Well, let us turn to that short
portion of scripture we were reading in Ezekiel chapter 20. And I want to center your attention
for a while on the words that we have here at verse 37. Ezekiel 20, 37. And I will cause
you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond
of the covenant. is equal 20, 37, and I will cause
you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond
of the covenant." In a sense to continue really the theme
that we were considering on the Lord's Day. Remember there now
that we considered in the morning those words in Isaiah 55 verse
3. and in particular what he said
there with regards to the sure mercies of David. I will make an everlasting covenant
with you says the Lord God, even the sure mercies of David. And then in the evening we looked
at the words of the Psalmist there in Psalm 25 14, the secret
of the Lord. was our theme, the secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his
covenant. And continuing in that sense
with the same subject matter as we think of the words that
we have at the end of the text, the bond of the covenant, the
bond of the covenant. Interesting These two clauses,
how they complement one another. The first clause answers to the
second and vice versa. God says, I will cause you to
pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the
covenant. Passing under the rod is being
brought into that bond of the covenant. and when we think of
the rod of course we have those various promises in scripture
thinking of the words of the 110th psalm which is messianic
and speaks of the lord jesus christ the lord shall send the
rod of thy strength out of zion rule thou in the midst of thy
people is a promise that is given then to him who is the Son of
God and the promised Messiah, the Saviour of sinners. Again
we have mention of Him in Isaiah chapter 11 and there we see Him
as a rod out of jessal. There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of jessal and a branch shall grow out of his
roots. And then how he continues subsequently
at verse 4, with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. This reference to the rod of
his mouth is to his works wherewith he rules, it's the scepter of
his kingdom. It's the sign of his royal authority. Thinking then of what we have
here in the text tonight and taking up in particular those
words at the end, the bond of the covenant. Now in the eternal
covenant, we see how the Lord's people are very much the people
who are marked out and they are marked out of course by the decree
of election and it's interesting because in those eastern countries
the shepherds and their practices they were somewhat different
to what we would know of the work of the shepherd here in
the west we know how those shepherds in the east they would go before
their flocks and the sheep would follow them they didn't drive
the flocks we don't read of them using sheep dogs and so forth
it was a very different way of shepherding but also in the east
when counting and tithing the sheep, the shepherds would strike
and mark them. And by this means, of course,
they knew which were their own. And that's also true with regards
to God. The Lord God has set His love
upon His people. They are a people whom He has
marked out for Himself. We're familiar with the language
there in Romans 8.29, whom he did foreknow. In other words,
the ones whom he set his love upon. He predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his son. As we've said on other occasions,
how that scripture is twisted and perverted by the the Arminian,
the free willer, who wants to make out that what Paul is saying
is that God foreknows in the sense that He foresees. Who will
come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and on the basis of that
foreknowledge, God knows the end from the beginning, on the
basis of what He foresees, the faith that these people have,
He then predestinates them. But that is making man the cause
of his own salvation. That's a perversion. The foreknowledge
that we read of there is not merely a foresight, it's an intimate
knowledge. God has set his sovereign love
upon his people. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, he says in Jeremiah chapter 31. And it's interesting what
we have there at the end of the book of Leviticus concerning
God's sheep. speaks of his tithe, or his remnant. Leviticus 27, verse 32, we read,
"...the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever
passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord."
surely Ezekiel is mindful of those words in what he declares
here in our text. The Lord's flock, you see, they
pass under the rod, and it's that tent, that tie that belongs
onto the Lord. And it reminds us, doesn't it,
of the truth of the doctrine of the remnant. at the beginning
of Isaiah, except the Lord had left unto us a very small remnant,
it says. We should have been as Sodom
and like unto Gomorrah, a very small, not just a small remnant,
but a very small remnant. And when Isaiah subsequently
receives his call, Remember the language that we have there in
chapter 6 and mention is made of that tithe. The Lord's remnant
is but a tenth. The end of Isaiah 6 it shall
be a tenth and it shall return and shall be eaten as a tar tree
and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their
leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." The
promise in the context of course is that God will preserve a remnant
in the period of the exile, when they're there in captivity. but
it's a very small remnant and they're referred to as a tent
and so they're at the end of Leviticus 27 God has his people and God preserves
his people but he's preserving them as a very small remnant He says here at verse 38, I will
purge out from among you the rebels and then the transgressors
against me. I will bring them forth out of
the country where they sojourn and they shall not enter into
the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord. He separates between the sheep and the goats. He makes
a distinction. He makes a difference. Again
verse 34, I will bring you out from the people and will gather
you out of the countries wherein you are scattered with a mighty
hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out. How strange it must have been
to be living in those days. Ezekiel of course was minishing
at the very time when they were being taken into exile. Jerusalem
had fallen, the temple had been destroyed, The armies of Nebuchadnezzar
had desecrated that holy place and the people had been taken
away to languish there for some 70 years. But God is that one
who is the shepherd who is doing his work amongst his people. And again we are reminded of
it here in chapter 34. Remember how In this great chapter
he speaks of himself as the true shepherd. He is rebuking those
who should have been the shepherds, the princes, the kings, and the
priests, and the prophets. But how many were wicked kings,
and there were those false prophets. and there were unfaithful priests. And God says there quite clearly
that as he judges him, so he will himself do a gracious work
amongst his people. Verse 11, in chapter 34, Thou
saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I will both search my sheep
and seek them out, as a shepherd seeketh out his flock, in the
day that he is among his sheep that are scattered. So will I
seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where
they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And then again, verse 16, I will
seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven
away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen
that which was sick, and I will destroy the fat and the strong.
I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus
saith the Lord God, behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between
the rams and the he-goats, and so forth. And then, of course,
he goes on to speak of the coming of him who
is the faithful shepherd. Verse 23, I will set up one shepherd
over them. He shall feed them, even my servant
David. He shall feed them, and he shall
be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their
God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the Lord, have
spoken it. It's a promise of the coming
of the Messiah, David's greater son as the true shepherd. And
so, we have to recognize out here in the Old Testament Israel
is a typical people. They're a type of the true Israel
of God, the true sheep of Christ. There's a gospel application. The Lord Jesus speaks of Himself.
I am the Good Shepherd, He says. Those great I Am statements that
we have throughout John's gospel. Christ, the image of the invisible
God, the great I Am manifest in the flesh. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He calleth his own sheep by name,
he says, and leadeth them out. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Christ is that One who has come
as the mediator of a better covenant. There in Hebrews 8, we were reading
that great chapter, at the Lord's table just on the last Lord's
Day that speaks of a new covenant, a better covenant and surely
this is the covenant that is being spoken of here in the text
I will cause you to pass under the rod and I will bring you
into the bond of the covenant well as we come to consider what
experience is being spoken of here in the text, the experience
of this covenant in the fullness of the time. I want to mention
three things really. First of all, divine sovereignty. Secondly, deliverance. And thirdly, discipline. These are the things surely that
are said before us in the words of the text. First of all, divine
sovereignty is to be seen in the covenant and will be experienced
when any of those who are the sheep of Christ, those who have
been marked out, and remember our election is the way in which
God has marked out his people, but the Lord will call them in
time. They'll experience his grace.
And they'll learn the truth of God's sovereignty. What is the
bond that is being spoken of here? I will bring you, he says,
into the bond of the covenant. Well, thinking in Old Testament
terms, we're not to imagine that the bond is to be equated with
circumcision. but nor is it to be equated with
baptism or the Lord's Supper in the New Testament. The bond
is not even to be equated with faith and repentance. What is
the bond? Well, the bond here, surely,
is God's will and God's work. What does he say? Verse 33, As
I live, saith the Lord God, surely, with a mighty hand, and with
a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule
over you. And then again at verse 35, he says,
I will bring you into the wilderness of the people And there will
I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with
you, saith the Lord God." Notice God says, I will bring you. There will I plead with you.
So will I plead. I will cause, I will bring you.
We see how that it is the will of God that is evident, is so
paramount here in the Covenant. And remember what we have previously
in that great 16th chapter, that long chapter. And when we come to the end, God speaks of the Covenant. There
are 60 there in chapter 16. Nevertheless, I will remember
my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth. I will establish
unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy
ways, and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine
elder and thy younger, and I will give them unto thee for daughters,
but not by thy covenant. I will establish my covenant
with them. and thou shalt know that I am
the Lord." Again, it's the bond. What is the bond? It's the shalls
and the wills of God. I will establish my covenant
and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Oh, it's God's will
in the covenant, but it's also God who works so mightily and
so effectually in that covenant. It is God who works salvation
in the soul of the sinner. And that fulfillment, really,
of the sign of the covenant in the Old Testament circumcision.
I know the Presbyterians want to equate that with baptism. And so, as the children of Israel
were to circumcise all the males at eight days of age, the Presbyterians
practiced, as we know, pedo-baptism with circumcision they only circumcise
the male children but you sprinkle water on boys and girls and the
answer was it in the new testament of course god's grace is far
richer far greater so it doesn't just involve the males it also
involves the the girls that that was how He tried to justify himself
doing something that couldn't be really rooted in what was
practiced with circumcision in the Old Testament. But circumcision
in the Old Testament isn't answered by baptism in the New Testament. But we see quite clearly that
in the New Testament circumcision is a spiritual thing. And there's a verse that we have
there in Colossians that is quite striking. Colossians 2 and verse
11. As Paul writes to the Colossians
he says, "...in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ." So circumcision is really
being made a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's putting
off the old man. It's putting on the new man.
Putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. It's a spiritual
bond that we're to think of. It's the great work of God. And
again, it's those words that we have there in Romans 2, 28. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. neither is circumcision that
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the Spirit. It's a spiritual work, it's the
work of God, and that's the bond of the Covenant. It's a sovereign work of God.
Divine sovereignty is something that we have to learn. How can
we become Christians, we can't make ourselves Christians in
any sense. I know the Presbyterians again like to imagine that when
they sprinkle those little babies, they bring them into the covenant.
They're covenant children. It's God who has to bring us
into that experience of his grace. Only he that made the world can
make a Christian. It's a good observation by Joseph
Hardy. It's a true observation. It's
divine sovereignty. But then also, we have here deliverance. And it's interesting, because
we see that there's an alternative reading in the margin. I will
bring you into the delivering of the covenant, it says. Oh, there's deliverance. And
where does the deliverance come from? It comes from Him who is
the deliverer of His people. Romans 11.26 we're told, "...there
shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob." Who is the Deliverer? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what a deliverance! As the Apostle says here in 2
Corinthians 1 verse 10, "...who delivered us from so great a
death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust he will yet deliver
us. And then it goes on, doesn't
it, to speak of the rod, or the way in which he delivers. There's
the rod. There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his
roots. that's the Lord Jesus Christ
again, He is the Deliverer and He comes as that One who is descended
of course from David and Jesse the father of David as He is
David's son so He is Jesse's son He is the true David the
Lord Jesus, He is that One who is the Beloved of the Lord and
as He comes So he works and rules by means of his own works. There
in Revelation 11, there was given me a rod, it says, rather, a
reed. There was given me a reed, like
unto a rod. And the angel stood, saying,
Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them
that worship therein. And the imagery that we have
there in Revelation 11 indicates that the Lord rules His people
by His Word that's brought. And everything is to be measured
by that Word. How He comes and He measures
us. Again, those words of verse 14,
Isaiah 11, He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth,
it says. This is how the Lord works, by
His word. He brings conviction into the
soul of the sinner. We are measured by His word and
we discover what we are. The law of God finds us out.
By the law is the knowledge of sin. We transgress, we fall short. And if a man should keep all
of that law and then offend in one point, why he is guilty?
It requires complete obedience to every one of its commandments.
You are the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as there
is a deliverer and a work, so there is a certain discipline. And doesn't the rod here in the
text remind us of that discipline? In fact, Dr Gill in his commentary
equates the bond with the discipline of the covenant. I will cause you to pass under
the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
The bond is equal to the rod, and the rod speaks of discipline. One can see how Dr Gillis has
come to that particular interpretation. Again, there's much shed, of
course, in the book of Proverbs with regards to the rods and
the discipline of children. And there again, Proverbs 29,
Verse 15, the rod and reproof, it says, give wisdom. I will cause you then to pass
under the rod. And what does the rod do? It
causes smarts. It brings pain. And God's Word
is there to bring that pain, that conviction of sin. I will visit their transgression
with the rod, says the Lord God. And the words of the prophet
Jeremiah in the third chapter of Lamentations, I am the man
that hath seen affliction, he says, by the rod of his wrath.
Oh, when God lays his rod, when God brings his word, the law,
it worketh wrath. There is a ministry of the Lord,
there is a ministry. of the Lord. It's to convince,
it's to make us smart, it's to make us feel what we are. In
the sight of a God of eyes too pure to behold iniquity, He will make us to see, but not
only to see, also to have some feeling of how far we are in
our alienation from Him. And the old covenant, that law,
is there as we know to serve the new covenant, the covenant
of grace. That's brought out so strikingly in that great third
chapter that we have in the epistle to the Ephesians. What does Paul
say? Galatians 3.17, I say that the
covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that he should make the promise
of non-effect." What is he saying here? Well, the promise, the
promise that was given to Abraham, that's the context, to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ.
The promise concerns the son that was to be born to Sarah,
Isaac. But really, Isaac is the type
of Christ. The true seed is Christ. And
this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of
God in Christ, the law which comes 430 years after, that cannot
disavow, that it should make that promise of non-effect. And
then the question, wherefore then serveth the law? What's
the point of it? What's the purpose of it? It
was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels
in the hand of the mediator. It comes by Moses. The law was given by Moses. But
the law is there to serve the gospel. By the law is the knowledge
of sin. But grace and truth come by Jesus
Christ. Wherefore, he says at verse 24,
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we
might be justified by faith. Well, the old covenant is there
to serve this new covenant, the priority of the gospel. The law brings that conviction
of sin, but then that sinner who feels what he is well he
finds the balm of the gospel such a soothing balm the comforts
that are there for the sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ but
besides conviction of sin there's also surely in the covenant corrections
and chastenings and how does the Lord deal with his people?
Will ye not often bring them, as it were, into a wilderness?
The context, verse 35, I will bring you into the wilderness
of the people. And there will I plead with you
face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness
of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with you, saith
the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass
under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. or the Lord deals with his people,
how he dealt with the children of Israel and that's what we
have previously we started our reading at verse 27 but if you
read the first part of the chapter he says at verse 10 wherefore
I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought
them into the wilderness and I gave them my statutes and showed
them my judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them. We're told, aren't we, of the
purpose that God had with them there in the wilderness. It was
a whole generation that passed away. They were an unfaithful
people. They believed not the faithful
report of Joshua and Caleb, but the other ten spies. and they
came in after searching out the land and speaking of it being
full of giants and walled cities and they were afraid and they
wandered 40 years in the wilderness and that whole generation passed
away and another generation were born and what does God say to
them as they are now on the borders of that promised land? Deuteronomy
8 Verse 2, Thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what
was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no, and he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and
fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live
by bread alone, But by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon
thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Thou shalt
also consider in thine heart that as a man chastens his son,
so the Lord thy God chasteneth thine. Oh God disciplines His
people. And that's what we have in the
Covenant. Passing under the rod brought into the bond of the
covenant. And remember how he addresses
that generation that were to enter into the promised land.
Though their fathers were an unfaithful generation, how different
that following, that succeeding generation. And the Lord speaks
of them there in Jeremiah 2. Thus saith the Lord, I remember
thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals,
when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that
was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the
Lord, and the first fruits of his increase. All that devour
him shall offend, evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel. all that generation. And God
remembered them. The kindness of their youth,
the love of their espousals when they went after Him. This is
being brought into the covenant. Behold, He says, Isaiah 2.14,
Behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and will speak comfortably unto her. For whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. But if
he and you are chastening, and God deals with you as sons, there'll
be that exercise. Doesn't seem to be profitable.
Nevertheless, afterwards, or there's an afterward, there's
profit. the disciplines that the Lord visits upon his people
then, even as he deals with them in the covenant of his grace. The bond then of the covenant
is what we have here, the Lord's dealings with his people. How
he disciplines them, he convinces them, he chastens them, but ultimately
he will comfort them and he will establish them. It's the shalls,
it's the wills. I will cause you to pass under
the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. Oh, the Lord then be pleased
to favor us by His gracious covenant dealings. Let us, before we pray,
sing our second praise this evening. It's the hymn 873 TUNE RIVO 396
To thee, my God, I make my plight, To
thee my trembling soul draws near, Let not thy chastening
make me faint, Nor guilt overwhelm me with despair, I know Thy judgments,
Lord, are right, Thy right commands me to repent, If with my sin
compared tis light, And all in faithfulness is sent. 873, TUNE
396