Amen.
All right, we're there in Ezekiel chapter 43.
And we've been going through the book of Ezekiel, of course,
on Wednesday nights for a long time now.
There are 48 chapters in Ezekiel,
and we've been taking one chapter every week.
And we find ourselves in the 43rd chapter.
And if you remember, I didn't preach last week.
I had brother Jared preach last week while I was out of town.
But if you remember, this last section, chapters 40 through 48
are probably the most debated, most confusing chapters
in the book of Ezekiel.
The book of Ezekiel's already probably
one of the, if not the, toughest book in the Bible.
And then we are in the section that is the toughest
of the entire book.
And it deals with this temple that Ezekiel is describing.
And if you remember, there are four major theories
to this temple.
I don't agree with any of them.
And people who do aren't bad people.
Some of these are good people who believe these things.
But I don't ascribe to either one of these theories.
And what we've been doing is I've
been going through, taking one theory a week,
and kind of showing you why it is that I don't believe that.
So if you remember in chapter 41,
we talked about the theory of the temple being symbolic
and not literal.
And then last time we were together, we talked about,
we answered the question, is Ezekiel's temple fulfilled
in Ezra's temple or Zerubboth's temple
that they built when they came back after the captivity?
Tonight, we're going to answer this question,
is Ezekiel's temple the temple of the eternal state?
So if you remember, this is a very difficult passage,
especially to try to preach through,
because it's just a lot of description.
And you're just getting measurements.
And we're told about this door and that gate and these things.
So what we've been doing is we've
been having just kind of this three-step approach
on Wednesday nights.
We're going to keep doing this till we're done with Ezekiel.
The first is I just give you a quick outline.
And I'm going to give you a very quick outline tonight,
because we're going to try to move quickly
since we've got a potluck.
And we want, of course, to be able to say goodbye
to the Pozarnskis and all of that.
And then what we've been doing in step two
is we've been taking a theory every week.
And we've been kind of dismantling it and showing you
why I don't believe it.
So this week, we'll look at the eternal state theory.
Next week, we'll look at the millennial reign theory.
And then the week after that, Brother Stuckey will be here.
He'll be preaching.
So you have to wait.
But after Brother Stuckey leaves,
then I will give you my theory or what I think about it
and what I believe about it.
And then, of course, we try to end every sermon
with some sort of a practical application.
So we'll make sure you do that tonight as well.
All right, so if you're taking notes
and you want to write down just kind of a basic outline
for this chapter, you can divide it into two sections.
The first section is the glory of God
comes to Ezekiel's temple.
And this should sound familiar, because we actually
read about it earlier in the book of Ezekiel
with the glory of God leaving the temple.
In verses 1 and 2, you find the glory of the Lord
comes through the eastern gate.
Look at verse 1.
The Bible says, afterward, he brought me,
this is Ezekiel speaking, to the gate, even the gate that
looketh toward the east.
And notice he's at the eastern gate.
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel
came from the way of the east.
And his voice was like the noise of many waters.
And the earth shined with his glory.
And I don't have time to develop that.
But if you remember, whenever you look at the appearances
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament,
and his glorified body in the book of Revelation,
also we have Daniel give us an appearance.
It always talks about his voice being like many waters,
or like rushing waters.
In verse 3, we see Ezekiel identifying the glory of God.
Verse 3 says, and it was according
to the appearance of the vision which I saw.
Because in Ezekiel chapter 11, he already saw a vision.
Remember the cherubims?
And he saw the glory of God coming down.
So he says that this is the same glory.
It's the same God.
It's the same appearance.
It was according to the appearance of the vision, which
I saw, even according to the vision
that I saw when I came to destroy the city.
Remember, it was a negative vision then,
because he got a tour of the temple, the one that
was there at his time.
And we saw all the abominations and all the idolatry.
And we saw the glory of the Lord depart from that temple.
This is a positive with the glory of the Lord coming back.
Notice verse 4.
And if you're taking notes, verses 4 and 9
is basically God's claim to the temple and to the nation.
Notice verse 4.
The Bible says, and the glory of the Lord came into the house
by the way of the gate, whose prospect is toward the east.
So the Spirit took me and brought me into the inner court.
And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
And I heard him, referring to the Lord,
speaking unto me out of the house.
And the man stood by me.
Then he said unto me, son of man, the place,
notice what he says, the place of my throne
and the place of the soles of my feet
where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel
forever.
And my holy name shall be the house of Israel,
no more defiled, neither they nor their kings,
by their whoredoms, nor by the carcasses of their kings
in their high places.
Look down at the last part of verse 9.
He says, I will dwell in the midst of them forever.
So we see God kind of taking ownership here.
And he's saying, look, this is my throne
and where the soles of my feet are going to dwell.
He said, you're not going to defile anymore.
It's going to be mine.
And I will dwell in the midst of them forever.
In verses 10 through 12, we see God's purpose
for Ezekiel's temple.
We're going to revisit this in another sermon.
But notice verse 10, he says, thou son of man,
show the house to the house of Israel.
He said, why did God spend all these chapters describing
this temple?
He did it because he wanted Ezekiel to show the house
to the house of Israel, that they
may be ashamed of their iniquities
and let them measure the patterns.
He said, look, I'm giving all this description
about this temple because I want Ezekiel to write it down.
I want Ezekiel to tell the people about it.
Notice verse 11, and if they shall
be ashamed of all that they have done,
show them the form of the house.
He said, show them this house that I have planned for them.
Look at verse 12.
This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountains.
The whole limit there round about shall be most holy.
Behold, this is the law of the house.
So that's the first section of the chapter.
The second section deals with the altar and the offerings
that are offered on that altar.
So verses 13 through 17 are the measurements of the altar.
We've seen a lot of that, so we won't take a lot of time
with that, but notice verse 13.
And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits.
And he goes through and starts giving you the measurements.
In verse 14, he says, and from the bottom upon the ground,
even to the lower settles, shall be two cubits.
Notice the wording here has to do with measurements.
And the breadth, one cubit, and from the lesser settle,
even to the greater settle, shall be four cubits.
And the breadth, one cubit.
Notice verse 15, so the altar, he's talking about the altar.
Notice verse 17, he says, and the settle
shall be 14 cubits long and 14 broad.
So he's giving just measurements.
Verses 18 through 27, it talks about the consecration
of the altar and how they cleanse the altar
and how they prepare it to be able to sacrifice unto the Lord.
And again, I won't spend a lot of time on this,
but notice verse 18.
And he said unto me, son of man, thus saith the Lord God,
these are the ordinances of the altar, in the day
when they shall make it to offer burnt offerings thereon,
to sprinkle blood thereon, and thou
shall give to the priest the Levites
to be of the seed of Zadok.
And if you read through the end of the chapter there,
you'll see that it talks about taking the blood,
taking the bullock, burning it, cleansing the altar,
offering a kid, making an end to cleanse it,
talking about offering before the Lord.
Notice verse 27, and when these days are expired,
it shall be that upon the eighth day and so forth,
the priest shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar
and your peace offerings.
And I will accept you, saith the Lord God.
So that's a quick outline of just kind
of what you're seeing there.
We read the whole chapter before the sermon,
so you can have that for your notes if you'd like.
Now let's jump into the theory.
And the theory that we're dealing with this week
is Ezekiel's temple, the temple of the eternal state.
Now let me just kind of refresh your memory
if you don't remember what that means.
And if you remember, the end times prophecy timeline
of this world is going to basically,
after we have a time of tribulation,
we will have the rapture.
Then we will have the wrath of God.
After the wrath of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
will basically establish his kingdom after,
if you remember, the Battle of Armageddon.
We have the judgment seat of Christ.
We've got the millennial reign of Christ.
This is all things we've covered in the book of Ezekiel
on Wednesday night, so I'm going kind of quickly
since you've already heard this.
And then at the end of the millennial reign,
we have the Battle of Gog and Magog.
We've got the great white throne.
Remember, the millennial reign is bookended
by two judgments and two battles.
And then after the great white throne,
we go into what's known as the eternal state.
So the millennial reign, during that time,
believers who were part of the rapture
will be in their glorified bodies.
You and I will be ruling and reigning with Christ
in our glorified bodies.
But there will still be mortal human beings
upon the earth that are still being born,
that are still getting married,
that are still having children
during that millennial reign time.
But after the great white throne,
we go into what's known as the eternal state.
Everyone has been judged.
They're either in heaven or in hell.
They're either, you know, they're gonna be in hell
for all of eternity, or they're going to be
in their glorified bodies for all of eternity.
There's no more mortal man.
There's no more death.
There's none of that.
And what some people will say is that Ezekiel's temple
is that temple, not during the millennial reign,
but during the eternal state.
And they'll reference back to some things in Revelation,
and there are definitely some similarities
that we see there.
But you say, you know, what's our position on that?
What do we believe about that?
Well, my position is that this is not the temple
of the eternal state,
and I'll just quickly explain to you why.
The first reason is this.
Ezekiel's temple, the one we're reading about
in Ezekiel 40 through 48,
is a physical building that God inhabits.
In fact, that's what we're reading about in chapter 43.
We've already spent chapters 40, 41, and 42
touring the temple, looking at all the windows,
looking at all the doors, getting all the measurements.
You know, those riveting chapters we've been dealing with,
they bring a tear to your eye, right,
when you're reading about the cubits and the reeds
and all those different things.
We've already toured the temple.
Now what we're seeing in chapter 43
is God coming and his glory indwelling that temple,
just like Solomon's temple of old,
when Solomon built it,
the glory of the Lord came into the temple.
That's what we see here in Ezekiel 43.
Look at it again, verse four, Ezekiel 43 and verse four.
And the glory of the Lord came into the house.
By the way of the gate, whose prospect is toward the east,
so the Spirit took me up, notice what it says,
and brought me into the inner core,
and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
What we're reading about in Ezekiel 43
is this massive physical temple,
and God's glory is coming into this physical building,
this complex, and his glory is filling it,
and he is basically taking ownership of it,
and he's letting the people know that he approves of it,
that this is his house, and that he will dwell in it.
Now keep your place here in Ezekiel 43,
that's our text for tonight.
Go with me to the book of Revelation, Revelation 21.
You say, why could this not be the temple
of the eternal state?
We're talking about after the millennial reign.
Now next week, we're gonna talk about
whether this is the temple of the millennial reign.
And the reason I left that one for last
is because that's probably the most popular theory
among everybody, especially Baptists.
That's the, usually the theory that people take
is that Ezekiel is referring to
the temple of the millennial reign,
and I'll show you next week why that can't be.
But people will say, well no,
it's not the one in the millennial reign,
but it's the eternal state.
It's not the one while mortal man continues to live,
but it's the one in the new heaven,
the new earth, the new Jerusalem.
So let's read about that eternal state,
Revelation 21, look at verse one.
Now when you get to Revelation 21,
we're already past the millennial reign,
we're past Gog and Magog, we're past all of that.
Notice verse one.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
So it's not the earth that you and I live on right now.
It'll be this earth, but it's gonna be transformed.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth
for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven.
And usually when you and I think of heaven
and we talk about the streets of gold and the pearly gates,
what we're actually referring to is new Jerusalem.
There's nothing wrong with calling it heaven,
but this is what we're referring to.
That's what that description is.
It's that holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Notice verse 13.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
I want you to notice, saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man
and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God.
Now that terminology of God dwelling with them
and God will be with them and they shall dwell with them.
We actually saw that in Ezekiel 43
and that's usually terminology that's connected
to the new covenant,
which I don't have time to develop tonight.
We've talked in depth about it in the past
and we're going to talk about it a lot next week.
But of course we've got the old covenant
or the old Testament.
And then we've got the new covenant
or the new Testament that Jesus Christ
brought this new covenant into existence
and it was better than the old covenant.
We read about that in the millennial reign.
We read about that in new Testament writings.
We read about that even in this eternal state
where the tabernacle of God is with men.
Now that term tabernacle,
all of that is referring to the same thing
and it's this idea of a temple.
And here's the point, when Moses built the tabernacle,
the actual building that was made out of tents,
that was called in the old Testament a temple.
And when Solomon built a physical temple
with walls and with a foundation and with all those things,
that's even referred to as a tabernacle.
It's all being referred to as the same thing.
So here people say, see, when new Jerusalem comes down,
coming down with it is this tabernacle of God
and it says that the tabernacle of God is with men
and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God.
So people say, well, look, this must be Ezekiel's temple.
This must be that tabernacle that Ezekiel is sick
that is coming down in the eternal state.
Now here's the problem with that.
Look at verse 22, same chapter, Revelation 21, verse 22.
Notice what John says.
He says, and I saw, Revelation 21, 22.
He says, and I saw no temple therein.
You say, well, wait a minute,
he just told us he saw a tabernacle.
And now he's telling us he doesn't see a temple
in the new Jerusalem, in the new, in the eternal state.
You say, well, what's going on?
Notice, and I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
So I want you to notice that in the eternal state,
when the tabernacle of God comes down
and the Bible says that he will dwell with them
and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God,
that's not a physical temple
because later John tells us
that there's no temple therein.
You say, well, what are you talking about, John,
when he tells us a tabernacle came down?
He's like, look, that's God Almighty God
and the Lamb himself.
He says, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the temple of it.
So you say, will there be a temple in the eternal state?
The answer is yes.
Will it be an actual physical building?
The answer is no, it's God himself.
God will be the temple.
And look, it's not that hard to understand that
when you realize that in the New Testament,
you and I are called the temple of God.
Our bodies are called the temple.
So a temple is not always a physical,
and our bodies are called a tabernacle as well.
It's not always a physical place.
So when people say, well, I think Ezekiel's temple
must be that temple of the eternal state,
there's a problem with that
because Ezekiel's temple is an actual building
with doors and windows and stories and, you know,
stairs and things like that.
In the eternal state, there is a tabernacle, but it's God.
God himself, the Lord God Almighty,
and the Lamb are the temple.
There is no temple therein.
So we don't take heed to the theory that Ezekiel's temple
is fulfilled in the eternal state
because there is a temple in the eternal state,
but it's God.
God himself is the temple,
and there is no physical temple during that time.
Got it?
All right, well, let's go back to Ezekiel 43,
and let me give you one quick practical application.
You say, why are you moving fast?
Because you can smell food, and my time is limited
because some of you I've already lost, and that's fine.
But let me give you an application, and we'll be done.
In Ezekiel 43, we see this idea
that the glory of the Lord departs and returns.
That's what we're reading about in chapter 43 is the return.
Look at verse three again.
And it was according to the appearance
of the vision which I saw.
Ezekiel's referring to the fact that he already saw
the glory of God in Ezekiel 10, but he saw it departing
even according to the vision that I saw
when I came to destroy the city.
It was a negative prophecy,
and the visions were like the visions
that I saw by the River Kibar, and I fell upon my face.
Now let's look at this, what it is that Ezekiel saw
back the first time when he saw this vision
and he saw the glory of God.
Go back to Ezekiel chapter 10, look at verse 18.
Notice what he, and we can preach a whole sermon,
in fact, I preached a whole sermon out of Ezekiel 10.
I won't take the time to do that tonight,
but I'll just show you real quickly
what he's referring to, Ezekiel 10, verse 18.
If you remember, Ezekiel is in the land of Babylon.
He's in Shinar, he's by the River Kibar.
The Bible says that the Spirit of God
actually picks him up by the locks of his head
and transports him to Jerusalem,
and God takes him to the temple.
If you remember, we saw that tour of the temple,
and he saw all the idols, he saw all the weird things
that people were doing in the different chambers,
and he saw the wickedness that was taking place
in the temple, and God was explaining to Ezekiel,
this is why I'm going to destroy the nation,
this is why King Nebuchadnezzar's gonna take you captive,
because of all the wickedness, and Ezekiel,
he sees this place that was the house of God,
that was the place of God, that was supposed to be
a symbol of God's people dwelling with God,
this temple that had in the most inner court,
in the holy place, the Ark of the Covenant,
which represented the glory and the appearance of God.
Notice in verse 18, Ezekiel 10, 18, the Bible says this,
then 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, 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 the God of Israel
was over them above, and what we're seeing here
is that God is taking his hand off of this temple,
and he's showing the nation of Israel through Ezekiel
that I'm not claiming this place anymore.
You guys have done so wickedly,
and you guys have done so wrong,
that I'm not, this is not my temple anymore.
This is not my house anymore.
The glory of the Lord departed
from off the threshold of the house.
So we see at the beginning of the book
that God takes his hand off and says,
no, I'm not gonna claim it, but we see at the end,
Ezekiel 43, look at verse four again,
Ezekiel 43, four, and the glory of the Lord
came into the house by the way of the gate
whose prospect is toward the east.
The glory of the Lord came into the house.
In verse, in chapter 10, it left.
In chapter 43, it came into the house, verse five.
So the Spirit took me and brought me into the inner court,
and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house again.
You say, well, what's the application?
What can we learn from this?
Well, there's a theme throughout the Bible
that we see here in Ezekiel, and we see it in other places,
and I'd like you to look at it quickly,
and it's this idea that God's glory
and God's power can depart,
but God's glory and God's power can return.
Let's just look at that real quickly.
Go to 1 Samuel, chapter four.
I'll give you two examples.
We could go to different places.
I'll just give you two tonight.
1 Samuel, chapter four, if you can find
all the one and two books towards the beginning
of the Old Testament, they're all clustered together,
1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles,
go to 1 Samuel, chapter four, and look at verse 17.
I like this story.
I wanted to choose this story as an example
because it actually is referring to the same thing,
the glory of God.
1 Samuel four, look at verse 17.
And the messenger answered.
Now, if you remember the context, this is Eli.
He is the high priest.
He is the judge of the nation of Israel.
He has two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
who are wicked men who are doing wicked things
in their positions as priests.
And the judgment of God is gonna come
upon the nation of Israel as a result
of Eli's lack of leadership.
The Bible says, and the messengers answered and said,
they're talking to Eli, Israel is fled
before the Philistines.
They went to a battle.
They went to fight against the Philistines.
They took the Ark of the Covenant with them.
They were treating the Ark as if it was a good luck charm,
and they thought, well, if we bring the Ark,
then God will have to fight our battles,
even though we're backslid.
And even though we're not right with God,
even though we're not pleasing God, if we bring this Ark,
then God has to fight our battles.
And of course, this is not how God works, all right?
God is not a lucky charm that you can just call upon
whenever you need him.
And the Bible says, and the messenger answered and said,
Israel is fled before the Philistines,
and there has been a great slaughter among the people.
And my two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead,
and the Ark of God is taken.
And it came to pass when he made mention of the Ark of God
that he fell from off the sea backward
by the side of the gate, and his neck break,
and he died, for he was an old man and heavy,
and he had judged Israel 40 years.
So we see that Eli actually dies because he's just
shocked by the news that the Ark of God was lost.
It was taken by the Philistines.
Notice verse 19.
And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife,
which is one of his wicked sons, was with child,
near to be delivered.
And when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God
was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband
were dead, she bowed herself and prevailed,
for her pains came upon her.
And about the time of her death, the women that stood by her
said unto her, fear not, for thou has borne a son.
But she answered not, neither did she regard it.
Notice verse 21.
And she named the child Ichabod.
So she names this child Ichabod.
What does that mean?
Notice, saying, the glory is departed from Israel,
because the Ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law
and her husband.
And she said, the glory is departed from Israel,
for the Ark of God is taken.
And listen to me.
You may be saved this morning or this evening.
You might have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you.
You might be sealed and have eternal security.
But that doesn't mean that God has to bless you.
That doesn't mean that God has to provide for you
and protect you.
That doesn't mean that you have to have the glory of God
and the power of God and the presence of God upon your life.
And what we see throughout the Bible is this,
that you can be a child of God, but God's glory
can depart from you.
We're not talking about losing your salvation,
but we're talking about his blessing and his favor
can depart from your life.
And you can sit there and say, well, I still go to church.
And I'll still carry my King James Bible.
And I'll still put a tie on.
And I'll still lack the park.
And you can, just like the children of Israel,
arc out into battle as if they were still walking with God.
God knew that they really weren't.
And the glory departed.
But here's the interesting part, is
that the glory of the Lord and the power and the protection
and the blessing of God can return.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter 7.
Look at verse 10.
1 Samuel chapter 7.
In 1 Samuel 4, they lose the power of God.
They lose the literal arc of God.
And they lose the glory of God.
We talked about that a little bit on Sunday night as well.
But look at 1 Samuel 7 and verse 10.
And as Samuel was offering upon the burnt offering,
the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.
Now, here's what you need to understand.
What happened between chapter 4 and chapter 7
is that the people actually got right with God.
The people actually confessed their sins,
forsook their sins, began to walk with God.
They sought Samuel.
Samuel is doing this offering.
And the Bible says that while he was doing it,
the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.
But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day
upon the Philistines and discomfited them.
And they were smitten before Israel.
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh
and pursued the Philistines and smote them
until they came under Bethkar.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen
and called the name of it Ebenezer.
So they're pursuing the, they're having this battle.
God is delivering them.
And they get to this place called Ebenezer.
And Samuel takes a stone and he makes this memorial.
And notice what it says at the end of verse 12,
saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
And he says, up to this point, God has helped us.
You say, well, what's the big deal about that?
The big deal about that is that
God hasn't been helping us up to this point.
God's power hasn't been upon us.
God hasn't been protecting us.
In fact, we lost the ark of God.
We lost the glory of God.
But now that we've gone right with God,
he says, we used to be in Ichabod.
Now we're at Ebenezer.
Do you understand what he's saying?
He said, we used to be in this place
where we were backslidden, where we were bitter,
where we were angry, where we were cold,
where we were not doing what we should do.
And God's power and God's glory and God's protection
and God's favor left us.
He said, but we've gotten right with God.
We used to be in Ichabod, now we're in Ebenezer.
Notice verse 13, so the Philistines were subdued
and they came no more into the coast of Israel
and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.
What does that mean?
It was for the Israelites, all the days of Samuel.
Maybe you're here tonight and you say,
well, I'm a little backslidden, I'm a little cold.
I'm not as right with God as I used to be.
Here's the wonderful application is that,
yes, sometimes the glory of God can depart
and the power of God can depart
and the fruitfulness of God can depart,
but you can get right with God
and God's power can return.
You don't have to stay in Ichabod.
You can make the track to Ebenezer.
You say, well, how do I do that?
You get right with God, you confess your sins,
you make things right, you ask the Lord to forgive you.
Look, and you see this all throughout the Bible.
Go to the book of Judges, you're there in 1 Samuel,
just head back a couple of books,
pass the book of Ruth to the book of Judges.
Go to Judges 16, and I'll show this to you
and we'll finish up.
But you see this all throughout the Bible.
Even in the book of Revelation, if you remember,
Jesus is talking to the church at Ephesus.
Remember, he's talking to the church at Ephesus.
He says, I have someone against thee
because thou hast left thy first love.
He said, you're not in love with me
like you used to be in love with me.
You're not on fire like you used to be on fire.
He said, you're not the same like you used to be.
And then what did he say to them?
He says, you can repent.
He says, I have someone against you
because thou hast left thy first love.
He says, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen
and repent and do the first works.
See, the beautiful thing about God is that yes,
he will chastise you and yes, he will leave you.
And if you don't want God around,
then he'll say, all right, well, you deal with it.
You go ahead and get on and see how it goes for you.
But you can always come back to God.
Judges 16, look at verse 18.
Let's see another example of the same thing.
Judges 16 and verse 18.
Here we see it with a man.
Remember his name?
Samson.
And when Delilah saw that he, talking about Samson,
had told her all his heart.
You know, you young people, you're not married yet.
You be careful about telling somebody
from the opposite sex all your heart.
You know, there are some things
that you leave till you get married.
And you say, oh, well, we're gonna get married.
Yeah, we've heard that before.
You know what?
You need to be careful about making sure
that you set up some boundaries
and you say, oh, I don't need any boundaries.
Well, here's what we know about people
who don't set up boundaries.
They end up in bondage.
You know, Samson refused to set up some boundaries
here with Delilah and we'll see him here
in a minute in bondage.
And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart,
she sent and called for the Lord of the Philistines,
saying, come up this once,
for you have showed me all his heart.
Then the Lord of the Philistines came up
and told her and brought money in their hand.
And she made him sleep upon her knee.
And she called for a man.
And she caused him to shave off
the seven locks of his head.
And she began to afflict him
and his strength went from him.
And she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.
And he awoke out of his sleep and said,
I like how the Bible tells us these details
because this is exactly the way that you and I think.
He says, I will go out as at other times before.
He says, I fought the Philistines before.
I can sleep on Delilah's lap and just get up
and everything will be fine.
And that's what some of you are thinking tonight.
And you think, well, I can go ahead and just drink that.
I can just go ahead and smoke that.
I can just go ahead and watch that
or listen to that or engage in that.
I can put my head on Delilah's lap and it'll be fine
because when the battles come, when the storms come,
I fought them before, I'll just get up and I will fight him.
I will go out as at other times before and shake myself
because I'm big and strong, except for the fact,
notice what it says at the end of verse 20,
and he wished not that the Lord was departing from him.
And I'm here to tell you, just because you're saved
and just because you've been right with God before
and you've done great things before
and you've had great battles before,
does not guarantee that God will always be with you.
And I'm not talking about losing your salvation.
I'm talking about his power, his favor, his protection.
You say, why?
Because sin will separate you from the power of God.
He wished not that the Lord was departing, in verse 21,
but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes
and brought him down to Gaza
and bound him with fetters of brass.
You don't set up boundaries, you'll end up in bondage.
Ask anybody in prison.
You don't set up boundaries, you'll end up in bondage.
And he did grind in the prison house, verse 22.
Howbeit, see the glory of God departs,
but the glory of God can return.
Howbeit, the hair of his head began to grow again
after he was shaven.
Now, of course, you know the story.
The hair represents the power and the glory of God.
And you say, why does God tell us this?
Because look, maybe you were on fire for God before.
Maybe, like Samson, you shaved your head just as an example,
but the hair began to grow again.
I've always thought that was interesting.
If I was a Philistine and I knew that Samson's power
was connected to his hair, I'd shave that guy every day.
He'd have no eyebrows, you know?
I'd pluck his eyelids, you know?
I mean, I wouldn't, but they obviously,
they thought, well, once it was done, it was done.
But look, howbeit the hair of his head
began to grow again after he was shaven.
Skip down to verse 28, notice what the Bible says.
And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God.
Remember what Jesus told the church in Ephesus?
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent.
Some of you need to remember from whence you are fallen.
Notice what Samson says, he says, remember me.
I pray thee and strengthen me.
I pray thee only this once, O God,
that I may be at once avenge
of the Philistines for my two eyes.
And you know the rest of the story.
His strength returns and he kills more Philistines in death
than he ever did in his life.
And here's the application.
When the glory of God departs, it can return.
But you still have to pay the consequences.
Oh, the glory of God returned for Samson.
Yeah, except he died.
Well, he killed more Philistines in his death
than he ever did in his life.
Yeah, except for the fact that he died in the process.
His reputation was ruined and his future was ruined
and his life was scarred.
And look, I'm not mad at you.
You're here tonight and you're backslidden, you're cold
and your heart's cold and your heart's already gone
and you're just physically kind of showing up
to the services but you're not really here anymore
and it won't be too long before you're not physically here.
Here's the message for you is that
you can get right with God.
You can confess your sins.
You can ask God to forgive you.
You can remember therefore from whence thou art fallen
and repent and do the first words.
But you know what would be better?
You know what would be better?
If the glory of God never departed to begin with.
If you just kept that fire burning.
You just kept your heart right.
You just continued to walk with God.
But the beautiful application of Ezekiel 43 is this,
that when God's glory departs, it can return.
It can return to you and it can return to me.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word.
Thank you for the Bible, thank you for these stories.
Lord, that you've given us to be in samples for us
and also just the book of Ezekiel,
just to show us that the children of Israel
could have had your glory back if they wanted you.
They could have got right with you if they wanted to.
And Lord, I pray that you would help us, Lord.
Help us not to get backslidden, help us not to get cold.
But if we do, help us to know that we can always come back
and we can always get right.
As long as there's breath in us, Lord,
we can always try to make things right
with you and with others.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray, amen.