church, and I want to go back and spend a little more time this morning on what we were talking about last week. No, I don't have handouts because we're still going to be really talking about what we talked about in week 4, the church gathered, the people gathered by God. Don't tell me. I may have distributed all of those. And then we're going to begin talking about the churches and new community. But I want to wrap up what we were talking about the last time. The church is a people gathered by God. So let's pray together. Father, thank you for this time for us to be together. I do pray that you'd be with us as we consider your word together. I pray that you'd enlarge our horizons that you'd give us increasingly a world vision. I pray that you would help us to not only to see and to think in terms of the world, but even to pray and to labor in terms of the world in the places where you have called us. I thank you for this extraordinary thing which we've done that you've been pleased to rescue a people for yourself and make them your own treasured possession that you are beloved people, a people called to sing your praises. Lord, fill our hearts with gladness as we think about who we are and invigorate us as we think about what you're doing in this day. As always, we thank you for your word and pray for your spirit that by your spirit's ministry among us, the truth of your word might be sealed to our hearts. We bless and praise you for your goodness and grace extended to us in the Lord Jesus and we pray in His name. All righty, if you would, we're going to be looking at some old testament passages, but to get us started, if you would, look back at Ephesians the first chapter where we were the last time we were together two weeks ago and the focus for us the last time we were together was upon the church as a people gathered by God. Now, again, the class is on the church and what we've been focusing on thus far is really God and what God does to create a church, to make a church. We've said a couple of things that the church is a people gathered for God and as such, the church is God's treasured possession. The church is the bride of Christ. The church is God's family. He is our father and we are His children and there is this language of intimacy that's found throughout the Bible, both the old and the New Testaments, language of intimacy and that sort of language, that sort of picture description is one that we want to have be very present for us. I think it makes a great deal of difference how we think about God and our relationship to Him. Just as one sort of classic illustration of how the manner in which we think about God impacts the way we live, you could look at somebody like Martin Luther. If you know anything about Luther, you will know that for years and years and years and years, his vision of Christ was as Christ the judge wielding a sword of judgment and terrifying His people and Luther lived with that picture, lived with that image of Christ the judge and so shaped and impacted was he by that particular picture, that particular vision of Christ, that when he was asked if at that time he loved Christ, he responded by saying, love him. I hated him because he was terrified of Christ. It makes all the difference in the world, how you as an individual Christian and how we together think about God and His relationship to us and so you know we're focusing on these things that the church is a people gathered for God that the church might be His treasured possession, precious in His sight, loved by Him and there is as an implication of that, the very important idea that everything that God does as He exercises His Lordship over all of what He has created. As He exercises that Lordship, He does it for His glory and for the good of His people. Everything is for His glory and for the good of His people because He loves His people and His people are a treasured possession. So that is first that the churches of people gathered for God and if you have to hand out from two weeks ago, which you probably don't because I know how these things can get lost, you'll see that there. So this little preposition before has extraordinary implications for us and then the churches of people gathered to God that the church might stand in the presence of God. We looked at the passage a couple of weeks ago from Peter's first letter, the second chapter. Let me just read that for you. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. You see, this is what God has done. As He gathers us for Himself, He gathers us to Himself. He calls us out of darkness and into light. Now He is the light of the world. The light doesn't exist apart from Him. He is the light and when God calls us out of darkness, we call us out of sin and death. He calls us to Himself into His presence and the outcome of that, the outworking of that, is that we sing His praises, we declare His glory to the nations, to the world around us. And I just mention again that the Church of Jesus Christ is a singing church. Everything that we do is doxological. Our evangelism is doxological. It's the overflow of full hearts. Remember reading a sermon by Martin Lloyd Jones? I can't remember what the sermon was about, but I remember in making the observation. He thought that evangelism training programs, there was something kind of screwy about those. And everybody needs to be trained. Don't misunderstand me, but his point was, if you have to be told how to tell your story, you don't have a story to tell. That won't go to name out. If you have to be told how to tell your story, you don't have a story to tell. Now we all need encouragement. We all need things to be tweaked in that kind of thing. The point is that evangelism is doxological. If I've tasted it and I've seen that the Lord is good, appropriately in appropriate relationships in an appropriate ways, the natural overflow of my tasting that the Lord is good and seeing that the Lord is good, is that I'm going to talk to other people about it. Now maybe you can tweak some things and help me do it a little bit better. Maybe you can help me with some apologetics kinds of things so that I can answer people's questions. But a person who has been delivered from darkness and brought into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ has something to say, has something to say, and our evangelism then is doxological. Discipleship is doxological. We grow people up in Christ
because there is great delight and great joy and great praise in growing people up in Christ. Our worship is doxological. You see every aspect of the life of the church is filled with song, filled with singing. So the churches of people gathered for God, the churches of people gathered to God that we might display His glory and sing His praise, and the churches of people gathered by God and by Him alone. The churches of people gathered by God. And that's what we were focusing on two weeks ago. And what I suggested is that we think about God's redeeming of people in a trinitarian manner.
We looked two weeks ago at Ephesians 1, 4, and the doctrine of election and predestination. Let me just read a few verses here and summarize this and then I want to move beyond it and underscore this idea that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Paul writes, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoptionist sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Now, you know, those verses from Ephesians 1 really summarized this whole thing that salvation is of the Lord. And salvation begins before the foundation of the world with God choosing a people whom He will save. And that's what we that's what we refer to as the decree of God. This is God's determination to save a people. It's his idea. You see, I said two weeks ago that this is a controversial doctrine, a controversial teaching. I understand that it's controversial, but it's not intended to be controversial. It is the teaching of scripture. This is language that the Bible uses. Our business is to seek to understand it and submit to it even though it may be perplexing for us. But the thing that the thing that you emphasize in this is that it was God's idea to save a people. God took the initiative to do this thing. And He did it before the foundation of the world. And I want to do encourage you to think as you think about God's decree and about God executing His decree and history in the person of Christ and by His Spirit as the benefits of the work of Christ who replied to His people, I encourage you that you remember that the fallen mass of humanity are conceived in scripture as being sons and daughters of Adam. And as sons and daughters of Adam, they are guilty sinners. They are dead in their trespasses and sins. And that if God doesn't take the initiative to do something for them, nobody will be saved. God has to be the one to do something because we are powerless to do anything for ourselves. And in fact, we frankly are disinterested. We're disinterested. Until the gospel gets close to us and then our disinterest turns to rebellion and hatred. When the truth starts to get close to us, the disinterest is transformed into something else. And I shared my own testimony. When I became a Christian with Backtalk to my friends about it, they were fine as long as it was my personal private experience. But when I started saying to them that the gospel was for them, their disinterest became disliked for me and everything that I had to say. That's what we're like naturally. We're conceived in scripture as being dead in trespasses and sins, sons and daughters of Adam. And God in his choosing a people is choosing people for himself who are in that condition. And if he didn't do that, if he didn't take the initiative, there isn't, there are no one of us who would be interested, would be inclined, would be saved, become a Christian at all. So God before the foundations of the world chooses a people, but that people is chosen, and you see this language in Ephesians 1, they are chosen in connection with Christ. They're chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now what that suggests to us is again that their sin is in the background. If their sin isn't in the background, if their utter and absolute need is not in the background, why are they mentioned as being chosen in Jesus Christ who is the one commissioned by God to come, be incarnate, live under the law, fulfill all of the obligations of the law, and then suffer the curse and the penalty of the law in behalf of his people? This chosen people is conceived understood to be in need of a Savior, Jesus Christ. And so in the fullness of time, those who are chosen find that their redeemer Savior comes into the world and accomplishes salvation for them. He accomplishes salvation for them. I mean, I know the sounds familiar. But this is extraordinarily comforting and encouraging to the people of God, that it was the design of the Father before the foundation of the world to send a Savior for the people whom he had chosen and whom he had given to Jesus, and Jesus at the end of his life in John 17. Look at John 17. As he comes to the end of his life, he is right before his crucifixion, right before his passion on the cross, offers this what is called referred to as the high priestly prayer. John 17 verse 1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. Where is Jesus to be glorified? And how does the Son glorify the Father in the cross? In the cross? Now the whole of the work of Christ glorifies the Father, and in the whole of the work of Christ is the Son glorified by the Father. But what is a principle concern and what is central right now to the mind of Jesus as he prays for his disciples is his substitutionary work upon the cross. Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. You have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. You see, the Father has given a people to the Son, the Son comes into the world just as Moses went into Egypt. And he comes in the capacity of a second Moses as a deliverer and a redeemer to lead his people out of death and bondage through a wilderness and into a promised land. The Father has given a people to the Son, the Son lives faithfully under the law and fulfills all of the law, and then the Son dies for that people upon the cross, suffering the curse of the law that that people might escape judgment, might not face the wrath that Christ has faced for them. So the Father chooses this people and then commissions a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes in the fullness of time and accomplishes salvation for the people whom the Father had given to him. And then the Lord Jesus Christ after he has ascended, commissions the Spirit and the Spirit's ministry now is to take of this reservoir of benefit which Christ has secured. Okay? Christ has secured the benefit. He has secured the righteousness, he has suffered death upon the cross so that there may be forgiveness and deliverance from the threat of judgment. Christ now commissions the Spirit and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to apply the benefits of the work of Christ to those whom the Father has set apart from before the foundation of the world. That's the logic of redemption, that's the logic of salvation, that's the logic of the atonement. Before the foundation of the world the Father chooses a people and commissions a Savior who is Christ. Christ comes, he secures that salvation, and now it is the Holy Spirit's work and task to apply the benefits of this work to those whom the Father had given to the Son before the foundation of the world. Okay? You ask, what is the work of the Holy Spirit right now? What is the Spirit doing? In the Olivet discourse, the chapters just before John 17, Jesus says, he, when he comes, will take what is mine and disclose or give it to you. He will take what is mine and he will disclose, he will give it to you. That's the work of the Spirit. It's to take what is Jesus's, what Jesus has secured and apply all of that to his church, to his people individually, to his people collectively. And that's what the Spirit will continue to do throughout the rest of history until all of God's people are gathered, until all of those for whom Christ has suffered and died, know the salvation that he has purchased for them. Okay? That is questions before we go on. I tell you man, that is liberating stuff. I mean, I know it's controversial and there's a lot of contention and people want to brand his sabers over this stuff. And I know there are a lot of questions that are related to this, the mystery of this whole thing, but it is extraordinarily comforting, extraordinarily encouraging. When I meet with people and tell them that people who are in trouble and they're struggling, and I mean, I'm one of them. I'd meet with myself sometimes, you know, in the bathroom and we have conversations, you know, struggling, you know, I say, look, Mike Malone, you want happiness, you want deliverance, you want to be free of all this stuff. Understand, God is more committed to your happiness than you are. God is more committed to your deliverance than you are. God is more committed to getting you out of this mess than you are interested in getting out of this mess. God has made a commitment to do this before the foundation of the world, and though you rest, and though you do this in fits and starts, and though your obedience waxes and wanes, his commitment never does. He is determined to accomplish what he set out before the foundation of the world to accomplish. He's more committed to me than I'll ever be to him. And I thank God for that. It doesn't absolve me of responsibility. Doesn't in any way diminish that I am called to holiness, I'm called to obedience, but when I struggle and I stumble and I do this in fits and starts, it is good to know that the grace that saved me in the first place is going to sustain me to the end. That's what this is all about. Okay? Blair? That is. Why do we settle with it? Why do you think what it is that the man just insists on having to do something with it, as soon as we respond to the proportion of it, what characters do we focus on so we don't do it so much or so? Can I maybe summarize what you're suggesting by saying, why do we struggle so much with wanting to contribute, with wanting to take credit, with wanting to...
Yeah, that's... That's a whole set of questions, yeah.
Yeah, that's the theological conflict. I think what Larry's talking about is this sort of spiritual thing that's spiritual slash, emotional slash, psychological thing that goes on in our souls, where we just find it very difficult, yeah, we find it very difficult, very difficult to... Well, we find it very difficult to say salvation is of the Lord, period, plus nothing on my part.
We are prideful people, and we don't really need anybody to come closer to it.
And I have a couple of issues, but I need to do myself because
but you didn't want to knock down every pride that just brought love. We are still wanting to turn to the Lord and to believe in the really wonderful things. I think that's the working of the Holy Spirit in us. For that, we would give you a right on our own way. Right, Ann? I don't struggle at all with salvation in the Holy Spirit of the Lord. It doesn't mean it's like my brain, but in paper, why do you mean it's trying to please the Lord which I guess is impossible, because I don't know. I feel like I have really one ability to do that. I know my salvation is of the Lord, but I think he cares, and when I ask him what I do. Absolutely, and that's where I guess is the Holy Spirit of the Holy Spirit of the Lord. That's where I guess. I don't think it's for salvation, but it's supposed to be the Lord, but it's supposed to be the Lord, but it's supposed to be the Spirit of the Spirit of the Holy Spirit of the Lord. Try to be the Lord? Sure. Or be the Lord. Sure. The Bible tells us that we're called to be called to be called to be called to be called to be called to be good people. Right, so the people can see that and praise the Lord from where I can pray. Right, right. We are summoned to that. I think we've got two things going on here. Let me respond. That's fine. You're allowed. Right, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Let me come back to that, Larry. I think I do think that the answer to the question that you've asked is that sin just dies hard. That self dies hard, and the sin of Adam and Eve was in wanting to live independently. That is a well-formed habit for all of us. Self-sufficiency, self-reliance, Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. Right, I did it my way. And I just think that dies real, real hard. And it is humbling, and it is embarrassing for us to face the truth about ourselves, that we are black-hearted sinners, that our hearts are boiling cauldrons of sewage.
That is very hard for us. That's very hard for us to acknowledge. What do we do? What do we do? I use this and people misunderstand me, so just to understand that this is an illustration and illustrations break down at points. They're not comprehensive. They're just, they're like parables. You know, they teach one thing. What do we do when we come together on Sunday mornings? We wear our nicest clothes and we put on our best behavior. Now, I think that's okay. Don't hear me saying that you shouldn't shave and shower and you shouldn't do this thing. But to me, that's sort of representative of how we live our lives. We hear what the Scriptures teach about us, and in a variety of ways we pretend that it isn't true. We deny it. We deny it. It's very humbling, even humiliating, embarrassing to face the truth about ourselves. And right alongside that, it is very humbling, very embarrassing to say that I am absolutely utterly helpless, that I can't do anything, that I'm powerless. And that, you know, we talk about sort of the cult of individualism in our culture and the cult of independence and the cult of self-reliance. And we see those things as somewhat characteristic of our culture, you know, our generations. I think it's been in the drinking water since day one. In one way or another, that's what shows up. Is this masking the truth about ourselves, pretending that it isn't so, and then this need to contribute, to feel like it does depend upon me. And I think in one way or another, that's just sin-dying heart. The core of sin, the heart of the thing, is me wanting to live in independence, rather than in dependence, you know. I just think my book that made a major impact on me in this area, and I struggled with it, and it didn't come out like that. And that was Gordon's book, something amazing back in the grace that's right. Finally, the rest there proved that it's Christ's righteous that they've got to do so. Right. That's what the pressures are.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Putting amazing back in grace. I think it's an impact on me. Yeah. I did try to live. I just kind of like it. Seeing Christ's righteousness in the mirror in seven-way-on light force. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. I think that's another reason that we should keep on the word every day, because every mind is assuming there are. Because everything you read talks about sin, talks about Christ's judgment, and there's really some talks about it. You're right, you're right. That's interesting, you use that phrase that takes the pressure off. I've said that, my favorite verses here are my 17-9. The hardest is to see full above all things, and desperately wicked, who can understand it. And I say it's my favorite verse because it takes the pressure off. Right, it tells me the truth about you, and it tells me the truth about me, and it tells me that I don't have to pretend anymore. We don't have to pretend. That's the truth. Now, the other truth is that this work has robed us with new clothes, the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. And I've told this story, in fact, our group on Wednesday night, our Bible study on Wednesday night, we're reading Martin Luther, and we're reading it because of reading his lectures on Galatians. And it's like the guys got one song, and that's all he can sing. It's the most, I mean, he's only got one song. You know, he's a one-hit wonder. Have you seen the movie of that thing you do? You know, it's like Martin Luther, and he's a one-hit wonder. He's only got one song, justification by faith alone, and he keeps singing it over and over and over and over and over and over again. He sort of rearranges it and sets new tunes to it and that kind of thing, but it's the same old song. It's the same, folks.
And, you know, why? Because for so long, he was terrified, terrified by his vision of Christ, and to see this vision of Christ, he just wanted to keep it before himself and before his people all the time. Because by the work of Christ, we're set free. We're set free. Now, and to pick up on your question,
you know, I think even then, it's important. It's important that we have the right relationships established among things. God does call us the holiness, and there is no mistaking that.
But I think one of the wrong images that we have is that there is something burdensome about holiness. Right?
Right. There is a, it is hard and it is difficult, but it is not burdensome. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. It is a hard life, but it is not burdensome. And by that, I mean, I struggle this with, I have told, I think I've told you, these stories, when I first became a Christian, I was convinced that God's purpose for me was unhappiness, and for, and honestly, for a long time, I kind of kept God at a distance, because I saw Christians in my high school, and I didn't want to be like them, because I thought they were miserable, and many of them were, many of them were miserable. And I thought if I take this stuff seriously, I know what's going to happen. I know what's going to happen. I'm going to become a missionary in some out of the way place. I'm going to get stewed in my own juices, my family. I'll never be heard from again. I'm going to die in obscurity, you know. I know that's what's going to happen to me, right? Well, I mean, anybody who's been a Christian for more than five minutes has some sense that the Christian life is hard, but it is deeply satisfying.
It's frustrating to get you there, right? Right, right. It's not something that's going to happen to me. That's right. Do you want to do it? No. Do you want to do it? No. Do you want to do it? Right. Right, you're right. It's not. It's not taken seriously. It is hard, but it is deeply satisfying. I wouldn't trade, I've been a Christian for 25 years. I wouldn't trade a moment of my Christian life, to go back for a moment, to my pre-Christian life, because it's meaninglessness and absurdity, and it's just, you know, it's not worth it. So it is hard, but the yoke of Christ is not burdensome. It is a liberating yoke. And that's, I think, the thing we've got to, you know, we've got to try and keep in mind, in the midst of the confusion and the difficulty, remember that holiness is happiness. You know, this little children's catechism, maybe some of you have used it with your kids. In what condition were Adam and Eve created? God created them wholly and happy. They are twin sides of the same coin. There is no holiness without happiness. There's no happiness without holiness. So it isn't burdensome. And let me just make the other observation. When we struggle in this thing, when we stumble and fall, again, it seems to me awfully important that we remember the nature of our relationship to God, that God is our Father. God is our loving, heavenly Father. Now, forgive me if I'm boring you with illustrations I've used a thousand times. It's just that they kind of capture this for me. I remember when my daughters took their first steps, when they began to walk, and when they succeeded at taking a first step. Now, anybody who's had a child or been around children knows that after they take that first step, right, it's like this, and maybe they get one more in, but they're either on their face or they're on their fannies, right after that. What do you do as a parent when your child has taken those first steps? What do you do? You get right over him and you say, you are such an embarrassment to me. Why can't you walk? Don't you understand you're a disgrace to the family name? Right? You don't, right? Do you parade him? Do you beat him up? Do you belittle him? You take pictures, you get out the video camera, you call the grand parents, you have a party, right? Now, look, I stumble and fall. How does my loving Heavenly Father view my stumbling and falling?
He corrects you. Yeah, sure. Why does he do that? Because he doesn't want you to stay in that condition as a child. He doesn't want you to wear diapers. He doesn't want you going off to college in diapers. He wants you to mature. He wants you to grow up. But does he celebrate your successes or does he rebuke you for your failures?
He does both, right? Now, I'm going to ask you this personally, do you celebrate your successes?
All two of them.
Do you imagine your loving Heavenly Father celebrating the small steps that you take? I think he does. I think he does.
This is the devil, I think. I think the devil gets in our ears and whispers to us about the justice of God, about the wrath of God, about our inadequacy, about our unworthiness, all of which is true. And when that happens, you speak to the devil and you say, you're absolutely right. I am a miserable sinner. I am unworthy. I am a failure.
But there is the cross. And because of the work of Christ, I've been clothed in righteousness and I am an adopted son and you can go straight back to hell where you came from.
I mean, I do think it is both, but the motivation is always love. When we are rebuked, when we're corrected, when God wants us to move to the next level, when he puts us through hell in order to get us there, what is driving that? It's his great love for us and it's these two things. His glory. See, I mean, that's what Jesus says in John 73 or 2, where is God glorified in the cross? In the cross. Where is God glorified in our lives as he works us in the crucible of life through the crosses of life to a place of holiness? He is glorified and our good is secured. So, I mean, it is a mixed thing. Ed, you're going to say something.
I mean, I say G was God who does those who do that just for lay off on things, even though I know intellectually that those things are my spiritual good and so forth. And then it makes me feel even worse when I compare how simple and easy my life is, compared to those who really do have different struggles and stuff. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And for ourselves, we really are, as we do on people, I think it'd be a possible fall. So, in his ministry, if he was at least the Apostles, then he became at least among the saints and then we're going to dislike people achieving all sinners. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard people mention that progression before through his letters. Yeah, yeah. We try to go beyond the bridge. That's right. Yep. Yep. I think the picture of the athletes is like a gender student, totally across their coast. And I'll do whatever the church tells them to and they'll accept whatever kind of difficulties the church runs them through and so forth because they know that the church has their best interest and that there is a prize to be gained at the end of all this and that kind of thing. And I just see how far away I am from having that same level of trust with God and my life. Yeah. And it's, but I tell you know, it's wonderful to be around. I mean, I gotta tell you, it was a blessed thing to be with Harold Neve in Harold's last days and weeks. And just to watch these two very godly people who, for whom these things are not just abstractions, you know, not just propositions but who've heard them for 50 and 60 years and in whose lives these things have really taken root. And to see how they responded to Harold's illness and his degenerating health over the course of a decade, it's encouraging to be around people like that because you think, there's hope for me, you know, there's hope for me that I can get to the place where in the face of that kind of separation and the kind of care that he've had to give to Harold, there can be a real contentment, you know, not without some bristles. I mean, you know, you saw some of the bristles and some of the, some of the tensions life, you know, life is hard. But a real, but a contentment and an assurance and a sense of being safe. You know, that's, that encouraged me that there's still some hope for me. Okay. Now, what we're kind of segueing into having talked about about the work of God and all of this is what the church then is.
What are the characteristics of the church? We said the church is a people gathered for God, to God and by God. And what we want to talk about in the remaining minutes and then we'll talk about more next week is the idea that the church is a new community gathered from among the nations. The church is a new community gathered from among the nations. Let me have you look at a couple of passages, Ezekiel 34, first of all. And then we're going to look at Isaiah 59. And in these passages, we're sort of underscoring the idea that salvation is of the Lord. Okay. And that's an idea we can't ever get too far away from. But it's nice to see it in an Old Testament setting. I mean, I think we know it, but it's nice to see it in this setting as well. Start at verse 7 of Ezekiel 34. This is God rebuking the shepherds in Israel because they have not cared for the flock. In fact, they have devoured the flock, which is a kind of a word picture for saying that the ministers in Israel made a quite nice livelihood for themselves at the expense of the people. That's what makes me a little nervous. I mean, I, like you, Ed, you know, I feel like I live a pretty nice life, you know. But that's what was going on. And this is God rebuking the shepherds. Therefore, you shepherds hear the word of the Lord. As I live, says the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd. And you know what shepherds are supposed to do. They're supposed to care for the flock. They're supposed to defend the flock. They're supposed to ensure that wolves and other wild beasts don't devour the flock. Well, God is saying here that his flock has become a prey and has become food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd, nor did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. And the clear implication is that they fed themselves on the flock. They devoured the flock. Therefore, oh shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand. I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more. For I will deliver my flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them. For thus says the Lord God, indeed I myself will search for my sheep, and seek them out, as a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he gathered sheep. So will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day? And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their folds shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek what was lost, and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken, and strengthen what was sick, but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment. The language here, if you're a Jew living at the time of Ezekiel, is language which would be interpreted in terms of an exile, that when the people are dispersed and scattered, it is the Lord who loves his flock, who will gather them together from the countries and from the nations to which they have been dispersed. But as you work your way through the Old Testament, reading various prophetic passages, it becomes clear that it isn't just the dispersed of the nation of Israel, whom God will gather to Jerusalem, whom God will gather to His pastures, whom God will gather to His waters, where they will be fed and watered, but the picture gets larger, and it is people from the nations of the earth who will be gathered to Jerusalem, who will be made one with the nation Israel, and there will be, as Jesus says, one flock under one shepherd gathered from all the nations, and it is the Lord who will accomplish this, it is the Lord who will seek out what is scattered, it is the Lord who will bind up what is broken, it is the Lord who will feed what is hungry, it is the Lord who will give drink to what is thirsty, and He will gather this people, not only from the countries where the Jews, not only will He gather the nation Israel from the countries where they have been scattered, but He will gather a people from all of the nations to Himself and care for them in this way. Look at Isaiah 59. Again, we are underscoring the idea that salvation is of the Lord. Isaiah 59, 14 to 17, justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter, so truth fails, and He who departs from evil makes Himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him, and His own righteousness it sustained Him, for He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. Zeal is a great Old Testament word. You remember this kind of language. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this, and the zeal refers to God's passion, and God's power being expressed in the accomplishing of salvation for His people. You've got a similar sort of picture here. There is no justice. People become prey, and so God takes it upon Himself to arm Himself with a breastplate of righteousness, with a helmet of salvation, to clothe Himself in passion and zeal, and to bring salvation for people. Again, just look at chapter 60, and you see that this zeal of the Lord is directed to the nations, that it is God's purpose to do this among the nations. This is a real familiar passage. Arise. This is chapter 60, verse 1. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you, and the Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. So how will the Lord accomplish salvation for the nations of the earth? He will accomplish salvation by producing His light in the midst of His people, and that light will dispel the darkness, and as the light shines and burns brightly, then the nations will be drawn to the light, and the kings will come to the brightness of your rising. When did the light appear? What was the light? Where did the light appear? Well, the light appeared in the midst of Israel, the light was the Lord Jesus Christ, and the light was the incarnation of the light which is God in the person of Jesus Christ, and by His light shining in the midst of the darkness now, the Gentiles have been drawn to that light, and this people from the nations have been gathered. So the Lord accomplishes what He set out to accomplish, fulfilled what He promised He would do in the person of Christ. Now, we are, yes, we are the light of the world. Right. Right. Now, here's this particular passage, Isaiah 19. I think it gives you a sense. It probably doesn't impact us as citizens of the United States of America and Gentile folk. It doesn't probably impact us in the way that it would have impacted the people of Isaiah's day. This is Isaiah 19 at the end of that chapter. These kinds of promises are throughout the scriptures that the Lord is going to accomplish salvation, that by His accomplishing salvation His people will be delivered, and that people will be a people from among the nations of the earth. Okay. Those are the promises throughout. And you read this, which is a powerful picture of this salvation that the Lord is accomplishing. In that day, this verse 23 of chapter 19, in that day, and that phrase in that day, whenever you see it in the prophets, it always refers. It always has reference to the Messianic day, the day of the Messiah, the Messianic age, and it has a culmination, a consummation in the final day of judgment when God's people are delivered and unrighteousness is forever punished. But that day that's being referred to is the Messiah's day, the Messianic day. In that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Egyptian and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day, Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, now listen to this, blessed is Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. Now, if you're a Jew at the time of Isaiah, what are you thinking? Isaiah is on drugs. He's taken something. I mean, these are the two bitterest enemies of Israel, the Egyptians to the south and the west and the Assyrians to the north and the east. And the interesting thing is you've got this highway from Assyria to Egypt, and people travel along this highway, and they don't even stop in Israel. They don't even stop in Jerusalem. They don't even stop at the temple to worship there. But the Assyrians go to Egypt to worship, and the Egyptians go to Assyria to worship. And Israel is considered one of three, and is even listed last in the order. And Egypt is called my people, and Assyria is called the work of my hands, and Israel lastly is called my inheritance, my possession. That's the scope of the vision of redemption in the Old Testament, that begins to see its fulfillment in the work of Christ, and then the work of the church as the church proclaims the gospel, and where you see this, really wonderfully fulfilled, if you flip back to Ephesians, you get Paul reflecting upon his own commissioning and his own role as a apostle to the Gentiles. He writes this. Ephesians 2, verse 14. Well, let's see, maybe we should back up to verse 11. Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity, and he came and preached peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near, for through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. It's interesting verse 17, Paul says, he came and preached peace to you who were far off. So Lord Jesus himself, who came to these Gentiles, who preached the gospel to them in fulfillment of God's purpose and salvation, and now has gathered from the Gentiles and the Jews into one man, into one body, one people as the new community of God living in the midst of the earth, from all the nations of the earth, one people gathered together, so that the people of God though they are diverse represent a nation, they are together a nation, and their identity is as the people of God, the nation of priests that God has made them to be in the midst of the earth. We're going to talk some more about this next week, but that's what God is doing, that's what the church is, a new community in contrast to the old community, the old ethnic community of Israel, they are now a new community of people being gathered from the nations of the earth and fulfillment of God's promises. We need to stop. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you are a shepherd over your flock. Thank you that you are a mighty warrior, one who bears a breastplate, one who wears a helmet, one who brandishes a saber in behalf of his people. Thank you that you have come as a mighty warrior in an ironic paradoxical sense, not truly to bear the sword, but in fact to be pierced by the sword, that by your piercing you might gather this people to yourself from among the nations of the earth. Lord, I pray as we continue to study your word together and consider the nature of the church that we would celebrate as did the Apostle Paul, this glorious thing that you've done, that you've accomplished salvation for your people and you are gathering that people to yourself from every nation and tribe and people in tongue on the face of the earth. We give you thanks that what you set out to do you most certainly will accomplish. May we rest in that and again may we sing your praises and may we celebrate what you do. Be with us now as we come to worship. I pray that our hearts would be again greatly encouraged. May we taste and see that you are good. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.