May it please God to bless his
word to the prophet of our souls this evening as we meditate on
it. Let's turn to the prophecy of
Ezekiel chapter 13 and we'll read verse 13. Prophecy of Ezekiel
chapter 13 and reading verse 13. Therefore thus saith the
Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury
And there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great
hailstones in my fury to consume it. The prophecy of Ezekiel is not
an easy book to understand for much of it. There are some very
wonderful and some very simple statements, but parts of it are
quite difficult. and I think this part we read
here this evening is not easy to understand but we see the
clear theme which runs through it and that is that Ezekiel was
speaking against the false prophets and really against false religion
that was really the thrust of it and it was very important
because it was written as you may know or at least at the part
of the end of the time when Jerusalem was to be besieged and to be
destroyed and the wall broken down and Judah were to be taken
captive and go down to Babylon. And there were these prophets
that were raised up by God to speak to the people, very straight,
very solemn, But yet, for the most part, it had little effect. And I suppose we can consider
the same situation really exists in the day and age in which we
live. Because there are many warnings, there have been many
warnings about the scene which exists today. We know there are
many false prophets who get up and preach a gospel which is
not the gospel. It's a false gospel. And we need
spiritual understanding to discern that which is of the Spirit and
that which is of the flesh. Indeed, as the Prophet says here,
And say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts. And
that relates to the males, which this first part refers to, and
the females, which the second part of this chapter refers to. speaking prophecy out of their
own hearts and pretending it emanates from the Lord God Himself
and clearly it is false and clearly it is of the flesh and so we
are thankful that we have warnings in the Word of God to direct
us against such people and such situations and in this chapter if we come
down to the 10th verse where the Prophet says because even
because they have seduced my people saying peace and there
was no peace well I'm sure we can recognise those things which
exist today people say well this is the right way and this will
bring peace and of course in reality it does not it might
bring some temporary peace it might bring some natural peace
but it doesn't bring spiritual peace and that really is the
essence of true religion is to be favoured to experience the
blessing of the peace of God which passeth all understanding
and that peace of God is not made up of the things of time
it's not made up of those things which are false it's not made
up of those things which pretend to be right and godly but in
actual fact do not possess the reality of the essential truth
of true godliness and so we can see here that the Prophet speaks
in this way even because they have seduced my people. How many today are seduced in
Christianity? There are so many seduced of
course by other false religions. Hinduism and Islamism and many
others. And the real difference that
you and I can trace out between false religions and right religions
is that which is just of the flesh and that which is done
to satisfy the flesh and not done in accordance with the will
of God it is really a religion of works and so here we have
this statement peace and there was no peace and then and one
built up a wall now Ezekiel was telling the people
that there would be a company of people coming up to
attack them and they would be carried away as captives. It was really a thrust of his
prophecy. And we see then this position
here that one is trying to build a wall, a wall to strengthen
perhaps the boundary of Jerusalem. so that it would not be able
to be attacked, and if it was, the wall would stand firm, and
it would be another barrier against the enemy. And this is stated
here, and one built a wall, and the margin says, or a slight
wall, that means a pretty feeble wall, one of not much substance,
and though others daubed it with untempered mortar. And that would
seem to direct us to a wall being built, and we can perhaps think
about it, in bricks or in stone, and the mortar that binds it
together perhaps had no cement in, perhaps just was sand, because
sand is very easy to work, and initially it looks all right.
But of course there's no substance, there's no binding it together,
and therefore it intrinsically is exceedingly weak. and so the
Prophet speaks here and one built up a wall and others daubed it
with untempered mortar it needed to have mortar but not untempered
mortar mortar which had no substance didn't have the right ingredients
and therefore didn't form the necessary bonding together and
he's instructed to say this say unto them which daub it with
untempered mortar that it shall fall. There shall be an overflowing
shower, and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind
shall rend it. Though, when the wall is fallen,
should it not be said unto you, where is adorbing? Wherewith
ye have adorbed it? You see, they wanted then to
look into the reason why the wall had fallen, and to recognise
that it was because the ingredients of the mortar was not satisfactory
hence the reason it easily fell when the storm came and the overflowing
shower and hailstones and the stormy wind and it fell and it
rendered and fell so that's the that's the direction that we
see before this verse 13 When the Lord speaks and says, therefore,
thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind
in my fury and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger
and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. And the next verse
says, so will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with
untampered mortar and bring it down to the ground. So the foundation
thereof shall be discovered. and it shall fall, and you shall
be consumed in the midst thereof, and you shall know that I am
the Lord. Well, I think the picture is
reasonably clear that there were those who were trying to build
a natural wall to strengthen the outside of the walls of Jerusalem. And yet, they set about it in
a wrong way and it would never succeed and when the Lord sent
a storm etc. it would fall well we must not of course stop
on the natural picture but we do have a natural picture to
instruct us in the spiritual picture and the spiritual picture
it is very simply that there are those who draw up a religion
a creed if you like, a set of doctrines and statements without
the right emphasis, without the right foundation, without the
right bonding together. We see it around us today, we
see it in our country, we see it in the Western world particularly
in the Christian religion and how there is so much which is
false, where there's no true bonding together there's just
an outward performance of trying to produce something which will
never stand and when these storms of life come there will be that
collapse because it hasn't been built on a right foundation it
hasn't been joined together the structure rightly we may say
well what is the right joining together? well of course number
of things but principally it's faith and truth and the grace
of God which binds these elements together those doctrines which
are so glorious and blessed record in the Word of God to help us
to understand the greatness of our God and the direction that
God leads us in but we all need to receive that God-given faith
to direct us in every element to none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ you see any part of religion really without Christ is bound
to fail is bound to fall when the storms of life come and the
reason is because we're then basically left by ourselves we're
relying on our own building rather than relying upon that which
is founded upon the rock Christ Jesus well this evening may we
therefore be able to examine ourselves whether the wall perhaps
or our own spiritual life has a good building a firm structure
and the mortar and the door-bing as it's described here is good
and substantial and strong so that when the storms come and
of course we know that our great adversary the devil will send
storms against us endeavor to break down the foundation destroy
it and destroy the fabric destroy our spiritual life his great
aim is to do just that but if we are founded upon Christ and
indeed If the building is Christ, Christ in you, the hope of glory,
then you see Satan and all his foes will not be able to succeed. And how important we do have,
therefore, a good building, a good wall. Again, just changing the
analogy slightly to the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus Christ
gave to his disciples when he was on the earth and he gave
the illustration about the building about the man that built his
house upon the sand and the man that built his house upon the
rock and in both of these cases there is a similarity and the
similarity is that initially it looks alright everything looks
to be ok It was so in the case of the man that built his house
upon the sand. He had an easy job. The foundation
was easy to dig. He didn't dig very far down.
And he started the building and built it. And there was the structure
standing. No doubt looking very pretty,
very good. And perhaps it's like this wall.
The wall is built. And it's built very easily. Just
mortar with no difficulty. And there they stand. but what
happens when the storms come and as we read in this little
illustration when the Lord rends it with a stormy wind in his
fury and there shall be an overflowing shower that means a flood in
mine anger and great hailstones in my fury to consume it you
see when the Lord is angry the Lord has fury against that which
is false that which is not of the Spirit of God then you see
we can expect it to fall because it's of our own providing and
it doesn't bring honour and glory to God it brings or it doesn't
but the idea is to bring honour and glory to ourselves and so
as we know that man that built his house upon a sand it stood
well until the floods came the winds blew and what happened
then? the place fell and it fell with
a great destruction there was nothing left it collapsed how
true that is in religion today we don't want a religion that
collapses do we? a religion that falls down a
religion that is of no value when we face the storms of life
we don't want to face God in his fury against us because we've
done the wrong things and gone the wrong way and omitted to
recognise the help we need from Almighty God let us not pursue
our own avenue let us not pursue our own building but let us be
concerned that the Lord grants us instruction and direction
and help in our spiritual building so that we know then that we
do have a right understanding and that understanding of course
must begin as the Lord begins with his people in showing to
us the weakness of ourselves because of our sinful condition
as the Apostle so aptly tells us in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing we are sinners of the earth and therefore
there is no good thing in ourselves which is able to begin a good
building but that which is of the flesh will perish will fail
and it's a great blessing when the Holy Spirit shows to us that
great truth that you and I cannot produce this building ourselves
we cannot build a good wall as it were by ourselves we need
God to instruct us and God instructs us in that way when there is
that understanding of our utter helplessness and our inability
to produce or building ourselves because of our sinful condition
because of the evil of our own flesh what does that do? what
should it do? what will it do? if it is the
work of the Holy Spirit it will make us cry to God it will make
us to pray to God that He will look upon us that He will have
mercy upon us that He will help us that He will be with us He
will guide us He won't leave us to ourselves because we will
recognise how foolish we are left to ourselves we will make
all the wrong decisions would use the wrong materials and therefore
the resulting structure will not be good it will be very frail
and it will very soon collapse but therefore we should be thankful
if the Holy Spirit and that's a great thought isn't it? because
it means God Himself takes us in hand it may be he takes us
aside and it may be as he takes us aside he shows us his plan
the building plan that he has it's not our plan it's God's
plan he shows us the preparation which is needful the preparation
that is required to have a good building a strong building it's
not something which is going to collapse then when the first
test comes when the first trial of our faith comes we must stand
firm because it is a building ordained by Almighty God you
see the Holy Spirit then shows us what this plan is and the
plan is in every direction to lead us to Christ must be so
because the Lord must be exalted in every step of the way. We
won't be able to glory in what we've done. We shall glory in
what Christ has done. We shall glory in his great salvation. We shall glory in the wonderful
truth that he's called us and he's chosen us and he's directed
us and he's leading us in that right way which will bring us
at last to our eternal home. and it brings us to be able to
come and to exclaim from our heart what a Saviour what a Saviour
who's been so gracious to me and hasn't dealt with me as my
sins deserve and hasn't cut me off and hasn't left me just as
it were at ground level but he's been very gracious and granted
instruction into how to build looking unto Jesus the author
and the finisher of our faith we look then to Him for the beginning
for the beginning every building must have a beginning every building
must have a foundation and spiritually there is a beginning it's a wonderful
thing when the Holy Spirit directs us the need for a beginning and
that's a beginning between our soul and God and that's to seek
out that which is good and right and to direct us to the one and
only foundation the Lord Jesus Christ but in that parable of
the houses in the account in Luke we're told that the man
who built his house upon a rock he had to dig deep it wasn't
just a superficial dig it wasn't just a superficial religion he
had to dig down perhaps with a lot of rubbish perhaps his
own ideas and get rid of them and carry on digging until he
got down to that rock the Lord Jesus Christ well it's a great
blessing today if the Holy Spirit comes and directs us in our building
to come to that need of a good foundation other foundation can
no man have and that is made and which is Christ the firm
foundation the rock and so that's a good beginning and that's a
firm beginning and that's something which will not be moved when
the storms come I even I will rend it with a stormy wind in
my fury if we are walking contrary to God if we are listening to
false prophecy if we are listening to that which just tickles our
fancy that which suits us that which is an easy build you know
we will find that the Lord will deal with us in His fury because
we have been following a false way a false way what a blessing
it is that the Holy Spirit shows us if we are following a false
way and that we can turn away from it and seek to start again
in a right way and to have this good foundation and then you
see to then start the erecting of the building you see the foundation
is not something which is observable is it? it's usually below ground
level we don't see it but we see the result because the building
which goes upon it stands firm but the building which goes upon
it will need to be built well and it will need to look in a
right way as though it has been constructed in a good way and
we can think of that as the Holy Spirit leads and directs us to
the great and glorious love of God what a wonderful evidence
that is and how that needs to be shown in our building not
something hidden away not something not erected properly but something
which is clearly evidenced the love of God for such an unworthy
sinner and to know that that forms part of this building part
of this wall the Lord grants this and it comes to us and we
are able to place it there and to observe it his unmerited favour
and his love toward us and everything really flows from the love of
Christ the love of Christ to us in our lost condition the
love of Christ to us in our building which the Lord comes and continues
to help us continues to direct us doesn't leave us just to get
on with it ourselves but he lovingly shows us perhaps where we are
going wrong perhaps where we are following a wrong direction
perhaps where we are misinterpreting direction and where perhaps we're
following the way that inclines to our own mind but we are to
follow the direction of the Word of God the Word of God gives
us clear directions and how good it is then that we look to that
and it is really the love of God which directs us to look
in His Word and to find out the right direction where we then
can come and rejoice perhaps in those doctrines that naturally
we might not approve of one of the great doctrines of the Christian
faith of course is that of election that the God has chosen us God
has called us not for any good in ourselves not that we were
worthy something which natural man doesn't go along with natural
man doesn't like but yet it's a wonderful a wonderful part
of the building to realise that God in His love has elected us
from before time began what a great evidence of His love to show
forth this in our spiritual building His electing love we can point
to it and say yes this was given to me this was granted to me
not something that I sought myself and then you see to think that
the building again is joined together with this grace and
faith it's the faith of God's elect faith isn't given to any
others true faith is given to God's elect to believe in the
whole council of God and to believe in the great and glorious salvation
which is set before us in the Word of God. And that directs
us to the wonder of the foundation in Christ, that foundation, His
shed blood, that blood upon the cross at Calvary. The Lord Jesus
came for that specific reason, to save His people from their
sins how needful that is to be part of our building to know
that this is that which we have been directed in directed to
see the suffering Saviour directed to understand the necessity of
having the blood of Christ in our structure, in our building
you young people, you children we sang about it this afternoon
in the Sunday school the blood of Jesus Christ we sung about
it because it was that blood in Egypt on the doorpost and
the lintels without that blood no safety exactly the same in
our spiritual building without the blood no safety but you see
if the blood is there there is safety the devil will not be
able to overthrow it however much he might huff and puff and
try and direct us away from that great and glorious truth well
as this building is erected you see the Lord comes and gives
us then more grace there will be those difficulties there will
be those trials there will be those temptations but He gives
more grace we don't have a surplus of grace and you see when a building
is put up if it is built properly there is not a surplus of materials
lying around everywhere if it is done very carefully and accurately
everything is used and how it is really in our spiritual life
you and I won't find that we have surplus of grace it won't
be wasted bless God he gives us that grace that we need remember
the Apostle Paul in his life when he was given that thorn
in the flesh to buffet him on the storm yes it was that was
buffeting him didn't destroy him he asked that it might be
removed three times we might think surely the apostles prayers
would be heard and answered but no they weren't in that way and
God said to him very clearly my grace is sufficient for thee
no more complaints Paul endured it the grace of God my friends
therefore what a wonderful thing it is if in our building there
is that to observe God's grace God's grace and how it brings
everything as it were together because his unmerited favour
exists really in every avenue of our little life, our spiritual
life the things that he reveals to us and then to be directed
to the great and glorious aspect of the Saviour the Lord Jesus
Christ in his intercession us in our prayers. Oh it's a good
part of the building this is because that gives us a humble
confidence to believe that our prayers will be answered. We're
not just speaking words into the air we're speaking words
to our Father in heaven to be presented by our great and glorious
Saviour and our great and glorious High Priest the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you see, as we see this
building to be encouraged to know that that was formed through
his sacrificial death. There was formed and brought
about that new and living way whereby we as undone sinners,
lost sinners, can approach unto the majesty on high and to be
accepted in the Beloved what a blessing that is to have the
wonderful evidence of prevailing prayer and again it won't be
that which we produced wonderful words no, it will be the simple
words which the Lord has granted to us but they will have been
in faith and that will be through His grace and to realise that
they do enter in and that we can anticipate if they have been
asked in accordance with His will there will be answers again
we see another part of this building humble submission to the will
of God as it erected further and further gets higher and higher
and there's more and more to observe and there is to be observed
a humble submission to the will of God so we come and say very
humbly not my will but thine be done why? because we know God's will is
the best because we know we should know that we are poor mortal
beings sinful beings of the earth with no ability naturally to
do anything good but to believe the Lord Jesus Christ has taken
us in hand and therefore to submit to his divine will and purpose
for us because we can believe that there will be a good end there may be a difficult path
and sometimes of course as a war or burning gets higher it's perhaps
more difficult to ensure that everything is level and correct
but you see with our God everything is level and everything is correct
because it's built in accordance with His divine will and purpose
therefore we don't want to be left to our building to do it
ourselves that really means with untempered mortar because if
that is so we'll find that bits have to be removed they're in
the wrong place they don't fit humble submission to the will
of God that's a wonderful blessing and we have such a glorious example
of the Lord Jesus Christ think of the agony he was enduring
in the garden of Gethsemane because he sweat as it were great drops
of blood fall into the ground he was in such an agony and yet
he was able to speak those wonderful words to his Father in Heaven
if it be possible let this cut pass from me nevertheless not
my will but thine be done it's a great blessing to have that
humble submission to the will of God and how well then that
fits into the building yes it fits in very well it won't stand
out as being something which is not necessary it'll be a very
necessary part of this wall or this building because we can
be sure then that Although the devil may try and overturn it
and overthrow us, we will know that the Lord God will be with
us. And he says, and I will even
rend it with a stormy wind. If we got those parts in, you
see, which are not God's will, our will. It's very easy to put
our will in. God will rend it. God will take
it out. God will remove it. it's not
always easy is it something that we're very keen on perhaps we
thought we've done very well with we might be patting ourselves
on the back because of something that we discovered perhaps in
the Word of God and we may have thought we've done very well
well we've been very careful our pride is a great enemy and
what a blessing if we are submissive to God that we will follow His
way His direction his blessing and therefore not be faced with
this situation where parts had to be taken away rendered away
and great hailstones are sent to consume it the Lord destroys
that which is just of the flesh the Lord destroys that religion
which is false that religion which does not emanate from himself
and how important for us today to carefully examine ourselves
and make sure we are not following a false way but we are following
a despised and crucified man now I believe there is a very
good test for that you won't find it easy You won't find it easy. We gave
today, didn't we, those books of Pilgrim's Progress, and the
second part, the first part as well, which illustrates very
clearly the life of a Christian. And if you read it, and if you
follow what James is teaching you in the Sunday School, you
will find there is much difficulty and much opposition but the good
news is there's a good end and that good end is to come
safely to glory Christian came over the river safely and he
was received at the celestial gate what a mercy if that's true
of us and so remember that the Christian life is not easy and
it's an evidence of the work of God in the soul when you find
the tussles between your natural being and your spiritual being
the warfare between the new and old man the new man the new life
of God and the old nature it's a continued battle but what a
good thing it is to know that God is dealing with us as sons
and daughters of the Most High God and the building is going
on it's not being destroyed we don't want to have a false religion
which we built it up nice and easy no difficulty no trials
no problems there it is nice to building but weak nothing sound and in God's
time it's destroyed it's a very sad position isn't it to be in
to have thought and many people do they're relying on a false
religion they're relying on the peace which the devil brings
you see the devil leaves his people alone, not totally but
for the most part he leaves them alone because they're secure
they're his people they're on the road, the broad road to eternal
damnation but those who are the Lord's he annoys he attacks he
tries to turn them out of the way he tells them this can't
be the way it's just too difficult it's just too hard you will never
submit to the will of God you will never rejoice in the blood
of Christ you will never bless God for the electing love which
he has set upon you you will never be satisfied with his amazing
grace and the faith that he gives the devil will often attack us
my friends remember if God before us who can be against us? God is
a mighty God if God's with us you see we shall be saved at
last the building won't collapse the storms of life may come it'll
stand firm because it's founded upon a rock and there are all
those parts which show forth the honour and glory of God in
our building, in our spiritual building there should always
be that concern that each element shows forth the honour and glory
of God so that He may be exalted we're not on this earth to please
ourselves we're on this earth as His witnesses we're on this
earth to serve Him we're on this earth to take up our cross and
to follow Him well this is a very searching passage really
much of Ezekiel has many searching parts and it's good therefore
to ponder such words and before God to be concerned that we are
not following a false prophet but we are following the Word
of God and then we have the evidence in our own hearts that that which
the Lord has granted to us by revelation and by his word gives
us the evidence that we are amongst those who are his and he is leading
safely on to bring them at last to their desired haven well may
we know then the favour and blessing of God in our spiritual life
and again and again have to examine ourselves as to whether our building
is going on in a right way and there's not those bits which
need to be removed as they are may the Lord take them away but
if there are those which are of his providing may they continue
and may we find that the building is one day complete when we are
received into glory