The title of the message this
evening is, God's Prophet Called and Prepared. Now we're to open in chapter
two, Ezekiel the prophet. The prophet of God who'd been
taken to Babylon, who was sent there to minister to the common
people by the river Kibar, as we're told in the first chapter. This man who had been captive
for about five years as now, being commissioned and called
to be a prophet, to preach the word of God to the people. That's
what a prophet, a true prophet is. He's one who preaches not
his own word or his own opinions, his own ideas, but he preaches
God's word. And the first step in the calling
of any true prophet or any true preacher of the gospel is God
must reveal himself to that man. And Ezekiel had a revelation
from God, the glory of the Lord in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who he saw. He spoke of that in chapter 1
and verse 27 and 28. Look at verse 28 of chapter 1. The appearance of the bow that
is in the cloud in the days of rain. That's the mercy of God.
That's the sign of the covenant that God made with Noah. that
the wrath of God, having been fully poured out upon the earth,
that God was finished with that and there would no longer be
any destruction of the world by rain, and that rainbow was
given as a sign of that covenant, that God was faithful, he would
keep his word, and that's a picture, that's a symbol, that's a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For when the wrath of God was
poured out upon Christ, it was finished. That's what Christ
said, John 19, 30, it's finished. It's done. He made an end of
sin. He finished the transgression.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. And it says here in verse 28
that the appearance of the brightness round about, this was the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Christ himself is
the glory of the Lord. The Bible speaks of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And upon that vision that God
gave Ezekiel, Ezekiel, he said, when I saw it, I fell upon my
face and I heard a voice of one that spoke. I fell down. Ezekiel
had fallen to the ground in worship. This was an awesome sight. This
was just no ordinary look here. But this was a sight of the glory
of the Lord, as I said, a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Redeemer of His people, as the substitute and surety in all
His glory, as He Himself is the salvation of His people. In fact,
when you read that first chapter and you go on through several
other passages in Ezekiel, you can see a very clear parallel
to the book of Revelation. where John saw the glorified
Lord on the Isle of Patmos, and he fell to his feet, or he fell
to the ground off of his feet, and he was raised up upon his
feet. So it's much like the Apostle
John in Revelation. And Ezekiel the prophet here
was assured that the word of the Lord would go forth against
all opposition of men, You know, God says he sends his word out,
and it will accomplish that purpose for which it's sent, no matter
what the response of people is. And that God, in all that he
was telling Ezekiel, commanding Ezekiel, commissioning Ezekiel,
that God was not taken by surprise here. He was not defeated, but
he's still working all things after the counsel of his own
will. The sovereignty of God is well in play here. And that sovereignty of God,
we saw that work symbolized in the wheels within the wheel,
the providence of God, God's government, God's in control.
And His government and control and sovereignty in all of this
was for the purpose to ensure the glory of Christ and the salvation
of His people through Christ. You understand now the glory
of Christ is connected, vitally connected, to the complete salvation
of all the elect of God. Our Lord expressed that in John
17. He says, as thou hast given me power over all flesh to give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. You see, if Christ
were to lose even one of his dear sheep, the glory and reputation and
honor of God would be totally destroyed. And that's why you
can't say that Christ died for any who perish in eternal damnation. He didn't die for them. His death
ensures and guarantees the complete salvation of all for whom He
died. Why? Because of the glory of
the Lord. Now what did all this mean concerning Israel as a nation
under the old covenant law? You understand this now. In history,
we're talking about Israel or Judah. sometimes referred to
as Israel. We know it was a divided kingdom.
The northern kingdom is gone now. And here's the southern
kingdom, Judah in captivity and Babylon in a foreign land. But
they're still under that old covenant law. That old covenant
law was not abolished until Christ came and did His great work here
on earth. So what does all this mean? Well,
their history from Sinai to here And we'll say it this way, their
history from Sinai to the cross, as a nation, was a history of
sin and rebellion. They would not hear the word
of the Lord. They refused to hear. Talking
about as a nation, now I know there were individuals whom God
brought to faith in Christ and repentance, whom God gave ears
to hear and eyes to see. There was a remnant, but it was
a small remnant, but as a nation now, Their history was one of
sin, rebellion, stubbornness. They would not hear. And here,
they were exiles in Babylon because of their sin and their rebellion.
That's why they were in Babylon. Because of sin. Why is man under
the curse of the law? Well, it's because of sin. The
law has no pronouncement of judgment where sin is not imputed. Scripture
says that. The strength of sin is the law.
That is, the power of sin to condemn a sinner is because the
law of God pronounces that judgment of condemnation. So why are they
under the curse here in Babylon? Why are they in captivity and
bondage? Because of sin. That's why we
need salvation. That's how we're born. We fell
in Adam. Into what? Into sin and death. And we're born in sin, born spiritually
dead, and that's why we need the powerful grace and mercy
of God in Christ. Well, here in the prophet's call,
God tells him plainly, they're not going to hear you. Boy, I'll
tell you what, that doesn't sound to me like it fits with the modern
day school of evangelism. Modern day school evangelism
says, well, you tell them what they want to hear and get them
down the aisle any way you can. And if they don't know anything,
we'll teach them later, which they never do because they don't know
anything themselves. But God tells them, they're not
going to hear you. What an encouragement for an evangelist or a prophet.
They're not going to hear you. Now, as I said, God always has
a remnant in that nation. You remember now as you were
reading Ezekiel, Daniel's there, but he's not with Ezekiel, he's
in the palace, isn't he? And remember the three Hebrew
children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they're there.
They're part of that remnant, aren't they? And even back in
Judah, probably at this time, there's Jeremiah still, And there's
that Ethiopian named Ebed Melech. He was one of God's elect, wasn't
he? He was a Gentile. So God had his remnant in the
nation, but the nation as a whole stands as a continual reminder
and sad example of the sin and depravity of all men and women
by nature, fallen in Adam. And I think about that passage
in Romans 3 I preached on several weeks ago, where Paul, when he
brought in both Jew and Gentile in guilty before God, and he
asked this question in verse 9, are we better than they? Do
you think we are any better than this group that he describes
here? By nature? By natural birth? What does he say here? He says
they are impudent children. They are stiff hearted. Now are
we better than they? Now you believe the Gospel. I
believe the Gospel. I say that without any embarrassment.
Is the reason that you believe the Gospel and I believe the
Gospel is because we weren't impudent children and stiff-hearted? Is that the reason? The answer
is no. And you know it's not. If you
know the Gospel, you know it's not. If you know Christ, you
know it's not. Are we better than they? What
did Paul answer there in Romans 3? Not no, and no wise. Or as we would say it in our
modern day vernacular, no, no way. In no way are we better
than they. and then speaks of the impossibility
of salvation, this passage, the prophets of Israel and Judah,
when they speak and preach to a rebellious nation, what does
that tell us? It teaches us also not only of
the sin and depravity of man by nature, and that's us by nature,
we identify with them in our nature, the natural man. We're going to see something
about that in the next chapter that I think is a real eye-opener.
You can read ahead, maybe anticipate it. But it also teaches us of
the absolute, utter impossibility of salvation for sinners like
them and like us under the terms of any kind of conditional covenant. I'm telling you, if the salvation
that's provided in the covenant is conditioned on you, me, or
these people here, it's a failure. Is that right? Thank God for
the covenant of grace in Christ. Look first here at the prophet
called and equipped by God. He said unto me, verse 1, the
glorious person who sat on the throne speaking to Ezekiel, this
is Christ, giving the prophet his commission. Just like he
told his disciples, go ye in all the world and preach the
gospel. That's what he's telling Ezekiel. He said unto me. He
dresses him as the son of man. As son of man. This speaks of
Ezekiel's humanness. What he's saying simply here
is that you're totally dependent upon me. You're son of man. Man's
dependent upon God. God is not dependent upon man.
Now this false God that's being preached in our day, he's dependent
upon man, but he's false. But the true and living God is
not dependent upon you. Somebody said, you're the only
arms he has. Well, he's got weak arms. He's
a failure. You see what I'm saying? And
so he addresses him as son of man. That's his humanness. We
are totally dependent upon God for all salvation, for all blessedness. You know, Christ used that title
for himself. In fact, when he spoke of himself,
this is the title he used. Son of man, the son of man. Why
did he do that? Well, it speaks of his identification
with his people in our name and in our nature, yet he is without
sin. He is God in human flesh. He's
God man. And he identifies with us. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And it also speaks
of His humiliation. God calling Himself Son of Man. Isn't that something? That's
mind-boggling. But that shows you the magnitude
of the condescension that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, experienced
in order to save His people from our sins. That's amazing. It speaks of his rejection. He
was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We esteemed him not. It speaks
also of his exaltation, for he was exalted unto glory as God-man. And that's how he exists now,
seated at the right hand of the Father. He is right now God-man. There's a man in glory. You've
heard it. So in some ways, Ezekiel here
is a type of Christ, our great prophet, who was despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We esteemed
him not. This is what, Ezekiel's going
to go through this, not to the degree that our Lord did now,
don't get me wrong. He's not equal in any way to
our Savior. But you're going to see that
Ezekiel, he's rejected. He's a sorrowful man. He's acquainted
with grief. He has esteemed none. Ezekiel
went through rejection to point his hearers to Christ. That's
why Ezekiel went through it. To point his hearers to Christ.
Christ went through His rejection to do what? To fulfill all righteousness
for His people. And He did it by His death. The
death of the cross. Philippians 2 says, describing
his humiliation, he was obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Well, what happened here? It says in verse 2, the
Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me and set me upon
my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. What happened?
Well, here's Ezekiel, totally helpless, totally dependent on
God. He's on his face, and the Holy Spirit entered into him,
and what does the Spirit do? He brings the Word of God in
power. the dynamite of God, the gospel,
the power of God unto salvation. This gives the prophet power
to do what God is commanding him to do. You know, I found by experience,
but mainly based upon God's word saying it, just simply saying
it, that no true preacher of the gospel has the ability even
to believe the gospel, let alone the ability and spiritual fortitude
to preach it boldly. That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. Who's sufficient for these things?
Who has that kind of power? Not me. Somebody asked me if
I've ever quit the ministry. I said, oh, about a thousand
times. Yeah, I've quit a bunch. I'm
like Jeremiah. I'm not going to preach this
anymore. They don't want to hear it. Even the ones who say they
want to hear it, they act so lackadaisical about it sometimes.
And you know what that is? Now let me tell you what that
is. I'll be honest with you. You know what it is? It's self-righteousness.
Like I'm better than you? Or better than they? No. No. There's too much ego in me left
and I have to fight it. But here's the key, 2 Corinthians
3 verse 5 says that our sufficiency is God. That's it. And just like
Jeremiah, when we see the magnitude of this message, the awesomeness
of it, and this is why we're not sufficient for it, the awesomeness
of this message. I can't explain it to you. I
really can't. Because I can tell you that in
all of my searches and research into religion and philosophy
and trying to figure all this thing out, I was never confronted
with anything like this message of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ. Salvation totally based upon
His righteousness imputed. And it just bowled me over. And
I thought, well, you can't stop preaching that. That's the way
of life. That's the message of life. That's
preaching Christ. And that's why no man is sufficient
for it. The awesomeness of it. And secondly, because of the
opposition to it. Listen to it. Look at verse 3. He says, And he said unto me,
Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious
nation. Now you might have in your concordance
nations. And I don't know for sure, no
commentators really address that. He may be talking about Babylon
too, but he's mainly talking about Israel. He mentions them
by name. And he says, a nation that hath rebelled against me.
That's a fallen group of people. That's who we're preaching to.
That's what I am by nature. I'm part of a fallen family.
rebelled against God and Adam, and come forth from the womb
speaking lies. They and their fathers have transgressed
against me." You see, it's not just one generation good and
the next bad. This has been a family thing
all the way through. That's what he's saying. I mean,
this started all the way back at the beginning when Adam fell,
and it's kept right in line with that rebellion and that sin and
that unbelief. It's not let up. Even at the
most religious time, even when Father Knows Best was on, they
were still a rebellious nation. Do you all realize that? I say
that because we always think when that time was, you know,
everybody was better, you know. No, still a rebellious nation.
And he said, transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
Look at verse 4, for they are impudent children, stiff-hearted. That impudent means hard. Hard-hearted. Hard-headed. It means cruel. That's another term for it. It
means stubborn. And you know, as far as cruelty,
listen, you question a person's refuge and see how cruel they
get. You kick a person's sacred cow
and see how cruel they can get. Stubborn, that's another word
for obstinate. All men by nature, but the worst,
showing forth this description here, are those who are entrenched
in a false refuge of religion and false security. They don't
want to face the issues of truth. They don't want to face the issues
of our sin and our depravity, God's holiness, God's justice,
God's way of salvation through Christ. Think about it this way,
you know, over in John 16, 8-11, you don't have to turn there,
you know, he says that when the Holy Spirit comes in the new
birth and empowers the truth, to our regeneration and conversion,
he says he's got to convict us, convince us of three things,
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Why is it that we
have to be convicted of sin? I mean, don't you know what sin
is? I mean, even the Gentiles who
had not the law, they had a conscience whereby they accused and excused.
Well, the reason is because by nature we don't know the reality
and depths of sin. And when somebody comes along
and points it out to us and tells us that all of our best efforts,
all of our righteousnesses are what? Filthy rags? That will get the hair up, won't
it? You're telling me that my religion,
my dedication, my service, my giving, my baptism, that it has
nothing to do with recommending me unto God. And that's exactly
what the Holy Spirit convicts God's people of. And that's where you see that
impudence come out, that hard heartedness. Convicts us of righteousness. Don't we know what righteousness
is? Not by nature we don't. We think it's just trying to
be good. Trying to be sincere, trying to be dedicated. We haven't
even begun to understand righteousness until we see Christ on that cross
as the surety of His people dying for sin. Isn't that right? And
of judgment? Just like the fellow told me
one time, he said, I know I'm not perfect, but I've never done
anything to deserve hell. Oh yes, we have. We sinned. We sinned against God. And that's
what Ezekiel was going to tell these people. And he says in
verse 4, And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. That's what you say. This is
God's word. This is not my word. I'm not arguing religion with
you. I'm not discussing philosophy with you. I'm not just giving
my opinion. Thus saith the Lord God. You need to understand that your
argument is not against the preacher or the prophet, it's against
God. But you don't want to face it,
he says. We hear these things from God's word. It just doesn't
fit our way of thinking. It doesn't exalt us. It doesn't
leave us room to glory. And it does not validate our
claim of salvation. And that's what brings it out.
So the prophet says, thus saith the Lord. The Holy Spirit telling
Ezekiel, you say whatever the Lord God says. And don't you
add to it, take away from it, or water it down. What does God
say about Himself? What does He say about me? What
does He say about salvation? What does He say about Christ? And look here, He says in verse
5, and they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear,
that word forbear means to cease to hear, stop hearing, like covering
up your ears. And he says, and in parenthesis,
it has, therefore, they are rebellious house. In other words, that's
what they're going to do. They're not going to, it's not, well, well, God
is not saying, well, Ezekiel, I don't know if they're going
to hear you or not. No, God's saying, I know they're not going
to hear you. They're not going to listen. They're not going
to believe. They're a rebellious house. Now, are we better than
they? Absolutely not. Yet they shall know that there
hath been a prophet among them." Whether they believe it or not,
they're going to know this much. Now God is going to show them
that there was a prophet among them. He's going to show them
that. How He shows them that, we'll see later on. But they're
going to at least know this. At some point in their lives,
when a sinner who is left in his rebelliousness, his stubbornness,
his impudence, that sinner hears the gospel, he may not believe,
he will not believe it unless God steps in and does a marvelous,
powerful, miraculous work of grace, isn't that right? If he's
left to himself, one day he's going to know there was a prophet
among them. It may not be until judgment,
but he's going to know it. Well look here now, the last
verse is, the prophet prepared for what was to come. Now he's
going to prepare him for what's coming and listen to what he
says. And this carries over into chapter 3. I'm not going to get
into chapter 3 tonight, but this really, that chapter break there
is not a good one except in order to find the scriptures that we
need to find. But as far as, there's no break
of thought there. It carries right on through.
And what he's going to tell him is that the main reason that
God sent His prophets and preachers is to do what? To preach the
gospel of Christ. Why? For the salvation of God's
elect people. God has a people. He chose them
before the foundation of the world. He sent Christ to redeem
them by His blood. And He's going to send the Spirit
to regenerate them. What did Paul say about his suffering
over the preaching of the gospel? He said, I do all things for
the elect's sake. But the preaching of the gospel
is both the savor of life, by the power of God, and it's the
savor of death, isn't it? And here's what's happening here.
God's not going to lie to His prophets. He never lied to His
prophets and His ministers. Remember when Isaiah was commissioned
as a prophet. He said, they're not going to
hear you, Isaiah. They're not going to listen to you. They're
not going to believe what you say. But he says in verse 6, and thou
son of man, be not afraid of them. Whatever they do, don't
be afraid of them. You see, God is for His people. Christ is our shield and our
buckler. We don't have to be afraid. Of
whom shall we be afraid? Christ said, don't fear them
who kill the body. fear Him who's able to put the
soul in hell. And He says, neither be afraid
of their words, don't be afraid of what they say. Now this is
my problem, right here, big time. When they say things, I just
can hardly get rid of it out of my mind. How about you? And
that's, listen, I'm not saying that braggingly. I hear things,
you know, people say that so-and-so said this, boy, it just goes
all over me. But He says don't do that, don't
be afraid of their words. They can't touch you. You remember
Christ said, blessed are you when men shall revile you and
say all manner of evil against you. And he said, though briars
and thorns be with thee. He's talking about the persecutions
there and he says, and thou dwellest among scorpions. Just like he
called the Pharisees poisonous snakes, he calls these rebellious
people scorpions. Be not afraid of their words,
nor be dismayed at their looks. Do you see how he looked at you? Yeah, I saw it. Don't be afraid of that. And he says, though they be a
rebellious house, Don't be afraid of them. Then look at verse 7.
He says, and thou shalt speak my words unto them whether they
will hear or whether they will forbear. Whether they hear or
not, speak God's word. He says, for they are most rebellious. They're most rebellious. In other
words, preach God's Word. Preach the Gospel of Christ.
Preach the reality of sin and depravity. Preach the reality
of righteousness and justice. Preach the reality of God's grace,
that God saves sinners by grace based upon the righteousness
of Christ without any help or any contribution from sinners.
In fact, all the help and contribution sinners try to make to God is
an abomination unto Him. Think about that. Unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Think
about that. Everything that I have accomplished
in my life, Paul said, I count it but loss, but dung that I
may win Christ and be found in Him. You tell them that. Isaiah, I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Even your religious lips are unclean in God's sight. Tell
them that. Whether they hear it or whether
they don't. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. Those are hard words. But they're words that we need
to hear. They're the very words the Holy
Spirit uses to bring us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And what he's saying here is
this, the reaction of men and women to our message is not to
determine the content or the method or manner of our message.
You know the first place that modern day evangelism went wrong? is when this question, in essence,
was asked. How can we get more people into
the church? When that question was asked,
it went wrong. And I'll tell you why. Because it's not our
business to get more people into the church. Now, we're to invite
people to come to hear the gospel. Don't get me wrong. But we don't
get them into the church. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 47,
it says, The Lord added to his church. You see, getting into the church
is a calling of God. It's not the methods of men.
How can we get them down there? The moment those questions are
asked, it's wrong. It's not our business. We're
to preach Christ, no matter if they hear it or not. And here, you know, when he says
they're most rebellious, what he's actually saying, you could
read that in the original this way, they are rebellion. They're
rebellion itself. Look at verse 8. He says, but
thou son of man, hear what I say unto thee, be not thou like that
rebellious house. Now, Ezekiel, don't you be rebellious
like them. Don't follow their example. He says, open thy mouth and eat
that I give thee. That's a way of saying submit
to God's word and God's way, digest it, symbolize by opening
his mouth and eating what God gave him. This is a revelation
from God. He says in verse 9, and when
I looked, behold, and hand was sent unto me. That hand is the
power of God. Hand represents the work. work
with our hands. Well, this is the work of God.
You see, it says, a hand was sent. He didn't say, now you
lift up your hands. He didn't say, I'll reach out
so far and then you reach the rest. No, a hand was sent to
me. This is the power of God. And lo, a row or a scroll, that's
what this is, like a papyrus of a book was therein. Now, does
this remind you of Revelation? Revelation 5? You can read it. A roll of a book was therein
and he spread it before me. God spread it out. This is all
the work of God now. Ezekiel's the recipient. And
he said it was written within and without. That was the same
thing said in Revelation 5 of the scroll that was given to
John. Written within and without. And here's this hand, the power
of God. What's he doing? He's writing
the word upon Ezekiel's heart. In other words, this is not just
an opinion, it's not just a mental thing, this is the Word of God
written on the heart. And he says, there was written
therein lamentations and mourning and woe. Now this is a message
of lament, mourning, woe. Why is it such? Because when
sinners reject Christ and God's way of salvation, then that's
all we can preach to them. Lamentation, mourning, and woe. There's nothing good that we
can say about myself or about you without Christ. That's right. Let me just read
the first three verses of chapter 3 and I want to show you something
here. Moreover, he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou
findest." That eating there, that's faith in Christ. That's
the word written on the heart. That's Christ revealed to us
and in us. I've heard preachers say, well,
Christ doesn't need to be revealed to us, just in us. It's both,
my friend. The preaching of the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. He's revealed to us and in us
by the power of the Spirit. Don't let one cancel out the
other. The Bible does it. And he says, eat this roe and
go and speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth
and he calls me, you see that? He calls me to eat that roe.
I'm not going to do it on my own now. It's not of blood, nor
the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. That's the
new birth. He calls me to eat that roe. Now how did he cause you to do
it? Well, He convicted you of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. He showed you what you are by
nature and what you need, the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ, the salvation by His grace. And it says in verse 3,
And He said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill
thy bowels with this roe that I give thee. See, it's so much
a part of us. You can't get away from it. Jeremiah
said, the word did burn within my heart like a fire. And he
says, then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey for
sweetness. The word of God written on the
heart. The unction from the Holy One, John called it. Christ revealed
in us, Paul said. Read the last verse of chapter
3. Look at verse 27. He said, but when I speak with
thee, I will open thy mouth. This is God speaking to Ezekiel.
And thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord God. You're
going to preach the word of God. He that heareth, let him hear.
And he that forbeareth, let him forbear. For they are rebellious
house. Now, do we realize how blessed we are to really
hear and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm telling you. Do you realize
if you believe this gospel, it's because you were ordained of
God to do so. As many as were ordained, Paul
said in his message, or Luke wrote, under eternal life believed. Do you realize if you believe
the gospel, you were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus
Christ? Do you realize that if you believe
the gospel, you've been made willing by the Holy Spirit? Do we really understand? Remember what Christ told the
disciples in Matthew 13? Blessed are your ears for they
hear. Blessed are your eyes for they
see. Now why do my ears hear and my eyes see? Is it because
I'm better than these people? No. I'll tell you why. Because God was pleased. When
it pleased the Lord, Paul said, to reveal His Son in me. God
was pleased. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will. I'll be gracious to whom I will. And I'll deal with that
more in chapter 3 as we go along. But do we realize how blessed
we really are to know and hear and believe this Gospel. Amazing
grace. Alright, let's sing Abide With
Me. Hymn number 75 is our closing hymn.