All right, well, we're there in Ezekiel, chapter number four, and we've been going through
the book of Ezekiel on Wednesday nights, and we're just taking one chapter every week and
working our way through it.
And we really just started, we're in chapter four tonight, and I don't know if you're paying
attention as we're reading there, but it's a really interesting chapter in the book of
Ezekiel.
I just got a text message, let me just go ahead and say this, we have 129 in church
now, got another text message, whenever it's right after a conference, I don't normally
announce the evening services, but whenever it's right after a conference, I always like
to announce the attendance, because people always get this idea, after you get five days
of 300 people in here, you come back to a regular service, and people are like, what
happened?
It's like, there's 129 people in church, that's what we normally have on a Wednesday night,
all right?
You guys could have probably done a better job the way you sat, but we'll work on that
next time.
But 129, so praise the Lord for that.
We're a little lower, obviously have a few people out of town and things like that, but
don't worry, all right?
It's all in your mind, in your head.
Ezekiel four, look at verse one, Ezekiel chapter four and verse one, the Bible says, thou also
son of man, take thee a tile and lay it before thee and portray, I want you to notice that
word portray, upon it the city, even Jerusalem.
So this is a very interesting chapter, where the prophet Ezekiel is basically going through
a series of object lessons, he's going through a series of dramatizing different lessons
that he wants to give.
It's a short chapter, it's not very long, which I'm thankful for, because after last
week, I think we're all done with long sermons, all right?
So I'll do the best I can to get through this as quickly as I can.
I want to just give you just three real quick points from this chapter, and if you're able
to write this down, I'd encourage you to write these statements down, if you don't
have a baby sitting on your lap or something like that.
The first thing we see in this chapter is we see the people's severed position.
I want you to notice they've got a position where they've been severed, not only from
other people, but from God himself.
Look at verse one there again, he says, thou also son of man, take thee a tile and lay
it before thee.
So God tells Ezekiel to take a tile to put it before him, he says, and portray upon it
the city.
The word portray there means to play a part, like an actor plays a part.
He's asking him to show the city upon this tile, even Jerusalem, look at verse two, and
lay siege.
Now, a siege is when a city is surrounded by a military, and nothing's allowed to come
in, and nothing's allowed to go out.
And the purpose of a siege is basically to starve the people out of the city, because
eventually, when you don't allow anything in, they're going to run out of food on the
inside.
And it's a military tactic to weaken them in order to be able to attack them.
And here, Ezekiel takes this tile and he sets up a little city that is to portray Jerusalem,
and then he lays siege on it.
I want you to understand, he's like playing a game, he's got like toy soldiers, he makes
up this city, and he lays siege on it, lay siege verse two against it, and build a fort
against it, and cast a mount against it, set the camp also against it, and set battering
rams against roundabouts.
I want you to notice that Ezekiel actually takes a tile, and then he builds a little
city, and he builds this entire little scene there, where he's built a camp, and he's cast
a mount, he's built a fort, he's set battering rams, I mean he's done this to show the people
what the future is.
Because if you remember from the first time we were in the book of Ezekiel several weeks
ago, we learned that the captivity happened in phases, it happened in waves, and the waves
have not finished yet.
Even these people with Ezekiel who are part of the captivity, there is yet another captivity
coming, and that's what Ezekiel's portraying, is that Jerusalem is going to be besieged
by a city.
Notice verse number three, God tells him, Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan.
So remember he's playing this game where he's setting up this miniature city, and he's got
all these military type things around it, and he's got a camp around it, and battering
rams, and he built a fort, and he laid siege, and then he takes an iron pan, and the Bible
says, and set it for a wall of iron, notice what it says, between thee, talking to Ezekiel,
and the city.
So in this game, this city on this tile pictures the city of Jerusalem, the nation of Israel,
the people there that are under the punishment of God, but then you have Ezekiel who is picturing
God.
Ezekiel is picturing these people's relationship with God, and the Bible tells us here that
Ezekiel was instructed to take an iron pan and to set it as a wall of iron between thee
and the city, and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay
siege against it, notice what it says, this shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
So the first thing we see is that Ezekiel tells these people that a military is going
to come, and he's going to do these things that I'm doing on this, you know, small scale
here by setting up a city, and portraying it upon this tile, and laying siege against
it, and building a fort, and casting a mount, and setting a camp, and battering rams, and
all those things.
He says that's going to happen to Jerusalem.
It's going to literally be besieged by a military, and it's going to be cut off from its resource.
It's going to be cut off from those that might be able to help, but it's going to be cut
off from anyone being able to come in, and bring in food, and bring in supplies, and
anyone being able to go out.
But that's not the worst part of the severance that's going to happen when they are besieged.
Not only will they be severed from their resources, and their allies, and their friends, and anyone
else who could help them, the worst part is that they will be severed from God himself.
Because Ezekiel is instructed to take this iron pan, and he is to set it as a wall of
iron between thee and the city.
And God is basically portraying for them that there will be a wall of separation between
himself and the people, and when they cry out to him, he will not hear.
And when they try to pray to him, he's going to sever it.
He's trying to explain to these people they have a severed position, not only from their
resources, not only from their friends, not only from their allies, but from God himself.
Now keep your place there in Ezekiel chapter 4, that's obviously our text for tonight.
Go with me just real quickly to the book of Isaiah.
If you're in Ezekiel, you're just going to go backwards past the book of Lamentations,
Jeremiah into the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 59, Isaiah 59.
Now remember Ezekiel was told to put that iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between
thee and the city, and he said, set thy face against it and it shall be besieged.
He said, I want you to cover your face with that wall of iron between thee and the city.
Now notice Isaiah 59 and verse 2, now remember Isaiah, the chronological order of the major
prophets is you've got Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
You've got Isaiah prophesying before the captivity, talking about the captivity that is to come.
You've got Jeremiah living through that captivity.
The book of Jeremiah starts before the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar, but it ends after the captivity
of Nebuchadnezzar, and Jeremiah lives through the city being overtaken and all those things.
And then you've got Ezekiel on the other side where the captivity has already happened,
and he is prophesying of another captivity, another coming.
Now notice Isaiah 59 and verse 2, notice what the prophet Isaiah said.
He says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have
hid his face from you that he will not hear.
So I want you to notice that here in Isaiah, we are told that our iniquities and our sin
separate us from God.
Now obviously, this is not talking about a physical separation.
God is omnipresent.
God is everywhere at once, but what the Bible is saying here is that if there's anything
that gets between us and God, it is our sin.
You know, the song we're going to sing tonight at the end of the service, I didn't choose
it.
It was just chosen, but we're singing nothing between my Lord and my Savior.
I think that's what the song is.
Yeah, nothing between, and really as a Christian, there should be nothing between, you know.
There should be nothing between us and God, but what does get between us and God is our
sin.
The Bible says your sins have hid his face from among you, and isn't that exactly what
Ezekiel is portraying when he takes that iron pan and he hides his face from the people?
Because it is our sin that can separate us, not physically, but in a relational way from
God.
Go to James chapter number four.
Keep your place in Isaiah.
We're going to go back to Isaiah several times, but go to James chapter four towards the end
of the New Testament.
You've got Hebrews, James, James chapter four.
Look at verse number four, James chapter four.
Obviously when you're saved, the Holy Spirit indwells you.
The Bible says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Positionally, God never leaves us.
Positionally, he's always with us.
Practically, he's always with us.
He's omnipresent.
But our sins can separate us from, you know, access and our relationship to God, and listen
to me, listen to me very carefully.
This was not the time they wanted to be separated from God.
When you are in Old Testament city, besieged by your enemy, under attack by your enemy,
running out of resources with no one able to come and help you, no allies are coming,
Egypt isn't coming, Assyria, nobody's coming to help you.
You do not want to know that your sins have caused and brought an iron pan, an iron wall
between you and God.
And you say, yeah, that's the Old Testament city.
But you know what?
In your life and in my life, the emergency room is not the time to start trying to get
right with God.
When your family member has been hurt or injured, when you've been hurt or injured, and you
know you can't pray because of your own sin and wickedness, because of the things that
you've been into, you know that God, you don't have access to God in that way.
And all you can do is rally others to pray for you because you really can't pray to God
yourself.
That is a bad place to be.
Our sins and our iniquities have hid God's face from us.
Are you there in James chapter 4?
Look at verse 4.
In James 4, 4, notice what he says.
He says, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world?
Now that's sin.
The Bible says love not the world, neither things that are in the world.
The Bible says all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes of
pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.
And here we're told, know ye not that the friendship of the world, look, is enmity with
God.
Remember on Sunday morning we were talking about there's no neutral place with God.
Look, there's no lukewarm place with God.
You're either hot or you're cold.
You're either in or you're out.
You're either on God's side or you're on the world's side.
And the Bible says that friendship of the world is enmity with God.
What does it mean to have enmity?
It means you're at odds with God.
Here's what he says, whosoever therefore will be friend of the world is the enemy of God.
So we see the people's severed position.
And you know, unfortunately, some of you are living that way right now.
Go to Matthew, chapter number 18, just real quickly, Matthew 18.
You don't want to live your life in a way where you've got an iron wall between you
and God.
You don't want to live your life in a way where your sins and your iniquities have hid
the face of God from your life.
You want to live your life in a way where we can, like Hebrews says, enter in boldly
into the throne of grace during our time of need.
And here Ezekiel is explaining to them that these people are going to be severed.
They are living in a severed position, not just physically from resources and allies
and friends and those that could help them, but from God Almighty, God Himself.
But you know, there's a New Testament equivalent to this besieging.
When we see, well, you'll find a lot in scripture that the Old Testament, you know, God, and
we're going to talk about this, God used a lot of different ways, diverse ways to be
able to punish people and destroy people.
One thing that he often did was he allowed a military to come in and besiege the city.
There's a New Testament equivalent to besieging a city.
And that is basically what we call today church discipline when we throw someone out of church.
You say, why?
Because if you think about it, the besieged city was cut off from everybody else, right?
No one was allowed to come in and fellowship with Jerusalem.
No one was allowed to come in and bring them food.
No one was allowed to company with Jerusalem.
No one was allowed to eat with Jerusalem.
No one could meet up with Jerusalem at Pete's Coffee.
Nobody could hang out with Jerusalem.
No one was besieged that was cut off by God.
And there's a similar punishment, I shouldn't say similar, but an equivalent punishment
to that, a spiritual equivalent to that in the New Testament, Matthew 18.
Look at verse 15.
Matthew 18 and verse 15 says this, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee,
go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
Notice it doesn't say between him and thee and Facebook, all right?
It says between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more than in the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.
But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Now what does he mean by that?
He means you treat him like he's not even saved, like he's not even part of the congregation,
like he's not even part of the church.
We won't take the time to go to all the passages, but in Romans 16, we're told to mark and avoid
those who bring in heresies and who bring in division, especially when it comes to doctrine
and to the church.
In 1 Corinthians 15, we're told that if you are into certain sins that you are to be kicked
out of church, not the company with a fornicator, not the company with a drunkard, with an extortioner.
And by the way, it's not that there's one mode of church discipline, those are the three
different modes of church discipline.
You can get kicked out for sin in your life, like 1 Corinthians 15 tells us, because you're
a drunkard, because you're a fornicator, because you're an extortioner, because you're
doing the things on that list.
Or you can get kicked out, like Romans 16 tells us, because you're causing divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine which we have learned.
So when you're bringing in damnable heresy or where you're bringing in any heresy into
a church and you're causing division, then we can mark you and avoid you.
That's getting kicked out.
Or Matthew 18, this is just an unresolved problem, a problem that will not get resolved,
a feud between two church members that will not be solved.
And we bring in witnesses, we try to do it, and at the end of the day, we have to look
at the individual that's judged as being in fault, as being a heathen man and a publican.
So a lot of times people don't understand church discipline, because they don't understand
that there's different facets, different applications, different reasons.
We throw someone out of here for saying that we shouldn't be soul owners, and they're like,
I didn't do anything in 1 Corinthians 15.
Yeah, but you're bringing in doctrine and teaching that is contrary to the doctrine
which you have been taught.
That's Romans 16.
So we mark you, we say your name out loud, we identify you publicly, and then we avoid
you.
Here in Matthew 18, this is only if there is a personal beef, a personal feud between
two church members, because he says, if thy brother shall try his best against thee, then
he gives you the steps to throw someone out of church.
But at the end of the day, the entire church, he's just telling them to the church, but
if he neglects to hear the church, let him be unto thee as in heathen and as a publican.
Now here's what I want you to understand.
Remember in Ezekiel, they were physically cut off from the people, but then they were
also cut off spiritually from God, because Ezekiel took the iron pan and hid his faith
from the people.
Well, when it comes to church discipline, they're physically cut off from the congregation.
You're supposed to avoid them and not go out to dinner with them, not hang out with
them, not be around them.
But you know what?
God also spiritually cuts them off.
Notice verse 18, verily I say unto you, and I want you to understand, verse 18 is in context
of verse 17 and 16 and 15 and so forth, right?
So in verses 15 through 17, we're told about how to one facet of church discipline, and
then God says this, when you throw someone out of church, when you let him be as in heathen
and as in publican, verse 18, he says, verily I say unto you, this is Jesus speaking, whatsoever
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall
be loose in heaven.
Here's what God's saying.
When you throw them out of fellowship on earth, God says, I'll throw them out of fellowship
in heaven.
If you bind them on earth, I'll bind it in heaven.
And when you loosen it on earth, I'll loosen it in heaven.
And here's what I want you to understand.
When someone gets kicked out of church, they are living under the curse of God.
They are living under the curse and the judgment of God, because until they get that right
with the church that they, you know, trespass against, so the church that threw them out,
God says, hey, what you bind on earth, I'll bind in heaven.
And what you loose on earth, you'll loose in heaven.
And you say, well, what's the evidence of that?
Oh, how about this?
Why don't you just look at everybody that gets thrown out of church?
I mean, they're all a bunch of losers.
And here's what's funny is they become bigger losers after getting thrown out of church.
It's funny how they all kind of find each other.
And it's like one guy gets thrown out of church for being something stupid, thinking we're
supposed to go, I don't know, take over the government or whatever.
You can't get them to show up during the Orlando protests.
They're all scared out of their minds, calling me the Saturday night before the Orlando protests.
You know, I have to like talk them through it.
But then they're calling me a coward because I don't want to take up arms against them,
you know, whatever.
How that works, I don't know.
But you know, we throw them out of that.
But then they're hanging out with all these oneness people, right?
And it's like, man, you just all, like it doesn't matter what they get thrown out of
church.
They all end up just believing all sorts of, they're all flat earthers, they're all oneness,
they're all this or that.
You say, why is that?
Because they're living under the curse of God.
Because they're not living in the blessing of God.
And you know, somebody recently, brother Oliver just recently texted me or emailed me a link
to a video.
And now these losers, they're having like these panel discussions.
They're having like these online panel discussions where they're like talking about our churches,
you know.
It's really hilarious to me because, you know, they'll introduce someone and they're like,
tell us a little bit about yourself.
And look, when you're asked for your credentials and the only credentials you have are, I got
kicked out of Verity Baptist Church, you're a loser.
You know, when I get interviewed and people are like, Pastor Jimenez, tell us about yourself.
You know, I talk about the fact that we started church eight years ago.
You know, we started at our living room.
Our church is averaging like 150, 160 now.
We average 70 to 80 soul winners.
We started a church in Vancouver.
We started church in Boise.
We're starting church in Manila.
You know, I might talk about the fact that I've been featured in multiple documentaries
or that we've made our own documentary.
We're working on our next documentary.
We talk about the fact that, you know, we've fought these battles and we've been part of
merit.
You know, we talk about the things that we've done.
You ask these guys, tell us a little about yourself and they're like, well, you know,
I got kicked out of Verity Baptist Church, Sacramento.
And then the next guy is like, yeah, I got kicked out of Verity Vancouver.
It's like, look, when the only thing you've ever done in life that's worth anyone caring
about is that you had an interaction with Pastor Jimenez where he threw you out, you're
a loser.
You're living under the curse of God.
I mean, you should be ashamed of yourself, you know, when that's all you've got.
That's your, you know, claim to fame.
Your claim to fame is Verity Baptist Church kicked me out because I was such an idiot.
That's the, you know, that's the proof for what's been bound on earth has been bound
in heaven.
That these people are just living like a bunch of losers.
And you say, when will they be stopped?
When will they stop being losers?
Here's when.
When will we lose it on earth?
God will lose it in heaven.
Say, when will we lose it on earth?
Well, I got no plans of losing anything for a while.
So we see their severed position.
The judgment of God, you know, there's an iron wall between these people and God where
God will not listen.
But number two, go back to Ezekiel chapter four.
Ezekiel chapter four.
You know, my thing is this.
If you guys are so wonderful and we're so terrible, why don't you go do something?
I mean, why don't you go build some huge soul winning, you know, movement that's reaching
people with the gospel?
Tell us a little bit about yourself before we get your thoughts on X doctrine or this
doctrine.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Well, you know, after last year's Red Hot preaching conference, I got kicked out of
Verity Baptist Church.
It's like, really?
That's all you got, huh?
Ezekiel chapter four.
Look at verse four.
My thou alsoed upon thy left side.
So remember, Ezekiel's told to lay a tile and portray a city, and he builds his little
military encampment around it, and he puts an iron pan to picture and portray God's relationship
with these people.
So we see, number one, their severed position.
But I'd like you to notice, secondly tonight, I'd like you to notice not only the people's
severed position, but the people's striking preacher.
Now you say, what do you mean by striking?
Well, what I mean by that is that he's very good at attracting attention.
He's good at attracting attention by being unusual, extreme, or prominent.
Basically, everything that the people that get kicked out of our churches are not.
And I want you to notice that Ezekiel's told to do some very unusual things, some extreme
things, some things that make him prominent and known really well in the community.
Notice what he's told to do, verse four.
Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it,
according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.
For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days
of their iniquity, 390 days.
Okay, so God is telling him, look, every day is going to represent a year.
The years of their iniquity has been 390 years, and that's not talking necessarily just about
the days that they've been in captivity, but talking about all of the days that they've
been just sinning against God.
And Ezekiel is told to lay on his left side for 390 days.
Now if you're using a lunar calendar where every month is 30 days, that's 13 months.
That's over a year where Ezekiel is laying on his left side, so shalt thou bear the iniquity
of the house of Israel.
And when thou has accomplished them, so he says when the 390 days are done, he says lie
again on the right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days,
that's over a month, I have appointed thee each day for a year.
Notice verse 7, therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine
arms shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
Verse 8, and behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one
side to another, till thou has ended the days of thy sea.
So Ezekiel is supposed to lay on his left side for 390 days, and he was bound while
he was doing it, so that he could not move, so that he could not turn thee from one side
to another.
And then when that was done, he turned to the right side, and he did that for 40 days,
one to represent the house of Israel, one to represent the house of Judah.
And look, he's obviously doing this in a place where people can see him.
He's doing this in a place where maybe people are walking by.
And look, I promise you that the first day Ezekiel set up his little fort city with his
little toy soldiers, and his camp, and his military, and got it all ready.
And then he laid down, and he put a pan, probably did it on some sort of main street where people
would walk by.
I'm sure people would walk by, and they're like, OK, day one?
Well, that guy's always been weird, right?
Day two?
Day three?
Day four?
Day five?
Day six?
So he's still there?
I mean, I'm sure by day seven, day 14, day 21, I'm sure crowds are gathering.
How long is he going to do this for?
Is he OK?
Is he alive?
Is he breathing?
And he's doing this, and it's kind of this extreme drama, but he's doing it why?
To be striking, so that they would remember it.
So that they would, look, we as preachers, our job is to try to make, one thing I tell
our young guys that are preaching, or the guys that haven't preached as long, and I'm
trying to help them out.
And I say, look, you need to try to make the sermon memorable.
Need to try to make it memorable so that people will remember.
I promise you that all of you who were here at the Red Hot Preaching Conference on Friday
night when Brother Bruce Mejia was preaching, you will all remember Brother Alex laying
on the ground here with a cloth over him, right?
You're never going to forget that.
You won't even remember what the sermon's about, but you'll remember that.
You'll remember that Alex tried to get up, and he's like, get back down, or whatever
it was.
Because Brother Bruce and Ezekiel, they're doing this to try to make things memorable,
help people understand.
And it's kind of an extreme thing, I mean, 390 days on your left side, and 40 days on
your right side.
But here's what he's showing the people.
He's showing them, this is what's going to happen to you.
This is what God's going to do to you.
And Ezekiel was not the first of the prophets to use kind of an extreme drama to try to
portray or try to make his message memorable.
Go to Isaiah real quickly, Isaiah chapter 20.
Isaiah had to do something not similar, but something that was meant to be kind of shock
and awe, something that was meant to be memorable that people would never forget.
Isaiah chapter 20, let's look at what God asked Isaiah to do.
Isaiah chapter 20 and verse number 1.
Isaiah chapter 20 and verse 1 says this, in the year that Tartan came unto Ashtad, when
Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and fought against Ashtad and took it, at the same time
spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz saying, go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins
and put off thy shoe from thy foot, and he did so, notice what he says, walking naked
and barefoot.
Isaiah was told to take all his clothes off and to walk naked and barefoot.
And notice verse 3, and the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and
barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia, and this was an object
lesson that I promise you nobody ever forgot.
He walked around naked and barefoot for three years, and what was he showing?
He was showing the fact that those people were going to be taken into captivity, and
that they were going to be stripped down naked, and that they were going to have their shoes
removed, and they were going to have to walk into captivity in that way.
Let's keep reading.
So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian prisoners and the Ethiopians' captives
young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt.
So just in case you thought, was he really naked?
Yeah, he was really naked.
That's what the Bible said.
Now here's what I, and I'm not preaching on this tonight, I believe that Isaiah was around
places where only men were, because the Bible says it's a sin to uncover your nakedness
with the opposite sex.
It's not something that we as Christians should be doing, just uncovering our nakedness in
front of women, in front of men, or men in front of women.
Let me just explain something to you, because people get this idea like, oh, you can only
not uncover your nakedness in a sensual way.
But if it's medical, then women think, I can just pop out my breast in front of some
guy if it's medical.
You're not supposed to be naked in front of a man, period, ever.
So you got a male gynecologist, go get a midwife.
Go get a woman.
And you say, oh, well, it's OK for me to just flash everybody as long as it's not sensual.
No, it's not.
It's nakedness.
It's wrong.
It's shameful.
And Isaiah wasn't walking around, obviously, in front of ladies, naked and barefoot, with
his buttocks uncovered, like the Bible says.
I believe that he was doing this around males and around people that were men.
But even around males, it's not necessarily sinful, but it's shameful.
It's humiliating, and it's embarrassing.
But Isaiah was doing this because he was saying, look, you're putting your trust in Egypt.
You're putting your trust in Ethiopia.
You think they're going to come and save you, and they're going to be let away, naked and
barefoot, like this.
And they're like, we will never forget this sermon.
We will never forget this object lesson.
And look, these are some extreme examples.
Praise the Lord that we don't live in the dispensation of, I'm just kidding, we don't
believe in the dispensation, but the dispensation of dramatic object lessons of the prophets.
We're all thankful for that.
Here's what we learned, is that as preachers, our job is to be striking.
Go to Isaiah 58.
Our job is to try to make the message memorable.
Our job is to say things in a way and do things in a way that people will never forget.
Sometimes people ask me, well, why did you have to say it that way?
Why did you have to use the word piss, Pastor?
Because you'll never forget it, right?
Why do you have to say things?
That whole Orlando sermon, you could have said it differently.
But you know what?
The way it was said, you will never forget.
The way it was said, it will always be remembered.
Our job is to make the sermon, and even when it's not super controversial, our job is to
make sermons memorable.
You know, that's why.
You say, Pastor, why do you try to alliterate sermons, or why do you try to write sermons
in a way where the points are similar?
Why do you do those things?
Because I want you to remember, on Sunday morning, why did you repeat this phrase probably
a hundred times?
The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
Why did you repeat that over and over and over as you would make a point and make an
example and make an application, and we say the Lord is able to give ... You say, why
would you do that?
Here's why I would do that.
Because I'm hoping that there'll be a situation in your life where you've got to make a decision
where you've made an investment in the wrong thing, and I'm hoping that my scraggly voice,
because I'm losing my voice or whatever, that you'll hear it in your ear, the Lord is able
to give thee much more than this.
Our job is to make the message of God memorable.
So people will ... And it's just a lesson for young preachers.
You guys that want to be preachers, my goal when I stand up to preach is that you won't
forget what the sermon was about by the time you get to your car in the parking lot.
So we want to write it in a way, deliver it in a way, say it in a way, where people will
remember it.
When I say 58 in verse one, he's told by God, cry aloud, cry aloud.
The word cry means ... It's not cry like crying with weeping.
The word cry that we use in the King James Bible is the word weep.
Cry means to shout.
Cry aloud, spare not.
Notice what he says, lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
He's telling him, be loud.
Why?
People will remember.
So they'll take notice.
So they'll listen.
Even just when I'm preaching, I'll notice that sometimes you'll be yelling or doing
... And let me just tell some of you guys that want to be preachers.
You can do too much of any one thing.
You don't want to be the preacher that's just, oh, he's yelling all the time, not again.
Everything's at this point.
That gets old real fast.
And I've noticed, even with preaching, a lot of times I'll be speaking or I'll be loud
or yelling or whatever, and then I'll go from yelling to just speaking regular voice.
You know what happens whenever I do that?
All the heads come up.
Why?
Because people take notice.
Like, oh, what's going on?
And our job as a preacher, our job as pastors, our job as those of you that stand up to preach
behind the small place, is to make the sermon memorable, to be striking.
So cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
Use your voice in a way that will get the message out.
Not only that, use your body language to get the message out.
Go to Ezekiel chapter six.
Ezekiel chapter six.
Look at verse number 11.
Ezekiel chapter six and verse 11.
Ezekiel chapter six and verse 11, notice what he says, thus saith the Lord God.
He says, smite with thy hand.
What does that mean?
That means this.
That means he's telling him, use your body, smite with thy hand, stomp with thy foot,
and say, alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall
by the sword, by the famine, and by the vessels.
What does God do?
God is telling the preachers here that they are to deliver their sermons.
They are to deliver their message.
They are to use illustrations.
They are to use their body language.
They are to use their voice.
They are to use whatever they have available to communicate the word of God.
And look, I'm just trying to help you.
That's what a good preacher does.
Let me just explain something to you, all right?
In September, I'll have been pastoring this church for eight years.
And after eight years, you know what you find?
You find that you've got eight years worth of Mother's Day sermons, eight years worth
of Father's Day sermons.
See, if I would have fell right there, you would have never forgot that.
You've got eight years worth of Christmas sermons and eight years worth of Family Friend
Day sermons.
You've got eight years worth of Easter sermons.
And here's the problem with that, is that every year, every year, Jesus resurrects from
the grave.
You know, David slays Goliath every time.
You know what I'm saying?
The walls of Jericho fall.
The stories are the same.
They don't change.
So what do you have to do, Pastor?
What we have to do is dress that thing up.
We have to deliver the same truth.
And by the way, it's always, you know, the King James Bible.
It's always soul winning.
It's always prayer.
It's always tithing.
It's always no pants on women.
It's always no long hair on men.
It's always the same thing.
You say, you know, we just deliver the same truth over and over and over and over again.
But how do we do it?
We just try to, you know, deliver it in a unique way.
So you know, when we've already preached every sermon we can think of that has to do with
reprobates, then we study psychopathy and we preach it with the psychopathy twist.
Or you study garbage men, whatever, you know, and you preach it as trash people or whatever,
you know.
You deliver the same truth in a different way.
Why?
So people will remember it.
So it'll be memorable.
So that people, because look, our job is to communicate the Word of God.
So we not only see in the story their severed position, the people's severed position, we
also see their striking preacher.
We see a preacher who's willing to take time and put energy into an illustration, into
a thought, into a way to deliver something that will help them to remember.
Go to Job chapter 31.
Job chapter 31.
Keep your finger on Job 31 and go with me.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter 4.
Actually, just go to Job 31.
When I was up in Boise a couple of weeks ago or several weeks ago, I was with the family
up there, one of the main families, Brother Chris and Ms. Lindsey Nicostro up there who
are helping with getting things organized and things up there.
And when I was, we were having dinner together and I was having dinner with Brother Chris
and his wife and Ms. Lindsey said something because she was here.
She was here during the Slaying Goliath series.
They had been visiting during the Slaying Goliath series.
And she was here for the sermon that was called The Next Generation of Giant Slayers.
And in that sermon, I talked about how you are raising the next generation of giant slayers.
She was telling me how she really appreciated the sermon because she'd heard that story
hundreds of times, heard all sorts of sermons out of that, but she said that it resonated
with her.
Even as she was raising her kids now, she often thinks, I'm raising the next generation
of giant slayers.
I'm raising the next generation of giant slayers.
So if you ever get upset with me because maybe I'm being a little too repetitive or I'm reviewing
phrases too much or saying things too much, what I'm trying to do is to get that truth
just down in your heart so that you say, Pastor, why are you doing that?
I'm not doing it so you will tell me it's a great sermon, although I always appreciate
when you tell me it's a great sermon.
I'm not doing it for that reason.
I'm trying to get that thought just rammed into your mind and into your heart so that
at the time that you least want to remember, it will pop into your head, I'm raising the
next generation of giant slayers.
So at the time when you least want to remember, you'll remember the Lord is able to give you
much more than this.
So that at the time that you least want to remember, young people will remember, I better
not touch that alcohol, I better not get into that car, I better not make that decision.
Why?
Because I reap what I sow or whatever it might be.
Our job as preachers is to try to make an impression, make the sermon memorable, help
people remember.
Are you there in Job 31?
Let me give you point number three.
We saw number one tonight.
We saw the people's severed position, and we saw secondly the people's striking preacher.
But I'd like you to notice, lastly tonight, just in this chapter, we see the people's
strange punishment.
We see the people's strange punishment, and I'm stealing a little bit of this from Brother
Peter from New Jersey who preached on Sunday night here at a church.
But I want you to notice Job 31 in verse three.
He went to this verse on Sunday night.
Job 31 in verse three, the Bible says this, is not destruction to the wicked and strange
punishment to the workers of iniquity?
The Bible says, is not destruction to the wicked and strange punishment to the workers
of iniquity?
You remember on Sunday night, Brother Peter preached a sermon about strange punishment
and how God punishes people strangely.
And we see that in Ezekiel chapter four.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter four, look at verse nine.
Ezekiel chapter four, we see the strange punishment.
As Ezekiel is laying there next to his toy Ford soldier thing, been laying there for
days and days and days and days and days, showing that their relationship has been severed
not only from other people but from God himself, making the striking dramatic presentation
that people will remember.
He's also teaching them of this strange punishment.
Look at verse nine, Ezekiel chapter four, verse nine, the Bible says this, take thou
also unto thee wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and fiches and put
them in one vessel.
So he takes all the food and put it in one vessel and make thee bread thereof according
to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety
days shall thou eat thereof and thy meat which thou shalt eat, notice what he says, shall
be by weight.
So he's only allowed to eat a certain amount every day.
He is allowed a certain portion, twenty shekels a day from time to time shall thou eat it.
Notice verse 11, thou shalt drink of the water by measure.
So not only was the food only allowed by weight but the water was only allowed by measure,
the sixth part of an hen from time to time shall thou drink.
So the entire time that Ezekiel is laying on his side doing this picture sermon, he's
also limited in what he can eat, he's only allowed to eat a certain amount, he's only
allowed to drink a certain amount, you say why is he doing this?
Because this is what will be happening during the siege, these people will not be allowed
to eat, their eating will be limited.
You say okay that's strange, it gets stranger, look at verse 12, and thou shalt eat it as
barley cakes and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man in their sight.
Look if you think the Bible is boring you've never read the Bible.
He's telling him I want you to bake it with dung that cometh out of the man.
Now he's not telling him to eat the dung that comes out of a man, he's just telling him
to use the dung that comes out of a man as fuel to bake this food.
And here's the truth, during a real siege people will do much worse than that.
They will eat dung of animals, they will eat dung of humans, they will eat humans themselves.
The Bible tells of that and there's even records in scripture where women were killing, boiling
their own children and eating them in this siege and God has really taken it to an extreme
here with Ezekiel and he says I want you to bake it with dung that cometh out of man in
their sight.
Now Ezekiel makes an objection, look at verse 13, and don't fault Ezekiel because I would
have objected a long time, I would have objected like back in verse 2, but look at verse 13,
verse 12 excuse me, and thou shalt eat it as a barley cakes and thou shalt bake it with
dung that cometh out of man in their sight, verse 13.
And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the
Gentiles, whether I will drive them, then said I, so here's Ezekiel's objection, Ah
Lord God, behold, my soul had not been polluted, for from my youth up even till now have I
not eaten that which diet of itself or is torn in pieces, neither came there abominable
flesh into my mouth.
If you remember Ezekiel was a priest who had been living his life through the Levitical
dietary laws and I want you to notice he's not objecting like oh that's nasty or oh that's
not going to taste good.
He's concerned with defiling and polluting himself, he's saying I've never ate anything
that died of itself, that is torn in pieces, or anything that's abominable flesh.
And he makes this objection and you know God has pity on him because in verse 15 the
Bible says, then he said unto me, lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and
thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
So then he's allowed to substitute human dung for cow dung and use that, but he had to use
the cow dung, you know, and again, think of these people, they're walking by Ezekiel.
I mean it's two months into this thing, three months into this thing, five months into this
thing, six months into this thing, he's laying there on one side with a city hiding his face
eating his, you know, small amount of food that he's allowed and the small amount that
he's allowed, he's baking it with cow's dung and he's letting everybody know like yeah
but this represents man's dung, you know, and it's a strange punishment that Brother
Peter was teaching us about on Sunday night where God, look, God has a diversity of ways
to bring punishment upon you.
Go to Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy chapter 28, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 28, look at verse 20, Deuteronomy 28 is a huge chapter, we're not going to take
time to read everything, but let me just show you some things.
God has many ways to punish you.
God has many ways to punish me.
In Deuteronomy 28, we kind of get a feel for this.
Now in the beginning of the chapter, God gives us all of his blessings, he talks about all
the blessings that he wants to give his people, but in Deuteronomy 28, by the time we get
to verse 20, he's talking about the curses, notice what he says in verse 20, the Lord
shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, and all that thou settest thine hand
unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly because of the wickedness
of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me.
The Lord, notice what he says, shall make the pestilence to cleave unto thee until he
have consumed thee from off the land, whether thou goest to possess it.
The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation,
and with an extreme burning, and with a sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they
shall pursue thee until thou perish.
I think God is getting more descriptive there.
He's saying, I'm going to give you a fever, an inflammation, an extreme burning, he said
I'll send the sword, I'll send the blasting, I'll send mildew.
Skip down to verse 27, notice what he says, the Lord will smite thee with the botch of
Egypt, and with the emerods, remember in 1 Samuel the Philistines got emerods, in case
you don't understand the very difficult King James Bible, that's talking about hemorrhoids.
And he says with emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not
be healed, and the Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of
heart, and thou shalt grope at noontay, as the blind grope within darkness, and thou
shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and
no man shall save thee.
Notice verse 52, and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, this is the punishment that
Ezekiel's talking about, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustest
throughout all thy land, and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land,
which the Lord thy God hath given thee, notice verse 53, and thou shalt eat the fruit of
thine own body, saying you'll eat your own children, the flesh of thy sons and of thy
daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege and the straightness, wherewith
thine enemies shall distress thee.
Go to Romans, just real quickly, Romans chapter number 7, say, Pastor Jimenez, why are you
reading that?
Romans chapter 7, look at verse 13, we're almost done, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts,
Romans.
Romans chapter 7, look at verse 13, remember we were talking about making the message memorable,
striking an impression, impressionable, want you to remember it?
One way that that's done, Romans 7, 13, notice what the Bible says, was then that which is
good made death unto me?
God forbid, notice what Paul says, he says, but sin, that it might appear sin, working
death in me, by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become, notice
what he says, exceeding sinful.
The apostle Paul says, one of the things that I tried to do with my teaching and preaching
is to not just preach sin, look, it's not enough to just preach sin, it's also important
how it's preached, it's not enough to say, well, that's bad, that's not what God wants,
but we are to make an impression on people's lives, why?
So they might see sin as exceeding sinful, so they might, so look, I'm not gonna get
up here and say, hey, you kids, don't sleep around and fornicate, cause that's not good.
You know what I'm gonna get up here and say, I'm gonna say, hey, hey, you kids, you wanna
have a scab and an itch, do you wanna have a fever and inflammation, do you wanna have
blasting and mildew, do you wanna have M rods?
Sleep around, you wanna get some disease, you wanna get AIDS, you wanna get all sorts
of just vexation and pestilence that you cannot get healed, you say, Pastor, why would you
say that?
Because that will make an impression, cause that will be memorable, cause hopefully kids
will realize it's not fun to sleep around, it's dirty, it's filthy, God designed a man
to be with one woman for his whole life, and when you sleep around and you get disease,
you wanna have all these disease, this is what God tries to do, and look, by the time
you're in the emergency room with all these diseases, that's not the time to try to get
right with God, because there'll be a wall of iron between you and him.
So you know, it's better to not get down this road, people say, oh, when you live the
Christian life, you know it's so restrictive, no, when you live the Christian life, you
have freedom, the people that are restricted are the homeless people out there with their
diseases and their drugs and their alcohol, that's what sin does, the way of the transgression
is hard, you say, why do you preach like this, to make it memorable, cause maybe, just maybe
we can save some kid, maybe, just maybe we can save some teenager from making the wrong
decisions.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter four, Ezekiel chapter four, we saw the people's severed position,
we saw the people's striking preacher, we saw the people's strange punishment, I'd just
like you to notice just lastly, just real quickly, and I'm out of time, but, I want
you to notice God's supreme providence, I want you to notice how this chapter ends and
the idea, Ezekiel 4 16, he says, moreover, he said unto me, son of man, behold, I will
break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care,
and they shall drink water by measure, and with, what is this word, astonishment.
They were surprised, they were astonished, but God said I warned you, look at verse 17,
that they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume a
way for their iniquity.
Go back to Deuteronomy 28, if you kept your place there, Deuteronomy 28, let me just show
you something real quickly, Deuteronomy 28, what have we done, Deuteronomy 28, look at
verse 15, but it shall come to pass, remember this was a chapter with all the cursings,
but it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day,
that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, look at verse 16, cursed
shall thou be in the city, and cursed shall thou be in the field.
God said, it doesn't matter where you go, my curse will follow you, you'll be cursed
in the city, you'll be cursed in the field, look at verse 17, cursed shall be thy basket
and thy store, I don't care where you bank, I don't care where your 401k is, I don't care
where your savings account is, it'll be cursed, your basket and your store, look at verse
18, cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, talking about your children, and the fruit
of thy land, the increase of thy kind and of thy flock, that's talking about your income,
of thy sheep, look at verse 19, cursed shall thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shall
thou be when thou goest out, again, you can't run from the curse of God, you can run from
this church and get backslitted and say, well, I'll get away from Pastor Jimenez and I'll
get away from that type of preaching and I don't like that, you can go ahead and run
from us, but you're not gonna run away from the curse of God, cursed shall thou be when
thou comest in and when thou goest out, look at verse 23, and thy heaven that is over thy
head shall be brass, there's two applications there, one is that iron pan, where God says
your prayers aren't coming up, and he says, and the earth that is under thee shall be
iron, this is talking about God's protection and God's providence in our lives, his providing
for us, look at verse 24, the Lord shall make the reign of thy land powder and dust that
is under thee from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed, verse 25,
the Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies, thou shall go out one way against
them and flee seven ways before them and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of
the earth and thy carcass shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air and unto the beast
of the earth and no man shall fray them away.
Pastor Jimenez, what do you mean by, we learn here about God's supreme providence, here's
what I mean by that, God is in control of everything in your life, everything around
your life, everything that your life is.
It's his providence, it's his provision, his supreme provision in our lives.
Listen to me, if God doesn't allow the rain to come, you don't eat.
If God doesn't allow the ground to grow, fruit, you don't eat.
God is the one in control of your income, God is the one in control of your finances,
God is the one in control of your health, God is the one in control of your children's
health, God is the one in control of your relationships, God is the one who's in control
of your prosperity, it is God who is in control.
Now listen to me, I don't believe that our job is to go around like Job's friends when
things are not going well in somebody else's life.
I don't think our job is to judge that individual because we don't know what God is doing in
their lives.
Just because bad things happen, that doesn't mean that it's God's judgment.
In fact, in September after family and friend day, we're going to spend three weeks studying
and looking at this idea of when bad things happen to good people and what we can learn
from that.
But let me say this, when bad things happen in your life, we shouldn't judge others.
But when bad things happen in my life, the first thing I better do is look up to God
and say, God, are you trying to get my attention?
Because it is your supreme providence that I need in my life.
And if my kids are sick, my wife is sick, I'm sick.
If I can't find the job, if things are just not going, if the rain's not coming, if the
harvest isn't coming in, if there's something, there may be something else.
There may be a Job situation going on, but you know who would know that?
Job would.
And you know who would know that?
You would.
So just realize, realize that God is a diversity of punishment and sometimes God punishes and
He punishes and He punishes and He's trying to get our attention.
So are you responding?
Matthew 5.45 says this, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven,
for He maketh the sun to rise.
I love that phrase.
For He maketh the sun to rise.
I know I'm going to get emails from flat earthers.
For He maketh the earth to rise.
I'm just kidding.
They maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust.
It is God's providence.
Remember, it is God who gives you the power to get well.
Don't forget that.
Remember on Sunday we talked about, as Christians we don't play by the same rules.
There's that God factor.
There's that supreme providence of God that He can use as He wills in the punishment of
man.
That's why I heard tonight a word of prayer.