Let us turn to God's Word here
in Ezekiel 36 and I'll read again verses 22 and 23. Ezekiel 36 from verse 21. But,
says the Lord God, I had pity for mine holy name,
which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither
they went. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake,
O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have
profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify
my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which he hath
profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes." To say something then with regards
to God's holy name, God's holy name, and here we read that name
is profaned and yet at the same time that name is pitied. God's name of course is really
the revelation of himself. Remember what we're told concerning
Moses and his prayer there at the end of Ezekiel 33. And he
says to the Lord, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory. And the Lord
says, I will cause my goodness to pass before
them. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before them. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will have mercy upon whom
I will have mercy. Moses asks to see something of
God's greatness but God speaks of his goodness and he proclaims
before him his name as one who is gracious and merciful. And then when we go on into the
following 34th chapter there We read how the Lord descended
and proclaimed the name of the Lord merciful and gracious and
so forth. God's name then, it's the declaration
of himself, it's revelation of himself. And that revelation
ultimately we see in the person of the Lord Jesus. No man hath
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. We read there in the opening
chapter of John, and His name, they shall call His name, Jesus.
for he shall save his people from their sins. And it is that
name that is revealed to us, of course, here in all of the
Scriptures. He says to the Jews, search the
Scriptures. These are they that testify of
me. Now hasn't God magnified His
Word above all His name? Oh, that word is the word of
Scripture, yes, but it's also the word incarnate. It's the Lord Jesus who is that
one, then, that we are to consider when we think of God proclaiming
his name. Well, as we come to look at these
three verses that we've just read as a text, Ezekiel 36, verse
21 through 23 I want to divide the substance that I want to
bring before you into two parts first of all to say something
with regards to God's name being profaned and then secondly with
regards to that name being pitted a simple two-fold division then
first of all God's name profaned and you will have observed I'm
sure as we read the verses There is some emphasis upon that solemn
truth here in the end of verse 21. God speaks of the house of
Israel which had profaned his name among the heathen, mine
holy name. which the house of Israel had
profaned among the heathen. And then repeated again in verse
22. God says, I do not this for your
sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which
he had profaned among the heathen. And then also in verse 23. I will sanctify my great name
which was profaned among the heathen. There's a certain emphasis
then upon this thought that God's name was being profaned and it
was because of the people of God. They are charged solemnly
with that sin of the profanation of the name of God. Well, what
does this mean? It means that they were polluting
God's name, they were defiling God's name, they were treating
that name in a common, irreverent fashion. This profaning is the
very opposite to sanctifying. The idea of sanctifying, of course,
is to set something apart, to separate it, and to separate
it to God, and to the service of God, and to the glory of God. We know, for example, with regards
to the tabernacle and all the furnishings of the tabernacle,
back in Exodus 30, that all that furniture was to be anointed
with holy oil and separated to the service of God. And even
Aaron and his sons were to be anointed and set apart to God's
service. not just by the application of
the anointing oil, but also the application of blood. We're told,
aren't we, in Hebrews 9.22, how in the Old Testament almost all
things are purified by blood, and without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. And so here we see that they
were doing something that was the complete opposite of setting
God's name apart and reverencing that name. Rather were they guilty
of profaning it, treating it as a common thing. But God says
at the beginning of this 23rd verse, I will sanctify my great
name. God will set his name apart,
even though these people treat it with such utter contempt. And does it not remind us of
the manner in which we are to address God in our prayers? We
have that patterned prayer of the Lord. We call it the Lord's
Prayer and the First Petition. Hallowed be thy name. Oh, every time we prayed it,
that is to be at the forefront of our minds. Let thy name be
holy. And so here, what does the Lord
God say to these people? The end of verse 23, The heathen shall know that I am the Lord,
saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their
eyes. All God's people then. are to
be witnesses to the holiness of God. And we see that so clearly
in the language of the Apostle when we come to the New Testament,
the opening words of Hebrews chapter 12, he beseeches the
brethren. by the mercies of God to present
their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to the Lord,
not conforming to this world but being transformed by the
renewing of their minds as they understand what that will of
the Lord is. God's people then are to sanctify
his name. But here we read of the profaning. Now how was it that they profaned
God's name. Well, they profaned that name
because of their sins. It was their sins. As it says
here in verse 17, A son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt
in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their
doings. Their way was before me as the
uncleanness of a removed woman. when God brings them out of Egypt, delivers them from all
the bondage that they were having to endure there. They were bond
slaves to Pharaoh and his people. And God will take them in fulfillment
of his promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob into the lands
that they had promised to give to their fathers. He brings them
out, he takes them through the wilderness to the borders of
the Promised Land and he gives commandment to them that they
are to destroy all those wicked nations. The Canaanites, the
Girgashites, the Perizzites, the Hivites. Seven nations, so
wicked, they are to destroy them, they are not to follow their
ways in any sense at all. But what happened was that they disobeyed the commandment of
God. Instead of destroying those nations, they copied their wicked
ways. He says here in verse 18, I poured
my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land
and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it. And we
read it so many times in the Old Testament, the sins of the
people, the wicked kings, and how they wanted to be as all
the nations round about them and to practice their wicked
ways. We read of a king such as that
wicked man Ahaz. What was it that he did? He practiced
a sort of syncretism. Instead of seeking to worship
God just as God himself had commanded, he wanted to do the things that
the other nations were doing. We read, for example, there in
2 Kings chapter 16, of him instructing the priests to make an altar
such as he had seen when he was in Damascus, in 2 Kings chapter
16, and there at verse 10. King Ahaz, this is the father
of that gracious man, King Hezekiah, but Ahaz was a very different
man to his son. King Ahaz went to Damascus to
meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, and saw an altar that
was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Urujar,
the priest, the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it according
to all the workmanship thereof. Yuridja, the priest, built an
altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So, Yuridja, the priest, made
it against King Ahaz's kind from Damascus. And when the king had
come from Damascus, the king saw the altar, and the king approached
the altar and offered thereon. and he burnt his burnt offering
and his meat offering and poured his drink offering and sprinkled
the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar." How he wants
to copy the wicked ways of those other nations round about. He's
worshipping God, so he thinks, but he's not worshipping God
in God's manner. That's syncretism. That's syncretism. And it is what God condemns.
In the New Testament we read of a show of wisdom in will-worship,
men doing what they will, introducing into God's service what they
think is appropriate. The Lord Jesus tells us quite
plainly, God is a spirit, the true worshippers worship in spirit,
and in truth the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Our worship,
yes, it's to be spiritual worship. By nature we're not spiritual
people, we're carnal, we're sold under sin. We need that gracious
ministry of the Spirit in our souls if we're going to offer
spiritual praises. But true worship is according
to truth as it is in the Spirit. They worship the Father in spirit,
says Christ, and in truth. And you remember how repeatedly
In the book of Exodus, when Moses is there in the mount with the
Lord God, 40 days we're told, receiving all those instructions
and directions concerning the worship of God, seeth the Lord
that they make all things according to the pattern shown unto thee
in the mount. Several times we have that statement
in those chapters that deal with the instruction that God gives
concerning His worship. It's to be just as the Lord God
himself had commanded. But know this, people, they do
what is right in their own eyes. And it's a profaning of the name
of the Lord. Their worship is an offense to
the Lord God. We as the people of God, we're
not to conform to the ways of this world. were to be transformed
by the renewing of our minds, understanding what the will of
the Lord is. Our God's people are sanctified
people, a separated people, separated from the world. The Lord Jesus
prays for his disciples and for those who will believe through
their ministry. He's praying for the church there
in John 17. Sanctify them, he says. through
thy truth, thy word is truth. God's word is to have that blessed
effect upon us. We're to conform to it, we're
to embrace it. And not just the promises. All
our exceeding, great, precious promises. But we don't just live
on the promises. There are also the precepts of
the gospel. It is written, Be ye holy, for
I am holy, says the Lord. God's people are to be a holy
people, not conformed then to this world. Remember how the
Lord speaks of his people in the Sermon on the Mount? They
are to be a salt in society. The salt of lust. It's savoury. Christ said it's good for nothing
but to be cast out and trodden on the foot of men. Or do we
savour of the things of Jesus Christ? that salt of the covenant. Is it prominent in our lives,
in our living? And God also speaks of His people
as lights in the world. A candle is to be set upon a
candlestick that it might give light. Let your light so shine
before men, He says, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. How did these people profane
God? By their sins, by their disobedience,
by their wanting to be the same as others and not to be different
to the nations round about them. But also, they were profaning
God's name by their sufferings, their destruction, the things
that were coming upon them. It's quite remarkable, isn't
it, what we read concerning these people. The house of Israel dwelt in
their own land and they defiled it by their own way. That's their
sin. But then what happens? Well, God deals with them in
the way of chastenings, He visits His judgment upon them. Verse
20 When they had entered into the heathen, whither they went,
they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are
the people of the Lord that are gone forth out of His land. They've been ejected, as it were,
from the land. And in a sense that is something
that reflects upon God. We see Moses when he's pleading
with the Lord God back in Exodus and also in Numbers when God
would deal with his people because of their sins and reject them.
And Moses comes and he pleads with them. Remember in the matter
of the golden calf we have it there in In Exodus 32, Moses,
as it were, coming in and mediating between this sinful people and
the Lord God. And what does Moses say as he
prays? How emboldened he is before God. Verse 11 of that 32nd chapter. He besought the Lord his God
and said, Lord, Why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people
which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt, with
great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians
speak and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them
in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?
Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy
people. Remember Abram, Isaac, and Israel,
thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst
unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven,
and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your
seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. What is the reasoning
that Moses is using here in his prayers for the people, his pleadings
with God? Well, he's emboldened to remind
God that if God should reject them and not bring them into
the possession of that land wouldn't that profane his name amongst
the heathen? Would they not say that God was
unable to altogether deliver them and to bring them into the
possession of that land? And we see the same later in
Numbers chapter 14. They've come to the very borders
of that land This is before the 40 years wilderness wanderings.
It's where they've sent out the spies into the land and they've
come back. And 10 of them have brought an
evil report and spoken of giants in the land and walled cities.
And the people are afraid, the people are unbelieving. It's
just two men, isn't it? Joshua and Caleb who give a good
report that the Lord is able to take them in and to bring
them into the possession of that land. And what does Moses say
as the Lord speaks of utterly rejecting Israel? Numbers 14
verse 15, Now if thou shalt kill all these people as one man,
then the nations which have heard the flame of thee will speak,
saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring these people
into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath
slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the
power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity
and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, and
so on. Oh, he is emboldened to pray.
And what is he praying? He's praying for the glory of
God's name. All the people you see, they
profane that name by their sinful disobedience. They are profaning
that name when God speaks of dealing with them in the way
of judgments and chastenings. God's name, profaned. And this
is what we're reading of in the portion before us tonight. But
then, on the other hand, we also see here that God's name is to
be pitied. What does the Lord say at the
beginning of this 21st verse? I had pity for mine holy name. In spite of all their sin. And
the connection here between what is being said in verse 21 and
what has been said previously in verse 20. They entered unto
the heathen, whither they went, and in being rejected in this
fashion and taken away into exile they profaned my holy name when
they said to them, when the heathen said to them these are the people
of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land but I have pity
for my holy name which the house of Yisrael had profaned among
the heathen wither they went even as the Lord is correcting
them and chastening them. There's a profaning of the name
of God. But God has pity upon his own name. That's the amazing
thing. He has pity upon them for his
name's sake. The Puritan commentator William
Greenhill says, I spared them upon the account of my holy name. Or God would have destroyed them.
but he spared them on account of his holy name. And we see
it in the passage. Verse 22. I do not this for your
sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which
ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. Again, he says it in the 32nd
verse also. Not for your sake do I this,
saith the Lord God. Be it known unto you. Be ashamed
and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." And so what
does God do as He pities His name? He'll restore them. He'll bring them back. He won't
utterly reject them. Oh, the ways of the Lord, pitying
His own name, and that bringing such goods to his people, even
restoration. He says in verse 24, for I will
take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries
and will bring you into your own lands. Again in the 36th
verse, then the heathen that are left round about you shall
know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places and plant that
that was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it and
I will do it. And why? For His name's sake. He has pity on His own name.
He restores them. And we know that this history of the children of Israel
and God's restoration of them is a wonderful type of redemption
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And surely there's an allusion
to that in the verses 25 through 27. God's promise, I will sprinkle
clean water upon you. and you shall be clean from all
your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you
a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put
within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh
and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit
within you and cause you to walk in my statues and you shall keep
my judgments and do them isn't this the language of the of the
New Testament isn't this the language of the of the covenant
of grace it's a fulfillment that we find ultimately when we come
to to Hebrews the words that we have there in the in the 8th
chapter and the end of that chapter I know it's not referring specifically
to the words of Ezekiel. It's rather referring to words
that we find in Jeremiah 31, but it's the same covenant that's
being spoken of by Ezekiel also. And here at the end of Hebrews,
chapter 8, those remarkable words really. This is the covenant.
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. in that he hath set a new covenant
he hath made the firstholds now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away it's promises of the new covenant
that we have in Ezekiel and in Jeremiah and that new covenant
is the covenant of grace to be distinguished from what we have
in the Old Testament the covenant that God had entered into at
Mount Sinai with the children of Israel and all of this because
God as a concern, a tender concern for His own honor and His own
glory I had pity for mine holy nemesis which the house of Israel
had profaned among the heathen, whither they went." Well, God
has such a respect, we might say, for His
own honour, for His own glory, for His own name. He will be
faithful. He will be faithful to all those
promises that He has given in the New Covenant. Why? Because
in giving that promise He has sworn by Himself. And he's not
only sworn by himself, but he has sealed it in the blood of
the one who is the mediator of that covenant. It's sealed by
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember how the Lord himself
prays in the course of his ministry. There in John chapter 12, verse
27, there is my soul troubled. as he's contemplating his obedience
even to the death of the cross there is my soul troubled and
what shall I say? Father save me from this hour
but for this cause came I to this hour Father he says glorify
thy name and the answer comes I have glorified it and I will
glorify it again oh it's all to the honour of it of that name
of God, that name that is to be pitied and so when Christ
comes to the end of that ministry there in chapter 17 where we
move over as it were from witnessing Christ as the great prophet in
the previous chapters 14, 15, 16 in John we see him there very
much as the great preacher and prophet of the Lord but then
In chapter 17 we have the high priestly prayer and then his
priestly work in making the one sacrifice for sins. And what
does he say there at the beginning of that 17th chapter? Father,
the hour has come, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee. All God's name and God's pity
for his own name, the honor of that name. But then also here
we have to recognize our believers. Believers are to pity God's name. Verse 31 God says through his servant
the prophet then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings
that were not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own
sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for
your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God. Be it known unto you.
Be ashamed and confound it for your own ways, O house of Israel." God's people, you see, are not
to pity themselves. How often do we pity ourselves
and think we are hard done by. Nowhere to pity the honour and
the glory that belongs unto God and yet how we who profess His
name so often do despise to His honour and to His glory. I think
of the language that we have previously here. Remember the
16th chapter, that remarkable chapter. I'm sure you're aware
of it. It's a long, long chapter. We
come to the closing words there in verses 62 and 63 and God says
I will establish my covenant with you and thou shalt know
that I am the Lord that thou mayest remember and be confounded
and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when
I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done saith
the Lord God It's the new covenant of God, isn't it? It's the covenant of grace. You see, it's when we come to
understand the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ that we
really see the horror of our sin. We see not so much as a transgression of the Holy
Lord of God, it is that. Sin is the transgression of the
law. But it's more than that. Law
and terrors do but harden, all the while they work alone, but
a sense of blood would harden. Soon dissolves the hearts of
stone. Or when we understand what it
cost the Lord Jesus Christ, He was concerned for the honor,
the glory of the Father's name. Isn't that what he says in his
prayer? Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. All for this cause came unto
this hour. It's the vindication of God.
Oh God grant deliverance in from any profaning of his name, any
polluting of that holy name of God. We should be aware of it,
of course, as we come together to worship God. The language of Ecclesiastes
5, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, be more
ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they
consider not what they do. Be not rash with thy mouth, be
not hasty to utter anything before the Lord. God is in heaven, thou
upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. God's name is taken up so often
today in this nation, of course, simply as a swear word. Blasphemy on every hand. But
even amongst those who would profess that name and say that
they're worshipping God, how much of that worship is carnal,
profanity. Oh God, keep us that we might
reverence His name. When we pray, what is the first
petition of our praying? We have it there, of course,
in that pattern prayer, the Lord's Prayer. When you pray, say, Our
Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Let thy
name be holy. That's how our prayer begins.
The honour, the glory of God. But also, our praying is to end
on that selfsame note as we see there at the end of Romans 11
for of him and through him and to him be glory forever and ever it's
his glory that we desire it's the great purpose of our service
of worship then that that name might be honored and magnified
and glorified and we're to live our lives in the light of that
we're to live our lives to the glory of his name we're to learn
from the historic account that we have here in scripture of
the sin of the children of Israel what a solemn charge it is as
God reminds them how they had so wickedly profaned that name
even as they disobeyed and then God had dealt with them and they'd
been scattered and sent amongst the heathen they were profaning
his name wherever they went but I had pity for mine holy name
says the Lord God which the house of Israel had profaned among
the heathen wherever they went or the Lord help us then that
we might not be as they were but rather live to the honor
and glory of this God Amen. Let us now sing our second praise
in the hymn 383, the Tunis Crediton, 120. Wherewith shall we approach the
Lord and bow before his throne by trusting in his faithful word
and pleading Christ alone. This is the name The father loves
to hear his children plead and all such pleading he approves
and blesses them indeed. 383 TUNE 120