I love to hear good songs about God. Oh my. Now, tonight we're going to begin a series in the book of Ezekiel. I want to warn you that the book of Ezekiel is in no way making your flesh feel good. It is for the spirit. It has depth to it. It has depth that will bring up things into your heart that can be a blessing. So I pray that you will, I'm going to study carefully. I'm going to study a lot in this because there's so much in the book of Ezekiel. There are three prophets in the Bible. There is Ezekiel and Daniel and the Apostle John, all three of them receives the prophecy outside the land of Israel. It's important to know that because the rabbis taught that the Shekinah only could be received and prophecy could only be received in the land of Israel. This, although God gave them the land and although God has made them a special people, God is not limited by any one group of people, and so we need to keep that in mind as we study the book of Ezekiel. We'll begin just with the very first verse of the first chapter. It starts with a very unusual word, the word now, and the Hebrew word that is translated now means reality is happening. Reality is happening. If there's any message the church needs to receive today and every believer It's the fact that what's happening is real. And we had better wake up and realize that we're not living in a fantasy world. I've never watched any of it. If you do, I'm not condemning you. But these reality TV series, if you like them, fine. But they're not a one smidgen bit of reality. I'm telling you that God says, I want to get your attention and give you reality. And I want you to live in it every moment of every day as a believer. Now it came to pass, reality came into being, and especially this was true of the Jews because Nebuchadnezzar, as I've taught you in the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar came the first time and took a group, Daniel being one of them, and his Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, his friends, they were first taken to Babylon. And then his father died, he had to make a dash back and take over as king of Babylon. He came back the second time and Ezekiel, the one who wrote this book by the power of the Holy Spirit, was the one who then came in the second group that was taken captive. This book, if you wanted to summarize the book, and I hope you'll listen to this and think about it, A Captive Man Among Captive People. A Captive Man Among Captive People. And so as we read, you'll see the very first reaction. And remember, whatever happens, how you react to it, is it of God that you're reacting? Are you reacting in a human way? Now it came to pass in the 30th year, now there's a lot of controversy among Bible so-called scholars about the 30th year. To me it's no problem and maybe I'm simple, I know I am, but the rules of serving God when a person who was in the work of God, they were allowed to go full blast serving God in their capacity when they were 30 years old. So I believe this was the 30th year. And I believe that's all it is. You can read commentaries that make you get dizzy trying to figure out all the things that they're trying to make. It's very simple to me. This is the way God worked in the people who served him. They were turned loose at 30 years old. Now it came to pass in the 30th year, And the fourth month and the 50th day of the month, as I was among the captives, these are people, not just Daniel and not just the ones we know about, but the people, the common people were taken to Babylon and they were mainly put along the canals that ran from the Euphrates River and they worked the land and raised the crops. They weren't sharecroppers, they were just croppers. They did the hard work. These were Jews. And they were not known for being agricultural people, but the people from Babylon put them by the irrigation ditches and they were put into working and raising food for the lazy Babylonians. And as I was among the captives, now remember this, We as believers are not to find some little comfortable spot. to where we can serve God and worship. We need to be out in the middle of where all the evil is going on. And we need to have a message for the captives who are going through that evil. I'm telling you, as I said this morning, if you've got a cuckoo bird under your saddle, get it out and start serving God and quit acting like a bunch of kids. Jesus said, you call me all the time for dumb things. Now that's not exactly how it's translated, but that's what it means. I was among the captives by the river Chebar. Actually, it was not a river, it was a canal that irrigated the land. And what happened while he was there among the captives? The heavens were open. You know what? I look forward to seeing the heavens open. And I believe in these services that we have scheduled in this assembly of God. I believe heaven is open. Look up, your redemption draws nigh. that the heavens were open and I saw visions of God. And the word God here, I'm always interested to know what Hebrew word, the English word God comes from. And here I saw visions from Elohim. That is the very first word used for God in the Bible. But a sheath Elohim, in the beginning God created. And so the word here, I saw God the father. God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, where do you get that preacher? Because Elohim is in the plural. And in Hebrew, you have singular, dual, and plural. I always love to pester Brother Abu Agal, he's gone to heaven now, but he was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Ramallah, there on the West Bank. And I'd always ask him, I said, how do you explain that fact that there's a trinity there in the word Elohim? And he'd go off into some far out explanation. I said, you know what, Brother Abu Agal, he and I were very good friends. I said, brother, you know, you could be this with good friends. I said, Brother Abu Agal, you tell a story about how you got to New York the first time and they wanted you to eat a hot dog. He said, I told him I don't eat dogs. I said, well, that's just about what you're trying to tell me, the word Elohim means. That's just about how much it means. But he was nice to me. He let me help him sing a song at all of his services. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin captivity. Now Jehoiachin, he was the grandson of one of the great kings of Israel, but he was next to the last king that served actively from the line of David. And he was taken captive and taken to Babylon. Now verse three, the word and the word, the W-O-R-D here is used 1600 times in the New Testament. And it's translated many ways, but it simply means the mind of God. And the mind of God, the mind of the Lord and what Hebrew word does Lord come from here? Jehovah, Yahweh. Wasn't that beautiful to see those Marines that Brother Phil showed you the video? Those Marines praising Jehovah. Oh, don't you know that they called it from some of our liberal political entities? Well, thank God. Keep singing boys. Keep singing. The word of the Lord, the word of Yahweh, came expressly. Now this word expressly, you know, we say I'm expressing something, that doesn't mean a thing in English, but what does the Hebrew word mean here? And the word of the Lord came to me by the breath of the Holy Spirit. Inspiration, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. God began to breathe his word into them. So the word of the Lord came expressly or through inspiration unto Ezekiel the priest. and the son of Buzah. Now you try to find out anything about his father and you find out there's nothing about him. Apparently he was not anything of any value to God, but it just shows you that a father who is not what he should be can produce a son what he should be. You can't blame the fact that you are not doing what you're supposed to be doing because of your mama or your daddy. You better know that God is able to overcome any of those things. And let's believe it with all our heart and soul and mind, I'll tell you. And the word of the Lord came expressly and this father Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans. Now the word of the Chaldeans, that's Babylon. And by the river Chebar. Now, there's something that happened here by this river or by this canal, by the river Chebar, and the hand of the Lord was upon me. And the word hand means God's authority got a hold of me. And when God's authority gets a hold of you, you don't listen to a bunch of authority from anybody else. You believe that this is God and I'm gonna do it. No matter what happens, I'm going to have I'm gonna do the will of God. I've got authority from God. I don't need authority from a vote from anybody. I've got God's vote. Do you have it? If you do, then use it. Now, here he is, as I said, here is the captive man, Ezekiel. His name means God is strength. Anytime you see the EL or the word of a Hebrew name, you know it's God. But God is my strength is the meaning of the word Ezekiel. But I said it was he was a captive man among captive people. How did the other captive people react? Well, God left us a whole psalm. to tell us how the rest of them. Now, this man followed God. He had, and I don't want to go into the details, but he had a curse upon him from his father. And this curse meant that he would never have any children. His wife died while he was in captivity. He never had any children. But this did not stop him Here's how the rest of the captive, here's how they looked upon their captivity. How do you look upon yours? Psalms 137 tells us exactly how the rest of the people are captive among captives. And that's what you are. Which will you be? Will you be like Ezekiel or you'll be like Psalms 137? Are you ready? By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. Now these were crocodile tears. They were in Babylonian captivity because they had worshiped idols. and they were there because they had disobeyed God. And this weeping is not impressive to God. While Ezekiel was receiving power from God in his captivity, here's how the rest of the people were doing that he dealt with there by the river Chebar and by the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion, and we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. They did away with any music. They couldn't have any joy. There was no joy at all, not like those Marines we saw in the video. Wasn't that beautiful seeing those men praising God and lifting up the name of Jehovah? Verse three of Psalms 137. For they that carried away captive required of us a song. And they that wasted us, these were the Babylonians, you Jews, you believe in Jehovah, you believe in one God, you don't believe in all of our gods, and so why don't you sing us a song about Jehovah? And they that wasted us, don't you let anybody do that to you. Don't you allow anyone to cause you to be wasted? You have the right to the abundant life. I have the right to the abundant life. No matter what the situation is, Jesus said it. I'll repeat it to you for the thousands, maybe millions of times. Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. And that means no matter what the circumstances are, is there anyone in this assembly that just can't say, all right, I'm sick of this dead, dry life of hanging my harp on the willow tree. I'm gonna have abundance, even if all hell breaks loose. Those who were led away captive said, require of us a song. And they that wasted us, required of us a murmur. Tell us a joke. Sing, sing us one of the songs of Zion. They couldn't do it. They shut their mouths. They were living in self-pity. And here's what they said back to the Babylonian heathens. those they should be trying to win to Jehovah. Verse four, how shall we sing the Lord Jehovah's song in a strange land? Unless we're in the land of Israel, the land that God promised to Abraham, from the River Nile to Lebanon, to the River Euphrates, to the Mediterranean Sea, unless we are in the Lord's land, we can't sing a song. Bless God, you can sing it anywhere. And you shouldn't be singing anywhere. And then they went into a pitiful, pitiful refrain. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem. They're not doing Jerusalem any good. If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning. Let my ability to use my hand to do creative things be like it's cut off. Dear God in heaven, these are captives and we've got one man among the captives that is doing God's will, the rest of them are pity partying. If I do not remember thee, it's not gonna do any, are you listening? There's some things that you'd love to have go back and they're precious memories. And I thank God for precious memories, don't you? But you can't live today in the memories of yesterday. And they're trying to live the yesterday's memories. Let's make memories. Start making them now. You have the creative ability. Start doing it and get out of that negative mood. If we forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my great joy. and then they make a statement to God that is absolutely blasphemous. Are you listening? These are the captives among the people that Ezekiel received the whole book of Ezekiel. Remember, oh Lord, the children of Edom in the days of Jerusalem who said, raise it, raise it, even to the foundation thereof. They were saying, God, don't you remember that the descendants of Esau said, destroy the city of Jerusalem? Now, Jerusalem had not been destroyed yet when they sang this song. It would be and it was. Oh, daughters of Babylon, who art thou to be destroyed. You're gonna be destroyed. We don't want to make you know the true and the living God. We want you all to perish. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Is that true? Well, then let's believe it. even if they live like hell, believe that there's a chance until the last breath. Oh, daughters of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy shall he be. This sounds like Moslems. These are God's chosen people. The Jews, the Israelis. Old daughters of Babylon, here's what they're saying to them. You think they're gonna win them over Jehovah? Who are to be destroyed? Happy, I cannot believe this when I'm reading it, that people of God could get this evil. Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. And here it sounds just like a mausoleum. Happy shall be he that taketh and dashes thy little ones against a stone. This was the reaction. of God's earthly chosen people to captivity. But it was not the action of the man we're gonna study about, Ezekiel. We're gonna find out when we get over to the chapter of the Valley of Dry Bones and all of that. But listen, I wanna leave here saying, I will not be like those people. I have some captivity in my life. I admit it, God, but I'm not going to say to my captives, take your little kids. they're gonna be taken and they're gonna be taken by their feet and the little ones shall be dashed against a stone. I could not as a believer in Jesus Christ, I could not think that about anybody. I don't want one Muslim baby to be dashed against a stone. I want them to live. There's a chance they can be saved. I know because I lived in a Muslim country and I saw Muslims saved. I know they can't be. But I don't want to wish anybody the little babies be dashed against the stone. These were Jews who had that kind of an attitude. A captive among captives. Ezekiel was that God, he looked up and he saw visions of God. The rest of them became bitter and they never got better. May God bless you and thank you for listening tonight. We're gonna study this book, God willing, you'll get a blessing out of it and you'll learn a lot as we study the book of Ezekiel on Sunday night as we stand and sing. Let's all stand. ♪ I will serve You have given life to me I was nothing before you found me You have given life to me Thank you for being in God's house tonight.