Ezekiel chapter 17. The title of the message this evening,
Two Eagles. Two Eagles. In Ezekiel chapter 17, the scripture
says, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of
man, put forth a riddle. and speak a parable unto the
house of Israel and say, Thus saith the Lord God. A great eagle
with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had different
colors, came unto Lebanon and took the highest branch of the
cedar. He cropped off the top of his young twigs and carried
it into a land of traffic He set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the
land and planted it in a fruitful field. He placed it by great
waters and set it as a willow tree, and it grew and became
a spreading vine of low stature. whose branches turned toward
him, and the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine,
and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. There was
also another great eagle. with great wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine did bend
her roots toward him and shot forth her branches toward him,
that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It
was planted in a goodly soil by great waters, that it might
bring forth branches and that it might bear fruit, that it
might be a goodly vine." say thou, thus saith the Lord God,
shall it prosper. Shall he not pull up the roots
thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? It shall
wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power
or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold,
being planted, shall it prosper. Shall it not utterly wither when
the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows
where it grew." Now, the first thing I want us to see in this
parable is this, the sovereignty of God in His Word. the sovereignty of God in delivering
His word. The prophet is given a word.
He's given a word and the Lord said, Speak thou this riddle. This riddle. The Lord gives him
a parable, a riddle for the people of Israel. So then let us first
see the sovereignty of God in giving His word. Why did God
speak to these people in such a way? Why did God speak to these people?
Well, the Lord Jesus tells us this plainly in the New Testament. In three of the four Gospels,
the Lord gives the parable of the sower. You remember the seed
and the sower. The sower went forth to sow.
And he sowed some, and some fell among the wayside, and some fell
among the stony ground, and the thorny ground, and some on good
ground. And he began to tell the parable
of how they grew and how some sprouted out and they didn't
turn into anything. It was only that which was the
good ground and the disciples. He told them the explanation
of the parable, but they asked this question. They said, Lord,
why do you speak to them in parables? And Jesus told them plainly.
He said, It is given unto you. to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of God, but unto them it is not given." Did you hear
what he said? He spoke to them in parables,
in riddles, because it was not given unto them to understand. It was given only to God's people
that they should understand. The Word of God is to be preached,
and it is to be preached to every man. It is to be declared as
plainly as we possibly can make it. But to the natural man, the
Word of God is a riddle. It's a riddle. Haven't you declared
the gospel plainly? Jesus Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's not a complicated
matter. Christ is all. Salvation rests
in Jesus Christ. And yet what do men do? They
start to twist. What about this? I'll be talking
about Christ and somebody will ask me about Cain's wife. I don't
care. They think it's a riddle. They
just are so confused in their minds. They try to get... they
get off track so easy. Because it's a riddle to them. They have eyes to see, but they
can't perceive it. They have ears to hear it, but
they can't understand it. They know its stories. They may
know its history. They may even acknowledge its
accuracy. But unless God reveals the Word
to a man, he will remain confused. He'll remain confused. Except
God send a preacher with the meaning, and except He send the
Holy Spirit in power to make it effectual to our hearts, we
would never understand the Word of God. Now, if the Lord just
left you with that parable there, and of the two eagles, would
you understand that? Now, you understood every word
that I read, didn't you? There's an eagle. He comes and
takes this top of a tree, and he takes it to a land of merchants.
Sets it up. You understand that? Then he
takes some seed from that land, the eagle does, and he plants
it by some good water. And it grows. Then there's another
eagle that comes along, and all the vine seems to turn from the
one that planted it, the eagle that planted it turning toward
the other eagle. expecting the other eagle to
water it and to take care of it. Now, do you understand that?
You understood every word I said to this story, but really the
meaning is kind of... I didn't understand it when I
read it. But praise God, He doesn't leave
us there. Praise God that He does reveal. Look at this in the text again.
He says in verse 11 through verse 21, the Lord explains what this
parable is. This parable may be easily understood
carnally. The great eagle here that is
pictured, the first one, is the king of Babylon. Moreover, the
word of the Lord came to me, saying, Say to the rebellious
house, Know ye not what these things mean? Tell them, Behold,
the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the
king thereof and the princes thereof, and led them to Babylon."
Now, is that not clear now? The eagle is the king of Babylon. He took the top of the cedar,
which was the king of Israel, and he took him to Babylon. That
merchant city. And He took all the mighty men
and all the sculptors and all the people of great renown, He
took them away. But yet he left the land of Israel
as it was. In other words, he made a covenant
with the son of that king, which was Zedekiah. He made a covenant
with that king. And he said, as long as you don't
rebel, I'll leave you here. I'll leave you here, and you
just stay under me, and you serve me, and everything will be alright. But we know this, that that didn't
happen. This king, Zedekiah, he rebelled
against the covenant. He turned against the covenant
that was made and sought counsel from Egypt. He sought counsel from Egypt.
And eventually the king of Babylon came down and destroyed the nation
of Israel. God was prophesying what would
take place in this nation. He was prophesying that this
would eventually take place. And He says in verse 21, He said,
And all his fugitives and all his bands shall fall by the sword,
and they that remain shall be scattered toward all the winds.
And ye shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it. This king rebelled according
to the prophecy of God, according to the decree of God. The Lord
had prophesied this and He said, you'll know this is true when
it comes to pass. And if you want to read this,
it's in Jeremiah chapter 52. It's also in 2 Kings 24 and 25
and 2 Chronicles 36. The history is there. What this
prophet had said. took place even as God had ordained
it. God had ordained it. The prophecy
was fulfilled. Believer in Christ, listen to
me. God's Word is set. God's Word is set. All things
have been decreed of our God. Don't be moved by this wicked
world. Don't be discouraged when things
and kingdoms are set up and kingdoms are taken down. They are done
so as easily as an eagle would pluck a twig from a tree. That's how easily God takes kingdoms
and sets them up and puts them down. Our God is in control of
all things. Our God is ruling after all things. There's nothing that has happened,
there is nothing that is happening, and there's nothing that shall
happen that our God has not decreed to happen. He's decreed it for His own glory. The Lord tells these rebellious
people before it comes to pass what shall be, and when it comes
to pass, They shall know that the Lord has spoken it. In Isaiah
46, verse 10, the Lord says, I am God and there's none else.
Declaring the end at the beginning. I like that. Declaring the end. When did God declare the end?
At the beginning. At the beginning. From ancient
times, the things that were not yet done, saying, My counsel
shall stand. and I will do all my pleasure. Our God is in the heavens and
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. So when people ask you
where your God is when things happen, you can tell them your
God is where He's always been. He's in the heavens and He's
doing whatsoever He hath pleased. Why I don't like it? I don't
care. Our God is in the heavens. He
has done whatsoever He pleased. Before this man rebelled against
God, God warned him. God foretold, and I'll tell you,
God sent a prophet. He sent Jeremiah. And Jeremiah
spoke to this king. He kept telling this king to
listen. This is what God said. God put
up that man Nebuchadnezzar, and you should obey him. This is
a covenant you made. You should obey him. And he didn't
listen. He didn't pay any attention. Why? Even because he couldn't
hear the Word. He was deaf. He was blind. He
was a rebel. And yet as we read this, is there
not a greater meaning to this? Is there not a greater meaning
than just telling me about history? Because that's history. We see
that that's happening and we can praise God for His sovereign
mercy, His grace, His power, but does this have any application
to us? Yes, it does. Absolutely. The Spirit of God has left us
a great message here that should speak to each one of us tonight.
First of all, He's left us a message that all men have broken His
covenant. Look at this in your text. He says in verse 13, he says, "...he hath
taken the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and taken
an oath of him, that he should take the mighty of the land,
and the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself
up, but by keeping of his covenant it might stand. But he rebelled
against him. He rebelled against the covenant. Is this not what our father Adam
has done? God in the beginning made a covenant
with our father. He said of all the trees I give
you to freely eat. Is that not gracious? I give
you all of the trees to eat. except one. One belongs to Me,
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And yet Adam despised the covenant. See, Adam was not deceived. Adam
fully knew what he was doing. Eve was deceived. Adam was not
deceived. He willfully, listen, He willfully
murdered His entire posterity. He willfully killed all of us. Our Father did. He ruined His
entire race with spiritual death so that none escape. None escape. In Adam, the scripture says,
all die by the sin of one man. Many were made sinners. Is that not offensive to the
natural man? That is offensive to the natural
man. What do you mean, Adam made us
sinners? It's what the Scriptures tell
us. For as by one man sin had entered the world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men. Why? For all have sinned. You sinned when He sinned. And
so when you were born in the womb, you were shapen in iniquity. And in sin did your mother conceive
you. This is offensive to tell people
that their babies are born sinners. But it's so. How do you know
that? Do babies die? You bet they do. That tells us that they are sinners. If they were not sinners, they
would not die. In Adam all died. And we being
born dead in sin have ourselves despised the covenant of God's
law. We all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. This is the truth concerning
us all. Last week I was reading an article
about the death of one of the Mormon leaders. One of their presidents, I guess,
or apostles they call them, died. And this quote stuck in my mind
and I couldn't get it out until I looked it up. This one of his
fellow leaders of this cult said of their president, they said,
from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, he represented
our Savior. I thought about that. Where is
that found in Scripture? And so I began to look up. And
you know the only place I found the crown of the head and sole
of the feet that actually talked about something good was the
apostate Absalom. It says of Absalom that from
the sole of his foot to the crown of his head he was beautiful.
It's the only one that ever said that. It was of the apostate
Adam. He had no blemish. This is the
heart of the blind and depraved sinner concerning himself, that
from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, he thinks
he is righteous. He thinks he is worthy of God's
honor, of God's glory. That's what natural man thinks. But all who are quickened by
the Spirit of God think totally something opposite of ourselves. We know that ourselves, that
Isaiah speaks to us when he says this, from the sole of the foot
even to the head there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. Now that I identify with. I know that. If you've been quickened
by the Spirit of God, you know this concerning yourself. You
know that you despise the covenant of God. This is a riddle to the
lost. That all men are naturally depraved
sinners. They are confused as to why bad
things happen to good people. Have you heard that? Why do bad
things happen to good people? The Scripture says there's none
good. No, not one. What's confusing about that?
Nothing to me. Because that's speaking to me. That's speaking to me. They are
blind to see that there is none righteous, none good, none that
seeketh after God. But we all have sinned. We all
stand in need of the mercy of God. And only those who are chosen
of God by His grace will see this truth. This is not a riddle. This is made very plain to me.
This is made very plain to you. That's the grace of God. It's
the grace of God to understand who you are. That's not given
to everyone. Praise God He showed me who I
am. He showed me who I am. This is
the Word of God that speaks to sinners. You have sinned and broken God's
covenant. Shall your fruit prosper? No. God says it will not prosper. Your works, your So-called free
will will not profit you anything before God. Have you seen that?
Second of all, God not only leaves us with that, I'm thankful that
there's more, aren't you? I'm thankful as a sinner, as
one who has from the crown of his head to the soles of his
foot wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, I am glad that there's
more. There's more. God gives to sinners
hope and promise of Jesus Christ. Go back to your text and look
at verse 22. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
also take of the highest branch of the high cedar and will set
it. The Lord here gives us what He
will do, just as Nebuchadnezzar was given to take the king from
Israel. Even so, God says, I also will
take one from Israel. And I will set him up as king. God says, I'll take of the highest
branch. Even as the king of Babylon took
from Israel, even so God chose from among the seed of David
to set him up and establish a king. Oh, sinners, see the purpose
of God to establish His own king, which is Jesus Christ. God has
promised to set a king. Go over to Psalm chapter 2. Psalm chapter 2. I always love this verse. So when
these confused heathen, when these confused religious people
start raging against the gospel, I like this, why do the heathen
rage? Why murmur ye among yourselves? Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and His anointed,
saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords
from us." What is God going to do? Is He scared? Do you suppose that he is twisting
his hands and saying, oh no, what am I going to do? They've
rebelled against me. I just don't know. No. The King
of heaven, the God of heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall have
them in derision. Then, shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them with his sword as pleasure. Here's
what, yet I have sent my king upon my holy hill of Zion. God has a king, friends. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Now, it does not matter what
men say about it. God did not take a vote. He didn't
take a vote to see who would be king, did he? God said, I
have set my king. And when did He set him? He set
him from eternity. He set him from the eternity.
He said, I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, thou
art my son, this day I have begotten thee. What is this day? That
day is an eternal day. God hath begotten His Son with
an eternal begetting. The Son was always set up to
be the King. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
his strength out of Zion. Rule thou. What do you think
the Lord Jesus has been doing? He's been ruling. in the midst
of his enemies. Rule thou in the midst of thy
enemies, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. See the purpose of God in God's
grace that he has set Jesus Christ to be king of all his elect people. Who then is this highest but
the Son of God, who is equal with the Father and the Spirit?
Behold, Jesus Christ, the chosen King. And He's the chosen King
and Savior of all God's people, of which we are by nature sinners. By nature, we were both unwilling
and unable to come to God by faith in Christ, yet God has
willed. To give all those that He gave
to Christ to make us willing. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
what He's done for us? We who were sinners rebelled
against God. We despised His commandment.
And yet in mercy, even without our knowledge, He set up His
King to be His Savior of His people. And in the day of His
power, I'm so thankful for the day of His power. Because I was
so unwilling I was a rebel, and yet He gave me a willing nature,
a new nature, which is the new birth. Are you willing to come to Christ?
Well, sure I am. Now that He's made me willing,
now that He's conquered my soul, now that He's said Christ in
my heart, of course I'm willing. willing to serve Him and to love
Him and to honor Him because of what He's done for me. I love
Him. Why? Because He first loved me. He first loved me. Only to those sinners who know
our need of holiness is Jesus Christ not absolutely beautiful
to us. He said, Thy people shall be
willing in the day of Thy power in the beauties of holiness.
In the beauties of holiness. I know this, in my nature I am
unholy. But praise God that He has given
me a new nature which is created after God in true holiness. And I see that Jesus Christ is
absolutely all my holiness. He is all my righteousness. We see His preciousness and the
value of His beauty and holiness to our souls. The only place we see this is
in the glorious person of our Savior. God says of His King
that He has set, He says of His King, He says, I will also take
of the highest branch of the high cedar and will set it. I
will crop off the top of the young twigs, a tender one, and
will plant it upon the hill, high mountain, and imminent,
or lofty. Is this not the language of the
prophet Isaiah when he said, for he shall grow up as a tender
plant? Is that not how the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world? As a tender plant. Meek and lowly
in heart. The Lord Jesus came as a tender
plant, as a root out of dry ground. You see, He was to come from
the seed of Abraham. He was to come from the seed
of David. And David's seed was dried up. Remember that this
was the last king, that king that the first eagle took. That
was the last king that was set up. The other kings were destroyed.
But God has set up a king that was to come from the seed of
David. and not only from the seed of David, but the seed of
the woman, the virgin's womb. You see, it was not to come from
Adam's seed. That's the blessing here. God's
going to take a tender plant, the tender plant of Israel, David's
seed, and it's going to come from the seed of the woman, not
of seed of Adam. There was no sin in him. Who else but God could bring
forth such a great king? who was not born of Adam's corrupt
nature, but holy and without sin, sinner, behold the Son of
God, who by His obedience obtained righteousness." I'll tell you,
do you need righteousness before God? Then behold the Son of God
who's obtained it. He alone, He alone has obtained
righteousness by His obedience to God. By Adam, many were made sinners. Even so, by the obedience of
one, many shall be made righteous. And God, seeing our need of an
atonement, He also hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be
sin for us. This is the most amazing thing
of the Gospel. that Jesus Christ actually bore
our guilt. He bore our guilt in His own
body on the tree and suffered the wrath of God to set us free. He endured it all. Do you know how much sin you
have left to pay for? None. You don't have to make up anything. You are complete in Him. You see that God has said, I'm
going to take of my King, I'm going to set up my King, and
I'm going to make Him the Savior of my people. And it was by the
wicked hands of wicked men that nailed Him to the cross, and
yet they were only doing what God had purposed before to be
done. God purposed your salvation.
I love this. When someone was asked about
the difference between the gospel and this free will works religion,
it's this, purpose. Purpose. Did God save you on
accident or on purpose? God saved me on purpose. He did
it because He wanted to. And there's no other reason found
in me. He did it, He purposed it, He planned it, He executed
it, and He called me out of darkness into His marvelous light. He
revealed His gospel to me when I could not and would not understand
it. He opened my eyes to see. And
behold the high mountain of Calvary, where God has planted Christ.
Behold the Son of Man, lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness,
that whosoever looketh on Him shall live. Look and live, my
brother, live. Look to Jesus Christ and live. Is that so uncomplicated? That's so simple. Yet it's complicated. It's complicated to this religious
world, but to us who have a need, we look. And we find only and
all our salvation in Jesus Christ and none in ourselves. We find
no glory here. All the glory belongs to God.
He is the mountain of God's salvation. He is the refuge from God's justice. He is the high and lofty mountain,
not made with hands. All sinners flee to Christ, for
He alone is God's Savior for sinners. come and rest under the shadow
of his wing. Look at this. He says he'll take
the tender one and he'll plant him on the high mountain and
in the mountain, verse 23, of the height of Israel will I plant
it and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit and be a goodly
cedar. And under it shall dwell all
fowl of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof shall
they dwell. Do you not see that the Lord
is a goodly cedar? He is a tree in which all manner
of men come. Not just Jews. Jews and Gentiles. Bond and free. Male and female. All rest in the bows of His branches. Come and take shelter under His
wings. I don't need shelter. I'm talking
to people who need shelter. I'm talking to people who need
refuge. I'm talking about absolute sinners who need an absolute
Savior. Come and welcome. God's free
bounty glorify true belief and true repentance, every grace
that brings you nigh. Come and dwell under the shadow
of His wings. Jesus came to save sinners, no
matter their race, their gender, or their status. All sinners
with no righteousness, no hope, come and find relief, find rest
for your souls. You believer, in His branches. Is there not great room? Sometimes do you feel confined?
I feel as though I'm in a, like in a brass coffin at times. I feel like I'm so caged in.
No! I'm free. I'm free. In Christ I'm free. Free from
sin. Come and rest and dwell in His
branches of righteousness and under His blood. And look at
verse 24. And all the trees of the field
shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree,
have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and
have made the dry tree to flourish. God has brought down the high
tree of man's works and false religion. Everything that exalteth itself
shall be abased. There is coming a day, and it's
coming quickly, There is coming a day when all false religion
will be put down. Doesn't it seem that false religion
flourishes? Doesn't it seem as though it's
a green tree? And yet God's church seems to
be so small. There's always just a remnant.
There always seems to be such a small number. God says, I will
bring down the green tree and I will exalt the one that's low. I will exalt the low tree. What
is the low tree but His church in this world? low tree. True Israel. And at that time he says, I will
have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree to
flourish. Oh, what is so dry to this religious
world as Jesus Christ? They don't have any interest
in the things of Christ. If you're lost, you have no interest
in Christ. He is a dead tree to you. But I tell you there's coming
a day that God is going to exalt that so-called dead tree. And every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Every knee shall bow. One day
there's coming a day when that tree shall flourish. There will
come an eternal day, an eternal day that that tree shall flourish. All pity the soul that will not
come to Christ. But I'm sure of this. I'm sure
of this. that everyone that God has given
to Christ will come to Christ. You see, God's not a failure. Everyone He purposed to save
will be saved. They will come to Christ. They
will believe. And you know what? They won't
stop believing. Isn't that an encouragement? You who believe,
is that not an encouragement to you? That God promises your
faith will continue to the end? Why? He's purposed it. Will He
not accomplish it? Oh, you of little faith. If you have little faith, is
it not because you're looking to your faith instead of looking
to Christ, the object of your faith? Oh, look to Him. He's a beautiful cedar that never,
and it never rots. I like that evergreen trees.
He's an evergreen tree. He's safety and refuge to His
people all the time. All the time. I'm thankful God has revealed
these things to us. If you have that knowledge, you
know this is because God has given it to you. And you should
praise Him. You should thank Him. I should
thank Him. May God be glorified and Christ
honored. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.