Ezekiel

Ezekiel 24.

In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, the word of the lord came to me, son of man, record this date, this very date because the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. Tell this rebellious people are parable and say to them, This is what the sovereign lord says. Put on the cooking cooking pot, put it on, and pour water into it. Put into it the pieces of meat, all the choice pieces, the leg, and the shoulder. Fill it with the best of these bones, take the pick of the flock, pile wood beneath it for the bones, bring it to the boil, and cook the bones into in it.

For this is what the sovereign lord says. Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the part now encrusted, whose deposit will not go away, take the meat out piece by piece in whatever order it comes. For the blood she shed is in her midst, she poured it on the bare rock. She did not pour it on the ground where the dust would cover it. To stir up wrath and take revenge, I put her blood on the bare rock so that it would not be covered.

Therefore, this is what the sovereign lord says. Woe to the city of bloodshed. I too will pile the wood high So heat on the wood and kindle the fire, cook the meat well, mixing in the spices, and let the bones be charred. Then set the empty pot on the coals till it becomes hot and its copper glows. So that its impurities may be melted and its deposit burned away.

It has frustrated all efforts. Its heavy deposit has not been removed, not even by fire. Now your impurity is lewdness because I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be cleansed from your impurity. You would not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided. I, the lord, have spoken.

The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back. I will not have pity nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions. Declares the sovereign lord.

The word of the lord came to me, son of man. With 1 blow, I am about to take away from you, the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears, groan quietly. Do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet.

Do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening, my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded. Then the people asked me, won't you tell us what these things have to do with us? Why are you acting like this?

So I said to them, The word of the lord came to me, say to the people of Israel. This is what the sovereign lord says. I'm about to desecrate my sanctuary, the stronghold in which you take pride the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection, the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword, and you will do as I have done. You will not cover your mustache and beard. Or eat the customary food of mourners.

You will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but will waste away because of your sins and groan among yourselves. Izekiel will be assigned to you. You will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the sovereign lord.

And you son of man, on the day I take away their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes, their heart's desire, and their sons and daughters as well. On that day, a fugitive will come to tell you the news. At that time, your mouth will be opened. You will speak with him and will no longer be silent. So you will be assigned to them, and they will know that I am the lord.

Thanks, Safron, as ever, ezekiel is full on, as David is a full on chapter. That's the 1 we're we're looking at. Let me pray. Father, help us now. This is another strong passage, with all kinds of things in it, and, we need your help to help us to hear.

And to, do what we hear in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let me just start by by saying that, the the early Christian church, if you go right back to the first century, They had a number of symbols, that they used to sometimes, tell other Christians where they were meeting in secret. Sometimes it was just to express their belief some of them are gonna come up here now. Here's a picture of just a few of them. Some were on tombs, some were just bits of graffiti, where they were meeting and someone sort of scratched it in the wall or something some some are are are used in art.

And and here are some of them. You had the Exos fish. That stood for Jesus Christ, son of god, savior because of the spelling of the Greek word icthus. And there's lots of birds who may notice, quite quite a few. There's the pelican there.

And, that stood for for Christianity because the pelican in in diode, when it's trying to feed its, its chicks and it hasn't got enough food, it would pluck its own breast and and feed its own blood to to to its to its chicks. And so, you know, the blood of Christ gives us energy and food, and so forth. You've got the dove there. You've got a peacock that stood for resurrection, you know, when it puts up his it's, it's, tail, you know, resurrection. You've got the cross there.

That's a, an Orthodox cross, which is an interesting 1 because that that's, sort of up and down strip at the bottom of the cross is is where are you going? Are you going to heaven or hell? You've got the anchor. You've got, you, you know, you've got the, a to z, the alpha and the omega Jesus is the a to z of god. All of those symbols were used and and more, in in the in the early church.

And I think the reason for putting this, I think ezekiel would have been into symbols because I think when you read him, you see he uses all kinds of things, to express the truth of god. And right at the beginning of his ministry, he was told that his ministry is going to be bitter sweet. It's gonna be a bitter sweet ministry. He's got bitter things to say, but there are sweet truths as well. So I think this would be, a picture, a symbol that you would put if you, you know, if you wanted a symbol for ezekiel is a lemon and an orange.

You know, it's bittersweet. Some something like that. Now, 1 of the symbols I think that sums up Christianity best wasn't used in ancient times, but I think we could use it today is the tick. When I mean tick, I mean this. I don't mean like a a fur tick or something like that.

I mean a tick. Like that. So it's it's the tick. And and I think it sums up Christianity because you go down. It's always going down into the valley of the tick.

Into death and then rise again. So it's it's death and resurrection. And I think that really sums up, the Christian teaching. So for instance, let's go to the next slide to become a Christian You repent. You turn away.

You go down from self and you rise to faith. Or, you know, Jesus talks about dying to self going down into the into the valley of the tick, if you like, into the v of the tick. And then live for Christ. So I I love I love this symbol. Move on to the next things.

Jesus talks about a seed. You plant it. It goes into the soil. And of course, the seed dies The seed no longer exists because it turns into a a new plant. So it's like a tick or the symbol of baptism that you get.

We we put people and you go under under the water. The way we do baptism is the way the Bible desert. You go under the water. You sort of die in in in in the water and then you rise up again. The tick.

I think it's I think it's a great picture of of Christianity. Just 1 more because I wanna rub this in. You've got the cross. Jesus goes to the cross dies, but then he rises again on the third day. And you've got that fantastic sentence.

In Hebrews that talks about, about Jesus, that, that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. So he endures the cross down for the joy set before him where he can present people to to to god the father. So I wanna I wanna push the tick. Yeah. Now I know Nike or nike, how do you say it these days?

Is it Nike or Nike? Who who's got any Nike or Nike stuff on them? Hands up, Yep. Where is that? It's on your shoe, and you've got the tick.

Yeah. They call it the whoosh, the Nike tick. Now Nike was was was was a Greek goddess, but the word Nike is used 17 times in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. And it means overcome. It means conquer.

So you go down and you rise and you conquer. Every time you see a Nike, tick, you should say Christian or Christianity or, you know, shout it. Don't let them Nick it. We had it before for that firm. Now, why am I telling you all of this stuff?

Am I just filling in time? Because I think it really sums up this chapter, and I'm gonna try and show you again and again and again. So bear with me. So Ezeekiel, is a messenger of hope, but in hopelessness. The way he preaches is to bring people right down into hopelessness.

And when they're hopeless, He shows them hope. That's the way Ziegel preaches. So he's been saying this, god, none other than god is against you. He's been telling the people. God is against you.

Now if god is against you, if god is against you, it doesn't matter who is for you, does it? It really doesn't matter. If god is against you, whoever's for you is irrelevant, god is against you. So it's hopeless. But if god is against you and it's hopeless, the only possible hope is in god.

Does that make sense? If god is against you, you're in a hopeless position. The only possibility that there's hope is that god might relent somehow, that god might be merciful. So your hope is in the hopelessness. Does that make sense?

And I think that's what's going on. And what we've got here is just to give you a for taste of what's coming, is that that these people in Ezekiel's Day are putting their hope in the temple, and it's not until the old temple is destroyed that a new 1 can be built. So where it's hopeless and the temple's destroyed, then a new building. So here's the tick again. The old temple smashed up.

It's gotta be destroyed. And at that point, We can talk about making a new temple. Okay. You got it? The tick.

Do you want me to do any more ticks though? Okay. So the tick Christian thing. Yeah. Yeah.

90. The tick overcomer. Yep. Okay. Here's my first point then.

The judgment of god, and it's serious. The you can take that off. The judgment of god on all and everything that is precious. The judgment of god on all the things that we're proud of. So look at chapter 24 verse 20 and 21.

So I said to them, this is ezekiel speaking, the word of the lord came to me, say to the people of Israel, This is what the sovereign lord says. I am about to desecrate my sanctuary, that's the temple, the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. The sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword. It's an utter devastation. The delight of your eyes, the things you're proud of, the objects of your heart, the objects of your affections, even your sons and daughters, death and destruction.

You see, we're down. We're down into the valley of the tick. Yeah. It's hopeless. God is going to do this.

Right? Now what's happening historically? What's happening historically is that the king of Babylon, nebuchadnezzar, who's already taken a whole load of people into exile into Babylon, which is equal is 1 of them. He's now going to be begin a military, campaign against Jerusalem again because the people that were left have rebelled against him. They've broken his covenant and they've rebelled against him.

So he's beginning this military siege on Jerusalem. It takes about 18 months, but he's sending his army down there And ezekiel and his fellow exiles in Babylon, they've just heard the news. The siege has begun. The siege has begun. Now for years, ezekiel had been prophesying, I think, for about 4 or 5 years, saying this is what's gonna happen, and no 1 believed him, and now it's begun.

The capital is under attack. And then god tells you, he'll spell this out. Tell the people in exile that are hoping that their treasure, the delight of their eye, Jerusalem, and, the temple will survive this attack, tell them they won't. And he says, I want you to tell them a parable. Look at verses 1 and 2 of chapter 24.

In it's very precise, isn't it? In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, the word of the lord came to me, son of man record this date, this very date because the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. Tell these rebellious people are parable and say to them this is what the sovereign lord says. They used to tell them a parable. And the parable is about a cooking pot, and it's quite simple.

It's a cooking pot. But when you read it at first, it it's sounds I mean, it struck me that it was like a child's nursery rhyme. You know, Hickory, Dickory doc, the mouse ran up the clock. And it's sort of quite a nice little thing. Look, I mean, look at it.

Put on the cooking pot versus, 3 to 5. Put on the cooking pot. Put it on. You know, it's like it's like a a nursery rhyme or or something to help the children remember the recipe. And and and it's done as a song.

It's not just a a parable, but it's a parable like a song. And you can see if you look down at the bible that it's written like a poem, like a song. Kickory, Dickory, put on the booking pot. Put it on and pour the water in it. Put into it the pieces of meat, all choice pieces, the leg and the shoulder.

Fill it with the best of these bones. Take a pick from the flock. Take the pick from the flock. So there's this sort of child's nursery rhyme, and you can get people gathering around, but then it's suddenly, you know, it it it it goes from PG, you know, to full on, you know, this is an 18. Because for her sick suddenly changes, and there's bloodshed and judgment and boiling, and it's it's amazing.

Now, Ezekeel in his ministry had met the religious leaders of Jerusalem chapter in chapter 11, and they were boasting that they're safe in a cooking pot When we read it, we all felt this was like weird. And I think we all felt like that's a dangerous illustration, and it was. They were saying that we are like choice bits of meat in a cooking pot, a metal pot. And so we're safe in the pot, and it's a bit like the, the the walls of Jerusalem are like the the you know, iron pot or the brass pot that surround us and so we're safe. That was their illustration.

Look at us. We have this strong round pot around us no 1 will be able to break in. That was their illustration. So now, Ezekiel takes that up and says, the outcome is very different in this cooking pot illustration. Let's start with a nursery rhyme, but the water in the pot.

Now suddenly, who is the pot? Yeah. You're the pot. The leaders of the meat. God is now the chef, and he's preparing his ingredients.

And he's gonna use Babylon as a knife to cut you up. The people are not living as god wants. They've desecrated everything by their sin and their bloodshed and their evil and their idolatry. These are pretty wicked people, and all their impurities as the meat is boiled comes to the surface and in crusts around the side of the cooking pot, like scum. You know that, don't you?

If you leave something boiling enough, the scum but it's in crusty. Look at verse 6. Woe to the city of bloodshed to the pot now encrusted whose deposit will not go away. You can't you can't even clean it up. You know, the pot cleaners can't even clean it.

Carl, my son is a chef, and and in in training to be a chef, he had to be a pot cleaner. And, he was always, he's brilliant at it. Pot cleaning. He loves it, actually. He's really good.

Is he here? Where is Carl? Yeah. He's a pot cleaner. You it's 1 of the best things I've ever seen Carl do.

Yeah. He's a pot cleaner. You want your pot clean. You go to Carl. He's a cleaner.

Whoa. You couldn't clean this. You fail. My son, you fail. There's too much scum that's encrusted all around.

Yeah? And then the parable goes on. So god starts taking this putrid stinking meat out piece by piece and chucking it on the floor and pouring out this bloody soup as the blood and the encrusted stuff comes together. And then it gets worse because he he can only think of trying to purify it by just burning the whole up stuff up. So put more wood on the on the fire as we read, put more stuff on, burn it, and even burn the pot itself.

But even then you can't get rid of all the impurities. It's so filthy. What these people have been up to the way they've lived their lives. So the message of the cooking pot is unmistakable. Look at verse 13 and 14.

Now your impurity is lewdness. It's a funny expression that because it it really means ****** filth. If you think back to chapter 16, and chapter 23, remember though, remember those chapters? Because I tried so it even has god trying to cleanse them, but didn't seem to be able to succeed. They're so filthy.

Because I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be clean from your impurities. You clung on to them. You will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided. That's hopeless. I'm pouring out my wrath against you.

And then look at verse 14, I, the lord have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back. I will not have pity nor will I relent? You have been judged according to your conduct and your actions declares the sovereign lord.

There's no hope. The sovereign lord has seen it all, and he's coming with judgment. That's a picture, isn't it? Now that's the parable. That's the song.

The reality has begun. Chapter 24 1 and 2, look, in the ninth year of the tenth month of the tenth day, the word of the lord, what? Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem. It will take 18 months. So you're still hanging on to hope in those 18 months, but no, you there is no hope.

The situation is hopeless. The sovereign lord is against you. The sovereign lord is using Babylon and Egypt has not even come to your help that you thought they would. The situation is hopeless. We're down in the pit of the tick.

Got it? But it's a tick. Did you notice that line? It's an extraordinary little line in verse 13 at the end of 13. I think it is.

You will not be clean again See that word. What's that word? What's the next word? Until? Is there hope there?

Is there hope in the until? You will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided. Is it possible for god's wrath to subside? Is there hope there? We've been brought to a hopeless position, but maybe, right at the bottom, there's an until.

Maybe the sin can be paid for. Maybe the crime can be dealt with. Maybe god's wrath can be so dealt with it will subside. In the hopelessness, there seems to be a little hope. So let's go now on a little journey from ezekiel's day.

We're gonna move 580 years or so further into the future from ezekiel's day. 580 years, and we're now in the book of Matthew. We're Matthew's Gospel. We're in the new testament. And guess what?

Jesus is coming into a rebuilt Jerusalem. And a rebuilt temple rebuilt from ezekiel's day, and Jesus is coming in 580 years later. And here he is, and he's riding on a young young donkey, and we've got what often people call the holy week now. All of what I'm gonna tell you is done in a week. So he's riding in on a young donkey, and he's coming into Jerusalem, and the crowds are out to greet him, and they're singing praise to god because their hope is in a savior, hosanna, which means save, hosanna, to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord.

It's the triumphal entry. You know? We know this. Don't we? It's palm Sunday or whatever it is.

Yeah? Now Israel, in Jesus Day, were very similar situation to Israel in Ezekiel's day. They were taken over by the Romans. They're enslaved to the Romans. And so the hope is that Jesus, son of David, remembered David was the great king Jesus son of David, Hosanna son of David, savior son of David will come and restore the pride of Jerusalem and the temple and will come and the delight of their eyes will be back to the delight of their eyes and get rid of the horrible Romans.

Yeah? That's what's going on. And Jesus is coming to town, and they're saying, hope. There's hope that that the temple will be restored that Jerusalem will we have our pride back. But like in ezekiel's day, when the lord comes to the temple, he sees stuff he didn't wanna see.

Remember chapter 8 of ezekiel? When the lord came to the temple and showed ezekiel chapter 8 the filth and the maggots and the worms that were hidden away and the false religion and the idolatry and the scheming and the murderous ways the religious leaders who are were up to. Jesus comes into the temple, and it says this. In Matthew, 21. Jesus entered the temple courts, and drove out all who were buying and selling there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers. And the benches of those selling doves. He comes to the temple and he tries to clean it. It's as ungodly as it was in ezekiel's day, and he smashes it up. And then he says it is written.

My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. I come to the temple. The son of David comes into the temple. And what does he see? Robbers?

It's a den of robbers. Robbers go out at night, commit bloodshed, and and and bring their loot and they're booty back with bloody hands and come and hide in the temple. That's what he's saying. There's blood and murder and a disgrace that's going on in this place that's supposed to be a house of prayer, and you're making it a den of robbers. And so he smashes his up.

Now he's quoting a sermon from Jeremiah. And Jeremiah is preaching at the same time as ezekiel. And the sermon, ezeek Jeremiah's preaching is against the people of ezeekhul's Day that have a filthy temple full of robbers, and god will come and destroy it. So we have the lesson being repeated in Jesus' time. So, Sunday, first day of the week, Jesus comes to town.

On the Tuesday of the same week in Matthew 23, Jesus looks at the city. He looks at the city and he says, oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem. You who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing. He looks at Jerusalem and his heart is broken.

Along to bring you to myself, but you were not willing. You loved your impurities. You loved your den of robbers. And then he says this. Look.

Your house, that's the temple. Is left to you deadshot, and he leaves the temple. Exactly what happens in ezekiel. Chapter 10. The lord leaves the temple.

He leaves it desolate. He leaves it to their sin. He leaves it to their impurities. And as Jesus is walking away, His disciples say to him, look, Jesus, look at the temple. Isn't it beautiful, the delight of their eyes?

And Jesus says, do you see these things? Truly, I tell you, not 1 stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. That temple is gonna be destroyed. And a few years later, the Romans just devastated it, and there's nothing left of that temple.

There's only a bit of herod's wall, which had nothing to do with the temple, what we call a wailing wall or the western wall where people go and think they can get near to god, but they can't. It's a brick. That all happened in holy week. The temple now will be destroyed. Says Jesus, same stuff.

Then, an absolute devastation. On the Friday of that week. They took Jesus, and the robbers that had their den in the temple persuaded the crowd. That thought he was the son of David. They twisted it and said we don't want him now as our king.

Kill him. Crucify him. Crucify the hosanna. Crucify the savior, kill him, destroy him. That's how low they had gone.

That's how murderous the den of robbers are. That's the bloodshed in the boiling pot. Jesus on the cross cried out in a loud voice. He gave up his spirit. As he died, we're told in Matthew 27 at that moment, the curtain, which is like a massive carpet the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks split, and the tombs broke open.

God himself ripped the curtain. As Jesus died, the temple now is obsolete. Your destruction, your evil, your murderous ways. I'm smashing the temple up, and few years later, the Romans, as I say, came to smash the thing up, and there's nothing left of it. It's the end.

It's obsolete. The temple's gone. So back to the tick. Are you with me, everyone? You can't get more hopeless than this, can you?

The only 1 that can save them the Hussein they've just killed. I mean, this is really low in the tick, isn't it? They're in the valley here. The savior they've killed. The curtain is ripped in 2.

The temple is about to be smashed up and thrown. There'll be no stone or the o the only is the outward wall, which is herod's wall. A little bit of that's left. It's only a thousand feet of it. We're at the bottom of the tick.

And yet, Jesus said talking about his own body as a temple. He said, if you kill this temple 3 days later, it'll rise. Suddenly, at the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, through the rubble and all of the, you know, the the the the dust that comes up as the dust is settling at the destruction of the temple, you suddenly see Jesus. Risen again. God brings his judgment on Jesus, and that's where the wrath subsides.

That's my first point. I'm gonna move on quickly to my second. I'd love to spend more time on this 1, but quickly because I want you to see these go together. Secondly, the feeling of desolation, the feeling of desolation, Now back in chapters, 2 and 3, if I already said, ezekiel's Ministry was described as bitter sweet. And, there's a tick in itself, bitter than sweet.

Now ezekiel is not to be some callous person when it comes to the cooking pot. Illustrations. So we're back with ezekiel now, and, he's not to sort of say, told you so. There's no joy in preaching judgment. And there there are preachers that need to learn this.

There's nothing joyful about this. It's awful. In fact, we saw it last week in chapter 18 that that god doesn't take no pleasure in the death of anyone. He's not uh-huh. I told you so.

Now he did tell them so, and they need to know that he told them so but he's not gloating in it. But look how bitter his bitter is got to become for ezekiel. And that is you see the death of his wife. His wife dies. You get it in in verse 15 and 16, and and you see it in in verse 18, where, in the evening, his wife died.

His wife died. And his wife is called the delight of your eyes in verse 16. God is gonna take away the delight of his eyes. The word of the lord came to me, son of man, With 1 blow, I'm gonna take away from you the delight of your eyes, yet do not lament or weep or shed a tear. His wife is taken away.

Now we didn't know yet a wife until now. But she was the delight of his eye, not the temple, because he'd seen how maggoty it was. She was a woman that he could come back to after everyone had mocked him and laughed at him and called in a nut. Who would love him. They shared pain together.

It was in the light of his eye. And now she's gonna be taken away. Her commitment to him must have been massive. But don't mourn. God says.

I spent a week thinking about that because 1 of the things preachers need to do is to get a feel of the passage. I imagine if god said, take takes Ann away, and I'm not to mourn. Only inwardly. Imagine the the the brokenness and the burden and the emotional weight he had to carry, pretending all is well, and smiling at people that are actually rebellious against him, because that's what happened. He had to teach them.

Now why is this god asking to do that as an object lesson? Imagine that. An object lesson to them because god is taking the delight of their eye away. And they're gonna learn that they won't be able to mourn because something of what's going on is so horrible, so horrific, so desolate that they'll be walking around like zombies. That their impurities have brought the wrath of god upon them that they won't be able to mourn even the delight of their eyes.

They're gonna be walking around like that. Look at verse 23. You will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but will waste away because of your sins and groan among yourselves. So EZekil is a picture of how they're going to feel at the utter devastation that the delight of their eyes are taken away.

They're just like zombies. How do you mourn? I don't know if so much has happened to me. How do you mourn? It's like watching some people in Gaza where they've just lost.

I remember seeing seeing a a doctor who'd lost he lost his son. He'd lost his daughter, and someone came in as he was trying to do surgery on someone else, and they've lost his other son. And you did you can't cry. Can you you can't cry? You can't mourn.

You're just blasted. You're there. You're what? Someone says something to you and you're distant. And you But I think there's another effect here in his suffering.

And that is, look at verse 21. This is what the lord The sovereign lord says, I am about to desecrate my sanctuary. Century means holy place. So there's something, even in god's judgment, that is painful to god. You see that?

He's desecrating his holy place. Now where's the holy place of god? Go back to the new testament. The lord Jesus Christ. And there's the sun on the cross, and all of the filth and the murderous ways and the sins of the world are being put upon Jesus.

And all of the scum of the pot is dropped on Jesus. And the fire from heaven that's gonna burn the pot up is on the lord Jesus Christ. And the father is looking. And having to judge his own son for the sins and rebellions of others. They can't mourn.

He has to send his wrath. Think there's something of that going on. I think there's something of that going on. But remember the tick. At the moment of death, and the moment of mourning.

Remember that sentence for the joy set before him. He endured the cross, endured the cross. For the joy set before him. In historical terms, the delight of your eye, the old temple needs to be flattened before there's a new temple built. With ezekiel, the bitter taste of his wife dying meant that god could say your mouth now is opened for you to speak good news.

For he's now going to speak good news to the people of god. There's some judgments of the nations that we're gonna spend some time on. But now his mouth is open to speak good news through the death of his wife. He's liberated to have his mouth open. We're told.

Now let me wrap all this up then. The tick. I want you to remember that. Here's my third point. The clean start.

Clean start. Steve Jobs, remember him, mister Apple, remember him? He cynically said this. Death is very likely the single best invention of life. Right?

That's what he said. He said this before he was dying, by the way. When he was dying, he was panicking. But, and, nevertheless, death is the very is is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent.

It clears out the old and makes way for the new. Now without god, that's a horrific sentence. But this with god is brilliant. Death would clear out the old to bring in the resurrection new. Jesus says very, very clearly, you cannot add new to old.

He gives illustrations of that. You can't put new wine in old wineskins. You can't add new to old. You have to get rid of the old, and then the new can come. And that happens in the Christian life.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has come gone. The old is gone, the new has come. That's the Christian life. Isn't that glorious?

God can do this. In death, there's hope. It happens with this world. In the book of Revelation, chapters 18 and 19, you see the whole world, all the kingdoms of god. They call Babylon, actually, but all the kingdoms have got of the world.

All the kingdoms with all their riches and all the kings with all their beauty and riches are being judged. All the kingdoms are on fire. They're under the wrath of god. But there's a hallelujah going on. It's the only time hallelujah is used in the new testament.

Hallelujah, which means praise god. There are people praising god when they see the destruction and the evil and the bloodshed and the abuse. Look at the world. In order for us to have our mobile phones, you have 4 to 6 year old kids in a mine in Congo. Digging up stuff so that we can have our mobile phones.

We're in a world which is so full of abuse and violence and war and bloodshed. That there's a hallelujah when the world is judged, not mourning, but a hallelujah. Because then when god gets rid of all of the impurities, then a new world can begin. Then the new world can begin. It's breathtaking.

It's hallelujah making when the world is gone and the impurities are dead. We can begin again with the resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing, and it will happen when a Christian dies. Won't it? We don't mourn like the pagans.

We don't pull out our beards. Paul says in 1 thessalonians brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death. Christians go to sleep. They don't die. So do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.

We have hope when a brother or sister leaves us, We grieve inwardly, but not like that's the end. No. No. No. For them, it's the beginning.

In death, there's hope. Because of the lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, Get the tick. Get the tick. The wrath of god is coming, but Christ has taken that wrath. And if we're in Christ, we'll rise again.

And that is the Christian message. And therefore, there is hope in hopelessness. Let's bow our heads and pray. Bather, we thank you for the things we've seen together in your word. We thank you for this hopeful story that we do belong to.

The story of the lord Jesus Christ who went down into the grave through suffering, through death, through sin bearing into darkness down into the ground. And yet on the third day, you raised him up from the dead in glory, and he has ascended into heaven. And now his story is 1 of ever increasing joy and upness and gathering a people to himself, and we praise you for that. Thank you for ezekiel and how he preached that message and how he himself had to live inside that message, dying in grief to rising glory. And we thank you that, this story we've been reflecting on will be all of ours.

And so we pray that you would help us to remember the tick and to keep this perspective, that when we go through the valley of the shadow of death into the ground through suffering, we would look to the light of resurrection and the hope to come and that that would be sustaining and life giving for us. We pray that the way in which we approach difficult times would be a witness to this world. We know that no no person can avoid going through death and grief, but only a Christian can grieve with hope because of Christ. And we pray that the way in which we do that, would be interesting to the world and would would cause them to come and turn and trust. In the savior we pray in Jesus' name, amen.