+Points to ponder

1. How has God’s Law shown you to be a rebel against Him and His kingdom?
2. How has God’s Gospel affected (and effected!) your relationship with Him?
3. What do you make of God’ response to our rebelliousness and sin? What is your response to that?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Almighty God, send down upon Your Church the riches of Your Spirit, and kindle in all who minister and hear the gospel Your countless gifts of grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

“A five-year-old girl was having one of those trouble-filled days with her mother. It seemed they spent the day arguing back and forth. Finally, the mom had enough. ‘Jenny, go sit in the corner, right now! Don’t get up until I tell you to!’

Jenny went to the corner and sat down. In a few minutes she called back, ‘Mom, I am sitting down on the outside, but I am standing up on the inside!’

We all tend to have a ‘standing on the inside’ nature. The Jewish people call it the "yetzer ha ra," or the ‘evil inclination.’” It often shows itself in a rebellious attitude; and rebelliousness is something of which God’s people have had a special knack to demonstrate.

The nation Israel had divided into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom and the Southern King­dom (Judah). Both kingdoms were ended by a foreign power at different times. After the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom continued for another 136 years. But by Ezekiel’s time, the Babylonians from Mesopotamia dominated the Southern Kingdom and had taken many of its people into exile. One of the captives was Ezekiel himself, who lived among the exiles. Eventually, the Babylonians would end the Southern Kingdom.

Why were Israelites in exile in Babylonia, and why did the Northern and Southern Kingdoms come to an end? This happened because the large majority of people in both kingdoms were wicked, engaging in false worship and in many other ways going against the will of God. They were unfaithful to the covenant God had established with them through Moses; they rebelled against the Lord.

Our text from Ezekiel is about God and a rebellious people, specifically the Israelites, mainly those from the Southern Kingdom, but not entirely excluding descendants of those from the Northern Kingdom. We’ll focus on how

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GOD DEALS WITH REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, AMAZINGLY, IN HIS GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE.

This will lead us to consider God acting in the same way with rebels of all times and places.

In His grace, mercy, and love, God speaks to a rebellious people. From our Old Testament reading we hear: “And He said to me, ‘Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’” God spoke to the rebellious Israelites in exile in Babylonia through the prophet Ezekiel.

God called and prepared Ezekiel to be His prophet – His spokesman or messenger, who would receive messages from the Lord and deliver them to the people. Again, from our reading: “And He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.’ And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel …’”

Ezekiel in his prophetic ministry spoke to the people God’s Law, showing them their transgressions.

He explained to them that they were in exile because of their violations of God’s commandments. God was chastening them. Because of the continuing wickedness of their countrymen back in the Southern King­dom, that kingdom would be terminated by the Babylonians.

Ezekiel in his prophetic ministry spoke God’s Gospel to the people.

He reminded them of God’s promises that someday a Savior, the Messiah, would come. This deliverer would be an Israelite and would save his people from their sins. In fact, He would make atonement for the sins of the whole world.

The rebellious Israelites would have to admit that a true prophet of the Lord had been among them. The LORD tells Ezekiel: “The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

God speaks to rebellious people of all times and places through his Word, Scripture.

God caused Scripture to be written – both the Old and New Testament – through His inspiration of prophets and apostles. They wrote the very words God wanted to be recorded and preserved.

Through Scripture, God speaks to a rebellious people his Law.

All people by nature are rebels against the Lord, His enemies, including you and me. Every day, we evidence our original sinful nature with our evil thoughts, bad words, wrong actions, or lack of proper action. The Law shows our sin and that, left to ourselves, we would be damned forever in hell. We could never earn our salvation because God is holy and demands perfection.

Through Scripture, God speaks to all people the Gospel.

He announces that His Son became a holy human being and lived a perfect life in the stead of everyone else. This God-man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, also took on Himself all our sins and those of the whole human race and made full payment for those transgressions with His suffering and with His death on a cross. His resurrection from the dead proves that He is truly the Savior of the world who has done all that is necessary for our salvation.

Scripture – Law and Gospel – is presented and proclaimed throughout the world by the Christian Church, which is used by God as His instrument for the preaching and teaching of His Word and the administration of the Sacraments.

In His grace, mercy, and love, God changes a rebellious people.

God changed many of the rebellious Israelites in exile in Babylonia through the Word proclaimed by Ezekiel and through his written Word as it existed at that time.

Through His Law, God caused rebellious Israelites to recognize their sins and to feel sorrow over them.

Through His Gospel, God changed many Israelites internally. He brought them to faith in the one true God and in the Messiah that He would send. Through faith, they had forgiveness for their rebelliousness, for all their violations of God’s will. They were transformed from God’s enemies into His dear children. They became true Israel, a purified remnant from the whole nation of Israel. These believers had fellowship with God and everlasting life.

As new people, they, in the power of the Lord, lived the life of faith. They were obedient to God’s commands and eager to serve the Lord. God ended their Babylonian exile and brought this purified remnant to Judah, where they settled and lived.

This is God’s M.O. - He changes rebellious people of all times and places through His Word. He changed you and me.

Through His Law, God caused and causes us to recognize our sins, feel genuinely sorry for them, and sincerely confess them.

Through His Gospel, God brought us to saving faith, and He preserves us in this faith through the same Gospel that we read and hear, and through the Lord’s Supper. We believe in the triune God and in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Through faith in Christ, we have forgiveness for all our transgressions, all the ways we go against God’s holy will. God has changed us from being enemies and rebels into those who love him. He is our dear Father, and we are his dear children. We have blessed fellowship with the Lord here on earth, and this will continue forever in heaven and the new creation.

God strengthens us to live as his children, willingly obeying and serving him. Our life of faith is characterized then by good works, done in gratitude and praise to God, to honor the Lord, and to help other people.

St. Paul writes in his letter to Titus: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.”

There was a king who had suffered much from his rebellious subjects. But one day they surrendered their arms, threw themselves at his feet, and in repentance begged for mercy. He pardoned them all. But, His once bright shining star, now known as ‘the Accuser’ said to him, “Did you not say that every rebel should die?” “Yes,” replied the king, “but I see no rebels here.”

As God dealt with the Israelites in exile in Babylonia, so He has dealt with us. God spoke to us through His Word and changed us from a rebellious people into His loving children who will live with Him forever. How blessed we are here at Redeemer to be living for the Lord! We have everlasting life through faith in Christ. Let us, then, keep on living for the Lord, in thanks and praise to Him! Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

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Sermon study helps from: Rev. Walter A. Maier III, PhD, professor, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana [(Concordia Pulpit Resources, St. Louis, Missouri, 2021) Vol 31, Pt 3, Y4B, electronic version]