Turn in your Bibles with me to
Ezekiel chapter 8. Ezekiel chapter 8. The title of the message this
evening is Provoking God to Jealousy. Provoking God to Jealousy. Now I know that you who have
been here at 13th Street for many years have heard messages
on this subject about how God, our God, is a jealous God. And
I know that you know the right scriptural proper perspective
on that issue. But others may not know this,
and this is a subject that I believe that believers, children of God,
if we're going to understand the scripture and if we're going
to grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ, more and more, which
we all need to do, that we need to be skillful in. What does
it mean, God is a jealous God? Well, Ezekiel chapters 8 through
11, these few chapters, 8 through 11, is one unit. And what this
is, is in Ezekiel's prophecy, is the Lord continue to inspire
Ezekiel and give him visions. of his word so that he could
preach it to the people, the exiles in Babylon. In this particular
vision, he gave Ezekiel a vision of the temple in Jerusalem and
then of the throne of God. This passage begins about 14
months after Ezekiel's original prophecy that God gave him by
the river Kibar. He's still there now. but it's
about a little over a year afterward. And in this vision, God sets
forth for the prophet to preach to the elders of Israel, the
elders that were in exile. Apparently, even though they
were in exile, they were allowed to appoint to live and conduct
their affairs according to their Jewish customs. So there were
still elders there who were judges of the people to appoint. even
under Babylonian captivity. And we know that's true because
we look at Daniel and his friends in the palace, you know, and
how much freedom they had. And that was only by God's providence.
Most of the time when tyrants or despots or when they conquered
countries, they either just killed them off or just made them abject
slaves with no mercy, no freedom at all. God wouldn't have that
for his people, for his purposes. And we know, ultimately, the
reason was that he meant to keep them together and bring them
back to Jerusalem and Judah for a little while, rebuild the temple. And it was through that nation,
obviously, that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, was to
come. So it was all in God's providence, all God's power.
Didn't have anything to do. with the goodness or the power
or the faithfulness or the willingness of the people. Because we saw
that in Jeremiah, we see it in Ezekiel's prophecy, and then
we'll even see when they get back to Judah and Jerusalem in
the minor prophets, it was always preaching to a rebellious people.
And so we never forget now as we read the scriptures that Israel,
Judah was just simply a picture of all of us by nature, fallen,
ruined sinners, who are unwilling to come to God His way, unwilling
to bow, unwilling to receive the things of the Spirit of God.
But here they are. So God's going to show them,
set forth abominations. Now abomination means an impurity,
an uncleanliness. It's a damnable heresy, all of
those things. He's going to set forth before
their eyes abominations occurring in the very temple in Jerusalem. And that's what this is about.
That's what this unit, this chapters eight through 11 mainly deal
with. Abominations in the temple, the place where the Shekinah
glory of God dwelt among the people. The heart of the nation,
that's what it was. The place that set forth in picture
and type The glory of God in the salvation of sinners by His
grace through Jesus Christ the Lord, who is the high priest,
who is the altar, who is the sacrifice, the propitiation.
Sin taking place in the temple. And in the first six verses,
here we see God taking Ezekiel in a vision to the temple in
Jerusalem. Let's just read in verse one. And it came to pass
in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the
month, as I sat in my house and the elders of Judas sat before
me, this is the scene, this is a literal scene here, that the
hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. The power of God in
vision, in prophecy, in his word. And he says, and then I beheld
and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire. Now there's fire. And he says from the appearance
of his loins. This was a person. A likeness
of the appearance of fire was a person. There's a personal
pronoun there from the appearance of his loins. That's where the
power comes from. Even downward fire. So this was
a person who appeared in the likeness as the appearance of
fire this speaks of glory this speaks of power speaks of majesty
and he says and from his loins even upward as the appearance
of brightness that's the effulgence of his glory and look at it says
as the color of amber now that color of amber is the color of
brass some translations even say copper But the color of amber
is indicative in the Old Testament of the color of the brazen altar. So what do we have here? We have
a vision, a pre-incarnate vision of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
redeemer of his people. That's what he's talking about.
A vision of Messiah. Christ in his redemptive glory
and he's coming to judge the people. The fire of judgment
is here. Now, let me just remind you now. The fire of judgment from the
redemptive glory of Christ does one thing for God's chosen people
and another thing for those who are left in their sin, doesn't
it? The fire of God's judgment from the Redeemer When it is
applied to God's chosen people, His elect, His church, the redeemed,
what does it do for you? What does it do for us? It melts
our hearts. It exposes our sin and it melts
the hearts of His people in true conviction. and brings us to
Christ in humility and in faith for all salvation. That's what
the fire of judgment does. That's the conviction of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. But now that same fire coming
from the Redeemer as it is applied to those who are left in their
sins is an eternal damnation for all who stand against Him.
So understand that, and that's really what's happening here
more than anything else. We see the glory of the Redeemer
here. And what a beautiful glory it
is, the color of amber. You ought to love the color of
amber. I ought to love the color of amber. It's the color of my
redemption. I know silver is the metal that
symbolizes redemption. But amber, brass, The brazen
altar. That's where our Lord Jesus Christ,
as our substitute in surety, had our sins charged, accounted,
imputed to Him, and where He took the punishment that we deserved
and earned, right there. That's a beautiful color, isn't
it? That's the color of redemption. Well, look at verse three. He
says, He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock
of mine head. He took him by the hair of the
head, And the spirit lifted me up between
the earth and the heaven. Now this is in a vision. And
apparently what's happening here is not only is Ezekiel seeing
this, but the elders are seeing this vision too. There are a
few commentators who say this literally happened. That Ezekiel
and them were all actually taken. But we don't know. That doesn't
say that. But that's not important. What's important is the message.
You see? What's important is the truth.
that the Lord is seeking to implant here and impart here. And he says, and he brought me
in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate
that looketh toward the north, where was the seed of the image
of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. So this gate here,
now he brought him to the north where there was a door or a gate.
Now this gate down in chapter five, we'll see it's called the
altar gate. We'll read about that in just
a moment. The altar gate. And from the book of Leviticus,
you can see in several places in Leviticus, but for example,
Leviticus chapter one and verse 11, if you want to mark it, it's
called the place of sacrifice. And it pictures redemption by
the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. This was the gate
leading from the outer court of the temple to the inner court,
which was the court of the priest, where they approached, through
that door, the brazen altar. That's where they bring the sacrifice.
And they kill the sacrifice and burn it up on that brazen altar
with the coves of fire. All of that. was a picture. And
of course, the door, we can certainly think about our Savior as being
the door. He said, I am the door. He's
the one way to God. So here it is. Here's the altar
gate, the door. Christ is the door, the one way
to God. And it's through the priest bringing
the sacrifice to the brazen altar, the shedding of the blood. So
everything together here now is picturing and setting forth
the glory of God in that in that redemptive glory of Christ. Right
there. Well, look at verse 4. He says,
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there. Now
this is the same one that he mentioned back over in chapter
1. The glory of the God of Israel. And that's Christ. Christ is
the glory of God. We speak of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. We speak of the fullness of God
in Christ. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We speak of the revelation of
God in Christ. The revelation of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit through Christ. So there's no
dealings here in any capacity except through Christ. And that's
the way it is. And that's the way it is in redemption,
salvation, justification. How are we justified? Based on
the righteousness of God in Christ, imputed, charged, accounted to
us. Which we receive by faith when we receive Christ. When
we submit to Him. When we believe in Him by the
power of God. But also in judgment. The Father
hath committed all judgment to the Son, John chapter 5. The
father's gonna honor those who honor the son. It's all through
him. So the glory of the God of Israel
was there according to the vision that I saw in the plain. And
that's referring back to chapter three, those first chapters where
he saw those visions, the visions of the glory of God and the visions
of the wheel and all of those. And so this is the same, Christ
in his redemptive glory. Now here's the point. of all
this is that when it comes to God's judgment of sinners, all
things, all persons and all things are to be judged in light of
the redemptive glory of God in Christ, Christ crucified. In
other words, it's all in how you stand or how I stand or how
people stand in relation to Jesus Christ. And that's why the apostle
Paul set forth by the power of the Holy Spirit in Philippians
3, oh, that I may know him and be found in him. See, that's
our only hope, isn't it? To be found in him. Not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law. But that which
is through the faith of Christ. Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith. You see, that's our only hope.
You're either in Him, safe and secure, righteous, holy, in Him,
justified in Him, accepted in Him, or you're not. You're outside
of Him. And to be outside of Him is to
be under the sentence of death. Eternal damnation. Everything
in this judgment And that's what that temple stood for in Israel,
in Jerusalem. Everything was about Christ.
Everything was about the glory of God in Christ. The law of
God fulfilled by Christ, who they saw as the promised Messiah,
who was to come in the future and redeem his people. Well look
at verse 5, he says, Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift
up thine eyes now the way toward the north, So I lifted up mine
eyes the way toward the north and behold northward at the gate
of the altar. Now that's that north gate now.
This image of jealousy in the entry. Now he mentioned that,
the image of jealousy in the entry. Back in verse three, in
that gate where was the seed of the image of jealousy which
provoketh the jealousy. Now this is a sad, sad, sad case. Here's the door that led to the
court where the sacrifices were killed and burned on the brazen
altar. And on the outside of that door
in the temple, the Israelites had placed an image of a false
god that provoked the true and living God to jealousy. Now isn't that sad? Now let me
tell you what that is. That's a picture of the apostate
church. What is the apostate church?
Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now, it certainly was literally
apostate Israel. These were the people of God
chosen by God and formed as a nation at Sinai under that covenant
made through Moses. And these were the people whom
God used in a great way in spite of themselves. And what happened? They forsook
God. And they compromised His truth. They compromised His glory.
That's what happened. That's all of us by nature, isn't
it? And that's why we pray continually, oh Lord. Now even us as, even
we who are believers now, saved by the grace of God, here's one
of the things that we ought to pray, and that often. Oh Lord, leave us not to ourselves. Don't leave me to myself. Don't
let me stand up here alone. Don't let you sit there alone.
Do not leave us to ourselves. But look at 2 Thessalonians 2
verse 1. Paul writes, Now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in
mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by
letters from us, as the day of Christ is at hand. As if to say
that Christ is coming now, today. Verse three, let no man deceive
you by any means for that day shall not come. Now I know that's
in italics because it wasn't in the original, but that's the
thought. It's continuing the thought here. And you know, whenever
I tell you about those things in italics, I'm not telling you
that because they shouldn't be there. I believe God has providentially,
you know, had this translation for us. And I believe it's the
best translation, but it's just to make a point. And he says,
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. Now that word falling away is
an apostasy. And he says, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition. That's anti-Christ. Who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshiped, so that he is God, sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God. In other words, he takes the
place that God alone should have. Now that's significant in this
message on jealousy, God's jealousy. Here's one who takes the place
that belongs only to God. Okay? Now hold on to that thought.
Now, I'm not going to spend time arguing or debating who the man
of sin is, when he is, what he is, all that. I'm going to just
tell you this. Here's the point. before the Lord Jesus Christ
comes back the second time to gather his church and to judge
the world, there is going to be, Paul says now, I'm talking
in the present tense as if Paul's talking to the Thessalonians.
And he says there's going to be an apostasy away, falling
away from the truth. Now, you can't fall away from
someplace you haven't been. You see, what he's saying is
this, is that in what is generally throughout the world known as
Christianity, will not be Christianity at all. There'll be a falling
away from the truth. It'll be Christian in name only.
nominal Christians. Now we know that's true for two
reasons. Number one, and here's the main
reason, the word of God says it, and you can read about it
in the first three, the second and third chapters of Revelation,
the churches there. You think about the church at
Sardis, for example, the church at Ephesus who lost their first
love, the church at Sardis who had a name that they were alive,
but they were really dead, the church at Laodicea, we could
go on. But what it is, is Christian in name only. And what it is,
this apostasy is indicated by a claim of Christianity, but
a denial of the truth or the doctrine of Christianity. Well,
what's going on back here in Ezekiel 8, same thing. We're
Abraham's seed, they say. We're circumcised, we keep the
law of Moses, we have the temple, there it is. They would call
him Yahweh. That's the name that they would,
we worship him. But look what they did to his
glory. They set an image of an idol outside the altar gate. They compromised his glory. Now
let me give you a few things. First of all, understand that
that's a common theme in the history of Israel. Let me give
you an example. Look back in Deuteronomy chapter
32. This is not a new thing in Israel. Certainly not a new thing
among men. You see, this is the plight of
man left to himself. Fallen, ruined man, sinfulness. We'll either out and out deny
the truth or we'll compromise it. But look at Deuteronomy chapter
32 and verse 15. He says, but Jeshurun, now that's
another name for Israel. And it says, Jeshurun waxed or
grew fat, and they kicked, they complained. Thou art wax and
fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then
he forsook God, which made him, That's what happens. In other
words, everything gets to be good and everything's going fine
and they forsook God which made him and look here, lightly esteemed
the rock of his salvation. Lightly esteemed Christ. Lightly
esteemed his person and lightly esteemed the power of his finished
work. Compromised it. confused it and
even denied it. Now let me ask you a question.
What do you think is going on today in our religious world? What's the first thing Satan
goes after when he draws out his followers to attack the church? The person and the finished work
of Christ. You see, that's why they tell
me that I make too much of the righteousness of Christ. Let
me tell you how I don't. God sent his only begotten well-beloved
son to produce that righteousness. And what did it take for him
to produce that righteousness? What did he have to do? He was
made sin. He suffered, he bled, he died.
He gave his very life for his people to produce that righteousness. Now, can you make too much of
it? No, sir. But they'll attack it. I'm telling
you. The finished work of Christ.
But go on, look at verse 16 of Deuteronomy 32. They provoked
him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked
they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils,
not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came
newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the rock that beget thee,
thou art unmindful and hast forgotten God that formed thee." What happened? These false gods
are gods who will accept something less. than Jesus Christ
and him crucified for salvation, basically. Go back to Ezekiel
8 now. You see, this is a problem common
to humanity and sin. Why? Because man by nature, we
by nature are nothing but sin. Secondly, understand what it
means when God tells us He's a jealous God. Now, He says they
provoke God to jealousy in the entry. You know, there's the sin of
jealousy found in us. There's a sin of jealousy found
in us. And what is that? Well, that's
when we desire and strive for something that does not belong
to us. when we want or desire or strive
to get something that doesn't belong to us. That's jealousy
and it's a sin. You can equate it with envy.
But God is not jealous because someone else has something he
wants or needs. Something that does not belong
to him. He identifies himself as a jealous
God. Exodus chapter 20 for example,
we won't turn there. God is jealous of only the things that belong
only to Him. He's jealous of His glory. Glory
belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong to you. It
doesn't belong to me. If we seek glory, what are we
doing? We're seeking something that
brings out the jealousy in God. Because God alone is to be glorified. Why are we here? We're here to
glorify God tonight. Not here to glorify me. Not here
to glorify you. We're not here to make a name
for ourselves. We're not here to honor men. We're not here to build monuments
to men. We're here to worship God. The only way we're going to worship
God is through Christ. God's honor. God's worship. We
are here to serve God. Now we serve one another, but
in doing so we serve God because we are serving not to get attention
or honor to ourselves, but to bring glory to Him. Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works,
and what? Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. If my service doesn't honor God,
what is it? It's nothing, vain. Something
that provokes him to jealousy. God will not share his glory. He is a jealous God. Let me read
you a couple of scriptures. Exodus 34, verse 14. Listen to
this one. For thou shalt worship no other
God, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. His name is jealous. And I thought
about the Lord Jesus Christ in Philippians chapter 2 there where
it says, He's given a name which is above every name. Now if you
try to set your name or if I try to set my name alongside of His
name or above His name, that's nothing but abject sin. That belongs to Him alone. Deuteronomy 4.24, for the Lord
thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. So you see, God's jealousy is
not like our sin. Not even all our jealousy is
sinful. I think about this, you men, if somebody comes around
flirting with your wife, you have a right to be jealous because
she belongs to you. She don't belong to anybody else.
And wives, the same thing. If somebody comes around flirting
with your husband, you have a right to be jealous because he belongs
to you. Well, see, that's the way it
is with God. That's the way it is with Christ
and his bride. That's why it is such, you know,
we don't realize what an abomination it is for people to go about
dividing brethren. That's his bride. Now you think,
just think about that for a while. But thirdly, understand this,
that the glory of God is seen most in the glorious person and
finished work of Christ. As we've talked about, everything
in that temple was a picture of Christ, his person, his redemptive
glory, his offices, his mediator, the one mediator between God
and men. Now if I have another mediator, that provokes God to
jealousy. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. That's right. One Savior, one
Lord, one Gospel, one intercessor. Now if I make anything or anyone
else my intercessor, that provokes God to jealousy. One righteousness,
not His and mine, not His imputed and mine imparted, it's His alone. You see, it's all about Christ. The salvation He earned and provides
and His people come into God by Him and Him alone. One door,
don't set an idol at that door. That provokes God to jealousy.
He's the one way, I'm the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh unto the Father but by Him. And Satan always attacks
right there at that point, doesn't he? Look down at verse six of
Ezekiel. He said, furthermore unto me,
son of man, seeest thou what they do, even the great abominations
that the house of Israel committed here, that I should go far off
from my sanctuary to see the glory of the Lord has already
departed. But turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations. Now, think about what I've been
preaching on. Something greater and a greater
abomination. Well, there's two things here.
Let's look at them. Let's just read this. He says in verse seven,
and he brought me to the door of the court. And when I looked,
behold a hole in the wall. And then he said unto me, son
of man, dig now in the wall. And when I had digged in the
wall, behold a door. And he said unto me, go in and
behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went
in and saw and behold every form of creeping things and abominable
beast, that's unclean beast. all the idols of the house of
Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. And you know where
he is? He's in the inner chamber. And
he says, and there stood before them 70 men of the ancients of
the house of Israel. And in the midst of them stood
Jeazaniah, the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in
his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up. What are they
doing? They're trying to worship. They're trying to pray. The censer
and the smoke, that's what it is. And verse 12, it then said,
he unto me, son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of
the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the chambers
of his imagery, where they say, the Lord seeth us not, the Lord
hath forsaken the earth. Two things, first of all, the
way here is defiled. Ezekiel could not even go through
the door of the temple anymore. The path to acceptance and worship
had been so defiled that he had to go in another way, a hole
in the wall. That's what he's doing. And secondly,
they're denying that God even sees them. They're trying to
do this in the dark. But secret sins will be judged.
The Lord commanded Ezekiel to dig a hole through a wall to
observe the concealed sins of Judah's religious leaders. That's
who this man, Jezaniah and Shaphan, they were priests. You know,
the Bible tells us God's gonna judge every secret of man by
the gospel when Jesus Christ is revealed. And these abominable
beasts, these creeping things, these were the idols that the
heathen worshiped. They were the unclean things
that God had prohibited under the old covenant. And what they're
doing here is they're trying to integrate the worship of the
true and living God with other gods. This is the interfaith
council right here. You ever heard of them, haven't
you? They have interfaith councils today. Christians and Jews together,
they say. The ecumenical movement. The
non-denominational or interdenominational. Let's forget our differences.
We're all Christians. You see, the worship God prescribed
was to do what? It was to separate His people
from the pagans. Israel was to be separate. Distinguished
by their God and the worship of God and the way of salvation.
But Israel wanted to blend in. They're like man by nature. Listen,
we're like that. We don't want to be gadflies.
We don't want to be hated barely. We want to blend in. That's why That's why the Spirit of God
comes in and shows us the deadliness of us. They didn't want to stand
alone. And here they had all the proper things in the right
place trying to approach God. They had a leader, Jeazaniah,
who was the son of Shaphan, one of Josiah's reformers. They had
the censers in their hands. They had the smoke going up. And here are the elders who should
have been guides of the people, but instead, they're found in
the secret chambers in the dark, practicing idolatry in their
private chambers. But what Ezekiel saw through
this hole was that they all had the forms of worship, except
two things were out of kilter. First, they were in the dark,
and second, the glory of the Lord had departed. And you want
to know something? Have you noticed here that in
their attempts to worship, there's no mention of the altar, there's
no mention of a sacrifice, there's no mention of the blood? It's
not there, is it? Here this idolatry is promoted
by men of renown and reputation, leaders of the people, the princes
of Israel. That's sometimes all it takes,
just somebody with a reputation, somebody with a following. Compromise
it a little bit. But make no mistake about it,
God's not impressed. They say, the Lord seeth us not.
God says, I see it all. Everything's open and above board
to Him with whom we have to do. That's a comfort to the people
of God in Christ. But to those who worship in a
hole in the wall, it's not much comfort. Then lastly, look at
verse 13. God instructs Ezekiel to turn
to see even more abominations. He said also unto me, turn thee
yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they
do. I believe that's just talking about more, not in degree, but
in number. And he says, then he brought
me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward
the north. And behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Tammuz was a Babylonian fertility
god. Then said he unto me, hast thou
seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou
shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me
into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold, at the door
of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were
about five and 20 men, look at it now, with their backs toward
the temple of the Lord. They turned their back on the
temple. They turned their back on the Lord. They turned their
back on Christ. and their faces toward the east,
not looking for the son of righteousness to come, but what they do, they
worship the son toward these. They worship the son. Remember
Romans chapter one? Men worship the creature rather
than the creator. That's man left to himself. Verse
17, then he said unto me, hast thou seen this, O son of man?
Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the
abominations which they commit here? You see, now this is no
light matter. That's what he's saying. Is it
a light thing to you? You know, when men compromise
the gospel, when preachers compromise it or confuse it, we should never
see that as a light thing. Something to just look over and
not deal with. This is serious business. This
provokes God to jealousy. And he says, for they have filled
the land with violence and have returned to provoke me to anger
and lo they put the branch to their nose. That's kind of like
a gesture of derision. That's what that is. Put the
branch to the nose. In other words, instead of It's
kind of like the opposite of waving the palm branches, crying
Hosanna. They put the branch to the nose.
And he said, therefore will I also deal in fury. Mine eyes shall
not spare, neither will I have pity. And though they cry in
mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. My
friend, when men turn their backs away from Christ and worship
other things, holding the truth and unrighteousness, When people
turn from looking steadily and intently to Christ and Him alone
for all of salvation. What does the Bible tell us?
Hebrews chapter 12. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. The simplicity that's in Christ. Christ is my all and in all.
When people turn their backs on Christ, there is no mercy. There is no help. They go out
on their own. False religion. God hates it.
God is jealous. What's he described in this chapter?
Religion without Christ. It's an abomination. It's iniquity.
No righteousness. Religion without truth and knowledge.
It's idolatry. It's based on false doctrine
or confusion or a perversion of truth. Religion without heart
or sincerity. It's hypocrisy. Religion without
grace. It's self-righteousness and legalism.
religion without love and mercy and compassion because it exalts
the flesh and denies the truth of God in Christ. All right.