EZEKIEL 14:12-23 UNDERSTANDING THE JUDGMENT OF GOD2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 14:12-23 Understanding The Judgment Of God

Well, if you would...

have talked to me a couple weeks ago and said, Pastor Jerry, we're going to be doing a pastor's appreciation day and it's going to be great. We're going to have some time of fellowship afterwards and we're just really looking forward to spending the time together. I wonder what you're going to be teaching out of that Sunday. This would not be the passage that I would have expected or anticipated. The subject today is the judgment of God.

And it's not one of our favorite subjects. It's not one that we get excited about necessarily. It's one that is difficult for us to understand. And yet this morning, the Lord desires for us to take some time and consider and understand the judgment of God. The title of the message this morning is that, Understanding the Judgment of God, where here God is ministering to the prophet Ezekiel.

And he's giving him some insight about the judgments and giving him some hypothetical scenarios to help him understand the principles by which God judges. And there are principles that are everlasting principles that are helpful for you and I today to understand the nature and character of God, but then also to prepare ourselves for the things that are ahead and the things that are in store for the world around us. Now to back up a little bit on the ministry of Ezekiel,

We spent some time going through the prophet Jeremiah and understand, you know, the ministry of Jeremiah to the nation of Judah in those final days before they're destroyed by the nation of Babylon. Ezekiel is prophesying during a similar time frame. And so here's a quick look at the timeline just to give you a little bit of understanding of the context of when these things are happening.

Jeremiah began to prophesy around 626 BC. And there, as he began, he was calling the people to repentance and warning them if they did not repent, Babylon would come and bring destruction upon Judah and Jerusalem. Well, the people did not respond. They did not repent. And so in 605 BC, Babylon conquered Jerusalem.

Now, it wasn't conquered completely in the sense that it was destroyed, but a new king was set up and said, hey, you be obedient to Babylon. But many people were taken captive at that time. And amongst those captives taken to Babylon was the prophet Daniel, who you spent some time considering last week. And we'll get into again as we continue to work our way through the Bible in three years. The next book is going to be Daniel the prophet, and that's going to be exciting as well. And so Daniel was taken to Babylon at that time.

Well, then Jerusalem and Judah rebelled against Babylon again. And so Babylon came a second time and conquered Jerusalem. Again, not completely destroyed at this time. A new king is set up and said, you know, you be faithful to Babylon. But many captives were taken back to Babylon at that time. And amongst that group was the prophet Ezekiel.

And so Ezekiel, where we're reading today, he is one of those of that second group that were taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. And it's from there in Babylon that Ezekiel is prophesying to the people of Judah. And so his primary ministry was different than Jeremiah's. Jeremiah was still back in Jerusalem all the way to 586 BC, the third and final time that Babylon conquers Jerusalem. And Jeremiah ministered to the people of Judah there in Jerusalem that whole time.

Well, Ezekiel had a similar message, but he was on the other side of the world for them. He was back in Babylon and bringing forth the word of God to the Jewish people who were there with him in Babylon in captivity. And so God was ministering to his people through these two men who were around the same time, you know, prophesying in parallel, but also in different locations, and

But with the same message, the message of a call to repentance and the righteous judgment of God upon the wickedness that the people were committing.

And so here in Ezekiel, we have this subject of the judgment of God and an attempt to understand a bit about how that works and the way that God does what he does. We're going to work our way through verses 12 through 23 here this morning to understand the judgment of God. Five points that we'll work through starting in verse 12 and 13. Here's point number one. God will judge an unrighteous people.

Again, it's not our favorite subject. It's not one that, you know, we would get excited about or think, you know, would really go great on Pastor Appreciation Day, right? I understand. But at the same time, part of being a pastor is being faithful to the word of God and faithful to the message that God has for us. And today the Lord wants us to remember, to be reminded of, and to develop and grow in our understanding of his judgment.

And here's one thing for us to know. God will judge an unrighteous people. He will. He has to. He is a holy God. And he cannot continue to allow unrighteousness and persistent unfaithfulness. It must be addressed and judged. Jumping again into verse 12, it says, the word of the Lord came again to me saying, son of man, when a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness,

I will stretch out my hand against it. I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. The Lord says, when a land sins against me. At this point in the passage, he's not addressing the people of Judah specifically. He's not addressing the Jewish people specifically. He is speaking kind of generically when he says, when a land. He's talking about any land specifically.

And here we get some insight about the way that God works. And that is when there are gatherings together of people, a group, a collection of people, whether it be grouped around, collected around a land or grouped around and collected around something else, God addresses and deals with that group of people as a group of people. That is we build communities.

As we build nations, as we gather together, now we become a unit and God addresses us collectively as that unit. He talks about a land. And you could think of that in a variety of ways. I would encourage you to even think about it this way, that you could think about the land, okay, the physical geography, right? But really that translates into the idea of a nation, right?

But you can also extend that to a smaller area of geography and look at a community. You can reduce that down a little bit further to look at perhaps a church or reduce that down yet further to look at a family.

These different ways that people group together, that we are united together and collected together. And as we are collected together in these different groups, God, he addresses us, he relates to us, and he holds us collectively accountable as a group. And so he talks about here a land that sins against God by persistent unfaithfulness. Unfaithfulness.

He's talking about a situation where there wasn't, you know, one instance or one issue, but that there is this ongoing deliberate sin. And even though God has warned and called to repentance and reminded and revealed himself that the people have consistently chosen, no, we are going to engage in this behavior that is wicked and unrighteous. And it's that deliberate willful choice to ignore what God says. And when a group of people,

Whether it be on the large scale, like a land, a nation, community, church, family, whatever scale it happens. When a group of people decides and continues and persists in unfaithfulness against the Lord, God says, here's the principle. Here's what I want you to know. I will...

Stretch out my hand against it. That's what he says in verse 13. I will stretch out my hand against that land, that group of people, that collection of people that have gathered together. And you can see this consistently fulfilled by the Lord throughout history. Now, specifically, we can look at the nation of Israel.

And how the nation of Israel at one time united, but then divided. And the northern kingdom, which kept the name Israel, was, well, persistently unfaithful to God. And they experienced, we saw that as we worked our way through the historical books, reading through the Bible in three years, that they, in their unfaithfulness to the Lord...

experienced the judgment of God by the nation of Assyria. And the northern kingdom was conquered, destroyed, and the survivors were taken captive. But then we saw that continued with the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom. And we spent a lot of time considering that through the prophet Jeremiah. That the Lord was calling them to repentance, but the nation of Judah as a whole...

Now you had Jeremiah who was a righteous man, right? He was righteous, but as a whole, the nation decided, no, we're not going to listen to God. We're going to do what we want to do. And so the nation as a whole persisted in unfaithfulness and then, well, experienced the judgment of God. But it wasn't just them. It wasn't just Israel or the, you know, specific descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people.

We also see this played out in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis chapter 18 and 19, God addresses and deals with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their persistent unfaithfulness, their continued wickedness, their ongoing sinfulness. And it tells us that the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. So he overthrew those cities, all the plain and the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.

That these two cities, this land, this group of people that had continued to persist in unfaithfulness, now they're dealt with as a unit. And different people within that group of people might have been more or less wicked, right? But as a unit, collectively, they're dealt with. God addresses them and brings judgment upon them because, well, as a whole, this is a people that have persisted in unfaithfulness, right?

Well, as I said, we can kind of apply this at different scales in the gatherings of groupings of people. I think we could consider the church of Ephesus also. The church of Ephesus, we're familiar with. We've been working, we worked our way through Ephesians on Wednesday nights not too long ago. But later on, the church of Ephesus is addressed by Jesus in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 2. And they were at one time a thriving great church, but

Well, the Lord highlights an issue that they have. Revelation 2, verse 4, he says, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. He says, And here God gives the church of Ephesus a warning.

You guys, you've moved. You're not walking in a loving relationship with me in the way that you once did. And if you don't change and go back to what you once had with me, he says, I will remove your lampstand. Now, this picture of removing the lampstand, it goes back to the vision of Revelation chapter one, where Jesus is walking amongst the lampstands and the lampstands are the churches. Essentially here, what the Lord is saying is, look, if you don't turn things around, if you don't change and repent,

this church will cease to exist. This church will be removed. This church will be disassembled. It will be judged because you have left your first love. And so there will be this judgment for this unrighteous people, even the church of Ephesus, if they do not turn things around. So God will judge an unrighteous people, whether it's a land, a nation, a church, a community, or a family.

And I would encourage you to consider Eli's family. Eli was a priest who served the Lord at the tabernacle. And yet his children were wicked. And God addressed Eli and his relationship to his children several times and told Eli, Eli, why do you honor your children more than you honor me and that you allow this wickedness to continue? And he called Eli to repentance. He called Eli to make a difference, to change and to address the issues there within his family.

But Eli persisted in unfaithfulness. He disregarded the warnings and the instruction that God gave him. And so in 1 Samuel 2, verse 30, it says this, He goes on to tell Eli,

Eli, that there will not be an old man in your house, that your whole lineage is going to be cut off. Your family is going to be judged and your family will cease to exist because you dishonor me, because you honor your children more than you honor me. It's a very stern warning, very serious instruction that God gives, but it demonstrates the principle. God will judge an unrighteous people.

You can look at many more examples throughout the scriptures. God is consistent. People who persist in unfaithfulness and unrighteousness will be judged. And this morning, as we consider these things, again, unpleasant, not exciting for us to think about, and yet important for us to understand. Because this is still the way that God deals with groups of people. And as we are part of different groups of people, we need to understand that God will judge an unrighteous people.

And we can anticipate and expect and really not be surprised when there is that judgment that comes for persistent unfaithfulness to God. And you could consider your land. And there's some things that we could consider. And I'm not going to try to make a case or dive into all of the issues, but our nation is deserving of God's judgment. And so it should not be a surprise.

It's a famous quote. You've probably heard it, but Ruth Graham once told her husband, Billy Graham, if God doesn't punish America, he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. The way that God addressed the judgment and the sin there in Sodom and Gomorrah, looking at our own nation, she says, you know, if God doesn't address our issues and bring judgment upon our rebellion against God and our wickedness, well, it's unfair what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah if he doesn't address America.

the nation of America and our sins. It's a reality. We live in a nation that deserves the judgment of God. Bring it down a little bit. Consider your community. Bring it down a little bit further. Consider your church, maybe your workplace. Bring it down to your home, your family. Where are you at? God will judge an unrighteous people. We need to understand God is righteous and holy and

He does not allow sin to continue unchecked. He's patient. And so sometimes we get confused about that and we think that it's okay. Maybe God approves of this sin or maybe God's okay with it. God understands why we do it because it's so hard and all of that. But don't mistake God's patience for his approval or acceptance. God will judge an unrighteous people. But it's not all bad news. Moving on to verse 14. Now we get point number four this morning and that is God will deliver a righteous person.

And there's a distinction to be made that even in the midst of the group, where collectively the group is unrighteous, in the midst of that, there's a righteous person that God promises to deliver. Verse 14 says, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God.

So here God is giving some hypothetical scenarios. Let's pretend for a moment there's a land that is involved in persistent unfaithfulness. Now in this land, there are these three guys. Now these three guys did not exist at the same time in history. So again, God's making up a hypothetical situation to help us understand the way that he works. So Noah, Daniel, and Job, this land that is unfaithful to God. Let's say all three of these guys are living in that land.

Now, these are guys who are righteous. These are guys who, you know, stand above the normal as far as, you know, what is expected of righteousness. These are guys who stand out. These are faithful men of God. Noah lived amongst a wicked world. All of the world was caught up in only doing what they wanted to do and disregarding what God wanted and desired. The whole world was caught up in this wickedness. So much so that God brought

Judgment and the flood impacted the whole world as a result of the world's persistent unfaithfulness. But in the midst of that, here is this one guy, Noah, who was a just man who walked with God. You have the example of Job. Job.

And Job was a man who was so righteous, God highlighted him and said, hey, look how righteous Job is. Man, you cannot find someone more faithful than Job, more righteous than Job. He is persistent and consistent in walking with me, trusting me. And of course, you know the account of the testing that took place as Satan sought to prove that Job was not as faithful and righteous as God declared, but he was. He was righteous. You have Daniel. Daniel.

Daniel here is a different example because, well, Job and Noah, they had lived a long time ago back in history, right? But Daniel, he was alive, right?

during the time that Ezekiel was prophesying these things. Let me just rewind back to the timeline real quick to remind you. So Jeremiah is prophesying, right? Then the first battle takes place and captives are taken. Daniel is taken into captivity during that first one, 605 BC. And then he ministers there from Babylon as an agent of the Lord for the entire time of the 70 year captivity. Right?

And so Ezekiel comes along on the scene 10 years later. He's prophesying this sometime after that. We don't know the exact timeframe, but 10, 15, 20 years after Daniel's already been in Babylon. So Daniel's been in Babylon for some time. He's established himself right from the get-go as a righteous man, as a man who is holy, a man who is devoted to God. So that even as Ezekiel prophesied these things, everybody knew.

Like they knew that Job was a righteous man. Like they knew that Noah was a righteous man. They knew that Daniel was a righteous man in the midst of wickedness. And so here you have these outstanding examples of righteousness. These great men of God. And God says, even if all three of them are in the same place at the same time in a land that is deserving of my judgment, God says they won't deliver that land from judgment.

Even if all three of them are there in the same place, that won't prevent the judgment of God from happening. Pastor Thomas Constable says it this way, the presence of godly people living in an ungodly society will not preclude divine judgment on that society. There must be repentance by many people in that society for God to withhold judgment.

The presence of these three. Now we could look at our nation and understand the judgment that is deserved, but then also think, but you know, God won't judge because look at all the Christians, look at all the churches, look at all these things, right? But here we need to understand these three righteous men in one location at one time in a nation that deserves judgment, God says that doesn't prevent the judgment from coming. But at the same time, God gives this comforting promise, but they do deliver themselves, right?

So that righteous person, in other words, it's not meaningless to be righteous, right? It's not meaningless like, well, you're going to experience the same judgment everybody else experiences. No, God says, look, I'm going to deliver that righteous person. And God is able to do that.

He's able to make a distinction and bring judgment upon a group of people that deserve it. Meanwhile, that individuals that are righteous, that are connected to him, they're preserved. They're delivered in even the midst of the judgment that takes place. But the only way for that judgment to be averted is not for a few righteous people to be there, but for the group as a whole to turn to

and become righteous to pursue God. Think about the example of Nineveh. Nineveh deserves the judgment of God, but God in his mercy and grace sends the prophet Jonah. And Jonah announces the judgment. I mean, they're so deserving of judgment. They're 40 days out from certain doom, certain judgment. But on the announcement of that judgment through the prophet Jonah, the nation of Nineveh, the city of Nineveh, the people of Nineveh, they turn. They turn from their ways. They repent. They repent.

And so God relents from that judgment and does not pour out the judgment that they deserve because of their repentance. It's a national repentance. The group as a whole turned to God in a similar way. That's the only way for a group of people. It can't be just one or two or three or a group or a handful of righteous people within, but it must be that the nation, that the community, that the church, that the family turns to God.

But the promise here also is to the individual. So for the Job's and the Noah's and the Daniel's in the midst of a group of people like this, God's saying, I will deliver you. I will deliver you. He will deliver a righteous person. This is important for us because, well, there is great temptation to fit in

to the crowd where we stand out. There is great temptation to, well, listen, everybody else is doing it. Everybody else is involved in this. And so then there's a temptation for us to compromise on what we know to be true, what we know to be right. But here the Lord would remind us, you don't have to fit in with the crowd. As all the rest of the world was pursuing the desires of their own hearts, Noah said, I'm gonna walk with God. I'm gonna know God and I'm gonna seek after him. He was the only one.

And there is that need for us to be, if necessary, the only one who is faithful to God within our family. Or to be the only one who is faithful to God within our workplace. Or to be the only one who is faithful to God within our church. Or to be the only one who is faithful to God in our nation. That we need to know God and pursue God in this way that it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing.

We have a promise from God that even when we live in the midst of a group of people that deserve and should expect God's judgment, that as we stay connected to God and pursue his righteousness, we will be delivered. You can see that through the example of Noah, through Job, through Daniel. We need to be men and women who are righteous. Now, as we talk about righteousness, we're not talking about our own righteousness, right? We're not talking about our own works, right?

We're talking about righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. And it's not about our legalism or our rituals, but it's about our relationship to the Father through Jesus Christ. How much we know him, how we walk with him, how we follow the instruction that he gives to us. We are to stay connected to Jesus, to be faithful to Jesus. Our righteousness comes by faith in him.

And if you stay faithful to him, you stay trusting in him, God's promise is, I will deliver you. Well, moving on to verses 15 through 20, we get the third point about judgment this morning. And that is, God will deliver the righteous person alone. It's an extension, really, of point number two, verse 14. Not only will God deliver a righteous person, we need to also understand that the righteous person, well, only delivers himself. Verse 15 says,

God says, if I cause wild beasts to pass through the land and they empty it and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beast, even though these three men were in it as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. Only they would be delivered and the land would be desolate. And so here the Lord says, hypothetical scenario, here's a land that deserves judgment. And I choose to bring judgment in the form of wild beasts.

and the wild animals go crazy and take over the land and devour it, and so the land is filled with wild animals, if that's the form of judgment that God chooses to bring, even if these three guys are there, God says they would only deliver themselves. And so they wouldn't prevent the judgment from happening at all. But even further, God is saying they wouldn't even save their sons and daughters. Their righteousness would not grant an escape or a deliverance for their children.

Now, if you think about that, how much would a righteous person want their children to be saved from an oncoming judgment? How much would Noah or Job want his family to be delivered? How much would they desire? I mean, it would be something they would desire greatly, right? Like they wish it could be true. They wish, Lord, let my righteousness cover others. But here God is making it clear. It's very individual. It's very personal. Your righteousness is

Oh, God has a great promise for you. Your connection to God, it grants you deliverance, but nobody else, nobody else gets delivered by your righteousness. Nobody else is covered. There's a saying that God has no grandchildren. It's true. God has no grandchildren. Each one of us must be born again and be a child of God directly, but you cannot be a child of God, you know, kind of by inheriting somebody else's status, right?

You cannot be righteous by inheriting somebody else's status except the status of Jesus. You inherit Jesus's status of righteousness by believing in Jesus, by knowing him, by walking with him, by pursuing him. You inherit the righteousness of Christ and you're a child of God, but you cannot be a child of God through any other means or a grandchild of God. And then now you've inherited somebody else's righteousness.

And God, to reiterate this point, to make sure it's very clear for us, he goes through this three times. He says, look, if I choose wild beasts as the form of judgment, the righteousness of a righteous person will only deliver themselves. Then, verse 17, or if I bring a sword on that land and say, sword, go through the land, and I cut off man and beast from it, even though these three men were in it as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

So God says, let me give you another hypothetical scenario, just in case it's not clear the first time. Here's what you need to know. If the form of judgment that I choose to bring is a sword, and so now there's battle, there's war, there's a sword against the land, and I cut off man and beast from it. And these three righteous guys, these three outstanding men of character, men of God, they're there. They only deliver themselves. They probably want their sons and daughters to be delivered.

but their righteousness does not deliver their sons and daughters. Their sons and daughters would wish that the righteousness of their parents would cover them, but it doesn't work that way. No, it's very personal. You must be righteous. You must be righteous in order to be delivered from the judgment of God. And in case it's not clear enough, God goes on again. Another example, verse 19. Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my fury on it in blood and cut off from it man and beast.

Even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness. God wants it to be very clear. He says it three times just to make sure we get it. Righteousness is personal. Right connection to God, right relationship with God, it's personal. Nobody else can be righteous on your behalf. This is very important for us to understand and to grasp hold of for a couple of reasons.

First of all, we need to make sure that we never rely on somebody else's connection to God for our righteousness. Never be in that scenario. Never put yourself in that situation where you don't know God. You don't know what he desires. You don't know what he wants. You don't have a relationship with him, but you're relying upon somebody else and their relationship with God. This happens a lot of times within a marriage where one spouse says,

doesn't really have a connection to God. Even if they did in the past or they once did or they know better, but whether it develops in this, well, he, my wife, my husband has a connection to God. And so spiritual things, you know, I'll just, I'll get from that channel and it can develop in us this reliance upon somebody else. And we think, hey, we're fine because my spouse is righteous. My spouse knows God. My spouse hears from God. We're good. No, you're not good. If you're relying upon your spouse's connection to God,

You're not good. You're not covered. You need to have your own relationship with God. Even these three righteous guys, as much as they would want their spouses to be covered, their children to be covered, you know, there's no inherited righteousness through a person. It's only inherited through our connection with Jesus Christ. Children, Youth Servant Sunday, there's youth here in service, right? You don't get grandfathered into your parents' righteousness plan. You do up to a point.

Children who do not know better, that's not you. You're here. You know better. You're not covered by your parents' righteousness. You need to have your own connection to God. You need to know God. You need to hear it from him. You need to learn his voice. You need to know what he desires. You need to walk with him and seek his heart. That's the only way to be delivered from the judgment that is deserved and that is coming. Judgment, sorry, righteousness is not inherited. God will deliver the righteous person

alone. So we need to know that. So we don't rely upon somebody else's connection to God. But we also need to be reminded of that for another reason. And that is that we don't make ourselves somebody else's connection to God. You know, sometimes we insert ourselves because we do want people around us to be delivered. And because it's not necessarily done out of, you know, wrong intentions, but because we love people, we desire people

good for them, we try to build the bridge, build the gap, and I'll be your connection to God. And that does not work. You cannot be your children's connection to God. And don't put yourself in that place. You cannot be your spouse's connection to God. Our job is to help people connect to God themselves, not to be an intermediary between them and God. We need to be very careful. People seek us out for counsel.

And perhaps the Lord has some counsel for you to share. But at the same time, we need to be careful that we're not being a substitute for them connecting with the Lord and hearing from the Lord themselves. Because our righteousness can't cover them. Our connection to God can't cover them. It doesn't work that way. Our job is to help them connect to God and hear from God. That's our job. And sometimes that includes announcements from God and being like a prophet and having a word from the Lord.

But a lot of time, that includes more redirection. And I don't know what God wants for you, but I'll pray with you. Let me help you to search the scriptures and to find what God says about your situation. But it's not a substitute for you connecting to God yourself. God will deliver the righteous person alone. That's it. That righteousness just covers the one individual. You know, in some families, there is this idea that, well...

The whole family is covered because there's a pastor in the family. We're good. Some families are like, you know, we've got a deacon in the family. A deacon. Can you believe it? We're set. We're good. Covered. We've got a priest in the family. We're covered. We're good. Righteous. We all wish it worked that way, but it doesn't. God will deliver the righteous person alone. So you develop your own relationship to God. You help others develop their own relationship to God.

Don't rely upon somebody else's connection to God and don't be somebody else's connection to God. It's individual. It's personal. Well, moving on to verse 21, we get the fourth point to help us understand the judgment of God this morning. And that is that God will judge people according to their knowledge. Important point to consider here in verse 21. For thus says the Lord God.

How much more it shall be when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence to cut off man and beast from it. God makes a change here. He shifts his focus. He's been talking about a generic land, hypothetical scenarios, any people who are unfaithful to God and how he addresses them. Now let's talk specifics. Let's address Jerusalem. Jerusalem.

And so he says, how much more? If this is the way that I address and deal with any nation, with any people, with any group of people, and I address judgment and righteousness in this way, God says, how much more is this going to be the case with my own people? These are the people who I chose and I set apart. These are the people that I have given my word to. These are the people who know my will, God says. These are my people.

So how much more is all of these principles going to apply to my own people? Thus says the Lord God, how much more shall it be when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem? I gave some examples with different scenarios. Now, here's the reality. When it comes to Jerusalem, it's not one of these judgments.

It's actually four judgments, the sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence. All of these judgments are going to be unleashed upon Jerusalem. And so if that's the case of judgment and the righteous person in any nation, in any land, in any group of people, God says, how much more will this be true upon my own people? That the righteous will be delivered, but they only deliver themselves.

And as the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem is persisted in unfaithfulness to God, God is saying, you're not escaping. You're not covered. Just because the temple is there in your city, that doesn't cover you. And now you escape judgment because the presence of the temple or because the presence of the priest or because the presence of Jeremiah or because the presence of some godly person. No, that doesn't grant you an escape. In fact, because you're my people,

And because you know more and you know better, you don't experience just one judgment, but four judgments shall be unleashed upon you. God will judge people according to their knowledge. His judgment is fair and righteous. It's based upon his revelation to them. And here are the people of Jerusalem who have incredible revelation. Now, I would remind us, it's not more revelation than we have.

I mean, sitting here today, we have even greater revelation than they had. But here are these people who have the revelation from God. And so God says, I'm going to hold you accountable according to what you know. Jesus taught this in a parable in Luke chapter 12. In Luke 12, 47 to 48, Jesus says, That servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes.

But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required. And to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Jesus says, look, when you know the Father's will and you don't do it, you don't prepare to do it, or even if you prepare to do it, but then you don't ultimately make the choice to do it. If you don't do the Father's will, he says, the punishment will be

According to how much you knew versus what you did. Now, if you were ignorant and you didn't know the master's will, but you still did things deserving of stripes, there's still penalty. There's still punishment. Ignorance is not an excuse or an escape from the judgment of God. But the judgment will be less severe because it's based upon what you knew. We're all accountable to God. And God has given us enough to be accountable for.

And so we need to come to God, not on the basis of our works or our efforts, but on the basis of salvation that he has provided, the righteousness that he has offered through faith in Jesus Christ. We have incredible revelation. We have the very word of God in our laps and on our phones and on our shelves and all over the place. We are accountable to know God and to walk with him. Well, finishing it up in verses 22 to

In 23, we get point number five this morning, and that is, in the end, every person will agree with God's judgment. In the end, everyone will agree. God will agree.

You did the right thing. This is one thing that's difficult for us. As we talk about judgment, as we consider judgment, you consider, you know, judgment throughout the scriptures, right? Men reading through the prophets, sometimes people are like, what is this? Like the God of the Old Testament is a different God than the God of the New Testament, right? That's the perception that often people have. Now, if that's the perception that you have, let me just gently say, you don't know God very well. It's the same God all the way through.

And you need to spend some more time getting to know God and learning about him because there's not a difference. But where we do not understand the judgment of God, even in the things that, you know, hey, we know everything that we can know about a situation. And yet still we don't quite understand. God says, look, in the end, you will understand. We can look at portions of scripture and think, why did God do that? Why did God allow that? I don't get it. We can think about

The eternal judgment that God has created for the devil and his angels, but also will be experienced for those who reject him. And it's hard for us to understand. It's really difficult for us to understand. But here's the thing. All of those judgments that we don't understand right now, in the end, later on, we will understand. And we will agree with God about his judgments. Look again at verse 22 and 23. It says,

There shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. Surely they will come out to you and you will see their ways and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it. And they will comfort you when you see their ways and their doings. And you shall know that I have done nothing without cause that I have done in it, says the Lord God. God says, look, when this last conquering happens,

Jerusalem will be conquered for the third time. And a group of people from Jerusalem will be brought in captivity to Babylon. So Ezekiel, they're going to be brought to you. They're going to meet you there. And listen, men and women in captivity in Babylon, when you see these people come and you see their ways and you see how they live and you see how they talk and you see how they walk, when you see the way that they behave, you will be comforted. You will understand everything.

the judgment that I have brought upon this people. You can rest assured, whenever you do not understand God's judgment, it is always because you do not understand the extent of sin. Whenever I don't understand and I'm like, I don't understand, Lord, why would you do that? Or why would you allow that? It is always the case that I do not understand the depth and the gravity and the extent of the sin that is taking place. And when we understand that,

And listen, one day in eternity, we'll have a better picture. We'll have a better understanding of the realities of the situations that nations and peoples and groups of peoples and churches and families and the condition of their heart and their position for God or against God. We'll have a better understanding. And then...

we'll be comforted. All those questions that we had about God's judgment, how we couldn't figure out, like, how is that fair? And all those things that we wrestled with, we'll be comforted in those things. All those questions that torment us now, like, how could that be true? How could that be possible? We'll be comforted in that day. In the end, we will all agree, God, you did what was right. The judgment that you brought, it was the correct amount for the right reasons, in the right way, at the right time.

Pastor Adam Clark says it this way. He says, In the end, we will agree with God. He does nothing but what is right. And that is true for those who will experience the judgment of God and those who will experience everlasting life with the Father.

Those who experience the judgment of God, as the scriptures say, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We will all acknowledge, God, what you're doing, your judgments are right and fair. It's the right thing to do. And that's hard for us to understand right now. But God says, don't worry. In the end, you'll understand it. When they arrive and you see their ways and their doings, when you see how they behave and the wickedness that has gone on, when you see how

what their lives are like, you'll understand. Judgment was required. It was deserved. It was right. It was just. It wasn't too much. It wasn't too little. It was exactly what was necessary. And so here we have a glimpse at this doctrine of judgment, the understanding of the judgment of God. You need to know God will judge an unrighteous people. However we gather together, whatever large or small scale of groups that we form, we

our faithfulness to God, our obedience to God. God is going to deal with us collectively as a unit. But the righteous person can be delivered. And the righteous person has a connection to God that delivers them from the judgment that he's even brought upon the midst of the group that they are in, whether it be a nation or community or whatever. But our righteousness cannot extend to others.

And so we need to train others to know God, to walk with God, to connect to God. That's our role. That's our job. Not to be the intermediary between them, but to be the coach that comes alongside and helps them know him and walk with him. And we need to be careful to do that because God will judge us according to our knowledge. We have his revelation. We have his truth. Let's respond to it and draw near to him. Let's pray.

God, I pray for each one of us as we consider these things, and they're hard things for us to grasp hold of, and difficult concepts for us to consider, and Lord, even painful subjects for us to think about. But I pray, God, that you would help us to trust you. Help us to be a people who walk by faith and not by sight. Lord, that we don't have to understand everything that you say to believe it, but Lord, that we will believe you at your word, and we trust you, God. You tell us at the end, and we will believe you at the end.

We will understand. We will agree with your judgments. And so God, we're gonna hold fast to that. And in the meantime, Lord, help us to be righteous. Not in our own efforts, not in our own works, but Lord, help us to be righteous by trusting in you and by walking with you, by receiving from you the righteousness that you provide through faith in Jesus Christ.

I pray, God, that you would help us. Protect us, Lord, from the self-deception. Protect us, Lord, from the deceitfulness and the allure of the world around us. Lord, that we would not just fit in with the crowd, but give us the boldness to stand apart, to be different, to be men and women who know you, who love you, and who walk with you in the midst of a people that deserve your judgment. Help us, Lord, to grasp hold of you and to be faithful to you.

to seek you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.