Let us turn to the portion we
were reading in Ezekiel chapter 7. Ezekiel chapter 7 and our
text is found at verse 16. But they that escape of them
shall escape and shall be on the mountains like doves of the
valleys, all of them mourning everyone for his iniquity. In Ezekiel 7.16, But they that
escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains
like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning every one for
his iniquity. Here we see something of the
doctrine of the remnant under the figure of a dove and that
really is a subject that I want to endeavor to address for a
while this morning. It's a very solemn chapter. Doubtless you will have observed
that as we read through the whole of this chapter. It speaks of
God's judgments and of course in the context it's speaking
in particular of that dreadful calamity that fell upon Judah
when Jerusalem was besieged, taken, the temple destroyed by
the Babylonians. It was such a dreadful thing.
It was an end, it would seem, to everything that they had known. And we see it in the words of
the prophecy. There in verse 2, an end, the
end is come. upon the four corners of the
lands. Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger
upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will
recompense upon thee all thy iniquities." And so it continues,
verse 5, Thus saith the Lord God, And evil, and only evil,
behold, is come. An end is come. The end is come. it watcheth forth, behold it
is come." These dreadful words that run right through the opening
part of the book. Verse 10, behold the day is come,
behold it is come. Verse 12, the time is come, the
day draweth near. And even when we come to the
end of the book, we still have We still have the declaration
of awful destruction that fell upon Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 25, Destruction cometh
and they shall seek peace and there shall be none. Mischief
shall come upon mischief, rumor shall be upon rumor. Then shall
they seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish from
the priests. and counsel from the ancients the king shall mourn
the prince shall be clothed with desolation even the temple was
to be destroyed and that's what we read of really there in the
verses 20 through 21 and 22 what a beauty it was that temple of
Solomon the beauty of his ornament, he
set it in majesty but they made the images of their abominations
and their detestable things alien therefore have I set it far from
them and I will give it into the hands of the strangers for
a prey, how the armies of the Babylonians came and destroyed
the temple all it's given you see to the
wicked of the earth for a spoil they pollute it And so it goes
on, God's terrible judgments. The chapter is full, full of
the abominations of the children of Israel and that recompense
that God visited upon them because of their sins. And yet in the
midst of all of this, we see that there is a remnant. and that's really what's being
spoken of in the text verse 16 and also he continues there in
verses 17 and 18 but they that escape of them shall escape and
shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of
them mourning every one for his iniquity. All hands shall be
feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. They shall also
gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them,
and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. Here are people you see who manifest
something of a spirit of true repentance in the midst of all
these terrible calamities. And Ezekiel is very much the
man who is sent to be a prophet and a minister to those who were
taken into captivity. We see it of course right at
the beginning of the book. The opening verse, now it came
to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth
day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of
Caibar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God,
how the Lord God reveals Himself to His servant, the Prophet,
there amongst those who are in exile. This is where He is to
minister the Word of God Chapter 3 and verse 15, He says, Then
I came to them of the captivity at Tarabib, that dwelt by the
river of Kabar. And I sat where they sat, and
remained there, astonished among them, seven days. Oh, in the
midst of all His wrath, God does remember His mercy. There is
a remnant who are to be preserved. Remember when Isaiah received
his commission there in chapter 6 of his prophecy, ministering
about a hundred years before that terrible event of the Babylonian
captivity. And he speaks, he speaks of God's
judgment, but he also is assured there as he receives his commission,
yet it shall be a tenth and it shall return. Or there would be a tide, there
would be a little remnant that the Lord God would preserve. There would be a tenth in it.
A remnant. And this is a remnant that we're
reading of. And this morning as we consider
the words that I've announced as our text, I want us to think
of the image that is given to this remnant. They're spoken
of as mourning doves. as mourning doves. That's the
figure that is used. They that escape of them shall
escape and they shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys,
all of them mourning. Every one for his iniquity. Mourning doves then is the theme
that I want to try to address for a little while this morning
as we look at this particular text of Holy Scripture. First
of all this figure of the dove is one that is much used of course
in the Song of Solomon and there in the Song of Solomon it often
sets before us that people of God, the one true church is spoken
of in terms of a dove In chapter 6 and verse 9 we read, My dove,
my undefiled is but one. Oh, that's how the Lord describes
His people. My dove, my undefiled is but
one. Now the dove is of course a clean
animal, we see that quite clearly because it could be presented
as a sacrifice. There in Leviticus 12 we read
of turtle doves being offered in sacrifice and often it was
a provision that was made for those who were poor amongst the
children of Israel. And maybe they could not afford
a lamb or a goat, but they could present as a sacrifice to God
a turtledove. It was a clean animal. And so how apt really to represent
the Church of God. My dove, my undefiled. of those
sinners in themselves, made clean, of course, through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and clothed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can think of the whole company,
really, of God's people, the whole election of grace, that
true spiritual Israel. Oh yes, we see here that the
nation in the main is to be judged because of all their abominations. They are not all Israel that
are of Israel. But there was ever in the midst
of Israel that true people, the spiritual Israel, the remnant.
The remnant. And yet also in another sense,
though a remnant, yet a wondrous multitude It's the whole family
in heaven and in earth. And they're one. It is that people
who are truly the people of God. Look at the language of the apostle
when he writes there in Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4 and verse
4. There is one body. and one Spirit, even as you are
called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who is above all and through all
and in you all. This is that one Church, you
see. My God, my undefiled is but one,
we read there in the Song of Solomon. How remarkable! This is that people who are truly
the people of God and how the Lord Jesus prays for them. Remember
in His prayer there in the 17th of John how He addresses the
Father for them. Holy Father, He says, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be
one as we are. the one true Church of Jesus
Christ and represented here under this figure of the dove. And every local church is to
be a microcosm of that one true universal church. Every local
church made up of those who are called out of this world, separated
from the world, and gathered together unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. Unto Him shall the gathering
of the people be. And doesn't God, as the psalmist
declares, set the solitary in families? He saves the people
They have an individual experience and every experience is, of course,
unique in a certain sense. The Lord deals with us in a very
personal fashion. But we know that in the experiences
of God's people there is that that is the sign that runs through
every experience. It's a strange way in which the
Lord works. We see it, of course, in nature.
When we look at the leaves on the trees, if we examine an oak
tree, and look at the leaves, we know that there might be a
multitude of leaves, and yet never two leaves are identical,
exactly the same. Every one is quite unique, and
yet every one is evidently the leaf of an oak, and not of a
beech or a birch. And so it is with the people
of God. And God takes His people, He gathers them together. He
brings them into families and they have certain marks. And
here we see that one of the marks of those who are the Lords is
that they are mourners. They are mourners. They that
escape of them shall escape and shall be on the mountains like
doves of the valleys. All of them mourn everyone for
his iniquity. How they feel the awfulness of
what they are as sinners. How it grieves them that they
are those who have been the transgressors of God's holy laws. All that
law which is holy, those commandments which are holy and just and good. And yet they are those who are
the transgressors, they break those commandments. And they
fall short of the glory of God. And yet, the Lord saves them,
gathers them together. The words of Isaiah 60 and verse
8, Who are these that fly as a cloud and as doves to their
windows? The doves, of course, go to the
dovecote. And the Lord gathers His people,
doesn't He, in local churches? He brings them together. And
they have this in common, very much in common, that they feel
what they are, they see that in themselves there is no good
thing, and all their salvation is bound up in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But let us, in the second place,
consider a little more something of the marks of these who are
the people of God, those marks of their conviction. the cause
of their mourning, the evidence of their real repentance. And
this is what's being spoken of in these following verses. All
hands, it says in verse 17, all hands shall be feeble, and on
these shall be weak as water. They shall also gird themselves
with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them, and shame shall be
upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. Remember
how at the time of the restoration from the Babylonian exile we
read concerning it in the book of Daniel. And we have that remarkable
prayer of Daniel there in the ninth chapter. And how is it
that Daniel comes before the Lord God and addresses Him at
the time when he begins to understand that the 70 years have been accomplished
for the desolations of the land, the desolations of Jerusalem.
They're coming to an end. God had spoken of 70 years of
exile. And he's reading there, as he
says in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, and sees that the Lord
would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And then at verse 3, he says,
I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications
and fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the
Lord my God and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and
dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him
and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have committed
iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing
from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened
unto thy servants the prophets." So he goes on. But see here something
of the marks of those that we have mentioned back in Ezekiel. He speaks of seeking God by prayer
and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. It's the same as what we read
of. Here in verse 18, they shall gird themselves with sackcloth
and horror shall cover them and shame shall be upon all faces. This is that mark of a repentant
soul. so conscious of his sin, coming
and acknowledging that awful truth before a holy God, that's
Daniel. And these are the characters
that we read of here in Ezekiel 7 this morning. We remember,
of course, that parable that the Lord Jesus Christ told concerning
the publican and the pharisee. And remember what the Lord says
concerning that much despised man, the publican. That man who
was in the employ of the Roman forces occupying Palestine. The publican so hated because
he was a tax gatherer. And not only taking those legitimate
taxes that were due to the Romans, but also abusing his position
in order that he might make ill gain for himself. I despise man. And yet here is a publican who
surely has come to that place of repentance. The publican,
says Christ, goes to the temple at the same time as the Pharisee.
And here is the publican, he stands afar off and he cannot
lift up his eyes to heaven. And he smites upon his breast
and he cries, God be merciful. to me a sinner or what repentance
is here he stands at a great distance those penitential feet
he's unholy how can he come upon holy ground his eyes he cannot
lift up to heaven he's ashamed there he stands and he takes
his hand and he smites his breast he knows that his heart is full
of all sin and all iniquity and he cries out to God, he has such
penitential lips. All he can plead is mercy God,
have mercy God, be propitious, that's what the word means, it's
that word propitiation that we have in 1 John, that Christ is
the propitiation for our sins, and it reminds us of course of
the wrath of God. That's what the Lord has done.
He has borne that dreadful punishment, that penalty that was due to
the sinner. And here is that man, he's pleading
for pardon on the basis of that precious shed blood. God be merciful,
be propitious to me, a sinner. And in the contrast that the
Lord draws there, the religious man, the proud Pharisee. He prayed thus with himself,
says Christ. All his prayer in a certain sense
goes no further than himself. His prayer does not enter into
the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. His prayer
doesn't reach there. He prayed thus with himself God
I thank that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even as despublicant. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. I, I, I. I do this, I do that,
I do the other. Oh what a contrast it is between
that person who comes in true repentance and has nothing to
plead. All he can do is confess his
sin and cry to God that he will have mercy upon him. Here are
some of the marks then, surely, of that true repentance. There
is humility. There is humility. And what is
the figure that we have in the text? The church is as doves. It's made up of doves, but they're
doves of the values. The doves of the valleys are
in low places. They see nothing of any worth
in themselves, these true penitents. Again, when the Lord tells the
parable of the prodigal son. And now that young man who wasted
all his living. All he wasted all his living.
on the things of this world, seeking to satisfy all his base
lusts. And then he comes to himself.
So here he is now, he's in abject poverty, feeding the swine, so
hungry, he's eating the pig's will himself. and he comes to
himself and he says he'll return to his father and what does he
say he's going to do when he gets to his father I am not worthy
to be called thy son I am not worthy to be called thy son or
do we ever feel that utter unworthiness before a holy God that was the
prodigal there's humility where there's true repentance and that
was true repentance Now the father meets him, throws his arms about
him. Often think there's the young
man, you see, he's coming to his father. But in the end, it's
the father who comes to him. When he's far off, the father
sees him and goes and meets him. Oh, that is the goodness and
the grace of God, is it not? But all that humility, I am not
worthy. to be called thy son." There's
nothing in ourselves. But then another mark of this
true repentance surely is this mourning. All of them, all of
them it says, mourning. Everyone for his iniquity, weeping
over their sins. We see it again in In Isaiah,
Isaiah 59, 11, we mourn sore like doves is the language we
have there. These are those who are in desolate
places. And it is a desolate place when
the Lord brings us to our senses and we see what we are and where
we are by nature. Desolate places. Mourning sore
like doves. And all God's children must know
something of that. They are mourning souls. They
mourn under the conviction of their sins when the Lord begins
with them and awakens them in their souls and causes them to
see something of what they are and where they are. But remember the words of the
Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. amongst
those who are the blessed ones, the happy ones. That's what the
word blessed means of course. Blessed are they that mourn,
he says, for they shall be comforted. And what is that mourning that
the Lord is speaking of there? Well, it's spiritual mourning.
It's the same mourning that we have here in the text. Oh, there's
comfort for them. And it's because that's what
God has in store for these poor mourners, all the consolations
of the Gospel, that's the reason why they're so blessed. And you
know that word there, blessed, it's a plural, blessednesses,
or happinesses. For they have much to fill them
with happiness, these mourners, because of the grace of God in
the Gospel. Oh, it's that godly sorrow. That
godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented
of, where the sorrow of the world works nothing but death. Godly
sorrow. Godly sorrow. You see, true repentance
for sins is not legal. It's not a duty that earns anything. True repentance is not legal
but evangelical. It's evangelical in the sense
that it centers really in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just
a matter of the law and the conviction of sin under the law. That's
what the law does. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. We know that. or we should know that, that's
the ministry of the law and we're always to distinguish law from
gospel, they are different but law and terrors do but harden
all the while they work alone but a sense of blood-bought pardon
soon dissolves the heart of stone and there's good theology there
in the hymn because it's a distinction between that legal spirits of
so many who think that that's repentance, but it's only the
sorrow of the world and that true evangelical repentance that
centers in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the promise of God in
the language of Zechariah another prophet? I will pour upon the
house of David, he says, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and supplication. and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourner for an only
son and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. All the bitterness of the mourning
but it's a mourning over the Lord Jesus Christ and all that
he endured of sufferings all that he endured not only of the
contradiction of sin as he did bear that despised of men rejected
of men crucified but all that he has to bear in his own person
from God as he makes that great sin atoning sacrifice the propitiation
for our sins, God angry with the wicked, and all that anger,
vent it upon the Holy Soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that mourning then, do we
mourn over our sins because we see what sin is, the horror of
it, in all those dreadful sufferings that Christ had to endure in
order to the salvation of His people. Here is the marking,
or something of the mark of those who are the Lord's. My God, my
undefiled, He says, is but one. But they are mourners, mourning
over their sins. But also, we see here something
of the comfort, the true comfort of that great salvation that
is in Christ. What does it say? They that escape of them shall
escape. Oh, there's something sure and
certain here. It's not a vain repetition, is
it? It's the certainty of escape, the certainty of salvation. They
that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains
like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning every one for
his iniquity. What do they do? They are those
who are in the mountains and they are hiding themselves and
they find their salvation in the cleft of the rock or they
find their salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and again we have
the wonderful imagery there in the song in the song of Solomon
chapter 2 and verse 14 Oh my dove Thou art in the cleft of
the rock. That's why they go to the mountains. Because there they find the rock.
And that cleft of the rock, rock of ages. Cleft for me, let me
hide myself in thee. We're all familiar, I'm sure,
with the language of that great hymn of Augustus Toplater. concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that only place, that only
place of safety, of refuge. We were reading it only last
evening at home, those words that we have in Isaiah 26. And the last verse is, come my
people, enter thou into thy chambers, shut thy doors about thee, hide
thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose
her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." Isn't Isaiah
really speaking of the same events that we have here in Ezekiel
7? The Lord comes, you see. to punish. And that's what we have. It's
a terrible chapter, the seventh chapter. It's the Lord's recompense
to Israel for all their abominations. And yet there's a place of safety
for those who are the Lord's. And it's found only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's where it's found. Now,
I've said this morning that this figure of the dove is there in
the Song of Solomon and sets before us the church. But of course we know that the
dove in scripture also sets before us as a figure the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. Remember as the Lord Jesus begins
his great work and goes to Jordan and is baptized by John in the
river Jordan so the heavens open as he comes out of the waters
of baptism the heavens open the spirit descends upon him in the
form of a dove and the father speaks those words this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased And it shows us, of course,
the Trinitarian aspect of salvation. It involves the Son. Yes, He
is the One who comes to be the Saviour, the Redeemer of sinners.
But the Father is there, and the Holy Spirit is there, and
the Holy Spirit is there descending in the form of Adam. All that
blessed anointing that comes upon Christ, the Father giveth
not the Spirit by measure, unto him now as Christ was anointed
so every believer must also know that function of the spirit we
can only know anything of these things that we're trying to consider
this morning we can only know anything spiritual by and through
the ministry of God the Holy Ghost the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. Do we feel our complete and utter
dependence upon that? We need the Holy Spirit to come. No man can say that Jesus Christ
is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. And we need that gracious ministry,
that anointing of the Spirit. But what does John say? in that
first general epistle and the second chapter, twice he says
it really, concerning the Spirit, you have an unction from the
Holy One and you know all things. Or we can only know anything
of salvation and the blessings of salvation by and through that
ministry of the Holy Spirit. We know all that we need to know
of salvation, but only through Him. and then again John repeats
it doesn't he later in verse 27 he says the anointing it's
the same word the unction or the anointing which ye have received
of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you
but that the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth
and is no lie so abide in him oh friends how we need holy spirit
religion We cannot give ourselves anything of true salvation. No one can give it to us. We
need the Spirit. But the Lord assures us, doesn't
He? If we, who are so evil and so sinful, know how to give good
gifts unto our children, how we give gifts to those that we
love, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask Him? Oh, ask and it shall be given
you, says Christ. We're to ask. And we need it,
we need, if we're going to have the comforts of salvation, we
need the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But besides the unction of the Holy Spirit, we also read
of the eyes, the eyes of the Holy Spirit. It's there in the
song, In chapter 5 and verse 12 concerning Christ, His eyes
are as the eyes of doves, it says. His eyes are as the eyes
of doves. Now, the eyes of our feathered
friends are quite remarkable, aren't they? They seem to be
able to see in every direction. And now, Christ sees all things. Why? His eyes are as a flame
of fire. They're all seeing, they're all
searching, they're everywhere. All the eyes of the Lord, they've
run to and fro through all the earth, we're told. God's eyes
behold, His eyelids try, the children of man. Eyes of darkness. But as in that
remarkable Song of Solomon, as I said only two or three weeks
ago, there sometimes it's difficult to discern whether it's the bridegroom
who's speaking or whether it's the bride. There's such a wondrous
union between the bride and the bridegroom. between the Lord
Jesus Christ and his church, between Christ and his people.
Sometimes we don't know just who it is that's speaking there.
So close is the union and so sweet is the communion that they
have one with the other. And so when we think of the Lord's
eyes, the eyes of doves, it's not also true with regards to
the eyes of the believer. Our believers are those who have
from the Holy Spirit that ability to discern or they have a spirit
of discernment they can distinguish between truth and error or they can distinguish that
that is false from that that is real that's the wonder of
the miniature of the Spirit they understand all things you
say as John says and also when we think of the imagery again
those who as doves are so humble and so harmless the Lord says
doesn't he that we are to be wise as serpents, harmless harmless
as doves the imagery that we have then concerning the people
of God, the church of Jesus Christ here, but in particular we see
them as those who know what it is to mourn, and to mourn over
their iniquity, to mourn over their sins. We sang that 806th
hymn, and of course we have the refrain in the second and the
third and the fourth verses of the hymn. Then hail, ye happy
mourners. Then hail, ye happy mourners. Then hail, ye happy mourners. Three times. And then in the
last verse, how does it end? Then hail, ye happy mourners.
Ye will at last be winners by Jesus' blood, the righteous God
now reconciles poor sinners. Oh God grant that we might as
we sing, we've sung the words of course, but that they might
have come from our hearts and that we might be those who are
truly such mourners as we have mentioned here in our text. They that escape of them shall
escape and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all
of them, mourning everyone for his iniquity. Amen.