Let's stay right there in Ezekiel
chapter 1. When Terry was reading through
that, did you get the impression that you might have had the wrong
passage of scripture, that maybe you should have turned to Revelation?
It kind of reads like that, doesn't it, Brian? In the first three chapters of
the book of Ezekiel, what you have there is what we call the
call and the commission of the prophet. God calling this man
Ezekiel, who was part of the exiled Jews in Babylon, who were
in that part of the country, which is, as we're told in verse
1, by the River of Kibar, which was a tributary out of the Euphrates
River that ran into Babylon. Most people say they were put
there because they were captive slaves who were to be farmers.
It may have been true. We don't know. But here's the
people in exile, without hope, in despair. And in the fifth
year of Ezekiel's captivity, he was given this commission.
He was about 30 years old, probably. He was given this commission
and this call from the Lord. And in chapter 1, it gives us
the two visions that he was given that would prepare him. It's
a revelation from God. It says in verse 1, the heavens
were opened and I saw visions of God. That's God intervening. to reveal himself to his people. Nothing is going to happen. Nothing
is going to improve or no salvation, let's put it that way, no salvation
is going to come until God reveals himself. And then it says in
verse 3, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel. God spoke to Ezekiel. And it
says in verse 3 there at the end, the hand of the Lord there
was upon him. That's God's power, the Word
coming in power. We can liken that to the conversion
of God's people under the preaching of the Gospel as the power of
God unto salvation. God speaks through the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, manifesting, revealing His grace to sinners
who know that we have nothing to recommend us unto God. And
then he shows us Christ and in power he brings us, he gives
us life, spiritual life and brings us to faith in Christ. And that's
the kind of scene that you have here. The first vision that he
gave to Ezekiel was the vision of the four living creatures
or four living beings. Many commentators say they were
cherubim. You've heard that term cherubim.
Over the Ark of the Covenant there were two cherubim, forged in gold, cherubim over
the ark. And that may be true, they may
be cherubim, they were angelic beings, that's what they are,
but they were messengers. And they are representative of
the ministers of Christ who go out, they have their wings, they
move, they fly, they go all over the world, north, south, east,
west, preaching the gospel of Christ. Preaching Christ and
Him crucified. It says they had four faces.
Each one had four faces. Now you know this is symbolic
language. And over in verse 10 it says that, as for the likeness
of their faces, they had the face of a man, and then they
had the face of a lion on the right side, and then they four
had the face of an ox on the left, on the side, and they four
also had the face of an eagle. Now those are four symbols that
when you put them together, they equal the power and the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The symbol of a man speaks of
his humanity. He's God in human flesh. Perfect man without sin. He had
to be in order to save us from our sins. We're going to see
that in this second vision too. The face of a lion. Lion represents
the king. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. The Lord Jesus Christ. The king of kings. And then an
ox represents the servant. The servant. That's what an ox
did. Served humanity. And Christ is the servant. The
suffering substitute. The servant. You can read about
him in Isaiah 53. The suffering substitute. The
servant of God. The servant of the covenant.
and then the face of an eagle that represents his deity. He
is God. And what it's saying is that
these living creatures who are symbolic of the ministers of
Christ who go throughout the earth preaching all the glorious
truths and doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ
crucified and risen. And that's the first vision that
Ezekiel is given. And the second vision, it begins
here in verse 15. And it's the vision of the wheels.
The wheels within a wheel. I've entitled this message, God's
Providence in and for Christ. God's Providence. As I said,
Ezekiel and the exiles were in the wasteland of Babylon. Babylon
represents the curse of God, the judgment of God upon sinners.
And they were under the judgment of God because of sin. The glory
of the Lord had departed from Judah. The temple was destroyed. The ark, we don't know what happened
to it. People speculate, but understand
when you read their speculations, they are just that, speculations. Nobody knows. I believe God meant
it that way. But the glory of the Lord had
departed from Judah, and now the people believe they have
been abandoned by God. Yet here in these wheels within
wheels, and going all the way through this chapter, what you
see is symbols of God's presence and God's power among His people. The vision of the wheels are
given to show Ezekiel the wonder of God's providence and assure
him of the accomplishment of God's eternal, immutable, sovereign
purpose of grace in saving his chosen people in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about. In
other words, these wheels represent God working all things after
the counsel of his own will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, who in Himself as God-man, and
in His accomplished work of redeeming all His people from their sins,
establishing righteousness for them, He is the very glory of
God. He's the glory of the Lord. Christ
is the glory of the Lord. These wheels that we're going
to read about, they show us that God, who from the beginning predestinated
all things, you know, predestination, That refers, that's a word that
describes God's sovereign determination and purpose in all things before
the foundation of the world. Providence is a term that refers
to God's government of the world. God working out by his sovereign
power all that he already predestinated to come about. And none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Man doesn't have
that right. So these wheels show us that
God, who from the beginning predestined all things to ensure the eternal
salvation and glory of His people in Christ, He right now is on
the throne ruling and disposing over all things, working out
all things to accomplish that purpose. And what He's telling
the people of God then, and for you today, that no matter how
bad it looks, It's going to be fine. No matter how bad it gets,
it's all going to work out in the end. That's not just wishful
thinking. That's God's providence. So it
becomes clear to Ezekiel that to be cut off from Jerusalem
was not necessarily to be cut off from God. God's not limited
to any geographical place. He perceived that the Lord could
not be confined in some particular place. That God is everywhere.
He's omnipresent. He's omniscient. He knows all
things. The best way to approach this,
I believe, is to just start with the first part of it, verse 15,
and let's read through it, and I'll bring it up to its climax
right here. Look at verse 15. He says, Now
as I beheld the living creatures, these ministers, these living
beings, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures
with his four faces. Now each living creature had
a wheel by him. There are four wheels here. And
they're connecting, see. They're connecting them together.
Connecting the Lord with the earth. And it says in verse 16,
the appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto
the color of a barrel. A barrel was a precious stone. Different translations will say
different things about it. But the key to what it's talking
about here in that word color means sparkling. It means shining
forth. That's what it means. What he's
saying, the wheels in their work was shining forth, sparkling
almost like a diamond. You might say it that way. And
they four had one likeness. In other words, they were the
same. They weren't different. It was all the same. Their appearance
in their work was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel,
almost like a gyroscope. One wheel turning, then a wheel
within it turning. And all of these things, this
shining forth, what this represents, this wheel, they symbolize the
movements of events in time throughout history, never standing still,
always moving like a circle, one thing after another. wheels
within wheels, all moving, so that we can't really see all
the ins and outs. When you see a gyroscope or a
wheel within a wheel turning real fast, you can't make out
all the forms and all the lines. Sometimes it's like a blur to
you, isn't it? You just can't figure out the why and the wherefore
and the ins and outs. It bewilders our minds, you might
say, so that man on his own cannot figure it out. And he really,
he'll come to wrong conclusions when he tries to figure it out.
That's why men, when they see history moving, and they look
at the events of time as they unfold, doesn't it just boggle
your mind how things happened back in the, during the Vietnam
War era? You know, there's a lot of protest
songs coming out. One of those songs was by a group
out of Detroit called the Temptations. And it was called Ball of Confusion. And it went through the song
talking about things happening, wars and fights and protests
and this happening and that happening. And all that, their conclusion
was it's all a ball of confusion. Well, that's the way it looks.
You try to figure it out. And that's why man, when he tries
to figure this out, these things out on his own, how things happen
in our daily lives and in history, And something will happen that
will just shock us. Won't it? And we wonder, why,
Lord? Why? And that's like these wheels
within a wheel. And so man on his own, he'll
come to a wrong conclusion and he'll talk about chance. Well,
boy, what chance is that going to happen? You see, this thing
of the unfolding of history, the things that happen in our
life, they're not by chance. It's not luck. They're talking
about, boy, weren't you lucky. Do you know there's a popular,
modern, biblical translation today that translates the word
blessed as lucky? Lucky is the man to whom the
Lord imputed. If God saved you, are you lucky? Was it luck? What is this? A
roll of the dice? You see, but that's the way man
sees it by nature. Because he can't figure it out.
So it's all chance. It's all luck. It's all happenstance.
It's coincidence. You've heard that. Boy, what
a coincidence. And even to higher thinkers,
so-called, where they'll talk about evolution. Well, the way
it looks to me, And then they'll come up with
things like, well, this happened, I can't tell you what it's about.
That happened, I can't figure it out. There's really no absolute
truth. Pilate said it. He said, what
is truth? But that's not the case. That's what's happening
here. That's what Ezekiel is being
told here. There's no situation that Ezekiel or these exiles
are in that can be attributed to luck, chance, coincidence,
evolution, happenstance. It is the work of God Almighty
in His sovereign hand, working all things after the counsel
of His own will. That's what it is. And people say, well, we can't
understand that. And I want to just look at them
and say, duh. When did you ever think you could?
You know the fatal, one of the greatest fatal flaws of Arminianism,
if you know what that is, and I'm not going to take time to
tell you what it is tonight, is free willism. But one of the
greatest flaws of Arminianism is when they attack what the
Word of God says about predestination and election and God's providence,
they think they've got it figured out and they don't. They've got
no better answer. You mean it's all contingent
upon me? How many people we've got here? If everything's contingent
on each one of us, boy, you talk about a ball of confusion. No, sir. This is all the work
of the prime mover, the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing God
of this universe. It's all in step. It's all under
His control. Even the wise man in Ecclesiastes
talked about it. Listen to what he says in chapter
1 and verse 4. Let me just read this to you.
One generation passeth away, another generation cometh. That's
that wheel turning now. But earth abideth forever, the
sun also riseth, the sun goeth down, hasteth to his place where
he arose. We can say that in our own lives.
Sometimes we're on the top of the wheel, sometimes we're on
the bottom. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about
unto the north. It whirleth about continually,
and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. The
rivers run into the sea. The sea is not full. Unto the
place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labor.
Man cannot utter it. That means man cannot explain
it. That's what he's saying. You can't explain. I know we've
got science and we've got some scientific explanations for it
all, but the origin of it, the purpose of it, and then when
it changes on us. What if you wake up tomorrow
and it's zero degrees and then next Monday it's 50 degrees?
How do you know? You can't figure it out. Somebody
told me, he said, I wish you'd either stay cold or get warm.
Well, that's not up to you. I should just stay warm myself.
But it's not up to me. I don't know what purpose there
is in me waking up in the morning and it being zero degrees. I
don't know what purpose that is. I don't know what it's for. But I want to tell you something.
God knows. And He's in control of it. It's like that tapestry. You
know, you've seen the analogy of the tapestry. When you look
at an embroidery, some of you ladies who embroider, and you
look at the bottom of it, it just looks like a mess of colored
threads. But when it comes together and
you look at the top of it, it all makes sense, doesn't it?
There's a pattern. There's a picture. There's the beauty of it. Look
back at Ezekiel 1. Look at verse 17, it says, when
they went, these wheels now, when they went, they went upon
their four sides, and they turned not when they went. Now the picture
is the same as what he said about the ministers. When they went
this way or that way, they still went straight. Because you see,
this is about the purpose being accomplished of what the Bible
calls the straight and narrow way. looking straight on. In other words, wherever we go,
whatever direction, as a minister of Christ, as the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling the will of God, the revealed
will of God, we preach that straight, narrow message, whether we're
north, south, east, west. We don't turn this way or that
way. We don't try to please men. We
don't water it down. We don't compromise it. And it
says in verse 18, it says, As for their rings, they were so
high and they were dreadful. Now that means awesome. That's
what it's talking about. You know, we will experience
things in life, or some of our friends will, and it just scares
us that we learned of a young man who I think was pretty much
raised in this church for a while anyway, 33 years old, that was
taken the other day by the flu. You know, I think about my children.
I think about your children, you know. Why did God take him
and not take one of them? Why did he not take me? You know,
we don't know that, but it scares us, doesn't it? It's an awesome
thing. That's what he's talking about.
Things will happen that just make us quake in our boots. And
he says, and their rings were full of eyes round about them
four. Now, the eyes represent the omniscience
of God. These rings were so large, and
they were frightening, they were awesome, they were full of eyes.
You see, this is not a blind leap in the dark. This is not
just a world wound up where God left it and let it wind down
on its own. It's not traveling blindly without
a goal or a particular destination in sight. The all-seeing, the
all-knowing purpose of God. Powerful wisdom, intelligence.
That's what this is about. And then look at verse 19. He
says that when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them.
And when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth,
the wheels were lifted up. In other words, where these living
beings went, that wheel went with them. That's awesome, isn't
it? Withersoever, verse 20, withersoever
the spirit was to go, they went. Now you know many times in the
Bible when you see that word spirit, some of the translators
have a problem with it. Do you capitalize it or is that
talking about spirit with a small s, talking about the spirit of
man? I think sometimes they made some mistakes in their printing
of that. I think one of the places you
can find that is in Galatians chapter 5, the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. I know we have a spirit because
that's what new life is all about. That's what the new birth is
about. That impartation of spiritual life that we didn't have before
the new birth. But I believe this could refer
to the Holy Spirit, whithersoever the spirit was to go. This is
by the leadership of God, the Holy Spirit. But if you translate
it as the spirit of man, talking about the regenerate soul of
the living creature, what he would be saying is that where
they were guided by God to go, that's where the wheel went. The point is this, that wherever
these creatures went preaching the gospel, that wheel was right
with them. And it says in verse 20, and
the wheels were lifted up over against them. What that means
is literally above their heads. In other words, the wheel never
turned against them, as if it was in opposition to them. It couldn't do that. I'll tell
you why in just a moment. But the wheel was above their
heads. In other words, even these living creatures who had the
wisdom of God in the gospel, even we can't figure it all out,
can we? The ins and the outs and the
whys and the wherefores. And it says, for the spirit of
the living creatures was in the wheels. And then it says, when
those went, these went, when those stood, these stood, when
those were lifted up from the earth, these wheels were lifted
up over against them, for the spirit of the living creature
was in the wheels. Now what's it talking about?
It's simply saying this, the movement of these living creatures,
the movement of these wheels was totally in line with the
awesome purpose of God in every way. with the gospel message
going forth and the power of the Holy Spirit to do one thing,
and one thing alone, and that is to call His chosen people
out of the world. Preaching the gospel. It's never
wrong to preach the gospel. It's never out of kilter with
the purpose of God. I used to have a man call me
when I was in Albany, Georgia, He'd call me every now and then,
or he'd come by and see me. And he was a fatalist. He claimed
to believe in the sovereignty of God. And I would talk to him
about, well, we preach the gospel to anybody who'll listen everywhere.
Christ said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.
And he said, well, why would you go preach to dead sinners?
Why would you do that? They can't hear you. And I said,
well, so you think you can tell who's dead and who's not spiritually
in that way? He said, would you go out and
water grass that was dead? I told him, I said, well, I would
if God told me to. I said, would you go out and
preach to a valley of dry bones? We're going to see Ezekiel doing
that. And he asked this question, can these bones live? Well, God
knows. Does God have the power to resurrect
these dry bones? Does God have the power? to resurrect
a spiritually dead sinner from that death and give him spiritual
life? And the answer is yes! And he does it by his means,
preaching the gospel of God's grace. The gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. We don't have the option to preach
to one and not another. We preach to everybody. And wherever
we go, It's right in line with God's purpose. It's because God
sends us. It's His predestinated purpose.
It's His providential power. Listen, it was His predestinated
purpose and providential power that sent the evangelist Philip
out into the desert to preach to one man, an Ethiopian. And
God, what did He do? He revealed Christ to that man. You say, well, I'd rather be
down there in Jerusalem at Pentecost watching 3,000 come in. Why? It's no greater miracle for God
to regenerate 3,000 than it is to regenerate one. It's all a
miracle of God's power and grace. Look at verse 22. He says, the
likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature
was as the color of the terrible crystal stretched forth over
their heads above. That's the firmament he's talking
about, like the sky. And he says in verse 23, and
under the firmament was their wings straight. In other words,
they were lifting up their wings to God. That's where the minister's
power and message comes from, from God. It's all of God. John
the Baptist said it. Listen, I can baptize you with
water, but I cannot baptize you with fire. I can't baptize you
with the Holy Spirit. That's God's will. Lift up our
wings to God. The one toward the other, he
says, everyone had two which covered on this side, and everyone
had two which covered on that side in their bodies. These wings,
see, covering themselves, not drawing attention to themselves.
In other words, they're pointing centers to Christ. Like John
the Baptist, I must decrease, Christ must increase. I don't
want you to look to me. I want you to look to Christ
for salvation. I can't save you. Christ is the Savior. And he
says, and when they went, I heard the noise of their wings like
the noise of great waters as the voice of the Almighty. Remember
in the book of Revelation, talking about the voice of God being
the voice of many waters. The voice of speech is the noise
of a hoax, a great army that cannot be defeated. When they
stood, they let down their wings. When they stopped flying, they
let down their wings, he says. And there was a voice from the
firmament that was over their heads, and when they stood and
had let their wings down. Now what's it saying? It's saying
that everything here is under the sovereign control, and under
the sovereign providence, and under the command of Almighty
God. This is not anything conditioned on man. This is not anything
owing to the power, the goodness, or the will of man. It's all
of God. It's all, listen, the movement
of the wheels, the preaching of the gospel, the salvation
of sinners, it's all of God. Not of man. God gets the credit. That's right. At this point, what we're going
to do, if you're liking this, remember the embroidery that
I mentioned. You're looking up, and you see
all that thread in disarray, and you see all those beautiful
colors, but you can't make any form out of them, and then all
of a sudden, the skilled embroiderer turns it over, and there it is.
This is what it's all about. Now you see it. The same way
like on these wheels, it's all this history, all these events,
all this mess, all this ball of confusion. That's what we're
seeing, chaos, you see. Then all of a sudden, it comes
to a halt and a standstill, and you see what it's all about.
And here's the answer, and look at it in these last verses. It
says, above the firmament that was over their heads was the
likeness of a throne. Now there's a throne there. Now
whose throne do you suppose it is? Who's on the throne? God's on the throne. Now that's
first thing. God has not come down off his
throne. When a war happens, it's awful,
isn't it? You think, well, everything's
out of control. No, it's not out of control.
God's on his throne. When a baby dies, or a teenager,
or a young person dies, you think, well, God's just turned his back.
No, God's still on the throne. There's the first thing you see.
God's on his throne. And he says, it was as the appearance
of a sapphire stone. a precious jewel shining forth
out of this supposed confusion. And you understand when I say
confusion, I'm talking about how we look at it now. It's not
really confusion. This wheel within a wheel, it's
not confused. God, listen, it's all right there according to
plan. But the way we see it, but here's
that shining bright vision and it says, look here, it says,
and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man above upon it. Now who do you suppose that
is? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know really? He's what
it's all about. Everything. Ezekiel down there
with the exiles. Farming for the crops for the
ungodly, idolatrous slave drivers in Babylon. Do you know what
that was all about? Christ on the throne. But look
on, verse 27, he says, I saw as the color of amber. Now that
color of amber, that's like the color of bronze, the color of
brass. Some translations say instead
of the color of amber, they say like a glowing metal. And so you have the color of
bronze here, the color of brass, like the brazen altar, burning. It says, as the appearance of
fire round about within it. from the appearance of His loins
even upward, and from the appearance of His loins even downward. I
saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it had brightness
round about." What is this? This is the crucified, glorified
Christ. The one who came to this earth
and went under the fire of His Father's wrath as the substitute
and surety of His people. To do what? To put away our sins. You mean that's true even if
there's a big war? Yeah. You mean that's true even
if I don't understand it all? Yes. And then look at verse 28. Now look at this. As the appearance
of the bow. You know what that bow is there?
That's the rainbow. That is in the cloud in the day
of rain. You know the Bible doesn't say
a whole lot about rainbows. I think we're mentioning that
maybe four times, twice in Revelation. here in Ezekiel, and you know
where the first rainbow appeared. After the storm, the rainbow
appeared in the cloud to Noah. And God covenanted with Noah
and said, I will never again destroy this world by flood.
That rainbow with its many colors after the storm became an everlasting
symbol of the mercy of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hey, that's what it's all about. And he says, so was the appearance
of the brightness round about it. This was the appearance of
the likeness of the glory of the Lord. That's Christ. He is
the glory of the Lord. The glory of God revealed in
the face of Jesus Christ. And Ezekiel said, when I saw
it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
God spoke to him. Now God's speaking to his prophet. Christ crucified. The glory of
the Lord. His throne is a throne of glory.
His throne is a throne of grace and mercy. His throne is a throne
of victory. His throne is a throne of government. His throne is a throne of judgment. His throne is a throne of salvation. It's good news to men that the
throne above the firmament is filled with one who appears even
there in the likeness of a man." Why is that? Well, over in Hebrews
2, let me just read it to you. Verse 14, "'For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same.'" The Word made flesh. Why? That through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham."
Who's that? That's God's elect people. Out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Wherefore in all
things it behooved him, it indebted him. That's what that means.
He was under the debt. of sin, to be made likened to
his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in all things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation,
propitiation for the sins of his people." That's what it's
all about. Do you know really what this
is teaching us? Is that everything in history
past and in the future, as these wheels turn, it all centers around
Christ crucified and risen. He is the crux of God's providence. He's the purpose of it, he's
the reason for it, he's the prime mover of it. Everything was created
by him and for him, the scripture said we read. It's the glory
of God in the glorious person and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we read of the glory of
the Lord in this book, We see in it manifested the presence
of God as revealed in the eternal Son, who in the fullness of time
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,"
John said, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father.
The throne here is surrounded with a rainbow, that well-known
emblem of the covenant, representing God's mercy and covenant love
to His chosen people. The fire of God's wrath was breaking
out against Jerusalem, see, but bounds should be set to it. And
he'd look upon that bow and he'd remember the covenant, God's
covenant that he made with his Son before the foundation of
the world wherein he chose a people and gave them to him. Put all
the responsibility. I thought about Noah when I read
that last verse. You know what it says about Noah
in the Bible? It says he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
First thing said about him. If you're a child of God, you
know what? You've found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Another
thing we learn about Noah is he got on the ark. He got on
that ark. If you're a child of God, you've
gotten on the ark too. That ark is Christ. You're safe
and secure in the ark. And you know what it says about
Noah? He had righteousness. He was a preacher of righteousness.
Not his own, but the righteousness of God in Christ that was accounted
to him. That's what it's all about. No,
you can't figure out all the where's and the why's and the
wherefore's, all the intricate details. But I'll tell you what,
it's turning. And it's turning on God's time
and in God's way in a straight way. And when you look at it,
you can't figure it out, but you know, listen, turn that tapestry
over and there it is, there's Christ, the glory of the Lord,
there He is. I'll tell you what, you know
you read this book, I do, and there's some things in there
that are a little difficult to figure out, isn't there? We just
cut through reading one of them. And you may not know the right
interpretation of every verse, but you know this, if you see
Christ, If you see Christ there, if you see the grace of God,
the mercy of God in Christ, the Lord our righteousness, you've
got it figured out, but not because you were so intelligent or so
good or had a better will than me or anybody. Because like Ezekiel,
the heavens were opened and you saw visions of God. The word
of the Lord came expressly unto you and the hand of the Lord
was upon you. That's when you see Christ and
Him crucified and risen. That's when you see the glory
of the Lord in Christ. Alright. Let's sing as our closing
hymn, Near to the Heart of God, hymn number 356. 356.