Now look with me to Ezekiel chapter
11. And as I said, the title of the
message is The Sanctuary and the Remnant. The Sanctuary and
the Remnant. What we have here in chapter
11 is the final stage of the vision of the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Ezekiel is prophesying to the
exiles in Babylon We've seen by the river Kidar, he's sort
of like with the common people, the population, probably as some
scholars say, about 10,000 people in number in this location. There
were Israelites scattered throughout Babylon. But you might keep in
mind that as Ezekiel was preaching to this mass of people, prophesying
to Daniel and his three companions, his three brethren, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, they were in the palace, ministering in
their way as God was watching over them. And that's important
for this lesson tonight, this message tonight. And so here,
beginning back in chapter eight, God had taken Ezekiel up in a
vision. and put him in that vision now,
not literally or physically, but in that vision. Some scholars
believe it was physically, but I don't. But in that vision,
taking him back to Jerusalem. And there he is, and he prophesied
from that perspective. This is God showing the people
in Babylon that Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. The temple
was about to be destroyed. Remember they had false teachers
telling them that it wasn't going to be destroyed, that everything
was fine and they wouldn't be in Babylon for very long and
they'd go back intact to Jerusalem. But Jeremiah, he's prophesying
in Jerusalem that it's going to be destroyed. He told the
people to submit to God's will, to God's punishment, because
that's what they deserve for their sins. That was an emblem
of repentance. Take sides with God against our
sin. And the only way they were gonna save their lives here on
this earth was to submit and be deported to Babylon. And there'd
been two waves of deportation so far. Ezekiel, Daniel was taken
in the first, Ezekiel taken in the second. And so those in Babylon
were safe because of God's providence, because of God's goodness. But those in Jerusalem, they
weren't safe. But now they thought they were,
and this is what's happening here. So this is Jerusalem on
the brink of disaster. So this is the conclusion of
that vision. And look at what it says. The
first thing he brings up in the first half of this chapter is
that False teachers back in Jerusalem, not only in Babylon now, but
back in Jerusalem, false teachers are promoting false security. And that's the way it is with
false teachers. They preach Satan's message, which in essence is
peace when there is no peace. Remember, Satan preached it in
this form. It comes in many forms. Satan preached it in Genesis
chapter 3 when he deceived Eve. He said, God said, you shall
surely die. I say, you shall not surely die. And Satan was lying. And that's
the way it is with false preachers. And what we tell people all the
time in our messages, in our witness, is my friend, if you're
not found before God in Christ, by the grace of God, washed in
his blood and clothed in his righteousness, you are not at
peace with God. No matter how you feel, no matter
what you've done or plan to do, no matter where you go to church,
if you're not found in Christ by the sovereign mercy and grace
of God, there is no peace. There's nothing but God's wrath
outside of Christ. I don't care who you are. That's
what this book teaches. That's what Ezekiel's teaching
and prophesying of. Well look at it, he says in verse
one, moreover the Spirit lifted me up, the Spirit of God lifting
him up. Spirit there should be capitalized.
That's the Holy Spirit. Lifted him up, that is the way
that God describes his vision, and brought me into the east
gate of the Lord's house, that's the temple. And the east gate,
facing eastward, you know the eastern gate is always the gate
when we talk about the second coming of Christ, where he'll
come in the Eastern Gate. And this was the gate of judgment.
This is where the nobles, the princes, the priests, the higher-ups,
the Sanhedrin, this is where they would pass judgment on court
cases, religious or civil. And he says, which looketh eastward
and behold at the door of the gate five and 20 men, Now, we
don't really know the exact significance of that exact number, but what
we see is that it was a full measure of the nobles. In other words, it seems like
this is what it took to pass proper judgment. And it says,
among whom I saw Jeazaniah, the son of Azur, and Pelotiah the
son of Benaiah, princes of the people." Now again, we don't
really know exactly who these fellows are, but they apparently
were people of prominence. These were names that when you
said these names, most of the people would recognize. And that's
all we know about. He says in verse 2, Then said
he unto me, Son of man, it speaks to Ezekiel's humanness, These
are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel in the
city, which say, it is not near, let us build houses. This city
is the cauldron and we be the flesh. Now what he's talking
about is how they viewed themselves. And that's significant because
man by nature, think about it, Man by nature, in his depravity
and in his sin, even at his best, he always views himself as better
than he is. In other words, he always views
himself much differently than how God views him. You see, that's
why we're interested as we go through the Scriptures, not in
how we see ourselves or how we see each other, but in how God
sees us. That's the issue. Remember the
Bible says that by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in
His sight, in God's sight. That's the issue. Christ told
the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious people of His
day, He says, you are they which justify yourselves before men. You see yourselves as being okay,
as being righteous. He spoke the parable of the Pharisee
and the public and to those who saw themselves who or who judged
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others
and What he's describing here in these princes of the people
They devise mischief in the sense in and what he's talking about
here is not just some accident now This is a well thought-out
process of religious activity. That's what it's talking about
here. I that they devise. And they give wicked counsel.
It's the equivalent of a false preacher telling sinners that
they're okay when they're not. That they're righteous when they're
not righteous. That they're saved when they're
not saved. That's the equivalent. And here's
what they're saying. Now, Jeremiah had already said
it. You remember, Jeremiah sent a letter to Babylon that was
read to the people about this. Jerusalem has come under the
judgment of God. The people are sinful and idolatrous. They've turned their back on
God and God's wrath is coming and the only way you're going
to survive this is to submit to God's judgment because that's
what we deserve. But the false preachers here
were saying, no, no, Jerusalem's fine, let's build houses. Now
if you're going to build a house, you plan to live in it. If you
knew that tomorrow Ashland, Kentucky was going to be destroyed, you
wouldn't start laying a foundation tonight for a house, I don't
think. And so what these false preachers are saying, now you
settle in, you're all right, peace. What Jeremiah's telling
you is not true, what Ezekiel's saying is not true. Build your
houses. The city is a cauldron, like
a soup pot, and we be the flesh. They are safe in the soup pot.
That is what that means. We are safe, just like the meat
in a soup pot. Blending right in everything,
just warm and cozy, and we are safe. That is what that saying
means. Well, that is how they saw themselves.
The choice meat in the pot. That is what that really means.
We are the choice meat. We are the best of the best.
And we're going to see later where they're going to talk about
the exiles as if, now those fellas, they're sinners. They're under
the judgment of God. That's why God took them out.
But look at us. He left us here. We're the best.
We're righteous. We've done right in God's sight. We're still here. And He's not
going to destroy this city. This is the city of David. This
is the city of the King, rather. This is Jerusalem. We're the
children of Abraham. We're righteous. We've kept the
law of Moses. Look at verse four, he says,
therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. Now this
is what God tells Ezekiel. And here's where we're gonna
see how God sees them now. Notice the vast difference in
how they see themselves and how God sees them. Verse five, and
the spirit of the Lord fell upon me. And when it says fall upon
him, what it means is like a heavy burden. You think you're fine,
but I'm here, I've got to tell you something you don't wanna
hear. That's what he's saying. That's a burden. You remember
the burden of the word. And he said unto me, speak, thus
saith the Lord. This is God's word. Thus have
you said, O house of Israel. I know the things that come into
your mind, every one of them. God's saying, I know your thoughts.
I know your heart. I know your heart. And he says,
you've multiplied your slain in the city, and you have filled
the streets thereof with the slain. What does he mean by that?
Well, in keeping people there and encouraging them to stay
there, what does that mean? That brings about their death.
You see, when a false preacher preaches a false gospel and tells
people that they're okay, what's he doing? I'll tell you exactly
what he's doing. Some people may think this is
too harsh. He's murdering souls. If I were to encourage you to
continue in a false profession of religion, and not encourage
you to run to Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness,
for all righteousness, for all glory and all eternal life, you
could just as well call me a soul murderer. If I speak peace to
you when there is no peace. And what these leaders of the
people were doing to the people physically As false preachers,
they were doing it to them spiritually just like false preachers today
or in any generation. Just like Satan. You shall not
surely die. Well, look. What did God say?
In the day that you eat thereof, dying thou shalt die. Verse 7. He says, Therefore thus saith
the Lord God, your slain, whom you have laid in the midst of
it, they are the flesh, and this city is the cauldron. In other
words, I'm going to burn them up. That's what he's saying there.
Do you think you're safe in that cauldron? That cauldron's gonna
be your death. He says, but I will bring you forth out of the midst
of it. I'm gonna take you out of the city. Verse eight, you
have feared the sword and I will bring sword upon you, saith the
Lord God. And I will bring you out of the
midst, out of the midst of the city thereof and deliver you
into the hands of strangers. That's the foreigners, that's
the Babylonians. and will execute judgments among you. You're under
the judgment of God. You think you're safe, you think
you're justified, you think you're righteous, you're under judgment. That's the state of any and every
sinner without Christ. Right there. You see, unless
I'm found in Christ, I'm under the judgment of God. You see,
that's why we think about judgment, when we think about judgment,
We think about our mediator, we think about our advocate,
we think about our substitute. John 16, 11, he will convince
the world of judgment because the prince of this world, Christ,
took the judgment of his people on the cross of Calvary when
our sins were dealt with on that in his death. Our sins were imputed,
charged to him, and he took our judgment. Without him, what are
you? You're under the judgment. And
God will execute that judgment. Verse 10, you shall fall by the
sword. I will judge you in the border
of Israel. You won't be inside. You'll be
on the border. You'll be, you're, you're being
escorted out. That's what he's talking about. And you shall
know that I'm the Lord. Then you'll really know the reality
of who God is, but you'll know it in a judgmental way, not in
a gracious way, not in a merciful way. We preach God's mercy and
God's grace and God's love. But all of those blessings of
salvation are wrapped up, centered around, and founded upon Jesus
Christ and him crucified. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. I know people argue over terms
today quite a bit. I've been studying that for Sunday
morning's message, that terminology. You know, and preachers are terrible
for it. You know, we get definitions
of terms, and we invest our egos in them, and you all are the
victims. And that's what happens a lot. And that's a shame. And that's our fault. But I won't
let you off the hook completely, because you should study to show
yourself approved under God of workmen that need not to be ashamed.
In other words, don't ever believe it just because I say it. You
check me out with the Word of God. That's what you're to do.
But I thought about this. You know, people argue about
God's long-suffering towards the wicked. Some people call
it common grace. I don't like that term, but some
people call it mercy. I choose to call it exactly what
the Bible calls it. God's long-suffering. And any
breath that one who will never come to Christ takes in this
life is a product of God's long suffering. You might even say
it's God's goodness in the sense of God allowing them to live.
But make no mistake about it, no matter what their circumstance
here on earth, no matter what their condition, they're under
his judgment. In verse 12, look at that. He
says, or verse 11, he says, the city shall not be your cauldron,
neither shall you be the flesh in the midst thereof. You won't
be safe, but I will judge you in the border of Israel. And
you shall know that I am the Lord, for you have not walked
in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after
the manners of the heathen that are found about you. And there's
their sin. Not walking in the terms of the old covenant. Not
following God. The basic terms of the Old Covenant,
I won't go into all of that. But basically you understand
why the Old Covenant, the Law of Moses, was given to the nation. It was given to expose their
sin. So one of the first things that
a sinner would do in keeping the Covenant would be first admit
that I'm a sinner. And that I have nothing to recommend
me unto God. That I'm totally at His mercy.
for any blessings, temporal or eternal, and that I have no righteousness
of my own, and that if God would ever give me what I deserve,
it would be eternal damnation, I need a substitute. I need a
representative. I need a mediator. I need a sacrificial
lamb to stand in my place and take my sins and deal with them
through his death. That's what that whole old covenant
was about, as a schoolmaster to lead among the Christ. And
walk in obedience to the commandments of God, not in order to earn
or merit salvation, but because of God's grace and mercy and
love in Christ. But they didn't keep it. And
in not keeping it, they blended in with pagan society around
them. There was no distinction. You know, I believe that's a
prophecy of the visible church in the last days. That's why
Paul wrote, by inspiration of the Spirit, in Romans 12 and
verse 2, he said, Be ye not conformed to the world. I was telling Brother
Aaron that out in Ruston, I didn't preach a series, I preached six
times, I didn't really preach a series, but the theme of all
the messages basically revolved around this. What is the difference
between what we preach and what others preach? I'm not when I
say we I'm not just talking about this church alone. We I'm talking
about any church that preaches the true gospel What's the difference? Well, there's a lot of differences
But I'll tell you where I think it all boils down to I mean we
can talk about a lot of differences In our doctrine in our and what?
but but but if I had to go down to the very basic of all of it
it has to do to me and With what gospel do you preach in this
sense? Does the gospel you preach make salvation conditioned on
men, sinners, or does the gospel you preach lay all conditions
on Jesus Christ and him crucified alone? Which conditions he met? Because if it's conditioned on
men, you go back and read the old covenant, what does that
mean? Failure, death. But if it's conditioned on Christ,
we can say with the Apostle Paul, he is able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto the Father by him. We can say with Paul,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. You
see, people view themselves in their own sight one way, but
God views it in another. Well, in verse 13, the prophet
asked a question. Look at it, verse 13. And it
came to pass when I prophesied that Pelletiah, the son of Benaiah,
died. Now this man died. And was that
literal? I believe it was. But it was
shown forth to Ezekiel in this vision. And he said, then fell
I down upon my face and cried with a loud voice and said, ah,
Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel? Now here's the second part of
this and that's a remnant shall be saved by the grace of God. We've talked about a remnant
before in Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel too. Paul spoke of
this remnant. This remnant. You know what a
remnant is? It's a small part. Listen to the words of the apostle
Paul, Romans 9 27. Let me just read it to you. Isaiah
cried concerning Israel. Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work,
who will? God will. And he'll cut it short
in righteousness. Whatever God does in this work,
it's gonna be a righteous work. Because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabaoth, which is the sovereign Lord, invincible,
had left us a seed. we had been as Sodom and been
made like unto Gomorrah. In other words, if God hadn't
chosen a remnant out of this nation to preserve and to save,
the whole nation, like Sodom and Gomorrah, would have perished.
That's the way it is with mankind. If God hadn't chosen a people
before the foundation of the world and given them to Christ,
the whole kit and caboodle would perish. Somebody said, well,
that's not fair. Let me tell you something. It's
more than fair. It's more than any of us deserve.
If God left us to ourselves and came before all men without exception
in our state of depravity and said, now you all bend to my
will and do this and do that, nobody would come to Him. And
that's the way it is with Israel. We're no better than them. We're
sinners. Paul went on in Romans chapter
11 and verse 26 to say this. He says, so all Israel shall
be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. Who is the Israel there? Well,
Paul had made that clear all the way through the book of Romans.
It's spiritual Israel under the headship of Christ. How do you
know? Because it says there shall come out of Zion the deliverer.
That's Christ. And so Ezekiel asked, are you
going to make a full end of the remnant of Israel? Verse 14,
again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, thy
brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred. Now you
remember Ezekiel was a priest. That's from the tribe of Levi.
And he said, the men of thy kindred and all the house of Israel wholly
Are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, get you
far from the Lord? Unto us is this land given in
possession." Now here's what he's saying to Ezekiel. He said,
your earthly brethren, the priests that are back there at the temple,
remember he's gone here, he's at the east gate of the temple,
and there they are, these priests and nobles. They're the ones
who said about the remnant that was taken out unto Babylon, they
said those are outcasts, those deserve what they're getting,
they're great sinners, but now God's given us this land for
our possession. We're the true people of God
now. You understand what he's saying? Here they are in Jerusalem. They're thinking they're okay.
And the reason that they're left there is because they're better
than the ones who were taken out. And God's saying now that's
what your earthly brethren have said. Brothers in the flesh. That's what our earthly brothers
say too by nature when it comes to salvation. Listen, unless
salvation in our hearts and minds is totally by the sovereign mercy
and grace of God, totally apart from our persons and our works,
what do we think by nature? Some way, somehow we do something
better than they who don't. Whether it's believe, walk an
aisle, get baptized, join the church, submit, cooperate, however
you want to put it. We automatically, by nature,
think that we're better. I know that. I know we won't
admit it until God brings us to admit it. That's what we believe. I mean, you think about it. Here's
one, here's two things. One on the right side and one
on the left side of the Savior. Both of them start out railing
on him, but all of a sudden, one thief on the right, he begins
in conviction to admit of his sin and to look to Jesus Christ on
the middle cross as his whole salvation. And the one on the left doesn't
do that. He remains in his stubbornness, his rebellion, his unbelief,
his darkness, his obstinance. Now, why did the thief on the
right all of a sudden change? Well, if you go by most religion
today that calls itself Christianity, you'd have to say it this way,
because he was a better thief than the one on the left. Because
he just, all of a sudden, he got it in his heart exercise
that spark of goodness that had been lying dormant for so many
years. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches us that the
difference between the thief on the right and the thief on
the left was the sovereign grace and power of God, period, in
Christ. The thief on the right has nothing
to glory in but the cross of Christ. And that's it. And that's the situation here.
This is what they've said, Ezekiel. But look at verse 16. Therefore
say, thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far
off among the heathen. That's the ones in Babylon. And
although I have scattered them among the countries. Now, countries,
or it could be translated nations, is plural there. Now, somebody said, well, I thought
he was just talking about Babylon. Well, he is talking about Babylon,
but he's going further than that. There's many nations. And he
says, though I've test them and scattered them among the nations,
among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary
in the countries where they shall come. A little sanctuary. Now, here's the point. What is a sanctuary? Well, it's
a place of safety and security. It's a place of warmth, of healing. It's also in the Bible a place
of worship and praise. And it's a place of sacrifice.
That's what a sanctuary is. The sanctuary physically was
represented in the temple in the Holy of Holies. But as we
saw in the last lesson, God left there. His presence, he removed
his presence from there. Now, that's all symbolic and
it is all revelation to them because God's everywhere. He's
omnipresent. But he's talking about the sanctuary
of salvation that resides in God alone. It resides in the
temple now. It didn't reside in this building,
that building, this area or that area. It resides in God who reveals
himself as the believer's sanctuary in Christ Jesus. Christ is our
sanctuary. He's our place of safety. He's
our place of security. He's our place of sacrifice for
He is our sacrifice. Isn't He? By His blood. We're forgiven and washed clean
from all our sins. He's our place of righteousness
so that we cannot be charged with sin. What a sanctuary that
is! Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. What better
sanctuary could we have but Christ and Him crucified? He's our only
sanctuary. This term little sanctuary, I
believe it's kind of misleading the way it's translated. It's
not little because of its size or its majesty or its vastness. In fact, our sanctuary, which
is Christ Jesus, we can't even begin to describe His majesty,
His vastness, His infinity. What it literally means is I
will be to them a sanctuary for a little while, for a short time. And what's he talking about?
He's talking about their time in Babylon. In other words, these
folks back in Jerusalem, they think they're safe, like the
meat in the pot of soup, like the cauldron. They think God
dwells there, God's glory had left there, He's no sanctuary.
They're trying to find sanctuary in their religion, in their obedience,
in their righteousness, in their temple, in their connection with
Abraham. It's not there! It's in the presence of God who
resides with his people even if they're in Babylon and whatever
nation they're in. What's that telling us? Well,
you know we're here on this earth, aren't we? We're like strangers
in a strange land. Like thirsty people in a dry
and thirsty land. Like pilgrims. who have no place
to settle. But you know what? God is still
our sanctuary. Right now. And this is just for
a little while. And in time, he says, look at
verse 17, he says, Therefore say thus saith the Lord God,
I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of
the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give
you the land of Israel. He's going to bring them back
to the land of Israel. Now, there is a A partial fulfillment of that,
that occurs around 65 years later. You know, they were in Babylon
for 70 years now. And at this time when Ezekiel's
prophesying, he prophesied about five years in. So around 60 some
years from this, he was going to bring a group of them, some
scholars say about 50,000 of them, out of Babylon and back
into Jerusalem. under Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel. And there was a partial fulfillment
of this prophecy there. But the ultimate fulfillment,
the eternal spiritual fulfillment, is the calling of God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew, and
Gentile unto Christ. I'll prove it to you. Look back
at verse 18. He says, They shall come thither,
they shall take away all the detestable things thereof, and
all the abominations thereof. In other words, they are going
to remove all those idols that were set up. But look at verse
19. I'll give them one heart. I will
put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out
of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh. that they
may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and do them and
they shall be my people and I will be their God. Now, you might
notice that's very similar to the language that Jeremiah used
back in the book of consolation, Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34 when
he's talking about the new covenant. You see for a little while, see
if we can grab hold of this. You know, God works in mysterious
ways. We know that. His wonders to
perform. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord to turn it. Think about this. You know, at
the end of the 70 years, God used an ungodly, idolatrous,
heathen king named Cyrus of Persia to liberate these Israelites
from Babylon to bring them back to Jerusalem. and allow them
to rebuild the temple. So God used that man for a little
while in that way towards his people. But also in doing that, God for
a little while, temporally speaking, gave these people a heart of
encouragement and excitement about going back and rebuilding
the temple and rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem.
But do you remember when we studied the minor prophets, what happened?
It wasn't very long that they lost it. You see, that was God
providentially working in those people to accomplish his purpose
to bring them back. Because he meant to keep them
together and in that land until the time of reformation, until
Christ would come. But that in no way indicated
that God took all those people and exercised them in his power
by the Holy Spirit, the new birth. Because it didn't last. It didn't
last. Wasn't long, they turned back
to idols and compromised, got lazy, selfish, quit building
the temple, quit building the walls, went to building their
own big houses, all of that. And then you look at their history
from then on until the time of Christ, what kind of shape were
they in? They were lost religionists. So when is the ultimate fulfillment
of what Ezekiel's talking about here in this remnant? This is
the remnant who come to rest in the eternal spiritual sanctuary
of Christ. And this is what he said. You
know he's talking about the new birth. Verse 19, I'll give them
one heart. Not a partial fulfillment to
a nation here on earth, but an eternal fulfillment to His elect
in Christ. I'll put a new spirit within
them, the spirit of grace, the spirit of love, the spirit of
gratitude. He said, I'll take the stony
heart out of their flesh, that rebellious, hard heart. Give
them a heart of flesh, meaning pliable, humble, bendable, a
broken and a contrite, broken over sin. And they may walk in
my statutes, that's in the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Keep
mine ordinances to do them, following him as his disciples, motivated
by grace and gratitude and love. And he said, they'll be my people
and I'll be their God. There's that marriage language. The eternal union between Christ
and his bride. You see that? That's what he's
talking about. That's the issue. God has a people. No, Ezekiel, he will not make
a full end of the remnant of Israel. He's not yet through
with the nation. And so he's still working his
sovereign will. But the fulfillment of this is
mainly in spiritual Israel. I thought about something here.
You know, in John chapter 3, when Nicodemus came to Christ,
and Christ said, you must be born again, You remember how
Nicodemus responded? He said, well, how can a man
be born again? Can he enter into his mother's womb? And you remember
what Christ asked him? He said, are you a master in
Israel and you don't know these things? And I had a fellow ask
one time, ask another preacher in my hearing. He said, how in
the world could Nicodemus know about the new birth? There it
is, in Ezekiel. Right back there in Jeremiah
31, there it is. It's over here in Ezekiel 36.
Go all the way back to Deuteronomy when He said, circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart. How many of the Psalms talk about
those who come to Him? And Isaiah too. Their lips, but
their heart is far. It's all through the Old Testament.
And Nicodemus being a master, a teacher, a THD, and he didn't
know that? No, he didn't know. Because he
lost sight of it. God's got a people and He's gonna
change their heart. He's gonna give them a new heart.
They're gonna be born again by the Spirit. They're gonna be
brought to conviction of sin and brought to Christ for salvation,
for righteousness, for forgiveness. And they're gonna bear the fruit
of godliness and obedience. Verse 21, but as for them whose
heart walketh after the heart of detestable things and their
abomination, I will recompense their way upon their own heads,
said the Lord God. They're gonna get what they deserve.
That's why, again, we pray, Lord, don't give us what we deserve.
Now what these last verses say is just simply Ezekiel went back
and told them what God told him. Look at it. Then did the cherubims
lift up their wings and the wheels beside them. This is the end
of the vision, see. The glory of God of Israel was
over above them and the glory of the Lord went up from the
midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is on the
east side of the city. And afterwards the spirit took me up and brought
me in a vision by the spirit of God unto Chaldea. That is
back to Babylon, that's where Chaldea is. to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen
went up from me. And then I spake unto them of
the captivity, all the things that the Lord had shown."