The Prophet Ezekiel

Thank you, Greg, for that presentation. Very nice to see everyone again. If we view the world around us, I think most would come to an inescapable conclusion that things are progressively getting more sinful in the world. It's becoming more, quote, progressive, which is a way of saying liberal and everything is being watered down more and more. The values that sustained this country at the beginning have been watered down and they are rapidly going downhill. Since the 1960s, the sexual, social, and political revolution brought with the contraceptive pill many more sexual encounters without getting married. The drug culture started. Now we've had virtually some 40 years of this. The abortions are still over a million a year. A million babies that could have been born but are tragically ended. And as people mentioned, the baby doesn't get a chance to have choice. He doesn't have a choice or she doesn't have a choice. And now with the internet spreading and virtually giving people whatever knowledge they desire, it's like sitting under the tree of good and evil. You can pick and choose whatever you want. You no longer have to be stealthy about it. It's something that can just happen anytime, any day. This week I had a teleconference with some council members. The Strategic Planning Committee got together. And one of the subjects that got my attention is the message that we are sending out in our publications, TV programs, and also the public lectures. This has to have a package the way it's presented to the world. It has to be compelling, informative, biblically based, has to be personable, but it also has to contain an element of the warning message to the world. And that got my attention because as things get watered down, people are content with just having a good life and enjoying things, the physical, material things more than anything else. And yet here we are in the 21st century, and our main message should be for people to return to God's laws or else there are going to be very serious consequences.

And so this reminded me of the prophet Ezekiel and his warning message to Israel. It's a good time to study his life and lessons for the people of his day didn't pay attention until it was too late. Isn't that typical? Until you get hit with a two-by-four, you don't wake up until something nasty or bad happens, then a person wakes up to the reality. What was going on? Why didn't I heed the warning when I had the time to correct myself? So we're going to cover the life of Ezekiel. I've never given it here in the 15 years that I've had the honor of serving the congregation. The life and lessons of the prophet Ezekiel. He's there for a purpose that God placed in the Bible. The book that he wrote that is in there inspired by God, so it must be important to God. Ezekiel was a young, educated man in Judah. He was the son of a priest when disaster struck Judah. The Babylonians came and captured the area of Judah. They didn't destroy it, but the first thing they did is called the first deportation, which was when they took all of the upper class, the nobility, and they took them to Babylon to be retrained, and also for them not to have the influence over the people. And so they had Babylonian officials there. Now, in this first deportation, which was around 606 BC, the prophet Daniel, with his companions, was taken to Babylon in that first deportation. And then the Babylonians set up the king to rule over them. This was King Jehoiachin. And as long as he paid his tributes and obeyed the Babylonians, nothing was going to go bad. But this king disobeyed and rebelled against the Babylonians. So the armies came back and imposed again their captivity and took a second wave of educated leaders to Babylon. And it was in that second wave that Ezekiel was taken to Babylon. He was transported there, again around 597 BC. And from what is known, he never returned to Judah. He was a prisoner of the Babylonians. You just couldn't travel wherever you wanted. You were a prisoner. You were a captive.

And so he was taken. We don't know exactly when he was married, but he did have a wife. He had a house in the area called Tel Aviv, where then you have Tel Aviv in modern Israel. It used to be the capital. And it was from this same place, the town where Ezekiel came from. They just went ahead and used the city name to build one in Israel. A town near a canal off the Euphrates River called the River Chibar. He had a wife and was surrounded by other Jewish captives. So it was kind of like a concentration camp, although they didn't torture you, but you were limited to that area. So let's read about this in Ezekiel chapter 1, verse 1. I've given you a little bit of the background information. It says, now it came to pass in the 30th year. Probably this has to do with how old Ezekiel was, since that's when they began to minister to people. In the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chibar, that the heavens were open and I saw visions of God. So again, this was what happened to Ezekiel. He started receiving these messages from God around 593, about some four years after he was taken there. It says, on the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel, the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chibar, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. So he would have about 22 years of visions and his ministry. He would actually realize when Jerusalem was taken and more captives were taken to Babylon afterwards. Notice in chapter two of this book, chapter two in verse one. This is the first vision he received.

And this spirit being said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you. Then the spirit entered when he spoke to me and set me on my feet and I heard him who spoke to me. 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. We're not obeying God. It says, for they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God. As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are a rebellious house, yet they will know that a prophet has been among them. And this was the key concept during that meeting that I had in teleconference reminding us, yes, one day people will recognize they heard a message about the prophecies that are going to be fulfilled. This is why our publications and our programs have to have a warning element to them. So one day they will know, you know, one day I watched a program or I read in a magazine and they were warning me and they will then know that there was a prophetic message among them. Now it says here, whether they listen or not, that's up to them. But we have to have a message with a warning element in it. We cannot slack. We cannot just get comfortable in our lives because we have received some wonderful truths from God. He has placed us in this spiritual body, and it's not to just lay around and enjoy life. We have a mission, and part of that mission is to get that warning message out to the world. God is not going to put up forever with man's misconduct and rebellion, just like He did here at the time of Ezekiel. Verse 6, God comforts Ezekiel because we know that's not a politically correct message. It's not something that people are going to praise the church over. It's not going to come across. Very welcoming. It says, and you, son of man, do not be afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house. So He says, you continue with that message. It's going to be just like being among thorns and briars and scorpions. People are going to be mean to you. They're not going to be welcoming. They're going to say, oh, come on, just give us nice things to talk about. I want to hear sweet and nice things, and let's talk about just the good Christian life. And yet there is a warning message that has to be given. Verse 7, it says, you shall speak my words to them. We have God's word.

Whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious, but you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like the rebellious house. Open your mouth, and we eat what I gave you. And what he did was he gave him the message. Inspired him what he should say. And that was going to be very tough on Ezekiel, because of course everybody wants to be accepted. Everybody wants to be cordial and discreet. And yet here's this warning message that now in the 21st century it is given to the modern Ezekiel's in the church. Notice that it talks about the house of Israel. Now the house of Israel had been taken away about 120 years before. Only the house of Judah remained. So some people say, well Ezekiel actually was just talking to the house of Judah. But that's not the case. Ezekiel knew very well the difference between the house of Judah and the house of Israel. Notice in chapter 4. Notice in chapter 4 verses 4 through 6.

He's telling Ezekiel that he is to symbolically describe what the punishment is going to be on the house of Israel and on the house of Judah. It says in Ezekiel 4.4, Lie also on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity. How many years have they been sinning and rebelling against God? According to the number of the days 390 days, so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side. Then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a day for each year. And so we see they're different in that sense countries. They're different groups of people. And of the two, the house of Israel was the worst before God. The house of Judah retained keeping the commandments a lot longer, but they eventually became corrupted as well.

Notice in Ezekiel chapter 16 where he describes the relationship he had with the house of Israel and the house of Judah and how he took from one person who was Abraham, and he developed this family relationship. And he considered Israel like a bride that he married, and she was not faithful. Notice Ezekiel 16 verse 46. It says, talking to Judah, he says, your elder sister is Samaria, which was the capital of the ten tribes of Israel, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you. Because, of course, the house of Israel was to the north of the house of Judah.

And your younger sister who dwells in the south of you is Sodom and her daughter. So you have to the south another nation, Sodom and her daughters, which are different cities there.

And he says, you did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations.

And so, yes, God recognizes Judah was the one that continued keeping the commandments longer than either the house of Israel or Sodom and Gomorrah, which, of course, were deeply punished and gravely punished for their sins. He goes on, he says in verse 47, you did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abomination. But as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, says the Lord God, neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. So the last 40 years was worse. Why? Because they had the temple and they introduced images, pagan images, when we covered the life of Josiah a couple weeks ago. You remember how he had to clean Judah of so much abominations they were carrying out. So in the book of Ezekiel, there is a clear demarcation distinguishing from the house of Israel from the house of Judah. Ezekiel, of course, was a captive. He wasn't able to travel, but God inspired him to write this book. And it's a book about prophecies, not only for that time, but for the modern house of Israel and the modern house of Judah today.

And notice in Ezekiel 33 what God tells Ezekiel to do. Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 7. Again, the importance of doing your part, whether the people listen or not. Maybe we'll never have big congregations again. Who knows? But we have to continue with this message. It says in verse 7, So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for me. When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way. That wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. You have done your part. And again, the churches nowadays in the world, they're not teaching about what sin is. They say the law has been done away. And they have this ambivalent, which means a love-hate relationship with God's law. When you corner them on it, you say that the law has been done away. The Ten Commandments? Yes, yes, that's all done away. Now it's only grace and by faith. And so when you corner them, you say, okay, which of the Ten Commandments now, if they're done away, do you want me to follow any other God than the true God? Oh, no, no, you've got to do that. Well, should I have idols made of that God? Oh, no, you shouldn't do that. Should you take the name of God in vain? Oh, no. Should you continue to honor your father and mother? Yes.

Should you kill another person? No. Should you commit adultery? No. So should you also steal? No. They say or lie or lust after the neighbor's wife or his possession. Oh, no. See, the only one they want to get rid of is the fourth, the one I left out. Oh, keep the Sabbath day holy. Oh, that's the one they want to do away with. So you can't have it both ways. You can't get rid of the ten and then come back and keep nine of them. So God's people understand there are ten commandments, not nine. They all come in a package. They were all given at the same time. They are part of God's spiritual law. And so when you talk to the world, one of the things is they need to quit keeping the first day of the week holy, which is Sunday, and they need to start keeping the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, holy. That's part of the transgressions that God deals with. Notice in Ezekiel chapter 20, when he talks about what they have done before him, and all the sins that they have done, and they rebelled. Look at Ezekiel 20 verse 13.

It says, yet the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes. They despised my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And they greatly defiled my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my fury on them in the wilderness to consume them. But I acted for my namesake, that I should not be profaned before the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out. So one of the violations is the lack of Sabbath-keeping. So 99 percent of the churches are not going to teach about the Sabbath. They are the wrong churches.

According to God's word, that's what it tells us, the Sabbath was one of those iniquities that the house of Israel broke and were punished by it. So the point is that just like we have Ezekiel in those days, we have a work of God that is being carried out, especially now as things are getting more dangerous. And I want to share with you about the work of the watchman. Why do we focus on this? It is because we have these precious truths. Four of them I'm going to briefly cover.

The first of those precious truths is God's laws still rule this world.

And you reap judgment whether you're aware of them or not. God's laws govern people. A lot of people, they curse, they steal, they lie. They don't realize those laws affect their lives. They will have consequences whether you are aware of them or not. They're like the laws of gravity. You don't have to study them if you jump off a 10-story building. You're going to find out the law of gravity is going to exact its penalty. You don't have to learn about the law of gravity to kill yourself if you jump off a 10-story building. Same way, these are laws that govern from the president of the United States and laws that govern whether you lie to the people or not. All of these things have consequences.

We understand these precious truths that God's laws still rule in this world. You can't get rid of them. People say, well, the law has been done away. Sorry. They are still exacting their penalties. Number two, we understand the dual prophecy, the dual or the dual purpose of prophecy. That what was said at that time, in the end time, the principles are going to be repeated, the prophecies, just like the warning message, it's going to be said at the end times. Notice in 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 4, 1 Peter chapter 4, 1 Peter chapter 4, what Peter mentioned about these prophecies in the Old Testament. Verse 19, it says, And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first and no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. They didn't just come up with it. This wasn't some Ezekiel's idea or his imagination. It didn't come from his own private understanding, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. God was guiding them to write these things down and just like they wrote it down for their day, it's going to happen again in the end times. The same warning, the same consequences before God intervenes, just like he intervened in the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Well, he's going to intervene in the whole world and also the modern houses of Israel and Judah. Number three, we understand the identity of Israel and other nations. So that is a great blessing that the house of Israel and the house of Judah, they have not disappeared from world history. They have a role to carry out in the end times. And so we can see where these descendants are and they have a bigger responsibility and accountability before God than other nations. God is not judging the Chinese with the same measuring stick as he is the people of Israel, modern Israel. Lastly, we are also aware of the seven vital signs in the Olivet prophecy, the seven vital signs in the Olivet prophecy. Olivet prophecy is the prophecy that Christ gave after the he met with his disciples on the Mount of Olives and he gave them these prophecies about what was going to happen in the end time. And he gave seven specific signs that they should be aware of. And I just want to briefly cover that today. The first one we can go to Luke chapter 21 verse 20. As you know, the Olivet prophecy is found in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and also Luke 21. They're the same prophecy, but they have certain details. So in Luke chapter 21, in verse 20, Christ is speaking here and he says, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Of course, these aren't just regular armies like Arabs, but this is actually the invasion that comes from Europe. One day, this area is going to be surrounded. And he says, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

So it's going to be a terrible invasion of that area. But the point is that Israel will be a nation. That's one of the signs that for this to be fulfilled, Israel has to be a governing nation. Now, before 1948, from 70 AD till 1948, Israel was not governed by its own people. They were governed by the Romans and then the Byzantines and then the Muslim all the way to 1948, when they had a war with the Muslim people and they won their independence. So you can imagine, close to 1900 years, that this prophecy was not going to be fulfilled, because it talks about that Jerusalem will be a nation. That Jews will flee from that area.

So that's the first sign that now it can be fulfilled. A hundred years ago, Israel was not a nation. It was just a backwater Arab place, very few people. There wasn't anything to invade. Today, Israel is a very powerful nation, and a lot of Arabs would like to see it destroyed. It is influential, and so it's going to be invaded. Number two, notice in Matthew 24, that's also the same Olivet prophecy, Matthew chapter 24 verse 20.

Here's another sign. It says, talking about the same flight when Jerusalem is surrounded, and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. So here is another sign. When is this going to happen? Well, when in Jerusalem, in Judah, they're going to be keeping the Sabbath, because at that time, the Sabbath is a day when transportation winds down, and it's still the same way. If you've ever been to Israel on the Sabbath, you know everything winds down, and it's still something basically that the population keeps. And it says that your flight may not be on the Sabbath, because it's going to be a lot harder to flee during that day than the rest of the days when you've got plenty of transportation, you've got everything going. So here's a second sign that the Sabbath had to be kept. And since 1948, of course, at that time, it was just a very small population of Jews. So even there, it couldn't be established. But later on, the Sabbath was established as a resting day for the nation of Israel, as it is today. Again, none of this happened for close to 1900 years. And yet Christ is describing a moment when you're going to have a hard time leaving the area of Jerusalem and Judah when you have to flee if it's on a Sabbath day. I remember cases where some of the rabbinic Jews, Orthodox Jews, if you're driving around your car, they'll throw stones at it. They'll yell. They'll pelt you, because they still consider that you shouldn't drive cars at that time. The third vital sign is that the end time will be like Noah's day.

Notice in Matthew 24, verse 37. Here's another key description, a key to understand the end times. But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of man be. And we know that after that great tribulation begins, it's only three and a half years, and then Christ is coming back. So the conditions that prevail will be one like the days of Noah. And what were the days of Noah like? Let's go to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6.

Continuing here down a bit, it says in verse 5, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And he was grieved. He saw, verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Now, the world is filled with violence today, with more weapons of destruction than ever before. I don't know how many millions of rifles and guns are sold just here in the United States, and as well as other places. Do you lock your doors nowadays before you come to the Sabbath? Well, maybe 20 years ago, you didn't even have to worry about that. Well, it is a place now where people have to lock their doors in their cars and their houses. You have to be careful in certain areas where you go through. There's a lot of violence, especially drug-related, and the United States is not the worst by any means.

Now they have the Rio Olympics, and that place in certain areas, just violence every day. In Chicago, how many people are being killed, just like other places? So the earth is filled with violence. If you had the statistics on how many people die every day, being mugged, murdered, in wars, it is atrocious. Now I know that more people died during World War II, but that was because there was a war going on.

God looks at the general state of the world and he says it is corrupt and filled with violence. So that is becoming more the norm than before.

Also, it would be like Sodom's day. It would be similar to—before we finish this one, I do want to highlight in Genesis 6.1 another factor during Noah's day. It says, now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth.

There was a rapid population explosion. So there is today. We are rapidly arriving at eight billion people. I think we passed seven, and it's predicted to go up to nine or ten billion before it kind of settles down. But if you think 200 years ago, we only had a billion people on the earth. Now we got seven billion and going to eight billion. So there is a population explosion.

Let's go to Luke chapter 17 verse 28.

Luke chapter 17 verse 28.

Jesus Christ is describing the end time. Just like He said about Noah's day, verse 26, as it was in days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. But now He adds this element in verse 28.

So He describes the conditions as the same sexual immorality as in the days of Sodom. Now some can argue how many people are getting killed every day in a certain city. We know there are more arms, there's more violence, the police are alarmed around the world. I know I travel through Latin America. Crime is rampant. People disregard the police. Most of these places, the police is not in charge. Just think about Mexico and how many people are being killed. Just mayors are being killed. The drug cartel is killing so many people. There's violence like never before. And like in the days of Lot, sexual immorality is getting worse and worse. That is absolutely undeniable.

Like I mentioned before, there are over a million abortions going on. How much of that has to do with sexual immorality? People just playing around and then getting pregnant and then not wanting to pay the price and getting an abortion. And of course, there's the sexual promiscuity, the statistics on how many people are faithful to their partner just as going down more and more. Actually, there used to be more divorces maybe 10 or 15 years ago than today. It used to be up to about 50 percent. Now it's like 45 percent. Why? Because so many young people don't even bother to get married. So you don't have to get divorced when you split. But it's still a union, a family that split. It's just the statistics don't tell you about that. So Christ predicted. One of the signs would be, just like in Sodom, so it will be. The time when Jesus Christ comes back, God will intervene in world affairs. The fifth is in Matthew 24. Let's go back to Matthew 24 in verse 22. Another sign we should look around and see if it's being fulfilled.

It says, and unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. We have over 10,000 hydrogen bombs on earth. With just a thousand, you could destroy every living being. And yet you got 10 times that much. All the arms negotiations and all the reductions, it hasn't really worked. They're only getting rid of the old bonds. They're creating more now digitally enhanced. Now they're coming up with more powerful ones. And Iran, they say in 10 years they're going to be given a free entrance to the club of nuclear nations. They're going to be filled with the brim with atomic weapons. What's going to happen in the Middle East then, as you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu is very concerned with what's going on. Israel's very worried with Iran getting a hold of nuclear warfare. Then we get to the sixth sign, Matthew 24 verse 8. Matthew 24 verse 8. The new King James doesn't clarify what this is talking about. Other versions are clear. It says, all these are the beginning of sorrows.

Now the Good News Bible says they are the beginning of labor pains. It's talking about a woman about to have a baby. As you know, the contractions get stronger and faster all the time. And so the description here is that when things start, they are going to go fast. They're going to grow in intensity, in frequency, and you can't stop a mother from giving birth. You can't say, well, let's take three hours off. You can just quit having birth pains and in three hours come back.

No, once it starts, the countdown begins. It won't stop until the baby is born. The same way here, once the countdown begins, that end time, no human being can stop it. You can't hold it back from all the effects it will have. Now we don't know exactly that tipping point. When it happens, that God is going to intervene. Daniel 8, you can write that down at least, verse 23 through 25. It says, when the transgressions come to their peak, it's kind of like a tipping point, a threshold that is reached, and then God intervenes. But things are not looking good.

The final sign given here is found in Matthew 24, verse 14, which is the one I want to end with, because it dovetails into the life and lessons of the prophet Ezekiel. It dovetails into what we are doing today, Matthew 24, verse 14. It says, in this gospel of the kingdom, talk about the kingdom of God, will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

So there is going to be a prophet like Ezekiel sending out the message to turn back to God's laws, turn back to the biblical principles, turn back to those prophecies that God is waiting to intervene, and we have to do our job. That's why we contribute, we back. It's bigger than just ourselves. This is a work of God. He could have used angels. He could have used millions of people to come up, yet he has chosen a very small group of people to carry this out.

We are part of that church of God, and we know they have the principles behind it to send this warning message to the world. So these are the points that I wanted to cover. The first one, look to a point in history when Israel will be a nation.

Up until 1948, it wasn't a nation. It did not control its destiny. Now it does. Number two, see a place where the Sabbath is being kept in Israel, because it mentions that there are different conditions on the Sabbath day than the rest of the week. So the Jews have to be prevailing with their teachings and regulations to have the Sabbath respected. Number three, it will be a time like Noah's day. Population explosion, rampant violence around the world. It wasn't just long ago that just about every month we had, and these past two weeks they had another deadly explosion over there in Iraq, where about 70 people got killed, another suicide bomber.

We had one here in San Bernardino a couple months back. This is happening more and more. And it will be number four, like Sodom's day, especially sexual perversions, multiplying. Now how many bathrooms are we going to have in three or four years ago? From now, already some big chains are starting to install transgender bathrooms, and who knows who comes in? If it's a man or a woman, you don't know. You've got to keep your mouth shut and just look straight in front of you.

That's the world we're living in. Number five, the weapons of mass destruction to annihilate mankind. If God doesn't intervene, man will destroy. As somebody said humorously, I don't know how World War III is going to be fought, but I do know what World War IV will be fought with. You know what? With sticks and stones, we're going to go back to the Stone Age because technology will be annihilated.

Those few survivors, if there are any, they're going to have to start fighting with rocks and sticks because there's nothing left. Then the sixth, that it's going to be like a woman giving birth, escalating world problems. The beginning of labor pains. And the seventh, the gospel of the kingdom of God, is to be preached to all the world as a witness. Whether they listen or not, they will have to remember there was a prophet among them. They will have to give account that in this world, with all the communications, God's truth was being sent, and they did not heed those warnings.

So these are the life and lessons of the prophet Ezekiel and his warning message that is part of our work today. So, brethren, we're not only a church. We are a work, and we do have a warning message that we should never forget that needs to be sent out, thanks to all of you and your backing to this entire world.