Series:
Questions
Title:
Should I Be Enquired of By Them?
Text:
Ezekiel 14: 1-11
Date:
February 12, 2015
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Tonight’s message is another question asked by God to a
man, “Son of man, these men have set up
their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before
their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?” (Eze 14:3)
Christ
is Head over all things to the church. He is working in the midst of his
people. The things we see God declare
and do in this passage are the things Christ is doing in his church today
through the preaching of the gospel and by his sovereign providence.
Our
purpose in looking at this text is to prepare us for this Sunday’s message from
Isaiah 57. There, God promises to remove
the stumblingblock out of the way of his people. Here God shows us that sometimes he removes
the stumblingblock out of the way by cutting off idolaters from the midst of
his people.
IDOLATRY IS FROM THE HEART
First,
hear God declare that false gods come from the vain imagination of the sinful heart,
“Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.” (Eze
14: 1)
Outwardly,
these men appeared to be true worshippers of the true and living God. They were
“elders of Israel”, either civil or religious leaders. They sat down before Ezekiel
to listen like men and women assemble to hear the gospel preached; they came to
hear a word from God spoken through his prophet, to enquire of the LORD by hearing
the word of his prophet; they appeared to pay attention, to be sincere, to be
serious, and to have affection and reverence for God.
Yet,
God is not fooled by outward appearances; God looks on the heart. “And the word
of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols
in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face:
should I be enquired of at all by them?” (Eze 14: 2-3)
Each
one had a god pre-figured in his heart and imagination; each one imagined god to
be how he imagined god to be; each one imagined ways in which their god was to
be worshipped; each had his heart set on his false god.
That is
exactly how religious, carnal, unregenerate sinners come to the house of God. In
their hearts they have set up their god. Man does not have to carve out an image to be
an idolater. Natural man is an idolater
in his heart.
Also, because
this is their heart, God declares this is what is before their face—before
their minds eye while in God’s house and what they literally put before them in
their own places of worship--“and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity
before their face.” (Eze 13: 3)
In Isaiah
57, God called the “stumblingblock of iniquity” “the greatness of thy way.” Their
stumblingblock was their way of zeal, of openness and acceptance of many gods
and many meeting places. (Is 57: 5); their way of exalting themselves. (Is 57:
7); their way of ecumenical prostitution—hiding the truth of God behind the
doorpost, while embracing every false way for the sake of gain. (Is 57: 8); their
way of producing new means and new methods. (Is 57: 9-10); the life of their
own hand, which causes them no grief (Is 57: 10); their way of fearing man
rather than fearing God. (Is 57: 10) It is called a stumblingblock because it
caused others around them to stumble also.
Be sure
to understand. Man’s god—the god of the unregenerate but religious heart—always
looks to man. Man’s god depends on man to make him alive; to give him faith; to
make him righteous and holy; to deliver him and make him persevere in trials. By
nature, man’s god is man! Every covetous desire for God’s glory, every carnal
lust of man, is an idol, dunghill god, set up by man in his own heart. Therefore,
as they sit in God’s house, before God’s minister, their covetousness is for
the glory that belongs to God. With all men, by nature, this is “the
stumblingblock of their iniquity.”
This is
the stumblingblock, which God commands be removed out of the way of his people,
“he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my
holy mountain; And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up
the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.” (Isa 57:13-14) While in our
sinful nature, God’s people have this same “stumblingblock of iniquity” in our
hearts and before our faces. It is the pure sovereign and free grace of God, to
remove this “stumblingblock out of the way” of his people and to keep his
people.
THE QUESTION & THE ANSWER
So seeing
that these men were idolaters in their hearts, God asks a question of Ezekiel, “Should
I be enquired of at all by them?” (Eze 14: 3)
Imagine
a physician telling you the cure. But you spit in his face and give him a
cussing. Then a little while later, you come to that physician asking him for
help. That is what men do who despise God, despise his preacher, who separate
themselves from the gospel yet continue to enquire of God’s preachers
concerning God and continue to pray to God. God says, “Should I be enquired of
at all be them?”
Yes, God
says he will answer the idolater. But God will do so far differently than the
idolater desires, “Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his
heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and
cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the
multitude of his idols.” (Eze 14: 4)
God will do so for “every man” who approaches God with
idols in his heart and before his face. It does not matter who the man is: be
it an elder in Israel or be it a stranger, a Gentile, who has joined himself to
the Lord’s house; be it one in public office or a private person. God is no
respecter of a man’s person. God makes no distinction between men and shows no
favoritism based on man himself.
Instead,
God will answer the man “according to the multitude of his idols.” God will not
give the idolater the answer he desires. He will not speak smooth things,
saying, “peace, peace, where there is no peace.” The will-worker desires for
God’s preacher to “cause the Holy One of Israel to cease before” them. (Is 30:
10-11; Jer 6: 14) But God will answer according to the man’s heart “according
to the multitude of his idols.”
TO EXPOSE THE IDOLATER’S HEART
God
answers the will-working idolater according to his idolatry that God might expose
what is in the idolaters heart, “That I may take the house of Israel in their
own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.” (Eze
14: 5)
Sinner,
when you hear the gospel preached, why do you hear a message that is offensive
to you? When sinners come to the true house of God and hear the gospel preached
by God’s true preacher, the reason they do not hear what they expect or desire—the
reason they are offended—is because God speaks according to the multitude of idols
in their hearts. A man may pretend
outwardly to rejoice in the gospel but sooner or later the word of God will reveal
what is really in his heart. That is
what the word of the gospel does.
Hebrews
4: 12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any
twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart.
TO CALL SINNERS TO REPENTANCE
Through
the gospel, God answers idolaters according to the multitude of his idols calling
sinner to repent from their idolatry, “Therefore say unto the house of Israel,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols;
and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” (Eze 14: 6)
In the
general call of the gospel, God “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts
17: 30) And God gives space to repent.
When God speaks effectually, in the heart of his people, God commands his
children to repent, to turn yourself from your idols and turn away your faces
from all your abominations.
Every
sinner is responsible to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we
repent, God receives all the glory for granting us repentance. But if we do not
repent, the only one to blame is us. God
is not stopping anyone from repenting and coming to him. The problem is, left
to our own will, sinners will not repent. (Re 2:21) Christ said, “And ye will
not come to me, that ye might have life.” (Joh 5:40) Paul said, “There is none
that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” (Ro 3:11) It is not
God’s fault; it is the sinner’s fault.
God gives
all men some amount of light—the light of creation, the written word, the
preaching of the gospel—and God is just. If men walk in the light God gives
them, God will give them more light. It will be to the praise of his grace.
But if
men refuse and go to hell, it will be because they earned it; not because God
randomly predestinated them to hell. God graciously chooses who he will save. But
God does not randomly predestinate men to hell. When scripture speaks of men “who
were before of old ordained to this condemnation,” it speaks of men who first,
willfully rejected the light God gave them. (Jude 4) Therefore, God turned them
over to reprobation, ordaining them to condemnation. (Rom 1: 19-32 ) Every sinner
is responsible for himself. God says, “The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the
father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son the righteousness
of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be
upon him.” (Eze 18: 20) But each sinner who repents shall praise God because, as
they hear God speak in the gospel, saying, “Repent and live”, the Holy Spirit
regenerates them and God grants them repentance and faith in Christ like as he
did through his preacher in the valley of dry bones. (Eze 37: 1-10) Let us not be
as those who heard Ezekiel preach this. They said,
Ezekeiel 18:29: Yet, saith the house of Israel, The way
of the LORD is not equal. O house of Israel are not my ways equal? are not your
ways unequal? 30: Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one
according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves
from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31: Cast away
from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a
new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32: For I
have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore
turn yourselves, and live ye.
I THE LORD WILL ANSWER
Through
the preaching of the gospel, God answers men according to their idolatrous
hearts to make them know it is God himself speaking to them through his
minister, “For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that
sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his
idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his
face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will
answer him by myself.” (Eze 14: 7)
Sadly,
when they enquired of the prophet, but the prophet’s gospel was contrary to
what they wanted to hear, they regarded it as only being the word of God’s
prophet. But God says, “I the LORD will answer him by myself.”
Men will say things like “I just wish God would speak and
tell me what he would have me to do.” He does!
God speaks through the preaching of the gospel today the same as God
spoke through his prophets then. The apostle Paul said, “Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you
in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2Co 5:20)
The
prophets of old were given spiritual gifts in order to bear witness that their
word was from God because they did not have the complete written word of God. Today,
God’s preachers do not need those gifts because we have the complete inspired
word of God to bear witness that what we say is true.
Therefore,
when the gospel goes forth today, if the message preached is according to the
word of God, hear it as God speaking because God says, “I the LORD will answer
him by myself.” The preacher is only an earthen vessel that the power may be of
God and not of us. (2 Cor 4: 7) I usually do not know why God puts a message on
my heart. But I know from God’s word that through the message God himself is
answering those who have enquired of God. He answers some who have been praying
to God. God answers others, who are idolaters in their heart, by striking at
the point of their rebellion. That is why God puts a certain message with
certain points on the heart of his preacher at a certain time. Those who hear
may not like the answer but it is God himself answering them.
Does
the preacher’s message on the absolute sovereignty of God, supported by the
word of God, offend you? It is God himself declaring your problem is that you
think you have some power in you. Does the preacher’s message on the electing
grace of God, clearly supported by the word of God, offend you? God himself is
declaring to you, “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth but
God that showeth mercy.” (Rom 9: 16) Does the preacher’s sermon on Christ’s particular
redemption of God’s people, the love of God for God’s elect alone, offend you
as being too narrow? God himself is declaring your problem is that you think God’s
love is toward all men when his love is in Christ toward those he puts in
Christ. (Rom 8: 39; Jn 10: 26) Do you find the message on God’s willingness to
save all who come unto him as being too open to sinners? God himself is declaring
that your problem is you are too cold, too set on dry doctrine, rather than
having the love of God in your heart for needy sinners.
Yet,
though God clearly says it is he himself speaking, when sinners are offended by
the gospel rather than bowing to God speaking to them, they reject the word as
only being the word of a man. Most do that when looking for a church. The
will-worker visits churches until he finds a preacher that flatters him with
what he wants to hear: man’s works and man’s will. Likewise, when sinners are
offended at the word of God spoken through his preacher, even though the
message is directly from the word of God, rather than bowing to God and repenting,
they make the rounds till they find a preacher that will tell them what they
want to hear.
Oh,
that God would give you grace to heed this word. When the word of the preacher
is true and consistent with the written word of God then repent from all else
and camp-out there so you can hear God speak. God says, “I the LORD will answer
him by myself.”
TO CUT THEM OFF
God
answers the idolater according to the multitude of his idols by cutting him off
from his people, “And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a
sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people.” (Eze
14: 8)
When
God sets his face against a man, he will make that man to be “a sign”, showing
the man to be a reprobate. God will make that man “a proverb” or a reproach. And
God says “I will cut him off from the midst of my people.”
After
almost 30 years in the faith, I have seen a number of folks come and go. Some
who departed had sat under the gospel for a long time and appeared to delight
in it. But this is what I have observed. Those who are cut off almost always find
fault with the message being preached then begin to nit-pick and accuse God’s
people. They almost always claim they are departing in defense of God’s glory.
But eventually, most join with false preachers under a false gospel.
The latter
is because God answers men according to the multitude of their idols by sending
them a deceived preacher with a false message so that they all might believe a
lie and be damned, “And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing,
I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him,
and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear
the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even
as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.” (Eze 14: 9-10)
Why
would God deceive a prophet or preacher and send them to those he has cut off
from his church? The reason is “because they received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess 2: 10-12)
TO SAVE HIS TRUE PEOPLE
God
does all this to the rebel to save his true, elect remnant, “And I will set my
face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut
him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the
LORD….That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted
any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I
may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.” (Eze 14: 8, 11)
True
believers whom God has quickened together with Christ, who are given true repentance
and faith in Christ, may temporally go astray and become polluted with the
transgressions of false brethren. The Galatians were being led astray by men
who they thought were true brethren but who were false.
Usually
false brethren have never sacrificed anything so as to commit to Christ and his
church. And because their conscience burns, to keep from having to sacrifice
and commit themselves to Christ, they begin to whisper to believers about
problems they have with the message being preached. In Galatia, the believer would have never
found fault with the message had the false brethren not pointed out things
which they exaggerated or took out of context. Through their divisive whispers,
believers who would have plucked out their eyes for Paul began to question if
Paul was even a true preacher of God. The
false brethren created all sorts of division in the church at Galatia. God
promises that such sowers of discord shall “bear the punishment of their
iniquity.” But for his people, Christ bore “the punishment of their iniquity.” By
his blood, all his people are justified by God in Christ. They must be reclaimed; they must be brought to repentance.
Sometimes
the means God uses to restore his own people, to bring them back to himself, is
the punishment God inflicts upon the hypocrite. Here, God made the false
prophets, and those that followed them, as examples, warning his true people to
watch so that they would not fall into the same sins. God say through the
apostle Paul, “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are
approved may be made manifest among you.” (1Co 11:19)
By restoring his people, God also comforts his preacher
and makes us to behold the good that God worked in the midst of so much
division and evil. God said to Ezekiel, “Yet, behold, therein shall be left a
remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold,
they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings:
and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon
Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they
shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know
that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord
GOD.” (Eze 14:22-23)
Brethren,
the only reason God’s people are saved, while the others separate themselves
forever is the grace of God our Father, the blood and righteousness of Christ
our Redeemer and the power of God the Holy Spirit.
I pray
there might be someone here who truly has the grace and love of God working in
his heart so that this message from God will be used of God to give him
repentance from his vain way to Christ. May God by his grace cause him to return
to Christ and the place where Christ has established his gospel.
Christ
says that all his sheep shall do so for “he calleth his own sheep by name, and
leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before
them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will
they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of
strangers…My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s
hand.” (Joh 10: 3-5; 27-29)
Amen!