God's Discipline
As Christians, we must not conform to this world
or we will eventually be
disciplined by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's Gene:
The key phrase in this Principle
is being conformed to the world.
And in terms of the children of Israel,
they were conformed to this world
in ways that are absolutely unbelievable.
And Ezekiel is being called
to literally confront all of this evil.
The evil that existed in Jerusalem.
And the evil that was also continuing
in the lives of these people
that had been taken into Babylonian captivity.
If you go down to verse 5 of chapter 5
you have a reference
to Israel's wickedness. Notice:
This is what the Lord God says:
I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations,
with countries all around her. ...
Now that says something about
God's choice of this city,
which we call the Holy City.
Which by the way, will exist for eternity
when God creates a new Jerusalem.
But God in His sovereign ways chose this city.
Of all places in the whole world.
In the center of the nations.
With countries all around her.
And of course, we know today that's
expanded around the whole world:
...But she [that is Jerusalem]
has rebelled against My ordinances
with more wickedness than the nations...
In other words, the nations
that surround them.
...and against My statutes more than
the countries that surround her. ...
I chose Jerusalem to be
an example of holiness,
of righteousness.
But My people are engaging in
more wickedness than the pagans--
those in the world.
...For her people have
rejected My ordinances
and have not walked in My statutes.
And so Ezekiel is called to proclaim
a message of repentance,
even among those that have been
taken already into Babylonian captivity
through that second deportation.
Now notice what he's asked to do.
This is unbelievable.
Now remember he's living in a house,
like a little city.
And he's to come outside of his house
and build a model.
Really a model of Jerusalem.
And basically, what he's to do is throw stuff at it:
besieging a brick and an iron plate.
And the illustration there
is Jerusalem will be besieged
and taken into captivity.
And of course, we know that happened
in the 3rd deportation.
He was supposed to do something else
in verses 4 to 8.
He was to lie on his side outside of his house.
And to me, this is almost incomprehensible.
Because if you look at the numbers,
he was to lie outside his house for 390 days.
But that was to illustrate
the wickedness of Israel.
Those numbers represent
the northern kingdom
that was taken into captivity
by the Assyrians.
But he was supposed to then
do another 40 days.
To lie on his side outside of his house.
To illustrate what happened to Judah--
that is the southern kingdom--
that are going to be taken into
ultimate captivity.
They had become a part of that
through the second deportation.
But the worst is yet to come.
Now I'm sure he didn't lie out there
all day, all night.
But it was a process of time.
And by the way,
what that demonstrates is God's grace.
Showing that through this man.
Judgment is coming.
And God didn't just do it on one day,
or two days, or three days.
He did it day, after day, after day
through this man
to illustrate that judgement is coming.
He's actually burying the iniquity,
it says in the text,
of both Israel and Judah.
Thirdly, he was to ration his food.
Which indicated that famine
was going to come.
He was to shave his head and his beard.
And divide it into three parts.
And ultimately, one part would
fly into the wind.
And ultimately be burned with fire.
In other words, this is what's going
to happen to Jerusalem.
And so here we have these incredible
things that Ezekiel was called to do
in order to communicate to these people
judgment was coming.
Now frankly I'm glad that God doesn't call us,
most of us, to do that
in order to communicate
to the evil people around us
the judgment is coming.
But that shows the extent of this situation.
And here's Ezekiel living among them,
going through these rituals.
And he paid a serious sacrifice
to try to communicate with these people
that judgment was coming.
And that raises I think,
a very penetrating question
that we all need to ask ourselves.
And that is:
Is it possible for those of us
who have been saved by God's grace
to take our free gift of salvation
for granted and to engage in sin
that even the world rejects?
You know, we have a New Testament
illustration of that.
Now remember, this passage says
that God chose Jerusalem to be holy
and they were more wicked
than the people around them.
God called the Corinthians to be holy.
But notice what Paul had to write to them.
Now remember they were converted
out of horrible paganism.
Corinth was one of the most immoral cities
in the whole Roman world.
But after these people came to Christ,
Paul had to write back to them and say:
It is widely reported that there is
sexual immorality among you, [you Corinthians]
and the kind of sexual immorality
that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles--
a man is living with his father's wife. ...
In other words, a form of incest.
And notice what Paul went on to say:
...And you are inflated with pride,
instead of being filled with grief
so that he who has committed this act
might be removed from your congregation.
Now that gives you an insight into what kind of
immorality the Corinthians came out of.
They were even bragging about this.
And I don't understand it completely.
Perhaps they were saying:
See, God has forgiven it and we
can do anything we want.
I'm not quite sure of their rationale.
But Paul had to deal with that kind of sin.
So this isn't something we see
just in the Old Testament.
We see it here in a New Testament church.
Now, thank God, that as a result of Paul's letters,
the Corinthians began to change.
And really began to reflect God
because they were Christians.
They're called saints.
But they had to grow.
They were carnal
and had to grow into spiritual maturity.
And so that raises a question
that relates to this Principle.
And that is:
In what ways have you seen God
discipline a community of believers
that continues to violate His will?
And of course, the continuity there
is that God judged Judah.
Ultimately, God's hammer fell.
His love was extended, extended, extended,extended.
Ultimately it happened
through that third deportation.
Jerusalem fell.
It was burned with fire.
And the rest of the children of Israel
and Judah were taken into Babylonian captivity.
That's the continuity as far as
this Principle is concerned.
Because God will discipline His people
who continue in disobedience.
When I try to think of an illustration,
I think we have to be extremely careful.
I think of liberalism for example.
Churches that have forsaken
the Word of God.
No longer teach that the
Bible is the Word of God.
That Jesus Christ is indeed God in the flesh.
They do not teach the gospel of Jesus.
They just teach a philosophy of life.
In our day and age, those churches
are diminishing.
They're going downhill.
They're not growing.
But on the other hand,
there are churches that claim to be Christian
that are growing by leaps and bounds.
And yet if you study some of the things
that are being taught,
they are not really in harmony with a lot of
what God teaches in the New Testament.
It's more the power of positive thinking
than it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so when you look at that,
I come back to the fact that I have to be
very, very cautious
in answering the question that I've raised.
Only God knows the truth
in relationship to these situations.
But we can be sure that this Principle is true.
God in His own sovereign ways,
I believe will indeed carry out
this Principle:
As Christians, we must not conform
to this world or we will eventually be
disciplined by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And notice I use the word disciplined.
Because there's a difference
between being judged and punished,
and being disciplined.
Discipline comes because God loves us.
And in the book of Hebrews it talks about
the fact that God is our heavenly Father.
And as an earthly father disciplines
His children when they disobey him.
So God loves us so much, that when we
walk out of His will, He will
indeed discipline us.
In order to what?
Bring us back into His will
so that we might serve the Lord Jesus Christ.