30th December 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 16 focus v1-14) Message (Alan Burke) In February I’ll be taking a two week sabbatical, the reason why I mention this is because Hiram is coming to preach when I’m away and he’ll just continues the series on the book of Ezekiel but he told me when I gave him the passages he is preaching on “who in their right mind preaches Ezekiel”. Every time I’ve spoken to him since I gave him the passages in October he’s given off at me repeating what he has said in different ways, last week it was “nobody with an ounce of sense would preach Ezekiel”. So it seems that I’m not in my right mind and I don’t have an ounce of sense but let me tell you this, 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the people of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Ti 3:16–17). Today we return to the book of Ezekiel after a two and a half year break and I worked out the series so that this Lord’s day as we join around the Sacrament of the Lord’s supper that it would be this chapter that we would be on and if you can get past the imagery that likely offends your woke sensitivities this is a chapter that is wonderfully rich, it teaches us about God’s amazing grace, our ingratitude that is often displayed towards that grace and also his everlasting covenant that means in spite of our sin we can have confidence this day that God has done everything required of us. A brief shout out because to help prepare for this week's sermon I spoke to a friend who works in Woman’s Aid and I want to thank her for her help so thank you Mrs C. Also before we get into the text I do not know what has happened in your past, we all put the face on for the watching world but we all have sinned, the exploited as well as the exploiter and everyone in between. If you know your sinfulness, then the saviour calls you to himself, for he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Lk 5:32). God’s response when you come in repentance is redemption, renewal and restoration. For all of you who turn to the saviour then you will have salvation. This parable is all about Jerusalem, the city of God. The Lord compares it to the birth of an unwanted female child. What God is reminding his people off is that he is the one who brought them out of their hopeless and hapless situation. The imagery that is given is that of a baby girl who had been abandoned. Sadly there are many parts of this world that what is described here continue on. While this might offend our ears this would have been an all too common practice in Babylon and one that would have been familiar to the hearers of Ezekiel and no one in Babylon would have sought to rescue a baby girl left like found like this, left it to die, exposed to the elements. Figuratively the Lord is reminding his people what they once were, but how he saw her, adopted her, told her to “live”. He helped her to flourish, she grew, when this child reached maturity he became her husband. No longer was Jerusalem abandoned, unloved, uncared for. Both what God had done in choosing her would have been a striking word picture for all of those in Ezekiel’s day. They would have heard it and understood the grace in what the Lord had shown, how he had not allowed her to die, but more than that, there is much more of the wonder of what the Lord had done for the Lord took him to herself as his wife. The imagery is that of a king taking and preparing the one that he loves, giving her all the best that life has to offer, the clothing that she wore are symbolic of those who served in the temple, he had made her holy, he had set her apart. As we see the grace of God towards Jerusalem there is a parallel to us. For we too without the Lord’s grace would be left to die as an infant left to die in their own blood, yet the Lord God had pity on us and took us for his own. He showed his grace towards us by sending his only begotten son, he redeemed us out of the situation that we were in and bought us to himself. How we live towards his grace should not be with lives of ingratitude but instead lived in response to what the Lord God has done. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q74 What is required in the eighth commandment? A. The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
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