Let us turn once more to God's
Word and turn into the chapter that we read in the book of the
prophet Ezekiel chapter 7 and I reckon your attention this
morning to words that we find here at verse 16. Ezekiel chapter
7 and 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. And more especially the latter
part of this 16th verse where we read of them like doves of
the valleys all of them mourning everyone for his iniquity. The chapter clearly speaks to
us of the certainty of the judgment of God that would come upon the
children of Israel because of their sin. They would be taken
into captivity. And that was certain, as we see
in the opening part of the chapter, there at verse 2, Also thou son
of man, thou saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel an end. The end is come upon the four
corners of the land. Now is the end come upon and
I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according
to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations."
Again at 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 for thee, behold, it is come, the morning is come,
upon thee, O thou that dwellest in the land, the time is come,
the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the
mountains. Verse 10, behold the day, behold
it is come, the morning is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed,
pride hath budded. And look at verse 12, the time
is come, the day draweth near. It speaks of God's judgment then
and how that judgment was so sure and so it came in the Babylonian
exile and there at the end of the chapter we see in verses
20 to 22 how The temple was to be so desecrated
by those hordes of the Babylonians. As for the beauty of his ornaments,
he set it in majesty. The glories have belonged to
Solomon's temple, but now the Jews have defiled it. They made
the images of their abominations and of their detestable things
therein therefore have I set it far from them. And God permits
these hosts of the heathen, the Babylonians, to come and to trample
the temple underfoot and then at verse 23 make a chain under
this type of a chain we read of them being drawn as it were
into captivity and taken into exile. And the ministry of Ezekiel
was a ministry that was very much to be addressed to those
of the captivity. If we go back to the beginning
of the book in 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 Khabar, that the heavens were
opened, and I saw visions of God." And then we have a description
of these remarkable sights that the Prophet sees, something of
the glory of God, the wheels within wheels. And he speaks
in chapter 2, he said unto me, son of man, stand upon thy feet,
and I will speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me
when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard
him that spake unto me. And he said unto me, Son of man,
I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation
that has rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed
against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children
and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them. And
they shall say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. And they,
whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are
a rebellious house, yet shall know that there hath been a prophet
among them. And so we see that the prophet
is taken. and placed amongst them there
in exile. In chapter 3 and verse 15, Then
I came to them of the captivity at Tel Abib, that dwelt by the
river of Caibar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there
astonished among them seven days. This was God. He had taken them
into exile and yet it was there in the exile that he would preserve
the remnants, the true spiritual Israel, the godly remnant. And how these things are spoken
of in the prayer of Solomon, when Solomon prayed at the dedication
of the Temple of the Lord back in the 8th chapter in the first
book of the Kings we have the record of that great prayer that
was prayed on that great and that solemn occasion in 1st Kings
chapter 8 and look at the language that we see at verse 46 following Solomon says in his prayer if
they sin against them for there is no man that sinneth not and
they'll be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so
that they carry them away captives onto the land of the enemy far
or near yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither
they were carried captives and repent and make supplication
unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive saying
we have sinned and have done perversely, we have committed
wickedness and so we turn unto thee with all their heart and
with all their soul in the land of their enemies which led them
away captive and pray unto thee toward their land which thou
gavest unto their fathers the city which thou hast chosen and
the house which I have built for thy name then hear thou their
prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place,
and maintain their cause." God is not unmindful then of the
godly remnant, that remnant according to the election of grace. And it is the remnant that is
spoken of here in our text this morning at verse 16 in Ezekiel
chapter 7. 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." And I want us to consider the particular figure
that is used here, this figure of a dove. Like doves, it says. Like doves. The dove, of course,
a clean bird, that was to be used in the Levitical sacrifices. And here we have this figure.
And what do we see? Well, it's a type. First of all,
we see that it is a type of that one true church. This figure of the dove is very
much to the fore when we read the book of the Song of Solomon. several times the Lord God speaks
of his church as a dove. Remember the imagery that we
have in the Song of Solomon, which speaks principally of course
spiritually of Christ and his church, bridegroom and his bride. Although what lies behind it
of course is that natural love between between Solomon and his
bride. But he speaks to us of Christ.
And as I said several times, the people of God, the Church
of Christ, is there referred to as My Dove. And in the psalm, in chapter
6 and verse 1, we read, My Dove, My Undefiled is but One. There is but One true Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that one true church is the
whole company of the election of grace chosen before the foundation
of the world but called by that efficacious grace of God in time
by degrees from generation to generation but it is one church
as we are reminded in the in the New Testament Paul writing
to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 4 at verse 4 says 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. Previously, in chapter 3 of that
same epistle, the Apostle speaks of the whole family in heaven
and earth. That is that one true Church
of God. And we're reminded of that here,
are we not? When we think of the dove and the imagery of the
dove. The language that we have there
in the Song of Solomon, my God, my undefiled, is but one. There is but one God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we by Him, says Paul when he writes
to the Corinthians. There is but one true Church
then. And that has ever been the case. That was the case in
the Old Testament. That is the case through the
New Testament. That is the case to the end of
time. The Lord has his own peculiar people. And there are those who
know that gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit. Again, look
at the language that Paul uses when he writes of the church.
speaking to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11 he says all these work
at that one and the selfsame spirit dividing to every man
severally as he will for as the body is one and as many members
and all the members of that one body being many are one body
so also is Christ for by one Spirit we are all baptized into
one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond
or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." That is the Church. That is the
true Church of God. And every local church is to
be a microcosm of that one true Church. Every local church made
up of those who are called out of the world. The very word that
is used to speak of the church in the New Testament Scriptures.
It's one of those compound Greek words that we so often find there. It's really two words. It's the
words from which we get ecclesiastic. It's the word ecclesia. and it
literally means the called out ones, the called out ones. In Tyndale's New Testament he
renders the word congregation. In the authorised version we
have the word church, which is the congregation, those who are
called out, called out of the world. A gathered church, And as I said,
it's a microcosm of that one true Church of God. God set us
the solitary in families. The language that we have there
in the Psalm, in Psalm 68 and verse 6. The most comforting
verse, is it not? God setteth the solitary in families,
he bringeth out those which are bound with chains, but the rebellious
dwell in a dry land." Now God calls out a people to himself,
places them in local churches. And here we have that church
in the Old Testament, that godly remnant, that true spiritual
Israel in the midst of ethnic Israel. that 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."
Isaiah speaks of them again in a similar fashion in the latter
parts of his prophecy, in Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 8, "...who
are these that fly as a cloud and are as doves." to their windows. These are those who are being
spoken of under this particular figure. It's the church. It's
that one true church of God. And in the second place we have
to observe it is those who are the saved and they are safe. Though God's judgment was abroad, God had visited upon is ancient,
typical people, the Jews, the punishment of their sins because
of their awful idolatries even in the temple of the Lord, yet
God preserves in the midst of them, in all that terrible catastrophe
which was the Babylonian captivity, He preserves in the midst that
remnant, that godly remnant. They're saved, and they're safe. And we have that lovely image
really of salvation in what we read concerning Noah and the
Ark. And remember what he said concerning
the dark even there in the record of the universal
flight in Genesis chapter 8 8 We told her, Noah sent forth a dove
from him to see if the waters would abate it from off the face
of the ground. 9 But the dove found no rest
for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the
ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then
he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him
into the ark." It's a lovely image, really, of that safety
that belongs to those who are the Lord's people, is it not? To us, in that sense, a picture
of salvation. We know that the ark is a type
of Christ and a type of salvation. and we sang it just now in that
hymn of Joseph Hartz in which he takes up that imagery and
speaks of how it was the Lord who shot him in the hymn is really
based on those words at the end of verse 16 in Genesis chapter
7 and the Lord shot him in and so the hymn finishes with that
verse in Christ his ark he safely rides, not wrecked by death or
sin. How is it he so safe abides,
the Lord has shut him in. And so too with that dove that
goes out and it's Noah who takes the dove back into the ark, into
that place of safety. And again, when we come to the
Song of Solomon, we see how this figure of the dove is used, and in the imagery we see the safety
of the church. In the Song of Solomon chapter
2 and verse 14, O my dove, it says thou art in the clefts of
the rock. Oh my God, they were in the clefts
of the rock. Now what is the rock? What is
the imagery of the rock? Well, again it speaks to us of
God. He is the rock of Israel. Moses acknowledges that blessed
truth in his song, that song of Solomon in Deuteronomy chapter
32. He says in the opening part of
that chapter, "...hear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop
as the rain, my speech I'll distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass."
And then we come to it, "...because I will publish the name of the
Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God." He is the Rock. His
work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment,
the God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is He. It is God who is the rock of
His people. He goes on to speak there of
the rock of His salvation in verse 15. God is the rock. And so, not surprisingly, when
we come to the New Testament and we have the fullness of that
revelation that God has given to us in the person of His only
begotten Son. Remember that no man has seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And there
we see Him as that great rock of salvation. When Simon Peter
makes his confession of faith in Matthew chapter 16, and declares
concerning Jesus of Nazareth, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. Remember how the Lord responds
to that confession, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto them, but my Father which is
in heaven. Oh, what a revelation! What a
confession it was! Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. He confesses Christ's eternal
Sonship. Christ is that One who is the
true Messiah, the Saviour of sinners. Then what does the Lord
say? Thou art Peter. And upon this
rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. What is that rock? We know that
the Roman Catholic Church likes to suggest that what Christ is
saying is that Peter is the rock. Because the name Peter or Cephas
means a stone. And they say Peter is the rock.
And then they make a spurious claim and say that Peter was
the first Bishop of Rome. There's no historic evidence
for such an assertion. That's what they like to say.
The whole system is built upon falsehood. The Lord is not saying that he's
going to build his church upon Peter. It is what Peter had confessed
that is the rock. And we see that when we take
account of what the old writers call the analogy of faith when
we compare scripture with scripture. the language of Paul writing
in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, "...other foundation can no man lay than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." There is no other
foundation. The only foundation of the church
is the rock which is God's, that rock which is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thou art Peter and upon this
rock, Peter's great confession, I will build my church. or the church is laid then upon
that sure foundation. But what of the cleft? That language
in the song of Solomon, O my dove, thou art in the clefts
of the rock. Our top lady brings it out in
that great hymn, does he not? Rock of ages, cleft from earth,
let me hide myself in thee. This is where the believer hides. This is where the believer finds
his salvation and discovers all the blessings of that great salvation
and that safety that is in the Lord Jesus. Again we have the
language of the Prophet back in the latter part of Isaiah
chapter 26. And look at what the evangelical
prophet says there, Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers,
shut thy door about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little
moment, until the indignation be overpassed. Oh God's children,
hide themselves, hide themselves only in the Lord Jesus. And this
was Paul, was he not? He saw that the only place of
salvation was in Christ. His great desire then was to
be found in Him. Or to be found in Him, He says,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, or that one thing needful to be in the Lord
Jesus Christ, to be hidden, as it were, in that cleft of the
rock. Here is the figure then, this
figure of the dove, how believers are likened unto these doves.
They shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all
of them mourning every one for his iniquity. But then here also, in this imagery
that is used, do we not see something of the ministry of the Holy Spirit
himself? how the dove is that that is
taken to represent to us the spirit of God at the baptizing
of the Lord Jesus we're told how he saw the heaven he saw
the spirit of God descending like a dove upon him the heavens
opening and the Spirit of God descending like a dove and enlightening
upon the Lord Jesus. Jesus is what John witnesses
at the baptizing of Christ. Not just that voice of the Father
speaking and owning and acknowledging His only begotten Son. This is
my beloved Son, He says, in whom I am well pleased. but not only
the Father, the Spirit is also there and He descends as it were
like a dove the three persons of the Godhead united at the
commencement of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus because that
baptizing marks the beginning of His preaching ministry we're
told that the end of John chapter 3, concerning that descent of
the Spirit, how God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
There was in Christ such a glorious effusion of the Spirit of God,
such an outpouring of the Spirit upon him as he comes to exercise
that ministry. And how the church also needs
that blessed unction of the Spirit. Every believer, every true child of God knows
something of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Again Paul writing
to the Corinthians says, the things of God knoweth no man
but the Spirit of God. We can now not think of the things
of God, truly know the things of God, but by that ministry
of the Spirit." He goes on to declare, "...no man can say that
Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Now, it is evident we
might know a great deal about the Lord Jesus. we can read the
word of God we can study the scriptures and that is good and
useful and profitable we can say the words Jesus Christ is
Lord but we can only utter that confession in a meaningful and
a true fashion if we know that blessed ministry of the Spirit
just as the Spirit himself must come and open to us the great
truths of the Scriptures. Isn't that what Christ says quite
clearly concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit when he comes
in those chapters, those chapters that we're familiar with in John's
Gospel, those three chapters, 14 and 15 and 16, the language
of the Lord, speaking the Spirit there in chapter 16 and verse
13, Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak. and He will show you things
to come, He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you." Here is that blessed ministry
of the Holy Spirit. And as we said before, what a
ministry it is, it's such a self-effacing ministry. He shall not speak
of Himself, says the Lord Jesus, Though he be God, though he be
equal with the Father and equal with the Son, yet in the outworking
of the covenant of grace he has a specific ministry. He comes
as the Spirit of Christ, just as Christ as God the Son had
come to do the will of Him that sent Him, the will of the Father.
and is in all his life subject to that will of the father and
must accomplish all that work that the father had given him
to do so as the son serves the father the spirit is pleased
to come and to serve the son he shall not speak of himself but he guides into all truth
and what is the truth that he directs us into it is that knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ he shall glorify me for he shall receive
of mine says Christ and shall show it unto you all that blessed
ministry of the Spirit what can we know of God without that gracious
ministry and John speaks of it as an unction the language that
John employs there in that first general epistle. In chapter 2
and verse 20 he says you have an unction from the Holy One
and you know all things. Well it doesn't of course mean
for the moment that those who have the Spirit of God know all
things in that literal sense. It doesn't mean that believers
know all history and all science and every subject on the face
of the earth. No, his ministry is a spiritual
ministry. He goes on to say that verse
27, the anointing, it's really the same word. What is the unction
in verse 20? the same word rendered as anointing
in verse 27 the anointing which ye have received of him abideth
in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same
anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no
lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him But
we come, you see, the Spirit to teach of those things of Christ,
to teach the believer the great necessity of being those who
are in Christ, who are found in Him, in that blessed cleft
of the rock. All believers then, they must
have that unction. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ,
as He comes to exercise His own earthly ministry, very profitable
exercise to read through the Gospels and to consider how as
God manifest in the flesh how in the state of his humiliation
here upon the earth the Lord Jesus was so dependent upon the
Spirit of God and in all of this of course he is a wonderful pattern
to his children we are to walk in his steps, we are to recognize
our dependence upon him who is spoken of under this imagery
of the dove, how the Spirit of God descended upon the Lord Jesus
like a dove and abode upon Him. We need that same anointing of
the Spirit if we would be those who truly know the things of
Christ. But then with regards to the
ministry of the Holy Spirit, besides that anointing, We also
see in the Song how that believers are to have the eyes, the eyes
of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 1 and verse 15, and
again in chapter 4 and verse 1, Christ says to his church, Thou
hast Dove's eyes. Thou hast Dove's eyes. And in those verses you will
observe the apostrophe at the end of the words. It's really
a genitive, it's really possession. Thou hast Dove's eyes. Thou hast
the eyes of a dove. In fact that's how it's rendered
in chapter 5 and verse 12 of the song. His eyes are as the
eyes of doves that is the beloved that is being spoken of and yet the same truth is applied
also to the church now we know that God has eyes not in a literal
sense but of course when God reveals himself to us he condescends
to speak in terms that we can understand God is a spirit God
doesn't have a body with various parts of a body and yet we have
what I call these anthropomorphisms in the scripture wherein God
is spoken of in in the human terms you read of the arm of
the Lord and the hand of the Lord and so forth and we read
of God's eyes in Psalm 11 and verse 4 God's eyes behold it
says His eyelids try the children of men that means you see that God's
God's eye is upon us examining us how God does look and how
God's eye is all seeing and all searching and we are tried in
his sight of course when we come to the Lord Jesus there we do
see God manifest in the flesh there we have the image of the
invisible God and the Lord Jesus Christ who in the fullness of
the time was made of a woman and made under the law has taken
that humanity into heaven he has ascended bodily into heaven and there he has a glorified
body and John is favored to see that that vision of the glorified
Christ in the opening chapter of the book of the Revelation
and amongst other things John speaks of his eyes, Christ's
eyes, it says, were as a flame of fire. His eyes were as a flame
of fire, burning, penetrating, seeing all things, trying all
things. The same truth you see as we
have back in the 11th Psalm, where God's eyes Behold, and God's eyelids
try the children of men. It's the same with regards to
those eyes of the Lord Jesus. And so, as with God the Father and God the
Son, so also with God the Holy Spirit, we read of Dove's eyes. And believers, believers are
said to have these eyes, the eyes of the Spirit. What does
it mean? Well, it means, surely, that
believers are those who are able to discern all things. They discern
between truth and error. Oh, the natural man is unable
to discern anything. The language of Paul there, in
1 Corinthians 2, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned. But then he continues, he that is spiritual judges all
things, but he himself is not judged. Now, in the margin, it
is indicated that the words rendered, judges and judged, it's really
the word to discern, he that is spiritual discerneth all things.
Yet he himself is discerned of no man. For who knoweth the mind
of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ." Believers have the mind of Christ. Or they can make that
distinction between that that is true, that that is error.
How we need that spirit of discernment, how we need to have the eyes
of the Holy Spirit. that we need to be those who
are made wise, wise to that salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. But though believers are to be
wise, they must also be those who are humble and those who
are harmless. And here in our text we see something
of humility, do we not? they that escape of them shall
escape and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys or
doves of the valleys lowly humble and then Christ says in the New
Testament be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves
and believers are to be harmless as well as humble Here we see
something then of the imagery that is used in the scripture
as a description of those who are the people of God. That's
one true church. My God is but one, says God. It is but one church. And that
one church is that people who are saved, they're hiding in
the cleft of the rock. They know in their lives that
blessed ministry of God, the Holy Spirit. They have an unction
from the Holy One. They know all things concerning
salvation. They're those who have the Spirit's
eyes and they are able to discern between truth and error. O God,
grant then that we might be those who know such a ministry, who
bear such marks, as I said before, as not only in this text but
also in other parts. Well, the Lord willing, we'll
come back and consider something more of what is actually said
at the end of this verse concerning this godly remnant. those that
the Lord's eye was upon even as he visited his terrible judgment
upon the children of Israel as they were sent into exile here
is the remnant preserved in the midst of all that terrible catastrophe
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. The Lord bless to us his word.