Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

( & 3)

Introduction

Before we get into the lesson, I’d like to look at the historical context of this book and what Ezekiel’s message to Judah.

· The ten northern tribes of Israel had been carried off to Assyrian captivity during 721 BC, but southern tribes of Judah were spared at this time due to Hezekiah’s righteous rule.

· Later on Mannaseh introduced idol worship to Judah and went as far as offering their children as human sacrifices in worship to the idol Molech.

· King Josiah ruled for 31 years (640-608 BC).

He tore down the idol’s temples, destroyed the “high places” and restored the proper worship to Judah.

· Jehoahaz ruled for only three months and brought idol worship back to Judah before he was taken away as a captive to Egypt.

· Jehoiakim ruled for 11 years and in the fourth year of his reign Daniel was taken to Babylon along with some of the best of the land of Judah.

· Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, ruled for three months and was taken to Babylon during the same deportation with Ezekiel.

· Zedekiah was installed as a puppet king in 597 and ruled for 11 years until Jerusalem and the temple were completely destroyed (part of Ezekiel’s warning to the exiles).

· During all of these times of the disobedience of God’s people, He time and time again sent His prophets to the people to warn them that they needed to repent or else they would be scattered among the nations as God promised through Moses.

But Israel and Judah would not listen.

Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel and Jeremiah.

Ezekiel was taken into captivity in the second wave, after the first in which Daniel was taken.

Jeremiah was left in Jerusalem where he saw its destruction in 586 B.C.

The message of the Book

1) (First section of the bookà chs 1-24) Jerusalem must fall due to the wickedness of God’s chosen people

· Jews maintained false hope, fueled by the words of false prophets.

· God’s punishment will be just due to their worship of idols.

· The exiles must repent and turn back to God.

· Destruction is imminent and certain.

2) The Gentile Nations Will Not Escape God’s Judgement

Chapters 25-32

· The rejoicing at Judah’s destruction by the heathen nations would be turned to sorrow when they were destroyed.

· God rules in the affairs of all nations not just his chosen people.

3) The Nation is Restored and God Ushers In a New Order

Chapters 33-48

· Judah and Israel will be brought back to the land as one nation.

· God will save his righteous remnant and fulfill his promise of the Messiah.

I would like to focus mainly in this lesson on Ezekiel’s commission, but we will look at some other verses elsewhere.

I would like us to examine the text and see what lessons we can learn to help us in our commission to preach the gospel.

I would like to look at 7 Lessons to help us in our Evangelism; lessons to exhort us to be more diligent in our service to the Lord.

The first point should give us a very good reason to be diligent in our service…

1.

The task is not an easy one

Ezekiel was told ahead of time that he would not have many open hearts to God’s word.

not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand.

Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you.

7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

God, knowing the hearts of the people, said to Ezekiel that they would not be willing to listen.

You may think that this would be discouraging for Ezekiel to hear, but it didn’t stop him from doing what the Lord expected of him.

We have also been told ahead of time that the majority will not listen

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Few will be willing to humble themselves and to deny themselves the pleasures of this life to be right with the Lord.

But just because there will be few that will be saved doesn’t mean that we should put in half the effort!

Ezekiel was still told to go and preach to the people to give them the opportunity to hear God’s word and to repent.

He put in much effort, even to the point where obeying God put him into uncomfortable situations.

We need to be willing to do the same.

Even though only few will obey the Lord, we still need to try to reach as many as we can.

We need to remember that obeying the Lord is not always comfortable, but it is always the right thing to do!

2. Remember the state of the people

The Lord shared with Ezekiel the state of the people.

And He said to me: "Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.

Israel was no longer a holy people.

They were rebellious and had turned away from the Law of God.

Within this book, the word ‘rebellious’ is used about 20 times speaking of the Jews and their leaders!

In chapter 5, the Lord says that they were actually worse that the nations surrounding them.

They built alters to idols and even sacrificed their children to these so-called gods.

They had the attitude that the Lord did not see these things that they were doing, but to their dismay He saw every single thing they were doing.

How about the people today in this world?

They are not too much different from Israel in Ezekiel’s time.

Just as Paul says to Timothy, the people in this world are “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,

4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ().”

That sounds like a pretty good description of what we see today!

The next point goes along with this point very well.

We need to…

3. Remember the Lord’s Attitude Towards Sin

He was hurt by Israel’s sin, but now He had to show His justice because of their unwillingness to repent.

Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.

Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn, turn from your evil ways!

For why should you die, O house of Israel?'

The Lord says to Ezekiel in the 21:6, “Sigh therefore, son of man, with a breaking heart, and sigh with bitterness before their eyes.

7 And it shall be when they say to you, 'Why are you sighing?' that you shall answer, 'Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water.

Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,' says the Lord God."

Ezekiel was to sigh and have a broken heart over the judgment of the Lord that would be brought on Jerusalem.

The Lord says again in , "Cry and wail, son of man; For it will be against My people, Against all the princes of Israel.

Terrors including the sword will be against My people; Therefore strike your thigh.

We need to develop the same attitude towards sin that our God possesses.

Does the sin that we see hurt us?

Do we desire to see those living in sin turn from their evil ways so that they can be saved?

The idea that people are in sin and lost because of it should hurt us.

The thought that the lost will receive God’s wrath for eternity should cause us just as Ezekiel and just as the Lord to be broken hearted.

Do we have the right attitude when we see people commit sin?

Do we see sin the way that the Lord does?

Or are we calloused to it?

Does it just not bug us anymore because we see it so much?

The Lord makes a distinction between those who weep and mourn over sin and those who do not.

- God in a vision sends a man clothed in linen throughout Jerusalem to mark those who wept over the sins of the people.

Those who wept were spared.

Those who were not weeping over the sins of the people were killed.

Which attitude do we have towards the sin that we see around us?

We don’t want to be like the Israelites that Ezekiel and Jeremiah preached to.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?

No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush

We need to guard ourselves from becoming calloused to sin and grow to look at sin the same way that the Lord does.

We need to have the correct attitude towards sin because we know the disastrous punishment for sin.

All sin leads to God’s righteous judgment.