And I ask that you be with our pastor, God. Just strengthen him and fill him with the spirit of God. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Alright, well we're there in Ezekiel chapter number 10.
And we've been going through the book of Ezekiel on Wednesday nights, just taking one chapter every week.
And tonight we find ourselves in chapter number 10.
And what I'd like to do tonight is that in Ezekiel 10 you basically have a real,
it's kind of what we would consider a transitional chapter.
There's not a lot going on in the sense that there's really just one main thing that's happening.
But along with that one main thing, there's a lot of descriptions of all sorts of different things.
And something that's described a lot is that of the cherubims.
Now if you remember in Ezekiel chapter 1, we also had a complete description of the cherubims.
And when I preached the first sermon in Ezekiel, we went through and talked about the cherubims.
In fact, we came to chapter 10 and looked at the description there.
So I don't want to spend the entire night talking about cherubims.
We are going to talk about cherubims a little bit.
But what I want to do is just show you some interesting things or some misunderstood things from this chapter.
And then at the end I'll make a spiritual application and hopefully we won't be too long.
But I want you to notice first of all there in verse 1, Ezekiel chapter 10 and verse 1,
the Bible says this,
Now today for some reason, and I think it's the devil doing this, but today there is a movement.
I know most of you know this, but if you don't know it,
there is a big and growing movement of so-called Christians who are pushing a doctrine of the flat earth,
pushing the doctrine that the earth is flat.
And I know we talked about that and we joke about it a lot of times,
but it really is a dangerous doctrine in the sense that it's meant to make the Bible,
when the world hears that Christians believe in a flat earth, it really makes the Bible and Christianity look ridiculous.
It makes us look stupid.
And the reason I bring that up is because the flat earthers actually go to Ezekiel 10 to prove one of their points.
And I want to show that to you and I want to show you what the Bible actually teaches.
Because what the flat earthers teach, they'll teach that the earth is flat.
In case you're wondering, I'm not a flat earther, you can look at the picture behind me.
I believe in a round earth and the Bible teaches that.
The Bible says the circle of the earth and all those things.
But the flat earthers will basically teach that the earth is flat and they'll teach that over the earth there is a shield of ice.
If you kind of think of like a snow globe, that's basically what they think the earth is like.
It's a flat earth and then over it there's this bowl of ice and they call it the firmament
and they get it, one of their places they go to to prove it is in Ezekiel chapter 10.
I want you to notice what the Bible says about that.
It says, notice verse 1,
Then I looked and beholden the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims that appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
So I want you to notice that in that verse we are told that there is a firmament that was above the head of the cherubim.
So Ezekiel is getting a vision of the cherubims again, kind of like he got it in chapter 1.
And we're not going to spend a lot of time on cherubims but we will talk about them a little bit tonight.
But he sees that there's this firmament that was above the cherubims.
Now keep your place there in Ezekiel 10 but go through Ezekiel chapter 1 just real quickly and look at verse number 22.
Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse number 22. Notice what it says.
So in chapter 10 we read that the firmament, you know the description is that,
we read there that the firmament is above the heads of the cherubims and also there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
Now in Ezekiel chapter 1 I want you to notice, look at verse 22.
It says, and the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures.
Right? So just like Ezekiel 10. So it says that the firmament is above the heads of the creatures.
Was the color of a terrible crystal stretched forth over their heads above? Notice verse 23.
And under the firmament were the 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.
Skip down to verse 25. Notice what it says.
And there was above the voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings.
So again, it says there that the firmament was above their heads. It says that they were under the firmament.
And then in verse 25 it says from the firmament that was over their heads.
So the flat earthers will look at this and say, see when Ezekiel was looking at this vision,
he was looking at the cherubims and above the heads of the cherubims was this firmament.
Look at verse 26. Same chapter. Ezekiel 1, 26. It says this.
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 a throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
So they'll say you've got this firmament which is like a snow globe capsule glass thing, you know, over the earth.
And then you've got the cherubims and the firmaments over them.
But then you have the throne, verse 26, above the firmament was over their heads was like the likeness of a throne.
So they'll say the throne is above the firmament and then the cherubims are underneath the firmament.
Look at verse 22. And this is really their main verse, Ezekiel 1, 22.
And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the color of a terrible,
and they'll say look at this word, crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
So they'll say see this firmament, it's a crystal that's stretched forth over their heads,
and the cherubims are under the firmament, and the throne is above the firmament.
Now some of you have already been convinced by this, you know, you may not fit in our church,
but that's basically what they teach, right?
So that's all their proof text, you know, that you've got this crystal that was stretched, you know,
the throne is above the firmament, the cherubims are under the firmament, and it's a snow globe.
The earth is a snow globe with this, you know, firmament that covers the earth.
Now there's a few problems with that, and we're going to, there's problems in Ezekiel with that,
but there's also problems in other places in scripture.
Just real quickly, go through the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 1, first book in the Bible,
of course should be fairly easy to find, Genesis chapter 1.
The first problem that we find with this interpretation, and you know what's interesting about the flat earthers
is that they always want to give you all these arguments, you know, and they state them
as though they're an argument about the earth being flat.
Like they always want to argue about, you know, whether the solar system, whether it's heliocentric
or geocentric, you know, whether we are going around the sun or the sun's going around us,
and look, either way, that doesn't prove the earth is flat.
And to prove that there is a crystal ball around the earth, if there were, which there isn't,
but if there were, that wouldn't prove the earth was flat either.
So they always have these arguments they want to make, you know.
They'll talk about, we have all these proof texts about the earth being flat,
and then they want to show you a verse about, you know, the sun standing still.
It's like, that doesn't prove the earth is flat.
So, you know, just because they say they have these arguments doesn't really make sense,
but this firmament thing's a big argument of theirs, and they'll go to Ezekiel 10 to try to prove that.
Now you say, well, what's the problem with that?
The problem with that, first of all, is that God defined the firmament as the heaven.
Notice in Genesis chapter 1 and verse number 6.
Now, in Genesis 1 we have the creation story.
This is the week of creation, and in verse 6 we're jumping in to day number 2 of the creation.
Notice what the Bible says.
And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Now again, don't jump at that and say, see, there's this firmament that's dividing the waters,
and don't get too confused about that.
If there's clouds up in the sky, there's water in the sky.
You know, there's moisture up in the sky.
Look at verse 7.
And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so.
Now look at verse 8.
And God called the firmament heaven, and the evening and the morning were the second day.
So in verse number 8, God tells us what the firmament is.
From here on, from Genesis chapter 1 on, when we see the word firmament, because look, as Bible-believing Baptists, we allow the Bible to define itself.
It doesn't matter what other books say.
It doesn't matter what commentaries say.
It doesn't matter what anybody else says.
God called the firmament heaven.
So from here on, when you see the word firmament, think heaven.
Now notice what it says.
Look down at verse number 14.
Now in verse 14, we're entering day number 4 of the creation story.
Notice what it says.
And God said, let there be light in the firmament of the heavens.
Now in verse 8, we are told that the firmament is heaven, right?
And here we're told that there's light in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for light.
Notice what it says.
In the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so.
And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, that's of course talking about the sun.
The lesser light to rule the night, that's of course talking about the moon.
He made the stars also, and God, notice what it says.
And God set them, God set what?
He set the sun, He set the moon, He set the stars, notice what it says, in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.
So did God put the sun and the moon and the stars, did He put them inside of this crystal glass?
That's over the earth, is that what the Bible is saying?
No, it's saying that He put them up in the sky.
Because He says the firmament is heaven, that's what He's talking about.
Now look at verse 20, Genesis chapter 1 verse 20.
Notice what it says.
Now we're entering day 5.
Notice what it says.
And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl, right?
What's that?
That's a bird.
That may fly above the earth, and notice what it says, above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Are birds flying inside of a crystal glass that's expanding over the earth in this big snow globe we call earth?
Is that what the Bible is saying here?
Look, obviously, where do birds fly?
The sky?
You know, it's talking about heaven, it's just talking about the sky.
So look, when we study the Bible, we must allow the Bible to define itself.
And here in Genesis chapter 1, it's real clear.
Number 1, God spells it out.
He says the firmament was heaven.
Then He says it's the place where I put the sun and the moon and the stars.
Then He says it's where the birds fly.
You know, He's talking about the sky.
He's talking about the heaven.
And we understand that there are three different heavens mentioned in Scripture.
But look, the three heavens mentioned in Scripture, one is referring to the sky, where the birds fly.
One is referring to what we would call outer space, where the sun and the moon and the stars are, just like Genesis 1 is teaching.
And one would be what we call the kingdom of God, where God actually resides in heaven.
Now go back to Ezekiel chapter 10.
So I want you to notice that the Bible is real clear in Genesis 1 about what the firmament is.
And the flat earthers will be like, no, no, it's this crystal stretched out, you know, because the cherubims were under it and the throne was above it.
Now remember, in Ezekiel chapter 1, the throne was above the firmament, right?
But notice Ezekiel chapter 10 and verse 1.
Then I looked and behold, notice this word, in the firmament.
Right? Because remember like we saw in Genesis, the birds, the fowls were flying in the firmament of heaven?
Now in Ezekiel 1, the throne was above the firmament.
But in Ezekiel 10, the Bible tells us, in the firmament that was above the heads of the cherubims, there appeared over them, as it were, a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
So in Ezekiel chapter 1, the throne is above the firmament.
In Ezekiel chapter 10, the throne is inside. It's in the firmament.
So what happened? Did the crystal ice begin to melt and the throne got stuck in there?
Look, here's what the Bible is saying, is that Ezekiel looked up into heaven and he saw a vision of the throne of God and the cherubims of God coming down.
He sees this vision. So don't allow these people, because you know what they'll do is they'll go to these passages and people will understand them and they'll be like, you know,
Oh man, there must be this glass dome over the earth. I don't know how that proves that the earth is flat, but whatever.
You know, let's go with it. And it's just these vain talkers, you know, they're just looking for something to teach that's new.
They're like the people in Mars Hill just looking for a new thing to speak about.
Now, you know, you might be wondering, okay, so what about Ezekiel 1-22? Go back to Ezekiel 1-22.
It said, Crystal stretched forth over their heads above.
Now look, if you took Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse 22 and forgot about the first part of the verse and just started at the word crystal.
Crystal, are you there? Look at it. Crystal stretched forth above their heads above. If you started there, then you might have a point.
The problem with that is that you need to read the entire verse, right? I mean, talk about getting context.
I mean, you know, usually we're fighting with people on context. We're trying to get them to read the few verses before and the few verses behind.
But with the flat earthers, we're just trying to get them to read the verse. Because look at what it says.
And the likeness, right? Likeness means this is what it looked like. This is what, when I saw it, I'm going to describe for you what it looked like.
The likeness of the firmament. So he's telling you what the firmament looked like upon the heads of the living creatures.
Notice what he says, was as the color of the terrible crystal.
He's not saying the firmament was terrible crystal. He's saying when I looked at the firmament, the likeness, the way it looked, was the color.
He's just describing the color for you of the terrible crystal stretched forth. And now he's talking about the firmament stretched forth above their heads above.
So again, he's not saying that the firmament is crystal that stretched forth, you know, all across the globe.
And there's, you know, the earth and there's this conspiracy with NASA.
Look, just read, you know, when you study the Bible, you cannot approach the Bible with an agenda.
You know, we're just trying to prove something and trying to twist it to say something.
You must bring, look, you say, you know, would you believe that the firmament, you know, was crystal?
I'd believe the firmament was crystal if that's what the Bible said.
But you know, when I heard about that, what do you do?
You look up every time the Bible uses the word firmament and it's real clear what the firmament is.
And you say, well, the firmament was, the throne was above the firmament in chapter 1.
Yeah, but when you get to chapter 10, the throne is in the firmament.
You say, well, what's happening? Well, God is descending.
The throne is coming down so Ezekiel can see this vision.
He starts in the third heaven and it's coming down and he's seeing it come down.
Go back to, if you're not there, go back to Ezekiel 10, verse 1.
So I want to talk to you first of all about just the firmament.
And hopefully that kind of helps you so that you can, you know, just put these flat earthers to shame.
I mean, they do that on their own anyway, but you know, we need to make sure that we have answers, you know, for these things.
But the second thing I want to talk to you about tonight just from this chapter is about the throne.
And this is just kind of an interesting thing, but look at Ezekiel 10 and verse 1 again.
It says, then I looked and behold, and the firmament that was above the heads of the cherubims, there appeared over them as it were, notice what it says, a sapphire stone.
So he says, there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
So in chapter 10, we have a sapphire stone, this is what Ezekiel says, we have a sapphire stone that appears to look like a throne.
So we have a sapphire stone that looks like a throne.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter 1, look at verse 26. This is something interesting, this is not really, you know, disproving any false prophets or anything like that.
But in chapter 10 and verse 1, we see a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
In Ezekiel 1 26, we see the opposite, and above the firmament that was above over their heads was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone.
So in chapter 10, we see a stone, a sapphire stone that looks like a throne. In chapter 1, we see a throne that looks like a sapphire stone.
You say, what's he trying to tell us? Basically, he's trying to tell us the throne was made out of sapphire stone, alright?
So in 1, he's just describing it differently. He's saying, I saw a throne that looked like a sapphire stone, and then in another place, he says, I saw a sapphire stone that looked like a throne.
He's saying that God's throne is made out of sapphire stone.
Now here's what's interesting. Go to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, you've got Genesis, and then you've got the book of Exodus.
Exodus chapter 24. Go to Exodus 24. And of course, you can write all these down just as cross references for you as you study the Bible.
Exodus chapter 24, verse 10. And they saw the God of Israel. So here we have another account of a vision of God.
And by the way, every time there's a vision of God in the Bible, unless it's being made real clear that they're not able to see God,
like for example, when Moses saw God, but he was not allowed to see God, God, you know, he hid him between the rock, and he put his hand up so that he could only see his backside.
Other than that account, whenever you see in the Old Testament where they saw God, Isaiah says that he saw the Lord high, holy, and lifted up, right?
Whenever you see those accounts, just realize that that's the Lord Jesus Christ, alright?
No man has seen God at any time, referring to God the Father. So whenever in the Old Testament they see God, that's talking about Jesus.
And today, you know, we want to talk about, you know, false doctrines, you of course have, you know, the oneness people saying that Jesus came into existence basically in Bethlehem's manger.
You know, before that, he existed as the word. Literally, like God had a Bible on his nightstand, you know, from eternity.
That was Jesus. And then Jesus turned into the Son of God, you know, in the New Testament. That is false teaching.
That is, you know, obviously the person of the Son has existed from everlasting, is what the Bible says.
He's always existed. He wasn't, you know, he's always been the Son.
And in the Old Testament, whenever they see God, when Jacob wrestled with a man, and he said, I've seen God face to face, he hasn't seen God the Father, he's seen the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that's what we're referring to. But notice verse 24 there in verse 10.
Unless we're specifically told that they saw God, you know, that God appeared, but they weren't allowed to see him, then that may be the Father.
But whenever they see God face to face, that's Jesus. And Jesus is God, of course.
Exodus 24, verse 10. Notice what it says.
And they saw the God of Israel, all right. And let me just say this. Jesus is God because of the fact that we believe that one God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Verse 10. And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet, as it were, notice what it says, a paved work.
Now the word paved there is referring to like a piece of ground covered with flat stones or brick, right.
They saw as it were a paved work, notice, of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven, notice that, in his clearness.
So what is it saying? It's saying that when he saw this sapphire stone, he said he saw a paved work of sapphire stone.
We saw from Ezekiel that the throne of God is actually made out of sapphire stone, but he said it looked like the body of heaven.
You say, well, what do you mean by that? Well, in his clearness, meaning it was clear like when you look up in the sky and it's clear.
That's what it's referring to there. So just an interesting thing there about the throne.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter 10. And again, I'm just kind of giving you some things here.
I'll give you the story of Ezekiel 10 here in a minute, but just some things that we're just covering, some interesting things that I thought would be good for you to understand.
Go to Ezekiel 10 and go to verse number 2.
Now like I said, I preached an entire sermon on the cherubims in Ezekiel chapter 1, so if you weren't here for that sermon and you're interested in these creatures called cherubims,
I'd encourage you to go back and listen to that sermon. I'm not going to go through all the things about the cherubims,
but I do want to focus on one thing about the cherubims, and it's probably the thing that I get the most questions about
and that people are most interested about, and it's about these wheels, right?
Because when we read about the cherubims and we read about the four faces and the six wings or the hands and the feet like calf's feet,
we can kind of understand all that, right? But when we start learning about these wheels, that kind of gets confusing and people have a lot of questions about that.
Let me just go ahead and tell you right now, okay? I don't know, you don't know, and nobody knows what these wheels are talking about, right?
I don't care what book you read, nobody really knows what this is because the apostle Paul said when it comes to these things, we see through a glass darkly.
We don't really understand all of these things until we are up in heaven, but let me just go through it and give you some thoughts that I have in regards to that.
Look at verse 2, and I talked about this when we did chapter 1, but we'll talk about it again tonight. Look at verse 2.
And he spake unto the man, notice what it says, clothed with linen. Now if you remember in chapter 9 and verse 2, we met that man clothed with linen with a writer's ink horn.
Remember, he was the one that was supposed to go and mark them on the foreheads so that they would be spared.
So he's now speaking unto the man clothed with linen, and said, go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city, and he went in my sight.
Okay, so this man, after he marks, remember the men that sighed and cried for the abominations?
And then you had the other men that came in with the slaughter weapons, and they were going to kill everyone that wasn't marked?
And we saw how that was a foreshadowing of the 144,000, and of course, Satan copycats that with the mark of the beast, 666. We saw that last week.
Basically, after that, this man walks in to the temple and removes, you know, the Bible says that he takes coals of fire, and he scatters them over the city. Notice verse 6.
And it came to pass when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, again, talking about the guy from Ezekiel 9, 2, saying, take fire, notice what it says, from between the wheels, from between the cherubims, then he went in and stood beside the wheels.
And when I looked, behold, the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a barrel stone.
Okay, so I want you to notice that every cherub has his own wheel, right? There's four cherubims, and they each have their own wheel. There are four wheels. Notice verse 10.
And as for the appearance, they four had one likeness as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel, when they went, they went upon their four sides, they turned not as they went, but to the place where the head looked, they followed it, they turned not as they went.
We talked about that in chapter 1. Look at verse 12.
And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.
Now these things are referred to as living creatures in chapter 1. In chapter 10, they're referred to as cherubim.
In Revelation, in the book of Revelation, chapter number 4, we see the seraphims that are similar to the cherubim, a little different, different number of wings that they have, but the seraphim are referred to as beasts.
So these things are referred to as animals, a beast, a creature, right?
And this creature, the Bible tells us, their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and their wheels were full of eyes round about, even the wheels.
So these aren't animals you necessarily want to pet, probably, because you're going to poke their eyes or something. They're just full of eyes.
And again, I don't know what this looks like. This doesn't look like something I'd want to have in my backyard, but this is what the Bible tells us. Look at verse 13.
As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheels. Verse 16. Actually, let me just say this.
So, you know, the wheels is something that a lot of people are confused about and a lot of people don't understand enough.
I don't think any of us understand really exactly what's being talked about here.
But what I did as I was studying this, I was just looking up all the references of wheels, you know.
And then sometimes what you can do is you can look up at, you can see how the same word, not going back to the Hebrew for a better understanding.
Obviously, our King James Bible is perfect and preserved and we don't need to go back to the Hebrew.
But sometimes what you can do is go back and see how that underlying word, that Hebrew word, how it was also translated in other places.
Because sometimes that helps you understand what the King James translators were thinking.
Because it will give you synonyms of the same word, right. So you can kind of understand what they meant by that word.
You know, an example, in the New Testament we have the word offense, like it talks about when you offend one of these little ones.
But the underlying Greek word is also translated as stumbling or to stumble.
So that helps you understand what the King James translators, you know, thought about that word.
Because when we think of the word offense, we think about like how you guys are always constantly being offended, right, with my preaching, right.
But what they use the word offense is that you trip somebody up.
So when he says don't offend one of these little ones, he's not talking about like being mean to them.
He's talking about like don't do something in their life that's going to cause them to stumble.
So when you look up how the same word is translated differently throughout the Bible,
sometimes it will open up your eyes because you can kind of see synonyms of how the word was used and it helps you understand.
So I did that for this word and what's interesting is that the word was translated two different ways.
The same word was translated two different ways throughout the entire Bible.
Part of the time, the smaller part of time, it was translated as like something that was spinning, like a whirlwind, you know, or some, you know, like water that was spinning or something else spinning.
But the vast majority of the time, it was just translated as a wheel, like a wheel on a chariot, you know, like he's describing a wheel.
So, you know, it didn't really get me anywhere. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
You know, I'm still kind of in the dark as far as what it means.
And if I had to take a guess, if I just had to tell you what this means, I would tell you, you know, what are these wheels?
I would say these wheels are like a wheel, like you have on a bicycle, a wheel like you have on a chariot, a wheel like you have on a car.
Now notice what it says here. Look at verse 16.
And when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them.
So I want you to notice that these wheels are disconnected from the cherubims.
So they're not connected to their bodies, they're disconnected from them.
Because it says that when the cherubims went, wherever they went, the wheels went by them.
You know, it wouldn't make sense if they were connected to your body.
Like you wouldn't say like, you know, wherever Pastor Jimenez went, his right hand went by him, right?
That wouldn't really make a lot of sense if it's connected to you.
So it seems like, and again I'm using those terms, you know, because we don't really know, right?
We'll get to heaven one day and figure it all out.
But it seems like these wheels are not really connected to them.
It says, and when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them.
And when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount from the earth, because they have wings, right?
And they lift up their wings to mount from the earth to fly, notice what it says.
The same wheels also turned not from beside them, so they stayed by them.
Verse 17, when they stood, talking about the cherubims, these stood, talking about the wheels.
When they were lifted up, talking about the cherubims, these lifted up, talking about the wheels, lifted up themselves.
Also, you say, you know, why were they connected? Notice why they're connected.
For the spirit of the living creatures was in them.
So here's what we know. As far as I can tell, you know, however much of a Bible student I am,
as far as I can tell, these are literal wheels, you know, like you'd find on a chariot or on a bicycle.
And it seems to me like they're not really connected to them, like on their body,
but they're connected to them because they have the same spirit. This wheel has the same spirit.
Notice again in the last part of verse 17, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them,
and whenever the creature goes, wherever the creature goes, the wheels go with them.
When they go up, they go up, and when they go down, they go down.
Look at verse 19, and the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight,
and when they went out, the wheels also were beside them,
and everyone stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, and the glory of God of Israel was over them above.
So here's what we have learned. It seems like the wheels are disconnected from the cherubims.
They're not on them, but they stay by them, and the wheels are connected to the cherubims
because they share the same spirit, or the wheels, though they're not connected to them, have the same spirit,
which is what it says there in verse 17, the spirit of the living creatures was in them.
So go to Ezekiel chapter 28 just real quickly.
Let me give you my thought on this, and again, I wouldn't die for what I'm about to tell you.
This is just what I think, and maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong.
But it seems to me like the bodies of these cherubim, remember, they're called beasts, they're called creatures, these are animals.
It seems to me like the bodies of these cherubims may be part living tissue, like an organic matter,
and maybe part mechanical, like an inorganic matter.
And you say, oh, that's kind of crazy.
Well, here's what's interesting is that that already exists today.
Human beings have created what is called a biohybrid, a combination of an organic matter
that's connected to an inorganic matter.
It's like a robot that's built from a living tissue.
So if humans can do it, I can promise you God can do it much better.
And you say, yeah, but that's kind of odd.
But here's the interesting thing is that we already saw that in Scripture.
Go to Ezekiel 28.
Let me just show this to you.
This is why I think this.
I'm not willing to die on this before one of you goes home and creates a YouTube video exposing me as a heretic.
I don't know.
But here's what's interesting.
In Ezekiel 28 and verse 13, the Bible says this.
Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.
Every precious stone was like covering the Sardis, Topaz, the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire,
the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold.
Now, whoever he's talking to, it was an individual that was in the garden of Eden.
Now, look, you know the story, Genesis chapter 1.
There's three individuals in the garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, and the devil.
Now, notice what it says.
Look at verse 14.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so that it was upon the holy mountain of God,
that I was walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
So we know that Satan was a fallen angel.
Obviously, everybody knows that or we understand that.
The Bible says that he's transformed into an angel of light.
But here we're told that he was specifically, the type of angelic being that he was, was a cherub.
Notice verse 14.
Thou art the anointed cherub.
The person that has been in the garden of Eden was the anointed cherub, was a cherub.
So here's what we know about Satan.
He's an angelic being, but specifically, he's a cherubim.
He's not a seraphim. He's not something else. He's a cherubim.
So what we read about the cherubims, the eyes everywhere, the four faces, the wings, all those things.
That's who Satan was.
Now notice what it says about him in the last part of verse 13.
The workmanship of thy tabrets.
Now what's a tabret?
It's a percussion instrument.
He says the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created.
And then he says in verse 14, thou art the anointed cherub.
The Bible tells us here very clearly that when Satan, you know, he wasn't called Satan at the time, he was called Lucifer.
When he was created, he was created as the anointed cherub and he was created specifically as an instrument.
His body was created as an instrumental body.
I mean, the Bible says that the workmanship of thy tabrets and of the pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created.
His body had pipes in it and had tabrets in it.
His body made music.
And this is why people believe that, you know, he was one of the maybe archangels or some sort of like a high ranking angel and his job in heaven was music.
They think that because his body was a musical instrument.
And by the way, that's why, you know, you need to be careful about the type of music that you allow.
If there's one thing that Satan's good at, he's good at music.
So, you know, people think like, oh, it's no big deal. I just listen to this worldly music.
You know what? You need to have the strictest, you know, standards when it comes to the music that you allow into your home and into your ears.
Because if there's one thing he's good at, it's music.
His body's a musical instrument.
But what I'm trying to show you is that the Bible tells us here that this cherub had tabrets and pipes inside of his body.
So this cherub seems to be some sort of a bio-hybrid, half organic matter, half pipes, you know, whatever.
So, you know, is it that absurd that other cherub, you know, he was created for music so he has pipes and tabrets.
Maybe other cherubs were created for traveling, right?
Go to Psalm 68.
Because what do we see? We're seeing a vision of God coming down from heaven.
So, you know, is it that absurd that other cherubs were built with wheels like the Bible says?
You know, people always want to get into like, what these wheels are, you know.
And let me just tell you right now, they're not aliens, okay?
These wheels are not aliens.
All the flat earthers want to talk about like, this is aliens, you know.
They've been watching too much Star Wars.
Psalm 68, it's part of their body.
But, you know, people want to say like, it's not wheels though like on a car, right?
Well, it may be.
You know, is it pipes and tabrets inside of this anointed cherub?
Psalm 68 verse 17, notice what the Bible says here.
The chariots of God, right?
So we have chariots, right, that have wheels on them and they're moved by horses.
But notice God has chariots too.
Notice what it says.
Psalm 68, 17.
The chariots of God are 20,000.
He's got 20,000 chariots.
What are they?
Even thousands of angels.
The Lord is among them, as in Sinai in the holy place.
So the Bible tells us here that God has chariots, but then it tells us what those chariots are.
They're angels.
What might it be?
It might be that God has 20,000 cherubim with a bunch of wheels on them and they're used for traveling.
You know, and they're his chariot.
You say, I don't buy that.
It's fine.
You know, it's just interesting.
What else was I supposed to preach out of?
Ezekiel chapter 10.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter 10.
But that's just what I think.
You know, and maybe it's absurd.
I don't know.
It's just kind of something interesting, something to think about.
But you know, if you walk away from like, well, it's ridiculous that there be this bio-hybrid creature,
then you're going to have a problem with Ezekiel 28 because the anointed cherub had tablets and pipes created in him.
So, you know, it seems, of course, we're not going to come up with anything that God doesn't have or hasn't perfected or made better.
Let me give you something else to think about.
And we talked about this when we were in chapter 1, but I'll just remind you about this.
The faces of the cherubim in Ezekiel 10, this is often something that people want to bring up as a contradiction.
Because in chapter 10, if you look at verse 14, the Bible says this, and every one had four faces.
These cherubim had four faces.
The first face was as the face of a cherub, is what it says in chapter 10, verse 14.
And I believe that the four faces are like on the four different sides of their head.
Because if you remember, it talks about how they move, they never turn.
They always move forward everywhere they're going.
And part of that reason is because if I want to turn around, you know, I have to turn around.
But if I have a face on my backside, I never have to turn around. I just start moving in that direction, right?
And that's what it says there in chapter 10.
But it says they had four faces. The first face was as the face of a cherub, and the second face was as the face of a man,
and the third face of a lion, and the fourth face of an eagle.
So we're told that there's four faces in chapter 10.
They have a face of a cherub, they have a face of a man, they have the face of a lion, and they have the face of an eagle.
Now, in verse 21, it says everyone had four faces apiece.
If you go back to Ezekiel chapter 1, just go there real quickly, look at verse number 6.
Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse 6, notice what the Bible says.
And everyone had four faces, and everyone had four wings. Look at verse 10.
And the likeness of their faces, they four had, notice what it says, the face of a man, right?
That's what it says in Ezekiel 10.
The face of a lion, right? That's what it says in Ezekiel 10.
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.
Now, in Ezekiel 10, we had the face of a lion, the face of an eagle, and the face of a man.
The difference between the two is that in chapter 1, we're told that one has the face of an ox.
In chapter 10, we're told that one has the face of a cherub.
And people say, like, see, this is a contradiction. Ezekiel was making this up, and he forgot what he said in chapter 1.
Like, it's that hard to go back and look at, you know, read chapter 1.
You know, they'll bring this up as a contradiction, but here's what you need to understand.
Remember when we started the sermon, we always allow the Bible to define itself.
We always allow the Bible to define itself.
When you see the same thing in the Bible, especially when it's in the same book by the same author, the same human author,
and they're described differently, what God is doing, because the Bible is its own dictionary.
God is telling us what a cherub looks like.
Because I believe what he's saying is this, that they had these four faces, but they've got a main face, right?
Their forward face. Their forward face is not the face of a man, or a lion, or an eagle.
Their forward face is the face of a cherub, because that's what they are.
They're a cherubim that has the face of a man, that has the face of a lion, that has the face of an eagle.
You say, well, what does a cherubim look like? Well, it looks like an ox.
That's what the Bible is telling us here.
And if you go to Revelation chapter 4, let's just go there real quickly, Revelation chapter 4 and verse 7.
Now, in Revelation 4, 7, we read about the seraphim, right?
The cherubim had four faces, and they had four wings.
The seraphim are four beasts that have one face, but every face is different, and they have four wings.
And the seraphim, they don't move. They have no wheels, right?
Because they stay at the throne of God, and they just cry day and night,
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
That's what they do. That's what Isaiah saw in his vision of the seraphim.
That's what John saw in his vision of the seraphim.
They're at the throne of God doing those things.
But I just want you to notice, obviously, a seraphim and a cherubim are going to be similar.
Notice what it says about them in Revelation 4, 7.
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.
So the seraphim, you've got a lion, a man, and an eagle, all like what we saw before,
but then their primary face is a calf.
So, you know, you've got an ox, you've got a calf.
It's all the same, you know, bovine-type animal, right?
So he's telling us this is what, so if you want to know, what does Satan look like?
He looks like a bull. He looks like an ox. He looks like a calf.
That's what he looks like.
And by the way, isn't it interesting that the children of Israel,
what were they worshiping in the wilderness? A golden calf, right?
What did they set up at the borders when they didn't want to go back to the temple?
What did they set up to worship a golden calf?
You know, you look at all these false gods from these pagan religions,
often it's these, you know, calf-looking, horn-looking.
What do they worship in India tonight? A calf, a cow, a bull, right?
So, you know, of course we know Satan is self-serving,
and he sets himself up as the god, the false god of this world.
Go back to Ezekiel.
Ezekiel, let me show you, that was kind of all just kind of interesting things
or different things in the chapter that either people misunderstand
or they try to use as a, you know, as a contradiction or whatever it might be.
Let me give you what this whole chapter is about,
because here's what we get when we read chapter 10.
Like in chapter 1, Ezekiel gets a vision of the throne of God
and the cherubim of God, and they're coming down from heaven,
and they're coming, remember, to the temple.
Because if you remember in chapter 1, he's by the river Kibar.
He's in Babylon when he sees his vision.
But when we started chapter number 7, we started a new vision.
Remember, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, it's all been the same vision.
Remember what happened? He was at the river Kibar.
The hand of the Lord came upon him.
He was lifted up from his locks, and he was taken to Jerusalem, right?
So now he's not in Babylon. He's in Jerusalem.
Spiritually, whatever, however he's seeing, then that's what he's seeing.
And he gets the tour of the temple.
Remember the tour of abominations where he goes in,
and they have the image of jealousy set up in the inside of it,
and they've got, you know, the bees portrayed upon the wall,
and we've got the women weeping for Tammuz and all that.
It's not that tour, right?
Then he saw the men coming with the slaughter weapons to bring judgment upon Jerusalem
because of the idolatry that had even made it into the sanctuary, the house of God.
And, you know, they marked the good guys. They killed the bad guys.
That's what we're seeing.
Now he sees the vision of God coming down to the temple.
Notice verse 3.
Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house.
This is referring to the temple of God, the sanctuary, the house of God.
This is what has been called this whole time.
And stood over the threshold.
Now the threshold would be, you know, like the frame of the door
before you enter into a house or before you enter into a room.
Notice they stood over the threshold of the house,
and the house was filled with the cloud,
and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.
I want you to understand this.
The temple was filled with the glory of God.
This is the first temple, the temple that Solomon built.
And when Solomon built it, go to...
Keep your fingers there, Ezekiel. We're almost done, all right?
Just stay with me.
Go to 2 Chronicles, chapter 7.
2 Chronicles, chapter 7.
It's 8.08. I can finish this in five minutes, all right?
Just stick with me. Look at this.
2 Chronicles, chapter 7.
When the temple was built by Solomon,
God had to show the people that he approved of the temple,
because if you remember, God had told them to build a tabernacle, right?
It was a tent structure where they kept the Ark of God,
and that represents the presence of God.
And David wanted to build a house for God,
but God did not allow David to do it.
God had Solomon do it.
When Solomon built the temple,
God had to show them that he approved of this,
that his presence would now go from the tabernacle to the temple.
2 Chronicles 7, verse 1.
Now when Solomon had made an end of praying,
because Solomon prays, remember, if you read the chapter before,
the few chapters before, he raises up his hands to heaven,
and he prays for God to basically protect this temple, accept this temple.
It says, now when Solomon had made an end of praying,
the fire came down from heaven,
because they had set up a thousand burnt offerings.
If you remember from Leviticus, chapter 1,
when we studied that out,
the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices.
Notice this.
And the glory of the Lord filled the house.
And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord,
because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house.
Look at verse 3.
And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down
and how the glory of the Lord upon the house,
they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement
and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying,
for He is good for His mercy endured forever.
And look, from the beginning, even when they came out of Egypt,
remember, they were led in the wilderness by what?
A cloud.
And that represents the presence of God in their lives.
And at night, when they couldn't see the cloud,
they saw a pillar of fire.
And then we see here, how does God show them that His presence is with them?
He brings fire down, and He fills the temple with a cloud,
which is the glory of God.
So I want you to understand this.
When the temple was built, God filled the temple with His glory
to show them that His presence was there,
that He accepted them, that He was with them.
In Ezekiel chapter number 10, go back to it.
Ezekiel spends the entire, the entire book of Ezekiel is a prophecy
about how Jerusalem and the temple is going to be destroyed.
Remember that the Babylonian captivity happened in three phases.
Ezekiel came on the second phase.
And the third phase will be the final phase,
where the city is destroyed and the temple is destroyed.
That's why Nehemiah and Esther,
Nehemiah and Ezra have to come back after the captivity.
I don't know if I'm giving you a lot of information,
but after the 70 years of captivity,
they have to come back and rebuild the temple and rebuild the walls, right?
Because Babylon, because Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city,
destroyed the walls, and he destroyed the temple.
Here's what the Bible is teaching us.
God is about getting ready to destroy the temple.
But remember, when they built the temple,
His glory came into the temple to show that His presence was there,
that His power was there, that His honor was there,
that His favor was there, that He was with these people.
And now, before the temple gets destroyed,
in Ezekiel chapter 10, we have God coming down from heaven
to remove His glory from the temple.
That's what's happening. Look at verse 3.
Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house
when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court,
and the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub and stood over the threshold.
So it's like the glory of the Lord is like standing at the door of the house,
and the house was filled with the cloud,
and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.
Look down at verse 18.
And the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house
and stood over the cherubims,
and the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight.
They basically just all go back to heaven.
When they went out, the wheels also were beside them,
and everyone that stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house,
and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
So basically God comes down with His cherubims to grab His glory from the house
and go back up to heaven as a sign that He no longer honors or favors or acknowledges this temple.
And what happens before the book of Ezekiel ends?
The temple is destroyed.
Now go to Revelation chapter 1, and let me just give you an application.
See, the Israelite nation of the Old Testament,
they made a few assumptions when God's glory came into the temple.
And their assumption was that God's glory would never leave the temple,
and that no matter what they did, God would always be with them,
God would always honor them, God would always favor them,
but that's where they messed up.
That's the mistake they made.
Because they made choices and decisions.
Things changed from Solomon to the last king of Israel.
Things changed to the point where God said,
I no longer honor this building, I no longer honor my presence,
I'm removing my glory, and this building will be destroyed,
this city will be destroyed,
and you will be scattered,
and the nation of Israel was basically scattered throughout the world.
And here's what we can learn from this.
What we can learn from this is that we must be careful
not to assume that God's glory and God's blessing
and God's honor will always be upon us no matter what,
because we can make decisions and choices
that would allow the blessing of God to leave us.
Now this happened with the temple, but you know it can happen with churches.
Let me show it to you.
Revelation chapter 1, look at verse 20.
Revelation chapter 1 and verse 20 says this,
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand,
and the seven golden candlesticks.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking.
He says,
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
According to Revelation chapter 1 and verse 20,
what are the candlesticks?
The candlesticks are the seven churches of Asia
that the book of Revelation was written to.
Notice chapter 2 and verse 1.
Notice what the Bible says.
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
This is of course the Lord Jesus Christ.
Skip down to verse 5 for sake of time.
Notice what he says.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works.
He's talking to the church of Ephesus.
He says,
You've got to repent and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee and will remove thy candlestick.
What's the candlestick?
The candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
He said,
I'll remove the candlestick out of his place except thou repent.
You know that God can remove his candlestick from a church
where there might still be a building
where people meet together,
and they call it a church,
and they call it an assembly,
but God's presence is no longer there.
And we're not talking about losing your salvation.
Obviously God indwells the Holy Spirit
and indwells the bodies of believers,
but a church can come to a place
where God says,
You've taken too many decisions.
You've done too many things.
You need to repent and go back to your first works,
or I might just remove my presence.
I might just remove my favor.
I might just remove my power from that place.
And I'm thankful for the ministry
that the Lord has given us here at Verity Baptist Church,
and I don't know if you realize
that we're not only ministering to you,
but you and what you do
and how you serve in this church
is literally impacting the world.
Thousands of people are impacted
by the things that are done by this church,
and we get emails,
and we get messages all the time
from people all over the country
and all over the world saying,
Your ministry has been a blessing to me.
Your ministry has helped me.
This sermon has been great,
or this series has been great,
or these documentaries have been great,
but listen to me.
We need to make sure that we don't take it for granted
that God's blessing and favor
will always be upon our church
because we can begin to make decisions and choices
and begin to stop doing things
and start doing things that might bring us to the place
like the temple
where the glory of the Lord was removed.
It can happen to the temple.
It can happen to churches,
but let me just say this,
and we'll finish up,
and I went more than five minutes,
and I apologize,
but let me just say this.
I need you to get this.
Go to Judges 16.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Joshua, Judges.
While you turn there, let me read for you.
It can happen to nations.
1 Samuel 4.21.
Don't turn there.
You go to Judges 16.
I'll read to you from 1 Samuel 4.21.
Remember when the ark was taken?
The Bible says,
And she named the child Ichabod,
saying, The glory is departed from Israel,
because the ark of God was taken
because of her father-in-law and her husband.
So it can happen to nations.
It can happen to the nation of Israel
when the ark was taken,
the glory of the Lord was taken.
It can happen to the temple
where the glory of the Lord was taken from the temple.
It can happen to churches
where God removes the candlestick,
but listen to me very carefully.
If you've caught nothing this sermon,
I need you to catch this.
It can happen to you.
It can happen to Christians,
to believers, to individuals.
Judges 16, verse 20.
Notice what the Bible says.
And she said,
Who was Samson?
A great judge of God,
had the power of God upon his life,
had the honor and favor and glory of God.
But he took steps,
and he made decisions,
and he went places,
and he went with people,
and he did things that he shouldn't have done.
And he awoke out of his sleep and said,
I will go out as at other times before
and shake myself because every other time
he woke up and shook himself
and roared a little bit and flexed,
and it wasn't him.
It was the power of God.
It was the glory of God.
It was the favor of God upon his life.
But Samson eventually took it too far
where he woke up,
and he said,
I will go out as at other times before
and shake myself,
and he wished not that the Lord was departed from him.
And of course,
you will never lose the Holy Spirit
as far as your salvation is concerned.
But please understand this,
that you're sitting in this auditorium
on a Wednesday night,
and you maybe go to church on Sunday morning
and Sunday night and Wednesday night,
and you go soul winning,
and you read your Bible,
and you memorize Scripture,
and you listen to preaching outside of church,
and you've got a really great marriage,
and you've got some great children,
and don't take it for granted
that it'll be just like that
a year from now,
or two years from now,
or three years from now,
because there have been people in this church
just like you who were three to thrive,
who were reading the Bible,
who were going soul winning,
who were memorizing Scripture,
who were having great marriages,
who were raising great children,
but they began to take steps in the wrong directions.
They decided,
I'm going to go move over here,
and that won't affect my church.
I'm going to take this job
that's going to take me away from church,
or I'm going to make this decision.
I'm going to join this hobby or this club,
and they began to make decisions,
and one day they shook themselves,
and they never even realized
that the glory of God,
the power of God,
the favor of God.
One day they woke up,
and they were divorced.
One day they woke up,
and their kids were not spiritual.
One day they woke up,
and they said they were drinking.
They were backslidden,
and they said,
what happened?
What happened was that they took for granted
that God's power would always be available.
That's what they did with the temple.
That's what some churches do,
and that's what some Christians do,
and I'm just here to tell you
that things can change drastically
in a year and two and three and five and ten
because you can begin to make the wrong decision,
the wrong decision, the wrong decision.
You say,
how do I keep the power of God upon my life?
Keep doing what got you
the power of God upon your life?
Look, if coming to church on Wednesday night
got you to be the type of husband
or the type of wife
or the type of parent you are,
you know what you should keep doing?
Keep coming to church on Wednesday night.
If being a soul winner
got you to the place in your life
where you are right now,
then why don't you just keep on soul winning?
Why don't you just keep on reading the Bible?
Why don't you just keep on reading?
Because here's what I'm telling you.
You can begin to make choices and decisions.
What did Samson do?
He said,
I'm going to go hang out with the Philistines.
It won't hurt me.
I'm going to go hang out with Delilah.
It won't hurt me.
I'm going to go do this,
and I'm going to go do that,
and every time I wake up, it's fine,
but listen to me, Samson.
One day you're going to wake up,
and you'll wish not
that the power of God was departed.
So learn from this chapter
because Ezekiel sees this vision,
this spiritual vision
where God spiritually removes his glory,
but a few chapters later,
the temple is destroyed,
and you may begin to make decisions
and take steps
and go in the wrong direction
and never realize that the power of God
departed from your life
until your life, like the temple, is destroyed.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father.