. Something that has been made firm Something that is a platform. And it is dazzling in color. It is brilliant in its appearance. And these four living creatures, who are moved along by four wheels that can go in any direction at any time, are supporting an awesome platform. And then you recognize that there's something on the platform. And it's like a throne. It's like the seat of somebody who is an awesome power on an awesome throne. It is like flaming fire. It is like a brilliant glow. It is like the royalist blue with a flaming fire all around it. And then when you get your focus finally on all of that, you suddenly recognize that on the throne is something that has the appearance like the glory of God. And tonight, as you sit on the riverbank, all depressed, it's your 30th birthday, you didn't even want to be with people, you're all alone, you all of a sudden recognize that God has allowed you the privilege to see His glory. That God has allowed you the privilege to see that the most impressive created beings in all the universe spend their entire time supporting, moving, carrying along the throne and the glory of God. And tonight, as you sit there, it totally transforms your life. It totally changes who you are. And you will never, ever again be the same. In fact, it finally dawns on you that you are looking at the likeness of the glory of the Lord Himself. You do what the only thing you can do. You fall flat on your face in humility before your God. I suspect you know that what I just read to you or told you about was Ezekiel 1. A passage of Scripture that some people find confusing. Some people find difficult to understand. Some people find it so confusing that they have said Ezekiel saw a UFO or a spacecraft. But those of us who have just read it for what it is recognize that all the way through he's just describing to us, in the best terms he can, a vision of something that nobody has ever seen. That you have never seen anything like it in all of your life. But he wants you to see a little bit of what he saw. Would you turn in your Bibles tonight to Ezekiel chapter 1? And we're not going to read all those verses, but I want you to know that I didn't make that story up. That's exactly what happened. In Ezekiel chapter 1, in verse 1, it says, Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, he is thirty years old, in the fourth month and the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Shabbat, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Suddenly God let him in on a secret. You are in Babylon. It appears that your king has lost, but I want you to know that your king has not lost. Your king is on the throne. Your king is in control. Your king is all that he has ever been. He is in glory. There is a whirlwind in verse 4 coming out of the north. Great cloud with raging fire engulfing and brightness was all around it, radiating out of its midst like the color of amber out of the midst of the fire. So there's this massive thunderstorm, cloud of blackness coming at him with this wonderful glow all around it, in fact, flashing out of it. You and I understand that it was more than anything that ever happened on the Euphrates plain. Although one of the archaeologists once wrote in his diary these words because he sat near where Ezekiel sat as an archaeologist. His name was Chesney. He wrote a book entitled Narratives of the Euphrates Expedition. Dense masses of black clouds streaked with orange, red, and yellow appeared coming from the west and southwest, approaching us with fearful velocity. The clouds by this time were quite terrific. Below the darkness of them was a large collection of matter of a dark crimson color, which was rolling towards us at an awful rate. All became calm and clear as before. Barely twenty-five minutes had seen the beginning, the progress, and the termination of this fearful hurricane." But what Ezekiel saw was a notch beyond anything that was natural. He saw a whirlwind, which was representative in a vision of God Himself. You would read in verse 5, the four living creatures, down through verse 14. You'd read in verse 15, now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each of the living creatures with its four faces. In verse 15, down through verse 21, you would have a record of those distinct wheels, almost like gyroscopes, only they are just wheels like no wheels we have ever seen. moving along these four living creatures in a way that is awesome to us. In verse 22, we'd recognize the likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal stretched out over their heads. And he describes that firmament. By the way, firmament just means that. A firmament means that which has been made firm. And he describes a platform. It is that which has been hammered out so that it is now solid and structured and strong. You see, there's a platform that was about it, and you'd read in verse 26, and above the platform or the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone, and on the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man high above. And then finally in verse 28, it says, like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell in my face. And I heard a voice of one speaking, and he said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you. And then the Spirit entered me when he spoke to me." Tonight, we have the privilege of listening to Ezekiel as he describes to us God and His glory, and something of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of His glory. Something of what it would be like if we would ever have the opportunity to see something of God. The Talmud. I love the Jewish writers, especially in the book of Ezekiel, because they do such a good job of it, most of them. In the Talmud, they say there's a large face of God and there's a small face of God. That's the way the Jewish rabbis describe it. And nobody has ever seen the large face of God. Nobody has ever really seen God in all of His glory. And that's why all the way through this chapter, it's the likeness of, the likeness of, the likeness of, the likeness of. He's trying to describe the unknown by the known. And even when he comes to the glory of God, he says, we don't see the glory of God. We saw something like the likeness of the glory of God. They saw the small face of God, as the rabbis would say. Nobody has ever really, ever seen God and lived. but many have seen a glimpse of the glory of God. And when you read this account, you recognize it's not just for our interest or somehow to spark some interest in our study of the book of Ezekiel. It has some great impact in the heart and life of Ezekiel. An impact that was designed to be in your life and mine as we read it as well. You understand that for Ezekiel, this was an awesome sight. Again and again, he will say in his awesome, awesome, awesome. His God is an awesome God. Even when he sits in the dust as a captive in Babylon, he is fully aware that his God is an awesome sight. It has the effect of being overwhelming to him. It has the impact in his life of humbling him, for he falls down. And you all understand what it means to fall down. Joseph's brothers, when they finally figured out who he was, that he was the second in command of all of Egypt in a great position of power, they fell down. And Esther, when she went before the king, she recognized his position and his power, and she fell down. And throughout the Scriptures, when people recognize they are standing in front of somebody who has great position and power, they fall down. We recognize that like Isaiah and like Moses and like many other people in the Old and the New Testament, Ezekiel saw God and he was humbled before and he fell down. It overwhelmed him. It humbled him. Do you know it also motivated him? You need to read Ezekiel chapter 1 because you're going to see it again and again and again in the book of Ezekiel. In chapter 3, he's going to talk about it. In chapter 8, he's going to talk about it. In chapter 10, he's going to talk about it. In chapter 43, he's going to talk about it. All the way through his ministry, he's going to come back to the day he stood on a bank of a river all alone, looked across the plains, and he saw something of the likeness of the glory of God. And it would motivate him to consistently present and preach the truth of God to the people, some of whom did not want to hear it. And it motivated him. But ultimately, not only overwhelmed him and humbled him, it also enlightened him. You know what he learned about his God that day? God is not limited in space. God can be anywhere. You don't have to be in Jerusalem to be with God. God can be anywhere. God is not limited in speed. As you read this account, they just rapidly move all over. They can go any direction, up, down, right, left, back, forward, any time, any way, as fast as they want to go. God is not limited in speed. And you learn that God is not limited in strength. God is overwhelmingly powerful. And that God is not limited in any way. And it was necessary for Ezekiel to see his God in that perspective. Because it took a 30-year-old man who was very discouraged and ready to quit and said, there's no future for God's program, not in my day. And it turned him around and he went out and he preached to the exiles of Israel and said to them again and again, there is hope. God condemns, but God comforts. God breaks down, but God builds up. And our God is still in control. Ezekiel was one. who came to know his God, who came to know that he is helpless before his God, who came to know that he is dependent upon his God, and ultimately came to know this, the highest purpose of the highest created beings of all of this universe is to be involved in the program of God and responsive to the Spirit of God in doing the work of God. And Ezekiel never forgot it. And so the next time you're 30 years old, it seems like life has just passed you by, you have no opportunity to do what you always thought you were going to do for God. Just go by this river Shabbat, just sit there on the banks of it, pick up your Bible, look across the plain, and see your God. He's an awesome God. He is an overwhelming God. And He can use you just like He used Ezekiel. It's great to see God from that perspective. John would say this in John chapter 1, and we, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Do you know tonight that the Lord Jesus Christ had all the glory of God, because He was God? And He humbled Himself and became the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.