Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.51LIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.45UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.78LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.79LIKELY
Extraversion
0.11UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.33UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.7LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Intro
This morning as we dive back into the book of Ezekiel we find two of those special messages.
They were messages of judgement here in chapters 6-7.
The first messages explains how idolatry of the people defiled the land and the temple.
The next message talks about the terrible disaster that would come by the Babylonian army.
As we see time and time again, God’s people continuously turn away from him and worship idols.
Brothers and sisters, this grieves God.
It breaks His heart!
So, this discipline that Ezekiel warns the people about is not random but something they deserved.
v. 6:1-7
For whatever reason, Israel could not pass the class Covenant 101.
The main lesson of this class is simple.
In order to pass the class you have to know one thing.
God is Yahweh
God is the Lord
Over and over, the prophet Ezekiel reminds the people that God is the Lord.
But the people had forgotten who He is and what He has commanded.
The Israelites had to be reminded that the land belonged to the Lord and he allowed them to use it, as long as… they didn’t defile the land with their sins.
If… the they obeyed His law, God would bless them in their land.
However, if they failed to keep the covenant, the Lord would punish them by withholding blessing from the land or He would “vomit” them out of the land.
The people treated their false gods like they were the highest things in the land while God saw them as the lowest and most defiling thing - dung.
The prophet tells the people how the Babylonian army would come in and break down the shrines and altars and destroy the idols.
They wouldn’t stop there.
The Babylonian soldiers would kill the worshippers and leave their rotting corpses as sacrifices to the fallen idols.
v.
3-7
The enemy would stack the dead bodies around the shrines like logs of defiled flesh.
Even through all this destruction, Ezekiel reminds the people of the grace of God.
By God’s grace, He would spare a remnant.
We talked a little bit about this remnant that would be spared the last time we were together and review chapter 5. (V.
5:1-3)****
This remnant is mentioned as a reminder through the book of Ezekiel.
7:16
11:16-21
12:15-16
14:22-23
16:60-63
This remnant is made up of people who are faithful to God and those that would be spared as part of the covenant promise laid out in lev.
26:40-46
It’s this remnant that later returned to the land, rebuilt the temple, restored the worship of the Lord and eventually paved the way for the coming of the Messiah.
The problem is that this worship wasn’t just an abomination but it was also adultery.
Adultery?
How so?
You see the Israelites had been married to God at Mt. Sinai and the worship of any other god was an act of adultery.
God is Broken-hearted over this indiscretion.
Over this unfaithfulness
God is literary broken to pieces, wrecked and devastated.
Why?
Because He loves His people and love makes us vulnerable.
We saw this theme play out in the book of Hosea.
In a similar way we see the defilement of God’s love for Israel, we have the prophet Hosea, whose wife became a prostitute and had to be brought back by her loving husband.
Ezekiel tells the people the people that all they had to do was repent and return to God.
What is Idolatry?
We got the answer to this during one of our responsive readings.
Question 17: What is Idolatry
Answer: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.
In the book, “The Church and Idolatry” Jared Wilson says, “All sin is idolatry because every sin is an exercise in trust of something or someone other than the one true God to satisfy, fulfill or bless”
We may not be on the hills of Israel but if we continually offer our worship to seek security in something other than God, then we are just as guilty as Ezekiel’s generation and God is just as grieved.
Even on this side of the cross we’re in danger of grieving God.
In chapter 7 Ezekiel gives the people a message of disaster.
The nation was blessed with a gracious Lord to worship and love.
They were given a fruitful land to enjoy and a holy law to obey.
It was their love for the Lord and their obedience to His law would determine how much blessing He could entrust to them in the land.
The generation that first entered the land obeyed God’s covenant as well as the next generation.
But the third generation, they decided to provoke the Lord and broke their marriage vows so to speak.
they prostituted themselves to idols.
They disobeyed the law, defiled their Lord and defiled the land and the Lord would not accept that kind of attitude.
He didn’t accept it then.
He doesn’t accept it now.
This is a tragic story, but it reminds us that the Lord is serious about His covenant and our obedience.
Conclusion
The only way for us to avoid repeating Israel’s failures is to clearly identify what they did and turn ourselves from those things.
What did they do?
Their promiscuous hearts turned away from God
Their eyes lusted after their idols
Ezekiel 7:20 says they took His beautiful ornaments and made abhorrent images from them and detestable things.
Most of all they weren’t even ashamed of their sin.
They didn’t try to hide it.
They engaged in their adultery “on every high hill, on all the mountaintops and under every green tree and every leafy oak” as it’s described in Ezekiel 6:13
Instead of being remorseful, they were arrogant and prideful.
If what or who we worship cannot hear us, see us, move itself or even save itself, then it probably cannot do anything FOR us either, and it is not worthy of worship.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9