The Revelation from God - A Sermon on Ezekiel 36:16

the words to which I should like to call your attention this evening are to be found in that portion of scripture which we read at the beginning in the book of The Prophet Ezekiel in the 36th chapter and the 16th verse the 16th verse in the 36th chapter of the book of The Prophet Ezekiel moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying and then follows the entire section which we read at the beginning but I want this evening particularly to concentrate on this introductory statement this 16th verse and through it and by means

of it have a general look with you also at the entire statement of the whole paragraph which we have already read together now the first thing that strikes anybody who's at all familiar with the Bible is that this is a phrase which is found in many places in the Bible indeed it is one of the most characteristic statements of phrases especially of the prophecies which are recorded in the Old Testament it's just a typical illustration it's the kind of thing that not only Ezekiel keeps on saying but Jeremiah says it Isaiah says it they all

say it the word of the Lord came unto me saying and then there follows the message now I want to call attention to this because it seems to me that here we have presented to us very clearly and very plainly what is the message of this entire book now the context is always interesting the children of Israel at this point when this word of God came to Ezekiel were not only in trouble but they were in captivity Ezekiel is one of those prophets who writes in the midst of captivity now the other some of the

other prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah they wrote before the Captivity while the children of Israel were still in their land but by this time by the time this man Ezekiel came the Calamity had happened Nemesis had descended upon them their great city was a mess of rubble and they had been carried away as captives by the calans to the land of Babylon now there they were I say and they having time thus in misery and in captivity to think and to consider their whole situation and looking back this is what they found things had been

all right with them for a while they'd been put into their land by God and they had experienced blessing and prosperity but here they are now in captivity what's the cause of all this well they look back across the history and this is what they saw things began to go wrong and in that situation they were addressed by a number of people there were men whom they called prophets they were teachers who claimed that they were profound students of Affairs and of history and that they as the result of their study and their meditations had

arrived at certain conclusions and were able to offer advice to the people and they had been speaking and they had been addressing the people and their message was in effect that though things were not all right well there was nothing very serious nothing to be alarmed about it inate and that if they made a slight modification here and there all would be well with them but on the other hand there were certain men who claimed that they had been specially called and sent by God men like Isaiah and Jeremiah and others whose works are recorded

in this Old Testament Cannon they had come and they had said something very different indeed they had said that the situation was desperately serious and that unless the nation repented in sackcloth and Ashes that calam was bound to come they're all typified in a sense by a phrase that was uttered by the prophet Joel Rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God the situation said these men is so desperate it's so urgent that nothing but a most ensal renovation a complete humbling before God and a turning back to him

can save the position and as you know there was a great quarrel going on between these two types these first people the so-called false prophets ridiculed these latter the true prophets and they comforted the people and the people set at ease in Zion they rested on their leaves as the picturesque expression puts it and they went on enjoying themselves some of them lying on their Ivory beds and indulging in luxury and living for she pleasure and drink and dancing and things of that kind and so the position continued to degenerate from bad to worse until

at last the predictions of the two prophets were very literally fulfilled and the calan HST came and attacked and demolished the city as I say and carried away the people C captive into the land of Babylon now that was the thing which they saw when they looked back and here they are now in this land of Babylon by strange Waters down and out as it were and finished and what hope is there for them what can they do they don't want to hear the easy smooth things of the false prophets any longer at last they'd

seen through them but what can they do they're weak they're helpless they don't know what to do nor where to turn how can they ever get back to their land how can they ever get back to their great city of Jerusalem what hope is there for them as a people and as a nation here they are disgraced humbled and humiliated and in shame in the sight of all the nations what hope is there what can be done and and there is none apart from the words of our text but this is how it came here

is a man amongst them called Ezekiel and suddenly to him comes the word of the Lord this wasn't the first time it came you read his whole book you'll find how it came repeatedly he was with them he was one of the captives he sat down amongst them in their misery and in their shame he sat down amongst them By the Waters of Babylon but into the utter hopelessness of it all there came to him this word of the Lord opening a door giving a hope showing a way of Deliverance now I am calling your

attention to all this because I say it is so typical and characteristic of the whole of the B biblical message that is precisely what the Bible does at all times and in all generations that is what it's doing this very evening because surely our situation is so strangely analogous to that of the children of Israel in the helplessness and the hopelessness of their captivity there in Babylon isn't the position EX exactly the same look at the history you've got an exact repetition of what I've just been saying final disaster has not overtaken us nor our

world but we're in trouble we are in difficulties and the whole question is as as as to what is the matter and again you see the same old division as before you pick up your newspapers and you look at their front pages and you scarcely know what to think nor what to say is the world in trouble or isn't it look at the latest news look at the things that are given prominence what is the situation of the world this evening is is there anything critical to what there can't be because the great thing is

some marriage that's to take place this week and the excitement and the show and the fuss and the pump there can't be anything wrong with the world why everything's wonderful let's have a good time you see what I mean you see the confusion the general impression given is no no there's nothing very serious about it all and here are these vices that are speaking to the Modern Men he's got a feeling that there's something wrong and yet he listens to these various voices I've mentioned one the voice that comes the word that comes with his

newspaper and he finds it very difficult to know whether he really ought to take things seriously or not so much is given to she pleasure to that which is animal to share Sport and things like that that's given such prominence he says it can't be serious that's one voice that comes oh there are many other voices the voice comes to him the word comes to him through the wireless he takes its programs and he says well now let me see how much is there here which is serious very little most of it sure entertainment very

funny we told to laugh the whole time and to have a marvelous wonderful time together he says there can't be anything very serious after all why should he be troubled about it that's another word that comes or there are many other words there's the word of the politician confused again uncertain not seeming to know which way to turn or what to do confusion all along the line the word of the philosophers the words of the poet and all of them I say when put together they somehow leave you with this impression that while there is

a problem and while there is trouble there's nothing very desperate here but above all I say the tragedy is there is no line given there is no way opened there seems to be no door opening before us what can we expect have we any Prospect of anything better now I'm just putting these questions to you as you listen to the various vices that come from various directions to you as a typical modern person what do you make of it all isn't it all confusion isn't it a repetition of this old story at ease in Zion

people still thinking manly of having their supposed good time spending all their money getting things while they've got it and so on Living For The Moment hand to mouth day today isn't that the picture thus I say we are confronted by this baffling confusing situation and where it not that still we have this word from the Lord there would be no hope at all but here it still is here is still the message that keeps on coming as it did then as it has always done and as it is still doing but the tragedy is

that the vast majority of people seem to be heedless and unconcerned about this they feel it's irrelevant they feel it's far away the thing they say to do is is to follow the news the visit of these men from Russia and so this is the relevant thing here it is on one hand and on the other the Bible oh well an old book oldfashioned out of date obviously has got nothing to say to us now and they're looking in every direction except in this Direction exactly as the children of Israel did well but the question

is why do they do that why should one listen to the Bible why should one listen to this particular word why are we met together to consider it this evening are we doing something wise or are we being foolish are we simply perpetuating some ancient custom or is this the most Relevant Word coming to Mankind in its confus Fusion this very night well now then the another way of putting all that is just to put it like this that nothing surely is more important for us than our whole approach to this book so many people

are not Christian and are in trouble and are missing the glories of this salvation because their whole fundamental initial approach is one their whole attitude to this word is wrong well what therefore is of importance as we come to consider it well let me note some of these things that are suggested here on the surface this evening the first thing we have for regarding this are special and unique is this that it is a revelation from God moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying now that's the fun mental reason for listening to

this and paying attention to this it's in a different category from everything else it's no part of the preaching of the Gospel to disparage everything else in and of itself but we are entitled to say this that everything else apart from this is always human it's the word of men it's men's thought it's man's understanding it's man's idea it's what a man thinks but the uniqueness of this lies in the fact that it is a revelation from God it is God himself speaking and my dear good friends if it's of interest to you that's my

only reason for being a preacher I wouldn't insult you by standing in front of you and simply giving my own ideas in this mod and Confused situation I frankly admit that human thought alone cannot give one an understanding of it this present Century seems seems to have beled all the prophecies it seems to have broken all the rules if there is Advance well why are things as they are why have they gone wrong all our scientific Notions seem to be turned Topsy Turvy why are we as we are that's the question but no I say

this isn't human this is the word of God now that is the claim that is made by all these men who appear in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Ezekiel was just a man like all those other Israelites in captivity and he was sitting down by their side By the Waters of Babylon as disconsolate and as hopeless as they were when suddenly he tells us he was given a vision what he writes isn't the result of his citation and meditation and thought and Analysis not at all he says I did nothing it came

to me it's something he received God began to speak to him we need go in detail into how exactly he did it tonight but God can speak without audible words he can speak to the spirit he can impress truth on the mind and this man was spoken to by God and he gave his message to his fellow countrymen now they all claim what he claims here the burden of the Lord they say the word of the Lord came to me and of course this is the whole claim which the Bible makes for itself everyone now

some of these men they not only tell us that it isn't their own thought and their own idea some of them are quite honest enough and Frank us enough to tell us this that when God did speak to them and give them their message they themselves decided that they wouldn't speak it they knew it was going to be unpopular Jeremiah tells us that very honestly he says if I say that I know exactly what'll happen to me I'll be hounded out of the country they'll throw me into prison and they did that sort of thing

to them and he didn't want to be unpopular he didn't want to speak oh how nice it is to be praised by everybody and to say the thing that men likes us to say to him how nice to be told by the newspaper always how wonderful we are and so on how different from being told that we are fools that we are naves that we are mad in our falling away from God so they said I'm not going to speak it it isn't their word it's God's word and the New Testament you know says exactly

the same thing the Lord Jesus Christ said the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself but the father that sent me he giveth the words The Works that I do I do not of myself the father that sent me he doeth the works even he the Son of God says he's but a messenger a voice and you've got explicit statements all scripture is given by inspiration of God this word claims that it's breathed in by God holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost says the apostle

Peter no Prophecy of the scripture he says is of any private interpretation by which he means this that all these prophetic messages are not as I said the excitations of a man's mind not something that man spins out no word of Prophecy is of any private interpretation it isn't a man's Insight it isn't his understanding into history of philosophy no no holy men of God spake as they were moved inspired carried along born Along by the Holy Spirit now that is something of course which is obviously quite basic in our whole position my message to

you tonight my challenge to you is this that in your modern confusion whether personal or general you are being addressed by these two schools of thought here is this which claims to be from God there is all else which is but from men whatever it may be said there is no difference you see ultimately between those philosophies you look at your newspaper front page I say again half of it is devoted to the wedding half of it is devoted to the two men from Russia and I don't care which you say is the thing they're

all men it's all human now here is something which is absolutely Ely different the Bible starts on this supposition that man as he is cannot attain unto truth now this is a very drastic statement I'm well aware of it but it is the first statement of the scripture man as he is in his sin in his misery and in his shame cannot arrive at the truth about himself his need his way of Deliverance he cannot now that is something which I suggest to you the modern world is proving the world has been trying to solve

its problems now for a very long time and is anyone foolish enough to suggest that it's any nearer to solving it tonight than it's ever been the confusion is greater than ever what's it mean well I said the world itself is proving this fundamental postulate that man in and of himself cannot arrive at truth concerning his greatest needs the Bible puts that in many ways it says can a man by searching find out God it puts it positively by saying the World by wisdom knew not God that is men's essential problem so that the first

thing we have to realize is this that we are entirely dependent upon the revelation of God now the Bible tells you that at the very beginning you either come to this prepare to accept it or else you don't I see no other alternative it's one or the other you either belong to the people who say God has spoken and I listen and I believe or else you say now then I don't agree with this I'll accept this and reject that and already you've denied Revelation you see how basic this is how fundamental man in his

helplessness is shut up to Revelation the Lord Jesus Christ said unless he be converted and become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God he said to a learned man called Nicodemus you must be born again you don't just stand where you are and say I've got so far then go on tipto and being given a little help get into the kingdom not at all you've got to go right down that means you confess your complete failure you wait upon revelation like Ezekiel sitting by the Waters of Babylon with

the others in captivity the word comes now that is the whole message of the Bible that man himself cannot Aspire unto God and unto salvation but that God in his infinite grace and mercy gives it reveals it the word of the Lord came I mustn't keep you tonight with proofs of this but surely the moment you begin to think of it you can see how inevitable this is the very greatness of God makes it quite impossible for men by his own efforts ever to arrive at God can you think of pure absolute spirit for God

is Spirit can you think of a person who is omnipresent and omniscient and omnipotent it's impossible the very greatness of God makes it quite impossible for us to grasp him and yet men in his folly today says I will understand God he puts God on the bench as it were and proceeds to dissect him that he may Encompass god with his mind God is in his hands how monstrous it is the very greatness of God precludes the possibility can you think about our absolute Holiness can you look into the Sun and go on doing so

without being blinded well how can men look into the face of God Eternal absolute light endless Everlasting Holiness who is man that he can rise and stand and look God in the face my dear friends The Thing by definition is a complete and an utter impossibility man will never find God I again quote you what Paul said to the Corinthians the World by wisdom knew not God there has never been a man in this world who by his own efforts has arrived at God your greatest philosophers have all tried and have all failed equally and

they're failing as miserably today men because of the very greatness of God is shut up to Revelation if God doesn't speak we know nothing and then when you add to that man's nature in sin man's condition in sin you see how utterly impossible it is for none of our faculties have escaped the fall when man fell his every faculty fell man's mind has fallen his will has fallen his heart has fallen everything in men has fallen our brains get tired our minds begin to show fatigue we can follow an argument so far then we suddenly

fail we need training we get it we still can't follow if we've had training can it how can the other person who hasn't how can such a person couldn't possibly do it no no the whole state and condition of men as well as the greatness of God makes it un utter and an absolute impossibility the Bible starts by telling us all that it says look here in your need in your misery in your helplessness listen listen to the voice of God that is to accept our utter dependence upon Revelation this book claims to be a

revelation of God and his eternal mind that's the first thing the second thing is this it is always a contemporary Revelation so that this argument about the Bible because it's an old book being out of date and irrelevant Falls in exactly the same way why is this message always contemporary and always relevant well for this good reason take your B itself and read through it and this is what will strike you at once that the Bible seems to go on saying the same thing always it starts in the very beginning of Genesis it says certain

things God Made Men God spoke to him man disobeyed got into misery and there he was helpless God came and spoke to him there it is at the beginning well then go on to the time of the flood same thing again hundreds of years had passed but the same message time of Abram same again with all these Kings and Prophets same thing come to the New Testament exactly the same thing it's an astounding book that it's a long book it was written at different periods by different men who didn't know one another had no connection

with one another and yet they're all saying exactly the same thing why is that well the answer is clear isn't it because it's always God who's speaking and God doesn't change we we talk about the changes in the world and the changes in men I'll deal with that in a moment but before you see you come to consider this you start with this if this is a message from God God speaking to Abel God speaking to Adam before that God speaking to Noah God speaking to Abram God speaking to David God speaking to the prophets

and if God is ever lastingly the same if God is the father of Lights in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning and if God cannot change well then I would expect God's message to be always the same and it is the same but the fact of the matter is also that man doesn't change either so here's another good reason why the message shouldn't change go through those illustrations I've just been giving you don't you see the same thing Adam exercised his own will instead of obeying God's that's the very thing we're all in

our Folly still doing Cain murdered his brother men are still murdering one another in various ways David fell into Grievous sin adultery the newspapers are still full of it so why should the message change God doesn't change man doesn't change the situation is still the same I read of the children of Israel in the Captivity of Babylon I see the modern world I see no difference it's the different country it's only the form the situation is identical God the same man the same in sin the same message therefore and here it is it's always contemporary

for its message you see comes to this that the one thing that matters for us all is our relationship to God and it doesn't matter whether you're alive now or whether you lived a th000 years ago or 2,000 or 6,000 it's God and yourself and the relationship between you that really matter so it comes to pass you see that this section which I read to you just now from verse 16 to the end of this chapter is a perfect statement of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it's all here you can take

almost any paragraph you like in the Bible and you'll find the whole message there what is it what is the message well it's this what is this Revelation well it's always the whole message the whole statement it's first and us the truth about God himself that's what you don't find you see in these other voices they don't tell you about him they're interested in other things human qualities human calculations human interests stop a minute says the Bible God the word of the Lord came and I say again that you and I know nothing about God

apart from what we know in this book you can say of course I don't think God should do this and I don't understand a God who does that all right say it all but you know you know nothing about God neither do I apart from what you have in this book on what you base your knowledge of God what right have you to put down your definitions of God do you know him have you spoken to him have you heard His Voice have you felt his presence have you seen him of course you haven't we

know nothing about God except what he has graciously been pleased to reveal and to manifest himself to us and he has done so it's plain and clear he is a holy God read your Ten Commandments and there you'll have some inkling of God he's the maker and the creator of the world he's the judge Eternal he is the one who sits upon the whole universe and before whom we all stand God listen to the word of God my dear friend stop here ear to all these other viices all this rockers laughter all this jocularity and

all this pretense that all is marvelous and wonderful and thrilling and exciting shut it out I say and beist begin to listen to what God tells you about himself self God in his eternal glory then he tells you about God creating the world and creating men you must start with these things and then he goes on to tell you the truth about man himself oh that's the tragedy of this Folly of listening to these other voices they don't tell us the truth about ourselves they don't tell us the truth about men read your newspapers and

what you think men is well I suggest to you the only conclusion you can come to is that men is an animal and that the most important thing for men is food and drink and sex the world is full of Sex and the interest and the excitement sex is man but an animal is he a creature of the Jungle is that all that's the impression given a mass of complexes a kind of Beast I say that doesn't know what to do with himself oh my dear friend begin to listen to the word of God that

will tell you the truth about yourself man was never meant to be as he is that was never meant to be life that you see depicted there that isn't life that's hell that's what man is made of life it's only here you'll realize the greatness and the glory of men his true nature what he was meant for what his life was designed for what he was intended to be and to do oh I plead with you listen to the truth about yourself as you find it here it's all here and likewise you'll find the truth

about history you'll find the truth about eternity you'll find it all but very especially this is the thing that this paragraph will make us concentrate on as in God's good time and in God's will we come to listen to it and to deal with it in detail it will tell us very especially about this why is man as he is now let me give you a thought TST listen to how it's put son of man this was the first word son of men listen when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land they defiled

it by their own way and by their doings that's why things are as they are as if God had said to Ezekiel Ezekiel you are sitting with your contemporaries with your fellow countrymen By the Waters of Babylon and you're all miserable and unhappy but men the question is why are you here instead of being there and the answer is quite plain it's your own Folly you polluted your own land you defiled it you rebelled against God and his way you've brought this upon yourselves it's you are the cause not your circumstances not anything else you've

done it yourself it makes that very plain and clear to us and then it tells us how God hates that and condemns it oh yes it's all here we'll have to expound it God hates that sort of thing and he hates it to this extent that he punishes it he does condemn it he tells them here that he it was through the calans who flung them out of their own land and threw them out amongst the Nations you can't trifle with God and you can't escape him and God punishes sin he's done it from the

very beginning as he threw Adam out of the Garden of Eden he threw his own people out of the land of Israel but oh thank God it doesn't stop there the word of the Lord came unto me saying and after it had told them about God and about themselves and why they were as they were and why God had punished them it goes on to tell them that in spite of it God is going to deliver them not because they deserved it but for his own Glory sake for his own namesake the word of the

Lord came oh that's the glory of this book it keeps on saying that you and I had we been in the position of God we would have dismissed these children of Israel repeatedly and shot them out of our sight but God comes down to them and speaks to them and there's the whole message of the Gospel when the fullness of the times had come God sent forth his own son the word word of God himself the expression of God's love God's final word to men in the person of his only son he came and he

spoke and he did and this Bread and Wine speak it's all speaking the same thing God's way of Deliverance for us In Spite of Ourselves and finally God's word to us in the light of all this which is a word that calls to repent to think again oh said God to Ezekiel go and tell those people when they see it they'll hate themselves and their sins they'll abominate themselves call them to repentance and the turning back to me that's its message it's a full message and I finally want to say this therefore it is a

message which which must be accept as it is and as a whole that is absolutely essential this message all hangs together you can't pick out parts of it and say ah I'll take that and leave out the rest you cannot it's impossible this as I started by saying is a revelation from God it isn't what men have arrived at it isn't what men have discovered it's what God has revealed concerning himself if I accept it as Revelation well to be consistent to be logical I must accept it all but you say I don't like that

doctrine of sin I'm not asking you what you like I'm asking you to believe what God has said and take it from me my friend if you don't start by accepting what the Bible tells you about the Holiness of God you'll never know his love never the false Prophets You See said to Israel oh they said it's all right God is love don't you take this too seriously carry on God's love but they found that God was just also and that's why they were carried away to Babylon God is love yes but God is holy

God is light and in him is no Darkness at all you must take the whole message you say I don't like that message about Sin it seems to me to be rather degrading to ask a men to admit that he's a miserable vile sinner I don't believe that sort of stuff I say to you again that it's not a question of what you like when you really get to know yourself you'll know it's true but even until you do get to know it believe it because it's God's diagnosis of you it's what God has revealed

take it from me no man has ever known Christ as his savior until he has known his need of a savior that was the whole trouble with the Pharisees they didn't like to think they were Sinners and they didn't see the need of his Savior and they rejected him it's the man who sees his need who thanks God for the Salvation you can't pick and choose in this salvation it's all here it's an entire message and every single part must be taken if you don't what do you think gospel is something else there are people

who hate the doctrine of the blood of Christ they say I don't like it this insistence upon the blood very well I say if you don't like it I can't help it but you'll never go to heaven without it there is only one way of entering into the holiest of all it is by the blood of Jesus Christ without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins that wasn't an idea concocted by these prophets or by any priests it was the revelation of God God Called Moses up onto the mountain and said Moses listen

I want to give you a pattern of a temple Tabernacle offerings tells him all about the animals which to take and which to reject how to put their hands on the head of the animal how to slay him how to burn the carcass how to offer the blood it's God who St him and it's always God and it must all be taken together and as a whole shall I therefore End by putting it you in this way and this is the message of the Gospel to any troubled unhappy and miserable soul in this congregation you

you are like Ezekiel you are sitting in shame and in sorrow you had your ideas about life and about what you could do you said You' got a strong will and that you could play with sin but you've discovered that it was sin that was playing with you and you've lost your character you've lost your reputation you feel you've discovered at last that you can't master things you are down and you're in shame sitting by the Waters of Babylon my dear friend listen can't you hear it can't you hear the word of God speaking to

you and telling you that in spite of all your Folly and all your arrogance and all your shame and all you've brought upon yourself for his own name's sake God God sent his son into the world to die for you and for your sins he comes to you where you are sitting by the Waters of Babylon just where you are in the midst of your failure in the midst of your degradation he comes to you there he tells you why you there and he tells you how he can lift you out of it and take

your back to himself cleanse you wash you fill you with his Spirit give you a new heart a heart of Flesh and shower his mighty blessings upon you have you heard him has the word of God in Jesus Christ come to you that is what he's saying God so loved the world that he gave his his only begotten son that whosoever whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life listen amen we do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr Martin lyd Jones all of the sermons contained within the mlj

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