having the privilege of being in your midst for three weeks, I decided to preach once each of those Sundays from the prophecy of Ezekiel, one of the Old Testament prophets that probably is neglected more than others, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. but a very significant word of God. And this morning, we're going to consider Ezekiel 14, the first 11 verses. But before we read that, I want to read two other passages. Ezekiel 33, beginning at verse 21, And I read this portion just as an example of what Ezekiel faced as he preached among God's people. Ezekiel 33 verses 21 through 33. And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten. Now the hand of the Lord was upon me, and the evening afore he that was escaped came, and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak saying Abraham was one and he inherited the land but we are many the land is given us for inheritance wherefore say unto them thus saith the Lord God ye eat with the blood and lift up your eyes towards your idols and shed blood and shall ye possess the land Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile everyone his neighbor's wife, and shall ye possess the land? Say thou thus unto them, thus saith the Lord, as I live, surely they that are in the waste shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beast to be devoured, And they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. Also thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speak everyone to another, everyone to his brother saying, come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass, lo, it will come. Then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. And now from the New Testament, I call your attention to 1 Peter 2, the first three verses, and the calling given us in 1 Peter 2, verses 1 through 3. wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that she may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now we turn to our text, Ezekiel chapter 14, The first eleven verses. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, These men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols, that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, repent and turn yourselves from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations, For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth a stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me, I the Lord will answer him by myself. and I will set my face against that man and will make him a sign and a proverb. And I will cut him off from the midst of my people and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. And I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel and they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him, that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, saith the Lord God. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, it is critically important for us to understand not only the primacy of preaching, but of our own calling when it comes to approaching and hearing the preaching of the gospel. Preaching is the primary element in the worship service. It is so because God has ordained preaching as the means, the chief means, by which He communicates with His people. In this holy conversation, which is worship, God speaks to His people in Christ. and his people hearing him respond with their praise and adoration and confession of their dependence upon him. That's true because God's speech is different from the speech of any man. God's speech is powerful, effective to work in us that which is His own good pleasure, that His name might be glorified in the works of His own hand. So God has appointed preaching as the means by which he ministers grace to his people in Christ, working faith as well as strengthening faith in our hearts. The preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. When we understand that, and realize that Christ is pleased to speak by what Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 1, the foolishness of preaching, then we understand that the faithful preaching of God's word, the exposition of the scriptures, and the bold proclamation of God's truth is not to be set aside for any cause, but is to occupy the chief place in the worship service of God's church. But what I call your attention to today is your calling as you come under that preaching of God's Word. What is to be our approach as we come to hear the Word of God? How is that preaching to be received by us? And I choose to call your attention to that calling by way of contrast, because I call your attention to an example of a wrong way of listening, a terribly wrong approach to the preaching of the Word of God. And that wrong approach is set before us in order that we might learn a necessary lesson in approaching God properly in the hearing of the gospel. Also, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, these words in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 14, 1 through 11, are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world has come. So we turn now to the instruction found in Ezekiel 14 verses 1 through 11. And as we consider this text in the light of the rest of scripture, I call your attention to the theme, the proper approach to hearing God's word. But we notice by way of contrast, Israel's corrupt iniquity, first of all, Secondly, God's sharp indictment. And finally, the necessary lesson. We notice in the first place that the men of Israel came to hear the word of the Lord. So from the prophet's perspective, these men were coming to worship Jehovah. Fundamentally, and according to the biblical idea of the term, Worship is bowing the knee toward God. To worship God is to acknowledge him as the absolute sovereign Lord, one who is worthy of all praise and adoration and honor. Whether in singing or praying, the bringing of our offerings or confessing our faith, this is the essence of worship. to bow the knee before God in adoration and praise of Him who alone is our sovereign Redeemer. Making inquiry of God, listening to His Word, is also part of worship. that is a proper inquiry of God, a rightful approach to Him with listening ear is an act of praise, acknowledging God's sovereign authority over us, His absolute Lordship. And such worship must be holy and fearful, rendered with deep love and holy reverence, So when we enter into fellowship with the Holy One, we may not take lightly His speech to us. A more dreadful affront to God and attack upon His holiness is not imaginable than inattentiveness to His Word. Throughout the Bible, God speaks condemnation to those who refuse His Word. And He does so because those who reject the faithful Word preached reject Christ. It's that serious. That's the truth revealed throughout Scripture. But that rejection of the Word preached takes many different forms, and we do well to understand that. When the prophet Jeremiah spoke the word of the Lord, most of those to whom he preached closed their ears to him. They came to worship in the Lord's house, but they disregarded Jeremiah's preaching. And we read of them in Jeremiah chapter 26. Jehovah speaks. He says to Jeremiah, this is what I see. They walk in wickedness by their inattentiveness to my word. Verses 4 through 6 of Jeremiah 26, And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If ye will not hearken to me, if you will not listen to my word, to walk in my law which I have set before you to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets whom I sent unto you both rising up early and sending them but ye have not hearkened then will I make this house like Shiloh and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. That's what Jehovah speaks concerning those who turn a deaf ear to His ministering servants. Not only does inattentiveness to the Word of God demonstrate a wicked attitude of indifference toward His fellowship, but it shows a rejection of God's authority, His lordship over us. Even an earthly illustration makes that clear. If a parent is giving his child instruction and admonition, that parent expects his child to pay attention. If the child does not pay attention and shows an attitude of indifference, then that child by his conduct rejects the authority of his parent and dishonors his parent thus provoking the just wrath of that parent. Shall it be any less with God? So God pronounces his curse upon those who would not pay attention to his word through the prophet Jeremiah. And when Jeremiah warned them and ministered to them this word of God, do you know what their reaction was? He got their attention. But their response was not one of humility and sorrow for their sin, rather they, and particularly the priests and the prophets, wished that Jeremiah were dead. This lousy preacher, he's so worthless, we would be better off if he were dead. Well, that's one response to faithful preaching. One way in which God's Word is rejected, they hearken not, they close their ears. Another way in which the preaching of the Word is rejected is when the church follows after false prophets. That was also a prevalent sin in the time of Jeremiah as we read in Jeremiah 7 verse 2, behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. And you find the same when Isaiah preached. We read in Isaiah 30 verses 8 through 10, God's word to Isaiah, his servant. Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever that this is a rebellious people. lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, see not, and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. In other words, give us what we want to hear. And here again, we see there's no new thing under the sun. give us what we want to hear is the attitude of many in what characterizes the Christian church world of our day. Why is it that people can sit with contentment in churches where the truth of God's Word has been set aside, where wickedness abounds and sin is not rebuked. Why is there not a mass movement out of such churches into churches that faithfully proclaim the truth of the Word of God? Because men have rejected the Word of the Living God and shown their desire for living the lie that makes them feel good. And so we see Scripture yet being fulfilled. When Paul gave the charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 to preach the Word, be in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, he immediately pointed Timothy to the urgency of faithfulness in his calling. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Woe be to those false prophets, their damnation is just. But woe be also to those who reject the authority of God's word and take to themselves lying prophets. The Lord said to Jeremiah, The prophets prophesy falsely, and my people love to have it so." What a terrible indictment of those who call themselves the people of God. Such rejection of God's Word that says, give us what we want to hear, is a rejection that brings a terrible judgment. God said to Isaiah through the mouth, said to Israel through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 30 verses 13 and 14, your sin is such a stink in my nostrils that I will make your iniquity like the floodwaters breaking upon building upon a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant and he shall break it as the breaking of a potter's vessel that is broken in pieces he shall not spare so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water from the pit sudden destruction shall come upon them. They shall wake up and their families shall have been destroyed. What a terrible thing. But when we turn to Ezekiel chapter 14, we find that the rejection of the word preached took a specific form and something quite different from the other examples that we have considered from Scripture. Theirs was not an open rejection of the Word of God. These men didn't sit in the house of God sleeping or daydreaming or showing an attitude of indifference toward God's Word. These men of Israel came to hear. They gave every indication to the prophet Ezekiel that they wanted to hear the Word of God. Ezekiel, in fact, would have been quite pleased at what he observed in the habits of those who came to hear him say, thus saith the Lord, by outward appearance on the Lord's day. These certain Israelites, who are noted in verse 1 as certain of the elders of Israel, the leaders in Israel, showed a spiritual desire to hear what God would say. Moreover, the attitude of the people is more clearly revealed in what we read from Ezekiel 33 in verses 30 through 33, where we saw that the people spoke highly of Ezekiel's preaching. If you were to come into their houses and be a fly on the wall listening to the conversation, you know what they were saying? They were talking about the great blessing of hearing Ezekiel preach. And the Lord tells Ezekiel this. He said to Ezekiel, thou son of man, the children of Israel still are talking of thee, not against thee, but of thee, or about thee, by the walls and the doors of their houses. They speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, come, I pray you, Hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. You're a popular preacher, Ezekiel. I, who am God, observe what goes on in the houses. I hear the men on their front porches. They talk to one another. They say to their neighbors, have you heard the prophet Ezekiel? No, I haven't heard him. Well, come on with us. You have to hear this preacher. They showed a desire even to hear Ezekiel preach. And the Lord says, and they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sitteth before thee as my people, says God. And in verse 32 of Ezekiel 33, he says, and lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument." They didn't come with an attitude of indifference. They didn't come to heckle Him, to find criticism with Him. They came, they sat, they listened. So they were listening to the truth of God being proclaimed. They were sitting under the faithful proclamation of God's Word, pointing them to the need of the coming Messiah, and who He is, and what He would accomplish, what He would be about. They apparently even liked what they heard. They were attracted by their prophet speaking ability. But then the Lord said, Ezekiel, I know something you don't know. Don't be deceived by this apparent reception of my word through you. They might look like they are coming in worship for the specific purpose of hearing and submitting to the word of God that you preach. But don't be deceived, Ezekiel. Their approach to hearing the Word preached is absolutely unacceptable, corrupt. Because they approach you as if you are a great singer. They admire the gifts that I have given you. They listen. But they have no intention whatsoever of having their lives changed by what they hear. It's like when you go to a concert. You might even pay money to hear an orchestra or a mass choir sing Handel's Messiah. But you don't go to a concert expecting your life to be changed. You don't listen to a choir expecting to have a calling set before you. You don't listen with the attitude that what they sing is going to have a profound effect upon my life and the way I live. I will confess my sins and turn in the way of repentance toward God. But Ezekiel, they hear you in the same way. They hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness. They hear thy words, but they do them not. Now this passage clearly tells us that the mere hearing of the gospel is not a reception of grace. There's no automatic blessing through the hearing of preaching. In Reformed churches, when we speak about attendance to the worship services, we speak about attending the means of grace. And there is indeed significance in that reference, and our Heidelberg Catechism explains that even. Scripture teaches that worship is not just an obligation we fulfill, so much as it is a God-ordained means whereby people actually grow in grace and in the knowledge, the saving knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. It's by means of gospel preaching that God says as we read in Isaiah 57 verse 15, I who am the high and lofty one, the eternal one whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. That is the significance of the Word of God as a means of grace. And when we understand that, then, and it's important to understand that because in our day, we are becoming one of the very few churches that worship twice on the Lord's Day. And more and more, we find people that leave, and one of their rebuttals is, where in the Bible does it say we have to worship twice on the Lord's Day? Because they're going to a church that only holds one worship service on the Lord's Day. You know, asking questions is always important. But sometimes we have to look at the motive behind the question. Why would such a question be asked? If we understand that the preaching of the gospel is God's way of embracing us in the fellowship of His love, speaking His word to us, don't we want that? as often as it's provided us? Where in the Bible does it say you have to have three meals a day? You have to eat seven days a week. Now there are some who get by on one meal a day. But would you be one that says one meal a day once a week would be enough? The preaching of the gospel is a means of grace. But let's understand, the preaching of the word is not an automatic conveyor belt of grace to all who hear. And it's important that we understand that. There are people who want to believe that so long as they attend worship services, God's grace rests upon them, regardless of their own spiritual attitude or state when they come. And there are also those who want to insist that a mere exposure to the sacraments automatically makes them recipients of God's grace. When the water is applied to an individual, that individual receives the grace of God. When a piece of bread or a wafer or that little cup of wine or grape juice is taken into the mouth, regardless of the state of the person's mind and heart, they want to think that they receive grace through that bread and wine. Grace comes easy. And so there are those who want to say that the preaching of the gospel ministers grace to all who hear. Scripture clearly abominates such teaching. Instead, Scripture teaches that the partaking of the sacraments works condemnation, not grace, in those who abuse them and partake of them unworthily. And the preaching of the gospel, not mixed with faith, works damnation in the hearts of those who hear. And the apostle Paul was struck with the profundity of it all when he said in 2 Corinthians 2 verses 15 and 16, For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? So the Bible teaches that God indeed ministers grace through the preaching of the gospel, as well as through the administration of the sacraments, but that administration of grace is not for all. There has to be a particular kind of hearing, a particular reception of the word preached wrought by the Spirit in us, as well as through the sacraments. There has to be, in other words, a mixing of faith in them that hear. And concerning these corrupt hearers, God speaks a sharp indictment to His prophet Ezekiel. That's found in verses 3 through 8 of Ezekiel 14. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols, that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, repent, and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations, for every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger which sojourneth in Israel, which separated himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me, I the Lord will answer him by myself, and I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." God condemned the members of the church, that Old Testament church, who approached his word in an improper manner. And what was the impropriety that they committed in the hearing of the Word? This, they came with hearts full of iniquity, never intending to subject themselves to the authority of the Word of God. They came to hear. They came to hear God's Word through the prophet Ezekiel, but they had no intention of doing the will of God. And God indicts them for this, and He accuses them of abominable sin, sin that would bring their utter destruction, except they repent. A striking charge is brought against them by the living God. These men, after all, wanted to be regarded as different from those wayward Israelites who followed the false prophets. The contrast between these hearers and the idolatrous followers of the false prophets is evident when you compare the opening verse of this chapter to what is written in chapter 13. These hearers wanted to be known as those who followed the truth. They would be faithful members of God's church. they would hear the sound preaching of the word. And God says to Ezekiel, look at them. Though they give an appearance of inquiring after me in the truth, in reality they are no different from those deluded followers of the false prophets who are abominable in my sight. For though in a different way, they're following the same course. They differ only outwardly from those who worship false gods. They carry idolatry in their hearts. Each is bent on the love and pursuit of things and a way of life that's totally contrary to my will and precepts. They would walk under the banner of truth while opposing it by the way they live. If they really to worship me, really were to worship me in truth, They would humble themselves before my word and be not just hearers but doers also. But their own desires and their own intent to do their own thing has raised a stumbling block before their faces. Their hearing of the preaching is made by them a mockery. It's openly professing to have a desire to know God's will and a heart ready to submit to his requirements, while in reality, their mind is set on walking their own way and rejecting my divine authority. But for the sake of his people, as well as to harden the hearts of the ungodly, God issues a call to repentance. We heard that in verse six. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, repent and turn yourselves from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abomination. God's people must be made always to understand there is one way to stand in fellowship with the living God and to obtain in the preaching of the word the comfort of the gospel. That's the way of standing by faith in the promised Messiah. our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and therefore the way in which we confess our own sins and repent and abandon the polluted objects of our own desires. James speaks clearly this same truth in his New Testament epistle when he says, we are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Those who intend to continue in the way of their sin, those who continue to intend to continue doing what they feel like doing, show a walk apart from Christ, and will never receive God's blessing in the preaching of the word. They shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. God will set his face against them. And he will do so in a way that causes amazement. He shall cut them off. In their generations, they shall be lost. And it's not without reason that God adds, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. He speaks concerning those who lived as if the preaching of the word was just the voice of a man. They could do with it as they wanted. They behaved as if they had to do only with the prophet. They didn't like the words the prophets spoke, then they would cast it off, drop it as they walked out the door. But God says, when I reward their iniquity with my just judgment, all shall see that I am Jehovah. And then we also find a warning in verses 9 through 11. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. And I will stretch out mine hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel, and they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him. that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, saith the Lord God." God will protect his church. He will do so in a way that separates the ungodly from His people and executes judgment upon those who reject His Word. The warning in verse 10 is another striking element of this text because here God deals with that foolish thought that was prevalent among the Israelites with their low view of the preaching of the Word They thought that God's threats could be repelled simply by finding another prophet. If Jeremiah and Ezekiel threaten us, they thought, there are other prophets that will cheer us with words of comfort and hope. And so we see the reaction among some today. Their heart is hardened to the Word of God because the truth touches too closely to their sins. So they go to a church down the street where they can hear, peace, peace. And they continue in their sin, hardened in their impenitence. but to salve the conscience. They find a church where they are made to feel comfortable, where the precepts of Jehovah are not made to impinge upon their lifestyles. But God says, because you are living a lie. I will reward your iniquity with a fitting reward. Because you reject the safe direction of my word of truth, I will raise up unto you lying prophets, prophets who echo the deceitfulness of your own hearts, so that your iniquity will prove to be your ruin. a dreadful judgment of God upon those who reject his truth. Why do these false prophets arise? As a just retribution of God toward the people who walk in the idolatry of their own deceitful hearts. Satan's lies multiply, but not at random, nor at the will of man. but because God repays an unfaithful people with a just reward. And in this way, God separates His own who refuse to follow the lie. And He demonstrates that the preaching of His Word is not just to be heard, but to be obeyed. The lesson of this prophecy is necessary for us, beloved. Our hearing of the word preached must be a hearing in faith, faith which lays hold of Christ as our only deliverance, and therefore faith accompanied by a humble and heartfelt desire to subject ourselves to the teaching of God's Word. I made mention of the exhortation of James. James writes to those who were hearing apostolic doctrine. They were hearing the preaching of the truth, the preaching of the gospel. But there was a problem evident among them, which James was called by God to address. and we learn of it in verse 22 of the first chapter of James epistle. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. Now one might say I thought people deluded themselves when they heard false prophets. I thought if a person was to deceive himself, he would go hear someone who proclaims, God loves everybody. God embraces you regardless of your life. I thought if a person would deceive himself, he would seek out that church where there is no need for repentance, for the new birth, where all are accepted. But we are told differently, beloved. That's James' inspired epistle. That's also our text in Ezekiel 14. These people were hearing the truth of God. That God is love, but He's also holy. That God is merciful, but He's also just. That God is God. They heard the truth that the only way to God's fellowship is through the coming Messiah. and in the way of repentance and true conversion. But do you see how they still deceive themselves? They thought that because they heard the truth, they were automatically good in God's sight. And they went out deceived because they talked themselves into feeling good. We go to a church where the Word is preached. We haven't followed some false prophet. We haven't gone to that liberal church down the street. But James says exactly the same thing that Ezekiel was given by God to proclaim, unless you have listened to the Word of God in a way that leads to self-reflection, to repentance, that brings you to the foot of the cross, to the face of your Jesus, a way that leads to a change of your ways that's demanded by God? You simply deceive yourself into thinking that all is well. We need this Word of God, beloved. You do, and I do. We can hear the Gospel till we are laid in the grave. But we also have to set aside our idols and come with hearts ready humbly to submit to the authority of our God and to look to Him as our Father in heaven. who has purchased us with his precious blood. The gospel is indeed good news, glad tidings of salvation to those who repent and believe. To us, God issues the call to repentance. To you and to me, Repent and turn yourselves from your idols. Put the stumbling block of your iniquity away from you. Or in the words of the Apostle Peter, put away all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. There have been times, people of God, When as a pastor, I have asked myself, am I being too hard on them? I reflect on some of the exhortations that I've been called to bring through the preaching of the gospel, and ask myself, am I being too hard on them? Then I stand before the glory of God, as did Ezekiel. And I'm compelled to ask, does He deserve anything less than the Word that I've set before His people? Surely He who has given His own Son to the death of the cross for us deserves far more than what we often render to Him. May God smite our hearts and drive us anew to Jesus Christ. the mediator of the covenant who died to forgive the sins of his people even in their bringing polluted worship to Jehovah. May we be driven not to despair but to the fountain open for the cleansing of our sins and for the putting on of holiness before the Lord. So there will be upon your cheek the kiss of the God who has reconciled you unto himself, and you personally will enjoy the glorious knowledge of his forgiveness and his blessing for Christ's sake. Amen. Gracious Father, We humbly come before Thee seeking repentance for our often improper hearing of Thy Word and our failure, even willful rejection of obeying Thy precepts. Look upon us in the mercies of thy dear Son. Sanctify us by thy Holy Spirit. Draw us unto thyself by the faithful preaching of the gospel. And hear our prayers for Jesus' sake. Amen. Psalter number 109. versification of a portion of Psalm 40, fitting to the text that we've just considered. We sing the four stanzas, 109. In ev'ry land the altar burn, there's holy light to lead. Our dearly need. Now give this now unto me. With all my blood I come, I come, I pray, My Lord is written in my heart. There's joy to do thy will. Before thy people I will bow. How glorious, Lord, thy name! How glorious, Lord, thy name! How glorious, Lord, thy name! How glorious, Lord, thy name! How glorious, Lord, thy name! How glorious, Lord, thy name! I do, to Mary thy heaven we give. He alone has won this world, and He's in glory that excels. And thus say we His glorious name, long as the ages shall endure, for all the earth extends The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.