Series: Ezekiel #2 Text: Ezekiel 7:1-4 Valley Community Baptist Church April 17, 18; 2010 Pastor Jay Abramson. The End Has Come

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1 Series: Ezekiel #2 Text: Ezekiel 7:1-4 Valley Community Baptist Church April 17, 18; 2010 Avon, CT Pastor Jay Abramson The End Has Come The Mayan Calendar ends on Dec. 21, Have you heard about this? That calendar, called the long count calendar, marks the Mayan end of the present cycle of creation. (I checked a calendar. Would you believe it? Dec. 21 is my day off!) When Hollywood heard about this, they immediately saw a golden opportunity to make tens of millions of dollars selling fear. Here s how they picture what will happen in 2012 [show 2012 video clip] Of course, this isn t the first time that Hollywood has made money from an end of the world scenario. In Independence Day it was aliens who were going to cause the end. In Deep Impact, it was a comet. In Day after Tomorrow it was global warming that brings about an ice age (how does that work?). And how many hundreds of other movie plots are there that focus on the threat of some maniacal genius who has invented the ultimate weapon to destroy us all unless we give him our money, our allegiance or our teenage daughters? Hollywood has done so many movies on this topic that the phrase, The end has come is now a cliché. When most Americans hear it, they re more likely to laugh than cry. Which brings us to the seventh chapter of Ezekiel where we find this phrase spoken in complete seriousness. And who says it? God says it. And it s not the first time God said it (He said it also in Noah s day). So, this is THE classic phrase of judgment. Please note that it is not future tense, the end WILL come. No, it s present tense, the end HAS come. There s no more warning, no more bargaining, no escape. It s here. It s the one phrase, I presume, that no God-follower ever wants to hear God speak about their generation. So, you re saying to yourself, Wow! This is only the second sermon in this series and already the end has come??!! This is gonna be one depressing book!! Perhaps, but it s also one of the longer books, so brace yourself! And no matter how long it is, it s Scripture. II Tim. 3:16, 17 says: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So, how is a book which talks a lot about judgment useful for equipping us for every good work? That s what we want to examine this evening/morning. First I. It Warns Us of the Dangers of Cultural Sin. It seems these days, that when a public figure is discovered living a life of sexual sin whether it s a sports personality or a politician or even a religious leader the cry that goes up is, Leave them alone! This is a private matter. It has nothing to do with you. Their behavior has no impact upon your life. Is that true? Does one individual s sin have zero impact upon the rest of us? Not according to Ezekiel and not according to all the other prophets of God. God says through Ezekiel: this is what the Sovereign LORD says to the land of Israel: The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. (Ezek. 7:2) 1

2 This judgment is coming because of pervasive sin in the culture and it is not limited to only the worst offenders. It will impact the four corners of the land. Daniel and Ezekiel were not living lives of sin. Daniel and his companions were wonderfully devout God Followers. We see the evidence of this in the fact that they refused to even break the Jewish dietary laws in their Babylonian captivity. Still, they WERE taken captive to Babylon with everyone else. God didn t protect them from exile which was the penalty for Israel s cultural sin. The same is obviously true of Ezekiel. He was faithful but still had to bear the cultural judgment of everyone else s sin. So, let s think about this. What does the Bible teach us about sin? Yes, it says that it is offensive to God but for people who don t believe in God, what do they care? So, the Bible also teaches another truth about sin. It teaches that sin doesn t work. Oh, it may seem like it s working for awhile, but sooner or later, the trap is sprung and we re caught. Listen to how Proverbs explain this: My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. These men lie in wait for their own blood; They waylay only themselves! Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; It takes away the lives of those who get it. (Prov. 1:10, 18, 19) Oh, how Bernie Madoff could preach a sermon on this text! But what about private sins, sins that don t involve anybody else? Well, from God s standpoint, there is no such thing as private sin! Every sin affects other people because it impacts God s relationship with the whole culture. Listen to God s view of drunkenness: Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, Who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. Therefore my people will go into exile (Is. 5:11,13) It doesn t say the drunkards will go into exile, but my people will go into exile. Your sin impacts me. My sin impacts you. I believe this is why the New Testament teaches us: Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. (Gal. 6:1) We should be motivated to rescue people from sin not just for their sake but for our sake as well. Sin in the culture eventually affects everyone. Secondly, we need to see that judgment is useful because II. It Proves that God Is Just. God brought the Southern Kingdom of Judah to its knees in 586 BC. But God had been warning the people about this judgment since He sent the prophet Isaiah to them 115 years earlier. 115 years! Isaiah prophesied: Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel (another name for Jerusalem), The city where David settled! Yet I will besiege Ariel; She will mourn and lament, She will be to me like an altar hearth. (Is. 29:1, 2) And why was God bringing judgment? For over one hundred years, Israel had rebelled against God and His way of living. God made this accusation through Isaiah: Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; They love bribes and chase after gifts. 2

3 They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; The widow s case does not come before them. (Is. 1:23) Now, 100 years later, matters have only gotten worse. God says through Ezekiel: I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. (Ezek. 16:20, 21) Some people might think, Hey, what s the big deal about idol worship anyway? Sure, God has a right to be upset if people reject Him and choose to worship a piece of stone, but isn t He kind of over reacting when He completely destroys the city of Jerusalem because of it? Anyone who says that, really doesn t understand what idol worship was. Ezekiel 8:14 tells us that they were worshipping the Babylonian fertility god, Tammuz. Tammuz was considered by the Babylonians as a god of the underworld, what the Bible calls a demon. Jesus tells us in the New Testament, that Satan and his demons have one goal to steal, kill and destroy. And that is what demon worship became in Jerusalem. They were sacrificing their own children, killing them, as part of their worship of idols. So, when God says through Ezekiel: (Ezek. 7:3, 4a) The end is now upon you and I will unleash my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and the detestable practices among you. He s not angry because the people are merely ignoring Him. He s angry because He is just and He will not allow the detestable practice of child sacrifice to continue any longer. So, how do you imagine abortion impacts God s view of America? Why is it important that our God be a God of justice? Why couldn t He just be merciful? Jesus told an interesting story about justice and mercy. He said once there was a rich man who had one of his employees come to him who owed him over a million dollars. But the man didn t have the money to pay it back and no hope of getting the money. So, the rich man said he and his whole family would have to go to debtor s prison until they paid it all back. But the man fell on his knees and begged his employer, Please, be patient with me. I ll find a way to pay it all back! So, the rich man went him one step further. He forgave the man the entire debt and told him to go and have a nice life. But the man went out and found a fellow employee who owed him a few dollars and he grabbed him by the throat and began to choke him and said, Pay back what you owe me! His fellow worker fell to his knees and begged him, Please, be patient with me, I ll pay back every dime. But the first employee refused to show him any mercy. He took him to court and had him arrested. When the rich man heard about this, he called the first employee in and said to him, Man, you are wicked! I cancelled the whole debt you owed me and you threw the book at your fellow worker for a few bucks? I m reversing my decision. Now you re going to jail until your full debt to me is paid. Then Jesus said, This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. Matt. 18:35) 3

4 What do you learn about the relationship of justice and mercy in that story? Isn t it that mercy without the backing of justice results in gross injustice? If the master in that story ONLY dispensed mercy, justice would be trampled upon. But because he was a master who upheld justice, his mercy had room to flourish. Without justice mercy dies. But with justice laying a foundation, even if justice is delayed, mercy can be given again and again and again. Our God s judgments preserve a foundation of justice in this world so that we can join Him in dispensing mercy KNOWING that our mercy will not be wasted on the terminally selfish. Whenever we see God bringing judgment on the wicked, we know this world is still a safe place for mercy. God s judgments demonstrate one thing more. III. It Demonstrates that His Justice CONTAINS Mercy. Not all justice contains mercy, but God s justice does. It always does. As harsh as these words of judgment are in Ezekiel, if you look carefully you ll see God give a wink to the righteous. Chapter 7 is filled with some pretty tough language but three times in this one chapter, God repeats this remarkable sentence: Then you will know that I am the LORD. (Ezek. 7: 4, 9, 27) What does God mean by this? Does He mean, Then you ll see whose boss. Then they ll be sorry. Is that what God means? Partially, but I think there s more. In the previous chapter, God predicts more terrible judgments and then He says this: But I will spare some, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations. Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices. And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them. (Ezek. 6:8-10) I did not threaten in vain What was God s intention all along? He was using judgment as a last resort to bring the people to repentance so that He could forgive them, show them mercy and restore them completely. If your child disobeys you or verbally disrespects you, why do you punish them? They hurt you so you re going to hurt them? Only the most immature parents do that. No, you punish them because you want them to repent of their wicked ways or wicked words and once they repent, your relationship can be restored to good health. No parent I know, on their way home from work says to him or herself, I can t wait to get home and punish and my child. I just LOOOOVE to punish that boy! God is our heavenly father. He takes no joy in punishing us. But when we are ignoring Him, defying Him, disrespecting Him, day after day after day; sometimes we leave Him no choice but to let us have a small taste of judgment so that we will come to our senses and loathe the evil we have done, repent and then be restored to the Father. Where s the difficulty in your life right now? Where s the pain? Just think for a minute is that pain traceable to any disobedience or disrespect of God in your life? Maybe it s not. All pain or difficulty is not caused by our disobedience and disrespect. But friends, some of it is. The apostle Paul says that there are two kinds of sorrow: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (II Cor. 7:10) 4

5 Which type of sorrow are you suffering from? Friend, listen to me. One of the things we ve been learning in Men s Fraternity is this guilt is a gaping wound. If you ve sinned against somebody or if you ve hurt somebody, you ve got that wound and that wound is going to negatively impact everything you do. You can t heal that wound with excuses or blaming others or pretending the wound isn t there. You ve got to treat the wound. And the only way to treat a guilt wound is to confess it. Dr. Robert Lewis, founder of Men s Fraternity, tells a true story about a father and his oldest of three sons. When the sons were all grown, all but the oldest went into the family business. The dad chided his oldest son about it for years and finally one day just buried him in a flurry of guilt, accusing his son of being disloyal to the family. But the dad was connected with a Men s Fraternity group and was told how devastated his son was by those sinful words. Finally, the dad realized he needed to do. So he wrote his son, who had become a surgeon, by the way, a letter. In that letter he said to his son Dear Tom, I love you more than you will ever now. I am so proud of you; your brilliant mind; your tenacity; your tender loving heart; your determination to go the second, third or many more miles as it takes to make a good marriage Tom, I want you to look into my heart today my heart fills with pride when I say, my son is a doctor. A surgeon. He helps save lives every day. I also want you to know that I have felt pain and hurt in my lifetime But the deepest pain I have ever felt was when I hurt you with stupid, foolish words. Oh, how I have wept when I think how I hurt you, my beloved son. I weep even now as I write this. Please, please erase those words. They were not from my heart. Please forgive from your heart and think of me as not only your dad, but your best friend and supporter. I know you have forgiven me, but I wanted you to hear my heart cry. Only the guilty need mercy. Tom, I remember when you were a little boy in bed one night, you were scared and you [called out from your bed], Daddy, are you awake? And I said, Yes, Tom, I m awake. And you said in a few minutes, Daddy, is your face turned towards me? And I said, Yes, it is. And a frightened little boy went to sleep. Tom, I want you to know that my face is still turned towards you and will never be turned away. Sleep well, my son, your daddy will always love you and help you. 1 Is there anyone here who needs to write a letter like that this week? Writing that letter will be the beginning of that ancient wound inside of you starting to heal. And oh, how that healing will spread! Women here today, let me say this. We re in the last month of our Men s Fraternity meetings. Each week, men are standing up and giving courageous testimony of how they are writing letters, making phone calls, having lunches with sons, daughters, wives confessing their sins and beginning the healing process. Ladies, will you follow their lead? If you will, then this ancient prophecy will come true: Then you will know that I am the LORD. (Ezek. 7:4, 9, 27) When God said, The end has come? What did He mean? Did He mean, The end of YOU has come? No, He meant, The end of hurt has come. The end of wounding each other. The end of sin filled nights. Now it is time for a new dawn. And what brought the end about? His mercy filled judgment. How great is our God! Amen. 5

6 1 Dr. Robert Lewis, The Quest for Authentic Manhood, Lesson 6 (Nashville: LifeWay Press, 2003) 6