I Take No Pleasure In the Destruction Of The Wicked Ezekiel 33:1-20

A few things real quick while we work this one out and we head up.

So the first thing is we're going to look at a tough passage of scripture.

It's going to go by kind of quick. It's not like a really long, drawn out thing like the Kingdom of God thing's work,

but it's a tough passage of scripture to digest.

And so I'm going to try to break it down as we go.

If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask.

Okay, so it's not complicated what he's saying. It's not complicated.

But in light of we now know Jesus lived, died, was buried, and rose again,

it changes the story a little bit.

So we're looking at the story. It's from a prophet that a long time before Jesus lived.

And so it's a little different than what we might expect.

The second thing is if you've not done so already,

I need you to count the number of worksheets and make sure I'm getting that information for the number of worksheets.

I know who, because I know I already owe Josh Mitchell dinner,

and I want to make sure there are others who are on that side and in that category.

So at some point, don't I do it right this second,

but at some point you can count your worksheets and text me or just tell me that number so I can start tracking.

Because if we have a few people, we can all eat dinner together at the same time.

That would be more convenient for me because I have a limited schedule.

I don't have seven days.

It would be the same for me.

I don't have seven days each week.

So here, some people have it for a long time before that.

So, all right, so you're hitting the eighth one.

So my first one is eight.

All right, so you hit the eighth one.

That's the first one.

And then it goes eight, 13, 26.

I think 26 would be definitely, you saved it for a long time.

That's the highest number you have.

It's like 3.5 and a third.

All right, so here we go.

Grab your Bible.

If you're going to follow along with it and your worksheet,

and we're going to look at Ezekiel 33.

All right.

So Ezekiel was a prophet.

By the way, you're really going to celebrate this.

We don't need to dig deep into his history or anything like that.

We will say that in Ezekiel's day, people did a lot of bad things.

Even though they were God's people.

They're taking that for him.

So that's pretty good.

Okay.

And so the reference to the upper right-hand corner of your page,

starting in the upper right, is Ezekiel 33, 1-6.

Okay.

So we're going to look at the first six verses first of Ezekiel.

And Ezekiel has no A's in it.

And if you want to spell it with an I-A-L at the end, it is I-E-L.

So it looks like S-X-I-L.

So it looks like E-Z-E-K-I-E-L.

33, 1-6.

Now, first I'm going to have is like a little bit of a game.

As I read this scripture, okay, I've given you some pictures here.

Ezekiel 33, 1-6.

Okay.

So these pictures here all represent something.

I'll tell you what they are first.

They're my drawings and they're my directorial.

So that first thing I know, we have left in there is a trumpet.

It's an old-style trumpet.

People were bowled over and bedded.

And that's kind of, they probably had it.

All right.

And then that's a sword.

That's a castle.

That's a town or a city.

Okay.

And that's an army.

I think I actually did pretty good on the army considering.

I'll pay credit for myself.

That's blood.

It's that blood.

Okay.

And then there's a pillow.

That's a pillow with Z's by it.

Okay.

And then the word analogy and the word argument.

Okay.

Now, as I read these six verses, I want you to put a dot next to circle, check mark, mark, however you want.

The things that you think he's talking about in these verses.

So if you think it's an analogy, then you can mark the analogy.

If you think it's an argument, you can mark the argument.

If you think he's talking about a city, you can mark the city.

If he's talking about a sword, you can mark the sword and so on.

Okay.

So that's all I'm going to do.

I'm going to read the verses.

I'm going to go super fast.

Today, I'm trying to emphasize the words a little bit.

And you're just going to mark what things you think you hear something about in there.

Ezekiel 33.

And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them,

if I bring a sword upon a land and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,

and he sees the sword coming upon the land,

blows on the trumpet and warns the people,

then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning and a sword comes and takes him away,

his blood will be on his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet that did not take warning.

His blood will be on himself.

But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned,

and a sword comes and takes a person from them,

he is taken away in his iniquity.

Iniquity means sin.

But his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.

Okay.

So he tells Ezekiel to tell the people this from verse 2 on down to verse 6.

And basically this is the map of it.

I'm just going to paraphrase it in a second.

I'm going to say the map.

The people take a watchman.

The watchman blows the horn and somebody doesn't listen and they die because of it.

It's their own fault.

The blood is on them.

But if the watchman fails to blow the horn and then somebody dies when the sword comes on them,

then they died in their sin, but also the blood is on the watchman because he didn't do the job.

Okay.

All right.

So if you're looking at marking trumpet, sword, army, castle, city, blood, analogy or argument,

one of those or all of those and pillows over here, pillows down there, it's kind of small and a lot of them.

All right.

So who wants to go first?

Let's see.

Did anybody mark the city or the town?

Pick one around.

You did?

Okay.

Tell me how you think it's talking about the city or the town.

You did not.

Okay.

Did anyone mark it?

Okay.

It was marked on my paper.

I'm the only one that marked it.

I'll tell you how I think so.

You did too?

Okay.

So because the whole thing, you did too?

Okay.

The whole thing is about the city or the people.

Right?

So if you were talking about the land or the city or the people, I used the town there to represent the city.

How about this?

Did anybody mark the castle?

Nobody?

You did?

Okay.

Tell us how you think.

Okay.

So you're using that to represent the watchman.

Okay.

So you can do that.

I wouldn't call that a wrong answer.

I did that myself, but I wouldn't call it a wrong answer.

Sure.

I can practically be true.

Okay.

How about the sword?

This is easy enough.

Did we all mark the sword, I told you?

Yeah.

Okay.

Everybody marked the sword.

But we didn't mark it now.

Right?

Because it says sword in there twice, at least.

All right.

How about the trumpet?

Yeah.

We marked the trumpet, right?

Because it says if you blew the trumpet, if you blew the trumpet, you didn't blow the trumpet.

Right?

So that's in there.

How about the army?

Did anybody mark army?

Okay.

Say again.

So you marked it.

But it still says one person.

No, it says, okay, let's read it.

Here's what it actually says.

If I, who's the I, if I bring a sword upon the land of the people of the land, take one man from among them and make him their watchman, he sees the sword coming upon the land and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people.

Right?

So I will tell you that a lot of times in scripture, a sword can represent an army.

Right?

Or a warrior-like people.

Right?

And John says, right, is that not who has the sword is the army.

Right?

A lot of times it does.

But you're right to kind of snag on it a little bit because, right, because God says I bring the sword.

Right?

So in other words, it doesn't have to be an army that God brings.

It could be something else.

Can anyone think of an example of a judgment or of a something dangerous that God would bring on a nation that is not destruction but certainly could turn into that?

Okay.

Say again.

Plague of Egypt.

Okay.

So the plague of Egypt or plague could be a good example of this, right?

Because the warning could be this.

If we don't turn from all wicked ways, God's going to bring this plague down on us like he did before and destroy all his people.

That could be the warning.

And then he says, okay, I see that the threat of the plague is there.

I'm the watchman.

I must give the alert.

Right?

So that could be an example.

Any others?

The tower of Babel changed all the languages which the Bible and the Bible didn't teach.

Okay.

Although there was no warning.

Right?

He just, God said, these people need to be broke up and go through the period of post-mortem.

That's what he was doing in the first place.

Right?

But you're right.

That's another example of the story of God's doctrine.

But unfortunately there was no warning in that case.

If they were told what to do, they didn't do it.

They were punished.

Jonah.

Jonah's a good example.

Right?

He was supposed to go through the city and tell them, it's going to be destroyed.

By the way, never miss this in the story of Jonah.

Is Jonah's message, repent or be destroyed?

No.

No.

Jonah's message simply put, God is going to destroy you.

Right?

That was his message.

God is going to destroy you for your wickedness and bubblegum.

They repented hoping that just maybe by some chance there was some escape.

That was insane because that's their natural response.

That's what I don't want to look at at the minute.

But that was their natural response was to repent.

And it wasn't just one of them or some of them or the intelligent ones or the dumb ones.

Right?

Or the ones who got faked and the ones who didn't.

It was everyone, including the animals.

It was sackcloth, sackcloth on the cows.

Literally everybody repented.

Nobody ate.

Everybody weeped.

And God's miracle for 160 years.

I like that.

He's very kind of, because of that.

All right.

Anything else?

Okay.

So I'll submit to you there are other examples that we can come up with.

It could be anything that God is going to bring on the land that they would not want.

Okay.

Feminine is good.

Locusts.

Grout.

Slavery.

But Joseph became the watchman in that case.

This is the one who went to Pharaoh and said, this is what your green beans, seven years peace,

followed by seven years of famine, fix it for us.

And he said, well, you become my chief man and you fix it.

And he did.

And they sort it all out for seven years and then they were ready.

Okay.

So you get the gist of it.

So army, yes, maybe, but not certainly not only.

And it doesn't say army.

Right?

So either way would be fine.

Blood, definitely.

What does blood symbolize in this story?

As a man who is the watchman does not blow the trumpet and then someone is taken.

He is taken in his own iniquity, but his blood will be on your head.

In the shoes that show they see the dirt on the ground.

You can get very word right there.

Yes.

Right?

What culpability is where the harmony is.

You can be your, you're right for God to punish.

You're right for God to judge, right for God to send to hell.

Whatever you are responsible.

Okay.

You say something.

All right.

Here we go.

All right.

So how about the pillow?

Anybody mark the pillow?

Tommy did.

Sleeping on the job.

Sleeping on the job.

That's what I did to you.

Yeah.

Sleep.

I got the symbol.

Not not literally right there, but but the symbol.

So now here's an interesting thing.

Because we just talked about all of these things being symbols.

What do you think about the word analogy?

Could this everything you just read be an analogy?

It certainly is an analogy.

How about the argument?

Do you hear an argument?

Yeah.

Okay.

How do you hear the argument?

It's kind of like arguing back and forth.

Like if you do something then this is an argument.

This could also be an argument.

Because it says in the beginning of the books that if I was to be the sword in story of the

inner I would get cut and then the argument would be well what if this happened?

Like would everything else have happened in the book?

Okay.

Yeah.

So I kind of get what the original was.

Yeah.

I kind of get what you're going at.

Like if you do this, you'll be fine.

If you don't, you won't.

Therefore you should do this.

Right?

If this is the way you want it, if you don't do what you're supposed to do then you get

this instead.

So that makes an argument.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

So we're going down to the left follow the big fat row and you're crossing under that

slide there and we're looking now at verses 7 and 10.

So the reference is Ezekiel 33, 7, 10.

Right over there kind of down under the gate above the man above the copraic above the

guy lived went to the left Ezekiel 37, 7, 10.

And it says now as for you son of man and that's the case where he uses the phrase son

of man and refer to Ezekiel.

So he's talking to Ezekiel and says as for you son of man, I have appointed you a watchman

for the house of Israel.

He says you're going to be the one.

I go on the walk.

I made you the watchman.

People didn't elect you.

I made you the watchman.

So you hear a message from my mouth and give them warning from me.

So you know what he's saying?

You be responsible.

So Jason was saying we got me an argument from this text.

Let's start with your the you're the you better do what's right or otherwise the blood on

you.

Right.

So he's saying so you give them a warning for me.

First day when I say the wicked a wicked man, you surely shall die or you shall surely die

and you do not speak to warn the wicked man from his way that wicked man shall die in

his iniquity.

So we've got a sinner.

Bad to say something but bad and Ezekiel's case.

He was supposed to warn the sinner that he's in trouble and this road that he's on will

take him to this far and if Ezekiel does not warn him then like we read in the first six

verses he would be that person who's supposed to be warning but why not doing his job?

He'd be asleep on the dock.

All right.

So let's go back to oh wicked man.

You shall surely die.

So God says when I say oh wicked man, you should surely die and you do not speak to

warn the wicked man from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquity.

But his blood I will require from your hand.

But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn

from his way, he will die in his iniquity that you have delivered your life.

Get it?

Pretty tough stuff, isn't it?

Okay.

So what we've got there is some imagery to kind of represent this.

We've got the dying on the right hand side.

I submit to you that the message that the watchman which is Ezekiel in this case or I

think it's talking to us actually right is saying we have to tell people they're making

a choice between life and death.

Okay, that's why that guy live is there also over on the left.

You'll notice that's a that's my picture of Ezekiel.

I have no idea what Ezekiel look like.

I don't think anybody does but there's a hairy man with a big long beard and he's quite

loud of talking right?

Okay, and he's on both sides of that coat.

He's on one side of coat rack and the message is on the other side of coat rack.

Okay.

Now we're going to follow the split arrow down.

We're going to take the left fork.

What do you see?

What is that?

The pillow.

So if he falls asleep at the wheel falls asleep and does not do what a watchman is supposed to do.

Blood.

Fat.

Right.

So in other words if you are a watchman and you have the message of the Lord and you don't

give it and that person dies and they will right?

It's professor they will die in their iniquity then now the blood is on the watchman's hands.

Catch it?

Okay.

Now we'll follow the other side for a moment.

Let's say you warned him.

If you warned him then he's going to have to make a choice.

Right?

So he comes to the place where it says stand here.

He's going to choose which coat rack basically the coat rack is going to choose.

You got the left coat rack which is bad and you'll notice down below it right in front of the coat rack.

You go grab the coat right in front of it.

There's a clip that leads down into hell.

Mike not an expert depication.

You're not really supposed to have a notification of hell.

Right?

Or he chooses the right coat rack as a coat hanging there.

Right?

And he chooses that there's a slide and the slide goes all the way up around the top has to keep off all the way up to the burly gates.

So he has to make a choice.

So if he's warned he has to make a choice.

So let's follow if he makes the bad choice for a moment.

Right?

Now what happened to us first of all if we were the watchman and we warned him where are we?

Our lives are spared.

We're saved.

Right?

We're doing what we're supposed to do.

We did it.

We did it.

We did it.

We did it.

We did it.

We did it.

So if he chooses now to sin, if he chooses now to ignore God, he chooses now not to be right then that's on him because we did our part.

We sounded the trumpet.

Right?

Watch out!

Sin will bring death.

Death will send you into hell for eternity.

Right?

We sounded the trumpet.

Now he chooses bad.

It's not on us but let's look at it for a second.

Okay?

So let's say he chooses bad.

He goes to the left into the pit of fire.

Notice if he goes sliding down the slide into the pit of fire there's a secret door.

Everybody see it?

See the secret door behind the planes?

A little tunnel that goes to the right.

See it?

And then there's a ladder and it goes back up to the shooting spot.

See that?

Okay.

Follow along with me.

We were in 10.

Now as for you son of man, say to the house of Israel, thus you have spoken saying,

surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us and we are rotting away in them.

How then can we survive?

Say to them, as I live declares the Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,

but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn back.

Turn back from your evil ways.

Why then will you die, oh house of Israel?

So there they are.

So they went over.

They chose the bad way.

They went down to the pit.

They found the secret door.

God said, come on.

Come on.

Come back.

Choose.

You don't have to die.

You don't have to stay in there.

You made your way out.

You don't have to stay down there.

Okay?

And if you'll notice right under the choosing place right there, it says Ezekiel 33 11.

I'm going to read 33 11 again and then we're going to see if we can guess the blanks.

I'll help a little.

All right.

So Ezekiel 33 11 says, say to them, as I live declares the Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,

but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn back.

Turn back from your evil ways.

First word is I.

The whole thing all one shot like a massive swift stroke on the real portion.

The guy.

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Here's the thing.

People always accuse God of being bad.

Don't they?

People say, well, I can't follow a guy who I can't follow a guy who killed all those Palestinian people back in the day.

Right?

I can't follow a guy like God.

Right?

That's just bad.

God would commit genocide.

That's just bad.

I can't.

I can't follow.

He's bad.

Right?

But God says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

In fact, he says, I sent people to war.

They went into wickedness.

I even made a way out after they went into wickedness to try to bring them back to the choosing place.

God says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

As you follow that arrow down to the left, it says turn.

That is God's response.

If you go to God and say, I'm in wickedness, I'm doing what I'm not supposed to be doing.

And God says, stop.

And you say, I don't want to stop.

And you run away from God.

So God says, come back here.

Come back here.

Turn.

Right?

Do what's right.

And he's going to continue to plead with you to do what's right.

The secret door isn't available.

But if you don't take it, that's on you.

OK?

Ezekiel 33, 12 is there as well.

All right.

I'll read 33, 12.

It says, and you saw a man say to your fellow citizens, the righteousness of a righteous man

will not deliver him in the day of his transgression.

OK?

So something will.

And the next word starts with an N. So how about righteousness for the first word?

Righteousness.

A good word for you.

So I-D-H-E-G-O-U-S-N-E-S-S, righteousness.

Will not.

Hang on.

This is getting scary.

Save in the day he commits sin.

That's a paraphrase, not a literal verse.

The actual verse says, the righteousness of a man, of a righteous man, will not deliver him in the day of his transgression.

In other words, if you're the best person on earth, in the day that you're sinned, your best person-ness will not help you at all.

You'll still be in a center.

I did just want to add something to your math too, because I want to know that you can be the perfect that doesn't indicate that you have sin.

Exactly.

Well, not get the verse.

Right?

Not get the verse.

OK.

And so 33, 12 was, the righteous will not save.

Righteousness will not save in the day he continues to sin, or mis-sin, or mis-transgressions, whatever you want to put there.

Third arrow to the right.

The wicked.

So what do you think this is going to say about the wicked?

Right?

So the righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression.

And as for the wickedness of the wicked-

OK, this is interesting-

He will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness.

Whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.

So the wicked may turn and follow-

Go ahead.

What's on the page on the easy good that we have?

Righteousness will not save in the day he commits sin.

Now we go up to the right.

The wicked may turn and follow God's statutes.

OK.

Let's go a little further and you'll see how this breaks down.

When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity,

none of his righteousness will be remembered.

But in that same iniquity of his which he has committed, he will die.

But when I say to the wicked he will surely die, and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness,

if a wicked man rescores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery,

walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity,

he will surely live.

He shall not die.

Attention.

So the wicked may turn and follow God's statutes.

That's what goes into the blank. The wicked may turn and follow God's statutes.

And then it goes which ensure life.

Now let's stop here for one second.

Because remember the whole born again saying,

was Nicodemus a righteous man?

Based on what we talked about at Wacom SimpleSelf.

Well, yeah.

Not righteous for salvation, but compared to humans in general.

Was he righteous? Yes.

He was righteous. He mastered two days a week. He studied the Bible.

He memorized the entire book of Genesis.

He preached and taught that people should be Jewish and follow the one true God.

Which is to ensure life.

Ensure life.

Right?

Oh, yeah.

All right.

Well, anyway, so.

So the point is he was a pretty righteous man.

But was he righteous unto salvation?

Did he have no sin?

Was he not wicked?

No, he wasn't. He was a wicked man.

He and who's not?

Right?

The Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We don't get out of the pit.

And stay out of the pit because we were righteous.

We get in the pit because we were not righteous.

And then we take the secret door and we go back to the place of choosing.

And that's what salvation provides.

It brings you back to a place of choosing. Is that a question?

You're okay? You need to shut it up.

Okay.

But I need you to preach this someday.

Not to consume it someday.

The wicked may turn and follow God's statutes which ensure life.

Okay?

And that takes us really down through 15.

And if you'll flip it a little bit to the right, you'll see Ezekiel 33, 15.

It got cut off a little bit by the photocopy there.

You can finish it.

So it's easy. 33, 15.

And this is a reminder that statutes, God's statutes, ensure life.

Now let me ask you this question.

Christian in the room, help me here because this is super important.

Okay?

I know most of you are all here proclaiming you're Christian.

If we don't get to heaven by following the rules of the Bible,

then how do the rules of the Bible ensure life?

Because this has to ensure that we are going to heaven.

Alright.

You have to unpack that for me.

Right?

Because if, let's say, let me give you a hypothetical.

So let's say somebody comes to church, heard about Jesus,

and they say, well, I want to go to heaven someday because we're by Jesus.

And heaven all sounds good.

It sounds better than here, right?

And they left there and said, I'm going to do the right thing from now on.

They paid back their debt.

They started doing everything as right as they knew how.

Now, if you examine their life, you find that they're sinning every single day.

Right?

But they think they're doing a really good job.

Following all the rules, all the whole test of the commands.

They're not breaking the commandments anymore.

Right?

But they have sin in their life pretty much every day.

So where do they line up?

Do they go to heaven or not?

Not.

Because you have to be born again to go to heaven.

Right?

That's how you go to heaven.

You're born again through Jesus Christ.

So deciding to do everything right, that is not going to get it.

So, but that's just what it said.

So how does living out those statutes actually ensure what?

I know the answer.

Give me a second.

You're grasped.

Do you know the answer?

Did Jesus come to abolish the law?

No.

What did he come to do?

How many said it, right?

Fulfill the law.

Right?

So Jesus is the fulfillment of the statutes.

Okay?

The statutes ensure life.

In fact, you could flip around the other way and say that the statutes were given to point to Jesus.

The whole thing, all the Old Testament points to Jesus' sacrifice.

So if you come in and you get born again, you begin to follow Jesus, and you then follow the statutes,

that's a lot like following Jesus.

Get it right all the time?

No.

Because it was quite a bit, almost done when we get there, there's ignorance and so on.

So we'll get it right all the time.

Right?

You'll make mistakes.

But every time you make mistakes, you already know what the secret door is.

Every time you go to the wrong coat rack, choose the wrong way, follow the pit, start to get a little bit of judgment or whatever on you,

you run to the secret door back up to the place of choosing.

No, I chose Jesus.

That's what 1 John is all about.

What are those two things?

The ones on the right are statutes ensure life.

Good.

Ezekiel 3.15, you haven't heard about it yet.

Okay?

So then, he goes a little bit further, almost done.

Hang with me.

Let me recap just a little bit.

When I say to the righteous, he will surely live and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity,

none of his righteousness will be remembered.

Okay?

So you'll notice there's the slide right here at the right coat rack, you put on the right coat and you're on the slide,

you go all the way up and you're headed for the front of the gates.

There it is, head for the front of the gates and then you pass the keep off sign.

See it?

Right in the middle of the page.

Between the coat racks and above the ladder.

It says keep out.

That's the one that happened.

33.15.

Okay?

And then at that, just look at the slide for a minute, follow the slide all the way up around,

you should be up in between the coat rack, there's a sign that says keep out.

See it?

Notice the ladder?

The ladder goes down, where does it go?

It goes right down to the stand here spot, to the choice spot.

Okay?

Or you can follow the sign and keep off the ladder and it goes straight to the pearly gates.

See it?

Follow the pattern, there's the slide, all the way up around,

pass the keep out sign, up to the pearly gates.

But if you go to the choice spot, what's back on the table?

If you take the ladder down, follow the slide up to the keep out sign,

and you take the ladder back down to the choice spot, now what's back on the table?

Bad.

Bad is back on the table.

You could choose to go to the left and go down to the pits.

But, oh good news, secret door, take the secret door back to the choose spot.

I submit to you that some people are living their life this way.

They're living at the choice spot all the time, then they get bored again,

they start to go and they arrogantly think I'm righteous now because I received righteousness from Jesus,

so they go back to the choosing spot, they choose to sin, go to hell, go through the secret door,

not literal hell, right?

Go to the badness, go through the secret door, back to the choosing spot,

go to the badness, go back to the keep, and they spend their whole life there,

going back and forth between doing what's wrong and what's right.

And sometimes they'll go, you know, I really feel convicted,

they repent, they turn back to Jesus and he'll take the slide,

and they go all the way up here, and they could just,

their path is set before them, but instead of taking the path,

they get back on the ladder, they climb back down to the choosing spot, right?

This is that person that keeps the sin in their life,

and they say, well, I'm not going to do it, but they keep access to it, in case I want to do it.

And then somewhere, they have a bad day or whatever, and they do those things again,

which puts them back to the choose, back to the choosing spot to those things again,

takes them toward a bad place.

But the bad place has been already taken care of,

because they go to the secret door, they repent, and turn back, they go back to the choosing spot,

and so you can see it in your mind, it's a figure eight.

You follow the slide, you keep off, you keep the ladder back down to the choose spot,

you go into the flames, you come back up to the choosing spot, whatever.

It's like a figure eight, you can do that.

And what does your life feel like sometimes?

Yeah, this is so awesome, this is great, I'm loving God, I got the worship thing going on today.

God is speaking to me, I pray and I hear, and it's been great.

I submit to you, that's when you're on the right-hand side of all the slides,

and you're not on to keep off, keep off.

The ladder, you didn't go that way, you stayed on the slide, you're on the road.

And Isaiah says that that's the highway of holiness.

And while you're on the highway of holiness, guess what's not on the highway of holiness?

Demons and evil spirits.

Because demons and evil spirits cannot come on the highway of holiness.

Because that road goes straight from wherever you are into heaven,

and it's exactly the size of the gate.

There's only one way in, you follow the road into heaven,

but if you get on the edge and start getting distracted, oh, that's a pretty demon,

I like that, or that's a tasteful evil spirit, I want the taste of that.

Right? So you go back to the place of choosing again, you follow the ladder down,

back to the place of choosing, and then you wind up choosing the bad,

because it did look really good, and then you go, oh, that wasn't good at all.

And then you take the secret door, you go back to the place of choosing,

and then hopefully you choose the right road, and you go up and around.

You follow my logic?

Okay.

So we're all out, we're going back to the right-hand side of the page.

We finish where it says statutes ensure life,

it's Tizito 3315, now follow the arrow to the right, and up.

Okay?

Our text goes just a little further.

15 was, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery,

walks by the statutes to his insured life, without committing iniquity,

unless he doesn't want to sin again, he will surely live, he shall not die.

None of these sins that he has committed will be remembered against him.

He has practiced justice and righteousness.

He will surely live.

Yet your fellow citizens say, the way of the Lord is not right,

when it is their own way that is not right.

So they say, what God says we have to do, that's not right.

What we want to do, what we think is right, that's what's right,

not what God says is right, that's like America, right?

A lot of times. And verse 18 says,

when the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity,

then he shall die in it.

But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness,

he will live by them.

Yet you say, the way of the Lord is not right.

O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.

Okay, so there it is written for you, the way of the Lord is not right.

And then it starts down on this, with I will,

the judge goes up on an angle, I will judge each,

anybody want to finish it?

of you according to your ways.

Period.

Now you'll notice there's one kind of key element left on this page that we're going to talk about.

It is right there at that period.

There's a set of arrows that go down towards the middle of the page.

You see them?

There's a period after the word ways, dot, square,

arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow, go under the slide,

arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow, and there's another period.

And you see right in the middle next to the ladder.

Okay?

In the choosing place, there are two things based on everything that we read,

that people need to be super careful of.

We need to be terribly, terribly aware of how bad these things are.

And they are the arrogance of the righteous, that's the first thing.

Because what was the problem?

The problem is the righteous, he says, because of my righteousness, I'll be fine.

And he slips into transgressions.

So he's arrogant.

He says, I'm good.

I'm a good man.

I'm better than others.

I do a better job.

I work harder.

I work harder for my money.

I take care of my money.

I take care of my kids.

I take care of my house.

I always tell the truth.

I mean, add on, add on the list.

So that arrogant, righteous man says, I'm going to be fine.

And then does something that he or she is not supposed to do.

Because they think they're going to be fine, because the righteousness that they see in

themselves, which really is a gift from God, right?

They think that's going to take care of them.

And I've sat when I can't tell you the number of Christians who say, it's OK.

God's going to forgive me.

I can do whatever I want to do now, because God's going to forgive me.

And all things are permissible.

I understand that, but not all things are profitable.

And Paul also goes on to say, I will be mastered by none.

So when you do things, and you willfully do something that's sinful, it's sticky.

It ties you up.

It takes you where you don't want to go.

And it at least puts you back at the choosing place.

And then from there, you're back in place.

And then you take the secret door again, you're smart, you repent, and you're back.

But guess what actually happens?

People go to the choosing place.

They suddenly choose Jesus.

But then they get distracted by lustful temptation, whatever, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh,

pride of life, so that they slip into sin.

They go down here.

And because they're tired of going back to righteousness, and trying to live for the Lord,

and failing, and whatever, and they think they're, they say, oh, I was righteous.

I did claim the name of Jesus.

I am a Christian.

I'm going to be fine.

And they don't take the secret door.

And if they don't take the secret door, they were never actually saved in the first place.

They were just playing a game.

They were never born again.

A born again believer doesn't continue to take the choice of sin.

John says that a Christian will not continue to sin.

We're not going to continue in sin.

We don't practice sin.

We don't keep doing those things.

Because if you keep going down there, eventually you're going to not come out of it.

You're going to go to a dark place, and you're going to stay there.

Because in some sense, you want to be there.

Or you wouldn't keep going there.

And so the arrogance of the righteous is the first one you have to be super cautious of.

So this is what I was saying to you.

If you're a follower of Jesus, never, ever, ever say, okay, I'm a follower of Jesus.

So I'm just going to sin now, and Jesus is going to forget it.

That is arrogance.

It is supreme arrogance.

If you can say of Jesus, the one who spent his blood on the cross for you,

after he got whipped, after he barely carried the cross, hung up there suffocating,

his back muscles were ground to open.

So every time he pushed him up so he could escape, take another breath,

the muscles and sinews in his back were ripping more every time he did that.

After what he went through, you could say, oh, he'll forgive it.

You have a problem.

You're arrogant.

Don't do that.

So anytime you're at a moment and say, well, I can sin or I can not sin,

choose to not sin.

Right? Choose to not do it in a spiral.

Don't count on knowing the secret door and the way out again

because it's still messy in between there and there.

It's still hot.

It still sucks.

Right?

The second one that you very warmed up in there is the ignorance of the wicked.

Why is the watchman culpable if he doesn't cry out?

Because the wicked are ignorant sometimes.

They need to be told that the actions that they are engaging in

will take them to a place that they don't want to be.

Some of them are ignorant.

Now, if they're told and they're no longer ignorant

and they still choose to do what's wrong, then that's not on us.

Right?

But if they're not told because Christians are plant-mouthed shut,

then we're culpable for their descent into dark places that eventually help.

It says they will die in their iniquity.

It's still their fault that they die.

Right?

But it's our fault that we didn't do what we could do to try to prevent it.

Even though you might not be able to prevent it.

Right?

You might not be able to do it.

So why am I going to touch it?

Because it's just going to get sloppy, messy.

It's going to be frustrating.

It may not work.

But it also might.

I've had people that came at me who were so angry and yelling at me

and by the time we were done, they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I've also had Christians who were claiming the name of Jesus come at me,

so angry at me, and by the time we were done, all they did was storm off and left.

And they didn't stop being angry.

Okay?

So the arrogance of the righteous and the ignorance of the wicked are something to be really, really careful of.

The arrogance and the wicked both have this,

that the person in question may refuse to do the right thing.

They may refuse to warn.

That would be sin.

They may refuse to tell the truth.

They may refuse to worship when it's uncomfortable, or soar when it's uncomfortable,

or give more because it affects them somehow or whatever.

But also, in their arrogance or their ignorance,

they both would be refusing, failing to warn those who might be saved.

So God's full purpose for us is that we would find our way to the place of choosing,

because a lot of people are ignorant.

They get there and are ignorant.

They just don't know that they have an option.

Then we would take the option that takes us to a road of righteousness,

follow the slide, and stay off the ladder that you don't belong on.

Just do the best you know how to do every single day,

and that includes warning people that there is a very dangerous outcome on the other road.

I don't think you can tell people what hell is like.

You can't.

They may kind of use some metaphorical language or whatever,

but the bottom line is it's bad.

It's very, very bad.

It's not a place to enter, but whoever actually wanted to go, if they could visit it,

they would never, ever want to go there again.

But they can't.

They have to choose the right thing to use that brings God,

because of who He is and because of what their relationship with Him is meant to be like.

Okay?

And then we follow.

How do we stay on that road once we get on there?

Do your best to follow the statutes they insure life.

They're a painting or a picture of the Messiah who would come of who Jesus is.

Okay?

Any questions?

I have a couple questions and some candy.

Anybody else got questions?

Yes, about what?

About the 13?

13, very good.

33, 15.

Statutes.

Statutes insure life.

I'm sorry, I was here.

Yeah.

So if you're on the bottom, it says statutes which insure life,

and then I go right up, turn up the right, it says statutes insure life.

Pretty good.

Everybody else get everything?

You get it?

Okay, here we go.

We're going to do a shot.

Very, very easy one to start with.

Raise your hand right now if you want the easy question of all.

That's all.

Okay, so Hailey, if I am the watchman, what am I supposed to do?

What do I do?

Sound the horn for me.

I'll get some.

She bailed out at the last second.

She's like, oh no, please hold them.

And she gets open.

You got to commit.

Okay.

I have one really cool silver chocolate left.

I'll put that in this one.

And one size.

We have four different kinds of candy, including two different kinds of chocolates.

Who wants the hardest question of all?

Hailey's waiting for that one too.

Okay, Jason, I'm going to get with you.

All right, here we go.

All right.

So the question is, I don't know, this is the hardest one I'm going to ask.

I don't know that it's that hard.

Okay.

We said that this story, the first part of the first six verses was an analogy, which

means it's a story that teaches a lesson.

Okay.

What was the lesson that it was teaching us?

What was the part?

This is, like, if you do different things in your life, it'll have different consequences.

Yeah, that's the start.

Different people doing different things, each person's going to have their own consequences.

That's how we end it.

That is the overall of the passage.

What does it say about a sword and a watchman in the verse that goes?

If the watchman sees the sword and pulls the trumpet and wants to say, then the blood

of the man that is taken falls on the man with the sword.

Okay, drop off the sword.

Drop off the sword falls on the man who did not and the sword pulls the trumpet.

The job is going to just snap it up.

Okay, here we go.

One last one.

I've got to buy some variety of candy for next time.

I'm going to have a good variety of candy.

What happened on the sword and the trumpet though?

And the next one is the front part, and the star verse.

Okay, good.

All right.

Okay, on this page, Natalie, are you ready?

Okay, all right.

I'll give you my best shot.

On this page, what does the pillow represent?

What do you think?

Sit.

Phone a friend.

Put salt in the audience.

Not feeling good.

You need to get the wall.

Okay, who's sleeping?

Yes.

Great.

All right, so we're going to be done at this time.

Thank you very much.

I hope you appreciate that.

You blessed my heart.

I almost became our son for Sunday, but I really blessed my heart.

And remember that ultimately, if you're truly born again, you're safe.

Right?

That's the key, be born again.

But if you're truly born again and you don't want to keep making those bad decisions, you're

trying to follow the highway fullness to one eternal station, right?

Which is prepared for you, Jesus Christ.

And so follow the statutes of the Lord.

Don't break the law of God.

And also, I would say be a loyal watchman and alert watchman.

And when I'm not saying walk on television what they're doing wrong, they don't even

need to know.

But you can tell people when people do something wrong, what the sad result of that is and

how to overcome that problem, which is Jesus Christ.

Okay, you with me, guys?

All right, perfect.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

We'll talk in the next period.

Father, thank you so much for this message from your prophet, Ezekiel.

It really is from you, because you told him what he had to do, what he had to say.

And I think that that means you'd better listen.

Because when God says it, they support it.

And you said, so we're listening, God, that we would be a watchman for our families, for

our friends, for people, and anybody who will listen, because you have to remember that

you're not elected by the people.

So if you go to a perfect stranger and they're doing something stupid, doing something sinful,

and they say, hey, you're a sin.

And the road that that hit, sin, it takes you down, is a road to hell.

You don't want to sin like that and go to hell.

And some of them that doesn't know us, that would be foolish.

But if these verses are about people who would listen to us, people who would look to us,

and if there's anybody like that in our lives, then we have a responsibility to chime in,

a responsibility to stand up, a responsibility to vote for Trumpet, and say that there is

a life, lived in Jesus, that is in a place, that we want to be, and it's due all the way

there.

We can stay off the ladder and not take it back down to the human place.

We can stay completely out of the dark place, completely out of the fire, completely out

of the path.

Lord, help us stand up and keep that word off our hands.

Amen.

Thank you very much.

Sweet's on the table.