Then you will know, O house of Israel, that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for the sake of My name and not according to your wicked ways and corrupt acts, declares the Lord GOD." Sermons
I. THE SCENE OF THE RESTORATION. God's holy mountain, the mountain of the height of Israel, is the symbol of the Church of the Son of God. II. THE PARTICIPATORS IN THE RESTORATION. Those concerning whom the promise is spoken are those who have been scattered abroad, but are now brought home, and who constitute "the house of Israel," i.e. the true Israel, the Israel of God. III. THE SERVICES OF THE RESTORATION. By the services, the offerings, the firstfruits, the oblations, must be understood the spiritual sacrifices, especially of obedience and of praise, which the accepted of God delight to lay upon his altar. IV. THE MEMORIES OF THE RESTORATION. These are of two kinds. The restored have to recollect, and to recollect with loathing, their wanderings, their evil doings, their defilements. But they have also to remember the work which God has wrought for them, the way by which God has led them, and the mercy and loving kindness which God has shown to them. - T.
And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight. I. THE METHOD OF MERCY was very remarkable in the case of Israel. The loving kindness of God is infinite. Christ commanded "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Surely this single circumstance, viewed in connection with God's ancient dealings with Israel, as brought before us in this chapter, is a proof that Christianity is the religion of the same God, and that "His mercy endureth forever." And have not His dealings with the Christian Church been so similar as to show that He is still pursuing a method of mercy and of grace? He has not cut us off in our sins; He still follows us with invitations, He quite presses us with entreaties, to "be reconciled to God." Is not Christ able and willing "to save to the uttermost," any or all of us, "who come unto God by Him"? Have not some of us found already — and may not the rest find soon — that "with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plenteous redemption"?II. But suppose it so found; then what will be THE GRACIOUS EFFECT ON US? Is it carelessness, or indifference, or licentiousness of living? Not so; surely "the goodness of God leadeth to repentance." Then, when thus restored to the Divine favour — then, when this method of mercy shall have been successful — then "shall ye remember your ways," etc. Here is work for the mind and memory. Do ye not remember some of "your ways" in former years — "ways" which certainly were wrong, perverse, and corrupt? Have ye forgotten all those "doings," which certainly were not right? Do ye not remember the circumstances of your sins — how many things concurred to aggravate them in your cases? Therefore exercise your mind and memory, with prayer for the Holy Spirit, in recalling "our was" and "doings." But if truly penitent, ye will also exercise the heart and soul on this subject; "and ye shall loathe yourselves," etc. And if you "loathe yourselves" for having sinned, you will not return to sin. Men do not return willingly to look on a loathsome object. What they abhor they shun. (John Hambleton, M. A.) 1. By the dispensations of His providence. 2. By the conversion of some pious friend. 3. By the public ministry of the Word. 4. By the secret operation of His Spirit upon the soul. II. In ITS PROGRESS. 1. He reveals that covenant to us. 2. He enables us to lay hold on it. 3. He confers upon us all the blessings.Remarks — 1. How sovereign God is in the dispensations of His mercy. 2. How mysterious are His dealings with the children of men. 3. How you may best answer all the purposes of His grace. (C. Simeon, M. A.) ( C. H. Spurgeon.) And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My name's sake. There is a force which fashions suns and impels the movements producing their huge stores of heat; a force which sustains the march of constellations through terms of time that mock our little earthly history, a force which drives the tides and sweeps through the tempests, a force which vivifies and upholds the restless and ever-extending mystery of life, a force which rules the rise and fall of empires and civilisation — and that force is infinite. But from the same spring there issues a less obtrusive force belonging to another order of operations — the force which detaches man from idols; the force which frees him from the legion evils that have trampled his greatness in the dust, which makes sympathies and antipathies strangely change places in his nature, so that he comes to hate what he loved, and to love what he once hated; the force which works out the new creation of the Gospel — and that force is no less infinite though it is dealing with persons rather than things. In the realms of thought, morals, human conduct, God's power is just as far-reaching as in the realm of physics.(T. G. Selby.) People Ezekiel, Israelites, Jacob, TemanPlaces Babylon, Bamah, Egypt, NegebTopics Affirmation, Corrupt, Deal, Dealing, Dealt, Declares, Deeds, Doings, Evil, Honour, Name's, O, Practices, Sake, Says, Sovereign, Unclean, Wicked, WroughtOutline 1. God refuses to be consulted by the elders of Israel4. He shows the story of their rebellions in Egypt 19. in the desert 27. and in the land 33. He promises to gather them by the Gospel 45. Under the name of a forest he shows the destruction of Jerusalem Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezekiel 20:44Library Ten Reasons Demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral. 1. Because all the reasons of this commandment are moral and perpetual; and God has bound us to the obedience of this commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest--First, because he foresaw that irreligious men would either more carelessly neglect, or more boldly break this commandment than any other; secondly, because that in the practice of this commandment the keeping of all the other consists; which makes God so often complain that all his worship is neglected or overthrown, … Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety Manner of Covenanting. Tithing Questions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath. Covenanting Sanctioned by the Divine Example. The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close. A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox. The Covenant of Works Ezekiel Links Ezekiel 20:44 NIVEzekiel 20:44 NLT Ezekiel 20:44 ESV Ezekiel 20:44 NASB Ezekiel 20:44 KJV Ezekiel 20:44 Bible Apps Ezekiel 20:44 Parallel Ezekiel 20:44 Biblia Paralela Ezekiel 20:44 Chinese Bible Ezekiel 20:44 French Bible Ezekiel 20:44 German Bible Ezekiel 20:44 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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