Book of Ezekiel - The Pattern of Sound Teaching

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL

Please watch the Video Before Reading the Lesson Plan

Church: Ephesus              Lesson 15 out of 39 lessons                         Theme: Mercy

Background Information:

* We asked in the book of Ruth, “How can the creation know how to share God’s mercy?"

*  In 2 Chronicles, we were awakened to learn how the world will try to confuse the message of Jesus’ sacrifice with pride.

* In Proverbs, we learned from a wise man how to remember to be a witness who can understand how to present our body as a living sacrifice by running the race and getting a crown.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Ezekiel:

I can be a witness who lines up my testimony with the Chief Cornerstone (the sacrifice Christ made) by remembering that when people are performing abominations, I must warn them with wise and merciful words that an abomination is not acceptable to God. Fearing the Lord is a message that needs to be included because there are some people whom we will only show mercy to by fearing the Lord.

Essential Question:

Does the world teach you to warn people not to have pride while performing an abomination?

Book of Ezekiel:

Have students read pages 49-53 in The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Realizing that Jesus made a sacrifice for our sin and how He can make an intersession for us is important. The world is not teaching us how to look to Jesus’ sacrifice and to warn our neighbor with wisdom that an abomination is not acceptable to God.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

Proverbs are great for teaching wisdom. However, we have to be aware of false proverbs. You have heard many times, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” This is a false proverb.

When we are surrounded by people performing abominations, we need to hold onto the message of mercy and not argue back. When a neighbor is performing abominations, we are to warn them of the pending judgment of hell with mercy. Warning someone that their current path will cause them to burn in hell does not seem like a mission of mercy. When we love our neighbor, we will warn them with a loving merciful message that can help them find wisdom if they choose to turn to God.

Remember the Rock God Established:

The book of Ezekiel begins with people who were taken from their homeland, southern Judah, to a refugee camp along the river to Chebar. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had seized 10,000 people from southern Judah. Ezekiel was living in this camp and stayed quiet for the first five years. Staying silent is a good way to hang onto what you have. Remember, if you cannot say something nice, don’t say anything at all. However, remember too that when you remain silent forever you are saying something by not saying anything at all. Because a time always comes to speak.

After five years, Ezekiel had a vision from God to deliver a message to the children of Israel, a hardhearted people. God told Ezekiel not to be afraid of their words or their looks. God compared the children of Israel to scorpions. The people were bitter and angry, and Ezekiel was holding onto what he had by remaining silent.

God gave Ezekiel a message to go to the river of Chebar and speak His word to them. God told Ezekiel he was not being sent to a people who speak a different language, but to the people of Israel; however, if He sent Ezekiel to people who had a strange language, they would listen to Ezekiel better than Israel would listen because the Israelites were a hardhearted people.

At the river of Chebar, Ezekiel sat silent for seven days. After seven days, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel with four directions:

(1)   About the evil man, you will warn him to turn from his wicked behaviors, and if you do not warn the wicked to turn from their wicked behaviors then their blood will be on your hands.

(2)   However, if you warn the wicked man of his behavior, and he does not turn from his ways, he will surely die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.

(3)   On the flip side, when a righteous man does turn from his righteous ways and commits iniquity, and God lays a problem before him, he shall die because you have not warned him. The righteous man will die in all his sin. If you have not given him warning then his righteousness that he has done will not be remembered, and his blood will be on your hands.

(4)   However, if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, then he will surely live because he is warned, and you have delivered your soul.

The Lord then made Ezekiel’s tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth. Ezekiel only said what the Lord wanted him to say. The message the Lord wanted Ezekiel to say was that the soul that sins shall surely die. This means that each person is accountable for their sin. Sin is not inherited nor is it predestined.

Ezekiel called the people out about how they were teaching and spreading a false proverb: The sons are responsible for the sins of their fathers. A promise is that each person is responsible for their own sin. As it is written in Deuteronomy 24:16, each person is responsible for their own sin.

Ezekiel explained that sin can be forgiven or forgotten when we use God’s words to warn the wicked to turn from sin. We need to include mercy. When we make someone aware they are performing an abomination we can’t use an abomination to do it. We have to make someone aware of their sin with wisdom and mercy. It is important to be wise when confronting someone that they have committed an abomination. It is also important to fear the Lord as a way to share mercy with annoying neighbors.

Activity:

Please complete the BLOG below.

Conclusion:

Does the world teach us to look to the sacrifice Jesus made to learn how to warn people with wisdom and mercy that God hates abominations?

Next Lesson:

In the next lesson, Jonah is sent to warn people about abominations and shares a message of fear without sharing mercy. A sinful behavior that bears lukewarm faith is how Jonah returned an abomination for an abomination with pride.

BLOG: Write a statement of faith on how the Spirit of God will fill and sanctify your heart by cultivating and conditioning the wise fruit of the spirit that is beginning to ripen with gentle love for a neighbor as you love yourself, to come into fruition by bearing witness with the Spirit of God to fill the third spiritual stone pillar of sanctification in the church of Smyrna.

PROMP STARTER (optional)

My statement of faith to be sanctified through building the third foundational pillar of sanctification in the church of Smyrna is defined as always being ready to __________________________ against ___________________________with the second line of defense which is _________________________________________. The goal of sanctification is Christlikeness. Christlikeness is where the fruit of the spirit begins to come into fruition of the spirit that can be identified as ________________________________.

Melody's Statement of Faith (I modeled my statement of faith; you can use it for yours and tweak it if you want):

Sanctification is a work in progress where being a credible witness with a spirit like a wise woman will grow into being Christlike through bearing witness with the Spirit Himself to give me gentleness through wisdom and fear of the Lord that I am a child of God. My statement of faith is that I will bear witness with the Spirit Himself because I will have a spirit that is wise and knows when to speak with patience and gentleness when my neighbor is performing abominations. The Spirit Himself will prune away branches that are not coming into fruition. I will need to continue the pattern of justification and sanctification, and when the Spirit Himself bears witness with me, it increases my faith in Jesus; I can feel it! This is spiritual warfare.

Because your statement of faith is an important part of salvation, please write a statement of faith on how the Spirit of God will cultivate and condition your fruit of the spirit that is beginning to ripen into coming into fruition to fill the third stone pillar of sanctification in Jesus' Church of Smyrna, in the comments section below.