I'll ask you, if you will, to
turn in your Bibles today to the book of Ezekiel, chapter
1. Ezekiel, chapter 1. For the size of the book of Ezekiel
It may be one of the most neglected books in the scripture. Ezekiel. We're going to read the first
three verses. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth
year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as
I was among the captives by the river of Sheba, that the heavens
were opened and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the
month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity,
the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the
son of Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebor,
and the hand of the Lord was there upon me. Now the truth
that I want us to receive this morning from this message is
that God always provides for His people. God always provides
for His people. And I want us to see that truth
in the fact that God provided for His people in raising up
this man, Ezekiel, as a prophet. At the time when this took place,
The nation of Israel had been carried into captivity on three
occasions, all by Nebuchadnezzar, all by the Chaldean army. They had come to Jerusalem, and
the first time they carried captives to Babylon would be the time
that Daniel, remember the prophet Daniel, he was taken. into captivity, him and his friends. And they were actually in the
court in the city, the capital of Babylon. And then later there
was a second deportation. And it was during the second
deportation when the most of the nation of Israel was taken
away. In fact, we read in 2 Kings,
he carried away all Jerusalem and none remain save the poorest
of the people of the land." This was the captivity of the king
that is mentioned here, Jehoachin. Then there was one remaining
king of Judah and he rebelled and Nebuchadnezzar went a third
time or sent his army at least and destroyed The city of Jerusalem
and the beautiful temple was left in ruins. Now God had determined
and he had revealed through Jeremiah who was contemporary with Ezekiel. Ezekiel was younger of course.
Ezekiel was carried into captivity in that second deportation. And Jeremiah was not taken into
captivity. He remained in the land of Judah. But God had determined and revealed
through Jeremiah that they would be in captivity for 70 years. Now that was going to take place,
70 years. Keep your place here, but turn
back with me to Psalm 137, just a minute. In this psalm, we get some idea
of their situation. Psalm 137. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered
Zion. Zion, of course, here refers
to Jerusalem, the place where God had put his name and agreed
to meet with the people at the mercy seat. When we remembered
Zion, we wept. We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof, for there they that carried us
away captive required of us a song. and they that wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How,
how shall we sing the Lord's songs in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. if I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy." So we see that the passage
of scripture here in Ezekiel, he was by the river Chebor among
the captives. He was to be to God's people,
the nation of Israel. And remember, in the nation of
Israel, there was always a remnant according to the election of
grace. Not every Israelite was an Israelite. The Apostle Paul tells us that
in Romans. In other words, not every man
who was a Jew by nationality was a child of God, a true Israelite,
a spiritual Israelite. But God has always, even today,
in all of religion, all of Christianity, and there are millions, if not
billions, who go under that title, but there is an election according
to the remnant of grace. God has his people. And his people
here were in captivity with the nation and God provided for them
a prophet who would minister unto them. My message has two
parts today. First, I want us to look at what
is said here about Ezekiel and see the parallel between what
is said about Ezekiel and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and then see this contrast. First of all, you notice it tells
us it came to pass in the 30th year. That means that Ezekiel
turned 30. His name means God strengthens. God strengthens. And so at 30
years of age, The Lord appeared to him in this vision. There are three things I point
out here. First of all, his age. Second,
heaven was opened. And third, the hand of the Lord
was upon him. You see that in verse one, now
it came to pass in the 30th year, there's his age. And then later
in the verse, the heavens were opened. And then at the very
end of verse three, and the hand of the Lord was upon him. Now let me just remind us that
the Lord Jesus Christ began his public ministry at the age of
30. At the age of 30. You can read
this in Luke chapter 3 and verse 23. We read, and Jesus himself
began to be about 30 years of age, being, and then in parentheses,
being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph. People supposed him
to be the son of Joseph, that is the husband of Mary, but you
and I know he is the son of God. He was born of the Virgin Mary. The scripture, prophecy was behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name
Immanuel. What a wonderful name. What a
wonderful truth. Call his name Immanuel. What does that mean? God with
us. God with us. So we see, first
of all, the age that Ezekiel became. And that was the age
when a man would begin to function as a priest. And we're told here
that Ezekiel, he was a priest. We're not told if he ever officiated
as a priest. He wasn't in Jerusalem when he
became 30. There was no temple, there was
no altar, no place to sacrifice in Babylon. So he was 30 years
of age and so the Lord Jesus Christ, he began his public ministry
at 30 years of age. That's when he came to John the
Baptist and was baptized. And second, we see here that
concerning Ezekiel, the heavens were opened and I saw visions
of God. And I would remind us that when
our Lord was baptized, about 30 years of age, the scripture
says, Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened
and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove. That's Luke chapter 3. And then
we're told here concerning Ezekiel, the hand of the Lord was there
upon him. Now John, In the account of our
Savior's baptism, John the Baptist said this, I saw the Spirit descending
from heaven like a dove and it abode, it remained upon him. Just as the hand of the Lord
was upon Ezekiel, The heavens were opened, he was 30 years
of age, the heavens were opened, he saw visions of God, and the
hand of the Lord was upon him. So our Lord at 30 years of age
is baptized, the heavens is opened, the Spirit of God descends in
the form of a dove, and remained abode upon him all through his
life. Until He gave His life on the
cross, the Spirit of the Lord remained upon Him. So let me say this. Ezekiel was
born a priest. He was ordained a prophet, but
he never became a king. He was born a priest, ordained
a prophet, but never a king. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
a priest, Not after the order of Levi. You see, Ezekiel, when
I said he was born a priest, he was born in the priestly tribe,
the tribe of Levi. He was in the family of Aaron,
the high priestly family. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he
was not of the tribe of Levi. He was of the tribe of Judah,
the kingly tribe, and he was made a priest with an oath. This man, Ezekiel, he became
a priest by birth. And his priesthood, like all
of the priests that preceded him and followed him, it all
ended. Their priesthood all ended when
they died. But the Lord Jesus Christ, we
know from Hebrews, He was made a priest with an oath. You say,
well, who made the oath? God did! Thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. And while these priests like
Ezekiel offered sacrifices that could never take away sin, the
Lord Jesus Christ who was made a priest with an oath, he offered
that one sacrifice that did put away the sins of his people. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. The Lord Jesus Christ
was ordained the prophet like unto Moses. If you keep your
places here, but turn back with me to Deuteronomy. Chapter 18
and verse 18. God told Moses, so Ezekiel was a priest, he was
made a prophet, never a king, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
made a priest with an oath. He was the prophet sent from
God as we see here in Deuteronomy 18. God told Moses, I will raise
them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee,
and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto
them all that I shall command him, and it shall come to pass
that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall
speak in my name, I will require it of him. He is that prophet,
and his message, his words, men must hear, or they will suffer
eternal loss. They must hear his words. And I think of his words when
he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, And no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Men must hear his words. Men may reject his words. Men
may turn a deaf ear to his words. But God said, I will require
it of them. And then the Lord Jesus Christ,
not only is prophet and priest, but he also is king. If you look with me in Psalm
chapter two, we have a wonderful passage of scripture which speaks
to him about being placed upon the throne. Psalm chapter two. Why do the heathen rage? We will not have this man to
reign over us. Away with him. Crucify him. Crucify him. Why? Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cards from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sordid pleasure. Yet have
I set my king, my king, upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord has said unto me, thou art my son. This day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. So the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the mediator between God and man, he is a prophet, he's a
priest, and he's the king. Now, here in the passage in Ezekiel,
we find that Ezekiel was a captive himself. I told you I wanted
to say some parallels, but also a contrast here. Ezekiel, he
was a captive. He wasn't just among the captives. The Lord Jesus Christ, he came
into this world sinless among the captives, but he himself
was not captive. He himself, because he was sinless,
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, he was not in captivity. He had no sin of his own. Ezekiel,
he was in captivity. He was a captive. He couldn't
deliver anyone because he himself was a captive. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, he came into this world free from sin to deliver those
of us who by nature are in captivity. You say, well, I thought we were
free in this country. Well, civilly, we have freedom.
We have a lot of freedom in this country. But everyone who is
born in this world, doesn't matter which country, which nation we're
born into, my friends. We come into this world in captivity. That is, we are slaves. We're
slaves to sin. We've sinned and come short of
the glory of God. We're servants of sin. He came
into this world, not as a captive, but to deliver the captives. So that's the first part of the
message this morning. I wanted us to see those parallels
and that contrast. Now, the second, Ezekiel was
prepared for his work by vision. By vision. If you have your Bible
still open here in Ezekiel chapter 1, look at the very last verse
and we're told that he had a vision of the likeness of the glory
of God. You see that about middle ways
in this book. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the Lord. Around 1900, 1901, 1902, there
was a Baptist pastor in Pittsburgh, Texas. who used this passage and a following
one in the book of Ezekiel to design what he called a flying
machine. Now, a little history, they,
up in Pittsburgh, Texas, are convinced that his and it's never
been certified that the plane actually lifted off the ground,
that's what they say, and flew for 160 feet, about 12 to 15
feet off the ground. And then it came down, and in
St. Louis there was a World Fair,
and they offered a $100,000 prize for an invention of a flying
machine. And so this preacher, he was
in church. If it actually did fly, they
said he must have been in church preaching that Sunday morning.
And one of his helpers got the machine out and supposedly lifted
off the ground and flew for 160 feet. Well, $100,000 is a lot
of money today. And it was a whole lot of money
in 1901, 1902. So he loaded his Ezekiel ship,
I believe that's what it was called, the Ezekiel ship, put
it on a flat car to send it to St. Louis. They got to Texarkana
and a storm came and blew it off the tracks, blew it off the
car, destroyed it. That was a year before the Wright
brothers were able to fly it. Kitty Hawk. That's the reason
people up in Pittsburgh, Texas, they'll tell you we were first.
We were first. Well, when you read through this
vision, it might mean a whole lot of things. But one thing
I can tell you for sure, it was not plans for a flying machine. You've got to take your hat off
to this fella, whoever he was, to somehow get the designs for
a flying machine out of this vision. That was never the purpose
of the vision. We know that. And we're not going
to read all through it. But let me just say this. Generally,
the vision is meant to teach Remember, God is preparing or
calling Ezekiel to minister to his people in captivity in a
foreign land. So generally, the vision is meant
to teach that it's the same God, the same God who was their God
in Palestine is their God by the rivers Jabar in Babylon. In the temple, as you read through
the vision, you will see there's similarity between the temple,
what was in the temple in Jerusalem. In the temple, there was the
likeness of the throne, the mercy seat, and the same in the vision. If you look in verse 26 here,
we see, and above the firmament that was over their heads was
the likeness of a throne. Now in the temple, You had the
mercy seat, and that's where the Shekinah dwelt, that presence
of God. So it served as a throne. And
so Ezekiel saw in his vision a likeness of a throne. In the
temple, you know, there were those two cherubim who stood
over the ark, and their wings touched each other. In this vision,
there's not two, but there are four of these living creatures
whose wings touch each other. The fact that there were four
of them and each of them had four faces, each face pointed
in a different direction, no doubt was to show and to remind
Ezekiel that God is the God of all the earth. Not just God in
Jerusalem, but He is the Lord of all the earth. And there's
no place these living creatures with wings to fly and wheels
to go at the speed of lightning. So God is not limited by space
or time. That God will execute His will
at all times and all places. Now I have four truths that I
want to bring out that I believe we can see in this vision. And
as I said, I know these are not plans for a flying machine. But
there's much here that we might look at and never fully understand. But there are four truths here
that I see in this vision. First of all, God is a God of
absolute holiness. I see this in two ways. First of all, the first thing
we're told that in this vision, in this cloud, whirlwind came
out of the north, a great cloud and a fire. a fire unfolding
itself. Now if you read through the whole
vision, you will see the mention of fire seven times. Seven in the scripture, of course,
is a number of completions. And fire is a symbol of God's
holiness. In fact, in Deuteronomy chapter
four and verse 24, we read, for the Lord thy God is a consuming
fire, even a jealous God. The four living creatures also
remind us, because they were like the cherubim, that when
Adam sinned, and God drove him and Eve out of the garden, he
placed there those cherubims with the flaming swords to keep
the way to the tree of life. To remind us that God is absolutely
holy and man by his doing can never satisfy God. God is absolutely holy. You might ask, Why? Why was God's
people in captivity? Well, if you want to turn to
2 Kings, you can find this in more places, but briefly in 2
Kings chapter 24, you know what it was that caused God's people
to be in captivity? It was sin, sin. Scripture says, in his days,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and Jehoiakim became
his servant three years. Then he turned and rebelled against
him, and the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and
bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of
the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy
it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his
servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of
the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight,
for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did. And also,
now notice, for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled
Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon. You say, how did this king fill
Jerusalem with innocent blood? We know that he, along with other
wicked kings of Israel, they took up the practice of burning
their children in the fire, of presenting their children as
a sacrifice to these false gods. And this scripture here tells
us that God would not pardon this sin. He would not do it. And that's the reason now they
are in captivity, because of sin. And that's the first thing
we see here in this vision. That is that God is a God of
absolute holiness. The second thing we see in this
vision, God is a God of absolute knowledge. And I see this in
the fact that the rings were full of eyes round about them. In other words, there were eyes
in every direction looking. And we still use that term when
we learn something or something comes to our knowledge, we say,
I see it. I see it. Well, God never learns
anything. He knows everything. And the
God with which you and I have to do is a God of absolute knowledge. Nothing has ever escaped his
eyes. He knows all things. And the
third thing that I see in this vision is God is the God of absolute
sovereignty. If you look in verse 26 again,
we see, above the firmament that was over their heads was the
likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone,
and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man above upon it. Now the firmament, we know
in Genesis, when God created the heavens and the earth, He
divided the firmament. But you see, above the firmament
is this throne. And on that throne is the appearance
of a man. And you know, and I know, who
that is a symbol of, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
who appeared many times in the Old Testament. Before He came
into this world as a man, He appeared many times as a man. He is upon the throne. The point
I want to make is God's absolute sovereignty above creation, above
everything, there's a throne. And upon that throne is the Lord
Jesus Christ who reigns. He said, all power, all authority
is given unto me both in heaven and in earth. His throne is established
in the heavens, the psalmist said. His kingdom ruleth over
all. It rules over the animal creation. It rules over the plant creation.
It rules over man, rules over the spirit creation, the angels
and demons. His kingdom ruleth over all. And the fourth thing, God is
the God of an everlasting covenant. Of course, if you notice in verse
28, he saw a bow as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud. Now the rainbow, we know, was
a sign of a covenant that God made with Noah. When Noah came
out of the ark, remember, and offered a sacrifice unto the
Lord, God made a covenant with Noah that he would never again
destroy all flesh by water. And as a sign, a token of that
covenant, he put the rainbow in the cloud. Now in Revelation
chapter 4, when John was privileged to look into heaven, remember
he saw the throne and the 24 The elders around the throne,
which represent all the elect of God from both dispensations,
but he also saw a rainbow, a rainbow which reminds us of the everlasting
covenant. God said, I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. but I will put my fear in their
hearts that they shall not depart from me." That's one of the promises
of the everlasting covenant. Now, let me close by saying this. What does this have to do with
me? What does this have to do with you? Well, first of all,
God is a God of absolute holiness. And what does that mean? That
means that every sin, 100%, every sin, God will require. His justice demands that every
sin be punished. Every sin, not most, but every
sin. He is absolutely holy. And every sin that I've ever
committed and every sin that you have ever committed, someone's
going to answer for. Either you and spend eternity
in hell or the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who took the sins
of his people and bore them in his own body on the tree. But
every sin, every sin, because God is absolutely holy. And secondly, what does this
have to do with me? God knows us. You know, we can
put on a face, a charade, you know, and we can look pretty
good. We come here on Sunday mornings, But God knows us. God knows everything about us. He knows our down-sitting. He
knows our uprising. In fact, we cannot even have
a word upon our tongue. And He doesn't already know.
He knows everything. And third, God is absolutely
sovereign. He will have mercy upon whom
he will have mercy. This is what he said. I will
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. He has the absolute right
to pass over each and every one of us and give us what we deserve,
what we have merited. He has that right. And so we
thank God he made a covenant, an everlasting covenant. And
the Lord Jesus Christ is a mediator of that covenant. He's satisfied
for his people. And our situation always is we
seek mercy. Mercy. We don't demand of God,
we ask for his mercy and for his grace. And as an old preacher
used to say, until now, until right now, 11, 40, October the
14th, 2018, everyone who has sought mercy has found mercy.
Everyone. Thank God for that everlasting
covenant. It's ordered, David, when he
came to die, said this, these are the last words of David.
He said, this is all my salvation. Though my house not be so with
God. In other words, my house, David's
house, and all of us could say the same about ourselves, not
be so with God, not be perfect with God. This is all my salvation. He
hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things,
and sure. Why is it sure? Because the surety
of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, has done all that is
required for the saving of His people. Look to Christ. and be ye saved. That's what
the scripture says, for I am God and there is none other. Let us turn now, if you will,
to hymn number 329.