YEar 3 Day 92

Year 3 Day 92


Pray (ACts)


Read - Ezekiel 9:5-10


Message - Alan Burke


The seven men that the Lord called to the city had come and stood beside the bronze altar, the one that had provoked the Lord’s jealously, six are the executioners whereas the seventh is to show the mercy of God. The seventh man will move throughout the city and mark those who are the Lord’s the others will follow him through the city and kill without compassion. Unlike the Passover when God came in judgment upon the enemies of God’s people (Ex 12:7, 13), this time it is God’s people themselves that would face judgement. Those who had the mark would be spare all others, the old, the young, men and maidens, women and children would be judged. The judgment is the guilty, it would come upon on, there would be no exceptions except those who were indeed His people who had the mark placed upon them. 


This judgment was fulfilled in the death of the multitudes by famine, plague and the sword of the Babylonians. These angelic figures who come in the form of men obey the summons of the Lord God, they are symbolic of what the Lord was doing, for He in His judgment would use the Babylonians to invade, to wreak havoc on the people. The Babylonians are but servants or rather tools of the Lord in His judgement. God was using the enemies of His people to bring judgment upon them. Now this is something we are confronted with time and time again, God uses His enemies for His glory, in what is going on today, we do not have the Babylonians coming but we do face increasing opposition, yet God in His providence is working in the midst of all things and uses even those most opposed for His purposes. What a comfort, I don’t know what tomorrow will bring never mind in twenty years, but God is at work even though things may seem beak. 


Although I want you to notice were this judgement begins, and who it begins with. It begins at the temple with those who should have known better. They were the twenty five, likely priests who were to be serving the Lord but had turned their back on Him and worshiped a false god, they had exchanged the truth for a lie. The Temple of God was holy, it was set apart, everything about the peoples worship was to teach them that God is holy and they are not. In 2 Kings we are told how Queen Athaliah was dragged out of the temple complex before being executed so it would not be defiled by her blood (2 Kings 11:15-16), but now the killing beings and takes place in the temple itself because by their idolatry it was already desecrated, it was unholy, defiled, it was worthless, and justice was more important than ritual purity. From there the executioners of God’s judgement spread out throughout the city bringing judgement. 


The people of God both in the Old and the New Testament are told that we will be judged, Christ has paid the full penally of our sin, in 1 Peter the judgement that is spoken of has a broad meaning that comes with the purpose of discipline, we face suffering in our lives, sometime to test our faith to refine us, to give us greater strength. The outcome as the church is brought under judgement for sin is refining for those who know Christ and damnation for those who do not. In Judgement God’s true people will be strengthened and purified, this is what was happening in Ezekiel’s day and it happens today. While we may not always know why we suffer, God is using it for his purposes, we will either be purified, disciplined, or gain some kind of heavenly reward.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q87 What is repentance unto life?
Repentance unto life is a saving grace, (Acts 11:18) whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, (Acts 2:37–38) and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, (Joel 2:12, Jer. 3:22) doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, (Jer. 31:18–19, Ezek. 36:31) with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience. (2 Cor. 7:11, Isa. 1:16–17)