FROM DESOLATION TO DOXOLOGY
#717 FROM DESOLATION TO DOXOLOGY
Scripture Ezekiel 36:22-36, NIV Orig. Date July 6, 1978
Passage: 22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. 32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!
33 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. 35 They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” 36 Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’
Purpose: To call attention to those values which free the human spirit from the petty values of the flesh that we might learn to walk with God.
Keywords: Prayer Worship Wonder Stewardship
Introduction
Emile Cailliet, in his book Journey Into Light, tells of his search as a young French intellectual. The war was over. His time in foxholes behind him. But he remembered the hours of longing for some book that would contain all of the great and lofty pinnacles of literature, a book as he said “that would understand me.” Upon his return to the academic community he decided to put this book together. He called it his “anthology.”
The young woman, a Scotch-Irish evangelical, whom he met in Germany and later married, had been informed that religion would be a taboo subject in their home. It would remain important in her life however. A few years later, after the birth of their first child, and living in France, God threw open a door for her husband’s desolate soul.
She was pushing the baby carriage, found the way crowded, and ventured off to a side street totally unfamiliar to her. Spotting a patch of grass, she stopped to rest. She then noticed a stone stairway, and without knowing why, she climbed it. At the top she saw an open door, and as she entered, she saw a white-haired gentleman at work at his desk, and nearby, the ornate carving of a cross. Only then did she realize that this was a Huguenot church structure, hidden away even though the danger of persecution had long passed in France.
Without fully understanding why, she approached the pastor and asked, “Have you a Bible in French?” He handed her one, and she walked out with both feelings of joy and guilt. She had not intended a confrontation with her husband. But when the confrontation came, she heard her husband say, “A Bible you say? Where is it? Show me. I have never seen one before.”
You see, his project, the Anthology, was a failure. His words were “I knew that the whole undertaking would not work, simply because it was of my own making.” But it was in this hour that his wife returned with the French Bible. Let me share his words, “I literally grabbed the book and rushed to my study, I ‘chanced’ upon the Beatitudes! I read, and read. . . . I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. Suddenly the realization dawned upon me: This was the book that would understand me! I needed it so much, yet, unaware, I had attempted to write my own in vain .”
For “Desolation” to become “Doxology” it was true for Israel that there were obligations which they owed to God. V33, “In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes will be builded.” Desolation to Doxology is God’s plan for His people in this day also.
I. Give God the First Hour of Every Day.
There are instructions that call us constantly to prayer and meditation. Psalm 63:6 “I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.” Hebrews 13:15 “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Luke 18:1 “Men ought always to pray and not to faint,”
Only those days that find us in God’s presence with first light will conclude with His reassuring. Psalm 5:3 “My voice wilt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Lamentations 3:22f “The Lord’s mercies . . . are new every morning.” Psalm 88:13 “. . . in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.”
It must be noted here that there is no more heart-rending passage in the Bible than this. The Psalmist is desperate. In his “desolation” he speaks “my prayer prevents thee.” His determination for God to intervene, causes him to appeal to God before, in His own labors, [God’s] vigil carries Him elsewhere.
II. We are Likewise Instructed to Give God the First Day of Every Week.
This is, first of all, a mandate for worship. A reminder that we are mortal. Ezekiel 36:22 “Therefore say unto the House of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes O House of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen.” Such a reminder teaches us that He is Immortal. When I kneel to pray I feel the special quality of His person. When I meditate upon His Word, I discover a feeling, caring message of concern.
It is also a manifestation of wonder. Perhaps you heard about the fisherman who was observed catching fish, throwing the large ones back, keeping only the ones shorter than his forearm. “I have only a ten-inch fry pan,” he said. Shall we work on interest and entertainment to motivate? Shall we stay with the WORD and trust self-motivation?
III. Do not Neglect to Give God the First Portion of Every Paycheck.
We don’t want grudgy money.
I know of few areas where there is such clear effort to intimidate the preaching of truth as there is in regard to our pocketbooks. I am, first of all, intimidated by my own failure. If I am not true to my own conscience and the convicting of the Holy Spirit, then I need not seek Spirit leadership in other things.
V27f Ezekiel laid the judgment of God on the line for Israel. If the corn was to be increased, and the famine decreased, and the fruit of the tree multiplied, and the waste places built up, then Israel must accede to the Spirit which God puts within.
Will I also be intimidated by those who want this message to be low-key? Yes, I would go there to church, but everytime I go he’s preaching about money. If that is the case, then perhaps God is speaking more directly to you than you would dare suppose.
There is no area of our public Christian life that is more totally under our control than the area of stewardship of possessions. Though the demands and judgments of God are clear, He [neither] wants nor expects anything from us that we do not have to give. I do not give my tithe because the law demands. I give it because my heart insists upon it. The widow’s mite given in love is 10,000 times more important to the Kingdom of God than the boldest of gifts given for lesser reasons.
IV. Give God the First Consideration in Every Decision. V33 “Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.”
I know of no verse of Scripture, certainly not in man-made illustration that puts spiritual value in perspective like Psalm 84:10. It also contains the Hebrew “dwell.” “One day with God is better than a thousand of any other kind.” I would rather be restricted to the view from the threshold of my Father’s house, than to be the head-honcho in the mansion acquired through godlessness.
Peter’s experience recounted in Luke 5:1-6 also helps us to keep this in perspective. He had toiled all night as a fisherman and had nothing to show for his labors. At the direction of Jesus, he went back to the same dry holes and the net broke under the burden of his success. WHO DID YOU WORK FOR THIS WEEK?
V. Give God First Place in Your Heart.
It is to this that the other four have reference.
John Gillmartin, Sermon Illustrations each Week, “Blood-Stained Testimony”—
A Gideon friend recently told of how the Gideons’ well-known, pearl-white New Testaments were distributed to the Pacific Fleet prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. He also told of how, on a later occasion, the evangelist Harry Rimmer was speaking to a meeting of believers interested in military evangelism. During the speech, Dr. Rimmer displayed his own personal copy of the white Pacific Fleet New Testament.
Following the meeting, a member of the audience tarried to show Dr. Rimmer another white New Testament, one given to his son prior to the bombing of the Hawaiian base—one stained with blood. The man smiled and said, “Yes, this little book is very precious—it’s stained with the blood of my son.” Dr. Rimmer paused for a moment, then held up his personal Bible and said, “God feels the same way about that Book. He loves [it] too. Its pages are stained with the blood of His Son.” Indeed it is; each page of Holy Writ is covered with that precious, precious blood which flowed from the pierced and bleeding side of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. [Thanks to Brian Stromsoe, of the Gideons, for recently sharing this vignette with our church.]
Is your mind and heart clear in relation to Jesus? Do you understand that He is the One who died for you?
The Son of God spent His life in one determined effort to deliver you from the pits of Hell. Have you allowed Him to do that?
Conclusion
While this of which we speak is the work of God, it is not normally something which He is going to do without our full cooperation.
Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Revelation 22:17 “Let him that is athirst come! Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”