Open your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter
35. I've entitled the message tonight,
The Lord Was There. The Lord Was There. Let me just
begin reading through this chapter, just 15 verses. And I want to
put it in the context that will give us, hopefully, some understanding
of what's going on here in this prophecy. As you know, Ezekiel
had already pronounced the prophecies of God's wrath against all the
nations that surrounded Israel, even some that were at a distance
from Israel because of their hatred of Israel. And now he's
dealing with the future hope of Israel, which hope would be
realized fully and eternally and spiritually in the salvation
of God's people, God's elect, through the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the middle of that prophecy
of hope comes another section here, chapter 35, where he pronounces
God's judgment and God's wrath upon a heathen nation. Now, why
is that set here? And I believe I know. I believe
I know why. The wisdom of God here is just
mind-boggling to me. It's just something that I totally
stand amazed as I read through the Scriptures. But beginning
from chapter 32 all the way over to the end of the book, that's
what he's talking about, the hope of Israel. But here in chapter
35, we have God's wrath upon a place called Mount Seir. Look
at it, verse 2, Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,
saying, Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy
against it. Now what is Mount Seir? Well,
if you've read any commentaries on this, Mount Seir was a high
mountain, and it was also thought to be almost impregnable as a
defense against enemies. This Mount Seir was a high mountain,
in the country or the nation called Edom. Now, what's Edom? Well, Edom was, some preachers
say, a nickname for Esau. I don't know if it was a nickname
or not or just some sort of derivative, but they were descendants of
Esau. They were descendants of Esau.
And so, you may remember that When God was pronouncing judgment
against the nations, He condemned the Edomites back in chapter
25. We read about that. And then it's mentioned, Edom
is mentioned again in chapter 32 and verse 29 as those who
were destined to be in hell where Pharaoh would see them. Remember,
we talked about Pharaoh would have that comfort, and it was
a miserable comfort knowing that he wasn't alone in this judgment.
Mentioned Edom again, the Edomites. So why are they mentioned again?
Well, let's read on through the chapter. Look, it says in verse
three, And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O
Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand
against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will lay
thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know
that I am the Lord. You see, the whole point of this
is to show us that we're either going to know the Lord in His
sovereign grace in Christ Jesus, or we're going to know the Lord
in His judgment against our sins, His wrath. But we're going to
know the Lord. I'd rather know Him in Christ.
and then look at verse five now here's the reason that mount
seer edom the descendants of esau are specifically mentioned
again even amidst the the prophecy of hope why does he bring this
up again verse five because thou hast had a perpetual hatred now
that means a hatred that goes way back it goes way back well
now how far back does it go Well, it goes back to Jacob and Esau. And he says, and he said, and
has shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the
sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity
had an end, that is when God visited them with judgment. Verse
six, therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare
thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee, Sith or sense, that
word means sense, since thou hast not hated blood, even blood
shall pursue thee. Now blood there is murder. You
haven't hated murder. That's what he's talking about.
You're bloodthirsty. And you've done this, all right?
Verse 7. Thus will I make Mount Seir most
desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him
that returneth." So, in other words, those who go in and out
of this place, they're all going to be cut off. And that's a term
that means alienation from God. I'm cut off. Remember Isaiah,
when he saw his sin, he said, I'm cut off. He said, I'm a man
of unclean lips. and then he says in verse eight
I will fill his mountains with his slain men in thy hills and
in thy valleys and in all thy rivers shall they fall that are
slain with the sword I will make thee perpetual desolations for
your continual hatred will be continual desolations thy cities
shall not return and that's the way it was in fact Edom later
on was pretty much made desolate by none other than Israel. And this is not biblical revelation,
but in history, I don't know if you've read anything about
the history of Israel, but later on there was a family called
the Maccabees and they came along and they were the ones who conquered
Edom. And they kind of assimilated
Edom into the culture and turned them into Jews in an outward
way. They had to be circumcised, all of that. as far as physical
and so Edom sort of disappeared but Edom's influence was still
in Israel because you know Israel had an Edomite king when the
Lord Jesus Christ was born on this earth his name was Herod
he was an Edomite he was from Edomia he was a descendant of
Esau and so that's kind of appropriate here in this in what this whole
thing means you know when you think about Esau and you think
about Jacob the descendants of Esau, the descendants of Jacob.
And he says, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Now again,
that has to do with God's judgment. He says, in verse 10, he says,
because thou hast said that these two nations and these two countries
shall be mine. Now, I believe what he's talking
about there is the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, Israel
and Judah. This is what Edom wanted. They
perpetually thirsted after these lands, wanted to conquer them,
hated them, stood against them. And he says, you said they shall
be mine. We will possess it. Here's the
problem though. Here's why Edom could never possess
it. Whereas, or you might read it
in your concordance, though the Lord was there, the Lord was
there. So you said these things, you
hated Israel, you hated them, you coveted them, you wanted
to conquer them, even though the Lord was there. And the fact
that the Lord was there is what kept Israel safe. But hold on, I'll come back to
that. Verse 11, therefore as I live,
saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thine anger.
In other words, your hatred and your anger is going to turn back
on you. And he said, and according to thine envy, which thou hast
used out of thy hatred against them, and I will make myself
known among them when I have judged thee. So there's his judgment
again, knowledge. And thou shalt know that I am
the Lord, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies, which thou
hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid
desolate, they are given us to consume." What he's talking about
there is when Israel, when Judah was consumed, the Edomites, what
did they do? They clapped their hands. They
rejoiced. That's spoken of in several passages
of scripture. Verse 13. Thus with your mouth
you have boasted against me. Magnified yourself, literally
is what that means. You've magnified yourself against
God. No humility. You say, no, it's
all self-righteousness, self-evident power. And have multiplied your
words against me, I've heard them. Thus saith the Lord God,
when the whole earth rejoice, I will make thee desolate. And
so what he's saying there is that compared to the rest of
the bunch, you're going to be the worst. You're going to be
the worst off. You're going to, in comparison, you're going to
be desolate. And verse 15, as thou didst rejoice
at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate,
so I will do unto thee, thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir,
and all Edomia, that's what the country came to be called. And
remember, that's what Herod was, an Edomian. all Edomia, even
all of it, and they shall know that I am the Lord." Again, you
either know him in his grace and mercy in Christ or you'll
know him in his judgment against sin. So what we see here is Mount
Seir, Edom, Edomia, the descendants of Esau are judged specifically
and it's repeated in scripture over and over again. If you go
back and read the whole book of Obadiah, it'll take you probably
about 10 minutes to read the whole book of Obadiah. That whole
prophecy is a prophecy against Edom. Some people say that Obadiah
prophesied and wrote that prophecy just about the same time that
Jerusalem was destroyed. We don't know that for sure,
but we know that since the time of this perpetual hatred which
dates all the way back to Jacob and Esau, the Lord has intermittently
throughout the history of the world pronounced judgment and
even brought judgment on Edom until he brought them to another
desolation later on. And why? It was for their hatred
of Israel. Now this hatred of Israel and
judgment against Edom is said in the midst of covenant blessings
pronounced upon Israel who are what? the descendants of Jacob
and the issue of this whole thing is this that no matter how much
the enemies of God hate the people of God there's still hope for
the people of God and God is going to preserve his people
in spite of those enemies no matter who they are they might
even be your twin brother physically But God's going to preserve His
people and it points to the preservation of the church, the preservation
of Christ's church in spite of all her enemies. So what does
this passage do in the midst of all this hope? Well, first
of all, turn to Romans chapter 9. We've been studying Romans
9 and Romans 10. It does the same thing back here
in Ezekiel that it does here in Romans. Here this book of
Romans, one of the greatest theological books of the whole New Testament. I mean, it's like an annotated
Bible. There's not a subject that a gospel preacher or a passage
that a gospel preacher can preach on that he can't find support
in the book of Romans. And it's a book of hope. It's
a book of, it shows how it sets forth the gospel as the power
of God unto salvation and the righteousness of God in Christ.
And what does he do? He says all of that salvation
is a matter that God made a distinction. And he made that distinction
before the foundation of the world. And here's how he put
it. Look at Romans chapter 9 and verse 6. Talking about Israel. They are not all Israel which
are of Israel. Verse 7. Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. What is the significance of Isaac
there? You remember Isaac. He was the brother of Ishmael. But the promise that God made
to Abraham would not be fulfilled through Ishmael, but it would
be fulfilled through Isaac. And the promise that he's talking
about there is ultimately and infinitely more than just the
fact that Abraham and Sarah would have a miracle child in their
old age. That was part of the promise. But the promise extends
on to someone greater. And something greater. Look at
it. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God, but the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. Now, you and I, I don't think
anybody in here tonight is a physical descendant of Isaac. I may be
wrong about that, but really that doesn't matter. If this
were about physical promises, the only ones in here tonight
would be those who are physical descendants of Isaac, but it's
not. It's about spiritual promises. It's about salvation. It's about
how God justifies a sinner. That's the whole point of this.
And it's the promise of the Messiah to come, of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now the Jews could argue,
say, well, now wait a minute. Ishmael had a different mother
than Isaac. They had the same father, but
they didn't have the same mother that we do. We have, you know,
Rebekah was our mother. Hagar was theirs, or Sarah was
their mother. And Hagar was theirs, so they
had different mothers. Well, Paul cuts that argument
off. Look at verse 10. He said, and
not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even
by her father Isaac, for the children not being yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand not of works, but of him
that calleth it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the
younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. So passages like what we're reading
back in Ezekiel sets forth God's sovereign electing grace to save
his people. And who does he save? He saves
the descendants of Jacob, not physically, but spiritually. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now, it also sets
forth God's grace in salvation. Now who was Jacob? Was Jacob
somebody who deserved to be saved? And Esau somebody who deserved
to be hated? Well, yes. Esau was one who deserved
to be hated. But here's the thing. Jacob was
one who deserved to be hated. Neither one of these boys deserved
God's love. He says that. He says it in verse
11. Read it again. The children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but
of him that calleth." So in other words, neither one, or the salvation
of Jacob, God's loving Jacob, had nothing to do with Jacob's
works. And it's certainly, this verse
right here will put down anybody who has that telescope of time
trash in their theology. Because that just won't work.
God looking down through time and foreseeing what they would
do. No, it says right here just the opposite. And so why was
this all? Well, verse 14, what shall we
say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That's what it's about.
It's about mercy. He said, I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
So we see God's sovereign grace in salvation set forth in the
salvation of Jacob. Jacob is a sinner saved by grace.
Sinners, as I said, will either know God in judgment or in grace. There's no other way. And all
grace is in Christ Jesus. He is the Lord. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Turn to John 15. Passages like Ezekiel 35 also
set forth this fact, and that is the world's hatred of Christ
and his people. Now Esau, Edom, hates Jacob. Now that's the case. Look at
John 15 and verse 17. Christ commands us, he said,
these things I commanded you, that you love one another. If
the world, now the world here can be looked at spiritually
as descendants of Esau. You can look at it that way.
He says, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Jacob was chosen of God. Esau
was left to himself. And what we see is the people
of God, the seed of the Lord, the seed of the children of God,
they were chosen by God out of the world. The seed of Esau,
which you could say is the seed of Satan. They were left to themselves. And that's what he's saying here.
He goes on to tell them, he says, the world hates you. He said,
they'll put you out of their synagogues. They don't want to
be around you. And so what he's doing here again is setting forth
God's possession of his people. Now look back at Ezekiel 35.
Remember I said there in verse 10, here's the title of the message.
The Lord was there. The Lord was there. What's he
talking about? The Lord was there with his people. He was among his people. You
remember back in chapter 34, we saw the coming reign of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one true shepherd of the sheep. And considering
the state of Israel and Judah, think about it. Here they are
in captivity. Where's their hope? And then even later on, You know,
just at the time of the Messiah, think about it. As I mentioned
before, Israel was under the rule of Rome and they were under
an Edomite king, King Herod, a wicked man. So then, ask yourself
the question. Here he's talking about hope.
He's talking about the watchman. He's talking about the shepherd.
In chapter 36, he's going to be talking about the establishment
of the new covenant and the pouring in as God brings his people into
the kingdom. establishes his kingdom. He's
going to talk about life from the dead, the valley of dry bones,
all of that. He's going to talk about a new
temple, a new temple. And you know what people do with
that, don't you? They rely heavily on Ezekiel for their millennial
view. And they say, well, that's the
temple that's going to be built in Jerusalem. I believe it's
the church. The context begs for it. I don't see how you can
get it any other way. And besides, the glory of the Lord has departed
in this sense, and that is that the Ark of the Covenant is taken
away. Yet God is still not through with Israel. She is preserved. Now, why is she preserved? Well,
she's preserved because God's not through with them. The Messiah
hadn't yet come. That glory is going to return,
the Shekinah glory of God, which was taken away when they lost
the ark. But how is it going to come back
in the building of another physical ark? Are they going to build
another ark, another mercy seat? Are they going to reinstitute
the priesthood and bring back the sacrifices? Is that the way
it's going to happen? Well, everything I read in this
book tells me that all that would be a denial of Christ, a denial
of His obedience unto death, his sacrifice, his surety ship,
the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel, and put men back
under a conditional covenant. Therefore, your hope would not
be in Christ, it'd have to be in a better class of people who
wouldn't do the things that these folks back here did to deserve
this judgment, but who would be more cooperative, less rebellious,
less obstinate, more attuned to exercise their free will towards
doing good and not evil. Is that what the Bible teaches?
Well, you know better than that. The Bible doesn't teach that
at all. In fact, we just read it in Romans
9. He said, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Well, he's going to preserve his people. Now why? The Lord
is there. The Lord was there then, the
Lord is there now. How is He there now? In the person
and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know why God's
going to preserve us? He's here. Jehovah Shammah. That's what that is. Over in
Ezekiel 48, you know that's a big theme in the book, in these last
chapters of the book of Ezekiel. Look at the last chapter. And the last verse, I'm not going to get into all
these numbers tonight, but he's talking about the city. City. The rebuilt city. And he says in verse 35, it was
round about 18,000 measures, and the name of the city from
that day shall be, the Lord is there, Jehovah Shammah. And as long as the Lord is there,
you're safe. Why complain? Why fret? If the Lord is there,
you say, well, how do I know he's there? Well, he told, he
told his people, he said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake
you. I know. Let me tell you how I know the
Lord is here because Christ is preached here. Christ is loved here. Christ
is trusted here. You trust the preacher, the Lord's
not there. Because he's not in that kind
of deal. But he's where his people are.
And I'm not just talking about repeating that verse where two
or three are gathered. Yes, that's true. But my friend, the glory
shall never depart again. And even though, as I said, that
glory had departed from the nation in the form of the ark, it was
still Emmanuel's land. And God was not through with
Israel, and He wouldn't be through with them until the Messiah come.
The Lord will never forsake His people. We'll turn to one more
verse, we'll turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Let me conclude this
by relating it more to Esau. And this will help us to understand,
not only the context, but it'll help us to understand why we
know the Lord is here. He's here by his spirit, by his
word. In Hebrews 12 and verse 14, he says, follow peace with
all and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That
holiness there is not talking about moral perfection. We follow
peace and holiness when we follow Christ. He is the holy one of
Israel. And that holiness has to do with
our separation in Him, unto Him. Now people can pride themselves
on all kinds of things that they think separate them from other
people. The way they wear their hair, the clothes they wear,
what they don't do, what they do, I mean there's all kinds
of things that people, but that has nothing to do with holiness. When I was growing up, that's
what I thought holiness was. You'd see a church say, this
is the holiness tabernacle, and I'd always see the women, they'd
wear these 10-inch beehives, and they'd have these dresses,
you know, no makeup, you know, things like that. And that's
what I thought it was. Or they spoke in tongues, which
they interpret as being gibberish, which it's not. And I'm not saying
this just to make fun now. But what I'm saying is that doesn't
separate you from the world. That's not holiness. If you're
going to follow peace and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord, you're going to follow Christ. He is our holiness. And then he says in verse 15,
looking diligently, lest any man fail, which means fall from
the grace of God. Deny what he claims to believe.
That's what that simply means. Everybody says they believe grace.
But how do they fall from grace? When they look elsewhere for
holiness but in Christ. What does that prove? That proves
they never were looking to Christ. And so he says, lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. One of the reasons
that that section of scripture in Ezekiel is set in the midst
of this hope is what Esau represents. He represents this root of bitterness
that comes over a willful rejection of what they call a birthright
here. And what was that birthright? That birthright was a saving
interest and value of the things of the Lord wrapped up in the
way God saves sinners through Christ. It wasn't money. It wasn't an inheritance of land.
It was a spiritual position in the family of leadership, but
one who would lead the family in the ways of God. But Esau
didn't care for those things. He wasn't concerned with those
things. All he was concerned with was the things of the world. his fleshly appetites his fleshly
materials he didn't care and like I said you know you remember
when Jacob ran away and when he came back Esau was a rich
man he had plenty had nothing to do with money the birthright
was the spiritual head of the family who would lead the family
in the ways of God in Christ and it says in verse 17 for you
know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing
he was rejected where he found no place of repentance though
he sought it carefully with tears that's not godly repentance he
was just upset that his brother got the best of him and that
was it now what an awful thing to be of the race of Esau by
nature and by practice a race of evil doers children that are
full of hatred and bitterness against the Lord and against
his Christ even the most dedicated an outwardly righteous-appearing
religionist. You tell him, tell them that
their hope of salvation, if it's in anything but Christ and Him
crucified and His righteousness alone, you watch them turn. Tell
them you're lost. Watch them. That spirit of Esau,
that root of bitterness will come out. and not only born under
the condemnation of a broken law but their very nature indisposed
to all the desires of the flesh. And that's why we have to be
aware of this root of bitterness springing up in our souls lest
there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel
of bread sold his birthright. Where does our interest lie?
Where is our hope really? Esau despised his birthright. Man by nature despises the Christ
of this book. And they soon advanced to this
point to get rid of him, get rid of his people. Lord, blessed
be forever thy name, in keeping the redeemed, thine Israel, from
the Esau's of every generation. And that's what he's doing there.
You see, as long as the Lord's there, The Esau's of this generation
cannot harm us. They cannot destroy us. And by
the grace of God, they won't even upset us in that sense. So as far as upsetting our hope,
you understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying we're not going
to get upset. We will. We're human, but upsetting our hope. No, no. Christ is our hope. All right.