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Four Visions of New Life
Second in a series on Ezekiel
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, August 14, 2005
We’re in Ezekiel; a fascinating guy, full of graphics,
illustrations. God came to him 600 years before Christ. He is a type of Christ:
that’s a foreshadowing, a promise of things to come. I’m going to begin reading
with the first verse of the second chapter; Ezekiel 2:1, “He said to me, Son of
man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you. And he spoke, and the
Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet and I heard Him speaking to me. He
said, Son of man, I am sending you.”
We’ll be looking at several different verses in Ezekiel so
keep your Bible open will you please? There are three ways in which we
experience. Usually the first thing we do is hear, the second thing we do is
see and the third thing we do is experience. It begins often with the ear,
turns then to some kind of an image we see with our eyes or with our minds and
then, then we begin to experience what we’re seeing. And at any one of those we
can quit or are forced to quit.
On Monday, August 8th, late in the day, word
came that the spaceship Discovery was going to return to earth and that the
weather allowed it. I never have figured out what the weather has to do with
something that’s way up, never mind. But if you heard that, you may have said
to yourself, self, I think I’ll get up early and watch that. Notice how it
happened. You heard Discovery was coming back and you said, I’m going to get up
early and watch it and of course what you would do is watch it on television and
if you did, what did you see? It was fascinating. With the infrared camera the
first thing you saw was a little tiny white spot, you know and then the spot
began to get bigger and bigger and the spokesman was saying some phenomenal
things like, Discovery has now slowed down to 10,000 miles an hour. Now it’s
down to 9,000, now it’s down to 8,000; meanwhile, that little spot was getting
bigger and bigger until it was like, like a ping pong ball, but it was still a
white spot, a white ball and then as it got closer you began to make out a
shape, an image; an image of a spaceship and when it finally landed, you could
see clearly that it was a spaceship, not a ball on the horizon. That’s when I
stopped and you stopped; we heard, we saw the image – did we meet the
astronauts? No. Some of them were interviewed. Did we take the trip? No. In
other words, on the level of experience that’s where we got off.
Suppose you’re God and He’s trying to get through to you,
to me, how’s He going to do it? Well the first thing He’s going to do is give
you some information and some people stop right there. The second thing He’s
going to do is He’s going to give you something to look at, an image, often an
unforgettable image, but the third thing He’s going to do, He’s going to send
His Spirit so that you have the opportunity to experience what you have first
heard and secondly seen and thirdly now can experience. It is an incredible
pattern when you look at Ezekiel that way. “He said to me, Son of Man, stand on
your feet and as he spoke the Spirit came into me (experience) and raised me to
my feet and I heard Him speaking to me.”
I want to point out in these brief moments four images.
It’s not just information; it’s something to look at with the hope, with the
hope that the experience will happen. Verse one of these is the simple phrase,
Son of Man. You see, there has got to be a reason why the Lord God uses this
phrase to address Ezekiel and He never calls him Ezekiel. Ninety times in 48
chapters in Ezekiel He comes and He calls him Son of Man. It’s a title. He
wants him to see a new way of looking at God. Ezekiel knows all about God he’s
a priest, but for Ezekiel God’s up there, or He’s in the temple, or He’s on the
altar, or He is watching the sacrifices. How is God going to get through to say
to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, I’m not up there, I’m where you are. And so Ezekiel is
given a name that is more than a name, it is a title.
Now Americans are fond of titles. On occasion, we know
somebody mostly by their names; Tiger Woods, but if I say to you Tiger Woods you
don’t think tennis. Do you? The whole point is, you’re looking at title
presidents are called president for the rest of their lives as are senators as
are judges; we are very fond of titles. CEO, President of the Board, Senior
Executive, all titles…In a functional society what a person does becomes very
important and for ancient Israel and for Ezekiel God said, quit thinking of God
as some kind of astronaut way up there. Start thinking of God as one who comes
and is like a man, Son of Man and Ezekiel becomes a type, a foreshadowing of the
Lord Jesus. You see, Jesus used Son of Man as His personal title. He could
have used Messiah, He could have used Lord, He could have used teacher and He
was called all of those things, but by others. But when He came to choose a
title for Himself, He chose Son of Man – 80 times Son of Man. Why? What He was
trying to get across that, as the Son of God He was becoming the Son of Man.
If you want to heal, you have to be there. If you want to
really coach you have to be there. If you’re going to the dentist, you can’t to
it by proxy. Suppose you’re going to take the bar exam; you can’t have somebody
stand in for you. God knows that if He’s ever going to communicate with us,
He’s going to have to communicate with a face and with hands and maybe even
pierced hands.
Have you caught on yet? God is greater than us and greater
than all of the galaxies, but the miracle of miracles, He knows your name and in
Christ He becomes so much like you He feels, He knows, He hears, Son of Man.
The Son of God became the Son of Man in order that becoming like us we could
become like Him. Second, bears our sins, Ezekiel the foreshadowing right? Look
over there, the fourth chapter, the fourth verse, “And God says to Ezekiel you
are to bear the sins of Israel for the number of days you lie on your side.”
And then He says He’s going to put him down for 390 days and then 40 days for
the sins of Judah. The key here is, look at verse 4, “Then lie on your left
side and put the sin of the House of Israel upon yourself.” This is an
incredible image.
The fact that one person can in fact bear the sins of a
whole nation; in our day of individualism it is hard for us to grasp that. When
Jesus died on the cross, we really believed He was the sin bearer and that
something happened on that cross that allowed Him to stand in our place. Okay?
But have you ever seen the image? God Almighty, Most Powerful on that cross
through Christ is helpless; that God would become helpless in order that we
might gain strength is one of those truths that boggles the mind and now with
Ezekiel He puts him on his side helpless. What can you do when you’re on your
side? Nothing, except go to sleep. You can’t walk, can’t achieve, can’t play
tennis, piano, you can’t even read well; well I’ve seen some on the beach that
seem to be able to, you know, but you understand. And the reason that God puts
Ezekiel on his side, I think he doesn’t have any idea, Ezekiel, on why this is
happening, but it’s the helplessness of it. Sin bearing becomes for God His
ultimate gift. What more can you give than yourself? You can give your power.
And He gave it for us. You say what difference does that make? It makes a ton
of difference when you’re struggling because you see then you have to have
somebody who knows about weakness and the one who knows about weakness is going
to have to be God.
Beth Moore tells of Donna a missionary to South America.
Donna was not like most missionaries, polished, clean, very, very good and
proper. She’d had more ups and down than you can imagine. As a matter of fact,
she felt led to go to a far off place near a village where she would mostly be
by herself because she’d been through it. Struggling with all of the ups and
downs of her life one day it came to her and she saw POW! She saw the great
parable of what was happening among those who did the weaving and the
immaculately beautiful rugs. The first thing they did was shear the sheep and
with a detergent they washed it. With the wool they sorted it; over here was a
small pile of perfect white wool and they would weave it just like that, but
over here the flawed, the tarnished, stained and with that they dyed it, the
many colors and then in their own way with their great skill, 60,000 knots every
square meter tied as those wool rugs were put together and all of the sudden
Donna, scarred, stained, flawed, never living up to her own expectations, said
to herself, that’s what God can do for me. He can take all of the flaws and the
stains and the impurities and with His own blood, He can make the dye that turns
what looked like it was useless into that which is beautiful. Sin bearer…
Have you let the Lord Christ bear your sins? Now you say,
yeah, I was saved 40 years ago. That’s not what I asked. How long has it been
since you’ve confessed your sins and let the Lord Jesus pay for them? In His
weakness He can make you strong.
The third thing is the scroll. Boy this is graphic; go
back to the second chapter, the last two verses, “I saw a hand stretched out to
me and in it was a scroll which He unrolled before me.” Go to the third
chapter, “Son of Man eat what is before you. Eat this scroll and then go to the
speak to the House of Israel so I opened my mouth and He gave me the scroll to
eat.” Yuck! “Then He said, Son of Man, eat this scroll I am giving you and
fill your stomach with it. So I ate it and it tasted as sweet as honey in my
mouth.” It turned out to be sweet indeed, what’s he speaking of, what’s the
image of? Scripture, the Bible, the word, the scroll and the image is that we
are to take it and eat it and digest it and when we do, when it becomes ours,
when we really experience what the scripture is talking about it does become
sweet as honey.
I was thinking of our Appointment With God books. We put
them out in order that every day you’ll have a scripture to go by with a
comment; written largely by our laymen but they are so good. You know what we
ought to do come September? We ought to set aside a verse every month and
memorize it as a people. You say, you know, one a month that’s not very much,
that’s 12 a year. How many verses have you memorized this year? Twelve; if all
of us wound up this time next year with 12 verses that we didn’t know now ours.
We have just gone from knowing about the Bible to reading the Bible to
experiencing the Bible. You see, and you know of me that one of things that,
one of the verses that has walked me through some really tough
patches…Deuteronomy 31:8, “The Lord Himself goes before you and He will be with
you. He will never you nor forsake you. Don’t be discouraged and don’t be
afraid; put that verse in your mind, in your heart and at a time you need it, it
will surface and be like honey to your spirit.”
There is a fourth and that’s the standing up of the
Spirit. You see, the Spirit always lifts – verse 2, the second chapter, “As He
spoke the Spirit came to me and raised me to my feet and I heard Him speaking.”
Look at the third chapter of the 10th and the 12th verses,
“Then the Spirit lifted me up.” The lifting power of the Holy Spirit…look in
3:24, “Then the Spirit came into me and raised me up to my feet.” You know,
it’s such a graphic way of seeing it and then a wonderful way of experiencing it
that when we are down and the Holy Spirit is given entrance into our lives
suddenly He sees us and lifts us to our feet and sends us on our way.
Would you do me a favor, the Lord a favor, and you a
favor? Just now open your mind and your heart to the living Spirit of God and
let Him just lift you up. Pray with me, will you? Lord Jesus, thank you for
being here with us today, for all you have meant, for all you do, but just now,
you know each one of us through and through and not a one of us has come in here
with an identical heart. We all have problems but they’re not the same. Lord,
you know our needs; enter into our hearts, touch those needs, lift us up, put us
on our feet and send us on our way. Amen.
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