Alright, Ezekiel chapter 13. The title of the message, as I said,
is False Prophets Exposed. As we read through these verses
here, we're going to see several things that God commands Ezekiel
to speak out that exposes the false prophets of his day And
what we're going to see is that we basically have the same problem
in our day. It has been said that we really
don't have to point out the faults of others. And when it comes
to the sins of men, unless there is scandalous publicity brought
upon the church and the gospel, we don't. We're not finger pointers. were not to be self-righteous
judges of people's weaknesses and that sort of thing. But when
it comes to false preachers, men and women, we're going to
see both here in this chapter, who stand before congregations
or groups or individuals and promote what the Bible calls
the broad road that leads to destruction. Not only should
we point out their faults as far as their false doctrine,
but we're commanded to. Somebody said, well, I don't
have to describe or describe or point out a crooked stick.
All I have to do is just lay the straight stick beside it.
Well, that's so. But I want you to listen to what he says here.
This chapter, chapter 13, expands upon a verse in chapter 12. Look
over at chapter 12 in verse 24. He says, for there shall be no
more any vain vision. Now what's a vain vision? That's
a worthless vision. What that is, that describes
a person who says I've got a word from God, but it's really not
from God. And it's worthless. And then
he says, nor flattering divination within the house of Israel. Flattering
divination are things that people claim are divine, but instead
of glorifying God, they flatter men and women. That's the problem. And God tells Ezekiel that when
he gets through with his judgments upon Israel, that's going to
be no more for a little while. And so he expands upon that beginning
in verse one of chapter 13. Listen, as we go through this,
he says, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son
of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy. So there's the command to prophesy
against them. Point out the negative. That's
what he's saying. Somebody said, well, I just want
to preach nothing but positive things. Well, get out of the
ministry of the gospel then, because you don't belong there. You need to be running up and
down telling people how to win friends and influence people.
That's what you need today. But you're not going to be preaching
the gospel. You see, good news, that's what gospel means, doesn't
it? It's only good news in light of the bad news. And so he says, you prophesy
against them and here's what you say, thou unto them. And
here's how, here's the first description. Here's the first
thing that exposes them. That prophesy out of their own
hearts. Saying, hear ye the word of the
Lord. They prophesy out of their own hearts and claim it's the
word of the Lord. They claim to speak God's word,
but they preach a message that's not from the heart of God. but
from their own natural, sinful, depraved, ignorant hearts. And what's the problem with that?
Somebody asked me one time, somebody told me one time, he said, I
don't believe you're preaching from your heart. And I told him, I
said, well, I'm preaching from the heart of God. And I do believe
what I preach. And you have no right to judge
that. I hope every one of you believe
what you say you believe. But I can't be a judge of your
heart, but I can know if you preach or believe from the heart
of God. How do I know that? Because right
here is the heart of God. This is it. Anybody who preaches
the scripture, the truth, preaches from the heart of God. This is
God's heart. And we know it by the preaching of Christ. You
preach Christ, the true Christ, As he's identified and distinguished
in the gospel, I guarantee you're preaching from the heart of God.
Because he is God's heart. Preach Christ. So shouldn't we
preach from our hearts? Well, we certainly should preach
what we believe sincerely and truly from the regenerate heart.
But what's the problem? Well, you remember back over
here in Jeremiah 17, here's the problem about these false prophets
or any, any Unregenerate sinner preaching from his heart and
it says in verse 9 of Jeremiah 17 the hearts deceitful above
all things to preach from your heart From an unregenerate heart
is to preach deception Because the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked who can know it In other words,
you can't you can't know it at all. You can't you can't make
a proper judgment on it So as I said, we should preach from
the heart of God. That's what Jeremiah 17 and verse
10 points us to. He says, I the Lord search the
heart. I test the reins. Even to give every man according
to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. He's
talking about the Word of God in judgment there. We should
preach from our hearts what God alone has written on our hearts.
From the Word of God, which is His heart. His word as we've
been convicted in our hearts, the new heart, by the Holy Spirit
of God. But those who preach out of their
own hearts, their own natural hearts, well, what do they preach?
Well, they preach things that, as it says over there in 12 and
verse 24, it's vain visions, flattering divinations. It's
those things which exalt the flesh. Those things which glorify
man. Those things which bring God
down and lift man up. We could sum it up in the modern
day false gospels of works salvation. Salvation by the works and the
will of man, that's man's heart. That was sown after the fall
when Adam and Eve got their fig leaf aprons. It was shown in
the example of Cain when he brought the works of the cursed ground,
the works of his hands, to be accepted with God. Now that's
preaching from their hearts. And we have the same problem
today. Pastors and teachers and evangelists who claim to preach
God's Word, but they either deny it or compromise it, ignore it,
water it down, or take the edge off of it to please men. Because it's not in their hearts
to glorify God, it's in their hearts to please men and gain
a following for themselves. Christ called them wolves in
sheep's clothing who tell people not what they need to hear, but
what people want to hear. And man doesn't want, by nature,
man doesn't want to hear the truth. He doesn't want to hear
about his sin and his depravity and the fact that his best is
not good enough to save him or to maintain salvation or to make
him righteous before God. He wants to hear stories and
illustrations that flatter him. And their sermons are moral pep
talks, not preaching Christ crucified, not preaching the sinfulness
and depravity of man and the holiness and the justice of God.
Preach God's love, they say, and don't dare get into anything
negative. That'll just bring people down.
They give a long invitation at the end of their messages and
get people down the aisle and get them to repeat what they
call the sinner's prayer and they send them home with their
blessing. And they call that salvation. That's preaching from
their own hearts. And if you preach long enough
and you've been around enough people and you're discerning,
you begin to know what people want to hear. And if you preach
from your own heart, you want to have a worldly prosperous
ministry outside of the truth of God, and you want to have
a whole bunch of people, you just have to study what they
want to hear, and then you tell them what they want to hear.
And you'll have them. It's like, how do people get
elected to office? Well, they promise people what
they want. And they get elected. And that's
the way these false preachers do. But here's the issue, what
do people need to hear? What do I need to hear? I need
to hear about the holiness and the justice of Almighty God.
I need to hear about my sin and my depravity. I need to hear
about Christ, the God-man, the one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, and the righteousness that he established
in the shedding of his blood on the cross of Calvary to save
his people. from their sins. I need to hear
about spiritual death and depravity and that my need is to be regenerated
by God the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 3. He says, Thus
saith the Lord God, Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow
their own spirit and have seen nothing. That's the next thing.
There's no vision. In other words, there's no revelation
from God. They've really seen nothing. They have dreams. They have visions. They have
experiences, they have stories that'll make chills run up and
down your back. But they've seen nothing. God's
not revealed himself to them. The spirit here that he talks
about, they follow their own spirit, that's the spirit of
natural, fallen, wicked, ignorant men of the flesh. Those who walk
after and mind the things of the flesh, carnally minded, which
is death. and they've seen nothing revelation
which comes by the Holy Spirit by means of the Word of God and
is given to us as sinners who've been given spiritual life whereby
the Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirits that we are the children
of God because we have salvation freely given us in Christ Jesus. Those who follow their own spirit
they're deceived and those who follow them are deceived. Remember
we read it over here in 2 Corinthians 11. Basically, this explains
it all, what they do. Satan using deceptions. Over
here in verse 13, such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And the
construction of the language there indicates that it is a
temporary transformation. In other words, they transform,
but then they change back. They can't stay. in one place,
and no marvel, he says, for Satan himself is transformed into an
angel of life. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness.
Now, I had a preacher tell me one time that them being ministers
of righteousness means they preach man's righteousness. Not so. They preach Christ's righteousness.
Now I'll tell you why I know that. Man does not have to transform
to preach man's righteousness. That's where he is naturally.
That's where he always is. And what he's saying is this,
is that these false deceptive preachers, they can say right
things at given times. It's like kind of when in Rome
do as the Romans do. The problem is, is when they
get over and preach Christ's righteousness, they can't stay
there. They're transformers. They can't stay with it because
their heart's not there. You see? So they can deceive. And what it is, like he mentioned
up here, they corrupt people's minds from the simplicity that
is in Christ. In other words, it's anything
that will get your mind off of Christ and onto yourself and
onto others. That's what they want. Get your
mind on to yourself. Look within for your assurance
and your peace and your safety. We need to hear and become skillful
in the word of righteousness so that we can discern these. You see, our tendency, and this
is even believers, our tendency is either to ignore it or go
with it, but that's not biblical. That's not biblical. Look back
over to Ezekiel 13, look at verse four. He says here, O Israel,
thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert. Now that word
foxes could be translated jackals, but what he's talking about is
they're scavengers. Now what do scavengers do? They
live off of dead things. And that's the way these false
preachers are today and back then. They're preaching to spiritually
dead people. And they live off spiritually
dead people. They're like scavengers. He says
in verse 5, you've not gone up into the gaps, neither made up
the heads for the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the
day of the Lord. In other words, they're trying to disciple people
who've never been truly converted, and they themselves have never
been converted. They've done nothing to repair
the defenses of the city, like he's talking about in Jerusalem.
and nothing to prepare the people for God's judgment. Here's what
the problem is. They have not consistently preached
Christ and Him crucified. They have not consistently preached
salvation by His blood, justification by His righteousness. That gets
you off on to other things that will not prepare you for the
judgment of God. Things that will cause you to
boast. Their message is one of false hope just waiting to see
if their word will be confirmed. Look at verse six. They've seen
vanity and lying divination. In other words, that's divine
things that they claim. They claim it's divine, but it's
not, it promotes a lie. He says, the Lord saith, and
the Lord hath not sent them. They come up here and say, here's
what God says, here's what God says, but the Lord hadn't sent
them. He says, they have made others to hope that they would
confirm the word. Now what that means is that they
judge their ministry not on if it glorifies God and exalts Christ,
not on if it's true to the word of God, but by the results. Well, look at how many people
we had. Look how many decisions we had. They get people to hope
and they wait to see if that confirms their word. Well, I
know what I'm preaching is true. We've got a thousand people.
in our service on Sunday. Well, you see, that's not biblical.
That's false preachers. Now don't get me wrong. I'd love
to see a thousand people here tonight, but I'm not gonna change
the message from this pulpit to do that. I'm not gonna water
it down. I'm not gonna deny it. I'm not
gonna confuse it, or I'm not gonna hide. I'm not going to
preach a lie to get people into the church, you see. Because that's not a confirmation
of the ministry. Even though Thomas Jefferson
made the statement, he said, when have the majority ever been
totally right? They've not been. But you see,
the Word is confirmed by the Scriptures. Isaiah said that. He said, to the law and to the
testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, there's
no light in them. Look at verse 8. He said, oh,
look at verse seven. He says, have you not seen a
vain vision? Have you not spoken a lying divination? Whereas you say, the Lord saith,
albeit I have not spoken. So they keep claiming it's the
word of God. Look at verse eight. Now here he says, God is against
them. He says, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because you've
spoken vanity and seen lies. Therefore, behold, I'm against
you, saith the Lord God. God is against them. Now, how
can we know one way or the other if God's against us or God's
for us? Well, we know the Bible tells
us simply that God is for all who rest in Christ. Isn't that
right? Listen, what shall we say to
these things, Paul wrote in Romans 8? If God be for us, who can
be against us? Well, how do I know God's for
me? Well, all who believe in, rest in, who rest in Christ alone
and what he accomplished on Calvary for all of salvation. That's
who God's for. God is against all who believe
and preach anything else as far as salvation is concerned. He
says in verse nine, he says that mine hand shall be upon the prophets
that see vanity and that divine life, that's his hand of wrath
and judgment. They shall not be in the assemblies
of my people. Now listen to this. Listen to
what he said. They shall not be in the assembly
of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing or
the register of the house of God, the record. That speaks,
I believe, back to the same kind of analogy that we talk about
the Lamb's Book of Life. Their names are not written in
the Lamb's Book of Life, neither shall they enter into the land
of Israel. Now these that he is talking about did not come
back to the land 70 years after the 70 year captivity. But the
ultimate picture here, the spiritual application is they shall not
enter into the kingdom of God eternally. Spiritually. And he
says, and you shall know that I am the Lord God. You will know
that God is God and He means what He says. They shall not
be in the assembly of Israel. They won't be counted in the
register of Israel. Look at Galatians chapter 6 with
me. What I want to know is who will be counted among
those who are spiritual Israel? Who's on that register? Whose
names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Paul describes
it here in Galatians 6.14, but God forbid that I should glory
save or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's
your key. What do you glory in? What do you boast in? Where's
your assurance? Your whole salvation, what's
it wrapped up in? Where does it stand? What basis
or ground do you have to claim that you're saved, that you're
a child of God? Here it is. God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
used the same word over in Philippians 3. those who rejoice in Christ
Jesus, glory in Christ Jesus. And he said, by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world, for in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything or uncircumcision, but
a new creation. And he says, and as many as walk
according to this rule, this doctrine, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross. Peace be on them, mercy and upon
the Israel of God. There's the register right there.
There's what Ezekiel's talking about in this prophecy. God will
count His people among those in the writing of the house of
Israel. Look at verse 10 of Ezekiel 13. Here's another thing about
their message. Jeremiah mentioned this several
times in his stance against false preachers, false prophets. He
said, because even because they have seduced my people, saying
peace, and there was no peace. And one built up a wall, and
lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar." Now there's their message,
peace when there is no peace. I've told you who preached that
first. It was Satan in the garden, Genesis
3, when he said, you shall not surely die. That's the same thing.
This is just another way of saying it. You speak peace to people,
they'll follow you. You preach the wrath of God against
sin without Christ, without his blood, without his righteousness
imputed, they won't follow you unless God brings them in. But
listen to what he says throughout this. You see, peace with God
can only be attained and maintained by the cross. And he said, they're
going to seduce you. I thought about 1 John 2, 26,
where John said, I'm writing this to you, the church, because
of those who would seduce you. And what is it they're doing?
They're seducing men and women away from Christ. and building
walls that will not stand the onslaught of God's wrath. Look
here. He says in verse 10, one built
up a wall and though others daubed it with untempered mortar. Some
translations say whitewash. In other words, it's just surface.
And he says in verse 11, saying to them which daub it with untempered
mortar that it shall fall. It won't protect you. It won't
keep you safe. There shall be an overflowing
shower, that's God's wrath, and ye old great hailstones shall
fall, and stormy winds shall rend it, all emblems of God's
wrath. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you,
where is the daubing wherewith you daubed it? Where's your protection?
Where's your hope? Where's your foundation? Where's
your safety? Where's your refuge? Verse 13,
therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it, that
means I'll destroy it. with a stormy wind in my fury
and there shall be an overflowing shower of mine anger and great
hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the
wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar. Bring it down
to the ground so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered and
it shall fall and you shall be consumed in the midst thereof
and you shall know that I am the Lord. That reminds me of
what the Lord preached in Matthew 7 at the close of the Sermon
on the Mount about the man who built his house upon sand and
the man who built his house upon the rock. Those who build their
house upon sand, if that's your foundation, when the rains come
and the winds come, the storms come, it'll fall. Great is the
fall thereof. What kind of foundation is the
works of man? No foundation at all. What foundation
is the righteousness of man? No foundation at all, it'll fall.
But those who build their house upon the rock, the rock Christ
Jesus, the foundation of the grace of God, wherein righteousness
rules and reigns over the sinner and clothes him and keeps him,
the rains will come, the wind will come, and the house will
not fall because it's built upon the rock, built upon Christ.
So verse 15, he says, thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the
wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar,
and will say unto you, the wall is no more, neither they that
daubed it. Their foundation will be destroyed,
and they themselves will be destroyed. And he says, namely, that's what
that phrase to wit means. I'm going to explain it. The
prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which
see visions of peace for her, and there's no peace, saith the
Lord." That's who I'm talking about. Don't mistake who I'm
talking about here. I'm talking about those who cry
peace when there is no peace. You see, our foundation, our wall, our refuge is Christ. And He's been tested And he's
passed all the tests, especially the cross. The wrath of God fell
upon him. And he died because our sins
were charged to him. And he died, he was buried, but
he rose the third day. He conquered sin. He got victory
over sin. And therefore, he is the sure
foundation of his people. That's right. Look at the last
verses of this chapter. Now he begins to talk about women
prophets. He says in verse 17, likewise,
thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy
people, which prophesy out of their heart. Now they're the
same thing. They're fallen, unregenerate, depraved heart. And he said,
and prophesy thou against them and say, thus saith the Lord
God, woe to the women that sew pillows to all arm holes and
make purchase upon the head of every stature to hunt souls,
soul hunters. They're wanting souls. Will you
hunt the souls of my people when you save the souls alive that
come unto you? Hunting down. And they say salvation
to the ones that come to them. What is this all about? Well,
what it is is these women in Jerusalem We're promoting superstition,
mysticism, and emotionalism. Does that sound familiar to you?
We got the same problem today. Same issue today. Women run churches
founded upon superstition, mysticism, and emotionalism. And that's
what it is. These pillows, they sew pillows
to all arm holes. Those aren't pillows like you
lay your head on the pillow. at night, that's not what it's
talking about. Several different translations of it and ideas.
But some say it was like a pillowy armband that ran from the shoulder,
that's the arm hole, down to the wrist. And they wore those
as significations to the public that this was like a fortune
teller. Or this was a diviner. Or this
woman, stop in here and she'll read your poem. or they'll gaze
at the stars and they'll tell your future or reveal your character,
that kind of thing. Some say it was just wristbands
that went all the way up the arm, like bracelets and baubles
that were associated with fortune telling and that kind of thing.
But that's the kind of thing that's going on here. These kerchiefs. One commentator said that they
had a kerchief that stretched from their head all the way down
to their foot because they wanted to appear mysterious. You see? And that kind of draws the attention,
the curiosity of people. You see, what they're doing has
nothing absolutely to do with the Word of God. It has nothing
to do with preaching Christ and His truth and salvation by the
grace of God. It's all man-centered. It's all
from the unregenerate, depraved heart. And it's all mystic. See, people love that stuff.
You know they do today. I mean, they've got stores you
can go in, nothing but that stuff, and people eat it up. And that
draws their attention. And they capitalize on what they
call the mysterious or the unknown. You see, the Word of God is not
like that. The Word of God is a sure foundation that has stood
the test of time, that sets forth, in light of our sinfulness, the
only way of salvation. in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-man. Look at verse 19. He says, And will you pollute
Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread,
to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls
alive that should not live, by your lying to My people that
hear your lies? They do it for payment. That's
what it is. Just for handfuls of barley,
pieces of bread, They do it for filthy lucre. And what they do
in their religion, man-centered religion, is they end up killing
those who should not die. In other words, they pronounce
anathema on people who won't follow them, the true people
of God, who won't follow them and who expose them. They look
at a man like Jeremiah or a man like Ezekiel and they say, he's
of the devil. That's what he means, killing
the people who should not die. Why is it that a man like Jeremiah,
a sinner, should not die? Why is it that a man like Ezekiel
should not die a sinner? Why is it a man like me or a
man or woman like you should not die because we're sinners
and we deserve? Because we're in Christ. That's
why we should not die. That's why we will not die. We'll
die physically, but not eternally. See, death is swallowed up in
victory for us. But what else do they do? They
save the souls alive that should not live. Who is it that should
not live? Those who have no salvation,
have no grace, no mercy, no mediator, no Christ. They deserve death. And they do it by their lying.
Verse 20, Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against
your pillows. I am against all your superstitious
things that you flaunt. wherewith or whereby you there
hunt the souls to make them fly and I will tear them from your
arms. I will let the souls go, even the souls that you hunt
to make them fly. In other words, those you trap,
I'll set them free from you. Verse 21, your purchase also
will I tear and deliver my people out of your hand and they shall
be no more in your hand to be hunted and you shall know that
I'm the Lord. Well, look at verse 22. You see, this is God's judgment
upon these false prophets and God's deliverance of his people
in spite of the false prophets. And he says, because with lies
you have made the heart of the righteous sad. Now, who are the
righteous? That's the true people of God.
Those are sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ. That's
the righteous. Those are believers justified
before God. washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness, regenerated by the Spirit to follow Him.
And when they see these false preachers and these mysterious
fortune tellers, what does it do to your heart when you see
so much of this going on in our day? And so many people following. You turn on television, you look
at these false preachers preaching man-centered salvation, And thousands
of people follow. And you may have friends, family
members who are following them. What does it do to your heart?
It makes you sad, doesn't it? And he says, you've strengthened
the hands of the wicked. It makes the wicked glad. They're
impressed. That's something. God's got to
be in that. That's what they say, isn't it?
I've heard people come out of services where there was no gospel
preached, but there was such emotional upheaval and eye-walking,
they said, the Spirit of God was really strong tonight. There
was no Spirit of God there at all. The gospel wasn't preached.
Christ wasn't preached. The truth wasn't preached. Sinners
weren't pointed to Christ and His blood and righteousness for
salvation. They were pointed somewhere else. And the Spirit
of God is not in that. And that's what they do. They
make the heart of the righteous sad, but they strengthen the
hands. It's interesting he doesn't say
there in that verse. He says you make the heart of
the righteous sad. That's the renewed heart. That's
the regenerate heart. The new heart. But he doesn't
say you strengthen the hearts of the wicked. He said you strengthen
the hands of the wicked. What is the hand an emblem of
in the Old Testament? works, man's works, working with
his hand. That's what they do. They strengthen
them in their false view of salvation by the works and will of man.
And you do it by promising him life, life based on his works. And so verse 23, he says, therefore
you shall see no more vanity nor divine divinations, for I
will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know
that I am the Lord." There's the Lord showing Himself to be
the one true and living God, and that He means what He says,
not only in His wrath against sinful men and idolatry, but
in His deliverance of His people. You know what? If it weren't
for God's almighty power and grace and goodness in Christ,
not one of us would have been delivered out of their hands.
We'd been right with them. Ain't that right? That's amazing
grace. That the only reason that we
see what we see and know what we know and believe what we believe
is attributed to one thing. the sovereign power and grace
of God in Christ. That's it. He delivered me. He
delivered you. You didn't deliver yourself.
I didn't deliver myself. But God, God reached down on
the dung heap of religion and lifted us out, delivered us out,
and delivered us to Christ. It's amazing, isn't it? All right.