Year 3 Day 101

Year 3 Day 101


Pray (ACts)


Read - Ezekiel 10:18-22


Message - Alan Burke


Today I’ll sum up what happens in these closing verses with the words ‘A Sad Departure’. Ultimately the Lord was departing from among his people, He did so on His throne chariot but we must not forget the reason why the Glory of the Lord departed. It was because of the corrupt corruption of the people, they were rebellious, idolatrous, they had exchanged the truth of God for a lie and the Glory of God and the sin of man cannot coexist, for one will displace the other. God would return in time but at this stage of the vision of Ezekiel nothing is mentioned. God would return when the sin of His people had been dealt with, when the nation had been judged, that they had been purified in His redemptive purposes.


God had warned His people that this would happen, (Deut 31:17 and Hosea 9:12), if they strayed from His ways, if they went their own way. In Samuel’s day the people experienced a similar departure of the Glory of God as they were judged for their sin, for their faithlessness, Eli’s grandson was called ‘Ichabod’ (1 Sam 4:21) meaning the glory of God has departed.  Once again the glory of the Lord had departed for the very same reason, God’s people rejected their Lord, their sin continued unabated. They had thought that this wouldn’t happen, they had taken confidence in how God dwelt among them, they had in Samuel’s day been foolish enough to take the Ark of the Covenant to the battle field, but this time they did not, but it made no difference, God would not tolerate the sin of His people, for the Glory of God and the sin of man cannot coexist. 


This was a sad departure, for the Glory of God did not return, the Temple was destroyed and it wasn’t until Christ came that the Glory of God came amongst His people again (Jn 1). Jesus has made His dwelling among us, the physical temple was so defied by their sin that the Lord departed but in his judgment was redemptive in its purposes, it was to bring His Glory in His only begotten Son, whom now lives in us though the Spirit. No longer is the temple necessary, for the people of God are the temple, the dwelling place of God in this world. We must in what we do seek to commit ourselves, our families, our churches to God.


We must remember that the Glory of God and the sin of man cannot coexist, for one will displace the other. When God’s people choose sin, and as they do they turn from Him and reject His word then the Glory of the Lord will depart. On the flip side, when the Lord God makes His Glory known in a place sin will move out. The church in Sardis in the book of Revelation (ch3) was the church of the living dead, the angel calls them to remember what they had received and heard, they were called to repent (3)! They had forgotten the centrality of the word of God, the truth of God. There are many places today that have the reputation of being alive but are dead, they have forgotten the centrality of the word of God, they have forgotten what they have received and heard. For us as a church in what lies ahead and our desire first and foremost should be to please God, for His Glory and sin cannot coexist. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q95 To whom is baptism to be administered?
Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; (Acts 8:36–38, Acts 2:38) but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized. (Acts 2:38–39, Gen. 17:10, Col. 2:11–12, 1 Cor. 7:14)
​