“Restoration from Corruption” – FBC Morning Light (9/9/2024)

Well good Monday morning to you. I hope you had a good weekend and that your first week of September ended. Well and here we are we're getting getting right into the month of the months of the fall season aren't we?

Ezekiel’s Instructions for the Restored Temple

Well today in our Bible reading plan we are in the book of Ezekiel chapters 44 through 48 and like the calendar year in our Bible reading schedule we're getting to the end of the Old Testament won't be long before we'll be launching into the new and looking forward to that we're reading through chronologically in the Bible this year.

So all this year so far we've been in the Old Testament. Well today in chapters 44 through 48 of Ezekiel what's what's going on here is the Lord is giving instructions about the the functioning of the priests and the Levites in the restored temple various laws about the executing of justice that the prince is supposed to do and the calling for the demand for just weights and balances the proper way of preparing and providing the different offerings and sacrifices that need to be need to be given in this restored temple and so forth.

And I'm not going to get into an interpretation of you know what temple is this. The you know there's a dispensationalism views this is the the millennial temple. There's some challenges about that view with the offering of burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin and so forth.

I don't want to get into all that but what I do want to get into is the the indication that or the sense that the Lord had to spend so much time in through through the prophet Ezekiel in clarifying this is what you are to do as priests and Levites.

And this is how the offerings are to be prepared. And these are the offerings that are to be given. And this is how the prince among the people is supposed to behave and so on and so on. And you would think is that really all necessary.

I mean what you know that there was a whole mosaic law yet you know Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy and numbers too. And you had plenty of instructions in the Pentateuch about how this was all to be done.

Israel’s Corruption Before the Exile

Well I think what is one thing that's indicated in this is just how bad things had gotten prior to the exile. So for example listen in chapter 44 verses 12 and following. So the Lord is giving instructions to the Levites when he said.

And he says in verse 10 he says the Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray who strayed from me after their idols they the Levites shall bear their iniquity. And in verse 12 he says because they they the Levites ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity.

Therefore I've raised my hand in an oath against them says the Lord God that they shall bear their iniquity. So this is again prior to the to the exile the fall of Jerusalem Judah Israel. And so the Lord goes on to say they shall not come near to me near me to minister to me as priest nor come near any of my holy things nor into the most holy place.

But they shall bear their shame and their abominations what they have committed. Nevertheless he says I will make them keep charge of the temple for all its work and for all that has to be done in it.

But the priests the Levites the sons of Zadok who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me they shall come near to me to minister to me and they shall stand before me to offer the fat in the blood.

Now here's the thing I want us to see that prior to the exile even the priests and the Levites had strayed so far from the proper right worship and service of God they they were offering sacrifices to idols.

These are supposed to be the spiritual leaders. And then came then came the catastrophe of the exile. Okay so now when there's to be a restoration of the temple and a restoration of the priesthood and the the Levites to their positions the Lord is going to kind of chase and rebuke the Levites and limit their service even though they're going to be involved in service and and then give these further instructions and so forth.

Returning to the Basics in Church Life

So so here's the point I I'm wanting to get today that when you think about all the instructions regarding the restoring of the Levites to their tasks of the priests to their service the charges to the Prince to execute justice that's going to come in chapter 45 the keeping of the feasts at the end of 45 the manner of worship and the war and the offerings in chapter 46 when you see all of this all of it indicates just how corrupt the nation had been before the exile and how desperately they needed to get back to basics to get back to what God had said to do in the first place and how they were to function the priests and Levites in their role and what the princes were supposed to do and how the sacrifices were to be honored offered all of this had been given and they got so far from it.

Now they need to return to those basic principles and practices. Now I think about that in relationship to our own world and our church world you know I heard up this is listening to a message recently from another a nationally known pastor and he was talking about how he gets letters all the time from people who'd gone out from his ministry who write back to him and and say how difficult it is for them to find a decent church.

He read one letter on the air and he said this person wrote in and said we have we have visited I think they said half a dozen different churches and we have yet to find one that started the service opening the Word of God appealing to the Word of God standing on the authority of the Word of God and and so forth.

And I thought yeah you know what in terms of the state of Christianity in America we are as the church where the Old Testament Israel was before the exile where the worship was corrupted distorted and desperately they needed to get back to the basics.

Prayer for Revival and Closing Blessing

Oh I think we do too as a church as a whole in our country pray that we will our Father we got and God we do pray that you would send a revival to your church and we ask this in Jesus name and for his sake.

Amen all right. Well listen have a good Monday. I hope you week it's off to a good start. May the Lord bless you in it.