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Ezekiel Chapter 8, please, if you'll turn there.
Old Testament, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, then Ezekiel.
Ezekiel Chapter 8.
My message title is The Glory of God
and the Image of Jealousy.
The Glory of God and the Image of
Jealousy.
Let's pray together.
Jesus, I thank you for the abiding anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
I thank you, Lord, for your strength and
your power.
I thank you, God, for the incredible grace
that you give me to speak this message,
the incredible grace you give us as a
church to hear it.
I pray, God, always that you keep me
in the balance where I do not justify
the wicked nor condemn the righteous.
I pray that the impassioned heart of Jesus
Christ be heard in every word.
I ask you, Holy Spirit, to overshadow me,
all strengths and all weaknesses.
Overshadow me and give me the grace to
disappear.
Lord, this is not an hour to hear
from man.
This is an hour to hear from you.
I'm asking you, Holy Spirit, to animate me.
I'm asking you, God, that everything that is
said, accentuated, even in the manner in which
it is said, come from your heart.
Lord, speak to us.
Speak to us.
God, the hour is very late, and I'm
asking for that kind of an anointing, a
quickening.
Not only to speak, but a quickening to
hear.
Every heart, every life.
God, help us to understand that this is
incredible grace speaking to us.
Lord, it's grace that you would even condescend
to become a man and take our sins
upon you.
Lord, it's grace that you'd even speak to
us.
In spite of our numerous failings, you love
us.
God, help us now.
God, help us to hear this word in
the light of that love.
And I thank you for it from the
depths of my heart.
In Jesus' mighty name.
Ezekiel chapter 8.
Please, if you would.
Ezekiel chapter 8, beginning at verse 1.
I came to pass in the sixth year,
in the sixth month, in the fifth day
of the month, as I sat in my
house.
And the elders of Judah sat before me,
that the hand of the Lord God fell
there upon me.
And then I beheld a likeness as the
appearance of fire, from the appearance of his
loins even downward fire, and from his loins
even upward as the appearance of brightness, as
the color of amber.
And he put forth the form of a
hand and took me by a lock of
my head.
And the Spirit lifted me up between the
earth and the heaven, and brought me in
the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the
door of the inner gate that looketh towards
the north, where was the seat of the
image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
And behold, verse 4, the glory of the
Lord God of Israel was there, according to
the vision that I saw in the plain.
Then said he unto me, Son of man,
lift up thine eyes now the way towards
the north.
So I lift up mine eyes the way
towards the north, and behold northward at the
gate of the altar this image of jealousy
in the entry.
Now beloved, last week the Holy Spirit called
us to fast.
And the reason and the example he set
before us was Esther, who was willing to
be identified with her people and to obey
God for the sake of others, even at
her own personal risk of loss, and of
course in her case even the risk of
death.
But she made a choice to be identified
with God's people in a very darkened hour,
when there was great need for the testimony
and the intervention of God in the lives
of people who are destined to be slaughtered.
We also spoke last week of separation from
all that offends the person of the Holy
Spirit and the work of God in us.
2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 16, Paul
said, What agreement has the temple of God
with idols?
You are the temple of the living God,
and God has said, I will dwell in
them and walk in them, and I will
be their God and they shall be my
people.
Verse 17, the Holy Spirit through Paul then
says, Wherefore come out from among them and
be you separate, says the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing, and I will receive
you.
Now remember from last week, the context of
touch not means handling an object to the
point where it begins to exert a modifying
influence upon your behavior and your character.
We use the illustration perhaps of sporting events,
because last week or the week before was
the end of the year football game.
And I was sharing that it's not wrong
to watch a sporting game, but it is
wrong when you handle it to the point
where it begins to exert an influence on
your person.
It's wrong when it comes to the point
where the choice comes between going to the
house of God to worship the living Christ,
who's invited us into fellowship, and watching a
football game.
There's something wrong in America when half the
churches in the south are closed down, because
nobody would come on the football final night.
There's something wrong with the culture when this
type of thing begins to get a hold
of people.
And the Lord says, you have to come
out, you have to make a separation, don't
touch these things to the point where they
begin to exert an influence upon your character,
and they begin to change you into an
image other than which God has destined for
your life.
We are left here on this earth after
we come to Christ to be a testimony
of the power and the grace of God.
There's no other reason.
We're not here to have a good time.
We're here to glorify God, and yes, it
is a good time to glorify God.
There is no other life, there is no
other pathway that brings more peace and contentment
into the soul than to know that you
are in the divine will of God, in
the absolute hand of God, that you have
the power of God literally being manifested in
and through your life.
There's no greater life.
There's no possibility of higher attainment in our
human experience than to be gripped and led
and fashioned by the Spirit of Almighty God
into the very image of our Savior Christ.
No higher calling.
No higher glory.
There's no greater revelation than to know the
heart of God for fallen man and to
begin to be moved, not by compulsion, but
by compassion, because the heart of God is
now in you.
The heart of God is in me, and
it casts out that fear that the humans,
as it is in this life, want to
impose on everyone and cause the church of
Jesus Christ to tower down before it and
to lose its testimony.
No greater strength than to have that compassion
of God that literally compels us to stand
in the presence of whatever authority and say,
you've given me a choice to obey God,
and man, there is no choice.
I must obey God.
He is the only one that I will
serve.
He said, if you come out from under
this exerting influence of the culture as it
is around you, I will be a father
to you.
And the word in father, we studied last
week, means I will be revealed to you.
The word is pater in the Greek, and
it means I'll be revealed to you as
one that you can have faith in.
The moment you come out, the moment you
make the choice to be, as we heard
this morning, a counterculture to what's going on
in the world around us today, God Almighty
says, I will reveal myself to you as
one that you can trust in.
There will be an explosion of understanding in
your inner man.
I will begin to take you from image
to image and glory to glory.
There will be no walls too high that
by the power of the Holy Ghost you
can't leap over them.
There will be no challenge too great, for
if God has spoken it, it will happen.
The one who created the universe guides us
now, and when he speaks something, there is
no power of hell that can stand against
it.
For what comes out of the mouth of
God is true.
It is infinite.
It cannot be changed.
It is all powerful.
He said, if you come out, I'll receive
you to myself.
I'll bring you into intimate communion.
I'll reveal myself to you as one that
you can have faith in.
And he says, you shall be my sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
And the word, Lord Almighty, translated in the
Greek text, means an all-ruling, absolute and
universal sovereign.
I revealed myself to you, says the Lord.
I'll reveal myself to you as a father
that you can trust in.
I'll bring you into intimate communion with me.
And I will show you that I am
in absolute control.
Your heart will become founded in a trust
that's not found in anything in this world.
There will be an abiding trust come into
your heart.
I thank God for that trust in my
heart with everything that's in me.
I thank God that the Lord has enabled
me to build my theology from heaven backwards.
I'm already seated at the right hand of
God in Christ Jesus.
I'm already more than a conqueror before I
even go into the battle.
I'm not limited by the frailties of this
human body.
I am in Christ and Christ is in
me.
He sits at the right hand of all
authority.
All power is given to Him.
He is the head.
We are His body.
This is a glorious church.
This is a glorious state to be in.
Hallelujah.
I thank God for that understanding.
I thank God for the knowledge that before
I even go into the battle, I'm already
on the other side.
Oh, it may be fierce, and I may
come through with a scar or two, but
that is nothing.
Paul says that temporary sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be even compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in
us.
Oh, I see through a glass darkly.
James says, but one day I'm going to
know even as I am known.
One day there's going to be an explosion
of glory in my mind.
I'm going to appear in the presence of
Almighty God, and there will be an ever
-increasing revelation of knowledge.
Until that day, He begins to speak, He
begins to lead, He begins to prod.
The literal God of the universe comes and
takes up residence within me.
I think if the church of Jesus Christ
could just get a hold of that fact
alone, that could be revolutionary.
The Holy Spirit is not a fuzzy feeling.
The Holy Spirit is not some cosmic dust
that comes down when we hit the right
note in our worship times.
The Holy Spirit is God.
Almighty Himself who created the universe with His
spoken word, who lives inside of me now.
His residence is in me.
I am the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Hallelujah.
This is just a building.
It's a nice building, but it's just a
building.
When we go, God goes with us, because
He no longer dwells in temples made with
human hands.
We have now become the temple of the
Holy Ghost.
Now, some of the concepts that I've been
speaking about were emphasized clearly throughout scriptural history.
And the children of Israel were very familiar
with them.
But something had gone terribly wrong.
Because in Ezekiel chapter 8, here are a
people already in captivity, looking now for a
word from God.
Remember, Ezekiel was a prophet as it is,
who went with the second deportation from Babylon.
Israel was captured, or Judah was captured by
Babylon in three stages, three successive stages.
The first stage, Daniel and his friends went.
And the second stage, there were numerous others.
And among them was Ezekiel.
He was in Babylon when God gave him
his call, his prophetic call.
On the other side, awaiting the third deportation
is Jeremiah and the people that are left.
And Jeremiah is warning the people about the
coming judgment.
But their hearts are so hard now.
They've heard so much gospel.
They have so resisted the word of God.
And even now, in Ezekiel's house, the elders
of Judah have come.
And they're standing before him, or sitting actually
in his living room.
And they're saying, give us a word from
the Lord.
And if you really study the commentaries on
this, nobody is quite sure what kind of
a word they're looking for.
Because both in Jerusalem and in Babylon were
a myriad of false prophets.
And whenever judgment is coming to a nation,
you will always see the rise of false
prophets.
The good time Charlies of the Christian kingdom.
That it's nothing but wonderful prosperity and health
and happiness for many, many, many years to
come.
But there will still be a Jeremiah and
an Ezekiel in the midst of it.
And these men came and were sitting before
Ezekiel.
And it is possible they're looking for a
confirmation of the false prophets that are in
Babylon, who are telling the people this is
only temporary.
This is just a minor defeat.
We're only going to be here for a
little while.
And that we're going to go back home
again.
And no, Jeremiah is telling them, the Lord
through Jeremiah, no, this is going to be
a lengthy stay.
This is going to be 70 years.
And God has decreed a time of chastising
because of the rebellion of the people of
God.
And they're sitting now before Ezekiel.
And people who are in captivity.
And now they're looking for the word of
God.
And isn't that tragic?
That they're so resistant to God.
There was no shortage of God's word when
they were on the other side.
Beloved, you don't have to wait until you're
in captivity to hear from God.
And God forbid that that should be the
case of anybody here today.
That the enemy has to overpower you.
And you have to be brought low and
in a place of captivity.
Before you might even, whether or not it's
even in truth, turn and say, Is there
anybody out there who's hearing from God?
Does God have another word for me?
And now the Lord begins to answer this
inquest.
And Ezekiel chapter 8, as we go on,
there is a vision that Ezekiel has of
a man.
And the Bible is clear about this.
This is a theophany.
This is a pre-incarnate Christ as it
is appearance of God in bodily form.
He comes down and reveals himself in a
way that mankind can see him.
You see, if there is no revelation of
God, we have nothing to compare, for example,
the temple with.
We have nothing to compare our state with
unless we know who God is.
The best thing that any preacher in this
church can do for you, is every time
you come into this house is to open
this book and reveal the character of God.
Whether you like it or not.
But to give a clear revelation of Jesus
Christ.
Because if there is no clear revelation, we
have absolutely nothing to compare ourselves to.
And as Paul says to some of the
Corinthians, you begin comparing ourselves among ourselves.
And there's no wisdom in that.
It just leads to depravity and foolishness.
And so first God comes in a manner
that exhibits his glory.
And Ezekiel says later on, this is the
same glory that I saw in the plain
when God called me.
This is the same glory I witnessed when
I was commissioned.
And when God began to speak deeply into
my heart.
Then he takes Ezekiel, not physically, but he
takes him spiritually.
I'm sure the elders of Judah are sitting
there watching this.
Ezekiel is lost now in the presence of
God and the spirit of God, as it
is transports him back into Jerusalem.
Takes him right to the temple.
And says, I'm going to show you now
why my glory is leaving my people.
I want to show you why my glory
is leaving my temple.
And he goes into the temple in verse
4.
He sees two things.
He says, and behold, the glory of the
Lord of Israel was there.
As the spirit of God himself transports in
the spirit Ezekiel into the temple.
Ezekiel sees the same glory.
The same glory that he's familiar with.
The same presence of God.
This manifestation of God is in the temple.
He sees it and he recognizes it.
And he said, it's according to the vision
that I saw in the plain.
But he sees something else.
In verse 5, he said to me, son
of man, lift up thine eyes now the
way towards the north.
So I lift up mine eyes the way
towards the north.
And behold, northward at the gate of the
altar, this image of jealousy in the entry.
So he sees both the glory and that
which conforms to the Christ.
Really, it is Christ.
I mean, because you cannot separate God from
himself.
He's three persons.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So it's correct, in effect, to say this
is Christ that's standing before him.
And he takes him in.
He sees this glory.
But he sees another image of jealousy.
There are two things in the temple now.
There used to be just one.
Remember, in Solomon's day, when the temple was
dedicated, there was just an image of glory.
God's glory came.
Nobody could stand to minister.
They sang, God is good and his mercy
endures forever.
The promises of God were clear.
Heaven seemed open.
The people were encouraged.
Josiah, only 30 years before, had tried to
bring the temple back to this former glory.
He had taken out the idols and the
images, and he had burned them and stamped
them to straw, and thrown them in the
brook.
But now we're down to 30 years later,
and Ezekiel is taken by the Spirit into
the temple, and this image of jealousy is
now there, sharing this temple with the glory
of God.
The Hebrew calls it that outrageous statue of
jealousy.
It's an image which has been made that
is contrary to the very laws of God.
Now, in Exodus chapter 20, let me just
read it to you, verses 3 and 4.
To paraphrase his mind, the Lord said to
his people, You will not make an image
and bow down to it, for I am
a jealous God.
You will not make an image.
You will not bow down to anything other
than me.
Isaiah 42.8, the Lord says, I am
the Lord, and that is my name, and
my glory will I not give to another,
and neither my praise to graven images.
Now the Lord says, I've got to take
you, Ezekiel, on a tour, and I have
to show you some things that are going
on in my temple, and for this reason
my glory is about to depart from my
people.
In Ezekiel chapter 8, verse 7, he said,
He brought me to the door of the
court, and when I looked, behold, a hole
in the wall.
Now, this court is an inner room in
the temple, and this is an inner room
that was once used for storage, but apparently
by this time it has become a living
quarters for many of the ancients of Israel,
which are not necessarily the priests, but there
are people who should have a knowledge of
God and should be leading the people in
ways of righteousness.
And he goes in and he says, I
want to show you there's something hidden in
the temple.
You see, when God comes to a people,
He will always go to the hidden things
in the temple.
You and I are the temple of the
Holy Ghost.
If we're sitting in the presence of God,
you can be sure, because of the depth
of His love for you, that He will
go to the things that are hidden in
the temple.
Little rooms, little places, blocked off, where nobody
who's walking in can see them, but God
sees them.
We all have these little areas in our
life.
We try to hide them, perhaps, from time
to time throughout our Christian life, and nobody,
we think, sees them.
But we forget that we're under the eye
of the all-seeing God 24 hours a
day.
It never changes.
He takes him in, and there was a
little hole in the wall.
And He said to me, Son of man,
dig in the wall now.
And when I had digged in the wall,
behold the door.
He said to me, go in and behold
the abomination, the wicked abominations that they do
here.
So I went in and saw, and behold,
every form of creeping thing and abominable beasts
and all the idols of the house of
Israel portrayed on the wall round about.
And there stood before them 70 men of
the ancients of the house of Israel.
And in the midst of them stood Jezaniah
of the son of Shaphan.
And every man is censured in his hand,
and a thick cloud of incense went up.
And he said to me, Son of man,
have you seen what the ancients of the
house of Israel do in the dark?
Every man in the chambers of his imagery,
or that means his imagination.
For they say the Lord seeth us not.
The Lord has forsaken the earth.
So he takes them into the secret place
as it is deep within the temple.
And in this place there are images.
And these images really are idols.
They are visions of the mind as it
is that are in these people's minds.
And they are worshiping them.
But they're doing it in secret.
I'm sure they would come out of this
little room and join everybody at the altar
of sacrifice and come out for the day
of atonement and put on a big celebration
of being the children of Jehovah God.
But then they would go back into these
little rooms and they would stand, these leaders
of God's people, and they would be worshiping
these images.
And it's amazing when we begin to understand
that these images can represent a lot of
things.
They can be success.
Perhaps one man's impression of success does not
correspond to God.
So he creates an image of what he
sees himself being as a successful man of
God, or perhaps just a successful man.
Another is maybe an image of ambition, unsurrendered
ambition.
This is what I'm going to be.
This is what I'm going to do.
Oh, I know that the gospel calls me
to deny myself, but nevertheless I have this
little range of ambition that's before me.
And they're offering up incense to it.
They're offering up prayer to these unsurrendered images
in the heart.
Another man or woman could be an image
of lust.
Perhaps I'm thinking of all the Christians that
the Holy Spirit comes to, and late at
night they're locked away in some little room
thinking nobody sees it, and clicking on to
these things with their fingers and looking at
these images before them, and offering up incense
of worship and devotion.
You see, whatever you give your time to,
whatever is forming your character is becoming an
idol in your life.
And I just see so many people of
God in our generation are absolutely captivated.
They're playing the hypocritical game in the house
of God, and they've got these little secret
rooms.
The glory is departing and they don't know
it.
The glory is leaving.
God's Word is standing against them, and here
they go about their daily activity.
They still come to the house of God.
They still have a semblance as it is
of being some form of a leader with
a vision or knowledge, but they have this
little room, and because of this little room,
the glory of God is departing from them.
And Christ Himself is weeping over them, as
when He stood in the Mount of Olives
and said, Oh Jerusalem, if you had known
what kind of a visitation had come your
way, if you had known what could have
been yours.
I think of this little image of vengeance
that some stand before, these ones who are
forgiven a great deal, but they build this
little image of this, my day is coming,
my vengeance is coming, where those who have
harmed me are going to pay, and others,
all types of self-images of the person
that I am, the person that I will
be someday.
And this is what the ancients are doing.
And they had a statement going on in
their heart.
They said, The Lord seeth us not, for
the Lord has forsaken the earth.
Now, I've heard it said, and I've preached
it myself, that because they were full of
unbelief, that they had begun to worship these
images.
But I think it's the other way around.
If I read it in the right order,
in Scripture, I feel the Holy Spirit showing
me, No, it's the images that produce the
unbelief.
It's these images that they were worshipping that
took the faith of God right out of
their hearts.
And they began to have this impression that
God didn't see them in what they were
doing, and that God was powerless, unconcerned.
He had forsaken the earth.
And this was the deep abiding testimony in
their heart.
Yet, they were going through the motions.
Now, listen to me.
There are people here today.
You're going through the motions.
You've clapped your hands.
You've stood when the youth choir sings.
You get excited by the things of God.
But deep inside of you, you feel, God,
you don't even know where I am.
You don't know who I am.
You've forsaken me.
You see, this isn't happenstance.
It quite often comes because you're spending the
rest of your week before some other God.
You're worshipping something other than the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You don't spend quality time with God.
You're not an active seeker of God.
You're not in His Word.
You're not imploring the Holy Spirit to open
this Word and illuminate it to your mind
and your heart and your understanding.
You're not asking God to take up His
residence and become your all in all.
You're not saying, Lord God, form me into
the image of Christ.
And then coming into the house of God,
full of unbelief, singing the songs of Zion,
but the glory is departing.
Chapter 8, verse 14, he said, He brought
me now.
He said, I'll show you even greater things.
He brought me to the door of the
gate of the Lord's house, which was towards
the north.
And behold, there were women sat there weeping
for Tammuz.
Now, Tammuz was a god of vegetation.
In the heat of the summer or in
the late fall, when vegetation died, Tammuz died.
And everybody would weep and wail for poor
old Tammuz who died once again.
And then when the rains came and the
weather got favorable, then vegetation would rise out
of the earth and Tammuz would live again.
And there'd be this time of great rejoicing.
And he was also a god of fertility.
So it's this fertility god who just ever
lives and dies and lives and dies.
And here are these women on this roller
coaster of false and vain hope.
Beloved, I want you to listen very carefully.
I'm not trying to be funny, so there's
no need to laugh.
But it is no coincidence that soap operas
are designed for women in the afternoons.
And these things are this idol of Tammuz.
This vegetation as it is.
These romances that live and then they die
and live and die.
And women sit there and weep and live
their lives through these idols.
Live their lives through this death.
And I wonder how many sitting here today
when the Holy Spirit has visited you and
as a matter of fact, if you're a
Christian, He lives in you and has had
to watch you sitting in front of Tammuz
weeping.
Weeping at foolishness.
Weeping at lies.
Weeping at adultery and fornication.
And all types of evil.
Led on this roller coaster of vain emotion.
Trying to find some kind of solace because
you're in a loveless marriage or a hopeless
relationship or you have a pitied self-image.
And so you sit in front of this
thing and you watch, you listen to this
idiocy of these relationships that live and then
they die.
And you cry when they die.
And then you rejoice when they live and
you cry when they die.
You even phone each other and talk about
Tammuz.
What's the state of Tammuz?
The Holy Spirit said, the glory is departing
for these things.
How long do we hear truth and not
respond to it?
How long?
You see, there comes a time when you
end up on the other side of truth.
You're on the other side.
You're in captivity and looking back.
And God comes to you and pleads.
That's what the role of Jeremiah was and
Isaiah and others who God raised up.
And it's a pleading with the people of
God.
The glory is going to depart.
You're going to end up in captivity.
When difficulty comes, you're not going to be
able to stand, turn from these things, and
turn to the living God.
He took him further and he said, he
brought me into the inner court.
Verse 16, 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 towards the temple of the Lord
and their faces towards the east.
And they worshiped the sun towards the east.
Now these are the priests of the temple
as the commentators described them.
And they have their backs to the altar
of God.
They're looking away now from the Creator.
And they're looking to creation to satisfy their
need.
They're moving in the opposite direction.
Everything in their theology is now about health
and wealth and success and prosperity.
They're looking away.
The cross is behind them now.
We sing that song, you know, the cross
before me, the world behind me.
That's the proper perspective.
In other words, I'm going on to find
the will of God.
And even if it causes pain, I'm going
to embrace it.
But the theology is now reversed.
The cross is behind and the world is
very clearly before them.
And they're worshiping ease and they're worshiping comfort.
And they're worshiping success.
And they're worshiping everything that the creation has
to offer them.
And we're living at that time right now,
beloved.
We're living at that time in America.
You don't believe me, God forbid that you
should have to ever do it, but just
look at Christian television for half a day
and you're going to see it.
You're going to see the sun worshipers.
You're going to see them very, very clear.
There's no cross, no blood, no offense, no
gospel, no call to self-denial.
Nothing but success and prosperity and health and
wealth and happiness.
And of course, it all comes by giving
your money to me.
That's the gospel they preach.
Verse 17.
The Lord says to Ezekiel, Have you seen
this, O son of man?
And is it a light thing to the
house of Judah that they commit the abominations
which they commit here?
For they've filled the land with violence.
They've filled the land with violence.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 18, where
there is no vision, the people perish.
And what that means in the Hebrew context
is where there is no real sight of
the divine presence.
That's actually more the original translation.
Where there is no real sight of the
divine presence, the people become unruly, lawless, and
begin to run wild.
In other words, where there is no manifestation
of Christ in His church and among His
people, in the New Testament, the Bible says
the Holy Spirit is the restrainer.
He is the one that keeps this world
from breaking into an unspeakable lawlessness.
But it's not just an ambiguous restraint that
sort of trails itself on the wind.
The restraint, the Holy Spirit is in His
church.
He's in the church of Jesus Christ.
The restraint that God manifests to the evils
of society around me are in me, they're
in you.
And if there is no real sight of
God through His church, the people around become
unruly, lawless, and begin to run wild.
And God's glory must depart from this type
of religion.
It departs gradually.
He departs reluctantly.
You'll see if you took the time to
see His departure was in three, actually four
stages.
He leaves the Holy of Holies and then
goes to the door.
Then mounts the chariot of the cherubim.
And then leaves gradually and heads over to
the Mount of Olives.
He does not leave quickly.
He does not leave hastily.
Because it's God's desire to have a people.
Now in 1 Corinthians 3.16, Paul says,
Do you not know that you are the
temple of God and that the Spirit of
God dwells in you?
And if any man defiles the temple of
God, him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which
temple you are.
I believe that the book of Romans tells
us very, very clearly the form that this
departure takes.
Let me just read it to you for
time's sake.
Romans 1.28 And even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge,
there are people like this who will sit
under the word of God, but they don't
want God to be part of their daily
experience.
We heard this morning they have a form
of godliness, but their life totally lacks the
manifestation of God's life and power.
God gave them over to a reprobate mind
to do those things which are not convenient.
A reprobation.
Here's the evidence of the departure of the
glory.
It's a crooked thinking about God.
It's a crooked thinking about holiness.
A crooked thinking about life in general as
God sees it.
Being filled with unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness.
In other words, they will reach out and
become greedy.
They will bear grudges and come under no
conviction.
Full of envy.
They'll see somebody in the church body that
is getting a better position than them and
they will be eaten up with envy at
what God is doing in somebody else's life.
Murder.
Bible says anyone hates his brother, he's a
murderer.
Debate.
You ever run into doctrinal debaters who ruin
every prayer meeting you've ever attended?
That may be evidence of a reprobate mind.
That's a mind that doesn't really want truth
because the end of truth is a peaceableness.
There's a joy.
There's a deep abiding presence of God.
Something comes into your spirit that says I
don't have to win every argument.
I just simply have to know who Christ
is.
Deceit is a reprobation.
That means coming in and pretending to be
one thing but really being another.
Whisperers.
Whisperers are reprobate.
Oh, yes.
We all from time to time may fall
prey to some of these things.
But the difference is if the Holy Spirit
is in you and the glory of God
is still with you, the Holy Spirit will
convince and convict that this falls short of
the glory of God and there will be
a deep inner grieving in your heart.
But you see, the reprobate is not grieved
because there's no longer a convicting of the
Holy Spirit.
The glory is gone.
Backbiters.
Haters of God.
Despiteful, proud boasters.
Inventors of evil things.
Disobedient to parents without understanding.
Covenant breakers.
In other words, they'll make promises with no
intent of ever keeping them.
Without natural affection.
That means family affection.
A reprobate in the church of Jesus Christ
can make any kind of vow he wants
before God and walk away when it's no
longer convenient.
Implacable.
That means unconsolable.
I know, Pastor Neil, you've run across this.
People just cannot be consoled.
It's strong evidence sometimes that they are reprobate.
That the comforter is gone.
There is no chance that they can be
consoled.
Unmerciful.
Knowing the judgment of God that they which
commit such things are worthy of death not
only do them, but have pleasure in them
that do them.
Not only do these things, but have no
conviction.
Can go home, turn on television, watch it
all week.
And the very things that are listed here
are being acted out before them.
They don't only do them, but they have
pleasure in those that do them.
And the Bible clearly says they did not
want to retain God in their knowledge.
I only warn you because I love you.
I only warn you because I sense the
love of God for this church, for every
soul that ever comes through the doors.
God forbid that I should ever condemn you
if you are righteous, but ever make you
comfortable if you are wicked.
Now, before the glory departs, the Lord told
Ezekiel, He said, Send a man.
He said, I'm going to send a man
throughout the camp as it is of Israel,
and I'm going to set a mark.
In chapter 9, verse 4, it says, The
Lord said to him, Go through the midst
of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,
and set a mark upon the foreheads of
the men that sigh and cry for all
the abominations that be done in the midst.
Now, the mark, He said, Before I judge
the city, before I judge Jerusalem, and the
whole nation as it is, I'm sending somebody
down.
He's going to set a mark on everyone
who sighs and cries for all the abominations
that are done here.
Now, the mark is the Hebrew.
It's the Hebrew Taw.
It's a letter, Taw, T-A-W.
And it's the form of a cross.
It's amazing.
When you begin to see the similarity where
the Lord says, I'm going to go down,
and those that are mine are going to
have the mark of the cross on them.
There's a mark on them.
I want to tell you, beloved, if you
have a heart for truth, you bear in
you the mark of the Son of God.
The Bible says He was a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief.
You bear in you a grief.
There's a grief for the sins of the
nation.
There's a grief for a backslidden church.
If you truly have the mark of God,
there's also an abiding grief.
Whenever we are grieving the Spirit of God,
there's a grief.
It's not a condemnation.
It is a conviction because we are children
of God.
We have that part of us that cries,
Abba, Father.
But we have the other part, that office
of the Holy Spirit that comes and moves
upon us when what we are doing and
what we are thinking falls short of the
glory of God.
I don't know about you, but when I
start to fall short of the glory that
Christ has for me, a grieving quite often
comes into my heart.
A deep abiding grief that says, Oh God,
I don't want to be like this.
I don't want to talk like this.
I don't want to act like this.
I don't want to think like this.
God, I don't want this to mar the
testimony of Your glory through my life.
Oh God, I repent.
I don't want this in my life.
And now I call out to You, Holy
Spirit.
I call out to You, Jesus, as I
look upon You.
Yours promised to me is that I gaze
upon You as You reveal Yourself to me.
I will be changed into Your image from
glory to glory.
So now I call out to You for
this area of my life.
And oh God, change me.
And You come in not long after that
and there is a glory in Your soul
that is unspeakable and full of glory.
You don't have to be convinced that God
is alive.
You're not going home and sitting in front
of some foolish image.
You're coming into the house of God and
saying, I know He lives.
Because the glory is in the temple.
The glory.
You don't find it when you come here.
You bring it with you.
The glory of God comes in here with
you.
Thanks be to God.
The unspeakable glory of Jesus Christ.
There is this mark of God.
This mark that says, prove me.
Search me.
No, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not talking about the whip me, beat
me circuit that you sometimes find in the
church.
Oh, I'm so unworthy.
I'm so rotten.
Just kill me, beat me, hit me.
No, the motivation is a deep abiding love
for God that says, Lord, if I'm grieving,
You show me.
Show me.
Show me where You love me, yes.
And show me where You've strengthened me.
I need to be aware of these things.
Otherwise, I'm always going to be living in
regret and eventually under condemnation.
But God, wherever I'm failing, You show me.
Show me.
And the mark of the true man or
woman of God is that when you're shown,
you hit these altars.
Man, you hit the decks running and say,
God, I want that rot out of my
life.
I want that filth out of my life.
I want this thing that is blocking the
glory of God.
I want this image of jealousy gone.
This thing that causes you grief.
I want it gone.
I want it out of the temple.
I don't want this thing having any part
in my life.
Look at 2 Corinthians very quickly with me.
Chapter 4.
2 Corinthians 4 where the Apostle Paul talks
about this ministry.
Chapter 4, verse 1.
He says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry,
and as we have received mercy, we faint
not.
Yes, we have a call to bear the
image of God.
And we are going to bear it through
mercy.
Hallelujah.
Not human effort.
He promises we believe.
And that's where the contract begins to be
enacted.
And we faint not.
But here's the key.
Verse 2 says, We have renounced, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.
This is the mark of the man of
God, the woman of God.
We've renounced them.
Not walking in craftiness.
Not walking in a crookedness.
Not trying to make truth a lie.
And a lie truth.
Not trying to twist the things of God.
Nor handling the word of God deceitfully.
But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of
God.
Do you see that in your Bible?
But by the manifestation of the truth.
Changing into the image of God.
This image that Ezekiel saw.
This is the image that we're supposed to
bear within this temple.
There's not supposed to be anything in us
willfully that causes jealousy.
We're not supposed to be formed by another
image.
But Paul says, If we are dealing honestly
with God, The word of God, the truth
of God is manifesting in us the life
of Christ.
And that manifestation causes us to stand before
every man's conscience.
In the sight of God.
In other words, we become a Bible.
They may curse at us.
They may threaten us.
But they can't ignore us.
Because we are the epistle of God.
God's finger has written His law now in
our hearts.
He's written His law in our minds.
He's given us a new spirit.
He's taken away this stony heart of unbelief
and given us a heart of flesh to
believe Him.
We are changing from image to image and
glory to glory.
The very presence of God in us becomes
the restrainer.
That's always been the answer to the ills
of any generation, any nation.
It's a man, it's a woman, it's a
people somewhere that get a hold of God.
And say, Jesus be formed in me.
God's answer to a backslidden England is always
a Wesley.
If our gospel is hidden, Paul goes on
to say it's hidden from those that are
lost.
In whom the God of this world has
blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them.
Verse 6 says, For God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined
in our hearts to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ.
He's shined in us.
And the image, that image of God that
was in the face of Jesus Christ is
now ours.
We are to be His body.
We are His representatives on this side of
eternity.
I believe we can say like John, We
beheld His glory as the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth.
And like Paul, who says, As we beheld
Him, we were changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.
Now the Lord says to Ezekiel, There are
hard times coming for everybody.
I want you to set the mark.
This mark will identify those that are mine.
This mark of the cross.
In chapter 11 verse 16, He said, Although
I have cast them off far among the
heathen, and although I have scattered them among
the countries, yet I'll be to them like
a little sanctuary in the countries where they
shall come.
God says, No matter where you find yourself
in the coming days, those that are mine,
Yes, the glory that America knew is lifting
and is almost gone.
A lot of churches have already lost the
glory.
They are not even aware of it.
The glory is gone.
There is no manifested presence of Jesus Christ
in them anymore.
A lot of Christians have lost the glory
of God.
Because they played with the holy things.
Remember Belshazzar.
There is one sin that God will bring
instant judgment to, when they took the holy
things out from the temple and began to
party with them.
And drink and commit harlotry.
Then the writing came on the wall.
It said, Your kingdom is finished.
It's over.
Time and again throughout history, there have been
people who have heard the word of God,
but they've played with God.
They've toyed with His goodness.
They've taken His covenant and done despite.
To the grace that He's given them.
And the glory lifts.
I have known reprobates.
There are reprobates in this church.
I love it.
There are reprobates.
You cannot talk to them.
They're evil.
I say that very reluctantly.
We have people who write letters, even while
I'm preaching.
I'll get scathing letters about this message.
Evil.
Venomous.
There are some names in this church where
your letter goes right into the garbage.
We don't even open it.
You've been writing so long, you don't know
what you are anymore.
And I'm not preaching this for your sake.
This is just a sidebar to what the
Holy Spirit has given me to speak.
He said, but to those who choose to
walk in truth, I'm going to be a
little sanctuary to you.
Hallelujah.
I'm just going to be a little sanctuary.
I don't know what's going to happen to
New York City.
I don't know what's going to happen to
America.
It's not going to be good though.
But God says, for those who have my
mark on them, who want the glory, I'm
going to be a little sanctuary.
Now you, in fact, and I are the
little sanctuary.
And God's just saying, I'm going to be
in you and around you and on you.
I'm going to keep your mind in perfect
peace.
When all hell breaks out, you're going to
be looking up because your redemption draws nigh.
Everyone else is running to caves and mountains
and looking to hide for the fear that's
coming on them.
But you are waiting for that trumpet blast.
You are waiting to go home.
In the interim, you are a standing expression
of the power of God.
You will not bow down to the golden
image.
You will not give in to the evil
of this culture all around us.
You've made a choice.
You said, I'm coming out from among them.
I'm not letting the things of this society
begin to mold me any longer.
I've had enough of it.
And when God looks at me, I don't
want there to be a competition between the
glory of Christ and an image of jealousy.
I don't want Him to come to me
and see these two things cohabitating in the
temple.
Because He said, I will not give my
glory to another image.
I will adore.
I will plead.
I will come to you.
I will manifest my name to you, my
grace to you.
But I will not forever compete with this
image.
Beloved, we are recipients of great grace.
And the covenant is marvelous, but it is
not a license to play games with God.
And Acts chapter 5 is living proof of
that.
Two people who simply pretended to be what
they were not.
And God said, let me set the record
straight for the New Testament.
Let me just kill them beforehand to help
you to understand that I am still a
holy God.
I still require the loyalty of my people.
I have bought them with a price and
they are mine.
I am their husband.
They are my bride for all of eternity.
I will not share intimacy with another.
I will not share my bride with other
loves.
And Ezekiel concludes, and he said, they shall
come hither, in verse 18, and they shall
take away the detestable things and all the
abominations from there.
And I will give them one heart and
a new spirit within you.
And I will take the stony heart out
of their flesh and will give them a
heart of flesh.
They will walk in my statutes and keep
my ordinances and do them.
And they shall be my people and I
will be their God.
The choice, I guess, is very clear.
When God looks at me and looks at
you, what does He see?
When He visits us, what is He watching?
Is there a competing image?
Is something else other than Christ competing for
the formation of my thinking, the formation of
my heart, the very evidence of God in
my life?
Is there competition in this temple of the
Holy Spirit?
And if so, if you have and I
have one ounce of spiritual wisdom, there will
be a cry that comes into our heart.
We say, God, get this thing out of
me.
Get rid of this.
I want the glory.
No matter what it costs me, I want
the glory.
I want the glory.
In spite of what people say, in spite
of what my family say, in spite of
what my bosses say, in spite of what
my community says, I want the glory.
Because this is about eternity.
This is about Almighty God.
I want the glory.
I think there's some here today, you've got
to ask the Holy Spirit to go into
that little inner room in the temple and
just literally scrap and burn all these images,
these self-images that don't correspond with the
will of God for your life.
These self-ambitions, self-plans, all of these
things have got to go so that the
strength of God may come into your life.
All the women are sitting in front of
tamas and weeping.
It is time to put this thing away.
It is time to start looking to your
husband, your true husband, your eternal husband.
Oh, you may have a husband here and
now, but that's only temporary.
Because one day, we are all going to
be betrothed to one husband eternally.
It's time to get to know Him.
It's time to put away the vegetation, God,
and get to know Him.
And for those that are looking to the
Son, I'm talking about the S-U-N.
You're looking for Christ to make you wealthy
and healthy and happy and prosperous.
It's time to turn around and face the
cross and say, Lord, not my will but
Thine.
Your will be done.
God says, the glory will come.
Hallelujah.
I want to just read one passage of
Scripture to you, and I'm going to give
an altar call.
For those who make the choice, I've made
it in my heart.
He said these words, Arise, shine, for your
light has come.
The glory of the Lord has risen upon
you.
Now remember, the glory of the Lord is
seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
Christ is the glory of God.
For behold, darkness will cover the earth.
This is the day we're now very quickly
moving into.
And gross darkness, the people.
An immorality, and a grossness of unprecedented proportion
is coming on the whole world like a
baptism of filth.
But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
His glory shall be seen on thee.
Hallelujah.
And kings shall come to thy light, and
gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings
to the brightness of thy rising.
Lift up your eyes round about and see.
They all gather themselves together.
They come to you.
Your sons shall come from far, and your
daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you will see and flow together.
That means you and God will flow together.
And thine heart shall fear and be enlarged,
because the abundance of the sea shall be
converted to thee, and the forces of the
gentiles shall come to thee.
God says in this last darkened hour, I
am going to have a people.
I believe when we go to Washington in
the summertime, we're going to see something phenomenal
happen.
As the Spirit of God begins to grip
young people, when they see, they have to
see the glory.
They have to see it.
It's not enough just to speak about it.
Without you, they have to see it, the
glory.
When they see the glory of God on
a surrendered group of young people, that's why
it's not enough just to sing songs.
I trust that you understand what the Holy
Spirit is speaking today.
Anybody can sing songs.
They have to see the glory.
And the glory is something that God gives
you when you and I are walking in
right relationship.
You cannot earn it.
You don't deserve it.
It's His presence, His countenance.
It's a stamp of His approval, a mark,
in a sense, of God that He puts
on your life.
And they see the glory.
They see the glory.
I see an army of young people rising
up to their feet.
I see young people who say, we've been
lied to long enough.
This is right.
This is wrong.
This is God.
This is evil.
I see in the midst of all of
the calamity, hope.
Because there are people who've chosen to do
it God's way.
He said, you're going to see and you're
going to flow together.
And I take that as being with God.
Your heart will fear and be enlarged.
And you'll be just saying, Oh God, You
are awesome.
There's no limit to Your power.
There's no limit to what You can do.
Hell has to part.
The waters have to part when You are
there.
When Your name is spoken through surrendered vessels
or sung about through surrendered vessels, all hell
comes crashing down.
The walls of Jericho fall.
The seas of impossibilities part.
It's just as it was in the days
of old.
Although we're seeing it now with spiritual eyes
in the New Testament kingdom.
The abundance of the sea will be converted.
And the forces, that means the power of
the Gentiles, will come to you.
Hallelujah.
God's going to give you the power to
resist that evil boss.
And one day, he or she will come
and say, tell me, where do you get
the strength that I have seen in your
eyes?
Oh Jesus.
Lord, You're calling us.
I hear You.
God, I hear You.
And all I can say is I come.
The Spirit and the Bride say come.
Oh Lord, You're calling us to come.
And I say to You, I'm coming, Lord.
I'm coming, God.
Wherever You want me, whatever You want me
to do, I'm coming, oh God.
Oh Jesus.
I pray for this church.
I ask You, God, Lord, that we would
have the courage to hear truth on this
side, oh God, and respond to You when
You call us.
Lord, You're calling us to something, oh God,
so marvelous of Yourself.
Give us the grace to hear it and
the grace to respond to it.
Father, I thank You, God.
I thank You.
Now, beloved, I know the Holy Spirit has
spoken to many here today.
I don't have to repeat the issues that
He's brought out in this message.
But what I can say, if the Holy
Spirit is talking to you, and you've got
to get right with God.
If you're backslidden, you're one of these people
that's been spoken about in this message.
And I'm going to ask you, just unashamedly,
to get up out of your seat.
The education annex, you can come here too.
We'll wait for you.
Balcony, downstairs.
Make your way to the altar.
Would you do that right now?
And then we're going to pray together.
We're going to expect God to do the
miraculous in our lives.
Let's all stand together.
And as we do, if the Holy Spirit
is drawing you, please make your way to
this altar.
Make your way here.
Downstairs.
And annex as well.
You can make your way here.
We'll wait for you.
And we're going to pray together.
Lord, I come.
All these images out of the temple.
These things that cause you jealousy out of
my life.
All the immorality gone.
By Your grace, God, I'm not putting up
with this.
I'm not living like this willfully.
I'm trusting You for the power, for the
victory.
Would you come?
He's going to put His glory on you.
We're going to be fasting.
And the end result of this fast is
going to be a glory like you've never
known in your soul before.
Oh, Jesus.
Let Your glory.
Let Your glory fill this place, oh God.
Lord, we ask that there be always an
abiding glory here.
Because You gather the people who truly love
You.
In spirit and in truth.
They come.
We come to worship You week after week.
You have been here.
You have graced us with Your presence.
And Lord, we cherish Your presence.
Holy Spirit, we love You.
We worship You.
We worship You, Spirit of the living God.
Pray with me.
Lord Jesus, forgive me for the areas of
my life where I have been molded willfully
by things which provoke Your jealousy.
I am called to love You and You
alone.
Today, I renounce the hidden things of dishonesty.
I renounce that which grieves Your heart.
I renounce all association with evil and evil
practice and evil deeds and things that grieve
You.
I thank You that You have placed on
me the mark of Christ.
Because I have a tender heart and I
can hear Your voice.
And it tells me that Your glory is
resting on me.
And You want all of my heart and
my mind and my soul.
Mighty God, faithful Father, I ask You to
abide in me and manifest through me the
glory of Jesus Christ, my Savior, the Son
of God.
Make my life a living Bible that can
be read by people who don't know God
all around me.
Let my heart love truth.
Let my heart love people as You love
them.
Cast away from me the fear of man.
And may the love of Christ forever be
the deepest treasure of my heart and my
life.
O God, touch me, mold me, make me
into the image of Jesus Christ.
Let this temple be filled with the glory
of God.
If you're sincere, you will have what you
ask for.
It's as simple and straightforward as that.
You will have it.
This is the conclusion of the message.