Episode Transcript
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We come now to the reading and
preaching of God's Word in Ezekiel, Ezekiel
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Chapter Sixteen. So turn with me, if you would there. This is
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a long chapter. You know,
I am going to read all of it
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and you'll you'll see why once we
get going. But might be helpful,
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excuse me, might be helpful for
me to make just a few comments here
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at the beginning to frame a little
bit and give our ears some understanding so
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that as we listen, we can
be listening for for certain things and be
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listening with understanding. I'm Ezekiel Sixteen
is the story of the city Jerusalem.
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It's the story of the people of
that city. But instead of giving us
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an account of names and dates,
which is not a bad thing to do,
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but the Lord does something different here. He gives us the history in
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the form of an allegory, a
story that characterizes that history, that helps
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us to understand those people, the
things that happen, the things that God
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did. And, as you'll see, this chapter sixteen is powerful and memorable.
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It's even graphic in some spots.
I can't remember the quote off the
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chop of my head, but Charles
spurgeon says something about warnings to even reading
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it in public. There are maybe
reasons you've not heard this chapter before,
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but you know how we roll here
and we we read God's word and we
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read it. I'm trusting that he
has given it to us for a reason,
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for a purpose, and so there
will be no reason to exaggerate anything
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or Jinet up beyond what's here,
or any reason to downplay it or excuse
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it. It's important for us to
hear God gives us this story in this
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form of an allegory. You give
in this to make it, I think,
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a powerful and memorable as you'll see, and you can look for this
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theme as we read, for throughout
a remembering or failing to remember, is
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part of the problem that Israel is
facing. It is one of the reasons
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that things get so bad. And
remembering, well God's remembering any way,
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is as one of the reasons for
the surprising ending of the story. And
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over the course of this story we
come to know and see very clearly of
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the righteousness of God, the abhorrent
sinfulness of man, and then also God's
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amazing and atoning grace. So I
encourage you to listen for all of those
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things and let's give our attention to
God's word. Now an Ezechiel, Chapter
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Sixteen. Again, the word of
the Lord came to me. Son Of
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man, make known to Jerusalem her
abominations and say, thus says the Lord
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God to Jerusalem. Your origin and
your birth are of the land of the
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Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite
and your mother a hittite. And as
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for your birth, on the day
that you were born, your cord was
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not cut, nor were you washed
with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed
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with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling
clothes. No, I pitied you to
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do any of these things to you
out of compassion for you. But you
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were cast out on the open field
for your abhorred on the day that you
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were born. And when I passed
by you and saw you wallowing in your
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blood, I said to you,
in your blood live, I said to
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you, in your blood live.
I made you flourish like a plant of
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the field, and you grew up
and became tall and arrived at full adornment.
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Your breasts were formed and your hair
had grown. Yet you were naked
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and bear when I passed by you
again and saw you behold, you were
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at the age for love, and
I spread the corner of my garment over
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you and covered your nakedness. I
made my vow to you and entered into
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a covenant with you, declares the
Lord God, and you became mine.
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Then I bathed you with water and
washed off your blood from you and anointed
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you with oil. I clothed you
also with embroidered cloth and shod you with
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fine leather. I wrapped you in
fine linen and covered you with silk,
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and I adorned you with ornaments and
put bracelets on your wrists and a chain
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on your neck, and I put
a ring on your nose and ear rings
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and your ears and a beautiful crown
on your head. Thus you were adorned
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with gold and silver, and your
clothing was of fine linen and silk and
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embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour
and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly
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beautiful and advanced to royalty, and
your renown went forth among the nations because
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of your beauty, for it was
perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed
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on you, declares the Lord God. But you trust it in your beauty
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and played the whore because of your
renown and lavished your hoarrings on any passer
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by. Your beauty became his.
You took some of your garments and made
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for yourself colorful shrines, and on
them played the whore. The like has
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never been, never been, nor
shall be, nor ever shall be.
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You also took your beautiful jewels,
of my gold and my silver, which
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I had given you, and made
for yourself images of men, and with
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them played the whore. And you
took your embroidered garments to cover them and
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set my oil and my incense before
them, also my bread that I gave
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you. I Fed you with fine
flower and oil and honey. You set
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them before a pleasing aroma. You
set before them a pleasing for a pleasing
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aroma, and so it was,
declares the Lord God. And you took
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your sons and your daughters, whom
you had borne to me, and these
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you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your hoharring so small a matter
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that you slaughtered my children and delivered
them up as an offering to buy fire
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to them? And in all your
abominations and your warnings, you did not
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remember the days of your youth when
you were naked and bear wallowing in your
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own blood and after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, declares
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the Lord God. You built yourself
a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty
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place in every square, at the
head of every street. You built a
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lofty place and made your beauty and
abomination, offering yourself to any passer by
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and to multiplying your wharring, you
also played the war with the Egyptians,
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your lustful neighbors, multiplying your hoharring
to provoke me to anger. Behold,
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therefore, I stretched out my hand
against you and diminished your allotted plot portion
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and delivered you to the greed of
your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines,
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who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You laid the horror also with
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the Assyrians, because you were not
satisfied. Yes, you played the whore
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with them, and you still were
not satisfied. You multiplied your horring also
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with the trading land of Chaldea,
and even with this you were not satisfied.
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How sick is your heart, declares
the Lord God. Because you did
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all these things the deeds of a
brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at
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the head of every street and making
your lofty place in every square. Yet
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you were not like a prostitute,
because you scorned payment, adulterous wife who
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receives strangers instead of her husband.
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but
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you gave your gifts to all your
lovers, bribing them to come to you
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from every side with your horrings.
So you were different from other women.
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In Your horrings, no one solicited
you to play the whore, and you
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gave them payment, while no payment
was given to you. Therefore, you
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were different. Therefore, oh prostitute, here the word of the Lord,
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thus says the Lord God, Because
Your Lust was poured out and your nakedness
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uncovered in your horrings, with your
lovers and with all your abominable idols,
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and because of the blood of your
children that you gave them. Therefore,
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behold, I will gather all your
lovers with whom you took pleasure, all
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those who you all those you loved
and all those you hated. I will
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gather them again to you from every
side and will uncover your nakedness to them,
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that they may see all your nakedness, and I will judge you as
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women who commit adultery and shed blood, are judged and bring upon you the
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blood of Wrath and jealousy, and
I will give you into their hands,
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and they shall throw down your vaulted
chamber and break down your lofty places.
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They shall strip you of your clothes
and take your beautiful jewels and leave you
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naked and bear they shall bring up
a crowd against you and they shall stone
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you and cut you to pieces with
their swords, and they shall burn your
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houses and execute judgments upon you in
the sight of many women. I will
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make you stop playing the whore and
you shall also give payment. No more
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so will I satisfy my wrath on
You, and my jealousy shall depart from
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you. I will be calm and
I will no more be angry, because
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you have not remembered the days of
your youth, but have enraged me with
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all these things. Therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your
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head, declares the Lord God.
Have you not committed loudness in the Obama
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in addition to all your abominations?
Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use
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this proverb about you. Like mother, like daughter. You are the daughter
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of your mother, who loathed her
husband and her children. And you are
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the sister of your sisters who loathed
their husband's and their children. Your mother
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was a hittite and your father an
Amorite, and your elder sister, Sumeria,
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who lived with her daughters to the
north of you, and your younger
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sister, who lived to the south
of you, is Sodom, with her
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sisters or daughters. Not only did
you walk in their ways and do according
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to their abominations, within a very
little time you were more corrupt than they
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in all your ways. As I
live, declares the Lord God your system,
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Sodom and her daughters have not done
as you and your daughters have done.
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Behold this was the guilt of your
sister, Sodom. She and her
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daughters had pride, excess food and
prosperous ease, but did not aid the
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poor and needy. They were haughty
and did an abomination before me, so
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I removed them when I saw it. Sameria has not committed half of your
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sins. You have committed more abominations
than they and have made your sisters appear
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righteous by all the abominations that you
have committed. Bear your disgrace you also,
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for you have intervened on behalf of
your sisters, because of your sins,
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in which you acted more abominably than
they, they are more in the
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right than you. So be ashamed
you also, and bear your disgrace,
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for you have made your sisters appure
righteous. I will restore their fortunes,
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both the fortunes of Sodom and her
daughters and the fortunes of Sumeria and her
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daughters, and I will restore your
own fortunes in their midst, that you
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may bear your disgrace and be ashamed
of all that you have done, becoming
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a consolation to them. As for
your sister's Sodom and her daughters, as
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for your sister's Sodom and her daughters
shall return to their former state, and
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Samaria and her daughter shall return to
their former state, and you and your
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daughters shall return to your former state. Was Not your sister Sodom a by
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word in your mouth in the day
of your pride, before your wickedness was
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uncovered? Now you have become an
object of reproach to the daughters of Syria
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and all those around her, and
for the daughters of the Philistines those all
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around who despise you. You Bear
the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations,
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declares the Lord for. Thus,
says the Lord God, I will
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deal with you as you have done. You have despised the oath in breaking
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the covenant. Yet I will remember
my covenant with you in the days of
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your youth and I will establish for
you an everlasting covenant. Then you will
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remember your ways and be ashamed when
you take your sisters, both your elder
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and your younger, and I give
them to you as daughters, but not
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on account of the Covenant With You. I will establish my covenant with you
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and you shall know that I am
the Lord, that you may remember and
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be confounded and never open your mouth
again because of your shame. Aim when
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I atone for you for all that
you have done, declares the Lord God.
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God blesses reading as word to us, so I said. As I
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said at the outset of reading this
passage, it's an allegory about a city.
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It's the story of Jerusalem. I'm
going to summarize it so that we
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can remember it and also understand it, and then draw a few applications as
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we conclude. The story begins with
very beautiful beginnings, wonderful, tender moments,
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a sadness happens. I'm out of
Canaan, Jerusalem is born. I'm
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here, Jerusalem is characterized as a
place of Canaan, and that's exactly what
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it was before. Israel, that
is their Jerusalem, was an important city.
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Out of Canaan, this place was
born. But she was neglected and
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left aside. But God made her
to live. God did not let her
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die. He said live to her
in this sad state of being left alone,
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and she grows in splendor and praise
she she becomes a very beautiutiful and
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mature. Then I'm God passes by
her again and when she is the age
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for love and he marries her,
he is he clothes her with this embroidered
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cloth and fine letter leather, the
materials that are mentioned here, the things
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that she eats, all these things
relate and have echoes of life in the
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Tabernacle, of ways in which I'm
Zion and the temple and the or the
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Tabernacle were adorned. God blesses her
in all of these ways. But then
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after this beautiful beginning in which this
the Lord establishes this loving relationship with his
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bride, there is this terrible turn. She takes her beauty and trusts it
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instead of the one who gave it
to her. She takes her life and
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trusts it instead of the one who
gave her life, and she takes these
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things and uses them for idols,
for idolatry and for murder. We are
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told, I'm here, in the
histories and kings, and in Jeremiah as
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well, of instances where of kings
and people at large sacrificed their own children.
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This terrible thing. As the way
God puts it, he says,
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and after giving all of these things
that I have given you a way to
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your lovers, then you take my
children and you sacrifice them to these idols.
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We have records of Ahas and the
NASA doing this and others as well.
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And God describes this in terms of
prostitution. She is going after an
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adultery and giving herself away. But
you notice how bad it is? Right?
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We have a similar story in the
book of Josiah. Perhaps you remember
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a similar allegory of that kingdom and
all that happened there. But even there,
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in the northern kingdom, as bad
as it got, it's never described
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quite like this. Here, not
only does she go giving herself up,
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to these idols, chasing after other
husbands, but she doesn't even take payment.
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In her poverty is she doesn't even
take payment. And said she is
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bribing the people, bribing these false
husbands, these idols. I'm she is
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giving these things away. It just
does. Her situation keeps getting worse and
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worse and worse, not only her
plight, her heart being so sick,
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as Ezekiel says, as the Lord
says in verse thirty, but all the
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things that she does. You can
sense the Lord's indignation at the abominations growing
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and growing and growing. There's a
place where God speaks around verse thirty nine
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and talks about temporary judgments that were
given. He talks about the doucing of
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her provisions, the giving over of
of her to other cities, and we
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remember reading about these, perhaps in
the historical records, or Israel or Jerusalem.
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Would enter into alliances with other places, often to her disadvantage, often
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paying more than what she was getting. God brought upon her this kind of
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judgment, and yet she did not
turn alliances that cost her enemy success.
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They were even ashamed at her behavior. He says, so bad as what
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you're doing. The other nations are
looking at you, this place that's supposed
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to be a holy city, and
saying wow, we wouldn't even do that,
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much like Abimelech right when Abraham sort
of tricks him with Sarah and the
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Abraham says our aboo. Milik says
to Abraham, we don't even do these
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things. Why are you doing this? There's this sense of righteousness even among
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the unrighteous, a sense of knowing
the law, as Paul Talks about it,
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written on their hearts, even though
not having the law of Moses.
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They know it simply by nature the
way that God has made the world.
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They know it by virtue of being
made in the image of God. They
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know that there are some things that
are just not right. Sodom is an
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example of this. We read in
verse forty that Sodom and her daughters,
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a phrase referring to Sodom as a
city, and then kind of surrounding villages
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around Sodom and her daughter's go Moura
being one of those. They had,
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except they had pride and excess food, prosperous ease, but did not aid
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the poor and the needy. They
were haughty, they were prideful and they
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did an abomination before me, and
we know what happened. Sodom becomes this
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by word in the scriptures, a
place for for a place which it just
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which immediately calls to mind pride and
disgusting acts, and a place that was
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ultimately judged by God. And what
does God say of Sodom? She doesn't
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even compare to you, Sodom to
the south and Samaria to the north.
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You make them look good when when
these places look at you, Jerusalem,
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they're consoled, he says, not
consoled because their sins are forgiven, but
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consoled in the sense that they look
at Jerusalely go or not that bad.
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That's how dad things have gotten in
Jerusalem. They have at you have acted,
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he says in Verse Fifty Two,
more abominably than they they are more
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in the right than you are.
So be a shamed. Where is your
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shame? The hardness of Jerusalem's heart
is so tough. She is going at
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these things in lewdness and in horror
and in murder with such intensity and fervor,
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without any care of cause, without
any sense of God's coming judgment.
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Then enough is enough and the Lord
says that she will be judged. God
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warns her and then God's wrath comes. He speaks of her being exposed,
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of being cut into pieces, of
being destroyed. In this, of course,
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is language that applies to the city, the city, the the enemies
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come in and they ravage it,
strip it, bear, they destroy it
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down, they leave it in pieces, in such a way that Jerusalem becomes
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the new by word. Like mother, like daughter, they say, and
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not in a pleasant or happy way. And so God's wrath comes, and
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comes so strongly, the guilt of
her coming upon her head. This guilt,
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this judgment that comes upon Jerusalem,
is not accidental. As we see,
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God is not being unfair. He
had counts for the things that she
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has done and he's very clear that
her punishments, her own deeds, will
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come upon her own head. We
have a sense of God's fairness in this
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when he says in Verse Forty Two, that I will satisfy my wrath on
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you and my jealousy shall depart.
When God pours out his wrath on peep,
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on his people for these things,
there will be a time when it
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comes to an end, I will
be calm and I will be angry no
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more. God will have his judgment
and it will be fair. But of
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course, this judgment ends in death. This one who was dead, that
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was brought to life, is now
dead again, exposed naked, as she
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came into the world, not an
and on account of her own unrighteousness.
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And then we would think we were
at the end of this long, sad
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story. But then things start to
turn in after hearing God's warning and then
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his wrath, we begin to hear
of His grace. He begins. I
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talking about restoring the fortunes not only
of Jerusale Salem, but also Samaria and
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also even Sodom. Sodom which,
as we know, was destroyed, destroyed.
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With the Fire of God coming down
out of Heaven, Sodom will be
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restored. See, it's a Marria
will be restored and these sisters, the
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sister cities to the north and to
the south, will be given to Israel
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as daughters, in other words that
these these cities, which had no part
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of the Covenant with the Lord,
will be brought into this family, will
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be brought into immediate relationship. I'm
coming and falling under the blessings of Jerusalem.
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This is one of the many prophecies
that we have about the incoming of
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the gentiles, the promise of the
Gospel going out to the world, even
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beyond Jerusalem, and gentiles like us
of being brought in. But nobody says.
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You know what he says in Verse
Sixty One. I will give them
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to you as daughters, but not
on the account of the Covenant With You,
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and by that, of course,
he means the Mosaic Covenant. God
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is going to give them as daughters, but not because Israel was so righteous,
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not because she fulfilled the obligations of
the Covenant and now she gets to
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enter into her a glory. It's
not because of that. What the thing,
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one of the things that this passage
makes so crystal clear is that the
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salvation that we have in the Lord
is not of our own doing. It
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is not of our own doing.
We did not keep the covenant. Our
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forefathers are for mothers. They did
not keep the covenant. They didn't just
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keep it, they broke it,
they burnt it to a crisp, they
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spit on it, they despised it, they ran after other gods, they
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hated God and filled that land with
abominations. But God, remembering the promise
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that he had made before, a
promise to Abraham, a promise that would
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be from everlasting to everlasting. He
promises to establish a new covenant on the
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basis of that one. He would
establish a covenant with you for this purpose,
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so that you shall know that I
am the Lord. If you've been
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with us, listening to these these
passages and is Ekiel, hopefully you're hearing
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that phrase over and over again.
God brings these judgments and he brings His
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grace so that we may know that
he is the Lord, but he is
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the ruler, that he is the
king and that he is Yahway and there
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is no other like him. Do
not go after false gods. They are
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false. There is no one like
me. We must know him, and
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we know him through his words and
we know him through his work and we
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know him through these things that he
is doing. He wants us to remember.
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They God and all so much of
this mess because they did not remember,
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they did not pay attention, they
did not listen, they did not
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trust him. Instead, they looked
at their circumstances, they saw their beauty
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and they said, I guess we're
good. Let's bank on this. God
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gives to us so many things,
beloved, He provides for us, he
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gives us jobs and families, so
many freedoms. List goes on and on
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and on, and they are good
and we should be thankful for them,
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we should smile and we eat them
and drink them and experience them, but
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they are not our hope. God
is the only one that we give our
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praise to, the only one that
we give our fear to, and when
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we remember that, when we trust
him, he protects us and he keeps
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us and he loves US and he
clothes US. Well, Israel forgot this.
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They frowned all these ways. But
God was going to do something new.
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He says, he was going to
establish a covenant. That his verse
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Sixty One says. Then, on
the basis of his works, you will
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remember your ways and you will be
ashamed. In God's grace we come to
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a remembrance not only of his works, but also our lack of works,
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also our unrighteousness. He says that
never again will you open your mouth because
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of your shame, and he means
this in the sense of that selfjustifying mouth,
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that boasting mouth, that prideful mouth
that says, well, I'm here
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because of this and this, and
well, look at these things I've done,
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look at these things I've achieved,
or we've got the temple, or
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we've got baptism, or we've got
this or whatever. No, these things,
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these works, the these things,
they do not justify us. Only
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God, and God alone, who, as we read, promises to atone
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for our sins. And that's the
most amazing thing of all of this.
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After all of these things, after
everything that's been done, after so much
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wretchedness, God says, even after
their death, God says, I will
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atone for your sins, for all
that you have done. So that's Israel.
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Who Are we? We are those
who live in the age of the
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fulfillment of these promises. We live
in an era where the atonement has happened,
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the atonement that was promised, this
forgiveness of sins that would cover everything
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from the most disgusting, the most
embarrassing, the most shameful things forgiven.
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As we read earlier today, as
far as the East is from the West,
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so far will our sins be removed. He covers us and he cleanses
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us, so that we are as
white as snow, speaking of his bride,
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the bride of Christ, and Ephesians
Five, we are told that we
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are cleansed and purified, made spotless, and perfect. We are those who
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stand as that bride. We are
those who belong in the fulfillment of these
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promises. That's the first thing we
are. The second thing we are is
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very much like these people, similar
to the Corinthians, as Paul describes them,
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and believe it's chapter ten. He
says you were once sexually immoral,
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idolaters, drunkards, fools and more, but now you have been washed,
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you have been redeemed, you have
been brought in to the family of God,
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brought out of the dominion of darkness
into the Kingdom of Light, the
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Kingdom of the beloved Sun. We
need to remember that when we come into
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worship to praise our Lord. We
need to remember that we're not here for
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any other reason except that we've been
saved out of who we once were,
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that we've been saved out of our
old wretchedness, out of the old Adam,
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and have been brought into Christ.
This should lead us to trust God
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more than anything else. This should
lead us to flee from idolatry, sexual
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morality and murder and all the rest. This should lead us to trust him
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and trust him and trust him and
keep coming back to him over and over
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and over again. When you think
about this story on your way home or
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over this next week, think about
the Lord. So much of the story
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is a condemnation of Jerusalem, but
think about how vindicated the Lord he is
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here, how good he is,
how tender he is, how powerful he
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is as well, but how he
ultimately uses that power for the sake of
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his people. He does everything that
he does because he loves them. And
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so as we trust God and remember
where we came from, let's shut our
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mouths as well, not shutting our
mouths from praise and confession and repentance,
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but shut our mouths from that fool
