(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And from the Spirit of God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, we're there in Ezekiel chapter number 21. And like I said, we've been out of Ezekiel for a while. And I apologize guys back there, but can you just, maybe it's me, maybe it's my ears, but can you just turn me up just a little bit? I'm on a different mic now. Are you guys able to hear me? Because I feel like I can't hear myself. You can hear me? All right, as long as you can hear me, that's good, I guess. Ezekiel 21, look at verse number 1. The Bible says this, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem. Why don't you notice this phrase? It's an interesting phrase in Ezekiel. He says, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel. And of course, as we've been studying the book of Ezekiel over the last year, we've been going, taking a chapter a week through the book, and we've been learning about the judgment of God upon the nation of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah, and Ezekiel's been ministering to them. And this chapter is really about the judgment of God, and it's God explaining to Ezekiel things about his judgment coming upon his people. And I'd like to just show that to you quickly. I'm going to give you three points, three statements. If you'd like to write them down, I'd appreciate that. On the back of your course of the week, you've got a place where you can take down some notes, and we'll go through it as quickly as we can, but I haven't been here for a while, so I feel like I've got to preach, all right? So we'll go through it fast, though, and try to get to the potluck. But I want you to notice, first of all, in this chapter, we see the reality of God's judgment. If you'd like to write that down, that's the first statement or the first point, the reality of God's judgment. If you notice verse 3, the Bible says this, And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath. Here we have God looking at the nation and saying, I'm against thee, I'm going to bring my sword. And the idea there is that when the Bible uses the word sword in regards to judgment, the idea is that he's going to bring military judgment, and we know that Nebuchadnezzar is the king that he's going to use to bring judgment upon the nation there. Notice what he says at the end of verse 3. He says, And will cut off from thee. Why don't you notice what he says? He says, The righteous and the wicked. He says, When I bring my judgment upon the nation, my judgment, and specifically here, military judgment, where an invading army is going to come in and take over the land and take slaves and destroy the nation. He says, When I do that, I will cut off from the righteous and the wicked. Now, if you remember back when we were in Ezekiel chapter 18, we learned about the fact that God feels very highly about personal responsibility. And we talked about the fact that when someone does wickedly, God will judge that individual for their wickedness. And when they do righteously, God will judge that individual for their righteousness. But here we learn a different concept of the judgment of God, and it is this, that when God judges nations, he judges them indiscriminately. Meaning that when the judgment of God comes upon a nation or on a region, on a land, on a city, it affects everyone. He says, I'm going to cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. Notice verse 4. He says this, Seeing then that I will cut off from thee, and he says it again, the righteous and the wicked. Therefore, shall my sword go forth out of his sheath. Notice, against all flesh. God says, When I bring my judgment, it's going to affect everyone. It's going to hurt anyone, everyone. It's going to hurt the righteous and the wicked from the south to the north. Notice verse 5. That all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more. Now, keep your place there in Ezekiel 21. That's our text for tonight. But go with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter number 5. First book in the Bible, so it should be fairly easy to find. Matthew chapter 5. And oftentimes, this is a part of God's judgment that gets criticized by people, and it is that when God judges nations or God judges a people, he does it indiscriminately. The judgment of God affects everyone. But you know what, people often don't complain about is the fact that when God blesses a nation or when God blesses a city, when God blesses a region, he does it indiscriminately. Notice Matthew chapter 5 and verse 45. The Bible says this in Matthew 5, 45. It says that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. So Jesus just got done talking to believers, and he's telling them there are things that they should be doing and ways that they should be living their lives as Christians. And he says when you do that, he says that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. And then he says this. Here's a result of that. For he maketh a sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. So what the Bible is teaching is this. God decides to bless a location or bless a nation. He does that indiscriminately. He says, look, the sun rises for the evil and the good. He says the rain comes down upon the just and the unjust. But you know when God decides to judge a nation, when God decides to bring his wrath upon a nation, that also happens indiscriminately in the sense that he says I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. You can go back to Ezekiel 21. He says I'm going to cut off the righteous and the wicked. He said I'm going to do it against all flesh. He said that all the flesh may know. And you know, today we as Bible-believing Christians, and there are certain sins, and I don't have time to develop this tonight. One of these days I'll preach an entire sermon just on this subject. But there are certain sins that the Bible teaches that God judges nations for. You notice in the Bible, you'll never see God destroying an entire nation because they were just lying too much, you know, or because they were doing some sort of a sin too much. But there are certain sins that God judges nations for. One of those sins is the shedding of innocent blood. And today, you know, we can apply that as the sin of abortions where today babies that are alive, human beings in the womb are being killed in the place that should be the safest place on earth for a baby, the womb of their mother. And today, you know, people say when preachers like I get up and preach that, you know what people say to us? They'll say, mind your own business. I mean, it's my body, my choice, right? Isn't that what they say? My body, my choice. It's none of your business. Why do you have to comment on it? Why do you have to say anything about it? Why do you have to preach about it? Well, you know what? It's our right to comment and preach about it because when God judges a nation, he does it upon the righteous and the wicked. See your wicked sin of abortion are going to affect my children and my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. So yeah, I'm going to stand up and preach again. Say, yeah, I'm going to say, thus saith the Lord God, yeah, I'm going to try to bring it to an end because God's judgment is brought upon a nation indiscriminately. Today we'll stand up and we'll preach against the wicked sin of homosexuality or sodomy and people will say, well, as long as they're not hurting anybody, well, as long as what people do in private, that's their own business and you shouldn't have to, you know, comment on it. You shouldn't have to say anything about it. Look, has God judged cities and nations because of that sin? You ever heard of Sodom and Gomorrah? And you say, well, it's none of your business. Well, it is our business when God says that his judgment will cut off the righteous and the wicked. It'll affect all flesh. It's going to affect everyone. See, the reality of God's judgment is that God judges indiscriminately and God blesses indiscriminately. And I want you to notice second tonight in this chapter. Not only do we see the reality of God's judgment, but I want you to notice secondly that we see the response to God's judgment. Notice verse number six. Notice what the Bible says. I want you to notice this first word in verse six. He says, psi. He says, psi, therefore. I want you to understand that that word psi there, that word that's translated psi in our King James Bible, that same, the underlying Hebrew word that's translated psi in Ezekiel 21, in other parts of our King James Bible, that same word is translated as mourn, which means to grieve or lament. It's translated as groan, which means a low mournful sound. I want you to notice that God just got done telling Ezekiel about the reality of his judgment, that when God judges the nation, it's done indiscriminately. And even people who are righteous will have to suffer. Even the people who are living right, who are saved, who are walking with God will have to suffer during his judgment. But then God tells Ezekiel something about the response to this judgment. He says, Ezekiel, in verse six, he says, psi, therefore, thou son of man. With the breaking, notice what he says. With the breaking of thy loins, the loins is often referred to in Scripture as the seat of strength. And God says, I want your strength to be broken. I want you to psi. Notice what he says. Don't miss this. And with bitterness, psi, notice, before their eyes. God says to Ezekiel, I want you to psi. I want you to mourn. I want you to groan. And then he says this, I want you to do it before their eyes. He says, I want you to do it with all bitterness. Notice in verse seven, he says, and it shall be, when they say unto thee. Notice because he's doing it before their eyes, they're going to ask questions and they're going to ask him this question, notice. And it shall be, when they say unto thee, wherefore, the word wherefore means for what reason. Notice, wherefore, psiest thou? Why are you sighing, Ezekiel? Why are you mourning? Why are you groaning? Why are you sighing with all bitterness? He says, wherefore, psiest thou that thou shall answer. He says, when they ask you, because Ezekiel, I want you to do this before them, before their eyes. When they ask you, wherefore, psiest thou, thou shall answer for the tidies. He said, because of the news, because of the message that I just brought, because Ezekiel was a faithful preacher of God's word. Ezekiel faithfully preached the judgment of God coming upon the nation, that it would affect the righteous and the wicked, that it would affect all flesh. But then God told Ezekiel, when you preach that message, Ezekiel, I want you to preach that message with a broken heart. He said, I want you to mourn. I want you to sigh. He said, I want you to tell them when they ask you, why are you, why is your heart broken? He said, I want you to tell them for the tidings, because it cometh, and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water behold. It cometh and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God. Notice he continues in verse eight, he says again, the word Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, prophesy and say, does saith the Lord say, a sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished. He said, look, the enemy is preparing. They're getting ready. The sword is sharpened and it's furbished. Notice verse 10, he says, it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter. It is furbished that it may glitter. Notice what he says. He says, should we then make myrrh? He said, should we laugh about it? Should we rejoice about it? Should we celebrate it? He said, it condemneth the rod of thy son as every tree, and he has given it to be furbished that it may be handled. This sword is sharpened and it is furbished to give it into the hands of the slayer. Notice verse 12, he says, cry and how. The word cry and the word how basically mean the same thing. It means to scream, to yell, to utter loud sounds. He says, cry and how, son of man, for it shall be upon my people. It shall be upon all princes of Israel, terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people, smite thereof upon thy thigh. And I want you to understand that when God is telling Ezekiel and instructing Ezekiel how to respond to the judgment of God, the response is that we should mourn. Now, please understand this because often people confuse these thoughts and they'll say, yeah, but there's passages in other scriptures that talk about rejoicing when God's judgment comes upon people. But here's what you need to understand, and it's really not that complicated, but there are basically three types of people in this world, saved people, unsaved people, and reprobates. There are those who are saved and those people can be faithfully serving the Lord or they just got saved and doing nothing for God, but they're saved, they believed on the Lord. Then there's lost people. Lost people can be neutral, cannot care about God, cannot know about God. And then there's the enemies of the Lord. There are those who have actually become reprobates, they've rejected God and they've rejected God and they've rejected God, and God has eventually rejected them. And those people are the enemies of God and the enemies of the Lord. And here's what I want you to understand. When Ezekiel is talking to the people here, he's talking to people who are primarily just either righteous people, like you said, or just wicked, sinful, unsaved people. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 18. Look at verse 23. Ezekiel chapter 18. I brought this up when we were in Ezekiel 18, but let me just bring it up again. Ezekiel 18 and verse 23, because people often show us this verse. When we talk about rejoicing over the destruction or the judgment of reprobates, people will bring up Ezekiel 18, 23 and say, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? And they'll say, see, God doesn't have any pleasure that the wicked should die. But notice, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live. See these people, God hadn't given up on them, they still had a chance. Now this chapter is not even about salvation. And we understand that if you go back to Ezekiel 18, to that sermon, I go through that and explain that. But I just want you to notice that these people were, God wasn't even done with them. He says, look, they can still get right. They can still do right. So we're not talking about a nation of reprobates here. Now look, every nation has reprobates in it, but primarily we're talking about a group of people that are going to be judged and it consists of these types of people, righteous people and just unsaved, wicked people. And God says, look Ezekiel, when my judgment comes, the reality is that everyone's going to get hurt and the proper response is to mourn. Not to have myrrh, not to rejoice, not to be happy about it, but to have a broken heart. Not to compromise, to preach God's word, to drop thy word. Remember the chapter began with drop thy word. He said, look, you got to preach God's word faithfully. You got to stand up and say, thus saith the Lord God. But he says, you should do it from a broken heart. You should do it from a spirit that is mourning over the judgment coming upon these people. Go to Jonah chapter three. If you're there in Ezekiel, you're going to go past Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. We recently went through a, I think it was a five-week study on Sunday mornings out of the book of Jonah, but let's look at Jonah because Jonah is the opposite of Ezekiel. See, Ezekiel faithfully preached the judgment of God with the proper attitude. Jonah faithfully preached the judgment of God after a little incident with a whale, but Jonah did it with a bad attitude. And you say, well, what was Jonah's bad attitude? Well, look at it. Look at Jonah chapter three and verse 10 just to get the context of chapter four. Jonah chapter three and verse 10, and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he has said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. Okay? Look, the people, they got right with God. Jonah leads one of the greatest revivals in biblical history, probably worldwide history. They got right with the Lord, and God decided not to judge them. But then notice Jonah's attitude, chapter four, verse one. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. The fact that God repented of the evil that he has said that he would do unto them, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry, and he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled unto Tarshish. Notice what Jonah's mad at God for. He said, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness. He's mad about this. And repentance of evil. He said, I knew you were going to forgive them. I knew you were going to be merciful. I knew you were going to be gracious. And you're looking at Jonah, and you're thinking to yourself, what in the world is wrong with you, Jonah? Verse three. Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. He's asking God to kill him because a whole bunch of people just got saved that he didn't like. Notice God's response. Verse four. Then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? We had an angry preacher here. You know what I've learned that in fundamentalism, it's real easy for some of our fundamentalist preachers to just be real angry and to almost rejoice and to almost celebrate the judgment coming upon unsaved people or even saved people. God says, doest thou well to be angry? Verse five. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. Here, God tells him, look, are you doing right to be angry? And Jonah says, I don't care. And he goes and sets up a little tent, and he gets himself a little chair, and he pops a bag of popcorn. And he's sitting there just hoping that God will destroy the city anyway. Just rejoicing, celebrating, hoping that God would destroy it. Listen to me. You say, Pastor Mantis, what is the point? Here's the point. I'm not talking about reprobates. We'll talk about that in a minute. When God judges normal, just unsaved people, the proper response is to sigh before their eyes. It's to have a broken heart. And look, when God judges even saved people that are backslidden, the proper response is to sigh before their eyes. You know, honestly, when the whole Donnie Romero thing happened recently, I saw what seemed to me, and let me make something clear, I don't think there's anything in the world wrong with using a situation like the Donnie Romero situation where you have a pastor who's very well known and has a lot of influence and falls into very grievous sin. There's nothing in the world wrong with bringing that up and using that as an example and saying, look, this is what sin does. Do you want to ruin your life? Do you want to ruin your wife's life? Do you want to ruin your children's life? You know, this is what sin will do. This is where sin will take you. This is why we must live, walk with the Lord, and walk in the Spirit, and be in the Word, because we don't want to end up this way. There's nothing in the world wrong with preaching that as long as you're preaching it with a broken heart. But you know what I saw? I saw some people who had some personal beefs with Donnie Romero just kind of tap dancing on his grave, just kind of rejoicing over his fall. And you know what? That proves your carnality. The fact that you say, what is the response when God judges even a believer that's backslidden? You know, the proper response is that we should learn from that. The proper response is that we should preach that this is the judgment of God, and this is how God deals with sin, and this is where sin will take you. But we should not rejoice in our heart. It should break our hearts. And even when God brings judgment upon unsaved, just normal unsaved, wicked, fornicating, adulterating people, we should not rejoice over the judgment of God upon their lives. And you say, yeah, well, what about all the verses in the Bible where people are rejoicing over judgment? Well, let's look at some of them. Go to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 6, Revelation chapter 6. Look at verse 9, Revelation chapter 6 and verse 9. The proper response to the judgment of God is that we should mourn when judgment comes upon saved people that are backslidden or unbelievers that are just normal people that are not saved. When God judges unbelievers, God is justified in doing so. The law of the Lord is perfect. Everything that God does is right. There's nothing wrong with God judging unbelievers. In fact, when they die, He's going to give them the ultimate judgment of sending them to hell if they don't get saved. The Bible says, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. The point is not whether the judgment of God is justified. That's not up for debate. Everything God does is right. The point is, how should we respond to the judgment of God? You say, well, what about the rejoicing in the Bible? Well, let's look at it. Revelation chapter 6, look at verse 9. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God. This is, of course, after the tribulation. The tribulation is happening and Christians are being saved. Here we see John seeing in heaven the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. These people are being killed under persecution and it's specifically the antichrist. It is the antichrist who is putting these people to death. Verse 10, and they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, does Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? You say, well, these people are asking for God to judge and avenge their blood on them that dwell on the earth. And white robes were given unto every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren notice that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. Here's what you need to understand. Go to Revelation chapter 13. And if you remember, the book of Revelation is cut up into two sections. You've got chapters 1 through 11 that go through the events of end times and then you've got chapters 12 through the end of the book that start again with the events of end times but from a different view, from a different perspective, kind of like the gospels have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John telling you the same story from different perspective. Here in Revelation chapter 6, we see that the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and people say, well, they're up in heaven, there's no sin in heaven, so their attitude must be right. And that is correct. Their attitude is right. They're saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, does Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? What you need to understand is that they're looking down at a predominantly reprobate world. You say, well, how can you say that? Revelation 13. Look at verse 16. Remember this? Any cause of all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead. Doesn't the Bible say that when they took the mark of the beast in their right hand or in their forehead that they basically crossed the line with God? They became reprobates. They were rejected. They no longer have opportunity to be saved. And look, go to, keep your place in Revelation. We're going to come right back to it. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. You say, well, can you really say that the end times is kind of a reprobate world? Well, this is what the Bible says. And please understand what I'm saying. I am not saying that everybody who lives during the end times is a reprobate. I'm not saying that at all. But the world is filled with a lot of reprobates, predominantly reprobates, people. It's going to be a world like we've never had. Today, most people are just not saved. The saved people are a few, and the reprobates are a few. But once the mark of the beast is implemented and he causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive the mark, there's going to be a lot of reprobates out there. What God says about this time, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 8, 2 Thessalonians 2.8 says this, And then shall that wicked be revealed, talking about the antichrist, whom the Lord – and you can look at that in context if you want later if you don't believe me – whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs – notice – and lying wonders and with all deceivableness. I want you to notice the emphasis. Lying wonders, deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. These people did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Notice verse 11, For this cause God shall send them strong delusion. God says, I'm going to send them strong delusion during the end times. You say, what is the point of the strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned? See, when we get to the end times, we're talking about a predominantly reprobate culture. God sends a strong delusion. In fact, they've got lying wonders and they've got all deceivableness. If they're so good, Matthew 24 says, that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. Now, it's not possible for the elect to be deceived, but God says they're so good that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. And look, this culture you see in Revelation is a reprobate culture. Go to Revelation chapter 9. Revelation chapter 9. Look at verse 20. Revelation chapter 9 and verse 20. Revelation 9 and 20 says this, And the rest of the men. When we get to Revelation chapter 9, God has already been pouring out his wrath. He's already been pouring out his judgment. Notice what it says about these people. These are the culture. And again, not everybody living at this time is a reprobate. I don't believe that. I don't believe that there are unbelievers that go into the millennial reign. But predominantly, this is a reprobate culture. Notice how they respond to the judgment of God. Revelation chapter 9 and verse 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, because God's already pouring out his judgment, notice, yet repented not of the works of their hands. Now, is that how most unbelievers respond to bad things? Look, most unbelievers, even when they're not saved. On September 11th happened, they went to church that Sunday. Most unbelievers, when something bad happens to them, they're in a car accident, they think they're going to die, they're calling out to God. But what are these people doing? They were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stones and of wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Obviously, they're worshiping false gods. They're not worshiping the God of the Bible. Verse 21, neither repent the day of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their theft. Notice how do they respond to the judgment of God? They just get more angry. They get more bitter. They get more deep into their sin. Why? Because they're reprobates. Go to Revelation 16. Go to Revelation 16. Look at verse 9. Revelation 16 and verse 9. Revelation 16 and verse 9 says this, and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. Notice, God brings his judgment, and how do they respond? They blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory. I mean, look, if God's judging you, wouldn't a normal person say, God, help me? But they're just sticking their nose. They're raising their fist to God. They blasphemed the name of God. They repented not to give him glory. Notice verse 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores, and repented not after their deeds. Look at Revelation 17. Look at verse 21. Revelation 17 and verse 21. Revelation 17 and verse 1 says this, and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven. This is God's judgment. Every stone about the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God because of their plague of hail, and the plague thereof was exceeding great. Go back to Revelation chapter 11. Look at verse 8. I'm just showing you that this is a reprobate culture. Once the Antichrist gives out the mark of the beast, we're not talking about what the world has mainly known, which is a bunch of unbelievers, a few saved people, and a few reprobates. Now we're dealing with the entire world being just a huge amount of reprobates in it. Revelation chapter 11 and verse 8, God sends his two witnesses. Notice how most people respond to the two witnesses. Revelation 11 and 8, and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, and also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people, notice, and they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations, a lot of people, shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they shall dwell upon the earth, notice, and they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another. Just like Christmas for them, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth. And after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them, which saw them. Go to Revelation chapter 19. So notice, they're happy. They're rejoicing that the men of God have been killed. Revelation 19, Revelation 19. So look, when you're in Revelation 6, and the souls of them that were slain are saying you know, how long, when are you going to judge us, God? You know, and they're rejoicing that judgment. They're looking down at a world full of reprobates, the enemies of the Lord, the enemies of God. And they're rejoicing over their destruction. Revelation 19, look at verse 1. And after these things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore. Who's he judging? The great whore. Notice which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and have avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again, they said, Alleluia. You say, well, they're rejoicing over the judgment of God. Yeah, of the great whore, of the antichrist, of end times Babylon, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever and ever. And 420 elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the throne saying amen. Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants and ye that fear him both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reign. Go back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. They're rejoicing. But look, they're rejoicing over the judgment of God coming on reverence. And look, and if you say like, well, you should always rejoice for the judgment of God, then you've got a problem with Ezekiel who God told him to sigh before their eyes. Then you've got a problem with Jeremiah who's often referred to as the weeping prophet because he's often weeping over the destruction of his people and the judgment that God was bringing. I'm not getting up here and saying we shouldn't preach the judgment of God. I'm saying this. When God is judging his people, we should preach the judgment of God with a broken heart. And when God is judging unbelievers, we should preach the judgment of God with a broken heart. We should not rejoice and celebrate it. We should not be like Jonah and grab a bag of popcorn and let's watch it. It's great. It's awesome. You say, but what about when God judges reprobates? Then you know what? Alleluia. Praise the Lord. When God has victory over his enemies, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, look at verse 5, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. God's judgment is always right. Notice that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which he also suffered, but I want you to notice verse 6, seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them. To whom? Notice to them that trouble you. Paul was talking to people who were persecuting the church of Thessalonica and he said, look, it's great. Is he rejoicing over the... He's rejoicing over God's judgment on people who are troubling the enemies of the Lord who are troubling the church at Thessalonica. Whenever, wherever, and whatever God does is always right. And the judgment of God is always right. But when God judges believers and when he just judges normal, unsaved people, then we should preach, thus saith the Lord, we should preach the judgment of God, but we should not rejoice over it. We should not celebrate. You say, well Pastor Jimenez, what about the reprobates? Well, when God destroys them, when God judges them, hallelujah, praise the Lord, glory to God. You know, I got...we had a big old ordeal here a couple of years ago when some gay nightclub got shot up and I stood up and said, look, I'm not going to mourn the death of these filthy sodomite reprobate homosexuals. I'm not going to mourn their death. All these Christians were just tripping over themselves to make all these statements. And I said, look, those people, according to Romans 1, hate God. And I'm not going to mourn them. You know, when wicked reprobates are destroyed, hallelujah. And people say, I can't believe you say that. But you know what? You know that like a year ago, some country western concert got shot up? You know, I didn't stand up here and say anything about that. You say, oh, are you a hypocrite? You must like country western. Well, you know, I'm sure there were reprobates in that concert, but you know, I don't know that there were primarily reprobates, I mean, I think...and it doesn't matter if it's country western, okay? It could be a hip-hop concert. When just normal people have the judgment of God, and look, God is justified in judging them. But when normal people have the judgment of God come upon them, we don't celebrate that and rejoice that. Say, well, why would you do it for the gay nightclub? Because we can be pretty sure that most people in that place were reprobates. Do you understand that? Do you understand that there are places and locations where you can just walk away and say, wow, that is a wicked place? Like Sodom and Gomorrah? Like Antines Babylon? Like San Francisco, California? Like Las Vegas, Nevada? I mean, aren't there just certain places that you can look at and say, this place has a reprobate culture? Because then there are other places where it's just unsafe people. And look, unsafe people are unsafe people. They fornicate, they drink, they do drugs, they commit adultery. And when God judges them, it affects all of us. We shouldn't celebrate it. We should sigh. We should allow it to motivate us to preach the gospel and to disciple people and to preach the Word of God so that people will live lives in a way that God would not judge indiscriminately but would bless indiscriminately. Go back to Ezekiel 21, let me finish this up. Notice in verse 13, he talks about the fact that because this was now the third wave coming of the judgment of God, that it was going to get progressively worse, Ezekiel 21, 13. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contempt even the rod? It shall be no more, saith the Lord God, verse 14. Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy and smite thine hand together, and let the sword be doubled. The third time, remember that three waves of captivity came to the southern kingdom of Judah, and God says the third time it's going to be double what it was before. It's going to get worse. The sword of the slain, it is the sword of the great men that are slain which entered into their private chambers. I've set the point of the sword against all their gates that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied. He's saying, look, it's going to get worse. Ah, it is made bright. It is wrapped up for the slaughter. Then in verses 16 through 24, let's go through it quickly, he chronicles the fact that Nebuchadnezzar basically uses divination, witchcraft, to try to figure out what city to destroy. Look at verse 16, go thee one way or other, either on the right hand or on the left. He's talking about trying to decide which way he's going to go, whithersoever thy face is set. I will also smite mine hand together. I will cause my fury to rest. I the Lord have said it. The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, also thou son of man, appoint thee two ways that the sword of the king of Babylon may come. Both twain shall come forth out of the land, and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way of the city. He's saying, look, he could go two ways, and he's got to decide which way he's going to go. He's saying, honey, appoint a way that the sword may come to rabeth of the Ammonites. So one option is rabeth of the Ammonites. And the other option is, and to Judah in Jerusalem, the defense. So what does Nebuchadnezzar do, verse 21? For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways. Notice to use divination. He made his arrows bright. He consulted with images. He looked in the liver. They killed an animal, and he took the liver out, and he's looking at it, and the liver is supposed to tell him which way to go. Verse 22, at his right hand was divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains to open the mouth of the slaughter, to lift up the voice of the shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gate, to cast them out, and to build a fort. Verse 23, and it shall be unto them as a false divination. Look, it's not real. Their divination was not true. But God says, I don't care why Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's coming to destroy Jerusalem. The real reason that he's coming to destroy Jerusalem is because I sent him. That's the point of this. He says, and it shall be unto them a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oath, but he will call to remembrance the iniquity that they may be taken. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear, because I say that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand. And I want to just give you the third point real quickly. We'll be done. We saw number one, the reality of God's judgment. What is it that when God judges, he does it indiscriminately. It hurts all flesh, the righteous and the wicked. Then we saw the response to God's judgment. What is it that when God judges normal people or saved people, we ought to sigh, we ought to mourn, we ought to have a broken heart, and yes, when God judges, wicked reprobates the enemies of the Lord, then we should rejoice over his triumph, over his enemies. But I want you to notice thirdly in this chapter tonight the result of God's judgment. Verse 25, and thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, talking about the day of judgment, and look, payday is coming, look, the Bible says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, but whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. And judgment is coming for those who want to puff themselves up against God. He says, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is coming, when iniquity shall have an end. Thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem, and take off the crown, this shall not be the same, exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high, I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. You say, what is the result of God's judgment? Here's the result of God's judgment, that God abases those who are high, and God exalts those who are low. Here's the point, humble yourself, or God will humble you. When God's judgment comes, and look, there is a danger in fundamentalism that we're so right about so many things, that we just get this puffed up, arrogant attitude. The funny thing about arrogance is that everybody else can see it, except for you. Everybody else can identify it, except for you. When you see this attitude of just like, I'm so great, I'm so right, I'm so wonderful, you know what? We need to humble ourselves, and yes, we're right. Yes, we ought to preach the truth. We ought to do it from a position of a broken heart. We ought to do it from a position of compassion, to help people, to love people, and when the enemies of the Lord are destroyed, we rejoice. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the fact that you do not leave us to have to decide what to do and how to do it, even how to respond. You give us very clear instructions in scripture. Lord, I pray for our church, but I pray for myself. Anybody and every body is susceptible to pride. Lord, I pray you'd help us to all maintain humility, to realize that.