["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Good evening, welcome to our services tonight here at Fape Ward Baptist Church.
It's a joy to see all of you all here on this Wednesday night, let's all take our seats please as you take your song books, we'll begin.
Let's start with him number 167 him number 167 all hail the power of Jesus name number
167
Let's sing it out nice loud on this first verse together number one six seven
Oh
Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight
I pray that you'll fill us all with your spirit as we sing praises to you
Please bless all aspects of the service and the preaching to come and give us open ears to hear it
It's in Christ's name. I pray amen
Amen back to him number 138
The haven of rest number 138
138 sing it on this first verse together
Oh
Together if you know the bulletin slip up your hand nice and high we'll get to you with one on the inside
We have our service time Sunday mornings at 1030s our preaching service Sunday nights at 6 Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study
We're starting a brand new book tonight
Ezekiel chapter number one
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms
The birthdays and anniversaries for the month of August are listed there on the right
We had the first day trip down to Mexico for the Mexico Mondays. How'd that go brother say Gord?
Did you guys get anybody saved down there?
Great
Okay, awesome
So they got they they witness to a lot of people got a couple people saved
So we're off to a good start with that
And then you're welcome to join him on the first Monday of every month going down there practice your Spanish and do some soul-winning
Just right over the border in Nogales, Mexico on the back
Of course the note about the baby shower coming up on August 14th
Right here at the church building from 2 to 4 30 on a Saturday
And then the rollerskating night is going to be on Thursday August 19th, just like all of our church activities
It's free. So you just show up at
The USA skate land and Chandler tell them faithful words sent you know
You have to actually be a faithful word person or if you want to bring somebody you can but this is just for our church
it's reserved for our church only and
Also, there's no music or no games or anything
We can just kind of just skate and have fun with the place by ourselves and then blow that
The ladies retreat in Oracle that's August 25th through 28th. And then other upcoming events are listed down there below
That's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up this soul winning for the past few days going back to Monday
We got the two from Mexico
What else have we got for Monday anything else?
Alright, how about Tuesday anything from Tuesday? All right
Anything else from Tuesday and then what about today?
I believe we just had the one for the van today and then another two right here anything else for today
All right, very good keep up the great work on soul winning and with that let's go ahead and sing our next song come lead us
All right, we're gonna sing Psalm 117. You should find the insert there in your hymnal. If you don't have one, please raise your hand
We'll sing Psalm 117
Oh
Amen your hymnals now, please turn to number 189. I
Never will cease to love him him number 189
189
I
Tonight
All right
As the plates go around let's turn our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 1
Ezekiel chapter 1 as we always do we'll read the entire chapter
Beginning in verse number 1 follow along silently with brother Hesse as he reads Ezekiel chapter 1 starting in verse number 1
Ezekiel chapter 1 the Bible reads
Now came to pass in the 30th year in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month as I was among the captives
By the river of Kibar 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
Kibar and the hand of the Lord was there upon him 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 midst thereof as the color of amber out of the midst of the
Fire also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living 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 the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot and they sparked
Sparkled like the color of burnished brass
And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides and they four had their faces and their wings
Their wings were joined one to another they turned not when they went they went everyone straight forward as
for the likeness of their faces they four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side and
They four had the face of an ox on the left side and they four also had the face of an eagle
Thus were their faces and their wings were stretched upward
Two wings of every one were joined one to another and two covered their bodies and they went everyone straight forward
whether the spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went as
For the likeness of the living creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps
It went up and down among the living creatures and the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning and the living
Creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning
Now as I beheld the living creatures behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures with his four faces
the appearance of the wheels and their work was
like unto the color of a barrel and they four had one likeness and
Their appearance in their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel
When they went they went upon their four sides and they turned not when they went as for their rings
they were so high that they were dreadful and
Their rings were full of eyes round about them for and
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 whether so ever the spirit was to go they went there was their spirit to go and the wheels were
Lifted up over against them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels
When those went these went and when those stood these stood and when those were lifted up from the earth
The wheels were lifted up over against them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels and the likeness of the firmament
above the heads of the living creature was as the color of a terrible crystal which stretched forth over their heads above and
Under the firmament were their wings straight the one toward the other everyone had two which covered on this side and everyone had two
Which covered on that side their bodies and when they went?
I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters as the voice of the Almighty
the voice of speech as the noise of an host when they stood they let down their wings and
there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings and
above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as
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. And I saw
as the color of amber, 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. 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 the Lord,
and when I saw it, I fell upon my face,
and I heard a voice of one that spake.
Dear Father in heaven, please fill the pastor with your spirit, please give us
his here to be edified, receive wisdom from this sermon, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Now before I get into Ezekiel chapter 1, let me just say a few things about the
book of Ezekiel in general.
First of all, Ezekiel is a great book of preaching.
This is one of the three major prophets,
and so it's a lot of hard preaching. It's got some of the hardest preaching
of the entire Old Testament. And just to give you an idea
of where this book fits into the Bible chronologically,
the way the Bible is laid out in the Old Testament is not in a strict chronological
order, but it's broken into genres.
So you start out with the law of Moses, then you get into the historical books,
and then after the historical books, you have the poetic books,
and then you have your major prophets and the minor prophets. Well,
the major prophets are chronological with one another,
meaning that Jeremiah comes after Ezekiel
in time, Ezekiel comes after Jeremiah,
Daniel comes after Ezekiel, and then the minor prophets are a separate section.
They're in chronological order with one another,
but they don't necessarily come after the book of Ezekiel. So what's going on
when Ezekiel is written? Well, Ezekiel is written during the Babylonian captivity.
So the book of Isaiah is written long before the Babylonian captivity.
Jeremiah is written just leading up to the captivity, and
the captivity happens right at the end of Jeremiah.
Ezekiel starts out the book in chapter 1,
and they're already in captivity, the 70-year
Babylonian captivity, and that's going to become very important later
as we're interpreting the book of Ezekiel, understanding the fact
that they're in captivity. So there are a lot of prophecies about them coming
back and about the captivity coming to a close. That's a
big theme in this book. Now Ezekiel chapter 1 itself
is probably the weirdest chapter in the entire book
of Ezekiel. It's kind of an introduction to the book. You don't really get into
any of the preaching. The preaching starts out in chapter 2.
That's why at the end of chapter 1 it says,
and I heard a voice of one that spake, and then he starts hearing the word of
God, and then we get these clear messages in
chapters 2, 3, 4, all the way through. But we have this
sort of introductory chapter where Ezekiel sees
this really wild vision or this really strange vision
of the glory of God, and God appears unto him in this very magnificent fashion
before speaking to him. Now the thing that's interesting about this
is that many prophets in the Bible receive their revelations
through dreams or just through divine inspiration.
The Spirit of the Lord comes upon them, and they just
speak God's word. They preach God's word in that way.
Okay, this is a little bit different because this is actually
God verbally, audibly speaking to Ezekiel, and so sometimes God does that.
You know the Bible says in Hebrews 1, God who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets. So God spoke to the prophets in different ways. He didn't
always speak to them in the same way. Sometimes it was through dreams and
divine inspiration, and then sometimes like with Moses, he
spoke audibly to them. Well this is one of those situations
where God actually spoke audibly. Let's start reading in verse one. I'll
show you what I mean. It says, now it came to pass in the 30th year in the fourth
month and in the fifth day of the month as I
was among the captives by the river of Kibar 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 Kibar and the hand of the Lord was there
upon him. So a couple things I want to point out is that first of all, Jehoiachin's
captivity is often referenced as like a starting point for the captivity
in other books of the Bible as well. So you notice that we're already
five years in when God begins to speak to
Ezekiel. So we're definitely into the Babylonian captivity
and the word that I really want to draw attention to in verse three there is
that the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel.
So that's what I'm saying. This isn't just him receiving divine inspiration
or a dream or something of that nature but rather this is being spoken
expressly. What does expressly mean? Clearly, verbally, audibly, it's crystal clear.
Another example of this word in scripture is where the Bible says now
the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines
of devils. What does that mean when it says the
spirit speaketh expressly? It means there's no doubt about it,
it's clear, it's not ambiguous, it's not vague,
it's very explicit and so that's what it's saying here
that the word of God comes to him explicitly,
expressly, clearly and as we can see here God even appears
in glory and speaks unto him. Now obviously he did not see
the face of God because no man shall see God's face and live
and he sees the glory of the Lord though and he sees this great entourage that
the Lord has with him. So let's get into this exotic vision
that he sees here in Ezekiel chapter one.
And I looked and behold a whirlwind came out of the north
a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself and brightness
was about it and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber
out of the midst of the fire. So here he is, he's by the river of Kibar
and he sees this vision of a whirlwind which is a tornado
and a cloud and a fire and the fire is sort of
folding in on itself or feeding upon itself
and it says out of the midst thereof in verse five came the likeness of
four living creatures. This was their appearance,
they had the likeness of a man and everyone had
four faces and everyone had four wings. Now the first thing I want to point out
here is that these quote-unquote living
creatures show up in other parts of the bible.
Now later in Ezekiel chapter 10 there's another vision that's
almost exactly the same as what we see in chapter one.
So we're gonna have another wild chapter coming up in Ezekiel chapter 10.
But quickly flip over to chapter 10 and I just want to point out one verse
obviously we'll deal with chapter 10 when the time comes but I just want to
point out something quickly from verse 20
where it says in verse 20 of chapter 10 this
is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of
Kibar so he's referring back to chapter one
and he says and I knew that they were the cherubims so even though the word
cherubims does not show up in chapter one later in
chapter 10 he realizes that what he saw back in
chapter one were cherubims that is something that he
understands in chapter 10 and so we can have the luxury of
understanding that right away as well that these living creatures that he sees
are cherubims. Now another word for these type of living
creatures are beasts because when we get to
revelation and we talk about the four beasts around
the throne they are also living creatures similar
to although not exactly like these living
creatures they are similar creatures we see a scripture like this in Isaiah
chapter 6 revelation chapter 4 various places
throughout scripture these type of creatures surrounding the
Lord and proclaiming his glory exist so think about these three words we've
got living creatures we've got beasts and
we've got cherubims the three words that are describing these
these beings now the biblical word beast we don't really use the word beast
in the same way today because the word beast in the bible simply means animal
you know we say animal they would say beast
back then and if you study the word beast in scripture you'll see it's just
their basic word for animal and so when it's talking about living
creatures basically we're talking about something that's alive
but it's not human so it's sort of like an animal in that sense
because it's not a human being but it's a living creature
now these living creatures though they're not being called
human or men but yet they're described as having the likeness of a man at the
end of verse number five if you're back in ezekiel chapter 1
it says they had the likeness of a man now what does it mean to have the
likeness of a man it means that that's what they look like
they look like people in a sense they're not men but
they look like men and you're going to see that they
actually have some animal attributes as well so
what does it mean when it says that they look like men it's basically referring
to the general structure of their bodies
they're standing up on two feet like a man does
they've got basically you know head arms legs torso they're they're
in appearance roughly like a man but the bible says that they all have
four faces now that's a little strange isn't it
to have four faces okay and look what the bible says in verse
number let's get the kind of the full description here and
then we'll talk about it but it says in verse number
six everyone had four faces and everyone had four wings
and their feet were straight feet and the sole of their feet
was like the sole of a calf's foot and they
sparkled like the color of burnished brass so when it says they had straight
feet if you think about your foot it's sort of like an l shape
at the bottom of your leg these are straight feet meaning that they just
go straight down like into a calf's foot so basically like a hoof if you will
like like a cow just it just goes straight down stops or like a horse or
something that's what the bible is saying that
they add for feet so these are not human beings
they are definitely living creatures or beasts or
whatever these things are that the bible calls cherubim so you say what does
cherubim mean cherubim is basically hey we don't know
how to translate this word from hebrew so we're just going to put it in
english letters that's what that is it's just that's the word in hebrew
just brought directly into english that's called a transliteration instead
of being translated into english the king james has just transliterated
this into english just cherubim is just cherubims you know
they just bring it straight across and it talks about how they sparkled
like the color of burnished brass so like shiny
dark metal and they had the hands of a man
under their wings on the four sides and they four had their faces and their
wings and their wings were joined one to another
they turned not when they went they went everyone
straight forward so it's interesting how it says they turned not when they went
so it seems as if they basically can move
forward backward and to the side without turning
which kind of makes sense if they have four faces so
my idea of this and obviously the bible is not clear unfortunately the bible
didn't come with any pictures so we have to kind of figure this out
just from reading the text but basically what you probably have is
you know one face is facing forward and to the sides and to the back
which is very strange but that seems to be what's described here
that's not for sure but that would be what makes sense when you think about
the way that they move okay and then it says in verse number
10 as for the likeness of their faces you know what did their faces look like
they four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side
and they four had the face of an ox on the left side
and they four also had the face of an eagle okay so again we've got these
four distinct faces man lion ox eagle now keep your finger here and flip over
to revelation chapter four just very quickly
revelation chapter four and whether we're in is equal one whether
we're in is equal 10 whether we're in
revelation four you have these four different faces
appearing and they're consistent in the sense that it's always the lion
the ox the man the eagle or or or it'll be a lion a calf
a man an eagle obviously calf and an ox are the same animal
look at revelation chapter four verse seven
and the first beast was like a lion and the second beast
like a calf and the third beast had a face as a man
and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle now what is the significance here
i believe that this symbolizes the four gospels
as found in the new testament because of the fact that you know
he's seeing a vision of the glory of god and the word of god
is appearing unto ezekiel to bring him this message
and god's glory is proclaimed by these four beasts in revelation that just day
and night are crying out holy holy holy lord god almighty which
was and is and is to come and so these four beasts proclaim the
glory of god and i'll tell you why i believe that they represent the four
gospels is because if you look at the four
gospels they really correspond well with these four faces four different
aspects of jesus if you will because if you think about the book of matthew
it really emphasizes the fact that jesus is the king of the jews
that's why you start out at the beginning of the book of matthew with
the genealogy of jesus as being the son of david
the son of abraham and then going through all those kings
and it's like a royal lineage of the king
of the jews that patrilineal lineage coming down
of jesus then when we get to the book of mark
jesus christ is emphasized for the works that he does
you know if you have a red letter bible mark is the one that has
less red letters in it because it's it does have a lot of preaching from jesus
but it seems more to emphasize his deeds his actions
it's definitely the most action-packed of the four gospels
in the book of mark he's constantly doing works and doing miracles and
casting out devils and doing all these things
he's very active it talks about him just uh
burning the midnight oil and they're trying to get him to rest they're
trying to get him to take a break and he's just busy working working working
and so that pictures the ox because think about it
the lion is the king of the jungle the lion is the strongest among beasts and
turneth not away for any and so if matthew represents jesus christ
as king then that's represented by the lion and
then mark represents jesus christ as the servant
the worker the doer of the work this is represented by the ox which is a
beast of burden which represents work okay then when we
get to the book of luke the humanity of jesus christ is what's
emphasized over and over again jesus is the son of
man and his humanity is emphasized now in mark there's no genealogy for
jesus so in matthew you have a genealogy of
him as the king of the jews in mark you have no genealogy because
he's just a servant he humbled himself and became the
servant and so he has no genealogy he just appears on the scene and here he
is in luke he's portrayed as human he's
portrayed as the son of man and so in that genealogy in luke chapter
3 it's his human lineage not going back to
david and abraham but going all the way back to adam
showing his human origin and it's actually mary's genealogy
in luke 3 mary all the way back to adam and so that is stressing the humanity of
christ that's the sort of the theme of the book
then and and so what do we have here in revelation 4 4 we got the lion matthew
the ox mark we've got the man the face of a man
that's luke and then the fourth is the face of a flying eagle
and so the flying eagle represents john because john is the most
heavenly book of the four gospels because it emphasizes the fact
that jesus came down from heaven in the beginning was the word here's the
genealogy in john in the beginning was the word the word
was with god and the word was god the word became flesh and dwelt among us
and he talks about how i'm the bread that came down from heaven
he says i'm from above you're from beneath
you're of this world i'm not of this world you know he keeps saying i came
down from heaven and that's a big thing about
him coming down from heaven the book of john stresses the fact that
jesus christ is the son of god that's the thing that's hammered
jesus as son of god so we got king of the jews
the suffering servant the son of man and the son of god those are the four
emphases now obviously all four of these books cross over because
all four of the books talk about jesus the son of god they all show him as the
suffering servant they all show his humanity they all
talk about him being the king of the jews every single one of them
but it's very clear that they have different emphases
and that matthew is hammering the king of the jews
a lot more than the other books and that the book of john
is stressing the fact that he's the son of god much more than the other books
and so these different themes are definitely there and i think that these
four faces of these creatures are symbolic
the four aspects that we get of the gospel of jesus christ where we get the
gospel according to matthew gospel according to mark luke and john
and so i i very strongly believe that that's what these cherubs emphasize is
the fact that the gospel has been given unto us
in these four different ways and the thing about this is that you know the
word of god the bible is the basis of everything for us as
christians i mean everything we know about the lord is
from the word of god and yes we have the holy spirit but the
holy spirit speaks us through his word he doesn't speak of himself he he takes
of the lords and he shows it unto us he takes the word of christ and shows it
unto us and so we've got the holy spirit working
through the bible there's only one bible and
what's the heart of that bible matthew mark luke and john i mean that's the
heart of it right it's it's the key to everything everything
before matthew mark luke and john is just building up to that
and everything after is just looking back and explaining it
but what's the key the gospel right jesus
is the centerpiece and so it makes sense that
this symbolism here would be pointing to this revelation of christ in these four
distinct ways the man the lion the ox and the eagle
there's nothing wrong with jesus being represented as an animal because we know
he's also represented as the lamb of god which take away the sin of the world so
so frequently jesus is called the lion of the tribe of judo or the lamb of god
or these different things so these are the four faces
of the cherry beams in verse 11 it says we're back in ezekiel 1 now
ezekiel 1 11 thus were their faces and their wings were stretched upward two
wings of everyone were joined one to another
and two covered their bodies and they went everyone
straight forward whither the spirit was to go they went and they turned not when
they went as for the likeness of the living
creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire
so again if you think about burning coals of fire you know they're glowing
red hot right burning coals are glowing red hot
and that's what they're like basically kind of a glowing
pulsating glow is what i would think of with a really hot
campfire after it's been burning for a long time you develop all those coals in
the bottom and a little bit of air comes through and
it just kind of
right glowing so he he's trying to he's seeing some really
strange things and he's trying to describe it in words
it's a little bit easier said than done you know if you were there what'd you
see it's like ah you know it's hard to describe
right so he's trying to describe this so he's using you know whatever simile
like you know burnished brass or like coals of fire
like the appearance of lamps and again what are lamps like
well you know we're not talking about like an ikea lamp or something
lamps would be again fire back then so it'd be like a kind of a glowing
or pulsing of light so he says it was like burning coals of fire like the
appearance of lamps it went up and down among the living
creatures and the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning
and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of the flash
light so the movement is like a a lightning fast movement of
these creatures just super fast incredible speed
verse 15 now as i beheld the living creatures build one
wheel upon the earth by the living creatures
with his four faces the appearance of the wheels and their
work was like unto the color of a barrel and
they had four excuse me and they four had one
likeness and their appearance and their work
was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel
now again it's it's hard to sort of unpack this language
but what i take from this when he talks about the wheel having four sides
how does that work you know i think what he's trying to express here is like a
sphere in a sense that basically you know it's
a wheel from any angle any of the four directions it's still in
it's still a wheel and then the wheel within a wheel so you
can almost think of like gl uh you know a globe within a globe
basically turning okay so this is sort of like those
really revolutionary uh wheels on the bottom of the
suitcases where you know a lot of suitcases you can only just pull them in
one direction but then there's the ones that have
these type of wheels and you can kind of like
move them anyway who knows what i'm talking about like they don't just move
straightforward not like the shopping cart where it's
like spinning around and stuff you know that doesn't work as well you
know if you get a nice suitcase you know you can just push it any
direction and it's like the cherry bibs you know
what i mean it just it just moves so it because because if you think about
it those wheels they're not they're not wheels just pointing one
direction like the shopping cart wheel where they have to turn
but they're actually just spheres on the bottom of that of that suitcase
and so because they're a they're they're basically a wheel within a wheel
then they can turn and you can move around effectively
so that's what i take from this uh with the wheel within a wheel or the wheel in
the middle of a wheel from four sides and when they went they went upon their
four sides and they turned not when they went so again i believe it's
just expressing what i said earlier about the fact that we can move in any
direction because the wheels are spheres and so
you can move forward backward to the side
their faces don't they got a face ready to roll no matter which way they're
going and there's no turning it's just any kind of movement and it's
lightning fast movement this is quite a transportation method
here as for their rings they were so high
that they were dreadful and their rings were full of eyes
round about them for and 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 whithersoever the spirit was to go they went
dither was their spirit to go and the wheels were lifted up over against them
and and here's the key at the end of verse 20 for the
spirit of the living creature was in the wheels
okay so what's going on with this what i believe that this is saying
is that basically even though these wheels
are not physically part of the cherry beams
they are basically a part of them in the sense that they are controlled
by the cherry beams like they're controlling it like it's an extension of
their body even though it's not connected does
everybody understand what i'm saying with that
they have these wheels that basically they control
with their spirit with their will when they decide
i'm going to move forward these things move with them they're a part of them
but there's a physical disconnect but the spirit
of the cherry beams is in the wheels so that when they move
the wheels move and so forth i hope that helps
verse 21 when those went these went and when those stood these stood and when
those were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against them
for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels
says it again and 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
and under the firmament were their wings straight
the one toward the other everyone had two
which covered on this side and everyone had two which covered on that side and
their bodies now again let me just explain the word
firmament don't be fooled by the word firmament
there's nothing firm about the firmament okay a lot of people
they see that part firm and they think it's something that's
solid it's not the firmament as we read about in genesis chapter one
divides the waters above the firmament from below the firmament
the firmament is what we would know as the sky or the atmosphere
or the heavens that is what the bible calls the firmament god called the
firmament heaven and the firmament is an expanse
the firmament is basically the layer of atmosphere surrounding the earth
that holds water in it because there's water vapor
being held in the firmament and it's held above the waters which are below
the ferment basically what's got what god's creating
on day two in genesis is the water in the ocean versus the
water in the atmosphere okay so this firmament that's round about
them is again basically like an atmosphere or an aura or
some kind of a an expansive deal you know around them okay and again
this is all the detail that we have that you know that has these rings and so
forth and it says in verse 22 the or sorry
verse 24 and when they went i heard the noise of
their wings like the noise of great waters so
picture the noise that the ocean makes right
the the raging when you get right next to the ocean it's quite loud
as the waves are crashing in if you're close to it
it's loud so that's the noise their wings are making
the flapping of the wings sounds like the ocean basically
and he says i heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters
as the voice of the almighty the voice of speech
as the noise of a host when they stood they let down their wings so he's trying
to compare the sound that he hears of the wings and he says you know it
sounds like great waters but it also kind of sounds
like a great army where they're all yelling or or the
voice of god or or just a great army where
everybody's yelling or it's it's almost like a human voice
but it's sort of like why it's obviously he's having a hard time
describing these things because these things are are unique
they're unparalleled things that he's seeing and hearing
so he's explaining them the best way that he can
and it says in verse number 25 and there was a voice from the firmament
that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their
wings and 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 and i saw as the color of amber
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 had brightness round about now one thing i want to point out
is that over and over again notice these words that keep being repeated
appearance appearance appearance like like likeness likeness like appearance
appearance like like because what he's he's not saying that
he's literally seeing these things because of the fact
that he's just describing them with the closest
analog that he can find because it's not exactly a wheel it's like a wheel
within a he's trying to explain it the best he can
when he says they have the appearance like a man
the cherry beams are not human but he's comparing them to a man
he's comparing them to a barrel he's saying it's it's like a throne i mean
it's not really thrown but it's kind of like a throne
and the one who's sitting on the throne is like a man
it's like the appearance of a man you know because he's not sure exactly what
he's looking at and he's just using these comparisons to
try to get the point across of what he is seeing
he's trying to explain in verse 28 he says as the appearance of the bow that
is in the cloud in the day of rain so is the appearance of the brightness
round about so it's just shining light on all colors
of the visible spectrum like unto a rainbow this was the
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the lord
and when i saw it i fell upon my face and i heard a voice of one that spake and
then starting in chapter two we get to the actual preaching we get the actual
teaching that he receives from the lord now let me give you a few more thoughts
on this chapter okay one thing that i want to point out
here is that this is clearly describing some
kind of a mode of transportation because there's a lot of emphasis on movement
this vision is moving toward him from the north
and he sees this this apparatus if you will moving forward backward
right left so he sees a lot of movement in a lot of different directions and he
explains that so let's look at a few verses from the
book of psalms that could maybe shed some light on this go if you would do
psalm 68 verse 17 psalm 68 verse 17
and then uh while you're turning to psalm 68 17
i'm going to read for you from psalm 18 10
so in psalm 18 10 the bible reads he rode upon a cherub and did fly
yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind he made darkness his secret place
his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies
so the bible is describing the lord coming down to earth and it talks about
him riding upon a cherub
flying upon the wings of the wind okay so he's floating on air but yet at the
same time riding on a cherub now look at psalm 68 verse 17 it says
the chariots of god are 20 000 even thousands of angels
now when we say the word even in the bible it often means that it's
equivalent to what we just read so he's basically saying
the chariots of god are 20 000 and here's another way of saying that
thousands of angels now the cherubims are a type of
angel they're a type of angelic being they're not human
but they are angels they're angelic they have these wings and these faces and
and whatever it's not exactly what you would
necessarily put on top of the christmas tree
but it is an image of an angel nonetheless and so
the lord's chariots are angels so if he's if this is sort of the
chariot of the lord if you think of it that way
the lord is coming in his chariot it's basically
his conveyance is not you know some wooden chariot or something
that just flies around or something but rather he shows up in something a
little more sophisticated with these super high-tech wheels
and basically they're just controlled by the spirits of these chariobims
and their spirits control the wheels of this conveyance
and basically this is his mode of transportation
obviously god doesn't need to to show up like this
but he's showing up like this because he's trying to
show his magnificence and his glory so he's making this
incredible entrance at the book of at the beginning of the book of ezekiel
and showing his glory and terrifying ezekiel
and terrifying future generations so that's the point here right you know
be very afraid you know because the lord is magnificent and dreadful and terrible
and powerful and awe-inspiring in his conveyance you
know he shows up in all of his glory here you know it's
rare that mankind is shown an image of god's glory like this only very few
people have gotten to see this now we're all
going to see god's glory someday when we get to heaven and it's going to
be amazing but as far as people on this earth who've seen it
i mean you know you could point to people like moses
you could point to ezekiel you could point to isaiah
obviously there are situations like the mount of transfiguration
where peter james and john saw jesus in all of his glory
but most human beings don't get to see something like this
we just get to read about it in the bible but someday we will see this
now another thing that i want to deal with while we're in this chapter is that
this is sort of a go-to chapter for the ufo guys
okay as you can imagine the ufo guys this is their chapter all right
because you know the wheels you know like a flying saucer
lightning fast you know moving and and so they have said that this is
the explanation for the ufo phenomenon because of course in ezekiel 28
now let me explain to you where their logic is coming from
and and let me just be clear you know i don't buy it
okay but let me just go ahead and just explain this anyway
you know in ezekiel 28 it describes satan
as a cherub he was the covering cherub so satan of course a fallen angel right
specifically he's a cherub according to ezekiel 28
and so the logic is that you know well if this is how the cherubs roll
then this is how demons roll and so therefore
you know you've got uh demons showing up in their ufos
and then people are seeing them and they're being abducted and all this
stuff but but here's the thing about that okay
there's absolutely no evidence of any demons
traveling this way i mean all we have evidence of
is this being the glory of the lord so where's the evidence
that demons have all these wheels and have all this cool rig
there's no evidence for that whatsoever so you can't just make things up that
the bible doesn't teach okay why don't we just you know it's kind of
sad when you got a chapter that's all about what i mean what's this chapter
about ultimately the glory of the lord right and
then it's like oh demons why do you want to take god's glory
instead of talking about demons why do you want to give them this sweet
ride they ain't got no ride man okay why are
you trying to give them this set of wheels this is god's set of
wheels okay so the point is it it's kind of ironic
that people would take a chapter all about god's glory and then say oh well
demons must have that same glory well no because there's nothing in the bible
that says that wouldn't there be some teaching like
that in scripture because there isn't when we see these type of visions it's
ezekiel 1 ezekiel 10 revelation 4 isaiah 6 you know it's the lord it's his
glory so let's not add to the word of god and
claim that demons are traveling around like this
you know demons are spirits that possess people there there are people
that are demon possessed and and different lying spirits and
unclean spirits that are out there amen but here's the thing they're not
flesh and blood okay devils or demons are not flesh and
blood they're spirits and and people get
demon possessed and everything you know that's a whole nother subject that's a
whole nother sermon but no i don't believe that they're
traveling around in ufos or something okay now you say
well explain the ufo phenomenon i i will explain the ufo phenomenon because
you know you have a lot of people claiming that they've seen ufos
now some people exaggerate this and try to claim
three million americans have been abducted
that's kind of a wild number okay but that number is out there there are
people who who've made that claim they did some
little tiny survey and extrapolated it out and twisted it
and said we estimate that about three million americans have been abducted
by aliens okay now here's the thing about that
okay first of all i don't believe that number for one second that's absurd
but let me explain to you another little statistic that you might not know about
that three percent of americans will at some point in their life have a psychotic
episode okay so they're claiming that one percent
of americans have seen ufos and we know medically that three percent of
americans will at some point in their life have a psychotic episode
now what is psychosis you know psychosis
is when you basically see these things that aren't there
and and you you are basically displaced from reality
i think one good way to explain psychosis it's like when you're having a
dream you know when you have a dream you find
yourself in all kinds of strange realities don't you
but when you're psychotic you have these type of
experiences while you're awake and then you're you know you're seeing things
that aren't there or you think they're real or it's like a
dream coming to life okay and don't confuse psychosis or being
psychotic don't confuse that with a psychopath
okay that's two different things a psychopath is someone who has no
conscience so this is like a really bad person
who has no conscience psychotic is somebody who's seeing things
that aren't there they're imagining things every night
when we go to bed we kind of have this little psychosis going on called
dreaming where we have all these wild adventures
and fantasies and things that aren't really happening
and they can be pretty stinking weird and guess what i remember all the way
back when i was four years old one of my earliest memories you know you
remember your dreams a lot i remember a dream i had when i was
four years old where i was on a spaceship
with aliens and i was four years old so here's the thing
when did i start dreaming about aliens when i was four
okay why why do you think i dreamed about that
because i probably saw the twilight zone or the outer limits or something
and i had some kind of thought put in my head from science fiction
and that's why i go to bed and i dream about being on a spaceship being with
aliens and stuff like that look who would every head bowed every
eyes closed who would say i've i've had dream before where i was on
an alien spaceship put up your hand if you have had a dream
yeah okay so here the rest of you are just embarrassed to admit it
okay no i'm just kidding or the rest some people just don't really remember
their dreams that well okay all right i'm gonna tell myself is
normal but anyway but but here's my point
here's my point we've all got aliens on our minds because if we grew up
in america with the pop culture there's a lot of aliens
you know that are that are in uh the tv shows the comic books the movies
whatever the media i mean aliens are a big part
of our culture and so you think about that stuff it's
in your head well obviously if somebody when three percent of america has their
psychotic episode you know it's going to be about stuff
that they think about or stuff that they're afraid of or stuff that they've
had in their brain and so yeah there are going to be people
who have these episodes where they actually believe that they're
abducted so i'm not saying that these people are lying
i'm saying that these people are crazy or that they're just temporarily crazy
i'm not saying that they're always crazy but i'm saying they had an episode
they've had a psychotic episode and look even
besides being psychotic or being crazy or having that kind of an episode or
taking drugs or getting drunk or whatever
okay or just having weird dreams that you think are real and by the way i've
had dreams that were so vivid i thought they were real
one time i was a teenager i had a dream that my sister got a new job
and like a week later i thought she worked at that new job and then it was
it turned out it was a dream and she had not changed jobs i just
imagined the whole thing that just i mean it happens okay i mean right
it happens right i'm normal right
but the point is that you know people are not necessarily lying and i'm sure
there are a lot of people who are just lying
because they're just goofballs they're just idiots they just want attention
they're just bozos i guarantee you that's out there but i guarantee you
there are also some people that really think they were abducted
but you know what right now there are also people suffering from parasitosis
another kind of psychosis where they think that they have bugs all over them
living inside their body and under their skin
and you know when i preached that sermon and if you really want to hear the
psychosis sermon it was a sermon called ways to destroy
yourself so if you go back and list that some
ways to destroy yourself i talked all about all the different types of
psychosis okay it's kind of a wild sermon
and in that sermon i preached about people who
they have what's called sometimes coke bugs where because they snorted cocaine
and they're having a psychotic episode they think that they have bugs all over
them they think they have bugs under their skin and they're itching and
they'll even dig under their skin and try to get the bugs out
i had pest control workers from all over america contacting me and saying
i'm a pest control guy and we deal with this several times a year
he said i go out on about two or three of these calls per year
as a pest control guy people with parasitosis
so the like i said three percent of americans
are going to have a psychotic episode not rare at all
so a lot of these people they just had some kind of an episode
and of course they think it's real and then there's some bozo on
online to kind of egg them on like yeah it was real you know and build it up
here's another little piece of evidence how about this how about the fact that
the ufo phenomenon is mainly restricted to just english
speaking countries so why is it that way less people are
having abductions in these third world
countries
you know what i mean it's just it's basically like america that's getting
abducted the most now either the either the either the
the aliens are just really targeting america
you know or maybe it's just something about americans having a lot of psychotic
episodes because they're doing a lot of drugs
and you know i don't know doing too many unhealthy things about their lifestyle
that's causing them to have these problems but
in addition to people lying or having psychotic episodes
sometimes you just see things that aren't really there or you
you your eyes can play trips tricks on you sometimes there's an optical illusion
you know for example uh you know me and a couple of my sons were out
backpacking uh right before corona right when
coronavirus was starting so this was like
spring of 2020 because we kept joking on the backpacking trip that we were going
to come back and society would have like completely broken down
so we were joking around every time a plane flew over we're like okay society
is still functioning you know but we we were on this trip and it was
late at night and we were in our tent and all of a
sudden this light appeared this glowing orb started moving toward
us okay we're out camping out in the
superstition mountains how do you like that name for a mountain
range you know dealing with the ghost of the
lost dutchman and everything else but anyway we're out there in the
superstition mountains and this glowing orb is coming toward us
and we're like what is that we were kind of freaked out
we were like all standing there in front of the tent like
staring at it just totally freaked out it was like
no but we saw this thing and basically it turned out it was literally just an
airplane flying over but it was just it was it was it sounds
stupid but it was just flying over at such a weird angle
and it was so dark and the light was shining in such a way
that it was just like an optical illusion just somehow the way the air
was or the that it was just it just got bent or
refracted or something so it it really freaked out john you were
there right john
it looked really low
was it was like a wheel within a wheel right no i'm just kidding no
did you hear what he said he said it felt like it's 15 feet off the ground
it was an airplane flying over but you know we could have just chocked
that up as a sighting if we'd been a little intoxicated or something i
mean we're totally sober and we were freaked out by it you know
what if we'd had a little bit to drink or something or what if we never figured
out that it was there because it took us several minutes to figure that out
and we were pretty freaked out it was super weird
so a lot of it's just stuff like that just perception
and obviously yeah there could also be some situations where
you've got you know maybe the military is testing out
some wild new technology and it's classified
so something weird flies over but i mean come on folks
we're living in a day where you could go down to the corner drug store and buy a
pretty awesome drone you know what i mean
drones are everywhere there's all kinds of aircraft and wild
things flying out there i just want to go on the record saying
that i believe that there is absolutely nothing to the ufo phenomenon
i think there's nothing to it at all i think it's just completely in people's
imaginations either psychosis like when they say hey
i was abducted they were probing me and they put a thing in the back of my neck
yeah that's psychosis okay i saw this orb coming toward me yeah i
saw the orb tube but it turned out it wasn't it was just
an airplane okay or you know uh these situations where
people have these sightings or ducks you know it's any way you slice it
it's people's eyes playing tricks on them it's their imagination
it's uh it's it's just made up is what it is
okay and you know it's the same thing with bigfoot
you know my sister had a great point about bigfoot she said you know if
bigfoot's real you know it's like 10 000 sightings it
has to be real but here's the thing about that you can
neither confirm nor deny any of those sightings
there's no way to prove whether they did or didn't happen
but here's the point that my sister made about bigfoot is that
let's say bigfoot's real and he's just really good at hiding in the woods or
something you'd eventually find a bigfoot carcass
you know what i mean because these bigfoots have to die at some point and
you can find a dead body of a bigfoot okay i mean are they just that good at
hiding the body i mean you're gonna find a dead one or
a dead loch ness monster or whatever okay people see all this stuff don't get
caught up in this stuff and and let me just finish by saying this and
and i know i'm kind of going off on a rabbit trail
but it says if i don't it's not really a complete ezekiel one sermon
if i don't talk about the ufos you know people are going to be like
why didn't you cover it you know why'd you not finish the sermon
so i have to i have to cover this you know we did the serious part of the
sermon already okay now we're talking about the you know
debunking the ufo idea look the bible says about the devil
we're not ignorant of his devices so don't we have all kinds of examples
in the bible of demons and devils and what they do
i mean doesn't the gospel of mark give us a lot of examples of devils and
people being possessed by devils don't we have a lot of material there to
work with and then we've got the apostle paul
telling us the devil this the devil that satan this satan that
how come he never said be sober be vigilant your adversary the devil is
going to show up a ufo and he's going to abduct you and he's
going to molest you and he's going to experiment on you and
he's going to impregnate you why is none of that in the bible
you want to know why it's not in the bible because it's not real
okay this book is a big thick book about a lot of things and it talks a lot
about the devil it talks a lot about devils and people
that are possessed and what they do and what that's like
and you know what i could point to a lot of things in this world and say
that's the devil those people are demon possessed
all day long but there's no mention of what these ufo people are claiming
the devil would be doing it isn't there it doesn't exist and don't even try to
tell me that the sons of god are demons because guess what sons of god are the
good guys it's us the yeah the demons would love
for you to think that they're sons of god
they're not the sons of god they're devils
okay so that's a stupid doctrine it's not biblical i don't believe in it for
one second uh i just want to make that real clear
that the devil has a certain way that he
operates we're not ignorant of his devices let
the word of god be our guide and if the bible doesn't say it
let's not make a big deal of it but but you know what i've noticed though
is that a lot of times people who really want to go crazy on ufo stuff
aliens or or they just want to talk a lot about angels and demons in general
and they just want to go crazy even with the cherry bims and the seraphims
and and devils and stuff like that you know
what i find is that basically they're not interested in being a serious
student of god's word and actually studying the things that god emphasizes
so they want to just kind of grab hold of an obscure passage
grab hold of ezekiel one grab hold of you know uh one psalm here and one
apocalyptic section here and then you know a large dose of the book of enoch
or other you know fake uh counterfeit scriptures and i wonder
how many people are are ordering the book of enoch and
they haven't even read these 66 books
you know it's like you haven't even read these 66 books and you're like oh
book of enoch oh you know it's like well hold on a second you're not even
reading what god gave you that you know for sure god gave you
and you ought to read this goofed up trash and that's what it is it's fake
it's a counterfeit it's trash the book of enoch is not legitimate well
jude quote no jude did not quote the book of enoch jude
quoted the person enoch he quoted the person and you know what
then someone takes that one quote and you know what they do
they write some goofball science fiction book
and then they just put in that one quote and call it the book of enoch and some
sucker just believes oh here's another book of the bible
that was hidden away and forgotten about until the 19th century
till the 20th century it's all forgotten about but here
now we've got it but hold on a second okay
enoch said something jude quoted what the person enoch said jude did not quote
the book of enoch the book of enoch is a fraud
okay but they want the book of enoch they want the gospel of thomas
they want the gospel according to judas iscariot
they want the sci-fi and whatever and look folks separate your sci-fi from
your bible okay you know and i know we've all you
know we all grew up with it and maybe have been influenced by it
but you know what though it's it's it's it's ridiculous
it's it's just fantasy it's kid stuff is what it is
for children this is for children you have to tell them this way
but anyway you know the bible the bible has what we need
why don't you read these 66 books like 20 times and then we'll talk
and you know what if you're just hammering genesis 6
and ezekiel 1 and you're all hung up on these couple of scriptures that you want
to grab hold of you know let me just introduce you to the rest of
the bible there's a lot more to talk about
and you're going to find a lot you can learn about demons and it's not going to
talk about anything like the ufo abductions so
let's stick with what the bible says and uh
over the coming weeks we're going to get into some some hard preaching
where ezekiel really preaches hard to the children of israel
and so we're looking forward to that spider eyes and a word of prayer father
we thank you so much for this great chapter lord
and uh this description of your glory as you appeared
to ezekiel lord help us never to attribute that glory to demons or fear
demons lord help us to only fear you and let you be
our dread and let you be our fear you deserve all the power and the glory
the devil is just a tool that you use and lord we're thankful for salvation
through the blood of jesus and we're thankful for the book of
isaac for the book of ezekiel and everything that we're going to learn
god willing over the next uh several weeks and and months lord and we
thank you and in jesus name we pray amen
amen let's turn our hymnals to number 412
hymn number 412 onward christian soldiers number 412
lift up your voices together on this first verse number 412
the cross
christ the royal master leads against the flow
forward into battle
yes
of triumph
is
onward christian
is
all
a charity
jesus
is
angels
lord
amen great singing tonight you are dismissed
you
who has not seen this yet you haven't already seen this on you
right you know if you still have it being clear if you have that archaic
technology these are back on the shelf they're
free you can grab one you can grab them for other people if you want
but anyway it's a really good movie it came out really well pastor shelly did
a great job with this so if you haven't seen this already you
can watch it on youtube is it still on youtube
it's a miracle but anyway you can grab a dvd so god bless you have a great night