Stand In The Gap[1]
Ezekiel 22:26-31
Introduction
OUR RESPONSIBILITY AS BELIEVERS- To Stand in the Gap
My last Message was about the book of Daniel, seeing the big picture of where our world was going
Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, Roman, Revived Roman Empire & finally the kingdom of God. Knowing God is in control & sovereign gives us encouragement to be faithful in our task in our present day & age. Daniel is real, prophecies. But here in Ezekiel, the Israelites have lost the battle, although not the ultimate war.
We can win the war
but lose the battle here.
That’s the reason for our topic for today…. OUR
RESPONSIBILITY AS BELIEVERS- STANDING IN THE GAP. This is one of the message of
the book…to fulfill our responsibilities or else lose our battles. Let’s see what happened w/ the
Israelites & learned significant lessons from them.
During Ezekiel’s time we see the general corruption of all ranks.
1. Their government officials had become corrupt.
27 Your politicians are like wolves prowling and
killing and rapaciously taking whatever they want.(The Message)
27 Your leaders are like wolves who tear apart their
victims. They actually destroy people’s lives for money! (NLT)
They were called wolves—notorious
for fierce and cruelty to all those that stood in their way. Politicians, leaders, princes should
have employed the influence of their position for the people’s welfare, But made “gain” their sole aim. All their
business was to gratify themselves.
Application now:
Filled with greed and self-interest , many people wants
to be Politician/leader w/ a very small pay? Why? Spend more in their campaigns more than what they will
earn from their salary.2. The priesthood had failed in their duty.
26 Your priests have
violated my instructions and defiled my holy things. They make no distinction
between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the
difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my
Sabbath days so that I am dishonored among them.
The priests were just as bad.
1. They violated the law of God, which they should
have observed and taught others to observe.
2. They profaned
God’s holy things, They allow those to eat of the holy things who were
unqualified by the law. They did not exclude those from God’s courts who were
excluded by the law.
3. They did they show the people how to put a difference, between the clean and the
unclean, according to the directions and distinctions of the law. between
times and places holy and common;
4. They
flaunted the Sabbaths; it was all one
to them whether God’s Sabbaths were kept holy or no; they neither gave countenance to those who
observed them nor check to those who profaned them, nor did they themselves
show any regard to them or veneration for them. They winked at those who did
servile works on that day, and looked another way when they should have
inspected the behavior of the people on Sabbath days.
What is the Sabbath? Purpose of the
Sabbath…rest, refreshed, Worship God. It is a Holy Day- set apart for Him….not
a holiday. A time to give our Thanks to God- Testimony, Praise & Worship,
Tithes & Offerings. A time to listen from God’s Word
5.
By all of this God himself was profaned among them; his authority was
slighted, his goodness made light of, and the highest affront and contempt
imaginable were put upon his holiness. They were supposed to represent God to
the people, God's representatives. Stumbling block- 1 Corinthians-name of God
Blasphemed
Present Day Examples:
1.Their ministers and priests condoned their evil practices. . .now, …Presbyterian Church &
others divided over ….gay priest? 2. From the Sacramento Bee: Pastor molested 5
children3. The prophets became liars.
28 Your preachers cover up for the
politicians by pretending to have received visions and special revelations.
They say, "This is what God, the Master, says..." when God hasn't
said so much as one word. The Message
Referring to the false assurances of peace with which the prophets flattered the people, that they should not submit to the king of Babylon (see on Ez 13:10; Ez 21:29; Je 6:14).
1.
They were saying, "peace, peace," – when
God was bringing war.
2.
They were predicting victory - when God had determined
defeat.
3.
They were crying prosperity - when God was about
to take away their possessions.
4.
With the false prophets holding out false hopes,
no need to repent.
The false prophets evidently assisted the nobles in their wickedness by saying in the name of the Lord that what the officials were doing was right. Thus they stopped the mouth of their consciences. They pretend to be seers (received visions), but they see vanity; They pretend to be diviners (special revelation), but they are divine lies; They pretend a warrant from Heaven for what they say; they say, Thus saith the Lord God, but it is all a sham, for the Lord has not spoken any such thing.
4. The people had become irrecoverably corrupt.
29 Even common
people oppress the poor, rob the needy, and deprive foreigners of justice. NLT
The people—
Corruption had spread downwards through the whole community.Corrupt leaders,
corrupt followers.
Deprive, wrongfully—that
is, “without cause,” ; nay, he of all
others being one who ought to have been won to the worship of Jehovah by
kindness, instead of being alienated by oppression; especially as the
Israelites were commanded to remember that they themselves had been “strangers
in Egypt” .
The rich oppress the poor, masters their servants, landlords
their tenants, and even parents their own children; nay, the buyers and sellers
will find some way to oppress one another. This is such a sin as, when it is
national, is indeed a national judgment. Thus was the apostasy universal and
the disease epidemical.
JUDAH'S DEPLORABLE
STATE.
1. Their government officials had become corrupted.
2. The priesthood had failed in their duty.
3. The prophets became liars.
4. The people had become irrecoverably corrupt.
Looking at our nation today. Is it the same, or partially
the same? History has strange ways of repeating. Times have changed, but man is
the same. Without God he is lost, he is a sinner. 1. Their government officials had become corrupted.
2. The priesthood had failed in their duty.
3. The prophets became liars.
4. The people had become irrecoverably corrupt.
So as a result, what did God do ….
5. God’s search for a rescuer
30 “I looked for
someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I
searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to
destroy the land, but I found no one.
Rebuild the wall- the hedge; image for leading the people to repentance. God has a hedge (wall) around His people. But sin breaks down that hedge. Hedge of defense broken down - great gap.
A great breach had come in their relationship with God.- The Bible, 10 Commandments, Prayer thrown away. The hedge of His divine protection was gone. Curriculum…not creation but evolution…
“build up the wall,” i.e., the moral and spiritual wall which was Judah’s true protection from external threat.
Stand in the gap—the
breach; image for interceding between the people and God .A man who would stand
before the Lord for the land, an intercessor so that God would not destroy the
land. Someone who would beseech
the Lord to spare the city. Moses stood in the gap when he made intercession
for Israel to turn away the wrath of God,
Ps. 106:23.
Now God is looking for someone to stand and to build up that
hedge.
“I looked for someone…God is always seeking to recruit for
His service. God is seeking men and
women. Even here in FCC. Someone who would personally intervene where that wall
had fallen into decay. Someone who put his life on the line. Such a person could
avert the destruction which God had been threatening.
What are the
QUALIFICATIONS OF THAT MAN?
1. He must be a man of faith. Great confidence in
God. You will be facing impossible odds. You will encounter impossible
situations. The tide of evil was engulfing these people, so he must be
courageous.
2. He must be a man of the Word. How can I prepare
myself for service? We must understand God's purposes. The ignorance of God's
Word is appalling. We are going to be assailed by false doctrines, lies
3. He must be a man of prayer.
4. He must be filled with the Holy Spirit. God's
love must flow from his life. Projecting the image of God. Must be separated
from worldly practices.
30b … but I found none—not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city. “Such a statement is hyperbole, purposeful exaggeration for effect. It hardly means that no one at all in Jerusalem in the early 580s was righteous. . . . It means rather that there were so few among the people who were righteous that the net effect was as if no one at all cared about God's Will." Obviously there were prophets who were faithful to the Lord in Judah during its last days, like Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah.
Evidently the Lord did not mean that He was without any
faithful representatives. But that even these men were ineffective in stemming
the tide of ungodliness. They did not fail because they were deficient but
because the people were so thoroughly defiant.
There was no man there. He had called - they would not
answer. He had warned - they ignored it. He pleaded - they mocked Him. What a
tragedy.
GOD'S VAIN SEARCH
FOR A MAN.
God said, "but I found none." WHY????? Everybody too busy doing his own
thing. Other interests take precedence. Each one had his own excuse: I'm too
busy building a house, I'm too busy planting my fields, I'm too busy creating
my financial security. Carnal man is absorbed in what to eat, drink, wear. But the
Bible says: seek ye first, the kingdom of God...
THE TRAGIC RESULTS WHEN GOD CANNOT FIND MEN - Tasks go undone
31 Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have
consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed on their
heads, saith the Lord GOD.
The last thing God wants to do is bring His judgment upon
a people. So when all else fails - judgment must come. The Lord is merciful.
The Lord is plenteous in mercy, slow to wrath and slow to anger. But He will
not delay His judgment forever. In other words, there can come a day when God
must judge.
The time had come for judgment & retribution. For God
to be righteous, He must judge. When God does not judge, people begin to think He
condones. Next they think He approves. Or they think He is dead. All kinds of
false and blasphemous ideas of God are formed.
Now as we see the conditions that brought upon the
destruction of Israel, the things that were going on, we look around the land
today we see the things that are happening here. History is repeating itself.
Conclusion
The principles are still the same; God is still merciful,
plenteous in mercy.
1. Principles . "Righteousness exalts a
nation, sin is..." Seek God and you will be blessed - forsake God and you
will be destroyed.
2. Times may change - principles don't. Man is the
same. He is a sinner and lost without God.
3.
God is still looking for men to stand before God
for the land. To build up the hedge, to
stand in the gap lest He destroy.
4.
But God's judgment, though it lingers of a long
time, will surely come.
No comments:
Post a Comment