I think we're going to get a one-page, I think we're going to get a one-page, probably, if
it's one page with music, I'm going to do that.
I think we're going to get a one-page, probably, if it's one-page, probably, if it's one-page,
probably, if it's one-page, probably, if it's one-page, probably, if it's one-page, probably,
probably, if it's one-page, probably, if it's one-page, probably, if it's one-page,
probably, if it's one-page, probably, if it's one-page, probably, it, it, it, it,
it, it could be, that, somebody else heard it, somebody else heard it, somebody you States
So that's the first 14 verses of this chapter.
So he kind of changes gears in verse 15.
Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.
Yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
For bear to cry, make no mourning of the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee.
Now the word tire, this is an archaic word,
but we have a very similar word in our modern vernacular, attire.
What does attire mean?
Clothing, right?
So this is the same root word.
Tire of your head is basically like your headdress.
So this could be like a turban, could be a hat, could be a headdress.
Some kind of a dressing of the head in some way.
That which is decorative on the head.
You know, we don't know exactly what style of turban or hat or headdress they wore,
but that's what this is.
So he says, you know, you're not going to mourn or cry.
Think about how some of these people at a funeral, they're weeping or mourning or something,
they might take off their hat and hold it over their heart.
He's basically saying like, you're not going to mourn, you're not going to weep.
Go ahead and wear your hat, you know, bind the tire of your head about you,
tie up your turban, you know, because a person who's in mourning would typically remove that.
They would uncover their head.
Maybe they would even put like dirt or ashes on their head and rend their clothes or whatever.
But he's saying, you're not going to do any of that.
You're not going to walk around barefoot.
You're not going to do any of these things.
He said, no, no, no, you're going to, you know, bind the tire of your head upon you,
put on thy shoes upon thy feet, cover not thy lips.
So no COVID mask or anything like that.
No, I'm just kidding.
He's saying, you know, you're not going to put on any kind of mourning gear, eat not the bread of men.
So I spake unto the people in the morning and at even my wife died.
Now, I didn't even know Ezekiel was married up to this point.
Okay.
Ezekiel's had a pretty rough time if you've been here for the whole series.
And, you know, I always think of Ezekiel as being this really rough guy.
But really, it's the preaching that he's being asked to do that's rough.
It's really God that's feeding him all the rough preaching.
And whenever Ezekiel talks, he's usually trying to talk God down.
And he's actually kind of a mellow guy.
But man, God really puts Ezekiel through a lot.
Now, his wife is going to die.
Ezekiel's wife dies and he's not allowed to mourn or cry about it.
God basically just says, I'm going to kill your wife.
Your wife's going to die and you're not going to cry about it.
You're not going to mourn about it or whatever.
You know, this is all part of your preaching and your message to Israel.
It's all symbolic for them.
But, you know, Ezekiel's still a human being and he has to go through all this stuff.
I mean, remember what he had to lay on his side and do all these other horrible things.
Now, he did this.
But, you know, stop and read this verse in verse 18.
So I speak unto the people in the morning and at even, that means like when the sun goes down, at evening,
at even my wife died and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
You know, that's a powerful thought right there.
At even my wife died and in the morning I did as I was commanded.
Basically showing that Ezekiel even faced with a major tragedy in his life,
he still gets up the next morning and he does what God told him to do.
And you know what, that's a lesson that we can all take.
This is an extreme example where he's being asked to do something that none of us will ever be asked to do.
You know, if we have a tragedy in our life, we're going to mourn about it.
We're going to cry.
We're allowed to go through the normal grieving process.
But think about this though.
You know, no matter what tragedy God brings into my life on any given day,
the next day I am expected to get up in the morning and obey God.
Now, God's not going to ask me to do the hard things he asked Ezekiel to do.
But you know what, there are some things that God asks us to do every single day.
Like, how about this?
You know what, I have a horrible tragedy in my life
and in the morning, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to get up.
I'm still going to read my Bible.
Still going to pray.
You know, I'm still going to live the Christian life.
I'm still going to go to church on Sunday.
Not like, oh, I had this horrible tragedy in my life and people have died or whatever.
So I'm just going to get out of church for a while.
You know, I'm just going to quit reading my Bible for a while.
You don't know what I'm going through.
But yet it's a pretty powerful example here when we see that even my wife died
and in the morning I did as I was commanded.
You know, and whatever that is for you, not necessarily your wife dying,
but it could be just other tragedies in your life.
Something horrible happens to you.
What do I do?
How do I go forward?
You know, make sure you get up the next day and you're still living the Christian life.
And yes, cry.
Yes, mourn.
Yes, weep and do what you need to do.
But still read your Bible.
Still go to church.
Get out and do soul winning.
Don't just put your Christian life on hold indefinitely because of a tragedy that you're going through.
You know what I mean?
Because some people would use a tragedy like this to just get out of church.
I'm not saying you're not going to miss a service or something.
I get that.
When you have tragedies happen, you may miss some services dealing with those tragedies.
Don't get me wrong.
But what I'm saying is just not getting out of church.
You know, like, oh, I lost a loved one.
So that's why I haven't been to church for the last six weeks or two months.
And just kind of using it as an excuse to just let your Christian life kind of fizzle out or peter out.
You know, get up the next day and keep serving God.
And you know what?
God doesn't expect us to go through what Ezekiel did.
But you know what?
We have our own crosses to bear in our life.
And things are going to happen in our life that God brings into our life.
And we're going to have to deal with hard things.
We all have difficult things happen to us.
Difficult things that God asked us to do.
And no matter what they are, we need to just pick it up.
And the next morning do as we're commanded.
Do what God tells us to do.
And so I just love that thought that even my wife died and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
Like even in the face of a horrible tragedy, next morning he does what he's told.
He does what God told him to do.
That's all we can do in life.
You know, what else can we do in life except just keep putting one foot in front of another and keep doing what God has told us to do.
You know, life can be great and life can be terrible.
But at the end of the day we just have to keep putting one foot in front of another.
And just keep doing what we know God has told us to do.
We know we're supposed to be reading our Bible.
We know we're supposed to be going to church.
We know we're supposed to be preaching the gospel and winning souls.
We just need to keep doing it no matter what and never stop.
Even in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
Okay.
It says in verse 19, the people said unto me,
Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us that thou doest so?
They're like, man, this is weird.
Like your wife died and you just you're just acting like nothing even happened.
You just you just continue as if nothing happened.
Like what?
They don't feel bad for him.
They're like, what does this mean to us?
This is kind of scary for us because usually these are all object lessons about Jerusalem and Israel.
So they want to know what does this have to do with us?
Then I answered them.
The word of the Lord came unto me saying, speak unto the house of Israel.
Thus sayeth the Lord God, behold, I will profane my sanctuary,
the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes and that which your soul pitieth.
What you care about, basically.
So Ezekiel loved and cared about his wife.
And God said to Ezekiel, I'm going to take away from you what you care about.
Right.
Because what did it say in verse 16?
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.
What you care about, I'm going to take away from you with a stroke.
Just like that.
Just gone.
I'm going to take her away from you.
And you're not going to mourn about it.
You're not going to weep about it.
Now you say, well, that's horrible.
Why did you do that?
But understand our life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Obviously, this is hard for Ezekiel.
But you know what?
If you want to have a book of the Bible named after you with 48 chapters in it, you're going
to have to go through some stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like you can't expect to be a household name for the next, you know, 27 or 2600 years or
and maybe even beyond, you know, who knows how long, you know, you can't expect to have
a book of the Bible named after you with 48 chapters without going through some stuff.
You know, Isaiah, think about what Isaiah went through.
He went through some stuff.
He I mean, I mean, you know, I'm not going to revisit that series.
But remember, what was it?
Chapter 20, where he's got to strip down naked and do all I mean, he had to do some rough
things.
Jeremiah is in the dungeon, sinking down in the mire, afraid he's going to die in that
dungeon and everything.
I mean, these guys went through a lot of things.
But I guarantee you, they never regretted any sacrifices that they made for the Lord.
And because they have all eternity to receive the rewards and to be in heaven.
And, you know, I'm assuming that his wife was saved as well.
And so she's up in heaven anyway.
And so he's up there.
She's up there.
And so it's all great now.
You know, it was rough at the time, but, you know, we go through hard things in life.
And so he says, well, here's what's going on.
You know, you value the temple.
You know, this is something that is the desire of your eyes or you guys think that this is
something that's pleasant or important to you, just like just like I felt about my wife.
I love my wife and and like to look at my wife.
You know, you guys value this temple and you like to look at this temple.
It's sort of like the pride and joy of Jerusalem.
Right.
It's sort of the coolest thing that the city has going for it, as it were.
You know, like like if you thought about like Paris, France has the Eiffel Tower or something.
Right.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy or something.
The Roman Colosseum or the Parthenon in Athens or something.
You think of these different landmarks, the pyramids in Egypt.
Right.
You know, the temple is kind of the thing in Jerusalem.
But what's funny is that God says, you know, I'm going to punish you by profaning my sanctuary.
It says in verse 21, the old I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength,
the desire of your eyes and that which your soul pitieth and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword.
But why is it a punishment to the people that God profanes his own sanctuary?
Think about that for a second.
Because if you think about it, God does not dwell in temples made with hands and he's not served of men as though he needed anything.
Now, in polytheistic religion, the gods desire to be served in these temples.
And in fact, if they don't get served in these temples, you know, they're basically missing out.
I don't know if you understand what I mean by that.
But basically, like they actually, you know, crave or desire being served in these temples and they actually need that.
Like basically, they're starving if you're not making sacrifices then.
Maybe that's a better way to put it.
If you're not dumping milk on the head of the idol in India and pouring honey on it and putting flowers on it, it's like that God is kind of somehow on a diet now.
You know, and it's like he's not getting as much as he wants and he craves.
You know, that's not really how serving God works.
If we don't serve God, it's really no skin off God's back in a sense.
Obviously, he loves us. He cares about us. He wants us to serve him.
He's not willing that any should perish and all that.
But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if people don't serve God, they're really hurting themselves.
They're not really hurting God. They're kind of hurting themselves.
Sort of like me as pastor, obviously, I want everybody in the church to love God and to serve God and to come to church.
I want you guys to be here at services.
I want you guys out soul winning because I care about you guys and I care about the lost people that we're reaching on a weekly basis and everything like that.
On one hand, but on the other hand, if you leave the church and just don't go to church anywhere and just start living a life of sin or something, is it really ultimately hurting me?
Like, is it really going to change my life?
Stop and think about that.
You know, if you if you just say, you know what, I'm done serving God, I'm just going to live for myself.
I'm just going to go chase after the almighty dollar for a while.
If you went and did that, you know what? I'm still going to be here.
And the rest of the church members are still going to be here.
And we're all going to be living our Christian lives and being blessed by God and serving God and winning souls.
At the end of the day, the person that you hurt the most is yourself.
You are shooting yourself in the foot, right?
It's the same thing.
If we don't serve God, we suffer.
God doesn't he's not up there hungry and thirsty and, you know, wondering where the sacrifices are.
You know, because he needs that daily morning and evening sacrifice in order to fill his belly or something.
You know, God doesn't have need of anything.
He's not served by men's hands.
He does not dwell in a temple made with hands.
And the Bible is very clear to distinguish the Lord in the Old Testament from the pagan polytheistic religions that are different in that way.
That God really does live at that temple and he really does eat those sacrifices.
And if you don't give him the sacrifices, he gets pretty hungry.
And then, you know, he could get hangry if he doesn't get fed.
That's not God wanted them to do sacrifices and God wanted them to serve him.
But so that they could actually learn spiritual truths from those sacrifices.
And because God just valued their obedience.
You know, if he says offer this sacrifice and they offer it, God values that obedience.
He's not actually just really craving that smell.
He just really wants to smell that sweet savor.
Obviously, that's a metaphor.
You know, God is not physically in need of these things.
God is a spirit.
Okay.
When God smells the sweet savor of the offerings going up, what God really values is the obedience.
He values that people love him, that they're worshipping him, that they're obeying him and that they're dedicated to him.
So the reason why God says, well, I'm going to profane my sanctuary, that's not God punishing himself.
Because God doesn't really care if that sanctuary lies desolate for 70 years.
It's really no skin off his back.
You know, it's really the children of Israel that are suffering.
It's Jerusalem that's suffering.
Okay.
You know, if God in Revelation Chapter 2 and 3 says, you know, if you don't repent, I'm going to remove your church's candlestick.
You know, the church at Ephesus is going to lose the candlestick or whatever.
I mean, that's the church of Ephesus' problem.
It's not like God's up in heaven like, oh, what do I do?
You know, I don't have the church of Ephesus.
Obviously, at the same time, God wants people to be saved.
He wants churches to thrive.
He wants churches to exist.
But at the end of the day, you know what?
He's up in heaven.
He's got all this glory.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all doing great no matter how it ends up.
And at the end of the day, those of us that are serving God, we're all going to be doing great no matter what happens.
It's the people that when He profanes the sanctuary in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is losing out on something that they love and cherish and that's important to them.
You see, going to the house of God is a blessing not to God but to the person who goes to the house of God.
Okay.
So you think you're doing God some big favor every time you go to church.
I've got news for you.
God is doing you a big favor every time you go to church.
And that's what He's saying here.
You know, if God destroys your sanctuary, you miss out on going to the house of God.
You say, well, I don't care.
Well, then you're an idiot because going to the house of God is a blessing to you whether you're smart enough to realize that or not.
And so when you go to church, you're not doing God a favor.
God is doing you a favor.
And so if God takes away your church from you, it's not like, oh, well, you just shot yourself in the foot.
You just took away your own church.
No, you're the one who would have benefited from being in church.
And you're the one missing out on those blessings.
And so that's why it's a punishment to them that He profanes His own sanctuary in verse 21.
The excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and then also, of course, He talks about the sons and daughters are going to be slain by the sword.
Verse 22, ye shall do as I have done.
Ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes shall be on your feet.
Ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities and mourn one toward another.
Here's what He's saying.
He's saying you're going to be in such a bad shape yourself that when the temple's destroyed, you're not even going to care.
You're not even going to be thinking about, oh, man, the temple.
You're not even going to care.
Your sons and daughters are going to be killed, and you're going to be in such a messed up situation, you're not even going to be thinking about that.
You're not going to be like, oh, my son and daughter have died.
Here, let me take off my hat, rend my clothes, take off my shoes.
Let me put some dirt and ash on my head.
Hey, what's up?
He's saying there's going to be no funeral.
Your son's going to die, no funeral.
Daughter's going to die, no funeral.
Why? Because you're going to be so busy just keeping yourself alive, you're not even going to be thinking about other people.
You're going to be crying, but you're not going to be crying about them.
You're going to be crying about yourself.
Now think about what a bad place you'd have to be to where your son dying or your daughter dying isn't your biggest priority.
To mourn that or think about that, you know what I mean?
Because you're just like trying to survive.
You're going to be worried about yourself.
You're going to be in so much suffering and pain.
I mean, that's a pretty scary thought, right?
It's like, oh man, our sons and daughters are going to be killed.
He's saying, yeah, and here's the thing about that, that's not even the worst thing that's going to be happening to you,
so you're not even going to be thinking about that because you're going to be so messed up.
You're just going to be trying to keep your head above water yourself.
You're just going to be trying to survive yourself.
You're going to mourn one to another.
You're going to be whining to each other because it's going to be so bad.
Thus, Ezekiel is unto you a sign.
So this is obviously disturbing.
You know, when Ezekiel's wife dies and he just acts like nothing happened
and he just continues living his life and doesn't mourn, that's kind of disturbing.
And he's saying, well, you know what's going to be disturbing is the fact that your sons and daughters are going to be killed
and your city is going to be destroyed and the temple that you are so proud of is destroyed.
You're not even going to be caring about that.
You're not even going to be mourning about that. You're going to be like me.
Even though you think it's so weird, like, how weird is that that your wife died and you're acting like nothing happened?
He's saying, okay, well, it's going to be weird for you when these things happen to you
and you don't even deal with them because you're just too busy trying to stay alive yourself.
So thus Ezekiel, verse 24, is unto you a sign according to all that he hath done shall ye do,
and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord.
Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory,
the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters,
that he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee to cause thee to hear it with thine ears.
In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak and be no more dumb,
and thou shalt be a sign unto them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Oh, by the way, another thing, we talked about this earlier in the series,
but you might have forgotten about it because it was many, many weeks ago.
One of the things that God does to Ezekiel, because, I mean,
Ezekiel is probably the Bible character that you want to be the least.
Maybe like Job and Ezekiel are the two guys where you're like,
great story, but I don't think I necessarily want to emulate these guys.
But another thing that Ezekiel goes through, besides all the other things that he goes through,
is that he goes through these bouts where he is not able to speak for extended periods.
So there are different times where he can't talk, so he's struck with dumbness.
You know, it doesn't mean dumb like stupid. It means dumb like unable to speak.
And so there are times when he's unable to speak, except then when he gets up to preach,
he's able to speak, and then like between sermons and between preaching, he can't talk.
And so here he's saying that this is going to be another sign is that you're going to be unable to speak,
but then when people come to tell you this bad news about things that have happened to them,
their children, the temple, whatever, then your tongue is going to be loose.
All of a sudden, now you're going to be able to talk.
You're going to be able to talk to those people when they come to you with bad news,
but that's basically the only time you're going to be able to talk.
So again, this is just one of the wonderful things that Ezekiel has to go through.
And you know, the Bible has some gnarly things in it, but you know, when I read these things,
I just think to myself, you know what, the things that God asked me to do in life aren't too much,
because he's not asking me to do what Job did, he's not asking me to do what Ezekiel did,
and so can I get up in the morning and do as God commanded?
You know, my wife didn't die. Can I get up and do as God commanded?
And so the Bible, and I'll close with this, just flip over to James, if you would, in the New Testament.
We'll close on this thought.
In James chapter number 5 verse 10, James 5 10 says, take my brethren, the prophets,
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.
You think Ezekiel fits that bill? Is he a good guy to plug into this verse?
I mean, if you could plug anybody in this verse, obviously the next verse he brings up Job.
But he didn't say, take my brethren one guy, one prophet named Job.
No, no, he says in general, take my brethren the prophets.
He's saying, read the Old Testament, read about the prophets,
and take these guys as an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.
And I think that so often when we read this in James 5, we might race to verse 11,
and our mind just already goes to Job, and this chapter becomes all about Job to us.
But forget Job for a second. Let's think about Ezekiel.
Take Ezekiel as an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.
And so if I look at a guy like Ezekiel, and I see God asking him to do these difficult things,
and he does it, he obeys, can I do the work that God has ordained for me to do?
Can I carry the cross that God has given me to bear?
If Ezekiel could do it, if Isaiah can do it, if Jeremiah can do it, well then I can do it too.
He's saying, you know, use these people as an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.
And this kind of ties in with my Sunday morning sermon that I just preached, verse 11.
Behold, we count them happy which endure.
We don't consider Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel to be tragedies of the Old Testament.
You know, if you wanted to ask me about a guy who had a tragic end, I would point to King Saul.
Right? He met a tragic end. Remember the witch at Endor, and all that, and him falling on the sword,
and being killed on Mount Gilboa with his sons?
Saul met a tragic end. Samson met a tragic end.
You know, we could go through a list of people. Achan, he met a tragic end.
But did Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah joke? No, no. We count them happy that endure.
We consider these guys blessed. They're heroes, but they're also successes.
And we aren't going to get to Ezekiel and just be like, oh man, Ezekiel, I feel so bad for you, man.
Is there anything I can do? No, because it would actually be really cool to be Ezekiel right now.
Ezekiel is being glorified with Christ for all eternity. We count them happy, which endure.
The people who endure are happy. They're blessed. So if we endure, we will be happy and blessed.
Not going to be easy. It's probably not going to be as hard as it was for these guys anyway,
because God's not going to tempt us above that we're able.
Obviously, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are giants of the faith.
They're still ordinary human beings, but spiritual giants compared to us.
These are great men of God. Powerful preachers and men of great faith and great endurance.
But God has a job for each of us to do, a cross for each of us to bear,
and we need to endure as well in order to win the prize, such as they did.
Whatever God has laid out for us. And I think God gives us these extreme examples of Job and Ezekiel,
so that when we look at our life, it kind of puts things in perspective, that our situation's really not that bad.
Let's pray our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for Ezekiel and for what we could learn from it, Lord.
Help us to purge the scum out of our lives, Lord.
I pray that our nation and our city would, to as great a degree as possible, get right with you, Lord,
and that at least we could reach as many individuals with the gospel and also get as many saved Christians as we can
to get right with you and to live a better Christian life, Lord.
But Lord, help us personally to get the scum out of our lives, Lord,
and help us to obey you on a daily basis, no matter what tragedy comes into our lives.
Help us to keep putting one foot in front of another and enduring afflictions.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Let's go to hymn number 407 in your psalm books.
407, very fitting song, Faith of Our Fathers, number 407.
407.
And we hear that truth is heard.
Faith of our fathers' holy name.
We will be true to thee till death.
Our fathers' chain and prison start.
We're still in love and conscience free.
As we believe their children's fear.
If they like death would die for dear.
Faith of our fathers' holy name.
We will be true to thee till death.
Faith of our fathers we still stand.
To bring all nations unto thee.
And through the truth that comes from God.
Faith of our fathers we deeply pray.
Faith of our fathers holy name.
We will be true to thee till death.
Faith of our fathers we in love.
Oh, friend and foe, let all our swine.
And preach me to as one of those hell.
My kindly words and words will sigh.
Faith of our fathers holy name.
We will be true to thee till death.
Great singing tonight.
You're dismissed.