Isn't that glorious? We are in
Ezekiel. If you'd like to be turning there,
Ezekiel chapter one. Now, numerically, I went out
of order on this. Chapter seven was Wednesday night.
Chapter 36 was first hour and chapter one is second hour. And
I think the reason primarily I
did that is one time I made sure to go in numerical order, but
it would have been better if I went the other way and I couldn't
get out of my own way. And so I pray the Lord be merciful this
morning in allowing us to see what he has given to us. Now
the book of Ezekiel starts with a calling and it is the same
calling. that every believer will experience
in time when the fullness of time comes, when the Lord chooses
to reveal himself, when the Lord chooses to call or to put the
water upon the seed, as I mentioned before. When that time comes,
it's the same exact calling and it's the same exact sight that
is called for every believer. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. First thing he does is he shows
us we're in bondage. Ezekiel's in bondage here. This
is a Babylonian captivity that has been carried on. We saw that
Isaiah dealt with different Assyrians, different ones, the prophecy
of Babylon. Then Jeremiah goes into Babylon and they're still
in Babylon, Ezekiel. So we're looking at how the Lord
has showed him that he's in bondage first and foremost. And the Lord
shows our impotence. And we know that bondage is a
picture of sin, a bondage of being a slave to self, a slave
to Satan, the world, the flesh. We can't compete with anything,
can we? But yet the gospel comes to those
who are in bondage. The Lord must first show that
there is a need before he reveals the remedy. The Lord must show
first that we are empty before he will fill us. And that's the
good news and the grace of the gospel, isn't it? That's what
he does. Now what Ezekiel sees causes him to do this in verse
28. Look with me there. As the appearance
of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the
appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of God. So what he saw was the
likeness of the glory of God. And when he saw it, I fell on
my face and I heard a voice of one that spake. And he said unto
me, son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee. This is a perfect picture of
what salvation is. The Lord gives, he breathes the
breath of life, he gives repentance and faith simultaneously, and
we immediately bow before him, don't we? We immediately see
him as beautiful. He described his likeness, the
glory of God. Then he says that his brightness
was as a rainbow. He says it's beautiful, it was
immaculate. And I knew that I was unclean,
I was undone, so I bowed before it. This is what we do when we
see him. We're made low, we're made to
worship. And then what happens? Well, he lifts us up, don't he?
He puts our feet upon a solid rock. He's given us faith to
look to Christ. We have a place to stand, don't
we? We don't, we're not in the dirt forever. Saul was struck
blind. And as you know, he was kicked
off of his horse. He was knocked down into the
dirt, but the Lord didn't leave him there, did he? Lord didn't leave
him there. Saul said, what would thou have
us me do, Lord? He immediately said, who art
thou, Lord? He knew that God was talking
to him, but he didn't know who God was, did he, until the Lord
revealed him. Thought he knew. Thought he knew who God was.
This is the same confession that you and I have. We are uplifted
through the faith given by the Spirit. When we're struck blind,
only then can we see. And so now we are here in Ezekiel
chapter one, and I want to look at what Ezekiel saw specifically,
what Ezekiel saw specifically. Look with me in verse four, Ezekiel
one in verse four. And I looked and behold a whirlwind
came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself.
And a brightness was about it. and out of the mist thereof as
the color of amber, out of the mist of the fire. Also out of
the mist thereof came the likeness of four creatures, and this was
their appearance. They had the likeness of a man,
and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings,
and their feet were straight feet, and their sole of their
feet were like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like
the color of burnished brass. They had the hands of a man under
their wings on their four sides, and they and they four had their
faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to
another. They turned not when they went. They went ever one
straight forward. As for the likeness of their
faces, they four had the face of a man, the face of a lion
on the right side, and they four had the face of an ox on the
left side. They four also had the face of
an eagle. Thus were their faces, and their
wings were stretched upward. Two wings of every one that were
joined went to another, and two covered their bodies. They went,
every one, straight forward. Whether the spirit was to go,
they went, and they turned not, when they went. Ezekiel saw four
creatures. Each one of those creatures had
four faces, and each one of those creatures had four wings. Under
each wing they had the hand of a man, and on each of their faces,
or different faces. And this is what I've titled
the message, and you'll understand, I hope, the Lord willing, he'll
reveal himself in this at the end. The title of the message
is Man, Lion, Ox, and Eagle. The man, the face of a man, the
face of the lion, the face of the ox, and the face of the eagle. I love the simplicity of the
gospel, don't you? I have heard men preach from
this text trying to speak on it as John saw the same thing
in Revelation. We'll look at that later. But
men talking about prophecy and how things are going to come
to pass because of this and because of that. And they're trying to
decipher. They're trying to contemplate.
But men speculate. Men calculate. Men debate. Because they're hungry. The last
word in that is A-T-E. Debate, calculate, contemplate. That's what men do. You know
why you and I don't do those things? Because we've already
eaten of the Lord. We've already tasted and he's
good. We don't need to debate, do we? We don't need to calculate. We don't need to figure it all
out, do we? Faith just looks to Christ. We don't understand
it, but we're not going to debate about it, are we? We look to
Christ because he's given us the eyes to do so. The answer
is very simple. No matter the question, when
it comes to God... Christ. God only, always. reveals Christ, nothing else. So who is this creature? Jesus
Christ. This is what Ezekiel saw. This
is what made him bow to the ground. This is what caused him to worship.
He saw the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Lord's spirit
and only by his gospel and only to his people does he reveal
this same exact image, this same exact vision. We're going to
take the time this morning to look at all four of these. That's
why I titled it that, but Men would say, well, this must be
this, or this must be that, and they're ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. But this is only,
there's only one explanation for who this is, and it's the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's who it must be. It's none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. But we're gonna go in the order
that he saw him. He saw it as a man, a lion, an ox, and an
eagle in that order. The first is a man. I don't have
to tell you the likeness of that one, do I? The Lord Jesus Christ
is the God man. God became a man. The eternal
God became a mortal man. That which he which knew no sin
became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The creator became the created. God became dust for his people. That's who Ezekiel saw. He saw
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is 100% God. and 100% man. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. We hear that from Colossians
2. And then he tells us in Hebrews 2.17, wherefore in all things
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. I didn't
know what the word behooved means, so I looked it up. And it literally
means by his word. He obligated himself by his word. He said, I will redeem them.
It behooved him. It was necessary because he gave
his word. I will redeem them. He was in debt to his father
because of his word. And as the God man, the Lord
Jesus Christ reconciled his people back to God. I want to show us
that in Colossians chapter one, if you'd like to turn there. Colossians 1 and verse 15. Talking about Christ, he says,
who is the image of the invisible God? He is the image. How can something be invisible
and have an image? Well, God has to do that, doesn't
he? We can't do something like that. If something's invisible,
we can't see it. Christ Jesus is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers or things, all things were created
by Him and for Him. And He is before all things. And by Him, all things consist. And He is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be in things
in earth or things in heaven, and you, and you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled. in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. The image of God is who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. That's who we see him as. We
see that the sovereign creator became a man to reconcile his
people back to God. Reconcile has three different
words in the New Testament. Three different words. Now they
kind of all mean the same thing, but they do have different definitions.
The first one is to change the mind of. God became a man to
change the mind of his people, to give them repentance. That's
what that means, isn't it? The second one is to return to
be in favor with. We were not in favor with God
because we were in our sin. And the third one is to bring
back a former state of harmony. what we lost in Adam, we gain
back so much more in Christ, didn't we? Christ did all three
of these. He's given repentance to his people. He's returned
us back to favor with God. He's given us oneness or harmony
with the Father. And he tells us how he did it
in verse 20. He made peace through the blood
of his cross. This is how he's done it, by
his own blood, by his own will, begat he us, by his own blood,
purged us of our sin. He also tells us how in verse
22, in the body of his flesh through death. And this is why
to present you wholly. And there's that sanctified that
we heard about the first hour, isn't it? The sanctification
of the Lord gives him people that he would prevent, present
us wholly and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. You take comfort in knowing that
the Lord's people are wholly and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. That's. That's uncomprehendable,
except the Lord give us faith to believe it, isn't it? How
can I be unblameable, unreprovable? How can I be holy? Because it's
Christ in us. We heard the first hour. We heard
the first hour, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ
in you. God became a man to die. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, became a man to die, to make
us holy, to make us unprovable, to make us unblameable in his
sight. And He redeemed His people by His own life, by His own blood,
by His own will. And He hath made reconciliation,
brought us back to unity with the Father, perfect oneness with
the Father, harmony, harmony. I like music. And I know some
of you probably like music as well. And I have an ear for music.
And that's not me bragging. I'm just simply saying I can
hear when someone's singing off. Even myself, I can hear a sour
note. If I'm up here leading and I hit a sour note, I cringe.
I'm like, ooh, that wasn't good. Good news is I can't hear you
when I'm leading up here. So you can take comfort in knowing
that. But I like harmony. When everything is being sung
together and every part is being sung together, it's beautiful
music. But if you have a sour note,
you recognize it, don't you? You can hear it. That's off.
That doesn't sound right. That's offensive to me. The Lord's
people are in perfect harmony with the Father. There is no
sour notes. Everything about it is perfect
because of what Christ Jesus has done by his own death. This is what he saw in the face
of a man. Now, second, he saw the face of a lion. Christ is the lion of the tribe
of Judah. Christ is the lion of the tribe
of Judah. And I want to show us that in
Genesis 49, By Jacob's giving the charge
to his son, he's gonna die. He's speaking to his sons and
talking individually to each of them. He speaks unto Judah
in Genesis 49, along with the other brethren. And this is what
he says unto them. Genesis 49, verse eight. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren
shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. Judah is a lion's, well, from
the prey. My son, thou art gone up, he
stooped down, he couched as a lion and as an old lion, who shall
rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. binding his foal into the vine
and his ass's colt into the choice vine. He washed his garments
in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall
be red with wine and his teeth white with milk." Judah was given the right to
rule. That's what the scepter represents
here. And he says, it's going to be yours to rule with until
Shiloh comes. You know what the definition
of Shiloh is? He whose it is. It's going to be yours to rule,
Judah. until he whose it is comes. That's none other than Christ,
is it? He's the one that has the birthright to rule. He's
the one that has the blood right to be King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. He's the only one. This is what
this lion represents. And certainly his garments were
made bloody, wasn't they? Just as it says here with Judah,
he calls it the blood of the vine, the blood of grapes. We
know that Christ was the one put in the wine press of God's
wrath. and God squeezed him until every drop was wrung out of him.
Christ was empty for the salvation of his people. This is the picture
here. This is what the lion represents,
the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. John saw
this in Revelation 5. He said, I looked in heaven.
Who is worthy? That's the question. Who is worthy? to open the book and loose the
seven seals thereof from the Lamb's book of life. Who is worthy? And he said, I looked in heaven
and earth under the earth and none, none was found worthy. And then he said, I wept much. He said, I wept. Nobody's worthy.
No one can redeem then. If no one's found worthy, no
one can redeem. And the elder touched him and said, weep not
John for behold, Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the
root of Jesse, he hath prevailed and is worthy to loose the seals
and open the book thereof. And he did, didn't he? He opened
the seals of the wrath of God. When God poured out his wrath
upon his son, he opened the book and he redeemed every single
person that was written in that Lamb's Book of Life. This is
what the lion represents here. It's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. He also is revealed in Revelation
19, he says that he was on a white horse, he had his vesture dipped
in blood, and his name was called the Word of God. And on his vesture
and on his thighs, there was a name written, King of kings
and Lord of lords. This is the lion that he saw,
the conquering king, the successful savior of sinners. The one that
had the right to be king, to be prophet, to be priest. He
is the one that put away the sin of his people. This is what
Ezekiel saw. He saw the man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God man. And he saw the lion of the tribe
of Judah. Now go back to Ezekiel chapter
one, and I want you to notice in verse
10, that this face, it says, as for
the likeness of their faces, they had four, had the face of
a man and the face of a lion on the right side. This is very important. Where
are we found? So the scripture tells us that
Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and we are
seated in Christ. That's our hope. We are seated
in Christ. Our only hope is to look and see what Ezekiel saw,
and it is to look to this lion. People believe, men and women
by nature believe, a figment of their imagination of a baby
Jesus that loves everybody, and a baby Jesus that tried to do
something but can't unless you let him. This is not what Ezekiel
saw. Ezekiel saw a conquering lion,
a strong lion. And this is how he's described
as going to be returning in the second coming. The first time
he came as a lamb, but the second time he's coming as a lion with
all authority. He told Pilate, you would have
no authority at all except my father, which giveth me. And
what did the Lord give? What did the father give unto Christ?
All things. We just read that, didn't we?
In Colossians. He's given him all things to do whatsoever he
will. This is the lion. That's what
it represents, the strong one. It's the chief, the king, the
king of kings and the Lord of lords. This is who Jesus Christ
is to his people. And we look to Christ as the
lion. We look to him as the sovereign, worthy, High exalted lion of
the Lord. And certainly we look to him
as the lamb of God, don't we? He's both. He's both the lamb
and the lion. This is who Ezekiel saw. Now, thirdly, he saw an ox. In
verse 10, as for the likeness of their faces, they forehad
the face of a man, face of a lion on the right side, and they forehad
the face of an ox on the left side. Now this ox is used in
sacrifice. This is what, understand something,
the children of Israel were only commanded and allowed to say,
well, they can sacrifice whether they want to, but the only thing
God would accept by his command was certain animals, certain
animals. It was a lamb, it was a goat.
You see about the young kids being offered up, you see the
the doves being offered up, you see the calves, the bull ox,
that's an oxen. This was used in sacrifice. This was one that was a beast
of burden. That's what an ox is, a beast
of burden. It's a life of servitude. That's what an ox is, is just
a complete life of servitude. An ox has got a couple of jobs,
sure. One may be plowing, one may be
threshing the corn. You remember the The picture
of the Lord being the one that threshed on the threshing floor.
He was threshed under the wrath of God. That's what the picture
is here. This ox is the one bearing his people's burden, his people's
sin. That's what this ox is and sacrificing
himself for them. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
two. Philippians chapter two. An ox has nothing but a life
of servitude. And we see that's what Christ
had in himself. Philippians 2 verse 5 tells us, let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. He humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Oh, the humility. of just the Lord's humanity,
first of all, just the humility to condescend and become a man,
but yet on top of that, to become as the ox bearing the burden
of his people in complete servitude to you and I, in complete obedience
unto his Father. I would remind us that the verse
I mentioned earlier, the Lord said, sit thou here at my right
hand. And this ox is on the left side,
is it not? So what does the father see when
he looks to his right? He sees the sacrifice of his
son, doesn't he? He sees the ox, the one that
bore the sin of his people, the one that endured the wrath of
God. He took the entire burden unto
himself. That's what an ox is, is a beast
of burden. He took every bit of it for his
people. This is what Ezekiel saw. He saw Christ as a man.
He saw him as the conquering lion. He saw him as the sacrifice,
the ox, the only one that was worthy or could bear the sin
of his people upon the cross of Calvary. I want to say this the right way.
I want to say everything I say the right way, but When I say
that, it lets me kind of reset my mind. I want to be careful
how I say this. A lamb is not a beast of burden. Christ was. Christ was a beast of burden,
but a lamb can bear no burden in and of itself, can it? But
the Lord Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, was the beast of burden. He was both the ox and the lamb
of God at the exact same time. A lot of these things we say
we don't understand, but we know it's true because of the scripture.
He's the lamb of God. that took the sin of his people. That's what John said, behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. So
he is the Lamb of God, and he is the ox that bore the burden
at the exact same time. He's both. Oxen are strong, aren't they?
I say this reverently, ox are stubborn. Oxford servant, thanks
be to God, Christ set his eyes to Calvary like a flint and nothing
could sway him. Nothing could sway him from accomplishing
his people's salvation, from honoring his father. He was stubborn
in that, wasn't he? There was no swaying in him.
He was going to accomplish salvation. And he did. And he did. tells us, is this ox coming to
me, all you that are labored and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. You know
what a yoke is? They would take a yoke, which was a device that
would connect two oxen together, and it would give them the same
purpose. The owner would be plowing the
oxen in one direction, and if one tried to go a certain way,
the owner would continually pull them, so they were working They
learned to work together. But what they would do is they
would put an old ox with a young ox. And it didn't really matter
what the young ox did because that old ox is strong and he's
big and he's stubborn. And he knows exactly what to
do because he's done it over and over and over. Can you see
the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ yoking us up to himself
and not allowing us to be left to ourself to wonder this way
or to wonder that way, but continually going by his faith straight towards
the will of the Lord. Do you see that? That's the picture
here. The Lord keeps us from our self-health because of his
yoke. He says my yoke is easy and my
burden is light. Why is his yoke easy? How is
his burden light? How is it? Because your sin's
been paid for. There's no work to be done. A
burden's pretty easy if there's nothing to be done, isn't it?
The yoke is easy because we are in yoke with him. But we're complete
in Him. There's nothing more that is
required of you and I. That is what gives rest to the
soul. That's what He tells us. My yoke
is easy and my burden is light. And you shall find rest to your
soul. Rest in Christ. Rest in Him. Be yoked with Him. Lord,
make it so. Lord, cause me to be yoked with
You. Cause me to see that all that is required Christ provided,
Christ provided as the ox that Ezekiel saw and the ox that you
and I saw. In order for us to be partakers
of salvation, we must understand, we must completely rest in his
finished work. We must completely trust in his
finished work. We must be completely satisfied
with what Christ has accomplished. And aren't you thankful that
if he requires that and provides that, we are completely satisfied,
aren't we? We completely rest in his work,
don't we? We have completely stopped trying
to win our way to God or anything of the nature. We are looking
unto Christ because of the faith that he's given us. Ezekiel saw the face of an ox.
That's what he saw. He saw Christ. Now, lastly, number
four is the eagle. And I asked, why an eagle? The
other ones came kind of easier to me to understand in my pea
brain. I can see the Lord's face in
it pretty quickly, but I thought, why an eagle? How is the Lord
likened unto an eagle? An eagle soars high above the
earth, higher than any other bird, higher than any other bird. And it has an extra set of eyelids. that allows it to look directly
into the noonday sun, the brightest part of the sun. If you and I
did that, we're liable to singe a cornea. We're liable to hurt
our eyes in some way. If we do it too long, we'll go
blind. That's what they say. But an eagle can fly directly
into the sun, looking right into the sun, because it has an extra
set of eyelids that no other birds have. Flips on the extra
set of eyelids, it just soars straight into the sun. Doesn't
affect their vision in any way, shape, or form. And it is the
only one, the only bird that can do that. The only one. And
this is the picture here. Christ was the only one who could
soar above this earth to be suspended between heaven and earth between
his father and fly directly into the wrath of God because he had
a set of lenses that you and I don't naturally. He had faith. You and I do not have that naturally.
He's the only one that could have flown directly into the
sun absorbing the eternal wrath of God and not be destroyed because
of his perfection, because of who he was. He was the only one
worthy and able to do that. And he did for his people. This
is the picture here. Our Lord extinguished the father's
fiery wrath. Wrath of God is likened to fire
fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, the scripture said, but that's what
the sun's made of, isn't it? Sun's made of fire. Christ has
put away all the fire of God's wrath. He absorbed it into himself. He extinguished it. There's none
left. He drank every drop. of the cup
of damnation for his people. He's the one that soared high
enough to save his people from their sin. You and I can't even
fly, can we? We don't have enough faith. I think it's amazing,
I use this analogy, but Peter really walked on water. We can't
do that, but we certainly can't flap our arms and fly, can we?
That's silly thinking, isn't it? But the Lord, he flew, he
did, unto the sun, the wrath of God, and absorbed it. You know what the good news in
that is, is he was bringing us with him. We can't fly, but he
did. He was bearing us on his wings. He was bearing us on his wings
and we are hidden under the shadow of his wings. Do we see that?
He reconciled us back to God. And I want us to notice those
wings just for a moment. In verse six, he tells us that
they had four wings. Everyone had four faces and everyone
had four wings. And then in verse 11, he tells
us this, thus were their faces and their wings were stretched
upward, two wings of every one that were joined one to another,
and two covered their body. Now, why would two of those wings
cover their body? What's the picture here? Christ
gave all the glory to his father. Every bit of it, he covered himself
and you and I are hidden under that part. He is our covering. Understand what I'm saying here.
He is our covering. We are hid under the shadow of his wing.
He is covering us and he is bringing us unto glory. That's the picture.
And he's not exposing himself. Therefore, he's giving all glory
to Christ. He's not saying here I am. He's
not saying, look at my majesty. He's covering himself in humility
unto his father. And that's where you and I hide
is in the Lord, in that place under the shadow of his wing. Also notice that their wings
in verse nine were joined one to another. They turn not where
they went. They went everyone straight forward. That's our Lord, isn't it? That's
our Lord being the God man, being the lion, being the ox, the sacrifice,
being the eagle, one direction, one direction towards his father
to bring salvation for his people. Perfect obedience, perfect union,
with one singular purpose, to glorify God. He uses these wings
to ascend and descend according to his purpose from the highest
heaven to the lowest hell. None that he died for will be
cast into hell. Why? Because he has the power.
He has the power to go down. David said, if I make my bed
in hell, thou art there. He can ascend and descend however
he chooses. He has the wings to do so. I
know that that's a it's a metaphor. Yeah, I think we understand what
I'm trying to say here. He has the ability. He has the
ability to descend and ascend, whether so ever he chooses. He's
God. That's the picture of these wings here. So why are there
four creatures? I asked myself that. Why was
there four? Why weren't there just one? that had four heads. Well, there's four corners of
the earth, aren't they? North, south, east, and west. There's the four winds of the
earth. And there's the four gospels, aren't there? What is he saying? No matter where the Lord's people
are, he will fetch them and he will bring them from the four
corners of the earth. It's not relevant where we are.
He will get that which he has already gotten. He will bring
that which he has already gotten. That's what the four represent.
It is the same message, the same covering, the same fetching as
we saw Ezekiel, that happened to Ezekiel in each of our lives.
This is what he does. He saves to the uttermost. David
said, be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul
trusteth in thee, yea, in the shadow of thy wings, while I
make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed. He goes on and
says, how excellent, how excellent is thy loving kindness, O God,
therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow
of thy wings. Oh, the joy, the joy of being
under the wings of the Lord Jesus Christ, being hidden, being tucked
under him, knowing that nothing can touch us unless it passes
through his wings first. Now, I mentioned that John saw
the same thing that Ezekiel saw, and I want to look at that in
Revelation chapter four in closing. Revelation chapter four. Look at verse six. In before
the throne, there was a sea of glass, buck and a crystal. In
the midst of the throne and round about the throne, there were
four beasts full of eyes before them behind. The first beast
was like a lion, second beast was like a calf, the third beast
had a face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each
of them six wings about him. They were full of eyes within,
and they rest not day and night saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those
beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the
throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders
fall down before him that sat upon the throne and worship him
that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created. See, that's exactly
what you and I see. not physically, but spiritually
when the Lord reveals Himself. We see Christ Jesus as the God-man. We see Him as the lion of the
tribe of Judah that took away the sin of His people. We see
Him as the ox, the one that bore the sacrifice, the one that was
the sacrifice that bore the burden of His people. And we see that
He's the eagle. He's the one that flew directly
into the wrath of God. and extinguished his wrath for
his people. And there we hide under the shadow
of his wing. And that's exactly what we'll
be seeing for all eternity, for all eternity. That's the exact
same thing we're going to be seeing is what John saw and what
Ezekiel saw and what will be said. Holy, holy, holy Lord God
Almighty, which was, which is, which is to come. Thou art worthy. The Lord shows us we're in bondage
first. John was on the Isle of Patmos. He was in bondage. Ezekiel
was in Babylonian captivity in bondage. And we are in bondage
to sin. And then he reveals the man.
He reveals the lion. He reveals the ox. He reveals
the eagle to us. And we fall flat on our face.
And then he picks us up and he puts us upon the rock. And that's
our confession, thou art worthy. I'm thankful we get to sing that
forever, don't you? Aren't you? We'll be singing
the same thing over and over again, and it'll never grow old. Ezekiel saw none other but the
Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no doubt. There
can be no doubt. And that's all that we see. Line
upon line, precept upon precept. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
when he reveals himself. Father, we're thankful that you
reveal yourself to your people. We pray that you would reveal
yourself to us and continue to reveal yourself to us.