GOD’S JUDGMENT - STARTING WITH THE CHURCH
EZEKIEL 9:1-11
Introduction: When a nation turns their back on God, God sends judgment. Some time ago Billy Graham said it well, "If God does not judge America, He is going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." I believe that we are standing on the very brink of judgment from God. When God does send His judgment we need to understand that that judgment will start with the House of God which has failed to be the salt and light that it has been called to be.
I. THE CAUSE FOR JUDGMENT
A. God is a God of mercy but His justice and righteousness demand that sin be dealt with properly.
1. Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
2. Psalms 11:4-7 The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD tries the righteous: but the wicked and him that loves violence his soul hates. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loves righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
B. The Example of Israel in Ezekiel 8 – "Look at what they are doing"
1. They Provoked God to Jealousy
a. Ezekiel 8:5 MKJV And He said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now to the way of the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and behold, northward at the gate of the altar the image of jealousy was at the entrance.
b. Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
c. God is not content to be a part of our lives God wants to be the center of our lives. He will not accept halfhearted allegiance or divided devotion. God will never accept the notion that He has to share our love and worship with anyone or anything else.
d. Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all you soul, and with all your might.
e. I will worship with all of my heart. I will praise You with all of my strength. I will seek You all of my days. I will follow all of Your ways. I will give You all my worship. I will give You all my praise. You alone I long to worship. You alone are worthy of my praise. – Ruis, David, You’re Worthy Of My Praise © 1986 Maranatha Praise, Inc. / Shade Tree Music (Maranatha! Music) CCLI License No. 754427
2. They Ignored God’s Presence
a. Ezekiel 8:4 MKJV And, behold! The glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
b. Jeremiah 5:22a MKJV Do you not fear Me? Says Jehovah. Will you not tremble at My presence…?
c. "A former park ranger at Yellowstone National Park tells the story of a ranger leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was so intent on telling the hikers about the flowers and animals that he considered the messages on his two-way radio distracting, so he switched it off. Nearing the tower, the ranger was met by a nearly breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn’t responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger. Any time we tune out the messages God has sent us, we put at peril not only ourselves, but also those around us. – Harold M. Wiest Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada
3. They Practiced Hidden Idolatry
a. Ezekiel 8:7-10 MKJV And He brought me to the opening of the court; and I looked, and behold, a hole in the wall. And He said to me, Son of man, dig in the wall now. And I dug in the wall, and, behold, an opening. And he said to me. Go in and see the evil abominations that they do here. And I went in and saw. And behold, every kind of creeping thing, and hateful beast, and all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around.
b. Isaiah 29:13 MKJV ...this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the command of men…
c. There is a pantheon of hidden idols that are being worshipped, some of them are "sex, pleasure, self, money.... i.e. – there are thousands of Christians online who are compromising their Christian values daily thinking that no one sees them.
d. We made look good on the outside or when we are around church folk, but what are we really like?
e. He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions, which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity--with no inward reality! – Today in the Word, June 3, 1989.
f. Psalms 90:8 You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your face.
4. They Denied the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God
a. Ezekiel 8:12 MKJV And He said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his image room? For they are saying, Jehovah does not see us; Jehovah has forsaken the earth.
b. We assume if nobody saw us, we are safe from discovery. The only secret or "hidden sins we have are those we are hiding from other people – ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is hidden from God! Secret or hidden sins do not exist so far as God is concerned. But Somebody saw it: Somebody knows it and THAT Somebody is God!
c. Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
5. They Became Involved in Immorality and Sensuality
a. Ezekiel 8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
b. An annual feast was celebrated to Tammuz, the Syrian name for Adonis, the consort of Venus. He was supposed to be the god of fertility and rain. He was thought to die early in the fall when the vegetation withered and the wailing of Ishtar or Venus renewed him as evidenced by the buds of spring. Licentious fertility festivals celebrated his spring awakening. At the festival women, would weep in grief over the passing of Ishtar and consecrate their prostitution and immoral acts to Venus.
c. Instead of weeping for their national sins, they wept for the idol...
d. According to a 2001 Barna poll at least three out of ten born again adults say that co-habitation, gay sex, sexual fantasies, breaking the speed limit or watching sexually explicit movies are morally acceptable behaviors.
6. They Turned their Backs on God
a. Ezekiel 8:15-16 Then said he unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and you shall see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east...
b. 2 Timothy 4:4 MKJV And they will turn away their ears from the truth and will be turned to myths.
c. A man cannot get God’s spiritual blessings if he does not want them. You take a hermetically sealed bottle, and put it into the sea; it may float about in mid-ocean for a century, surrounded by a shoreless ocean, and it will be as dry and empty inside at the end as it was at the beginning. So, you and I float, live, move, and have our being in the great ocean of God’s love in Christ, but you can cork up your hearts, and wax them over with an impenetrable cover, through which that grace does not come. – A. Maclaren
7. They Worshipped the Creation in preference to the Creator
a. Ezekiel 8:16 ...they worshipped the sun toward the east.
b. Romans 1:22-25 MKJV Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. For they changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
c. What is your most prized possession? Would you be willing to give it up if Jesus asked you? If your answer is no then your possession has taken God’s place in your heart and has become an idol.
II. THE EXTENT OF JUDGMENT
A. Ezekiel 9:5-7 MKJV And He said to those in my hearing, Go over in the city after him, and strike. Let not your eye spare, nor have pity. Fully destroy old men, young men and virgins, and little children and women. But do not come near any man on whom is the mark. And begin at My sanctuary. And they began at the old men who were before the house. And He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out! And they went out and killed in the city.
B. When God sends judgment it extends to every guilty individual regardless of gender, age, social status, or denomination.
C. Ezekiel 18:20 MKJV The soul that sins, it shall die…the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him
D. Begins with the church…When God sends His judgment to the House of the Lord it will distinguish between the "wheat and tares”, the real and the false.
E. When God’s judgment falls on the church He removes His hedge of protection from around us so that the natural consequences of our sins will take place.
F. Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death…
G. 1 Peter 4:17 "Judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God"
H. For the saved judgment is corrective not punitive. "Whom the Lord loves he chastens" (Hebrews 12:6). If God is going to bless me, he must condemn and blast out of my being what he cannot bless. – Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) But for the lost ultimately God’s judgment will be condemnation into a Christless eternity.
III. DELIVERANCE FROM JUDGMENT
A. Ezekiel 9:4, 6 MKJV And Jehovah said to him, Go through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning because of all the abominations that are done in her midst… do not come near any man on whom is the mark.
B. Those who were spared were those with an inner brokenness that wept over sin and sinners.
C. They realized their guilt – they did not make any excuses, they agreed with God’s assessment of their guiltiness.
· 1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess (come to agreement with God about) our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
D. They had a sense of sorrow for sin.
· 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.
E. They repented of sin
· 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
