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