Let's read from Luke again this
afternoon. Luke 18. Luke chapter 18, we'll
read down through verse 17. This scripture goes along with
what Brother Brad preached this morning. Luke 18. And he spake
a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray
and not to faint, saying, There was in a city a judge, which
feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in
that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine
adversary. And he would not for a while,
but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God,
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his
own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? I tell you that he shall avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth. And he spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others. He said, two men went up into
the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men, or extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. I tell you this man went down
to the house justified rather than the other. For every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased. and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. And they brought unto him also
infants, that he would touch them. But when his disciples
saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him
and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them
not, for if such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you,
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child
shall in no wise enter therein. In your prayers this week, remember
Sister Fran Kirkpatrick, she'll be having an operation on Wednesday.
So let's remember her in prayer. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Ezekiel chapter one. Ezekiel chapter one. I suppose it might be an unusual
chapter for us to look at tonight, but if we look at it, I believe
tonight we're going to see the very grace of God in this chapter,
all about Him, all about our Lord. When we study through scripture,
read through scripture on our own, I, for myself, I always
ask the Lord to show me Himself as I read. I don't want to say
anything else or anybody else, although there are history, much
history and other things that are written there. But, you know,
if you look closely, you'll find the Lord Jesus Christ on every
page. And he's the one with whom we
have to do. He's the one that we are going
to see one way or another as a sheep or as a goat. And the
sheep, he'll say, well done. Enter in, enjoy. The goats, he'll
say, depart from me into everlasting darkness, where there's weeping,
wailing, gnashing of teeth. Ezekiel chapter one is unusual
because Ezekiel sees four beasts and he sees a wheel within a
wheel. But what we're going to talk about tonight is what it
takes to save a man, what it takes to save a man. Let's read Ezekiel chapter one.
Now it came to pass in the 30th year, in the fourth month, in
the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the
river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions
of God. In the fifth day of the month,
which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity. The word of the Lord came expressly,
I like that, do you see that? Came expressly unto Ezekiel. That's how he comes to us, isn't
it? He comes expressly to us one-on-one. Ezekiel the priest,
the son of Uzziah, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river
Chebar. And the hand of the Lord was
there upon him. And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind
came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself. and a brightness was about it,
and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of
the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof
came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was their
appearance." Notice their appearance here. They had the likeness of
a man. There's a man here. A likeness
of a man, these four creatures. And everyone had four faces.
Everyone had four wings. And their feet were straight
feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's
foot. And they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
And they had the hands of a man under their wings, and on their
four sides, and they four had their faces and their wings.
Their wings were joined one to another. They turned not when
they went, they went every one straight forward. As for the
likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man and the
face of a lion on the right side, and they had, therefore, had
the face of an oxen on the left side, therefore, had also had
the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces, and their
wings were stretched upward, two wings of every one were joined
one to another, and two covered their bodies, and they went every
one straight forward. whither the spirit was to go,
they went, and they turned not when they went. As for the likeness
of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals
of fire, and like the appearance of lamps. It went up and down
among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out
of the fire went forth lightning. The living creatures ran and
returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Now, as
I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth
by the living creatures with his four faces, the appearance
of the wheels, and their work was like unto the color of beryl,
and they four had one likeness, and their appearance and their
work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they
went, they went upon their four sides, and they turned not when
they went. As for their rings, they were
so high that they were dreadful, and their rings were full of
eyes round about them bore. And when the living creatures
went, the wheels went by them. And when the living creatures
were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever
the spirit was to go, they went. Thither was their spirit to go.
And the wheels were lifted up over against them, for the spirit
of the living creature was in them. Notice verse 20 there.
We've been saying living creatures all along. Now in verse 20, It's
a single creature. A living creature was in the
wheels. When those went, these went.
And when those stood, these stood. And when those were lifted up
from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them.
For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And the likeness of the firmament
upon the heads of the living creature was as the color of
the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above,
and under the firmament were their wings straight, the one
toward the other. Everyone had two, which covered
on this side, and everyone had two, which covered on that side,
their bodies. And when they went, I heard the
noise of the wings, like the noise of great waters, as the
voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an
host. When they stood, they let down
their wings. And there was a voice from the
firmament which was over their head when they stood and had
let down their wings. And above the firmament that
was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the
appearance of a sapphire stone. And upon the likeness of the
throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon
it. And I saw as the color of amber,
as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance
of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins
even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it
had brightness round about. And the appearance of the bull
that was in the cloud in the day of the rain, so was the appearance
of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell
upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake, and he said
unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto
thee. And the Spirit entered into me,
when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard
him that spake unto me. Father, I pray that in these
next few moments that we will see our Savior, Jesus Christ,
anew, afresh. We will see his free, sovereign
grace and how wonderful our God is and what you accomplished
for us there on Calvary. Oh, Father, make us mindful of
these things. I pray that you would Be with
Fran and the doctors on Wednesday. Lord, that your will would be
done. Lord, that you would bring her
back to us all better. We pray these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. What does it take to save
a man? We do know that whom the Lord
chooses, he effectually calls. What other purpose would he have
in choosing? It's as the psalmist David wrote
in Psalm 110 verse 3, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. That's how it happens. Hold your
place here in Ezekiel and turn with me to Romans chapter 9.
Romans chapter 9. Whom the Lord chooses, he effectually
calls. In Romans chapter 9, Paul had
something to say about that. Chapter 9 beginning with verse
10. Romans 9, verse 10. There was a promise that Sarah
would have a son, verse 10, and not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for 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. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 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, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,
whom the Lord chooses, he effectually calls. He said to his disciples,
you have not chosen me, but I've chosen you. He tells us, Paul tells us in
2 Timothy 1, verse 9, that we are chosen, it was his purpose
that we would be chosen before the foundation of the world we'd
be called out and given this wonderful, free, and sovereign
grace that God has. He said to Jeremiah, before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. He said to Paul that he
was separated from his mother's womb to preach the gospel to
the Gentiles. And Ezekiel here, we're going
to find what it takes to save a man But let's understand that
the word Ezekiel means the strength of God. God is strong. That's what Ezekiel means. He
is mighty to save. God is strong. The strong hand
of the Lord is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is mighty to save. Now let's look at it here in
Ezekiel chapter 1, verse 1. He says, It came to pass in the
30th year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month,
as I was among the captives by the river of Chibar, that this
happened to me. You see, the first thing that
God tells and shows Ezekiel is the inability of man to save
himself. The children of Israel has had
Babylon come down and Assyria first, Assyria first, and then
Babylon come down and carry them off captive. And they would be
away from their homes, away from their place of worship, away
from everything. As a matter of fact, these captives
were brought into Babylon and some of them, like Daniel, Azariah,
Mishael, and Azariah, better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. When they were brought in, they
were brought in to learn the ways of the Chaldeans. They were
not brought in to worship their own God. They were brought away
from there. And the River Chebar separated
them from where the Promised Land would be. And here's Ezekiel
standing at the River Chebar among all the captives. And we are captives. We're unable
to save ourselves. Your sins have separated between
you and your God. He won't even hear you. Among
the captains, there's a great gulf fixed between us and the
promised land. It's very similar to the rich
man and Lazarus in the gospel of Luke. You remember? There
they were. They had both died. Lazarus was
in Abraham's bosom. He was enjoying his God. The rich man was in hell. He
lift up his eyes being in torment. And he wanted Father Abraham
just to send Lazarus just one little drop of water. Just stick
his finger in water and come and cool my tongue. And you remember
what the Lord said? There's a great gulf fixed between
us. He can't come to you and you can't go to Him. There's
a great gulf fixed between us and God. There is no way that
a man in his own will, in his own flesh, with somebody helping
him, whatever, a preacher, a grandma, or whatever, there is no way
that a man could come to God on his own. He's unable. He's dead. What can a dead man
do? He's blind. How can he see the
way? He's deaf. How could he hear
anything? Unless God does something for
that man. And that's what God did for Ezekiel. And that's why I like that expression
in verse 3. The word of the Lord came expressly
unto Ezekiel. Do you remember the day? Do you
remember the day that He opened your eyes? Do you remember the
day that He brought you to life? Do you remember the day that
He made you to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do
you remember the day that He expressly came to you and said,
here it is, here's the truth? I remember that day just as vividly
as can. I couldn't tell you what day
it was, but I remember that day just as vividly as I can. When
God opened my eyes, opened my ears, opened my heart, gave me
new life, and the Spirit of God called me. I remember that day.
That's what he's talking about here. The word of the Lord came
expressly unto Ezekiel. Now this was a rebellious nation.
These captives were rebellious. For chapter two, four times,
he calls them rebels. He calls them stiff-necked. He
calls them impudent. That's the people of Israel.
And God brought God's hand through Nebuchadnezzar, pulled these
people away from their places and put them in another land
and scattered them. The wonderful thing is there's
always a remedy. Always a remnant. That's why
God spoke expressly to Ezekiel. He was part of that remnant.
There was a remnant that God was going to bring back out after
70 years. There's Ezekiel. There's a remnant. There's one of God's own. There's
one of God's people. one that was far off. Ezekiel
was asked in chapter 37, Ezekiel, and he looked out on this vast
valley of bones, dry bones, and he was asked by the Lord, Ezekiel,
can these bones live? And Ezekiel turns around and
says, Lord, you know, only God knows whether these bones can
live. Only God knows whether these souls have life in them.
Only God knows whether they are a sheep or they're a goat. Only
God knows. Now, what does it take to save
a man who is unable to save himself? Well, first of all, it takes
the revelation of God that we've been talking about. Look in verse
one, the latter part of the verse, that the heavens were open and
I saw visions of God. It takes a revelation of God. It takes God revealing. That's
what it takes to save a man. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed, Isaiah asked. God must be revealed. And He's
revealed through His Word. He's revealed through the preaching
of His Word. And the Spirit of God takes the
preaching of the Word and produces faith and life in an individual. It begins with the Lord. Salvation,
God's grace, begins with the Lord. I'm not telling you anything
you've never heard. I'm just telling you what God
is saying. And He says it to us. Every time
we hear the gospel, it starts with God. There's no other starting
place. We can whip up all the emotion
we want to. We can jump and run and shout
and run the pews and skip around. We can fall dead in the Spirit
so they say. We can do all kinds of things,
but we will never muster it up. It's God who's the first cause. It's God who brings the word. No man cometh unto the father,
but by me, Jesus Christ said, and that is the only way that
any person is going to be walking with God and be a saved man. Flesh and blood don't reveal
this. Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. The Lord Jesus said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that
to you, Peter, but my father, which is in heaven, he's the
one that revealed it to you. Expressly, it came to Ezekiel. And you see that in the latter
part of verse 3, the hand of the Lord was there upon him. God's hand was on him. There's
a message that Henry Mahon preached. You can get it off of Sermon
Audio, On the Trail of God's Sheep. It's a good, if you haven't
heard it, you ought to hear it. And if you've heard it, hear
it again. It's good. It's good. Of course, all the
messages I've ever heard of him are good. But on the trail of
God's sheep, God is in the process of going to his sheep. He came
to seek and to save that which was lost. Wasn't that a good
message this morning? I heard it on the Lantana Grace
Live. That was a good message. God's
after his sheep. He's going after his sheep. It's
first cause is God. God is the one that's doing it.
He reaches out and touches them just like he touched the lepers,
just like he touched the blind men. He reaches out and touches
them. What does it take to save a man? It takes the revelation of God
Himself, who God is, how wonderful, powerful, glorious God is, and
how that God in eternity past chose a people for Himself, and
how that God in His Son, His beloved Son, gave Himself willingly
to be the mediator, the redemption, the propitiation, the substitute,
and the sacrifice for those people that they may bring many sons
unto glory. Notice verse 4. And I looked,
and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north. A whirlwind
came out of the north. It reminds me of what Hosea said
in Hosea chapter 8. They have sown the wind, they'll
reap the whirlwind. You see, not only does God reveal
Himself, but God reveals His wrath on sin. The wrath of God
is revealed against all ungodliness. Romans chapter 1 and verse 18
tells us, God by no means will clear the guilty. The wrath of
God is there. He's angry with the wicked every
day, David said. God reveals himself. He reveals
his wrath. What does it take? It takes the
very purpose of God. It takes the gospel itself. And
the gospel is not the actions of the gospel that we so many
times hear people say, you know, Jesus Christ died, was buried
and rose again. That's the proof of the gospel. That's what the gospel does.
What is the gospel? It's the power of God under salvation. That's what the gospel is. That's
how Paul explains it. It's the power of God under salvation. It's that strength of Ezekiel,
the strength of God. God is strong. It's the power
of God under salvation. And his purpose is that his gospel
would be there for his people, those living creatures that we
read about. If you look at verse 10, there
are four faces that are given to that living creature. There's
the face of a man, there's a face of a lion, there's a face of
an ox, and there's the face of an eagle. That's Jesus Christ.
That's my Lord. The face of a man, he became
a man. Manifested, God manifested in
the flesh. He became a man for us. He had
to be the perfect man to be the perfect sacrifice for his people. And that's what Hebrews chapter
10 tells us. He was the perfect man. There
was the face of the lion. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. He's the king. Can you imagine that that king
who is sovereign, that one who sits on the throne and guides
the affairs of men, stepped down to become a man with the likeness
of us? yet without sin. He became a
man. The King of kings becomes a man. He died there on the cross for
you and me. He's the Lord, our righteousness,
dying there on the cross. He is God Himself dying there
on the cross and God pours out His wrath on His only Son there
on the cross for you and for me. That's why that body was
prepared. It was prepared to be a sacrifice. It was prepared to be an offering
to God for God's people. That was on the right side. On
the left side of the living creatures, you see an ox, the face of an
ox, and the face of an eagle. The ox is the bullock, the whole
burnt offering. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
whole burnt offering for every one of us, every one of His sheep. He's the whole burnt offering.
He accomplished salvation. It's all done. He paid for every
sin. He purged those sins from His
own people when He expressly called them. In His effectual
providence, when He called them. Boy, isn't that good? He took
away our sin. I stand before God complete,
don't you? I stand before God without sin,
don't you? Ah, if you knew me. You say,
you know, I know myself. Well, that's not me. That's us
in the flesh. But in Jesus Christ, there is
therefore now no condemnation, no condemnation. We cannot be
condemned. Who is he that condemns us? It
is Christ that died. Who could condemn us? No one,
because Jesus Christ took care of all our sin. He consumed all
the wrath of God. When God turned out the lights
on his son for three hours and his son hanged there in darkness
and cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? The
reason was that he became sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He's the bullock
in verse 10. He's also the eagle, the high
and lofty one that inhabits eternity, the most high God. He is God
himself. You see, he is the sacrifice
who was God, who is God. He's the sacrifice. Oh, thank
the Lord that he sacrificed himself, his life, and bled and died for
you and me. Not only the sacrifice, but he's
the substitute. I should have died on that cross. I should pay the penalty for
my sin. If I got what I deserved, I would
die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. But Jesus Christ took what I
deserved upon Himself and died in my place. My substitute. He took my place. And salvation
is accomplished. It's the purpose of God. And
I want you to notice, look in verse 9. Speaking of these beasts, their
wings were joined one to another. They turned not when they went.
They went every one straight forward. Straight forward. That's how the Gospel comes.
Straight forward. That's how Jesus Christ comes
to seek and to save His own. They don't turn to the side,
one side or the other. He goes straight forward. When He goes after His sheep,
He's going straight forward. to get him. And he will get him. When he calls, we come. It's
as simple as that. When he calls. In Isaiah chapter 50, speaking
of Jesus Christ, it says he set his face as a flint, just like
a flintstone. He said it. And he set his face
to go to Jerusalem, just like a flintstone. He said it. And
he went to Jerusalem. He knew what was going to happen
to him there. He knew that they were going
to ridicule him. They were going to deny him.
They were going to betray him. They were going to crucify him. He knew what was going to happen. And yet he set his face as a
flint and ran right to it. What did it take? It took our
God becoming a man. our God becoming the sacrifice. These wings that he talks about,
if you look in verses 24 and 25, it says, and when they went,
I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters
as the voice of the almighty, the voice of speech as the noise
of an host, the voice of speech. When these wings were moving,
when they were moving straight forward, when they're neither
going to the left hand or to the right hand, there was the
voice of the Almighty. All that we could hear, all the
time, the voice of the Almighty. The voice of the Almighty. Well,
here it is. The voice of the Almighty. Here
it is. It's written down for us. And
every time one of God's preachers gets up and preaches through
it, preaches in it, about it, however you want to say it, there's
the voice of God. The voice of the Almighty is
speaking to us. And He said, didn't He? My sheep,
hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. What does it take to save a man?
It takes the very providence of God. Do you realize from the
time that God created this world to our time and even to the time
of the end, that God is in complete control of every situation all
over this world. Whether it be people, whether
it be weather, whatever it may be, God is in control. And the reason that God is in
control of all of these things is for His people. All things
work for good to them that love God. to them that are the called
according to his purpose. Do you know he's doing all that
for you? You know he's doing that all for... I need to realize
he's doing all that for me. All these decisions that these
politicians are making, who's in control? Either he is actually
dictating to them and they're doing exactly what he says or
he's permitting the principalities and powers of this world to blind
their minds. but it's all for you, all for
me. And it's all for the one thing
we're getting closer to here. It's all for the time that we
stand before His throne. These wills, they were directed
by the Spirit of God. Whither the Spirit goes, that's
where they went. They were directed by the Spirit
of God. Our Lord was led of the Spirit into the wilderness, wasn't
He? Directed by the Spirit of God. And then when he left out
of here, when he ascended on high, he left us another companion,
just like himself, in the form of the Spirit of God. We have
the Spirit within us. There's another thing I wanted
you to note here. Verse 20, with us whoever the
spirit was to go, they went. The other was their spirit to
go. The wheels were lifted up. And
in verse, I'll find it here in a minute, wherever the spirit
was to go, they would stop and they would go at the spirit. I haven't found it yet, but it's
in the passage we just read. They would stop and go as the
creatures do. The spirit with them, they'd
go. The spirit stop, they'd stop. What causes the Lord to stop?
You heard some about it this morning. There's Bartimaeus outside
of Jericho. Jesus thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. Shh, be quiet. It's the master. He's coming through here. He
cried out the louder, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy
upon me. And Jesus stood still. He just
stopped, turned around to his disciples and said, bring him
to me. What is it you want, Barabas? I want to see. Well, I'm not
just going to clear up your eyes. I'm going to give you heavenly
sight, spiritual sight, and you will really see what made The
Spirit stopped because there was a child of God sitting outside
of Jericho. There was a sheep, one of God's
sheep, one of God's people sitting there. Jesus must needs go through
Samaria. He went there and he sat down
at Jacob's well. And why did he do that? Why did
he stop? Because there was a woman who
was coming to Jacob's well that was one of his sheep. He's on
the trail of his sheep. There was a woman there that
was one of his sheep, and Jesus needed to tell her the truth
about God, this revelation we're talking about. Zacchaeus climbed
up in the tree to have a gander at Jesus Christ. Jesus was walking
by, and he stopped under that tree, looked up. Zacchaeus, come
on down. Why, he even knew his name. He
expressly called Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, come on down. I must
abide at your house today." And after a little bit, he says to
Zacchaeus, salvation. Now salvation is in your house.
Saul was on the way to Damascus. He had arrest warrants in his
pocket or in his pouch. He was going to take men and
women of the way, those who confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God. On the way, God arrested Paul,
stopped him right there. And Paul said, Lord, what will
thou have me do? And God told him. God revealed
himself to him there. The spirit of the living creature,
You see, from day one of this world, even before, God is on
a mission. And that mission is to bring
his people to himself. He'll never stop that mission
until the last one is brought in. That's why, after several
hundred thousand people were saved in the early church, the
writer says, Luke says, as many as were ordained to life, they
believed. After Peter preached, There was
added daily to the church such as should be saved. One person, Jesus Christ. What
does it take to save a man? Look at verse 26. And above the
firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne,
as the appearance of a sapphire stone. And upon the likeness
of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above
upon it. He revealed the throne of God. He revealed the throne of God.
That's where The whole of all peoples will stand one day. The sheep will be on the right
hand, the goats on the left. God is wanting to reveal to you
and show you the truth of the gospel. He died was buried, rose
again the third day, but he died for your sins according to the
scriptures. He's buried and rose again according
to the scriptures. The power of God is, the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. God is saving people, but they're
all going to stand. The final destination of every
one of us before God is going to be at that throne. sometimes
called the Great White Throne, sometimes called the Judgment
Seat of Christ. But everyone, dead, small and
great, the whole of all, and providence has brought us up
to that point, and God's going to vindicate His Son, and God's
going to vindicate His people, and God's going to punish a whole
world of unbelievers. He is the one that's in control.
Upon the throne was the likeness of a man, Christ alone. He's
seated on the throne of God. He's seated at the very right
hand of God. As a matter of fact, God even
speaks to him twice, several times in scripture, thy throne,
oh God, is forever and ever. God the Father speaks that to
his own son. The appearance above was like
fire, and below was like fire. He's the glorious King. It's
the glory of the Lord. It's like when Moses said, Lord,
let me see your glory. He said, I'll put you in the
cleft of a rock. I'll put my hand over you, but
you'll not see me face to face, the Father. But what passed by? The very goodness of God. Who
would that be? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who would the cleft of the rock be? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Who would the hand be? That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. were hidden in Him, hidden in
the Beloved. And then there was around the
throne the appearance of a bow, a rainbow. Noah saw the rainbow. God had destroyed the earth by
water, put a rainbow in the sky. We still get to see it. It's
that covenant promise. I'll not destroy this world with
water again. Though sometimes it seems as
though yet He has not destroyed this world with water. One day
he'll destroy it with fire. Do you know what he'll do? He's
gonna gather out his own people first before he does it. Now,
look with me in the last verse, chapter one, and I'll try to
wrap this up. He says, as the appearance of
a bowl that was in the cloud in the day of the rain, so was
the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Now watch what happens. But when I saw it, I fell on
my face, and I heard a voice that spake to me. And he said,
Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee. And
the Spirit entered in. to me when he spake unto me and
set me upon my feet." We fall on our faces. When you and I
really see who God is and really see our inability and who we
really are, there's only one place to go, and that's on our
faces. We're not talking about some
namby-pamby God that people come waltzing down the aisles to in
their bubble gun, blowing their bubbles and coming forward and
hopefully somebody can pray them through. We're talking about
the God who sits on the throne, the God of this universe, the
God who made it all, the God who guides it all, the God who
directs it all. This is the one. And when we
really see Him, We bow before Him, we fall on our faces, and
we still fall on our faces. He is a holy, righteous, wonderful
God. Not only do we fall on our faces,
but we hear His voice. You know what He says? Stand up, stand up. He's on your
face because you know you're a sinner, but I've taken care
of all of that sin. Now stand up! You're righteous! You're godly! You're mine! Stand up! And that's what God does for
his people. And the Spirit of God enters
into them. Do you know that you're the dwelling
place of the Spirit of God? You're the temple of God, which
you have in you, which you have not of your own. You're the very
temple of God himself. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And then after that, he says,
now you go tell them what I said. What am I supposed to do? Just
tell them what the Lord said. That's all you do. It's all you
can do. And I wouldn't want to tell them anything else, would
you? Just tell them what the Lord said. What does it take
to save a man? The revelation of God, the purpose
of the gospel, the providence of God, the throne of God, or
the sovereignty of God. It takes God. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful, we
that are your sheep, so thankful that one day you expressly came
to us. Because you had already accomplished
our salvation, you made it known to us, revealed it to us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
the salvation that's in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the gospel
of our Lord. Thank you, Lord, that we have
this opportunity to fellowship with other believers and to share
the wonderful works of God. In Jesus' name, amen.