The prophets - Ezekiel

… To see that Just One, to see that Righteous One, what a wonderful privilege it was, when we possibly fall, to look up into heaven and see the One, whose glory was brighter than the sun, and to praise God, our Lord, and hear that Word, the striking of the Word of Joseph's brothers, which I am Joseph, and demons from their perspectives. But we must begin with him, that he was going to see that Just One, know it will, to see that Just One. And the servant of God must have a vision of Christ, he must have a vision, he must have seen by faith, the One who he is going to serve. Very important to read earlier on. Isaiah, he had a vision in the temple of the Lord, the Lord was on that couch. Jeremiah, similar, had a commission, and the Lord devoted himself, and he was given a vision of the Lord. Daniel, too, had a wonderful vision of God, we know. And Ezekiel, who comes between these, he also is the first captain we know today, had a wonderful vision. He described it in that last verse, it was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Almost as though he could hardly find words to describe what he saw. The appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. The Apostle Paul can say, we, with open faith, beholding the glory of the Lord that came from glory in glory. We behold, not the appearance, not the likeness of the appearance, but the glory itself. The glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. We must have this vision of Christ before we can serve him. Paul says, I was not disobedient. Have we all had this vision of Christ? First of all, as our sin bearer, we can't go on to serve, we can't serve unless we know him, of course, as our saviour, as followers, as service followers, the knowledge that our sins are forgiven, knowledge that we are one with Christ, and of course the following of the service. And Ezekiel here had this vision, wonderful vision, in the first chapter, and later in the third chapter again, the vision of the one, the righteous judge. Remember Abraham said, shall not the judge of all the earth be right? Sometimes we don't follow the ways of God, and people say, I can't understand if God is righteous, how can you allow this to happen, that to happen. Forget him, of any sense that we have of justice, of righteousness, we learn from God, we learn it very partially, very seemingly. And we must lead judgment with the one who is just. Shall not the judge of all the earth be right? Remember we read that in chapter 11, it's all very strongly how God says, you fear the sword, the sword is going to reach you. Many divine mischief in their own hearts, which are the descriptions. Chapter 7, he says, by our judgment according to their deserves. Is God's judgment according to what we deserve? Well, if he's a promiser, the Lord allows it, therefore the iniquity of God, who can stand? How wonderful, this righteous judge, as he says in the book of Isaiah, our God, our Lord and our Saviour, a just God, our Lord and our Saviour. A just God, right as God can, he also has justice, fire, as in the great and easy. Wonderful isn't it? Because he, the judge, died for us, the ender, in the likeness of God. And so, we must never forget, that when God judges, he cannot do otherwise than judge righteously. God has appointed a day, or a day, it happens, in the week he will judge this world in righteousness. He cannot do otherwise. Earthly judges can be corrupt, they can be bought, not God. God has judged this world in righteousness by a fat man. Fat man, yes, Lord Jesus Christ, the one who he raised from the dead, that has been appointed, the judge appointed to, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so he had a vision, of one who was the righteous judge. And in this chapter we read together, the people here were expecting that God would relax his righteousness on their behalf. They thought it didn't matter very much, it hadn't changed, as men have called it. Twenty and five men, the son of Abraham, the leader, the prince of the people, who kept their hateful signs, they were leading the idolatry of the people. The signs, they were following abominations of the heathen, every man in his own house. And God, in righteous judgment, holds all this. They said, Lord see if it's not. Do we know that? Do we imagine that? Do we think, because we do the things in darkness, do we imagine that God cannot see what we're doing? Just because these things have not come out of our mouth, they just remain as intent and thought, as God doesn't judge your thought, he's going to judge the secrets of man. He is the righteous judge. And we find it in this book, chapter 13, for example, we find here, the word of the Lord coming to him again, verse 13, chapter 13, therefore that says to Lord God, I will rend this, the city, with a stormy wind in my fury, there shall be no drop down in the shower of my anger, but it helps pay off the burden of my fury to consume it. I will break down the wall which is stored behind him with water, and bring it down to the ground, so the foundation now shall be covered, and he shall fall, he shall be consumed in the midst thereof, and he shall know that I am the Lord. That's how I accomplished my God upon the wall. This wall, Henry Williams, the head of Jerusalem, he said to the city, that they hadn't looked after, they hadn't gone up into the gaps, they hadn't amended the wall, but it was a picture of what they were building. What are we building? These old buildings, so different with various materials, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, shovels, and here they were building a wall with untimbered mortar, so they were going to bring the whole lot down, and they were going to uncover the foundation and show how worthless your building is. You've got to go on and watch this film. You see this, it is plainly, based on the same chapter, refining the importance of profit and end. Of course, this is in the wake of a girl who was looking at the wall, questioning about some of these practices of people who are determined to change the mind of God. God said to her, people are going to die. They said, no, they're not going to die, they're going to get better. And we've seen examples of people trying to convince God that he made a mistake. Oh no, this person is going to get better. There's one particular case, a terrible example, and what I'm saying is she's got to be proficient in these practices. And when he said he's going to get better now, he said, well he died of something else, not of the disease, he was cured of the disease. I laid my hand on him, he was cured, he died of something else. And he had the audacity to weep and cry over the coffin until his spinal was buried, saying God is going to raise him again. And God didn't raise him, God said that man was going to die. We see what it says here, these four prophets. It says here, in verse 19 of chapter 13, Jesus said unto me among my people a handful of garlic and a piece of bread, that a slave of souls should not die, and a slave of souls that dies should not live, while you are dying to my people in your lives. You know the one example I'm quoting here, a false prophet today, telling ungodly people it doesn't matter how you live, it doesn't matter what you do with your life, if your name's on the church registry, you'll go to heaven. There are others who are taking away the assurance of Christians, taking away their certainty of salvation, those whom God has set to receive. He's calling them to die as far as their testimony is concerned, because they're false prophets. I'm against you, these false prophets, I'm going to destroy them. We saw what happened to the prophet Sarge, while he was actually prophesying, the man was dead at his feet. That's how rich we are. And he had to praise the Holy Lord God that I'll make an end to those people. God said I'm going to carry out my judgment, I'm going to take them away, I'm going to put them into captivity, because they're not following my way. God is a just God, a righteous judge. And we see here in the verse before that, verse 18 of chapter 13, God says to Lord God, woe to the woman whose pillow is in all her armholes, who made churches from the head of this cattle, to hunt hordes. The devil's got a cushion to fit every head. The devil's got a coat to fit every man, woman, and child. The devil's got his servants in this world to fit these things onto every person, everywhere. God says woe to these who make these pillows of all sizes, all men of sizes. God is going to judge all the false prophets, all the false preachers, all those that misrepresent him in this world. Pillows fit all arms, cushions God has bonnets to fit all heads, so that people's minds are blinded, blinded by the God of this world, and they can't listen to the word God. Woe to them God says, woe, I'm going to destroy them, I'm going to judge them. And in verse 21, we find here, your churches lie bare, and the devil might use up your hands. They shall know more of your hands than the countries, and you shall know that I am the Lord. You shall know that I am the Lord. It keeps on, this is a recurring chorus, I think it comes 80 times in the book of Ezekiel, you shall know, they shall know, that I am Jehovah. God wants us to know who Jehovah is. He is the righteous judge. In chapter 14, we find there, four kinds of judgment. Chapter 14, verse 13, we find there, breaking the staff of bread, it's famine. Then in verse 15, I've caused no beasts to pass through the land, spoil it. Then we find, verse 17, I bring sword upon the land, say sword go to the land. In verse 19, I send a pedigree into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood. Because in verse 21, it sums up so much more. When I send my four sword judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, the famine, the noise from the beasts, and the pestilence, the cacophony of man and beast. We read in Revelation, we see in the sixth chapter onwards, the terrible judgment, when God's judgment is in the world, as I have said, then shall the nations learn righteousness. It will be too late. Too late to learn righteousness then. We want them to learn righteousness now, with their growth. In chapter 15, we find Joseph saying, are we a divine after all? God's chosen us to be divine. What does God say about it? Chapter 15, the word of the Lord cannot be failed. And then, what is a divine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall we be taken off to any work, or will men take a pin of it to hang any better than ours? The odds is cast into the fire of fuel. The fire of the above is both the end of it, and the misery is theirs. Is it good for any work? The whole weight of the whole is made for no work. How much less should it be to get for any work, when the fire has deserted and burned? Therefore I say to you, O God, as the divine tree among the trees of the forest which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will set my face against them. As you go out from one fire, another fire shall desert them, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will set my face against them. Divine is valueless unless it bears fruit. Remember the story of Israel. God says in the book of Isaiah, what more could I have done to my people than I have done? What more could God do? But there was no fruit. No fruit for God. In the book of Christendom, even when we look at the true Church of God today, we wonder, how much fruit is there for God? How much is there for any real fruit for God? What do we say about the vine? Well, the Lord did the same thing. The branches that are in the vine are no good. They are cast into the fire and burn. What use is the vine? You can't make anything out of the vine. The wood is not useful for anything. It's a fruit that God wanted. And there was no fruit. Cut it down. Cut it down. That's a picture of him being terrible. Cut it down. Cumber it around. And God said, that's what I'm going to do to Jerusalem. When I set my face against them, they shall know that I am the Lord. And then we see God is the righteous judge around you. Israel, as we noticed yesterday again, God has his will, his purpose for the nations. If you have a look down here, from 25 to 32, you find Moab, Ammon, the Phinistines, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, all mentioned, and then finally you get to 38 and 39, and God's judgement against the king of them all in the coming days. God must judge the world in righteousness. It cannot be otherwise. God was revealed to Ezekiel as the righteous judge. It's good to know this, isn't it? It's good because we have found it often, turns to this. God is a righteous judge, so he commits himself to God who is the righteous judge. Lord Jesus did this. He committed himself to him who judges righteously. And the believer can do this too. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is God's. The judgement is passed. Christ's death was my death. That was the end of myself after the flesh. Judgement is passed for me. I can leave my cause with a God who deals justice. This in particular because there are so many believers, and I have limited time, not only in Lent where there is active persecution, but we keep on coming to God's cases of minor persecution. People are losing their positions. People are being exploited because they are Christians. So many people have to leave their employment because they are squeezed out, simply because they were honest and sought to serve God. These happen all the time. But what a good thing to ask is if you are able to look to see the just one, the righteous one, and know that his cause was faith in the hands of a God who was going to judge this world righteously, who is the blood of the martyrs. Lord Jesus spoke about him. But now all those righteous people that have been murdered, unable to judge the world, have gone through history. He concluded with Zechariah. We know of him in the Revelation. But now all the martyrs are seen by God, and God is going to bring into judgement those that dealt falsely with them. He is going to vindicate all those that dealt unjustly. God will vindicate them. It's good to see that, isn't it, that this is the one who is the just, the righteous just. So then he also views him as the glorious one. We notice in the first chapter how we saw the revelation of one who was all glorious. That very description of the almost the same sort of vision that Moses had in the mount when the glory of the Lord went past him. And it's all this brightness. When he went there with the elders of Israel, the seventy elders, and they, it's all again the appearance of the glory of the Lord, the bright shining of the Lord. What a privilege this was. In chapter 1 we find it then. We find, we notice there, the brightness of the appearance of the glory of the Lord. And then he goes on through his experience. Interesting again going back to chapter 1, verse 23. We find those cherubim, and then verse 24 we find the sound of the noise of their wings. And then verse 26 of chapter 1, a bump of a permanent that was over their head was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone. And upon the likeness of a throne there was the likeness as the appearance of a man. What a wonderful vision this was. He's seen this glory, transcendent glory. He's seen the brightness like a sapphire stone. He's seen the cherubim with their wheels and their wings, and all the glory, it's hard to describe it. But above it all there was a throne, a permanent glory, and on the throne the likeness as the appearance of a man sitting. What a wonderful thing it is to know there's a man on the throne, a man on the throne of glory. And then second chapter, Hebrews, we see not yet all things were done with him, but we see demons crowned with glory and honour. By faith we can look up and see a man upon the throne, a man, a man in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful thing. Ezekiel had this glorious revelation of a man on the throne. When we come to the final section, from the 48th down to the 48th chapter we find there the wonderful description of the new temple and the division of the land. And in chapter 43, I'll give you an example of that. Chapter 43, I'm sorry to run you back and forth, I'm not really sorry, it's good exercise. Chapter 43, verse 13. I'm sorry, let's start with chapter 43, verse 1. And afterwards he brought me to the gate, and in the gate looking towards me, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the well of the eagle. And he voiced about the noise of many waters. And verse 3, according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision I saw when I came to this point of the city. And the vision was like the vision which I saw when I was at Sheba. And I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into my house by the well of the gate, which prostrated toward me. So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court. And behold the glory of the Lord filled my house. All the wonder of seeing the glory of the Lord in the vision of the future temple, and the description which is so accurate, the brother has made plan and elevation of it, so that we can carry all these measurements, we all tally in a wonderful way. In the vision of the Lord there comes an appearance in the gate looking towards the east. Remember the cherubim in the temple, Solomon's temple, not the cherubim over the arch, the olive wood cherubim. They look out to the east. They look towards the hand of the Lord. They look towards the rising of the sun. They look towards that morning with that cloud. They look to the glorious day of the appearance of the Son of Man, the town of great glory. And here, all over the country as it goes, Nebuchadnezzar was able to catch his glimpse of the glory of God. It was an important part of his training, to see the glory of God. It was the first meeting that Saul had with the Saul title. The glory, the flight of that glory, the flight of the noonday sun, the vision of the glory. It was, the man upon the throne, it was all his triumph. But the glory of it, he never forgot. He could speak of it a year later. But the glory of that vision, he says again, it was not disobedience under a heavenly vision. And so here, we find here the description of it, the glory of the Lord filled the house. He was able to view this, able to look upon it. But another thing was, after all this time, when he gets this final vision, he says of the vision, I had the beginning. It was the same vision that I had at the beginning. It was the vision that I had when I had that vision of judgment of the city. It was the same as I had in the first chapter, which we read about it, the vision of the likeness of the appearance of the glory of the Lord. It's the same one. We think of Paul, the end of his life. I think of his last letter to Timothy. I fought and got a title. I finished my course. Henceforth there is made up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day. It's the same one. It was the same one that appeared to him in glory, the righteous judge, who is going to give him the crown of righteousness in that day. We always live in view of that day, do we? We shall never be able to serve unless we have that day in view. Unless we have that day in view, we shall never serve perfectly. Paul always spoke of that day. He went on the other day, didn't he say which day? That day, the day of the Lord, the day of his appearance. Do we have that day in view, the day of the Lord, the glorious appearance of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ? It was the same vision as I had in the beginning. It's carried more the way through. I've seen the face of Jesus. Tell me not of all, but of none. There's nothing else can keep us going in the service of God. If we look down at our brethren, sorry to say, it's truly known, I should be discouraged. If I look at myself, I should be discouraged. If I look at the world, I should be discouraged. There's only one thing that can keep us. It's that same glorious vision that we had in the beginning that can keep us. At the end, almost, of this book, he says, it's the same vision, the same person that I had at the beginning. His glory fills the house. His glory fills the whole house. He doesn't forget this, as we come together all day morning. Tomorrow morning he'll see a film left here. As we come together to have intercourse, communion with our blessed Lord at his table. He'll never forget it. His glory fills the house. Remember how the box of olives was broken? The owner of that olive filled the house. So should our worship indeed. And if we occupy with him, the men of glory, the glory of the Lord will indeed be present here. And wherever these people gather, where the Lord is in the midst, it cannot be otherwise. That glorious one is in the midst. The glory of the Lord fills the house. And when we come to 7th verse here, God says, He said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I was bread in the midst of the children of Israel forever, and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile. Now it's coming a day when they are defiled any more. It's coming a day when we shan't spoil our worship by inappropriate thoughts, by inappropriate words, when we shan't offend each other any more by using unfortunate expressions. We sometimes do, I'm afraid, even giving thanks. It's coming a day when we shall worship perfectly. We've been in the last book of the Bible. His servants shall serve him. That's real service there. It's not the service of activity, it's the service of worship. His servants will serve him and they shall see his face. They will have the privilege to be there. They will just see him, just see the one he was serving. And if we come to see him, we shan't really be able to serve him. The one who is the glorious one, the all-glorious one. We come to the very last verse of the book. We know what it says there. The name of the phrase in that statue is in it. The Lord is there. Jehovah Shabbat. The Lord is there. What better description of heaven itself? The Lord is there. There would be no heaven if the Lord were not there. The Glorious One, whose vision began out of heavenly pathway, the path that leads upward, the way that will still where life and glory are, the vision that keeps us going, serving him and giving us, that Glorious One is there. Jehovah Shabbat. The Lord is there. And then we find also not only the righteous judge and the Glorious One, but also there's another sign that we catch and we notice as we keep on coming up here. He is the God of all grace. To see that just one. He's the God of all grace. And who should describe, who should use that expression of Peter? Of course Peter. Wasn't it Peter who knew what grace was? Poor Peter. I don't know why people blame him so much because he did things that none of the other disciples were ever there to do. He was always so ready to serve. All he made mistakes. We all do, don't we? We think so much of ourselves in Peter. It was Peter who knew the weight of the grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He understood that. I think when he was in the midst of raising his voice, he denied it with oaths and curses as he knew them. The Lord turned and looked on Peter. The Lord turned and looked on him. The Lord knew him. The Lord was there. He read his book on him. His grace, we know, melted Peter's heart and went out of the way. We know he called him the God of grace. In chapter 20 of this book of Ezekiel, verse 33, God links his name with the deliverance of his people. Ezekiel 20, verse 33, As I did, said the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries where you were scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, and I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. All the wonderful grace of God. These people who defiled his name among the heathen, these people who brought a disgrace upon his holy name, these heirs, I will plead with you face to face. The God of grace. And he said in verse 36, and I will plead with your father in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with you, said the Lord God. And of course, if you ask unto the Lord, now I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, and I will hold you up from under the levels, and then the trumpets against me. Then again, you shall know that I am the Lord. You shall know that I am the Lord. One of the wonderful things is the knowledge of who he is. The God of grace. Verse 41, I will accept you with your sweet fail, and I will bring you up from the people, and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will respectify you before the heathen. And you shall know that I am the Lord when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lift up my hand, and give you a promise. And there shall you remember your ways, all your doings, when you have been defiled. And you shall know yourselves in every sight before all the angels that you have committed. And you shall know that I am the Lord when I have walked with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your craft doings, O ye house of Israel, except the Lord. This is the answer unto what we read. God did not deal with them according to their doings, their wicked ways, their disobedience, their defilement, or his sanctuary. We know much of what we are reading, except for a little bit. He said I will put you in a little sanctuary, in these little places where they are scattered. I will be there for them, a little sanctuary, even in those places. But God was not content with that. He is not content to give us a portion here below, to bring it up to date. He wants to have us with him there. He says here, I will bring you back into this land. I lift up my hand. He promised, he swore, to give to your fathers. Has he said and shall he not perform? Yes. He is the God of all grace, not according to your doings, but for my name's sake. His name was bound up with his people. He was going to redeem them for his name's sake. As John said, your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. Yes, not because of anything we could deserve. He is the God of all grace. So we go on to chapter 28, again, and see this developed. Chapter 28, verse 25. Thus says the Lord God, When I shall have gathered the house of Israel, and the people among them that are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them, in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land, that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and shall have vineyards. Yea, they shall dwell with confidence. Then I will execute judgment upon all those who despise the man of God. And they shall know that I am the Lord, their God. God has purposes of blessing upon them. This is still true. God has a purpose for Israel. He is the God of all grace. He informs this nation that is scattered through the whole world. He is going to bring them back eventually. And here, when I shall have gathered you, he says, when I shall be sanctified in you, in the sight of all the heathen, by the Jews of Enoch, and his grace to God, and I'm sorry, so have we. Just think of us, candle, Christians, calling on each other. Christians bring each other to court. Christians, fame is yet kind as one another. Even this grace we have brought from that precious name is there. Yet, so adorbs, as now he has told, they will go to the men, and they are not going to be sanctified in there, and they shall dwell safely. They'll be there for good, for good, but only for perpetuity, that's for good. And so God's purpose stands. And then we know in the later chapters, chapter 33, the promise there, the blessing divine there, God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the witches. God has no pleasure in the death of the witches. He wants the witch to turn to himself. Chapter 34 too, the promise is there. And we know again, the famous expression, verse 26, I'll make them, the places round about my hill, a blessing. I'll make them a blessing, and I'll cause the shouts to come down in the ceiling. There'll be shouts of blessing, shouts of blessing, downpours of blessing. Nothing else could satisfy the heart of God. Not just mercy doctrines, and mercy doctrines before him, but the very shouts we breathe. God's waiting to give them. Open the windows of heaven and pour out your blessing. There's not been room enough to receive it. He's waiting to do that, for his people Israel. He's waiting to do it for us too, if we prove him. If we're faithful and willing to do his will. And then we come to the 36th chapter again, the fine here. God says, I will bring you, that's 36, verse 24, I will take you from non-believers and gather you out of all countries. I will bring you into your own land. It's become their own land now. As you said, when I hear the news, people try to divide this land and see the solemn warnings. I spoke about yesterday, the solemn warnings about those that divide the land that God's given to Israel. Woe to that land, God says. Woe to those that seek to divide the land of Israel. God says here, I will take you and I will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all filthiness. From all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stone heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Verse 29, I will also save you from all your unpleasing. I will call forth corn, and increase it, and lay no famine upon you. We saw earlier on how God had to bring famine upon them, and war, and pestilence, and evil beasts. But now he says, no more. He says, I'm going to bring you back, for my name's sake. What a glorious thing it is to be bound up to the same bundle of life as this blessed Lord. To be called by his name, so that bearing his name, for his name's sake, he came to other lives and blessed the poor. And we know in the next chapter, in the well-known vision of the Valley of Divergence, God speaks of what he's going to do to his people of Israel. How he's going to restore them in his own time, in his own way, for his glory. They're going to be a glory for him. And finally, in chapter 43, again, we notice, I'll bring you back to the verse we were just now. And the face of my throne, and the face of the soles of my feet, for I will bring the bits to the children of Israel forever. And my holy name shall have no more defilement. God's dear right, in the beginning, when he made men out of the dust, when he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, was to have communion with that man whom he had made. We know sin broke that communion. What a glorious thing it is, that through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, communion is being restored. God can have fellowship with his creatures, those in our churches, redeemed in the precious blood of Christ. Just as God can have communion with his people, the place where the soles of his feet are going to be placed. He's going to put himself there in their midst. We don't have to wait for that, do we? As we gather in his name, we are assured the Lord is in our midst. Are we conscious of this? The servant of God particularly, all of us, I trust, seek to serve him, must be conscious of this. The Lord, who we serve, is holy. He is the righteous judge. He is also the glorious one. He is also the God of all grace. And he delights to be in the midst of his gathered people. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to sit in his presence on a great night, sit under his shadow on a great night, find his Spirit speak to our face. As we have communion with him, it was God's delight from the beginning. He came down in the cool of the evening to commune with the man of his mind. You know that tragedy from an evening when there was no response. The man hid himself behind the prison guard. I don't know what the other time is. Each of us knows this experience, don't we? There are times when we have put ourselves temporarily, by thinking our own thoughts, by going our own way, out of communion, out of being joyous about communion with him. The Lord is the same. The Lord came down to walk in the garden and bring the dead in. It was man who put the dead in the bag. It was man who sought to hide himself from God. What a wonderful thing it is. He restored my soul. God has made provision that we, even though it is a tragic picture, sometimes we have served God, we have served Satan for many years, and then seems to lose the freshness, seems to lose his enjoyment of God's company. Various things come in. Maybe unconfessed sin. Maybe occupation with something that is different and not the will of God. Sometimes quite small things break the enjoyment, snap his tender flesh. What a wonderful thing. He has made this provision to restore my soul. It is individual. What a joyous thing to see one. Sometimes we do it. Wonderful thing to come back, see these people again restored. Not only to communion with God's people, also again the service of the Lord in their life. He is able to do it. May we each know more of this, following him, serving him while we are waiting for our Lord to come. …

… Nun, son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a repentant's nation, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me, even with their guilt. For their insolent children have transgressed. I descend thee unto them, and thou hast been slain unto them, thus saith the Lord God. And they, whether they are here or whether they are there, for they are in a famous house, yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. And then the next chapter, chapter 3, in verse 22. And he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will report to you. Then I arose and went forth into the plain, and I heard the voice of the Lord still there, the voice that I saw when I was a kid, and I fell on my face. Then the Spirit went unto me and said, Take up all thy things, and face with me. Then he said to me, Go and shut thyself within thine hand. For thou, O son of man, behold, hast put bans upon me. Now shall I abide with thee there, and thou shalt not do anything against me. Now may the tongue cleave to the loop of thy mouth, and thou shalt do nothing against me. For thou art a beggar's house. But when I speak with thee, hear me. And I shall say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. Hear, hear, let him hear. And he that forbeareth, let him forbear. For thou art a beggar's house. Hear, hear, let him hear. You'll remember that I took as my text at the beginning of this series, concerning the Lord's Sermon. And if you've read the Sermon of the Angel, you've probably read it before. The words that Paul spoke in the 22nd of the Acts, when recounting his conversion, how Ammonites came to him and said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee, and thou shalt know his will. He looked back on him. And see that just one. He looked back on him and sat again. And shallest hear the voice of his mouth. This was the teaching of Pantaleon, brought to this book this evening. And thou shalt hear the words of his mouth. There are three essential things for the servant of God. First, we notice, to know his will. We can't serve as we thought God wants us to do. The first thing is to know his will. We saw how God made his will known, concerning the nations, concerning his own nation, we said, and then concerning the individual servants. Then we saw, too, how God enables Ezekiel to see that just one. First as the righteous judge, judging the nations. And then as one that was mighty and glorious, the glorious one. We saw the vision of the glory of the Lord, we find in the first and the last chapter as well. And then finally, we saw him as the God of all grace, the gracious one. Not only glorious, but gracious. Now we find this further sign of all so tremendous, the prejudice that children take, because it's something that goes right the way through it. To hear the voice of his mouth. And this would be right at the very beginning. We noticed in the first chapter, we read in chapter one, the prophet saw the vision of God, and then we find in verse three, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest. The word of the Lord. And he heard the voice, we find later on in this chapter, verse 24 of this, which has a mention of the noise of the winds, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as noise of the host. The voice of the Almighty. The voice of the Almighty. What a voice it must have been to think of the sound of great waters. Think of the revelation John had in the first chapter of the Apocalypse, the Revelation. We find there the voice of the Lord Jesus, the sound of many waters. In the last chapters, too, of this book, we find a similar expression there. The 43rd chapter, we find almost the same expression. The voice of the Lord. Chapter 43, verse 2. The old joy of the God of Israel came from the way of Jesus. His voice was like the noise of many waters. The earth shined for his glory. Many waters. The sound of waterfall is so tremendous, you can hear the thunder of it, miles away. Many waters. And if you think of the voice when God spoke from Mount Sinai, people tremble. Even Moses said, I exceedingly fear the quake. The people begged Moses to let God speak to them. No more. They couldn't bear that voice that spoke. And we read, too, that Sambaoth, that spoke again, is going to speak another time, shake not only the earth, but the heavens as well, going to shake at the voice of him that spoke. The Almighty. This title goes right back to Genesis. We know how God revealed himself to Abraham. The Almighty. How do you think of the Almighty? We think, of course, of his power and creation. We think of the words coming later on. I know that thou canst do everything. We think of the words spoken of Mary. We've got all things. Of course, we've got nothing. It shall be impossible. And so on. But that's not even the meaning of this word, Almighty. It means all-sufficient. And this has come up so many times in this book of Ezekiel. The Almighty One. It is the same word, I understand, that is used of a mother's milk. It's sufficient, in it, the baby has all it needs. It is not a kind of food. This milk is sufficient. And the word is connected with that. It's all-sufficient. It's on top of sin. So God meanwhile is once avowed and filled with all-sufficient one. Wonderful to hear the voice of the one who is all-sufficient. And this was the privilege of this man, to hear the voice of the all-sufficient one. We read chapter 9. We find there how he spoke to him. Beginning of chapter 9, verse 1. He cried also in my ears with a loud voice. He cried in my ears with a loud voice. Has anyone ever cried in my ears with a loud voice? It can be painful. And I say to the children, don't say that to me in my ears. It is painful. And God had a message he wanted this man to miss. He cried into his ears with a loud voice. And if you know anything about the service of God, when God cries in your ears with a loud voice, it can be a painful experience. It was a painful experience for Ezekiel. The thing that God required him to do. There wasn't to be any mistake about it. God cried in his ears with a loud voice. And what? What do we do when we hear what God wants? First of all, to hear. To hear the voice. And we notice here that we have just read in the third chapter the expression. It comes in the New Testament. He that heareth, let him hear. And he that forbeareth, let him forbear. Forbear for there are and there is task. Whichever task it was for him. He wasn't going to be sent to a foreign country. God said, well, he didn't understand his speech. He was going to be sent to his own people. They knew the language. He was going to speak to them. And he had a task. God says twice here. We notice we read it twice. Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. You'll notice the word God, if your Bible's like mine, is in small capital letters. The Lord God. You know why it's translated like this? Because it means the Lord. The Lord. Because it's usually translated the Lord in capital letters. It means Jehovah. It is the covenant keeping God. The Lord said to Moses, By my name Jehovah was I not known. His people hadn't yet come into that relationship with him. And this is the title that he was to use and he was to say to them, Thus saith the Lord God. You know that there's a lot of talking today. I've just a little about my SSI report. It only falls like it. In particular, why Paul is singled out. Because I suppose the writings of Paul are so applicable to ourselves. They're so important and vital that once we say that's only Paul and forget about him, we can just please ourselves and carry on. But you know what Paul said? If any man be spiritual, let him acknowledge that these are, the things I write are the commandments of God. Commandments of the Lord. What Paul wrote were not his own words. What Ezekiel had to bring to these rebellious people were not his own words. He was to say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. Not his own authority, not his own ideas or thoughts. And if you're going to serve God, saying, I like to think, or I always think, or I, in my wide experience of great wisdom, have decided. No. The servant of God must hear the voice of the Almighty. Speaking, thus saith the Lord God. So obedient, you'll see, that this comes in, I've counted, 202 times. I may have missed a few, but I've counted 202 times in this book of Ezekiel that he said, Thus saith the Lord God, or saith the Lord God. See how obedient he was. He not only heard the voice, shouted that at the end of his ears, but he did just what he was told. He said to these people, Thus saith the Lord God, again and again. It comes into this book. And God says, Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, they shall know that the prophet has been among them. That's the point. If people don't listen to us, even if we find that our words go against them, Paul said, I have not shunned to bring unto you the whole counsel of God. I have warmed you day and night with tears. Whether they would listen, whether they would forbear, his conscience was clear. And we get this when we come to chapter 33. God says, I have made you a watchman. I have sent you as a watchman over my people. You are to blow the trumpet. If the enemy comes and the watchman doesn't blow the trumpet, he is guilty. And God will acquire his blood, the blood of his hand. If he sounds the trumpet, the people will not listen. God says, I fear him. The people are guilty of not listening to my warning. So he was to set the trumpet to his mouth. So thus saith the Lord God. And we notice here how again and again he says this. And the word of the Lord, he mentions this again, 49 times I found it. It speaks, the word of the Lord coming to me. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. The word of the Lord came to him. The word of the Lord. My purpose is to know. To be acquainted with the word of the Lord, isn't it? And to young and old, I would give good advice. Paul gives it to Timothy, give attention to reading. Give attention to reading the word of God. Give attention to it. Like the man who brings charity. Understand yourself what that means. Yes, if we really seek God's help in this. God will give us understanding because he gives us his spirit. In order we may know what his will is and to read his word of intelligence. And so here it says. This prophet was able to say, Lord the authority of the almighty God. The Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God. How important it is to have authority. And then Ezra came along and said, who gave you authority to build this house? And they had to look back and see in the register how Cyrus the king had given his authority. There was the word of steel in this document. We have the authority of the almighty of the Lord God himself. We have his word here. The authority. And how important it is to know this word. So that when we change we are able to give an answer to him that asks a reason concerning the hope of forgiveness. The first thing is then to hear his voice. One of the characteristics of the sheep is that he hears the shepherd's voice. My sheep hear my voice. And it's not only that we hear the word too. As we listen to his voice we realise that the word is for us. For me personally. That's hearing the shepherd's voice. Because he goes on sale and I know them and they follow me. If we hear the voice we listen to the voice of the shepherd. We should follow him. This is important to know. Obedience follows the reading of the word. So we find here the first thing God does is to give him the power to listen. In the second chapter we read there. He said unto me son of man stand upon my feet and I will speak unto thee. I will speak unto thee. Stand on your feet. And we see that the spirit enters when he said unto me. Very similar to the experience of Daniel. Upon the door speaking to him the spirit entered into him so he was able to be set upon his feet so he could hear. I heard him that spake unto me. Isn't it important to hear? To hear the voice of the shepherd. How could he give the message? How could he say thus of the Lord? Unless he listened attentively. He listened. He was given the power to listen. And that's why it's important here to see that he was given the spirit. The spirit entered into him. I read that here. What a wonder God gives to his children, his Holy Spirit, so they are able to stand on their feet and to hear the voice of the Lord. Do we make the most of it? I'm sure we don't. He gives us the power to stand on our feet. To stand in the right way. As we stand upon our feet we are able to hear his voice and follow his steps. We can't be sitting down. We can't be lying down. He sets us upon our feet so that we can hear his voice and follow it. I'm reading here. Thou shalt speak my word sometimes. Make thing of words. The words. Not only to hear the voice of my parent, but also to be able to hear the words that he spoke. The very words. It's important that God's chosen words to reveal his will. He chosen words to express that in this Bible. This Bible is composed of words. My words. And again and again. These chapters. You read chapter 2, chapter 3. Again and again. Speak my words. Son of man, all my words I speak unto thee. Chapter 3 verse 10. All my words I shall speak unto thee. Receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears. Receive my words into your heart. Receive them. Listen to them and receive them into your heart. With attention to the words. You see, often we misread. So often we loop things into the Bible, but not really there. So it's important to know the very words of Scripture. That's why we don't need a paraphrase, but the very words. Hear and get. It's wonderful we have those who have laboured to give us the word of God in our language. What a privilege it is. To have the very words of God. I know you tell me they're translators. Of course they are. But the translators have done their best to give us the very words of God. And again and again. These next chapters. The words. Speak with my words unto them. Not our own words. Not our own thoughts. Speak with my words unto them. And notice the chapter again. He said unto me. How important is he? He said. If people say, why did he do such a thing? Because he said it. Where? Point to the chapter and the verse. He said it. It's good enough. He said it. Remember the Lord Jesus when he was 10 feet? Three times. It is written. The devil didn't say it. The Deuteronomy man has a wonderful book. The devil knew it better than anyone else. It wasn't a disputed book. The devil didn't dispute it. He quoted it three times in the book of Deuteronomy. And there was no question. The authority of that word. He fled of the expression. It is written. It is written. We have the same tool. The thought. The word of God. In our hands. How important it is, isn't it? So, to be able to say. It is written. He hath said. It will be in the New Testament. In the Hebrews entry. He hath said, I will not leave thee. He hath said. The authority of God. A garden cannot lie. It will hang on to his promises. It will hold fast to his commandments. He hath said it. If he commands me, let's do it. In his promises. Let us enter into the fullness of his promise that he has made. He hath said. And again we saw. I will speak unto thee. He has special revelation. He saw the glory of God. He was a chosen vessel. But now. Every one of us has got a pride in his trust. This is a word God has given to every one of us. God's love letter to the world. To those who will hear. If any man will hear. Let him hear. Whosoever. Yes. Whosoever will hear. So, this word is for every one of us. Personally. The word is to me. You. Today. As much as it was to him in that letter. Words. The very words of God. As though we find. In the twelfth chapter, for example. Where he's been to do something very strange. And he's a living cannibal. He had to gather up all his belongings. And he got hold of the wall. It was a picture that kept him. This is just going to take place. Very shortly. He was a living cannibal. Verse 8 in text 12. And in the morning came the word of the Lord unto me. Saying. Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, or David's house, been unto thee? What doest thou? In the morning. Came the word of the Lord unto me. He was up. He was up in time to hear. The word of the Lord. It's good, isn't it? To use the morning time to listen to his voice. The Lord gives it in the fiftieth verse. Isaiah says. And I awakened morning by morning. I opened my ear to hear what God the Lord would speak. Yes. He was ready in the morning to hear. And here again he says. In the morning came the word of the Lord unto me. David. Son of man. Hath not the house of Israel. What doest thou? He could do it because he's in a position, in a state of readiness to listen to the word of God. It's very important, I think, to begin the journey. Begin the day with listening to the voice. The words of God. Read the word of God. See what message he has for us. To rest upon that word. See what comfort there is. What enjoyment in that word of God. We pray now. May we go in peace and sleep with our Lord. May we sleep well and safely. Because we have his word here recorded. And then later on in the same chapter. Verse twenty-five. The people were saying here. It's not going to happen. It won't happen yet. It's a long time yet. What does God say? I am the Lord. I will speak. And the word that I speak shall come to pass. It shall be no more prolonged. For in your days of rebellious hours will I say the word. And will perform it. Says the Lord God. If God speaks the word. It shall surely come to pass. It's good that we know this. I shouldn't dare serve him if I didn't have his promise. I shouldn't dare pass on the word of God. If I didn't know that everything that God has said will come to pass. These people are saying. Oh it's not yet. Oh not yet. It will be a long delay. Everything goes on through the New Testament. As it always has since the beginning of time. God has said. Shall I not perform it? A rebellious house. He said when I say the word. I will perform it. When God speaks. His word will come to pass. What's important is this word of God. Chapter 13 verse 6. These people say they have seen vanity and lying divination. Saying the Lord said. The Lord has not sent them. They have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. These people said the Lord said. But you notice. They didn't say the Lord God said. These are the lying prophets. These are the wicked people. These are the perverse prophets of Israel. He says here that God was against them. By prophesying he says. Lying divinations. Let's beware of this. The devil was alive from the very beginning. And the devil has his agents to deceive us as much as ever. More than ever. And it goes on and on. False prophets. They say they are all false prophets now. They say the Lord said so and so. People are telling all sorts of things. It says in the Bible this and that. They can prove all sorts of things by falsifying the word of God. How important it is to know. To have the touchstone. Doesn't the Bible say that? You show it to me. How many times people have said to me. It says in the Bible. Why don't you show it to me? Where is it? It's somewhere around here. You know where it is. I've never heard it. All right. We'll get concordance about it. We'll go through the concordance. We'll get a dozen concordance. You can't find it there. You won't find it there. It was their own idea. They wanted to find it in the Bible. It would be very nice to find it in the Bible and prove their point. But it isn't there. God didn't say it. It's no use understanding what the Lord said. Because he says here. Their own beginning. Their own faults. And they make others to hope that they will confirm the word. They're making other people hope that it will come to pass. How terrible it is. There are false prophets just as there were then. And the thing is. We're to know. To know what God said. How important was this man here? And we read in the further part of that chapter. How these people were lying awake. They were hunting. Sneering souls for their own profit. They were grabbing for a handful of barley. They were giving people. Telling people they're fortunate. We might say today. Giving them some kind of stargazing outline of what was going to befall them that day. Hoping it would come true. Don't tell me this isn't happening today. It is. I wrote to the local newspaper. I said well I've been very glad that it happened. Perhaps it's now you. But what people are putting there. Weekly. Watching the stars. And I was very polite that day. Saying nobody takes any notice. It's only a bit of fun. It isn't a bit of fun. There are people that take it seriously. There are people who buy the rate. Because they go to see what's going to happen to them today. And they believe that whatever is written there is their fortune. These people are looking at horoscopes. And going to fortune tellers. And consulting witches. As much as they were those of Saul. And here the warning is against it all. These people are doing it. Hunting souls for a handful of barley. Hunting souls. The souls of my people. I'm glad. How important it is then to know the word of God. Know what he says. And then there's the most important thing about it all. What is the response of this man? We notice in verse 2 how... In chapter 2 I mean. The spirit entered into me. Chapter 2 verse 2. He said before that I heard him spoken to me. We notice at the end of that chapter. He is hearing. Let him hear. Chapter 12 again. The beginning of the chapter. The word of the Lord came unto me saying. Some of them that dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house. Which have eyes to see and see not. They have ears to hear and hear not. For they are a rebellious house. Which ones do we not? I heard the words of him that spake. They have ears and hear not. Lord Jesus said take heed. What do you hear? Take heed how you hear. Then sometime in Revelation 2 and 3. He had ears. Let him hear. What the spirit said to the churches. The two kinds of people. Two kinds of Christians do. Those that hear. He says I heard the voice of him that spake to me. Can we say that? I heard the voice of him that spake to me. We cannot serve God acceptably unless we do hear. And hearing means obeying too. You know sometimes we do hear somebody say something. But we just don't take any notice. We go on. You know sometimes when he died in a car and someone said he turned left here. We just don't take any notice. He goes on. He did hear. But he goes on. What's the good? He might as well not have heard it. He goes on. Gets hopelessly lost. But there was a voice that said turn left or turn right. As the case may be. He heard it. With half his voice. I came to a crossroad and I said turn left here. My friend was driving me. Oh yes you're there. No it wasn't. It was right. And there he was. He was always saying he was going that way. But he just went. Automatic way. Always went. Oh did you turn left? It was too late. The crossroad was on the wrong street. It was traffic. I'll be all right then. Here. But do we obey? What's the good of hearing if we don't obey? Now this. This one. This wonderful character. Poor Ezekiel. He was highly favoured. Yet on the other side. So he had to suffer. As we see his grief. Chapter 9 where he was grieved. We noticed that the other day. Grieved because of the sorrow that was coming upon his people. Chapter 25 when he heard that the city had been set. All the grief that he caused him. The grief. Chapter 24 when God said I'm saved for the night. I was from them. He says in that morning. I spoke to the people in the evening. My wife died. It cost him something to obey. It will cost us something to obey. Don't think it's an easy thing to obey the word of God. It isn't. Jeremiah found that. Look what Jeremiah had to say. Look what the disciples had to suffer. Think of James. Almost at the very beginning of his testimony. Just cut off like that. What a waste. Was it? Was it a waste? No testimony was there. And the time has come for God to receive him. And to employ him. Steal him. Remark him. What a short period of service it was. It cost a great deal didn't it? Think about it in other manners. It cost him a great deal to listen and to do what he said. A servant can do nothing else. We have no mind of our own. No thoughts of our own. No authority of our own. We need to listen. This man needs to hear. I've heard. They have heard. They hear not. Which category do we belong to? We go on to the thirty-third chapter. Notice that. We have turned it again for us. We see the responsibility of the one that knows the will of God. Knows the will of God. We have to make it that, don't we? Chapter thirty-three, the first verse says, Again from the word of the Lord came unto me, Saying, Some of men speak to the children of my people. And then we go on. Now God said, I set you for a watchman. In verse five, he heard the sound of the trumpet and took no warning. So then he says, if the watchman hasn't sounded the trumpet, they can't hear it. How important it is, you see here, when we've heard that sound, to make the message heard by others. How important the responsibility is. I set you as a watchman, he says here, Therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me. Hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me. Oh, how gracious God is. These people are so rebellious. He knew from the start they were rebellious. Again, he says here, Hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me. A message from God to the world. A message from God to a generation of wicked people. A message from God to our neighbours. To the people we come in contact with in our work day by day. We first have to hear the word of his mouth. And then, warn them from me, God says. Warn them from me. Isn't it lovely how kind God is? He was teaching Christ's step. He said, be reconciled to God, it is impossible. So, verse 32 of this then, chapter 33. We see what the effect was upon these people. He didn't warn them. Verse 32, Lo, God hath given them a very lovely song of one pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, but they do them not. One of the most tragic things is when we speak in a very earnest and solemn way. People say a very nice sermon. I join people in a very nice way. Go away and crack jokes on the street and go back. Go back to grovelling in the mire. Like one sings of a pleasant voice, one can play well upon an instrument. For they hear thy words, but they do them not. How solemn it is, isn't it? To know the word of God. Not to do it. For he is man. This man is faithful. We come to the last verse. Verse 33 of chapter 33. And when this cometh to pass, it will come, then shall they know the prophet hath been among them. What a terrible day to await, and find the prophet has been among them. What a terrible thing, for those who have not heeded the word, to know that there has been a prophet among them, walking among them, day by day, and yet they did not heed. The day that comes, and there is no redemption any more. And the day of grace is finished. How important it is that we, that this man, warn them from the Let us take chapter 43, before we find the end. The attention that man gives. Chapter 43, beginning. Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate building toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice has outgone the noise of many waters, and the earth shines with his glory. Then, in verse 5, So the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court, and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me of the house. And the man stood by me. You notice now here where God took him to hear his word. The Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court. Glory of the Lord filled the house. He brought him right into the great house where he was himself. And there he was and I heard him, I heard one speaking unto me out of the house. I heard. I heard him speaking unto me. And this I believe shows the importance of coming together with God's people to the place where the Lord is in the midst. Collectively hearing the word of God. How important it is to come together when not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the Lamb of God. But to exalt one another. And that's the more as we see the day approaching. As we come nearer and nearer to the day when the Lord Jesus comes. How important it is to be found together around the word of God. To be found together in the place where God's word is read, expanded. And we see how here was a place where the glory of the Lord filled the house. You notice this at the beginning of the the glory of the Lord, the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. The glory itself it has today. Not just the vague appearance of the glory of the Lord, but the glory itself because we've opened a place to behold the glory of the Lord today. In the face of Jesus Christ we see God's glory. And the place is there. In the midst of His own that gathers His name. Where His word is revealed. Where His word is read and expanded and loved and arrayed. How important it is then to come together around His word. How important it is to listen there. I heard Him speaking to me out of the house. And the place of nearness. The place of glory too. The place where He is glorified. A privilege it is, isn't it? And so we find the result of this that we saw how the later chapters give us the place that God has chosen the details of putting this wonderful house. I can see how in the last chapter there was their place when they all had their allotted territory given to them. In the very centre there was to be this place. And we see the service that was to be in the temple the centre and then we find at the very end. I'd like to read us again the last verse of the whole book because we see how important it is. It was round about 18,000 pages. And the name of the city from that day should be the Lord is there. The Lord is there. We'll come back to where we began actually in the first verse. We hope that the thought of the will of God being made there. Where shall we come together? We come to the place where the Lord is there. And this is a wonderful day for Israel when Israel is going to be head of nations. When all the nations are going to come up, send their emissaries up to the east of Kedav in Jerusalem. We will go to Zechariah. But above all the glory of that place is the Lord is there. Sometimes over I don't go to meetings very often because I don't get much. It's not the point. The Lord is there. I hope you're in the right spirit to get much. There may be people present. There may be unlearned ones. But if there's a heart of the Lord who will wonder to go away. Because the Lord is there. In the midst of his gathering of people. He's promised it. He's assured us. If we're in a place where two or three or the lowest number possible are gathering he's assured us he's in the midst. There where the Lord is there is a place where we can listen to his voice and obey him. And not least obeying him and doing just this very thing being found in the assembling of ourselves together as we wait for his return. May his few scattered thoughts be some help to us as we serve him and wait for his return. So, Senator Florence Hogan in 202 202 What will it be to dwell above with the Lord's glory vain since the blessed knowledge of his power so bright has always been his claim. No heart can think no tongue can tell what joy it will be with Christ to dwell. The last two lines of his last verse To hear his voice to see his face and know the fullness of his grace. 202 …