(Eze 22:30) ואבקשׁ מהם אישׁ גדר גדר ועמד בפרץ לפני בעד הארץ לבלתי שׁחתה ולא מצאתי׃
Introduction
We will be in the book of Ezekiel and in chapter 22:30. The verse reads, And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. (Eze 22:30). Ezekiel was God’s penman for this book, and he was both a prophet and a priest in Israel. The name Ezekiel means, The Fortitude of God, and Ezekiel was a fortress for God to Israel. The Lord in the Holy Spirit made Ezekiel a stalwart and a bold proclaimer of His Word, for Ezekiel contented with civil magistrates, the false prophets, the lawless priest, and the regular commonwealth of Israel on account of their sad unrestricted apostasy and unhampered darkness defecating through the church. This apostasy and darkness are seen in Israel’s plethora of idols, their abundance of false worship, and their brutal oppression of each other. Ezekiel prophesied for about 20 years to Israel, and this was during the Babylonian Captivity around 516 BC.
Exegesis of the Text
Now, let us get into the words in the I sought diligently from them a man to build up a wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. (My translation). First, God said the He “sought for a man”, and the word for sought is ואבקשׁ an emphatic word. It means that God diligently sought or searched for a man. This word means more than merely searching for something with hopes that it might be found, rather, this word means that God had purposely searched and inquired into every jurisdiction and home in Israel. The word “sought” additionally means to put into action, as found in Zephaniah 2:3, which says, Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. The same word for “sought” is used here in the word “seek” three times. Our Lord is speaking in anthropomorphic language here through Ezekiel to make His exhortation stronger. God has decreed all things to come to pass according to His will, but He comes down to our level to speak that we may understand His point.
Of whom and where did God diligently seek? God diligently sought “a man from among them”. The Lord makes clear who He sought for, as He said אישׁ "a man”. God sought for a godly and upright man-- the word used here is specific to men. It is the word, אישׁ "a man”, the same word used in Genesis 2:23 where God formed woman from man. Why did God search for a man? He sought for a man because men are those whom God gave to govern all jurisdictions of society, that is the church with presbyters (1 Timothy 5:17), the civil government with magistrates (Exodus 18:21-22), and the home with fathers (Ephesians 5:23). Jehovah, our Lord, called for a man as the verse says, “among them”. The “among them” in this verse concerns all the groups mentioned in verses 25 through 29.
The first group is the prophets, for these prophets conspired against the common people, and they were as a lion devouring their souls with false teachings, idolatrous acts of worship, and leaving the church with a wobbly foundation, as seen in verses 25 and 28. The next group is the priests, and the priests violated God’s law. When you look in verse 26, do you see the word “violated”? The root word for that word means to be violent and cause cruel harm to someone or something. The priests also polluted God’s worship, in that they treated the elements of God’s worship with no difference than worldly things, and they allowed all manner of people to come and participate, no matter if they were defiled for some sin they did. Leviticus 10:10 prescribes the priest’s duty in separating the holy things of God against the blasphemous religious acts not commanded by God. Leviticus 10:10 says, “And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean.” The priests additionally broke the 4th Commandment by desecrating God’s Sabbaths, both the weekly Sabbath and the three Festival Sabbaths mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23. Jeremiah, who we have learned also prophesied at the same time as Ezekiel explains in detail how the priests and all the nation profaned the Sabbath. Turn to Jeremiah 17:19-23, “(19) Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;(20) And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:(21) Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; (22) Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.(23) But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.” The third group dealt with is the princes, and here God sets forth how these civil magistrates were ravenous wolves to Israel. These civil magistrates preyed on Israel by murdering them, allowing the false teachings and idolatrous acts of worship infect and infest the nation through the false prophets and priests, and they stole and extorted from the commonwealth of Israel, as we see in verse 27. The last group dealt with is the regular commonwealth or people of Israel. The people themselves deceitfully oppressed each other by dishonest commerce, in that they used unequal weights and balances in their businesses by charging to much or by not paying enough for the true value of a product or service offered. The Lord’s requirement for this is seen in Deuteronomy 25:13 through 16, “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. (14) Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. (15) But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (16) For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
The man that God sought for was dutied with making up the hedge and standing in the gap. What does the Lord mean when He calls for the man to make up the hedge? The word,גדר,used here means to “build up a wall, build a wall around a perimiter”. It is what you see in ancient cities where they built protective walls around cities to gaurd them from enemies and invaders. The Lord in speaking about building a wall around the city speaks metaphorically here, for the wall He calls this godly man to build is a Theological wall. Theology is defined as, “The doctrine of living for God through Christ.” This definition is from the Puritan Dutch Reformed minister Petrus van Mastrict. The church fathers call it, θεοσεβεια “fear of God”, θεοζωια “godly life”, and θεουργια “work of God”. Why does our Lord call for this Theological wall to be built? He calls for the wall to be rebuilt because the priests, prophets, and princes destroyed and pummeled to the ground to nothing. When you think of a wall, what elements does a wall consist of? Walls have a concrete foundation, and this foundation is God Himself and His Word. Next, there are the bricks and mortar that the wall is built from, and each brick is a distinct Biblical doctrine and the mortar is a confession of those doctrines united together as the whole of Theology, as what is to be believed concerning God and the duties that He requires of us. 2 Timothy 1:13 sets forth this, as God says, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast herd of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” The word for “form” in 2 Timothy 1:13 conotates a confession of faith, then the word “faith” means what we are to believe from God’s Word and the word “love” means the performance of those duties that God requires of us in obedience to Him.
Doctrines of the Text
1. Apostasy
1. The first doctrine from the text is that of apostasy. Apostasy is when someone falls away from the faith. Dr. Thomas Manton, defines apostasy in his sermon on 2 Thessalonians 2:3 when he says, “Let us then be agreed of this notion of apostasy, which is evident, that it is a falling off from the obedience which we owe to our rightful Lord.” Apostasy is set forth in Isiah 59:13, which says, “in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.” 1. Lack of knowledge is the first step in apostasy, since what one believes determines how a person acts. In the context of our text, the false prophets preached false and worthless lies claiming that that what they said was from God. The priests corrupted God’s Law, as they twisted the Word of God to suit the idols that they worshiped. The princes did not do their duty by executing the false prophets and wicked priests, as they are prescribed to do in Deuteronomy 17:2-7. The people of Israel believed what the false prophets and priests said, so they were guilty of not knowing the Lord.
2. The second step of apostasy is worshiping God falsely. God is particular about how He is to be worshiped, and He will not bear any false worship in His church. 1 Corinthians 10:20-21 says, “Nay, but that these things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not unto God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with the devils. Ye cannot drink the cub of the Lord, and the cub of the devils. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and the table of the devils.” From these verses, first observe that the gentiles worship the devils. That means that those who are not true believers in the Lord worship Satan and his devils. Second, observe that any worship not done according to God’s positive prescriptive command is devil worship. Third, observe that God forbids any mixing of His worship with anything that He did not command. The worship of God is summarily written in Commandments 1 through 4 in the 10 Commandments. Those Commandments are, 1. that we are to only worship God alone, 2. we are to not bring in things to God’s worship that He did not give command for, 3. We are to fear and revere God, His name, attributes, Word, and works, and the 4th Commandment is to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.
2. Reformational Interposition
The second doctrine is that of Reformational Interposition. A mediator is one who stands before a judge or and enemy on behalf of another to make reconciliation. The Lord Jesus is the only Mediator between God and mankind for salvation, since you and I are guilty sinners we need Christ to reconcile us to God, of whom we offended by our sins. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Scripture also speaks about lesser mediators, of which God used men to save Israel from enemies. Gideon is one of these meditorial men, as Judges 6:14 says, “And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, have not I sent thee?” From our text, God calls for a man to interpose and stand before Him on behalf of Israel to reform them back to obedience to Him. Our text says that the man should, “ make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land”. In times of apostasy and degeneracy, the Lord commands that those of His faithful church to stand boldly on behalf of that part of the church that has gone astray to call them to repentance. The doctrine of meditorial interposition is one that must be exercised in all the jurisdictions which God has delegated authority to man, they are
1. self government (Galatians 5:22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”),
2. the family, as the father has delegated authority to shepherd his family in the Lord and protect his house, (Deuteronomy 7:26, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.”)
3. the church, as pastors and elders are to shepherd God’s church, (Acts 20:28, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”)
4. The last jurisdiction is, the civil magistrate, for God commands civil magistrates to create an orderly commonwealth, to aid the church in seeking doctrinal peace and unity that the truth of God is kept pure in its entirety, to suppress and eliminate all blasphemies and heresies, to prevent all corruptions and malpractices in the worship and ecclesiastical government of God, (Ezra 7:25-26, “And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem:”).
Now, for a man to be a interpositional reformer, he will in his early work of reformation be seen as an enemy to the larger majority of the church and nation, since he and the faithful few who are with him are few in numbers and on account of the majority having all the money, materials, and power to falsely revise history to accommodate them being perceived as the “good guys”. One example of this in history is during the Protestant Reformation with the young minister, Pierre Viret. Pastor Viret was the apprentice to Pastor William Farel, and these two Reformers had been proclaiming the Word of God in many places and facing much opposition. In every city they went to the Roman Catholics held the power, both within the church and within the civil government. The Roman Catholic clergy and city officals greatly opposed the Reformation and the true ministers of God, and they were often called before the city councils. One case was the Lausanne Council, where Pastor Viret defended the truth of God’s Word against a Dominican monk named, Monbouson. Pastor Viret before the counsel said,
“I preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and am ready to give a defense of my doctrine and faith to all men, and at any time it is demanded of me. And if there be any priest, monk, or any other, whosoever he be, who can prove to me that I have taught anything contrary to the Word of God, I ask not only that you drive me out as a menace to your city, but also that your punish me with such severity than no man dare preach who is not well assured of his doctrine.”
Polemic of the Text
We come to the polemic part of the sermon now, and this is where we will deal with those arguments and opponents to God’s Word. The first opposing argument is this,
Opposing Argument 1. We are not to judge others, so by me acting as a reformer, I will hurt someones feelings and cause division.
Refutation 1. God commands us to judge, as He says in His Word in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.” The word for “prove” means to test, examine, and approve. We are not to set back idly listening to sermons or whatever words someone says, but are to listen diligently, in prayer examining what is herd to the Word of God, and receiving the truths preached with faith, love, and readiness of mind as it is the Word form the Lord.
The Lord commands us secondly to mark those that teach false teachings and cause scandal to God’s church. That task is chiefly for pastors, but each member of the church is called to make others aware of false teachers and those who bring idolatry into the church. I bring to your remembrance the verses in 1 Corinthians 10 that we heard only a few minutes ago. They are 1 Corinthians 10:22-23, Nay, but that these things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not unto God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with the devils. Ye cannot drink the cub of the Lord, and the cub of the devils. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and the table of the devils. Another place the Lord declares for us to do such is, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, Now I command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which ye received from us. From this verse, we are commanded not only to know those that walk contrary to God’s Word, but we are commanded to withdraw fellowship with them. You know that many will say that it is not nice to withdraw fellowship or to mark someone as wicked, as it is common both in our society and the church to hear people say that we can live peacefully with many different opinions. Tim Keller, who was once a well known false teacher has this to say, “If the church continually moves toward dominance and control rather than love and service, it shows that it doesn’t really believe the gospel it preaches.” Mr. Keller uses subtle deceivment to make you think that being dogmatic and proclaiming that Christ is King over the heavens and earth, who demands all the nations worship and obey Him is not loving and not serving the Lord or society. Even worse, he says that we do not believe the gospel, which would make us unconverted sinners under God’s wrath. To the contrary, when a Christian believes the gospel, he or she has been freed from and repented from the ways of the world and clings to Christ, and who knows that only truth is in the Word of God decrying every falsehood, just as Colossians 2:8 commands us.
Opposing Argument 2. We are not to impose or forcefully compel our beliefs on others. They can believe what they want and I can believe what I want.
Refutation 2. It is common to hear such statements by those who are not Christian and those who profess to be Christians. By such statements, the church is led into thinking that her mission work is only within the four walls of the church leaving the unconverted, the civil government, and the business world are all outside of the commands of God. One local pastor says something similar to the false statement above about claiming God’s Word does not address every area of life. These are the words of this local pastor, I quote, “That it’s my firm conviction that the pulpit ministry is to preach and proclaim the Word of God; it is not to debate and decry the cultural topics of the day.” This pastor is right about one thing, that pastors are to proclaim the Word of God, but he rejects to acknowledge that God in His Word deals directly with all the current topics of the day. This pastor hurts and weakens the church with an escapist mentality, rather than that the church is God’s army on the earth to advance His Kingdom. Men like this pastor are those who devour the souls of the church, and it is such men who the Lord calls for us to build up the wall against and stand in the breach on account of, as these effeminate pastors bring in many false teachings to the church, then they also in no way try to extirpate the false teachings or teachers. Rather, these pastors are compromisers, yet when godly men come along who are God sent reformers, these effeminate pastors will proceed to do everything they can to excommunicate these faithful reformers from the church, just as we saw earlier with Pierre Viret. These pastors are just like the Roman Catholic priests and monks during the Protestant Reformation, and they are to be fled from and to be defrocked from the ministry. True and faithful pastors have the duty, as Titus 1:9-11 says, I quote, “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he might be able to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specally they of the circumcision. Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.”
Applications form the Text
1. The first application from our text is that of repentance towards God. Repentance is a saving grace, where God reveals to the sinner the true depravity of his sinful estate, who then understands that God is merciful through Christ, and accordingly hates his sin in grief and turns to God with full diligence to obey Him. We see this in Joel 2:22, and I quote, “Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.” What must we repent of? There are many sins that we must repent of-- we must repent of our idols that we have set up before the Lord, and there to many to name. One chief sin that our text deals with is that of toleration or said another way, that sin of compromise. We compromise in the worship of God all the time in the first 4 Commandments, as we are willing to accommodate many differing beliefs or so called acceptable doctrines in the church. Yet, when someone breaks one of the Commandments of the last 6 of the Ten Commandments, then we get very upset. That mindset is idolatrous in itself because we esteem the praise of men more than the true worship, reverence, and glory to God that He deserves, as Romans 11:36 says. Therefore, you must repent of your compromising mindset in God’s worship, and thus diligently seek the true worship and glory of God. It is common in our day, just as in all eras of history for some to defend compromising and defend the use of acts of worship that God did not ordain, and in doing so you harden the Pagans and Superstitious in their false worship. Our Lord commands us to only do according to His Word, as He says in John 15:10, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” Therefore, it is required of us that we know and keep exactly what God has commanded, and we must not add to or take away from His Word.
2. The second application from our text is that God requires men in all jurisdictions in life to stand in the breach and repair the decimated Theological wall that we face in our day. The Theological wall surrounding us, is as Isiah 24:12 says, “In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.” When it comes to the knowledge of God and His Word in the church today, you know as well as I do that it is very lacking. Most professing Christians spend less than minutes a day in God’s Word. We also face the great wickedness of Textual Criticism that perplexes Christians into questioning the inspiration and validity of God’s Word. We also fight against those compromising pastors, and these are the most dangerous to God’s church because they will be doctrinally sound in some areas, then they will lead God’s sheep into the mouths of even worse wolves than they are. John Calvin in his sermon on Hebrews 13:13 gives us this instruction, and I quote, “It therefore behooves us to begin with this end: we must have a good understanding of our Christianity, of the faith which we must keep and obey, and of the rule of life which God has given us; we must be so well armed with this teaching, that we may boldly condemn all the falsehoods, errors, and superstitions that Satan has introduced to corrupt the pure simplicity of God’s teaching.” This is a call to action, and there are many many more false doctrines and practices that I could mention, but time and space does not allow me to enumerate the plethora that are out there.
Conclusion
Now as we conclude, we live in a desolated city with her walls broken and shattered and very few men to stand in the breach on behalf of God. We must turn in repentance to God for our apathy and inactivity in rebuilding the walls of the City of God, and we must as David prayed in Psalm 51:2-5, he prays, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowldge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
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