Transcript: Unlocking Your Imagination with God's Strength and Purpose

In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 8, the prophet was given a vision of the Lord, and out of seeing the vision, he was given a word for the people of Israel, which was fulfilled in part in his day, but was to come to its fullness in these latter days in which you and I now live. Read with me, please, as we break into this account in Ezekiel 8, verse 5, to see what he saw and what was yet to come and be fulfilled in the day in which you and I now presently live. Verse 5 in chapter 8. Then he said to me, Son of man, lift your eyes now towards the north. So I lifted my eyes towards the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. Verse 6. Furthermore, he said to me, Son of man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel commits here to make me go far away from my sanctuary. Now turn again, and you will see greater abominations. So he brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. Then he said to me, Son of man, dig into the wall. When I dug into the wall, there was a door. Verse 9. And then he said to me, Go in and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there. So I went in, and there every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed all around the walls. And there stood before them seventy men of elders and of the house of Israel. and in their midst stood Jezeah, the son of Zepah. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, The Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. verse 13 and then he said to me turn again and you will see greater abominations of what they are doing so he brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house and to my dismay women were sitting there weeping for Temez I particularly like the King James version for verse 12, and it reads, Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, The Lord sees us not, and the Lord has forsaken the earth. Well, Prophet Ezekiel here was given a dramatic, striking and vivid view, a vision about the condition of God's people. But I believe it is more important to note, before we get to the real meat of this word today, in reference to this verse, is to first emphasize and expose one of the main things that Ezekiel saw in his vision, which was an image of jealousy. This image is one of the main reasons for the Lord's judgment coming to the people along with all of the other idolatrous practices that they were engaging in at that time. In verse 3 and 5, the word tells us that the prophet saw an image called the image of jealousy. Verse 3. like the vision that I saw in the plain. Verse 5, And then he said to me, Son of man, lift your eyes to the north. So I lifted my eyes towards the north, and there, the north altar of the gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. The word jealousy here, in this verse in Hebrew, means to envy, to be provoked, to zeal, or to be zealous for a cause, to be provoked to jealousy, to be moved. And with this image that Ezekiel saw, we can't be sure if he saw a statue of some sort which had been given a place there at the entrance of the temple, or if he literally saw an evil spirit or a demon or devil. If it was an idol made in the image of one of their bales, made by King Manasseh, whose scripture reports set it in the temple, which Josea, his son, later removed, we do not know because it's not really made clear. But nevertheless, the prophet is telling us that there was an image, and it would be good for us to note and store away in our own personal memory bank called our conscience, that this knowledge and understanding of this image of jealousy, whatever it was, is the highest degree of the greatest offense to God Almighty, creator of all things. This practice of blatant idolatry provoked God's jealousy. He hated it with a passion, just as a loving husband would be insulted and offended with an unfaithful and unchaste wife. Nahum 1 verse 2 gives us insight as to the righteous and protective jealousy or zeal that the Lord has over his own people. The Lord is a jealous God and avenging. The Lord avenges, and he is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and reserves wrath for his enemies. Also, Isaiah 48, verse 11 declares, For my own sake I do it. I refrain and do not utterly destroy you. For why should I permit my name to be polluted and profaned, which it would be if the Lord completely destroyed his chosen people. And I will not give my glory to another by permitting the worshipers of idols to triumph over you. Let us understand, please, that the Lord is jealous for his own glory and his own honor in the matters of who his people worship. and it will be none else but him and him alone. Let us not miss the bottom line and the real point here in why the Lord was provoked to jealousy enough and was finally forced to vent his full and righteous wrath upon his people for their unfaithfulness. It was again the matter of pertaining to worship of him. This is the highest of insults to God. When people turn their backs on him and bow to other gods, whether they be molten idols, they be false altars, they be money, materialism, power, fame, lust, sex, couples living together before marriage, homosexuality, adultery, pornography, entertainment, selfishness, latest fashion, self-image, mysticism, and distractions that would keep one from reading and studying God's word and of worship of him. The list goes on. But God's law does not change, either in the Old or the New Covenant command, in which God says, you shall have no other gods before me, neither in heaven above or that is on the earth or beneath it. you shall not bow yourself before them nor serve them. In 1 Corinthians 10, 14, Paul warned his congregation saying, Wherefore, my dearly beloved brethren, flee from idolatry. Flee from idolatry. Scripture tells us that the very setting up of this image in the house of God was enough to provoke him to jealousy. And it was a matter of who and what the people were to worship. You see, those who had placed this image at the door of the inner gate where the people gathered called the gate of the altar intended fully to provoke and offend God face to face by advancing their idols in return for their worship, which would be a rival for God, and bottom line, would cause the people to be in contempt of God's law and in defiance and rebellion of his justice. God's word from the front to the back of the cover of the Bible warns over and over again just as in our last verse declared by the words of Paul saying therefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry you see to pervert and pollute God's people and lure them as they come into the courts of the Lord's house with their offerings to present to him these wolves tempted and endured to persuade them into offering what they brought to idols sitting in the entrance of the doorway in the temple. In Solomon's writings, he likens the adulteress who sits in the doorway of her house calling out to people who were passing by to come into her house. with good reason, dear ones. God called this image the image of jealousy, and you can imagine what an amazement, and yet at the same time, what a grief it was to Ezekiel to see this image in the house of God when he most likely, his hope set high, that the judgments of God that they experienced already might have brought some transformation and change among them But quite the contrary They had degenerated even more than where they were before. God's pleas and his demands seemed to land upon deaf ears, and therefore God said he was going to cast them off and abandon them to ruin. He said to prophet Ezekiel in verse 12, He said to me, son of man, have you seen what the elders in the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the room of his idols? For they say, the Lord does not see us, and the Lord has forsaken the land. And he said to me, turn again, and there you will see greater abominations than what they are doing. He brought me to the door, to the north gate of the Lord's house, and to my dismay, people were weeping for Tamiz. You see here, these people sat weeping over an idol that was contrived to weep somehow. And God's people had fallen so low, they chose to worship an idol rather than serve and worship God with a joyful, a thankful, and a reverent heart. And yet, this is the absurdity of those who listen to and follow the lying vanities of those who are the apostates in our day and time. In Ezekiel's striking and vivid vision, which we have read about, I did mention that we were going to get back to a particular verse in the meat of this word today, and that will take us back to verse 12. It reads again, He said to me, In the prophet's vision, as I said, he was shown the condition of these people's hearts. the human condition he was shown regarding the people is that they were sitting in the dark in the chamber of their imagery or their imaginations. And I believe that it's clear as a result of the people following hard after the apostate idols, it left them open to the demons to wreak havoc on their minds and pervert God's word, his ways and his commands as they sat alone in the dark, meditating upon their gross, detest idols and plans and all of their stuff which kept them from progressing and growing in the Lord. Imagery in the Hebrew called mesquite can mean a carving out of stone, one on the wall. Any object, and yet it can be used figuratively for the imagination. Imagery can also mean something lusted after or wished for. It is commonly called conceit, a picture in the mind, or a wish, a desire. Whatever it is, these people have set their minds on. the secret recesses and thoughts of their minds were most disgusting and serious enough to God that it eventually aroused his anger, provoked his wrath and judgment to be raised against them. The demon god sitting in the entrance of the temple was called the image of jealousy. And this image is one of the main reasons, as I mentioned, for the Lord's judgment coming to these people, along with all of the other idolatrous practices that they were engaging in at that time. This image of jealousy today guarding the minds of those who are unregenerate or unrenewed by the truth of God are demons. without constant obedience and conformity to God's truth. These people, please understand, many hundreds and thousands of these are professing Christians who sit in church every week just doing their duties. They are actually and continually barraged and battered and harassed Don't miss this. They're harassed to crave, to lust after, and ache for the idols which they worship by the demons who have a legal right of occupancy in the doorway of their minds and hearts to keep them and hold them captive to being slaves to the idols of their imaginations. Do not be mistaken. This is not a fairy tale or a folklore written in an ancient book by some skeptic hermit with an overactive hyper-imagination. The Bible is full of wisdom and understanding for those who are hungry for it. Nothing is held captive or secret within its pages for those who care to sincerely and honestly seek the one who can reveal the depths of its divine understanding and mysteries. The garden of the true believer's soul must be cultivated with the word of God and water daily. We learn through the study of the Song of Solomon, which is the progressive walk of the believer who comes to faith in Jesus Christ, that as followers of him whom our hearts love, that we come out of the darkness of the imaginations of our own carnal thinking and enter into the light of this precious truth called the Word of God. and our spiritual eyes are then enlightened by it. We gain deeper understanding of this life in Christ. We used to live in the imaginations of our own minds, but now with the reality of Christ's abiding presence and love within our hearts and his inner light constantly bringing about a deeper understanding of the truth, our minds and hearts hunger after these rather than the things that the world and Satan has to offer. The truth of God and his presence in our lives becomes very real, and we learn to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. We will not lean on our own understanding, because faith is at work now instead of our emotions and imaginations, which used to rule the dictates of our actions and our words and deeds and preferences. These keep us just like the maiden in the Song of Solomon on the pathway called commitment that we have made with the Lord at the time of our salvation, if it was real. We learn to trust and rely on him and his faithfulness alone. in god's time he will manifest his living presence in your life and make you conscious of himself because your soul longs after and continually hungers for him instead of the idols that you used to serve you see our minds are like a chamber within a chamber and this speaks of the human mind and one that must be renewed constantly by the word of God, by prayer, by meditation, and worship of him who created us. Ezekiel 11 declares and promises, I will give them one heart, a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and I will take the stony, unnatural, hardened heart out of their flesh and I will give them a heart of flesh, sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God. Paul in the New Testament says it like this in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3. He says, Jesus Christ, who came forth in time and would give his life, which would rent the veil of separation between his Father and his human creation. Jesus Christ is the author of all good, and the law of Christ is now written in the hearts of true and sincere believers, and the love of Jesus Christ is now shed abroad in their hearts and the fruit of it will evidence itself. This word is saying that these words, the law written in our hearts now, were not written with pen or ink, but by the Holy Spirit of God, not on tablets of stone as the law was in Moses' time, but on our softened hearts, renewed by God's divine grace. According to the promise in Ezekiel's prophetic word, we have that, by God's divine grace and according to the promise in Ezekiel's words. The promise of a new heart and a new spirit speaks of a whole new system of renewed affections in the faithful and sincere Christian soul life. The only one who could bring about this divine and supernatural change within the heart of the loyal, devoted, and conscientious believer is the Holy Spirit. The promise is to put a new spirit within you and is the fulfillment of Christ's ascension. After he arose from the dead and made himself known to his followers, he then gave the promise of giving each of us his spirit, precious Holy Spirit, to habitual, obedient, and steadfast ones whom his spirit would then direct and influence. all of these new affections and longings for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and not for the things of the world. Taking out of you and me the stony heart meant that which would not receive the impressions of the Holy Spirit before would now be capable of causing us to increase and grow to the point of God desired goal for each one of his children called spiritual maturity or full age or the fullness of Christ You see, the mind is the inner chamber of our temple, and it is like a storehouse. It can be a chamber of beauty and pleasantness to which the Lord may communicate his love, his desire, and future plans. Or it can be one of an evil and corrupt imagination. understand what you love, what you desire, and what you think about are all being recorded and imprinted on the walls of your endless and eternal imagination and mind. All being recorded. If these thoughts in our inner chambers are not renewed and made new by the truth of God's word, We will recall for eternity and forever the thoughts, the deeds, the things that we coveted and held precious in this life as we live in the dreaded and gruesome flames of hell's fire. No tears, no begging, pleading of repentance will ever wipe out those thoughts at the time for those who fell into God's judgment and decision for this kind of eternal fate. We must all stop short at times and ask ourselves, what am I painting on the chambers of my imagination or heart? Let me ask you this. What are you doing in the dark, in the chambers of your own imaginations, your own thoughts? You see, once we really repent of our sins and honestly come to Jesus Christ in humble admiration and adoration of who he is and what he's done for us, we have not been left to ourselves to form our own fantasies regarding the restoration of our souls or human apostasy or our human capabilities. we have been given true understanding through the scriptures and the divine revelation of God to trust him at all times, even in our most difficult and painful times and experiences. These scriptures that we have just read today are to be gracious reminders of those who rebelled against the judgments of God, his divine judgment and his sacred revealed purposes. You see, Ezekiel stood as a banner before God's people in contrast to their vile and perverted ways. And God has never left himself without an Elijah or an Ezekiel or some other prophet or a beseecher who echoed the divine guidance and care of God and the continuance of his grace. Stood before him and pleaded for his mercy. Ezekiel himself was to be astounded and overwhelmed by these divine revelations which says that he could have never discovered them or happened into them by himself or by chance. There are so many people in the church today who struggle and have troubles of many kinds, from financial to health problems to mental issues and so on because of sins of idolatry. Idolatry is a constant distraction for God's people. God is clear-cut and transparent on this issue. You shall not bow down to them, idols, or worship them, For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. False gods promise the world, but he is the God, the only one who can rob one of eternal life and deliver them over to eternal death and destruction. Scripture says, go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress. The renowned reformer Martin Luther said, You can't violate the other nine commandments without breaking this one first. Idolatry. Dear Church, you and I were created in God's image and likeness for one main purpose. And that purpose is to devotedly and reverently worship the God of all creation called the Almighty One. Idolatry is simply the worship of the wrong things for Christians. False worship is the unreasonable time and attention for a person, place, or thing. It is putting something else or someone else before God. It is having a passion for things and people rather than passion for God. Many people have big screen television sets or cars in their garage or dream about having these things along with fame and fortune and money and more knowledge and so forth. All of these and more steal our time away from God's word or devotion to him. Let me say it clearly. These are idols. What kind of idols do you have, dear listener? You see, you might not literally sacrifice these things on the altar, but do you sacrifice your time on the altar of misguided priorities? This affects your spiritual growth. False worship includes inappropriate and improper acts supposedly directed towards God called pretense. Many simply go to church only to go through the motions to get their duty over with for that week. and they go to church like they're really doing God a big favor by showing up there when they're really bored with all of it. Their heart is not really in it. Think about it. The people we read about in our scripture today were once the very elect of God. And they finally came to the point in their spiritual life where they said in their wickedness, the Lord doesn't see us. We have found a hiding place away from his eye, and here in this place we can do what we want and gratify the worst of our desires. In their deception, they thought this chamber within a chamber of their imaginations was a hiding place where God couldn't either hear or see the participation of their secret thoughts and schemes of enjoyments. A man or woman today can hide themselves from their fellow man in this place and can, in the very act of this prayer or meditation, place himself within the chambers of his imagination and delight himself with visions which no eye can see but his. But the very painful part about all of this is that all of this revelation consists in the fact that this idolatry was perpetrated within what was to be the sacred enclosure of the temple. These idolatrous and vain imaginations then drag these revealed revelations and dreams into sacred meeting places and present them as new discoveries and announcements from God. These people with these vain imaginations, with the worship of their own idols, say they have these revelations and dreams from God. And then they drag them into the meeting places, which are to be a sacred place where people come to meet with God. And then they present them as new discoveries and announcements and decrees from God. You see, a decay of true adoration and reverence for God rots the whole character of an individual. Let me say it again. that decay that which should be real in true adoration and reverence for God. But it's decayed, it's defiled, it rots the whole character of the individual. Secret sins take form and shape. They take form in what is called inward infidelity, better known as spiritual adultery. Cheating, treason, betrayal, lying, unfaithfulness. Secret sins also take form and shape in mistrust, skepticism, doubt, neglect of the inward admonitions of the Holy Spirit, ignoring the promptings of the Spirit. No, don't do this or that. No, don't go that way. Don't lay your eyes on this or that. neglecting these inward admonitions. They also take form and shape in inward sensualities, pride in self, achievements in intellectual knowledge, and so on. Secret sins materialize in desires and covetousness for material things, for people, for things and stuff. Secret sins show up in worship of everything but God. You see, it is the outward circumstance that fosters these secret sins. Neglect of one's spiritual responsibilities give the devil and his demons a foothold. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 declares, The heart is deceitful above all things desperately wicked, and who could know it? Mortally sick? Who can perceive it? Who could understand and be acquainted with his own heart and mind? Now I, the Lord, search the mind to try the heart, even to give every man according to his way, according to the fruit of his doing. You see, these verses show the condition of the human heart. It is deceitful above all things, and who could possibly know it? We cannot know how wicked our own heart is if it has not been renewed by the saving knowledge and the habitual practicing of God's Word, the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If our heart is deceitful let us distrust it always until the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ brings his precious change by the power of his Holy Spirit If it is desperately wicked let us soften our hearts enough to see the necessity of having a new heart created within us. You see, in the church today, and I speak specifically of leadership on this one, There are so many who lead their flocks by the secret chambers of their own sinful imaginations. Because hundreds of thousands of Christians are so ignorant and clueless of the truth in Scripture because of spiritual laziness and lethargy, they eat and feed on the words of the wolves and apostate teachers like these teachings and revelations were of God himself. The news constantly reports new articles of those in leadership positions who murder, steal, embezzle, have illicit and perverse relationships, and so on. A recent release reports that a pastor of the First Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, was on his way to Europe to marry his boyfriend when he was arrested and charged for the murder of his wife. Another Baptist pastor was arrested and convicted for killing his wife and making it look like suicide because he planned to marry his mistress and believed a divorce would harm his ministry career. Another report tells of a missionary who used the innocent little children that he was to be a father to and instead was taking pornographic pictures of them in sexual acts. He represents the worst kind of criminal in God's eyes, I am sure one that preys on his precious little creation. Another pastor, it was reported, was accused of luring a man with the offer of sex. And then once he had the man in the motel room, he robbed him while posing as a U.S. marshal. This man stole the man's computer and his iPad before he released him. You see, I could go on and on with one report after another and tell the charges of the likes of these kinds of so-called leaders in the church, let alone reporting and discussing the nauseating and degeneration of the word of God by those who profane it with their false prophecies, dreams, and revelations, and mysticisms. Many wolves and apostates amongst the church today peddle their wares like barkers at a circus. Unfortunately, many ignorant Christians flock after them and make them rich. There is a great falling away that has been predicted in Scripture, and we are told this falling away will occur in these last days. Dear believer, we are in those last days now. 2 Thessalonians 2.10 declares that there will be an end-time delusion and this delusion will happen to many who refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false. And this is what we are seeing so rampantly happening in the church today. Satan does not care into which extreme a soul will plunge. He does not care. One of the greatest reasons this is happening so quickly today is because the church has lost the fear of the Lord. The present condition of the church leaves no wonder to see that the lack of the fear of the Lord has contributed to her spiritually dead condition. In Revelation 3.15, the word says, I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you're lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spill you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, and I've prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. A healthy respect of God of fear is what our culture and church desperately need today, dear church. A healthy respect of God, a fear of God, a reverent fear of God. We must understand that without the renewal of our mind's spiritual condition by the power of God's Holy Word and precious Holy Spirit enlivening His Word and exciting our spiritual senses daily so that He may witness the truth of the revelation of the Word to our spirit. If this doesn't happen, it will only fall on deaf ears. And we will be like those who walk in the dark, but yet think that they are in the light because of living in the inner dark chambers of their imaginations and because the demon God called the image of jealousy had the legal right to sit in the entrance of the temple of the heart and soul and keep them distracted with the idols of their imaginations. remember this image is one of the main reasons for the lord's judgment coming to the people along with all of the other idolatrous practices that they were engaging in at that time and this image of jealousy today guards the minds of those who are unregenerate or unrenewed by the truth of God. They're demons. Those who are guarding it, they are demons. And as I said, without constant obedience and conformity to God's truth, these people will only sit in the church every week to do their duty and think they're doing God a favor, but they have no real interest in the salvation of their souls. They might hear a word that convicts their spirit, but that's as far as it goes. They can't have the understanding of the truth coming to them because they are continually barraged, as I said, and harassed to crave and lust after the idols which they serve by a demon who has a legal right of occupancy in the doorway of their minds and hearts, to hold them captive as slaves to these idols of their imaginations. You see, those who profess to be Christians are to be God's crown jewels. And this speaks of the preciousness of godly people. these crown jewels are those who because of the renewal of their minds and hearts by the truth of God are his prized possession and God alone can comprehend the value of a soul that has gone through this true and genuine renewal process there were many trials there were many tears and God knows the price which was paid for the ransom of these precious crown jewels. Godly people, his crown jewels in his eyes, are compared to jewels because of the inner beauty within. This beauty is not fully disclosed on the earth. The beauty of the spirit of God's sanctifying work and his polishing to make his own shine through great trials and tribulations that they were willing to go through makes them stand out as his crown jewels. Dear one, in closing, let me ask you this. Are you serving a false god in the inner chamber of your imagination? Are you worshiping any idols? If the answer is yes to these questions, then only trouble will come upon you. And the tragic part is that you are only hurting yourself. If you are serving any false gods, you are at grave risk. Your eternal salvation is at stake. Let me say it again. Your eternal salvation is at stake. And now is the time to repent. Only Jesus can save and give you peace, assurance, and salvation. Only Jesus can give you the fulfillment in life and the everlasting peace and love that he has made your heart and soul to crave. But the God of this world and his demons will only rob you of these and will leave you like a fading flower under the sun. I would like to pray for those of you who would like prayer. I would like you to bow your heads and allow me to pray for you. Dear Heavenly Father, there are many millions and millions of false gods in this world today. and there are so many false idols that are man-made and invented things and ideas that clamor for our attention. Father, I pray for those who have bowed their heads in prayer and seek for release from the God of this world and his demons, who keep them in slavery and bondage to the spirit of jealousy, who guards and protects the imaginations of their minds to keep them lusting after anything and everything, from technology to false religion to money, sex, power, material wealth, self-importance, self-image, and everything else that might keep them from coming to you and have a deep, abiding relationship with you. Lord, we know it is in this fellowship where you witness the truth of your word to our spirits. I pray for release from the false god of this world. I pray for freedom, Lord Jesus, and the power of your Holy Spirit for these. And Father, I pray that they will find you on the promise of your word as stated in Matthew chapter 7, which declares that we may know you if we do know you then we know we will truly be saved thank you Father we pray and agree in this prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our precious Savior Amen Thank you.