FBC Morning Light – September 5, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Monday to you, a Labor Day holiday. I hope you're able to have the day off and get some rest and refreshment.

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I hope you're getting to do some things that are extra special today to take advantage of the holiday.

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Well, today we're reading in the book of Ezekiel. And honestly, it's a difficult book to read, isn't it?

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The book opens up with a fantastical vision that it's actually been used as a basis for theorizing that Ezekiel saw a

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UFO. By the way, just to make it clear, Ezekiel wasn't describing in detail something specific that he saw, but something that was like what he saw.

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In other words, if you read Ezekiel 1, you keep reading that this was like this, and this was like this.

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In other words, what he saw wasn't that, but he was grasping at straws, trying to figure out a way to describe this fantastic vision that he saw.

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The end of the chapter gives you a hint of what it was he saw. It was the glory of the Lord, and it was profound.

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As the book continues, it's a book that really has a lot to do with judgment on God's people.

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It's hard to hear that, especially some of the details of what would be involved in that judgment.

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Chapter 5 is no different from that very thing. The Lord makes it clear.

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He's sending a sword against Jerusalem. Verse 5, he says, this is Jerusalem.

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This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.

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What's the Lord saying there? He's referring to the special treatment that he has given to Jerusalem.

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This was the place of his choosing. These were the people of his choosing. He set them apart, and he set this city apart for his glory.

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As he continues, he's going to talk about the devastation that's going to come upon Jerusalem.

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He explains why. This city, these people who have been chosen by God and have been given such tremendous benefit.

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As he says in verse 6, she has rebelled against my judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes.

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They've refused my judgments and have not walked in my statutes. God's people in Israel have graciously received

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God's word, his commandments, his judgments, his statutes. He said, walk in these and you will live.

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They said, we will. This was the covenant that they made. We will walk in these judgments and these statutes.

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Yet they have refused to do that. Verse 7 goes on to say, therefore, thus says the

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Lord, because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in my statutes or kept my judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are around you.

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Therefore, thus says the Lord God, indeed, I, even I, am against you, and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of all the nations.

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So here are all these pagan nations around Israel, around Jerusalem, and they weren't as disobedient as God's own people, who received the benefit and the blessing of his word.

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How is that? Well, for one thing, they didn't have the specific commandments, the nations around Jerusalem.

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They didn't have those specific commandments that God gave. All they had was the testimony of their conscience, which every man has, and they were more obedient to their own conscience than Israel, Judah, was to the direct revelation of God as he told them, this is how

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I want you to live. Consequently, the Lord said, I will do among you, in verse 9, what

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I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.

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And then he goes on with some very graphic detail of what some of the complications and the results are going to be of what the

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Lord does in sending that judgment. This is a hard thing to hear, but there is a very important principle to gain from this account, and that is that the greater the privileges, the greater the responsibility, and therefore the greater the accountability.

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So we as Christians in this country have, for example, we have been incredibly blessed with opportunity to hear from God, to study his word, to understand what

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God is like and what God likes, to have a good understanding of this is the will of the

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Lord. And yet, what have we done with that? What have we done with those privileges as a people?

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I'm talking about as those who profess to be Christians. We have been guilty of all kinds of aberrations and perversions and distortions and disobedience to the truth.

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How very important it is for us individually to commit ourselves to being faithful and obedient to the word that we know is true.

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God is gracious and forgiving when we fail and we go to him in confession and repentance as we should every day.

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But it's the unrepentant, professing Christian who really just ignores

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God's word, says, I know what that says, I want to do what I want to do. After all, God wants me to be happy, that kind of an attitude.

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God doesn't take that lightly and especially because of the great privileges that we have to hear

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God's word and to understand God's word. Therefore, we're responsible to obey it and we will give account.

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So from this very difficult, challenging scene in Ezekiel, let's take encouragement to trust and obey.

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There's really no other way to be happy in Jesus. Our Father and our God, we thank you for this challenge this morning and I pray that we would be encouraged to follow you, to obey the word that we know is true and we pray this in Jesus' name.

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All right. Well, again, have a wonderful Labor Day holiday and hope the Lord will bless you in it.