God's call to service is powerfully illustrated through the experience of Ezekiel, a priest's son who, at thirty years old and in exile in Babylon, receives a profound vision of God's glory. Despite his training for temple service in Jerusalem, Ezekiel is called to minister to the exiles, learning that God's presence and power are not localized but mobile, able to work through His people wherever they are. The vision of the throne chariot emphasizes God's sovereignty and ability to move in any direction, a truth Ezekiel must internalize and live out. This call requires obedience, courage in the face of rejection, and a willingness to deliver God's message, even when it is difficult, ultimately leading to a transformed understanding of God's work and a commitment to serve where one is placed.
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And may I just put in a commercial for a moment? Commercials allowed? Well, whether they are or not, here we go. I'd like to invite you to, if any of you can, the week of November third through the seventh. This is a Monday through Friday at the Graham Bible Fellowship for having our brother George Gardiner again for a week of meeting. We had him about two years ago on the Charismatic Movement. He's the one who wrote the book, The Corinthian Catastrophe. He's pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, and that's the church that was founded by the late Dr. M.R.D. Hahn. And we're having him on a family life conference.
And the evening services are going to the subjects are on Monday night the blueprint, Tuesday night the bricks, Wednesday night the mortar. Thursday night, the substitute, and Friday night, the bug. And then we're going to have three morning sessions, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And in the morning, on Tuesday, he's going to take up the subject the way he should go. Wednesday morning, he's taking up the subject, dealing with that bent. And then Thursday morning, his subject is star grace. So there you go. If you can remember the dates, the first week of November, Monday through Friday.
Our brother George Gardner, and we're looking forward to this time of real blessing. Now I invite you to turn with me to the prophecy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter one tonight. Ezekiel one. We're dealing with God's call to service. We all know that it is God who calls men to the harvest field. It is God who calls us to Christian service. If you asked the average person today who's out in the Lord's work, how did God call you? It would be quite interesting. And you asked the man, how do you know that you were called of God to Christian service?
You would get some more interesting answers. I'll guarantee you. So we're going to deal with this subject tonight by the grace of God from this portion in Ezekiel. Verse one. Now I came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Kibar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzai, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Kibar, and the hand of the Lord was upon him. And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north.
A great cloud and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was about it. And out of the midst thereof is the color of amber, and out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance. They had the likeness of a man, and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. and their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the collar of burnished grass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another.
They turned not when they went, they went everyone straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, They four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side. And they four had the face of an ox on the left side. They four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces, and their wings were stretched upward. Two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went, every one straight forward. Whether the spirit was to go, they went. and they turned not when they went. As for the lightness of the living creature, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps, it went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
And the living creatures ran and returned, as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth, by the living creatures with these four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like the color of a burl. And they, for, had one likeness. And their appearance and their work was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides, and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful. And their rings were full of eyes upon... round about them four.
And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them. And when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. With us whoever the spirit was to go, they went. There was their spirit to go. And the wheels were lifted up over against them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheel. When these went, when those went, these went. And when those stood, these stood. And when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheel. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as a color of a terrible crystal stretched forth over their heads above.
And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other. Everyone had two which covered on this side, and everyone had two. which covered on that side their body. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as a voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as a noise of an host. And when they stood, they let down their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood, and they let down their wings. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne. as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the lightness of the throne was a lightness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
And I saw as a color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his horns even upward, and from the appearance of his horns even downward, I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about, as the appearance of the bow. that is in the cloud in the day of rain. So was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the lightness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face and I heard the voice of one that spake. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his words.
One of the greatest blessings in my Christian life has been the reading of good biography. Because when I read biographies of men of God like Jay Hudson Taylor or Jim Elliott's biography Through Gates of Splendor and others, I get direction for my own life and how to make decisions in the presence of the Lord. And so it is when we come to the first chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was from an old priestly family. He was a man who could trace his ancestry all the way back to Aaron, the brother of Moses.
Aaron was Israel's high priest. From generation to generation, father to son, the members of Ezekiel's family, had ministered to God in the temple in Jerusalem as a priest. From earliest childhood, Ezekiel was trained for the ministry of the priesthood in the temple. This was Ezekiel's training. But in the twenty-fifth year of his life, when Ezekiel was twenty-five years old, he was uprooted, and he was taken with a company of captives to Babylon, and he was placed with these other captives as a hostage in the midst of a wicked and cruel and pagan culture in Babylon.
Five years passed in that situation. For you'll notice in verse one of chapter one, we read, it was the thirtieth year. What thirtieth year? As Hengstenberg and others would tell you, it was the thirtieth year of Ezekiel's life. Ezekiel was now thirty years old. He was a captive now five years. And you'll notice that it was the end of verse two. It was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity. Five years he's been a captive. Now you just think about that for a moment. Here's a young man who could trace his ancestry back to Aaron.
Here's a young man who was trained for the priesthood to offer in the beautiful temple the sacrifices to God and to approach God on behalf of his people. Uprooted as a young boy of twenty-five and now five years in Babylon and he could say to himself it was becoming very clear to him that he wasn't going to be a priest. Now from the Old Testament scriptures, you learn that a priest began his ministry in the priesthood at thirty years of age.
Ezekiel is now thirty years of age. I often wonder when I sit and read this first chapter of Ezekiel, what his thoughts were. What kind of a frame of mind was he in when the heavens were open to him and he saw visions of God and God revealed himself to him in preparation for his life's work? It isn't always easy to decide on one's life's work, especially when you've been trained for twenty-five years for something and then to be uprooted.
and to be uprooted and taken to a pagan culture. It wasn't easy for Ezekiel. So let us consider first of all the place of the vision. For the scripture says he saw a river or visions of God. Now the place of the vision was by the river Kivar and a place called Telapib. Now the river Kivar is what you people here would call a branch. It was a branch that fed into the Euphrates River, and it was to the south of Babylon. Now what Ezekiel was doing among the captives at Tel Abib by the river Tiber, we don't know.
We're only told what he saw. Now Ezekiel, along with the other captives there at Tel Abib, they had quite a bit of freedom. They had quite a bit of freedom that was afforded them by the Babylonians. Nevertheless, he was a captive. Now what was going through his mind, hundreds of miles away from the temple in Jerusalem, were not so old. But he had bleak prospects you can be assured of in the thirtieth year of his life. Am I going to spend the remainder of my days here? So we have the place of the vision.
And remember, these weren't the easiest people to get along with these captives. And we'll notice a little more about that later. Now here's Ezekiel with these captives by the river Kibar. And we have the contents of the vision. When Ezekiel looked, he saw a storm coming out of the north and bearing down upon him. It was a whirlwind. It was a mighty storm. And it got his attention. It got his attention like a burning bush, got the attention of Moses on the backside of the desert. And the storm began to bear down on Ezekiel.
Now Ezekiel lived with these other captives and they were full of complaints and bitterness. They were continuously griping and murmuring and complaining. And I can just imagine Ezekiel. He's there by the river and he sees a storm coming and he says, this is just what I need. I'm going to get soaked to the skin. This is all that I need. You see, Ezekiel was just like you and just like me. We don't like to get caught in a storm without an umbrella and without a raincoat. But the more Ezekiel looked at that storm cloud as it came, the more he realized this was an unusual storm cloud.
There's something unusual about it. The ink in blackness, the unnatural fiery glow, the frequent flashes of lightning and fire. It was an awesome spectacle. Indeed, what appeared, however, to Ezekiel to be a storm cloud was the framework which revealed the glory of the God of heaven. And isn't that how often it is to us? Those bitter experiences in life The storms of life, the things that we would run away from if we could, only reveal the grace and the glory of the God of our salvation, the God of heaven.
In fact, what appeared to Ezekiel to be a storm cloud was in fact the throne chariot of the Lord Jehovah of Hope, manned by the chair of him. What a vision. God gives him a vision of himself. Now those four living creatures, and their remarkable and intricate complex network of wheels within wheels and eyes on the rims of the wheels, it comprised and constituted the chariot which bore upon an affirmament, upon which the throne sat of the Lord of Glory, and it's described here in Ezekiel One.
We're not going to take up all the symbolism of the first chapter of Ezekiel tonight. We're not going to do that because you all want to get home sometime tonight. We're not going to take up that. But what would have impressed Ezekiel about this storm cloud which turned out to be the throne chariot of the Lord above anything else was its mobility. And to me, that's the thrust of chapter one. The mobility of the throne chariot of the Lord. The wheels within wheels, intersecting, bisecting, dissecting one another.
This is mobility. That's what it is. You see, this chariot abhor the Shekinah glory of the Lord. to Ezekiel and to Ezekiel by the river Kibar, to Ezekiel by the river Kibar in the midst of a pagan culture in Babylon. It was there that the glory of the Lord was revealed to Ezekiel. And what Ezekiel must have been amazed at as he beheld The throne chariot of the Lord was its ability to move backwards, to move forward, to move sideways, upward, downward, without ever having to position itself.
It went zoom, zoom, zoom, any way it wanted to go. The throne chariot of the Lord. This must have been breathtaking to Ezekiel. It would be to me, and I'm sure it would be to you, And if Walter Cronkite saw it, he wouldn't have enough time in a half an hour to describe it. It was great. But this meant something to Ezekiel. For Ezekiel was a priest. And to the priesthood in Israel, the Shekinah glory of God was at one place. It was in Jerusalem. It was in Jerusalem.
Where did Isaiah see the glory of the Lord? He saw it in the temple. For we read in Isaiah chapter six, in the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord high and lifted up and each train filled the temple. The temple. The glory of God was revealed in the temple. Poor old Jonah, when he was flushing around in the gastric juices of the great fish. He said, it's dark in here and I didn't bring a compass. Which way is Jerusalem? He cried out, I will look toward thy holy temple. Salvation is of the Lord. That great truth, even the fish couldn't stomach and spit him out.
The truth of salvation was of the Lord. Spurgeon said, may I quote Spurgeon? You don't mind if I quote Spurgeon. Spurgeon said, Jonah learned that great truth in a strange seminary. Salvation is of the Lord. I will look toward thy holy temple. And that's what he looked toward and God undertook. Remember Daniel in Daniel chapter six? He prayed with the windows open toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where the glory of God was revealed. But not to a young man.
The time he should enter into his life's work. He had been thrust miles away to a young man in all probability downhearted, disillusioned, frustrated with the thought of never serving God in Jerusalem. He beholds the very throne chariot of the Lord himself. What's God trying to show Ezekiel? He's trying to teach Ezekiel a lesson that in our service for God, God wants to use us where we are.
Where are you? Where are you day by day? Oh, did you ever hear anybody say, if I only had then? No, it isn't if I only had God wants to use us where we are. where we are, not where we wish we would be. It's where we are that God wants to use us, where God has put us in the strategy of His sovereign will. Remember Jacob? The first night that he was away from home, he had a stone for a soft pillow, you remember? And he went to sleep, and he saw a vision of the ladder.
He heard the voice. He arose and he claimed the place Bethel. He said, surely God is in this place. He never knew that before. He thought that the place of God was back with Mama in the tent. But that's not where God was. God was here. Right where he was. Right where he was. God wants to use us where we are. Not where we wish we would be. You see, this message to Ezekiel was that the presence and the power of God is not localized. For the chariot of God is mounted on wheels. It can be everywhere God wants it to be at any time, even in that dark corner, my friend, where you may feel you are today.
The glory of God can be there. If you come to the end of chapter one, what happened to Ezekiel? The vision left Ezekiel flat on his face. That brings us to the results of the vision. The results of the vision. You see, verse one of chapter two, And he said unto me, Son of man, Stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. The Lord doesn't leave us on our faces. There is a time to be prostrate before God. There's a time for that. And there are those who believe that groveling is the equivalent of holiness.
That the more you rub your nose in the dirt, the holier you are. And that leads to a self-centered narcissism that's exceedingly dreadful. And we can become very self-centered, thinking that the only place that we can be holy is groveling before God. Remember, Joshua did that. after the defeat at Ai, and God said to him, Joshua, get off your knees, get off your face. To Ezekiel, God says, Ezekiel, I have a message for you, but you can't have it until you stand up. That's what he's telling him here.
He says, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee. As long as you're grobbling, you won't hear my voice. You're too interested in yourself. Stand on your feet, and I'll give you a message. I'll call you to service. And isn't it wonderful in verse two? And the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me and set me upon my feet. That's the way it goes, you see. That's the way it goes. The Spirit entered when he spake. Where can I get the power and the strength to stand? I don't have it. But the power is in the Word. The Word of God is living in powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
And in verse two of chapter two he says, I heard. In verse three, and he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this day. Ezekiel, I'm going to call you to the sphere in which I want you to invest your life within my sovereign purpose. Ezekiel, I'm calling you. I can just imagine Ezekiel when he heard this.
He says, oh, I'm going back to Jerusalem. I'm going to be a priest. I can just imagine him thinking that. That's where I'm going. God could say to Ezekiel in this moment, Ezekiel for five years, you've been waiting, for five years you have been wondering what your life's work is going to be. Ezekiel, these exiles need you. You're elected. I want you to be my spokesman. I want you to be my watchman on the wall.
Ezekiel, year to go. Verse four. He says, For there are an impotent, they are impotent children and stiff-hearted. I do not send thee unto them. I do not send thee unto them, for thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. Isn't that wonderful what he said to him? This is what you have to say to these people. Thus saith the Lord. You don't have to be a creative individual. You know, we hear so much about being a creative person today. God doesn't need creative people.
He needs people who are going to be good messenger boys and say, Thus saith the Lord. Ezekiel, you don't have to be creative. Ezekiel, you don't have to manufacture the message. Ezekiel, I got the message. I'm going to give it to you, and you speak the message. Now you deliver that message, Ezekiel, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for there are a rebellious house. And then in verse six, he says to him, And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them. Neither be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee.
And thou dost dwell among scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. What language? Ezekiel, their word, though thorns and briars. You know, when we were kids, we used to have a little statement. Six and stones can break my bones, but words can never harm me. That sounds cute, but you know what? It isn't true. I've been hurt more by words than by six and stone. And so have you. And if you haven't been, cheer up. It's coming. Cheer up.
It's coming. Because if you're going to live godly in Christ, you're going to know something about it. He says their words are going to be like thorns and briars. Ezekiel, this rebellious house, where I'm going to put you, they're going to let you have it. If you deliver us, says the Lord, you're going to know a little bit of tearing into once in a while. Ezekiel, I'm calling you. Now don't be afraid of their looks. Boy, if looks could kill, you'd die a thousand deaths because they're going to look at you as hard as possible. You die a thousand deaths. But then he says something to Ezekiel in verse eight.
He says in verse eight, But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee. Be not thou rebellious. As God called you, my friend. You see, just because other people act that way doesn't mean you, man. And just because this person is rebellious and that person is rebellious and that person is closing their mind to the will and the word of God, don't you? That doesn't give you a license to do it. Ezekiel, I want you to walk worthy of me. Ezekiel, don't you be rebellious? Don't you be like them? I'm calling you to be my watchman. And this is a real danger among the Lord's people today.
If certain people can rebel and do this and that, we feel we can do the same thing. No, we can't. We can't do it. You can't do it, my friend. So in verse eight he says to him, at the end of the verse he says, Open thy mouth and eat that I have given you. And you have the same truth here that you have in the tenth chapter of the Revelation, where Johnny told to eat the scroll, and he ate it. And here in Ezekiel he caused him to eat the roll, the scroll that he had in his hand.
Verse nine says, And when I looked, behold, and hand was sent unto me, and lower roll of a book was written therein, and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without, and there was written therein. lamentation and mourning and woe. What a breakfast. What a breakfast. I want you to eat the scroll. And Ezekiel was to take the message. In other words, Ezekiel was to deliver a message not simply from the top of his head. but it was to be a message that had been digested, that had been chewed, that had been swallowed, that had been assimilated.
Beloved, our message must be more than words, which swept so easily over the tongues. Our message must be more than words. The prophets had to live their message. Six years after this incident, Ezekiel went out among the captives one morning and he said to them, The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed today. The children of Israel have been taken captive and Jerusalem has been sacked. It has been burned with fire. The people said, Who told you?
You didn't get a Western Union telegram. How do you know? He said, I'll tell you how. The Lord said to me, the day that I take away the desire of your eyes, the day that your wife dies, is the day that Jerusalem is going to be sacked in the temple, he's going to be destroyed. And he said this morning, my wife dies. It isn't easy to live the message, you know. Ezekiel, I want you to read the book. I don't want the words of this book to just slip easily over your tongue.
I want it to be something that has been assimilated by you. And when he ate it, it was bitter in his mouth. But oh, the grace of God, it was like sweetness of honey when it got into his being, into his stomach. Oh, the grace of God, in the midst of it all. How wonderful is God's grace. You know, I've often thought of Hosea and Jeremiah and Ezekiel in relation to marriage. Jeremiah wanted a wife and he couldn't have one. Read Jeremiah eight. He wanted to marry and God says, don't take a wife in this place.
Ezekiel had a wife and God took her from it. Ezekiel twenty-four. Hosea didn't want a wife, and God said marry a harlot. And he married Gomer. And in each case, their status of the person declared the work, the word of God, and the message of God to their generation. I challenge you tonight, are you ready to live your message? This is God's call to serve.
Am I prepared to pay the price to live the message? Or is my message going to be just a slip of the tongue that which comes just off the top of my head but nothing from the heart that has been moved in the presence of a holy God that moves me first of all to worship and then to speak to others? That roll with its message of lamentation, mourning and woe, which was basically a message of judgment, became honey for sweetness in the stomach of the prophet. Verses five and six of chapter three. He says to the prophet, For thou art not sent to a people of a strange language, or a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel.
Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto me, for all the house of Israel are impotent and hard-hearted. Son of man, he says to him, Go. Son of man, go. And as he went, the irresistible force is going to meet the immovable object.
For verse eight he says, Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant, harder than flint, have I made thy forehead, fear them not. Neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. Moreover, he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee, receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Seth the Lord whether they will hear or whether they will forget.
Go. Ezekiel, I want you to go. Son of man, go. Ezekiel says to the Lord, Lord, this isn't the place I want to spend the rest of my life. This isn't for me. Give me a new assignment. Have you ever felt that way? Or, I don't want to spend the rest of my life here. I want a new assignment. God said, here's where I want you, Ezekiel. Give me a new assignment. Verse fifteen.
Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv and dwelt by the river of Tiber and I sat. where they sat. And remained there astonished among them seven days. He now says in verse fifteen of Ezekiel three, I came, I sat where they sat. The two things here that are impressive to me, he sat there seven days astonished. Seven days, friends. is a time of mourning for the dead. And certainly there was death here.
There was death to self. My friend, have you ever died to yourself? Do you know something about saying no to the desires of self in order that Christ might reign in your life? Have you ever gotten off the throne, taking yourself off the throne, and put Jesus Christ on the throne, and then got down before him and worshiped him. Death to self. Seven days he sat there where they sat, and he was astonished. He learned the lesson. Now, Ezekiel, you're not the only one who's hurting.
My people are hurting, and I love them. And Ezekiel, I want you to feed them. But you see, seven days is not only the time of mourning for the dead. Seven days was the time that elapsed in the consecration of a priest. And you can read it in the book of Leviticus. Seven days. He took a seven-day period of consecration into the priesthood before he could enter into his life's work. And here he is, thirty years of age. The age when he as a priest would enter the ministry of the priesthood.
But instead of going to the beautiful temple in Jerusalem to minister, he's going to be among a group of captains in Tel Aviv by the river Kivar. God says, Ezekiel. Here is where I want to use you. Right here. Seven days, not only mourning for the dead, but seven days, the time of the consecration for the priest. Ezekiel said, when I sat where they sat, I sat astonished for seven days. For the first time in Ezekiel's life, he saw the people that were round about him. My friends, do you see people?
who are round about you. God says, I want to use you right where you are. Do you see people? Horatius Bonar, the man that wrote that hymn that we sang tonight at the worship service. Done is the work that's saved once and forever done. He's the one who cried out from his knees as he saw the people on the Saturday night coming from the beer powders, and coming from the various activities in Scotland. And he cried out, Oh Lord, they're perishing. Give me a message for these people.
Ezekiel sat where they sat, and he was astonished. Do we have a message for our generation friends? Ezekiel now realized that he was not the only one who was hurting. They were all hurting. But God had given him a message. He said, Ezekiel, I want you to go. I want you to minister to these people. Very quickly, let me say this. The Lord called him and the Lord enabled him. The Lord said, Ezekiel, I've sent thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Speak unto them. And the Lord is calling you and me and our generation to be a watchman.
on the wall. Now the place may not be the ideal place that we think that we should minister to the Lord and we may not choose the place where the Lord is pleased to use us. But it is where we are needed. It is where He wants us to be. And that's what is important. So what must we do? We must sit where they sit. We must faithfully deliver the message. that God declares in His word, thus saith the Lord. And when that message is eaten, when that message becomes part of our lives, it is then that we can speak to men in power with the authority of heaven to men on earth.
Our Lord, when He was about to return the glory, He said to His own all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Make disciples of all nations. And what God is looking for in men. He's looking for men who walk this earth, in shoe leather, who speak to men with the authority of heaven. And when Ezekiel spoke, he spoke with the authority of heaven. Why? God called him. And God had charged him. He knew he was called of God.
Oh, my friend, God calls in matchless grace to salvation. And the grace of God that calls to salvation calls us to go and tell. And in going and tell, we tell a message, a message that has delivered us and will. deliver them. It's not a message we manufacture. It's not a message we create. It's a message that we have received and we tell to others. When I was a high school boy, I worked for Western Union.
I had a desk there, and the girls on the other side of the desk would shoot the telegrams up into the basket. I couldn't pick and choose which telegrams I was going to deliver. Some of them weren't too nice, for it was during World War II. Some of them spoke of tragedy, especially if a mother or a wife was told by the war department that their husband or their son was killed in action or missing in action or something like that. It wasn't easy. I couldn't pick and choose which telegrams I would deliver.
And you want to know something? We cannot do it today either. God says, thus says the Lord, whether they have itching ears, whether they will hear, or whether they will forebear. It's my message. It isn't yours. You're only a messenger boy. I've called you. Are you willing to go? Have you been called of God to salvation? What are you doing where you're at? Lot lived in Sodom.
Lot was a believer. The day came in the life of the ministry of our Blessed Lord when he said, which art exalted to heaven shall be brought down to hell. For if a mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained. But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Does God give more light to some than he does to others? Yes, he does. Capernaum had far more light than Sodom ever had. That's quite evident. Well, if Sodom would have remained with the light of Capernaum, why didn't God give it to them?
That's a question for you. Why didn't God give it to them? May I ask another? Was there a believer living in Sodom? Yes. Was there a light in Sodom? No. There wasn't. Why did Lot go to Sodom? He went to Sodom to make money. He chose Sodom because it was a well-watered plain. It was a good place for cattle. He had five daughters.
He could have, and I'm sure he said to himself, I can't think of any better place for my daughters to get a husband than in Sodom. He went to Sodom because he had cattle, and his children ended living like cattle. And if you want something to search your heart, you read the prophecy of Zephaniah chapter two. And from about verse five through verse nine, and I have one word for you. When you read Zephaniah chapter two, you learn something. It is this. A lot. didn't take the gospel to Sodom, but he brought Sodom out to afflict the people of God throughout their generations.
He didn't take the gospel there, but he brought Sodom out. He brought Sodom out with his two daughters and the two nations that came from them, Ammon and Moab. And God says in Deuteronomy twenty-three, a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation, yea, even forever. Think it through, my friends. Where are you? What are you doing now that you're there? God called. God called.
And he calls us to meet our generation and to proclaim his message. Are we ready to go? Are we ready to serve? Are we ready to get down to business? Oh God. A Moabite shall not enter into the congregation, the scripture says. Do you know of a Moabite that got in? I do. Her name was Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite. And the day came that Boaz looked on her and he says, Ruth, you're an outsider.
I'm going to make you an insider. I'm going to redeem you. And you know, beloved, I was an outsider. I was a stranger from the Commonwealth of Israel. from the covenants of promise. I was without hope. I was without God and in the world. And I'm greater than Boaz. Our Lord Jesus looked at me. He says, Phil Bomberger, you're an outsider. You're outside of all the blessings. But I'm going to make you an insider. I'm going to go to the cross. I'm going to redeem you. I'm going to make you mine. And I thank God for that day when he made me his.
And he says, now I want you to go and tell others of this great redemption that's in Christ. Are you here? Are you ready to go? Let's pray. Father, take the word now and search our hearts with us for Jesus' sake and glory. Amen.