And we'll think about gospel here in 2 Peter 3. This is God's word. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of a reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where's the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. By the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for the fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as a day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Well, let's get right into it. We're gonna have another reading this week, but I will give you an introduction for what we're looking at in our text. I want you to imagine that you're in a formal religious setting. where people not only need to be comforted with good news, but they also need to be convicted of their sin and see the righteousness of a holy God so that they can turn from their evil ways and be healed. Without the bad news, the good news is completely meaningless. So you could be at an evangelistic crusade, you could be at a funeral, you could be at a church service. Imagine that somebody hands a photocopied text of a biblical passage for the event to the reader, and as they look it over, they begin to highlight certain things in it that they don't find particularly helpful for the occasion. They unilaterally decide, with no discussion or debate, to only give a partial reading, simply skipping over all the parts that talk about God's anger or wrath or iniquities and secret sins and the need to fear God. Later on, as someone who didn't have their Bible with them to read along, you noticed out loud to a friend that the reading felt like it was shorter than it should have been, and that something just felt off. The reader overhears your conversation and proudly hands you a copy of the text that they had read, with all their markings crossing out all the nasty wrath and judgment stuff, because it wasn't appropriate. Sadly, this is the way many Christians today treat their Bibles and the God who inspired it. Importantly, there's nothing new under the sun. In the days of Isaiah and Micah, prior to the northern kingdom of Israel being taken into captivity, we read of people saying things like this, to the seers, do not see, and to the prophets, do not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions. Micah said, if a man should go about in utter wind and lies saying, I will preach to you of wine and strong drink, he would be the preacher for this people. Because they refused to hear God's words of judgment against sin and repent, the Lord brought the sins of the Northern Kingdom down upon their own heads as the brutal Assyrian army ransacked the North, massacring without mercy and bringing whoever remained into captivity in a faraway land. Now sadly, 100 years later, the people of Judah did not learn the lesson, and so we read prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel saying things like this. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, it shall be well with you. And to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, no disaster will come upon you. Or the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule at their own direction. My people love to have it so. But what will you do when the end comes? And even in our own reading today, we find the prophets saying, son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house who have eyes to see, but do not see, who have ears to hear, but hear not for they are a rebellious house. And because they have led my people astray saying peace when there is no peace, and because the people build the wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash. Of course, this is the way it probably is with every generation. For who truly wants in their flesh to be confronted with, as the words of the famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards put it, sinners in the hands of an angry God? Paul, speaking to both Timothy's era and our own, warned this. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. So today we're going to be making our way into the next, the second main section of Ezekiel's amazing book in prophecy. I've been working off a book length Chiastic structure is our outline, so we're entering into the second part of this. In the structure, we find that the second main section of the book is a series of oracles against Israel and Jerusalem in particular. These go from chapters 12 to 23, and they are directly paralleled on the other side of the book with oracles that take place in chapter 34 to 39. Now, as we've become accustomed to doing, we're going to read a large portion of the text together today. However, there's just too much material here for me to be able to make it through all of this in a reasonable time this morning. So I've decided that I'm going to read chapters 12 through 18 today, and then we'll look at 19 to 24 at the next point when we do that. But before reading this, I want us to get familiar with the material and what it is that we're going to hear. As my short introduction was supposed to hint at, we are entering a sobering section of God's word, and I know if the last 11 chapters weren't sobering enough, right? This is continuing it. The prophet delivers oracles of judgment against Judah with a vividness that demands our attention. The selective hearing of God's word in the introduction mirrors Judah's refusal to face the bad news that Ezekiel proclaims, that their sin and the coming exile is happening. It was delivered around 593 BC to the exiles in Babylon and he's going to use things like symbolic acts and oracles and allegories and parables to confront a rebellious house who have eyes to see but do not, and ears to hear, but do not. So I want to think about kind of the four genres or the forms of communicating that we'll be hearing here a little bit more closely. First one is symbolic acts. Symbolic acts are things that we've actually seen already in Ezekiel. They involve Ezekiel's physically enacting out God's message to vividly portray Judah's judgment, making him a, quote, sign to the people. In chapter 12, he's going to pack a bag and dig through a wall to symbolize exile, reinforcing that the people will, through this act, know that I am the Lord. These acts grab our attention. They bypass the people's refusal to hear the bad news and set a dramatic tone for the oracles of judgment. Oracles are the second thing. These are direct prophetic pronouncements from God, delivering judgment with clarity and authority, often in the form of a covenant lawsuit. In chapters 13 and 14 and 22, Ezekiel condemns false prophets for lying divination and Judah for idols of their heart as he confronts their spiritual condition. These oracles expose Judah's sin and resistance to hard truth, urging accountability in the structure of the text. You have allegories. These are extended metaphors to depict Judah's covenant unfaithfulness. They portray sin through vivid imagery. Chapter 15 talks about a useless vine, and 16, an adulterous bride who played the whore, as it illustrates the betrayal of Israel. These allegories highlight Judah's refusal to face judgment, preferring false assurances instead. And then you have parables. Parables are not a form of storytelling that Jesus made up. They've been around forever. Ezekiel employs them to convey judgment and rebellion as he engages listeners with symbolic stories. In chapter 17, the parable of two eagles in a vine depicts Judah's covenant-breaking alliances mirrored with chapter 19's lamentations. These parables underscore Judah's rebellion. challenging their ears' tickled avoidance of God's warnings." So these chapters, going all the way through chapter 24, are themselves chiastic, meaning that they bend back on themselves. They begin and end with how we know that God alone is the Lord. And then they center on the place that we will end our reading today, which is chapter 18, turning from sin and repenting that you may not die, making it a very appropriate place to stop as we look at a wonderful part of God's nature as it regards his severe judgment that is now coming down on the people for breaking the covenant. Though delivered to the exiles in Babylon, Ezekiel's message targets Jerusalem, its leaders, prophets, and people who cling to false assurances rather than face their covenant unfaithfulness. In chapter 13, false prophets smear with whitewash, promising peace to a people steeped in idolatry. Chapter 14's elders are rebuked for idols in their heart, refusing God's call to repent. In chapter 15 and 16, betrays all of Judah as a useless vine and an adulterous bride, betraying God with idols and foreign alliances. Chapter 17's parables of two eagles warn of the rebellion's consequences, leading to chapter 18's covenant lawsuit, where God declares the soul whose sins will die, and yet he pleads with them to turn and live. The refusal to hear the bad news echoes our own temptation to avoid God's justice, seeking only to hear the things that soothe us. Ezekiel's role is to embody God's message, to become assigned to Judah through actions like trembling over his meal. His words carry divine urgency, confronting the people who want comfort without conviction. The emotional weight, anger at false prophets, sorrow in allegories of betrayal, hope in repentance, reveals God's heart, his longing for his people to return. The repetition of they will know that I am the Lord that you'll hear at the beginning of this is both a judgment and a call to recognize God's authority. This reading covers these chapters and it forms the first half of Ezekiel's oracles of judgment that culminate In this Turn and Live, and in our next reading in a few weeks, we'll read the next part of this, where judgment intensifies, leading all the way to Jerusalem's fall. Now, as we read these chapters, I'm gonna challenge you to examine your own hearts. How are you going to react to Ezekiel's message? Imagine a place where you would actually hear this read in public. It won't happen very often. I remember how striking it was to read the first 11 chapters and how overwhelming it was to hear the judgment, this is not what we hear in churches these days. How are you going to react to this message? Do we like Judah turn from hard truths as we prefer smooth things instead in church? Ezekiel's message is clear, only by facing our sin can we heed God's mercy. As we listen, I want you to resist the urge to tickle our ears with false peace like Judah did. Instead, hear God's full word, his justice against sin, his grief over rebellion, and his invitation to repent. The good news only makes sense with the backdrop of the bad news. It's not ours to choose which parts of the Bible we will read and which parts we will cross out. Only its totality can give us the fullness of the God we have come to worship today. And then finally, I want to give you a few things to think about related to Christ as we listen to this. First, this arc from judgment to repentance foreshadows Christ's coming mission. Jesus fulfills God's judgment by bearing sin's penalty on the cross and offers repentance through his resurrection. Listen to Ezekiel's progression as pointing to Christ who turns judgment into salvation for those who repent, unlike Judah's refusal. Second, Ezekiel's role as a sign trembling with God's grief prefigures Christ, the ultimate sign, who bore God's wrath in his Gethsemane's agony and on the cross. Look at Ezekiel, the son of man's burden, as a shadow of Christ suffering for our sins, calling us to respond to his sacrifice rather than resist like Judah did. Third, the imagery of a useless vine and an adulterous bride both point to Christ, the true vine, who fulfills the covenant Judah broke, his exile to the cross and redemption of the unfaithful bride transform these images for you as disciples, his church, his new covenant bride. Fourth, think about how catchphrases like know that I am the Lord and idols in their heart point you to Christ who reveals God's lordship and cleanses your idolatrous hearts. Reflect on your personal idols and how trusting in Christ's atonement is the opposite of Judah's preference for not hearing God's word. And then finally, the lawsuits find the resolution in Christ, who faces God's judgment and offers repentance. Here God's case as fulfilled in Christ's cross, calling us to repent and find mercy rather than false peace. May these chapters awaken us to our own idols and stir us to turn back to God, to draw us to the hope of his mercy and trusting the Lord who speaks through his prophet. Ezekiel 12, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but see not, who have ears to hear but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. As for you, son of man, prepare for yourself an exile's baggage and go into exile by day in their sight. You shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand though they are a rebellious house. You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight as baggage for exile and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight as those do who must go into exile. In their sight, dig through the wall and bring your baggage out through it. In their sight, you shall lift up baggage upon your shoulder and carry it out at dusk. It shall cover your face that you may not see the land for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel. As I did, as I was commanded, I brought out my baggage by day as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands. I brought out my baggage at dusk, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight. In the morning the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, what are you doing? Say to them, thus says the Lord God. This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are in it. Say, I am a sign for you as I have done, so shall it be done to them. They shall go into exile, into captivity. And the prince who is among them shall lift his baggage upon his own shoulder at dusk and shall go out. They shall dig through the wall to bring him out through it. He shall cover his face that he may not see the land with his eyes. And I will spread my net over him. and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans. Yet he shall not see it, he shall die there. I will scatter toward every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all his troops, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among the countries. But I will let a few of them escape from the sword, from famine and pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they go, that they may know that I am the Lord. And the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, eat your bread with quaking and drink water with trembling and with anxiety. And say to the people of the land, thus says the Lord God concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel, they shall eat their bread with anxiety and drink water in dismay. In this way, her land will be stripped of all it contains on account of the violence of all those who dwell in it. And the inhabited city shall be laid waste and the land shall become a desolation and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, what is this proverb that you have about the land of Israel, saying, the days grow long and every vision comes to nothing. Tell them therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will put an end to this proverb. And they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel, but say to them, the days are near, the fulfillment of every vision. For there shall be no more, any more false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. For I am the Lord, I will speak the word that I will speak, and it will be performed. I will no longer be delayed, but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord God. And the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, behold, they are of the house of Israel, and they say the visions that he sees is for many days from now, as he prophesies of a time far off, Therefore say to them, thus says the Lord God, none of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord God. Chapter 13. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit. and have seen nothing. Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. You have not gone up into the breaches or built up a wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, declares the Lord when the Lord has not sent them, and that they expect him to fulfill their word. Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination whenever you have said, declares the Lord, although I have not spoken? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord God, precisely because they have misled my people, saying, peace, when there is no peace, because when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash. Say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall. There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. And when the wall falls, it will not be said to you, where is the coating with which you smeared it? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there will be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end. And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground so that its foundations will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Thus I will spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, the wall is no more. nor those who smeared it, the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Lord God. And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of the people who prophesy out of their own hearts. Prophesy against them and say, thus says the Lord God. Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature in the hunt for souls. Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive? You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live by your lying to my people who listens to lies. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord, because I have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him. And you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand, and you will know that I am the Lord. Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and they set stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, thus says the Lord God, anyone of the house of Israel who takes his idol into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with a multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For any of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I, the Lord, will answer him myself. I will set my face against that man. I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet. I will stretch out my hand against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel, and they shall bear their punishment. The punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike, that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord God. And the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, when the land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it, and break its supply of bread, and send famine upon it, and cut off it from man and beast, even these three, if these three, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God. If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one pass through because of the beast. Even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon the land and say, let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered. or if I send a pestilence into the land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off it from man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live declares the Lord God, they would neither. deliver neither son nor daughter, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. For thus says the Lord God, how much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast. But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. Behold, when they come out to you and you see their ways and their deeds, You will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem. For all that I have brought upon it, they will console you when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done it without cause. All that I have done in it, declares the Lord God. Chapter 15. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood? The vine branch that is among the trees of the forest, is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it? Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything? Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I have given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them. And you will know that I am the Lord when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God. Chapter 16. Again, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say, thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem. Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, on the day you were born, your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No, I pitied you to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field for you were a board on the day that you were born. And when I passed by, I saw you wallowing in your blood. I said to you in your blood, live. I said to you in your blood, live. I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again, I saw you. Behold, you were at the age for love. And I spread a corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God. and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in a fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring in your nose and earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver And your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty. For it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God. But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby. your beauty became his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been seen, nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. Also, my bread that I gave you, I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey. You set them before for a pleasing aroma, and so it was, declares the Lord God. And you took your sons and your daughters, and you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the day of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. And after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, declares the Lord God. You built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. At the head of every street, you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the whore also with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied. Yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whorings also with the trading lands of the Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied. How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute because you scorned payment, adulterous wife who receives strangers instead of her husband. Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with their whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment while no payment was given to you. Therefore, you were different. Therefore, oh prostitute, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure and those you loved and all those you hated. And I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness. And I will judge you as a woman who committed adultery and shed blood are judged and bring upon you the blood of the wrath and jealousy. And I will give you into their hands and they shall throw down your vaulted chambers and break down your lofty palaces. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. They shall bring you upon a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. And they will burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. And I will make you stop playing the whore, and you will also give payment no more. So I will satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry, because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things. Therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations? Behold, everyone who uses Proverbs will use this proverb about you, like mother, like daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children, And you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And your sister, elder sister, is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you. And your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom, with her daughters. Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations, within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them. When I saw it, Samaria has not committed half your sins. Yet you committed more abominations than they, and have made your sister appear righteous by all the abominations that you've committed. Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins, in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous. I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters. I will restore your fortunes in the midst, that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them. As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you. You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord God, I will deal with you as you have done. You have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters both your elder and your younger, and give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame. When I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God. Chapter 17, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, propound a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel. Say, thus says the Lord God, a great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar. He broke off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade and set it in the city of merchants. Then he took up the seed of the land and planted it in the fertile soil. He placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willowed twig and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine and its branches turned toward him and its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out bows. And there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage, and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed of where it was planted, that he might water it. It had been planted on good soil by abundant waters, that it might produce branches and bear fruit and become a noble vine. Thus says the Lord God, will it thrive? Will he not put up roots and cut off its fruits so that it withers, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots. Behold, it is planted. Will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it? Wither away on the bed where it is sprouted? Then the word of the Lord came to me. Say now to the rebellious house, do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took her king and her princes and brought them with him to Babylon. And he took one of the royal offspring and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath, the chief man of the land he had taken away, that the kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up and keep his covenant that it might stand. But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he thrive? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape? As I live, declares the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, whose covenant with whom he broke in Babylon, he shall die. Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war when mounds are cast up. and siege walls built to cut off many lives. He despised the oath in breaking the covenant. And behold, he gave his hand and did all these things. He shall not escape. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, as I live, surely it is my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head. I will spread my net over him and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treachery he's committed against me and all The pick of his troops shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered to every wind, and you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken. Thus says the Lord God, I myself will take a sprig from a lofty top of its cedar and set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel, I will plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shade of its branches. Birds of every sort will nest in all the trees of the field and know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree. I make high the low tree. Dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it. Chapter 18. The word of the Lord came to me. What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel? The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. soul of who he who sins shall die if a man is righteous and does what is just and right if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel does not defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes and keeps my rules by acting faithfully, he is righteous. He shall surely live, declares the Lord God. If he fathers a son who is violent, a shudder of blood, who does any of these things, though he himself did none of these things, who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor's wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends it interest and takes profit, shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood shall be upon himself. Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done. He sees and does not do likewise. He does not eat upon the mountain or lift up his eye to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife, does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment. withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes. He shall not die for his father's iniquity. He shall surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity. Yet you say, why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father, when the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him. For the righteousness that he has done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed. For them he shall die. Yet you say, the way of the Lord is not just. Hear now, O house of Israel, is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. For the injustice that he has done, he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, the way of the Lord is not just. O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel. Everyone according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed. and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God. So turn and live. And that ends the reading of Ezekiel. You can see that we're a little early, but if I would have kept going through chapter 23, we would be here for another 50 minutes. Let's pray together. Lord, we would ask that we would have these words imprinted upon our hearts. These are truly sobering things. We're halfway through just this section, and then we have the section of the judgment on the nations after that. It's a lot of text in Ezekiel's prophecy that is mostly bad news. It's a word that our culture and our churches and we ourselves desperately need to hear so that we might see the righteous God that is before us, the one we have come to worship in better purity and truth than we have previously. Lord, you are a holy God. We dare not presume anything when we come to worship you. The only reason we stand is because you have brought us to repentance and to faith in Christ who took your wrath upon himself so that we might not have to suffer the same kinds of things for our sins that Israel has suffered as it's been prophesied and as it came to be fulfilled in history. impress upon us the seriousness of these texts, but show us your grace and your mercy in Christ. And we pray especially that you would do that now as we come to the Lord's table, which teaches us the fulfillment of your judgment and your justice and your righteousness and your holiness, and the place where mercy and your kindness and compassion are able to meet and kiss with righteousness and holiness. the place where Jesus died for our sins so that we might be forgiven of what we have done against you. Hear our prayer, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.