Having an open air meeting today, I'm going
to ask your permission to take my coat
off.
When it warms up, I'll take the coat
off.
Now we come back again to the prophecies
of Ezekiel.
There is a large section of this book
with which we shall not be able to
deal in detail.
So we must find some comprehensive way of
dealing with it simply.
I think that way will be by looking
at the three different titles by which Ezekiel
was called.
Perhaps you have noticed that in these prophecies,
Ezekiel has three different titles.
And these three titles gather into themselves this
large section of the book.
The first of the three is Son of
Man.
Look at chapter two.
And he said unto me, Son of Man.
Chapter three and verse one.
And he said unto me, Son of Man.
Verse four.
And he said unto me, Son of Man.
And so it goes on.
Right through the book, that is one of
the main titles of the prophet.
Perhaps you would like to go right through
and note how many times it occurs.
We note then at the beginning that this
title was peculiar to the prophet Ezekiel.
No other prophet is called by this name
in the same way.
It marks out Ezekiel in a special way.
Now we know that the Lord Jesus chose
as his favorite title for himself, The Son
of Man.
But we must not think of Ezekiel in
the same way.
In this title, Son of Man, Ezekiel was
unique among the prophets.
Jesus, as the Son of Man, was unique
among all men.
So let us be careful not to confuse
the two titles, Son of Man and The
Son of Man.
If there is any relationship or similarity, it
is in the function and not in the
person.
That is the matter that we shall now
consider.
We have seen that on the throne above
it, there was the likeness as on a
man.
And we have seen that the predominant feature
of the cherubim was the man.
Therefore we take note of this place of
man in this book.
It is a special idea.
We also know that man means representation and
speech for God.
Man is not only a person, he is
a divine idea.
There is a man upon the throne.
While that man is a person, he is
not only a person, he is a divine
idea.
The idea in God's mind in creating man
was that he should represent God.
Let us make man after our own image,
in our own likeness and after our own
image.
Man is God's fullest thought and God's final
thought.
In the creation, God ended with man.
And he headed all things up into man.
When God has reached such a man, he
pronounces his verdict, and takes his rest.
When he has the man according to his
intentions, then he says about everything, it is
very good.
And then God takes his rest.
God finds his rest when he has his
man according to his mind.
But that is not the end of everything.
At that point God looks for reproduction.
He says to that man, be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth.
And the law of creation was that everything
should reproduce after its own time.
Things were never intended to change therefore.
I think this is a little blow at
evolution.
I think this is a little blow at
evolution.
Everything was given a definite and distinct form.
It was a kind of creation.
And everything was to reproduce after its kind.
A jellyfish was not to reproduce a monkey.
And a monkey was not to reproduce a
man.
Everything after its own time.
Now you see, God has made man.
And before man has fallen, God says, be
fruitful.
God's idea was that
unfallen man should fill the earth.
But we know that that man fell.
And the earth was filled with a kind
of man that God named.
He fixed the number of his years.
That man should not go on indefinitely.
I think you see from this that God's
idea is a man according to his own
mind.
In a full way, the Lord Jesus was
that.
Therefore he is the son of man.
And in a sense we can say he
was the only son of man.
But the principle are for the people of
God.
And that is where Ezekiel comes in.
It is not the person but the function.
It is the principle.
So the son of man speaks of two
things.
It means bringing into view God's original thought
and pattern.
That was a principle that the Lord was
one.
Israel is a man in God's eyes.
But in this book, Israel is not the
man.
In this book, Israel is a man which
has been marred.
And God is now moving along the principle
of manhood to recover that idea in Israel.
Later we shall find that he was unable
to do it in Israel as a whole.
And he therefore sought to realize it in
the Romans.
But the Old Testament closes with this idea
as a complete failure in Israel.
When we move into the New Testament, we
find ourselves in the presence of the one
new man.
That is the corporate man which is the
church.
But we are not going on to that
this morning.
We are just with the principle.
Son of man in principle means speaking in
relation to an original thought and pattern of
God.
You have got to recognize that as the
key to the whole of these prophecies.
What is it all about?
What does this whole book mean in all
its parts?
Well, this title, Son of Man, is scattered
right over the book.
And it means that the governing thought of
God is this conception of man according to
God's mind.
If God sends this collective man into captivity,
it means that that man cannot stand before
him any longer.
God has given this concept of man according
to God's will.
It means God must have another kind of
man.
The great illustration of that, of course, is
the bringing up of another
kind of man.
And a new spirit.
Well, I think that is enough to indicate
the meaning of this title.
God is moving for the recovery of his
original thought.
That thought has been lost.
This is all what Paul meant in speaking
to Timothy as the man of God.
His appeal to Timothy was, O man of
God.
That is God's man.
That is what God is after.
Now we must take this up as to
our ministry.
We come into this.
What are we here for?
It is that God may have this corporate
man according to his own mind.
That is the meaning of Ephesians chapter 4.
Till we all come to the unity of
the faith, to the full knowledge of the
Son of God, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, God
is working toward this corporate man.
We must remember that God's idea is man.
I would emphasize that.
Because so many people seem to think that
God's idea is some organization.
Some institution.
Something that is called the church.
A way of doing things.
And certain teaching.
A whole system.
And God is not after that.
God is not after the church just as
the church.
The object of the church in God's mind
is that it should be an expression of
Christ.
The church is the body of Christ.
It is not a system of teaching.
It is not a special form of practice.
It is a man.
And it is Christ in corporate expression.
We shall come to that later in this
book of Ezekiel.
But we take up this principle.
It is a very important thing for us
to recognize.
Well, here this man principle speaks of three
things.
First of all, a presentation.
God presents his idea.
And then a representation.
Something that expresses that which is presented.
And then a declaration.
A preaching concerning that.
The thing is presented.
As a divine thought.
And then the thing is represented in a
body.
And out of that comes the message.
Now have you got those three things?
First there is the vision.
The man is presented.
You see the man in the throat.
You get God's idea.
God's idea is manhood.
Manhood of a certain character.
From that God has a representation of this.
Something which embodies the idea.
And then when God has got that which
embodies the idea, there is a message.
We must not put it in the other
order.
Preaching it first.
We must first of all have seen it.
And then there must be an expression of
it.
There must be that to which we can
point and say this is God's idea.
This is it.
The message must come out of something that
actually exists according to God's mind.
I think I need not stay with that
any longer.
But you see that applies firstly to Christ.
You must first of all have seen the
Lord.
And then that must have produced something in
you.
So that it is not only objective and
abstract.
But the Lord has done something in you
as you have seen.
And then out of that comes your ministry.
The same applies to the church.
First there must be a revealing of the
church.
And then there must be a representation of
the church.
And out of there existing a definite expression
of the church, the message goes out.
It is almost impossible to preach the truth
unless there is something behind it.
It is essential that we are able to
say this thing works and I can show
you where it works.
That will become very clear when we come
to our next show.
But I do hope that you have got
hold of this first idea.
The principle in this first title There
is a very great deal of the mind
of God in that title.
Now we go to the second title of
Ezekiel.
In chapter three.
Verse seventeen.
Son of man, I have made thee a
watchman unto the house of Israel.
In chapter thirty-three.
Verse one.
The word of the Lord came unto me
saying, Son of man, speak to the children
of thy people and say unto them, When
I bring the sword upon the land, the
land and the people of the land, Take
a man from among them and set him
for their watchman.
If when he seeth the sword come upon
the land, He blow the trumpet and warn
the people and so on.
Verse six.
But if the watchman see the sword come
and blow not the trumpet and the people
be not warned, Verse seven.
So thou son of man, I have set
thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.
So the second title of Ezekiel is a
watchman.
Well this idea is not peculiar to Ezekiel.
We have the watchman in other prophets.
Or shall we say we have the function
of the watchman in other prophets.
Habakkuk said, I will stand upon my watch.
That is the function of the watchman.
In Isaiah we have watchman, watch of the
night.
So again we have the function.
Was exactly called a watchman.
And as you have noticed, That title was
applied to him at the beginning of his
ministry And later at his re-commissioning.
Now this title and this function need not
keep us very long.
We just ask ourselves the question, what is
the function of a watchman?
First of all the function of the watchman
is to know and to declare the time.
That was always an idea associated with the
watchman.
Right down to modern times that is true.
I don't know whether it is true in
China Or in other parts of the world
But until quite recently it was true in
Great Britain.
In the country places The watchman went round
at certain times of the night And blew
his trumpet or rang his bell and shouted
the time.
Someone is asking the time.
Watchman, what is the time?
And the watchman answers, the morning cometh and
also the night.
The first thing about a watchman He must
know what time it is in the purpose
They are
trying to do a lot of things out
of time.
There are some people who are confused in
the dispensations over this.
In this dispensation God is doing a special
thing And
it is of the greatest importance.
There may be some truth in them But
it has a special purpose and meaning.
There are
some teachings and practices That is to take
people from God In this age, the purpose
Is to take them out Or to
do something wrong The question to be asked
Is whether God is in this age They
fall by one thing Has that something
to do with this earth now?
If it has, then that is not what
God is doing in this dispensation God
is taking out of this
dispensation Whether it is Israel or anything else
That is not God's concern in this dispensation
And with this earth Does not belong to
this dispensation That is why the Lord
Jesus Left this earth and went to heaven
This dispensation is characterized By a heavenly And
not an earthly thing That is a major
test of everything Now of course I could
spend a lot of time In speaking about
What God is seeking In this dispensation That
will come later in the book to be
seen This morning We are just underlining This
truth A watchman's first business Is to know
the time And then to give a very
clear message As to what the time is
If his note is not clear And distinct
People will not know what the hour is
I do ask you brothers in ministry To
go and think much about that The whole
matter of how much The Lord is with
you Will depend upon How much you are
with the Lord In the purpose of the
hour If you
are trying To do something That God does
not want done At this time You are
wasting your time And you are wasting Your
strength The function of the watchman Then is
to be eyes For the people of God
And then the second thing To discern What
the situation is And what it will lead
to All this is contained In this
description Of the watchman's word Which the Lord
gave to Ezekiel The watchman is looking out
He sees certain things And he discerns What
those things imply He sees that there are
certain things Mean something evil For the Lord's
people These are signs That there is
evil coming If these things are not Guarded
against The result will be death You see
that is what is here In the description
And then on the other side He sees
the way of life And he is able
to say Now that is the way of
death And that is the way of life
But the watchman has to be familiar With
what is in the way of life And
what is in the way of death So
he has to discern The situation And recognize
The way in which Things are going It
is a It is a very Big responsibility
We are all called to be watchmen And
we must have an Unmistakable message We must
understand the things That mean death For the
church Because so very much Of these prophecies
are gathered Into that All these things That
Ezekiel was Commanded to do Are gathered into
that title You look at chapter 4
You see the strange things That the Lord
commanded Ezekiel to do He commanded him to
take a tile And to draw on it
A picture of Jerusalem And
then he was told To lie on his
left side For 390 days And
then to uncover his
arm Before all the people Then the Lord
said That he would put bands upon him
So that he couldn't move And he would
make his tongue Cleave to the roof of
his mouth So that he couldn't speak And
then he was told That he must become
a baker And he must make enough bread
To last 390 days Then he was told
To take a sharp razor To shave his
head Of all his hair And then to
weigh the hair in balances These are all
strange things He was to do all these
things In the sight of all the people
And then when you get well on In
the book In chapter 24 Ezekiel's
wife dies And he is not allowed To
mourn for her He is to just go
on As though nothing had happened Everybody would
look at him Strange It
is all gathered Into this title And
we just gather it up It means that
The message of Ezekiel Was first of all
Wrought into his own experience He
was taken Through the message Before he gave
it The things that he was to say
Were already wrought In his own life I
do not know How far we are to
take this literally I do not know How
far we are to take this literally But
I do want to tell you Try to
lie on your left side For three hundred
and ninety days Without moving That is
experience The thing has been
wrought Into you by experience This is not
a theory This is not just a lie
Well you do any of these things And
you see that The thing being personal It
is something That happens to you That's the
whole point The messenger Must be a personal
Embodiment of his message It must
not Just be things that we say It
must be things That have been wrought Into
our own life You see Ezekiel did not
Just give a message Ezekiel was the message
When the people Looked at him They saw
the message Well you can see What a
big principle That introduces John put it in
this way We speak that We do know
And testify That which we have seen Our
hands have handled There must
not be Any gap Between the teacher And
his message The teacher And the message Must
be one thing Our position Must not be
one Of just doctrine Or theory Our teaching
Must be ourselves The message must be seen
In our history Our message Must be seen
In our experience That is to say In
our experience But of course The Lord Has
dealt with us a lot If the Lord
really Gets hold of us He will not
let us just give out theories We
take three illustrations Peter's commission Was to shepherd
the flock And in his letters As you
know He speaks much about that He speaks
to the elders And says shepherd the flock
Over which the Lord Has given you What
is the chief feature Of a true shepherd
Well if we take the Lord As the
example The chief feature of a true shepherd
Is that he Lays down his own Soul
for the sheep Notice I have
chosen the word Soul That
is the word That the Lord Jesus used
He spoke about The disciples later Now
Peter Had a very strong And big soul
And Peter had a big one of those
And Peter's great life lesson Was how If
the soul Is the mind And the feelings
And the will We can see what a
big one Peter had He had
a will of his own And he had
feelings of his own And he was always
pushing These things to the fore Peter's life
was You
know and I forgot The whole life of
Peter Peter
was not A professional shepherd He had the
principle of Pastor
to the apostle Paul's great ministry Was concerning
The church as the body of Christ Relatedness
Dependence Interdependence Heavenliness Spirituality Dependence
Interdependence The last one Spirituality Now
did not Paul Have to have those things
Wrought into him When you Remember Saul of
Tarsus You have the very Embodiment of Independence
Personal action And earthliness And
unspirituality Saul of Tarsus had no Sense of
dependence Of relatedness But
see how the Lord Took him in hand
And right from the point Now
Paul Was a sign For the dispensation You
think about that We know the purpose Of
this dispensation It is the church Which is
his body That is not just an idea
That revelation That
revelation All
independence Had to be destroyed All unrelatedness Had
to be removed All earthly expectations Had to
be taken away Paul had to have His
whole life Constituted on the basis Of the
message that was given to him He was
assigned To the dispensation That is why We
make so much of Paul And now what
about John What was John's particular message The
ministry of John Particularly related to life That
is the big word Of John through all
his writing John became the embodiment Of that
principle of life Triumphant over death When
all the apostles Had long gone to the
Lord John is still going on He
outlived all the others Not because he had
An easier time than the others John suffered
with the others At last John died As
others had died But here is a testimony
To divine life in spirit Mind and body
The point is that John Really personally represented
The message that he gave Peter, Paul,
John Could say I am your sign Brothers
and sisters You and I have got to
be able to say the same People must
see in us The message Not only hear
it from our lips But say that that
message is true In our history and experience
Now I have stolen Some extra time But
we'll make up for that