In a bulletin article a few weeks ago I mentioned the courage of Jeremiah, who stood before kings (who had the power of life and death over him) and delivered God’s message of doom and defeat. I even indicated that we all (and especially the preacher) should pray that God would give us that kind of courage to witness and speak His Word to others. And then we get to the book of Ezekiel, and we find another man of God with the same or similar courage. We see from our text that God gave this great servant, this prophet of His a very difficult and frightening message to deliver to some who had come to him. Pastoring and preaching involve taking God’s message from His Word to His people - not just filling a pulpit and filling up time each Sunday. I fuss a lot about preachers not taking a stand for the truth or preaching sickeningly sweet “sermonettes.” But it is also very difficult to stand before people you love and delivering a “hard” message. (I never enjoyed chastening my children, and I don’t enjoy preaching such messages.) Preachers have enough of the flesh in them that they like to feel loved and appreciated and popular just like anyone else. But you know another reason a preacher might be tempted to “go soft” on God’s Word. Listen to what God said through Jeremiah in Jermiah 5:30-31: “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; (31) The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” “ . . . and my people love to have it so . . . ” It sort of reminds you what Paul told Timothy in II Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” I Timothy 4:1-2 tells us, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (2) Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron . . . " Sadly, the attitude of many church goers today is, “Preacher, make it short and sweet, and don't offend anyone.” (If you preach the whole counsel of God, you will probably offend some people.) If I quit feeding you from God’s Word, if I ever get to the point that I am just up here to fill up time, get a salary, and go home, it is time for the church to look for a new pastor (because God may be about to take care of the present one). This message deals with how some people come to church - to hear God’s Word and to worship and praise Him, or to appear to be a faithful servant when in heart we are not. We need to keep a couple of verses of Scripture in mind as we go through this message today -- Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” and Isaiah 29:13: “. . . this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men . . . ” Our text actually presents two different incidents at two different times, but they seem to deal with very similar (or the same) conditions. As these in our text come to Ezekiel we see:

I. THEIR APPEARING - VS. 1.

II. THEIR ACTIONS - VS. 1.

III. THEIR ASKING - VS. 3.

IV. THE ANSWER - VV. 4-5.