I please God to bless us together
this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the prophecy
of Ezekiel chapter 36 and read verse 9. The prophecy of Ezekiel
chapter 36 and reading verse 9. For behold I am for you and
will turn unto you and ye shall be tilled and sown. These must have been very encouraging
words to Israel because it was the time of their captivity. It was a time when they were
in Babylon and they did not have the benefits of Jerusalem and
the temple they had prior to them being carried away captive. And so, Ezekiel, in his prophecy,
there are many difficult things to understand, but some things
are easier. And here we have a wonderful
statement that he makes. He says, Behold, I am for you."
Now we can think of what Paul said in his epistle. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And that of course did have an
if. But here we have a statement
which says, I am for you. And how encouraging that should
be for us today. in our little lives, because
if we are honest, we need to be honest, we won't be able to
say, well, of course, Israel deserved everything that they
faced and had to receive. Well, we deserve far worse, don't
we? If you think of your life and
my life, if the Lord God shines into our heart, and He shines
this bright light into our heart, you'll be staggered at the sin
which exists there. And you may be, you cry out,
can ever God dwell here? And then to read such a word
as this, a word which is wonderfully spoken. We never deserve it. Behold, I am for you. There are some Beautiful beholds
in the word of God. This is one of them. We are to
observe this. Behold, I am for you. To think if God is for us. And may we know that God is for
us. We don't want God to be against
us, do we? The truth is, God is either for
us or He is against us. And my friends, if God is against
us, we will never hear his voice. And if God is against us, we
will end up in hell for all eternity. And so it should be, and must
be, a real earnest cry and prayer from our heart that we may be
numbered amongst those who are within these words, I am for
you. If God is for us, He will be
round about us. He will be watching over us. And He will be mindful of us.
It is very amazing to think, before we came to know the Lord,
the Lord was mindful of us, watching over us. perhaps hedging up our way, stopping
us doing things, things that we may have wanted to do. The
Lord caused a difficulty to arise, a problem, so that we weren't
able to do something that we really wanted to do. At the time,
we may have been annoyed, we may have been angry, But the blessing is, if the Lord
was watching over us, the Lord produces these things in the
lives of His people to deliver them sometimes from great temptations. Because left to ourselves, we
are very weak and we fall into every temptation and every snare
the devil sets for us. And therefore we will not be
able to claim But we are not as bad as Israel of old. When
the Spirit of God shines into our heart, we will recognise
that we are the worst sinner, not the least sinner, the greatest
sinner. And we will be amazed then that
God should have ever looked upon us. I am for you. Think of that. God is for us. If God is for
us, one thing is very certain, isn't it? The end of our journey
is secure. It means that we will end up
in glory. It means that God will make all
His goodness to pass before us in the way. It means that God
will reveal Himself to us as He does not unto the world. It
means that we will receive the mercy of the Lord. It means that
we will know something of the love of God. Indeed, the blessings
and favours are endless, are they not? And this is all because
of a word like this, for I am for you. Well, may we be blessed tonight
with a little appreciation, a wonder of such a word as this. and might
perhaps straighten out things in our lives. Things which may
be difficult, which may appear to be crooked, and we cannot
always, perhaps we can't understand them. Well just remember this,
the Lord says, I am for you, and if he's for us, be sure that
the way that the Lord is directing us, guiding us, perhaps, again
not in the way that we really wanted, and yet, bless God, it's
the right way. God never makes a mistake. We
make many mistakes. God never makes a mistake. And
sometimes the mistakes that we make, God uses for His honour
and for His glory. And therefore, When we make mistakes,
and when God uses them for His honour and glory, we can never
claim any virtue ourselves, because we realise what a failure we
have been. And so, for, behold, I am for
you. Well, may we be encouraged tonight,
as we think of words like this, as we journey on, to think God
is for us, Day by day, we start out each day to think God is
for us. And therefore, the journey will
be a right one in accordance with his will and purpose for
us. I am for you. And then he says, and I will
turn unto you. Perhaps we feel that the Lord
has turned away from us. Perhaps we're not surprised,
as we realise we don't deserve any better treatment. And we
may perhaps mourn that it appears that God has turned away from
us, and is not listening to our prayers, And he's not noticing
what we're asking, what we're doing, what we're saying. And then to recognise that we
have a wonderful truth here. And I will turn unto you. Because by ourselves, we cannot
turn unto God. That may sound a strange situation.
But we cannot turn unto God because in our unregenerate state, that
means before we are born again by the Spirit of God, we are
dead in trespasses and in sins, and we have no ability to turn
to God. And in fact, we do not want to
turn unto God. We want to carry on in our own
life. We want to follow our own plans.
We don't want to turn to God. What we're really saying is this.
I will not have this man to reign over me. I don't want to bow
the knee to King Jesus. I want to carry on and enjoy
my life. I don't want to be handcuffed
as it were and not able to do the things I want to do. I want
to enjoy life. Well, who's speaking? The devil. The devil. That's what the devil
tells us. And my friends, we listen to
the devil until, until we receive this favour. And I will turn
unto you. When God turns unto us, when we know the Lord is looking
at us, we may feel the power of that look. We may realise
when the Lord looks upon us, we come under condemnation, because the eye of God penetrates
into our heart. You won't be able to avoid the
eye of God penetrating into your heart. You may try to. You may try to wriggle away.
But my friends, when the Lord applies his word, when the Lord
turns to us and looks upon us, his gaze is all penetrating. And the effect will be that we
fall down before a holy God. Paul the Apostle fell down before
a holy God on that Damascus road. He was the man. Yes, he was a man that God had
come to and God had turned unto him. God had allowed Paul to
go on in his career very much unhindered, not totally. We're
told he still had those pricks of conscience. The Lord said,
it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, that means to rebel
against the will of God. And by nature we just do that.
I wonder tonight if there are those here who are in that position,
They are rebelling against God. They're kicking against Him.
They're saying, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to
follow the Lord. I'm not going to obey His voice.
Oh, we're kicking against the pricks. Yes, the pricks of conscience. Well, when the Lord came and
turned unto Him, what happened? there was a bright light shone
into his heart and he tells us it was above the brightness of
the midday sun it was so bright and it penetrated right into
his heart he fell down a convinced sinner that's the effect of the
work of God when the Lord turns to us and looks upon us we fall
down a convinced sinner before a holy God. It's not then that
we think, well, we can carry on doing this and that. We stand
condemned. It's as if we were before God's
judgement seat and God's looking upon us and the eye speaks and it condemns
us. And we realise how we've been
in opposition to Almighty God. And I will turn unto you. Again, it's a wonderful blessing,
isn't it? To know that the Lord will turn. And I will turn unto
you. And therefore, when the Lord
turns unto us, what does he do? Well, don't forget, the first
voice says, I am for you, I will turn unto you, and ye shall be
tilled and sown. Well, this is a farming expression,
isn't it? Tilled and sown. And it means
that the ground is being ploughed up, and the ground is being harrowed,
and the grounds being made ready to receive the good seed. And we can understand that, can
we not, in a natural way. And prior to a field being ploughed
up, it's basically barren. And when I say that, it will
grow certain things. And it may grow things like poppies,
etc, which are quite colourful. and it may be, perhaps, naturally
attractive. But there's no real benefit,
there's no real fruit of any goodness, there's no real corn.
And that sometimes, like, people appear. It may be like a piece
of barren land, and it may perhaps show forth some colour. It may be like, you've seen poppies
in a field, the right time of year, sometimes it can be almost
covered with red, it's very naturally attractive, but it's not really
of any benefit. So it is, we may have perhaps
just an outward performance, which may look alright, and perhaps
may be attractive. But, the thing is, is it the
good seed? And will it bring forth fruit?
And will it bring forth that which is honouring to God? As we read on in this chapter
this evening, the prophet speaks about the
desolation. And he says, verse 33, Thus saith
the Lord God, in the day that I should have cleansed you from
all your iniquities, I would also cause you to dwell in the
cities, and the waste shall be builded, and the desolate land
shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all
that passed by." Well, until the Lord turns unto us, we are
desolate land. We're desolate land. We don't
produce anything of any real good. Well, Look at ourselves
tonight. Are we desolate land? It's an important thought, isn't
it? Are we desolate land? And they shall say, this land
that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden and the waste
and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited. then the heathen that are left
round about, you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places
and plant that which was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it and
I will do it." Well, how wonderful it was in the life of God's ancient
people Israel and it is no less wonderful today that the great
almighty God still works his great work of salvation in the
souls of sinners. And there is then this wonderful
blessing of the Lord turning unto us and tilling us, tilling
us, ploughing up. Now, when a plough goes across
a field, I'm sure you probably know, the soil is turned right
over. And that which was there, all
the thorns and the thistles, etc, are buried. And there is the good soil. And then you see sometimes that
soil then has to be harrowed and it has to be treated and
fertilized and brought into a fit state to receive the seed. It doesn't just happen immediately. It needs treatment. And that's
just like you and me. And the Lord, my friend, takes
his people in hand when he turns unto them, and I will turn unto
them, and ye shall be tilled, prepared for the seed. Well I wonder if your heart and
my heart has been or is perhaps being prepared, it's being tilled,
it's being ploughed up, it's being treated, to be made fit
to receive the seed. There we were, barren, of no benefit. And then the Lord
came and graciously looked upon us and turned unto us, and ye
shall be tilled and sown. Now the blessing is therefore
that we are not left. The Lord doesn't leave us He
comes and deals with us. Oh, we need the God to come and
deal with us. We need God to tell us, don't
we? To turn us over, to stir us up. Not to let just the weeds grow. If you look in your heart, look
in my heart. Have we got a lot of weeds there?
A lot of weeds. Weeds are the things of the world.
That's what weeds are. My friends, they need to be dealt
with. They need to be killed off. Otherwise, they'll grow
up and they'll choke the good seed. So, look into our hearts today. Are we being tilled by the Holy
Spirit of God? Has He come upon us? And if he
has, remember it is because he is for you. And it's because
he will turn unto you. That's why you're being tilled. That's why the Lord is dealing
with you. Isn't it a wonderful blessing to think we have such
a kind and such a gracious God. We can really align this to the
parable the Lord Jesus gave. with regard to the sower. It's
a familiar parable, I'm sure, but it's worth just considering
for a few moments what the Lord actually spoke of. He gave the
parable about this seed being sown and explained what happened
to it. He said, a sower went forth to
sow. It came to pass that he sowed
some fellow by the wayside. the fowls of the air came and
devoured it up and some fell on stony ground where it had
not much earth and immediately it sprang up because it had no
depth of earth but when the sun was up it was scorched and became
because it had no root it withered away and some fell among thorns
and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruit another
fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased,
and brought forth some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundredfold. And therefore he said, He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. And then the Lord expanded his
parable later on, and he said this, The sower soweth the word. Who is the sower? The preacher. A preacher sows the word of God. So tonight as we're here, as
by God's grace I sow the seed, the seed falls into your heart. Now that seed can have various
effects and it depends of course what
the state of our heart is. The Lord said And these are they
that by the wayside, where the word is sown, but when they have
heard it, well, we've all heard the word of tonight, unless you're
asleep, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the words that
were sown in their hearts. And I'm sure that's often the
case, because we don't remember what's been spoken. It's because
Satan has come. Don't underestimate the power
of Satan. My friends, he's there at your
side to try and destroy anything that is sown. He wants to get
rid of it. So remember, Satan's there. And these are they likewise which
are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness. You might say, well that's a
good thing, isn't it? To receive the word with gladness. But the
problem is, they have no root in themselves. And so endure
but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or
persecution ariseth For the word's sake, immediately they are offended. I wonder if you and I are offended
for the word's sake. People speak against us because
of our rejoicing and blessing God for the word. We find that
we have persecution and therefore we're offended. We're offended. And these are they which are
sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other
things, entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful."
Perhaps in the day and age in which we live, that's one of
the biggest problems. We find here, the cares of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other
things entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful
and then the Lord says and these are they which are sown on good
ground those are they who have been tilled the ground's been
ploughed up the weeds have been destroyed It's now a nice tilth
ready to receive the word. Now, if we are like that, if
God has dealt with us so that we're ready to receive the word,
and that means we're not rejecting the word. If we're rejecting
the word, we're not ready to receive it, are we? We're not
the good ground hearers if we reject the word of God. And Satan
wants us to reject it. Be sure of that. The devil doesn't
want you to receive the word of God, he wants you to reject
it. And these are they which are
sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it,
and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. The very clear evidence of the
Word of God falling into good ground, that means coming into
ground which the Lord has tilled will bring forth fruit. And it
is significant here of the multiplication that the Lord uses. He starts
off by 30, doesn't say by one, he says 30 fold, and then 60
and some and 100. Well, tonight, perhaps we need
to look into our hearts and see whether our heart has been or
is being tilled to receive the truth of God, to receive the
good news of the gospel. And what is the word of God?
The word of God is the good news. And what is the good news? The
good news surely is the word of salvation. And what is the
word of salvation? the saving of the soul. And what
is the saving of the soul? It is to know that the Lord Jesus
Christ has taken us in hand, that we are one of his children,
that it is he who is doing this great work. It is he that is
turning unto us and telling us and then sowing the seed And
that seed is the word of life. The Lord Jesus Christ, of course,
is the life. And he is the light. And how
important it is then, if we are having or had our land tilled,
it is to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation. It comes round to this test,
doesn't it? what think ye of Christ is the
test to try both your work and your scheme you cannot be right
in the rest unless you think rightly of him now my friends
if you and I have been tilled by the blessed hand of God we
will be found ready to receive his word and we shall think highly
of Christ because we will recognize what a great sinner we are and
in a great need of salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ will
be attractive to us. He won't have been until that
time comes when he turns unto us. I will turn unto you. And
it is then when he reveals himself unto us as it is not unto the
world. And we see in Jesus the one thing
needful. We may have been chasing after
many other things in this poor vain world, but when the Lord
comes and tills our land and prepares us to receive his word,
it is then we see that Jesus is the one thing needful. I without him perish must. Christ then becomes our cry,
give me Christ or else I die. He is indeed to us far more than
anything else. It is then that we can speak
of him as precious and in answer to that question, what is thy
beloved more than another beloved, we are able to say this is my
beloved. And this is, my friend, O you
daughters of Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus Christ means something
to us. And there would have been a great
change in your life. A great change in your life.
All things would have become new. There would have been a
favour of God. And so, it would be a wonderful
benefit to then enjoy such a statement as this, I am for you. Because the Lord then is leading
us into all truth as it is in Jesus. And my friends, all roads
lead to Jesus. The Lord leads his people in
various ways, but they all lead to Jesus. Without Christ, we are lost. We're ruined. If we possess Christ,
we possess all things. All things in time and all things
for eternity. Oh, that you and I then may rejoice
in the finished work of the Saviour, because we end up at Calvary.
That's where we come. We come before the cross. We stand there, amazed at the
favour and blessing of the Lord toward us. Indeed, really, it's
like we thought upon those words on Friday evening, as we concluded
our thoughts on Galatians, when the Apostle came and said, But
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world." Now that will be the result of the Lord telling
us, so that we're ready to receive his word. And as we receive the
good seed of the gospel into our hearts, and as there is that
spiritual growth, and there is that fruitfulness, this is the
blessed work of the Spirit, and this is what it produced. This
is true fruitfulness in the things of God, so that we are able to
come and declare from our heart, but God forbid, that I should
glory. My friends, the only thing that
you and I should desire to glory in is the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I said on Friday, that's
not of course the actual wooden cross. It's the doctrine of the
cross in all it means. It means the death of Christ,
to take away our sins. It means the shedding of his
most precious and glorious blood to make that atonement so that
we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Oh yes, I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." Well, tonight,
as we look to this little verse in Ezekiel's prophecy, may we
bless God for it and be able to trace out the mercy and the
love and the grace of God toward each of us as we observe this
being worked out in our hearts. Remember, God was gracious to
Israel of old. He's gracious to all his people.
None of us can claim to be any better, but we can rejoice in
God's love and mercy. For behold, I am for you, and
I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown. Amen.