If you have the time, and if Psalm 137:9 makes you cringe a little - PLEASE read this sermon by Pastor Mike entitled Entrusting God with our Hatreds.
I wanted to focus on the passage in Ezekiel and his being recommissioned AGAIN by God to be Israel's watchman.
In his sermon Watchmen and Shepherds, Pastor David Legge has some VERY convicting words to share...
What God is doing in chapter 33 for Ezekiel is: He is reminding him of his call as a prophet, as a watchman. I want you to note very carefully, because we have read a very similar passage to this in chapter 3 of Ezekiel, we've read a similar passage in chapter 18, and now we come a third time to where God is saying exactly the same thing to Ezekiel in chapter 33 - and that is the principle of third mention, please note that. When God says something to each of us once, that's very important - of course it is, we have to obey God when He says anything. When God says something twice, we need to sit up and listen. But when God says something three times, we can be absolutely assured of the essential nature of what God is wanting to teach us, and it is so important that we listen to God!
Why did God do this three times for Ezekiel? Because He was recommissioning him. You know, I believe with all my heart that there are some of us here tonight and we need to be recommissioned by God. We need to be recalled by God, we have forgotten when we first believed! We can say like the hymnwriter: 'Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw Lord?'. We've lost the zeal! We've lost the thrill, the love, the enthusiasm of the Lord in our life! We've become complacent! Calvary rolls off our back, it doesn't touch us any more! Our eyes are dry, our hearts are cold and hard - and could it be that we need to be recommissioned by God? Do you know what God was reminding Ezekiel of from this passage about a watchman? He was reminding him that He still wanted men to live, that's what He was saying in this passage: 'I'm not willing that any should perish'. He's telling Ezekiel: 'It's still My will that men are not destroyed by their sin, but I want them to be forgiven from their sin'.....You are responsible for your own sin, you are responsible for your own disposition before God in the realm of salvation, but more than that: you are responsible as a Christian to take the Gospel to other people, and if you do not their blood is on your hands! I know there will be those who will say: 'Oh no, you're confusing, this is the legal dispensation - we're now in grace and that does not apply'. Well, I would remind you of Paul in Acts chapter 20 and verse 26 when he said: 'I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men'. He had preached the Gospel, he was pure from their blood, his hands were clean - and there we see that principle of responsibility in the New Testament....
Come on, let's be honest tonight! Let's cut through all the facade! When was the last time you spoke to a soul about Christ? When was the last time you had a burden to pray for a man or a woman that you were speaking to? When was last time you led a soul to Christ?....
could it be that you need to be recommissioned? (emphasis mine)
Wow.
One of his phrases reminded me of the song, My Eyes are Dry, by Keith Green.
My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me
But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood
Tomorrow's passage: 1 Chronicles 5:18-26, 6:3, 6:49, 6:4-15
3 comments:
Great post! I could not agree more. And OUCH.
I thought of that song the instant I read that "eyes are dry, hearts are cold" line. We just started singing that one in church a couple of months ago.
I like what John MacArthur says in his New Testament Commentary on the book of Acts that Paul was faithful with what ministry God had given him. He is speaking to church leaders here but the idea does apply to us all. We are not guilty for the blood of all we did not talk to but those whom God's will has that we should. So, for me it's a conviction to be alert, as a watchman, looking around me for those opportunitites and praying I'll notice them. I don't want to get lazy and miss that which he brings to me to do.
I know I continually go through cold phases but I sure love coming out of them by the grace of God!
Thank you for sharing the sermon on Psalm 137:9. I've thought for a long time that anger and even hatred in and of themselves are not sin, as long as we don't act on them in a sinful way, or nurse them into bitterness that corrupts the soul and damages our relationship with God, or makes us pull away from him in order to keep that bitterness close rather than letting Him take it away.
As we've seen frequently in our reading so far, there are many things that anger God and many things he hates (well, most of them probably fall under the general category of sin), so therefore the emotions themselves cannot be sinful. We can't choose how we feel, only how we act or do not act as a result.
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