Ezekiel 33:30-33 Also, you son of man, the children of your people still are talking against you by the walls and in the doors of the houses… The Fall in Eden is an old story, yet it is repeated every day in our midst. Each one of us is in a garden of privilege. To each of us daily comes Divine commands and Divine prohibitions. The path by which we may rise to higher things, yea, to a higher life, lies open before us. It is straight and clearly seen. The path which runs downward to destruction is hard by. The tempter is still busy with his seductive whispers and false blandishments. Everything in our personal destiny hangs on this pivot, viz. whether we will listen to the voice of God or to the wily voice of the devil. Conscience or inclination - which shall rule us? I. THE TRUE PROPHET BRINGS A MESSAGE FROM GOD. 1. A prophet possesses a spiritual organ by which he can receive communications from God. He is in touch with God. All his best faculties are enlarged and vitalized, so that the knowledge of God's will can be reached and received. To such a one God conveys special information, and delegates him to convey it to others. He is put in trust with the heavenly wisdom for the well-being of his fellow-men. 2. Such a revelation is known and recognized, partly by the internal character of the message, partly by the character and endowments of the man. Except where prejudice and guilty habits blind the vision, the hearers of the message feel and confess that it comes from a Divine origin. 3. Such a message must always conform to the known character of God. If the message is trivial, unimportant, puerile, baneful, it is clearly not from God. Falsehood is introduced somewhere. If it is a message salutary, elevating, purifying, benevolent, certainly it is Divine. It may run counter to a man's inclinations; it often will; nevertheless, if its tendency is to lead men to faith and holiness, it has the signature of God. II. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE EXCITES PUBLIC ATTENTION. 1. There is a craving to know the unknown. Men long to see the unseen - long to scan the future. Especially in times of adversity, in hours of serious illness, men yearn to know what the immediate future will bring. In times of health there is a prurient curiosity to gaze into the distant future, the great eternity. But in times of pressing personal danger a feeling of self-interest is vividly astir. Men naturally want to have clear and accurate knowledge respecting God, and respecting his dispositions manward. They want to know what the womb of the future contains for them. 2. The message will be welcome in proportion as it gratifies inclination, flatters pride, and opens a vista of sunny hope. Fidelity on the part of the prophet often exposes his message and himself to public contempt. 3. Shallow hearers discuss the messenger rather than his message. They "talked about him by the walls and in the doors of the houses." It was a matter of street-gossip rather than of heart-searching and personal profit. Was the preacher eloquent or dull? Was his voice mellifluent or harsh? Was his style plain or ornate? These are the trivial questions men ask, instead of - What word from God did he bring? By what steps can we find reconciliation? What immediate duty presses for fulfillment? 4. Imitation of good men is a confession of their excellence. "They come as my people come, and sit as my people sit." Such conduct is grossly inconsistent is self-condemning. III. THE PREACHER'S MESSAGE MEETS WITH A SERIOUS HINDRANCE. 1. Obedience is difficult. To lend the ear is easy. Receiving the message is somewhat pleasant. It requires no serious effort. But to undo the past, this brings the ridicule of companions. To create new habits, this is laborious. To confess our past life to be folly, this is painful 2. The heart is preoccupied. Its tendrils of affection have entwined about other things. They can more easily trust to visible wealth than to the invisible God. They know by experience that money brings luxury, ease, human honor, sensuous pleasures; and they have learnt to prize these. The joys of religion are unknown - far away in cloudland. The eagerness for gain chokes the Word, so that it becomes unfruitful. "The love of money is the root of all evil." Covetousness is idolatry. 3. Behind this opposition lies the degrading power of Satan. "He blinds the minds of those that believe not." He gives to gold a blandishment which belongs alone to the surface. By the excessive pursuit of worldly gain he deadens the moral sensibilities and destroys the eye of immortal hope. IV. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE, RESISTED, DARKENS HUMAN DESTINY. 1. Men's neglect of the warning in no way hinders the catastrophe. The evil announced by God still "cometh to pass." "Judgment slumbereth not." The wheels of God's chariot are all the while moving on. As the poet says - "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." 2. Comprehension of the truth often comes too late. When overwhelmed with the predicted calamity, men wake up to the fact that "a prophet has been among them." They had thought him only a plain man, who sought to alarm them needlessly and at every inconvenient time. Now how totally different the matter seems! Alas! how often does the sense of eternal things visit the soul too late! 3. Then comes useless self-blame. The lost man naturally reproaches himself. In the new light that has dawned he sees the folly of blaming others. He lashes only himself. He becomes his own tormentor. That Being whose word cannot be broken says, "Lo, it will come!" - D. Parallel Verses KJV: Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. |
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