Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:8 CSB)

Peter’s concern is that the Christians he is writing to would become useless and unfruitful toward God. In general, no one wants to be useless. We especially do not want to be called useless. It is a pretty derogatory term to tell someone that they are completely useless. But how sad would it be to call the people of God, “useless and unfruitful”! This is the problem that the Lord is dealing with regarding his people in the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 15-17 God is using three pictures to show the problem with his people and what needs to be done. The first issue we are going to see is in Ezekiel 15 and it is the problem of being useless to God. What happened to God’s people, what can we learn from them, and how we can avoid being useless to God?

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It sounds like a reasonable request. “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” Jesus been performing miracles and signs. In Matthew 12:38 some of the scribes and Pharisees answered that they want to see a sign from Jesus. So what is the big deal? Why doesn’t Jesus simply perform a sign for anyone who asks? Why would this request become a teaching topic that goes through the rest of Matthew 12?

Now it is important to note that this is not a new paragraph. This is the same audience that we have observed for at least half of chapter 12. The scribes and Pharisees are answering what Jesus just said, which some of the translations bring out clearly (ESV, LSB, NET, NKJV). Remember that Jesus has healed a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute. The people were now wondering if Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Son of David (12:22-23)…

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So I’m telling you this, and I insist on it in the Lord: you shouldn’t live your life like the Gentiles anymore. They base their lives on pointless thinking, and they are in the dark in their reasoning. They are disconnected from God’s life because of their ignorance and their closed hearts. (Ephesians 4:17–18 CEB)

The apostle Paul speaks to a great problem: people who are in the dark because of the way they reason about life. Their lives are based on pointless, futile thinking. It is because of this that they are disconnected from God. They are in the dark and thus their hearts are closed and they lack understanding. This might be a surprising assessment to you when speaking about people in the world. But imagine if this was how Paul described the people of God! You do not have to imagine it because, amazingly, the prophet Ezekiel said this about God’s people. Open your Bibles to Ezekiel 12…

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“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36–37 ESV)

This is quite a teaching from Jesus. It is a startling teaching when you think about it for a moment. People will give an account for every careless word spoken. This is how Jesus ends this section of teaching. How did Jesus get to this conclusion? Why would we be judged by the words we have spoken? After coming off of a weekend of thanksgiving, I look forward to showing us how thanksgiving is a key component what Jesus is looking for in our lives…

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Ezekiel has been in a vision seeing the sins that are going on in Jerusalem and in the temple of the Lord. Ezekiel has seen the leaders worshiping idols and graven images and weeping for idols in the temple complex (Ezekiel 8-9). In chapter 10 we watched the glory of the Lord leave the Holy of Holies and move to the gates of the temple complex. God is leaving because the people do not want a relationship with him. God is leaving because sin is staying in their lives as they have turned their backs on God, desiring idols more than him. As we look at chapter 11 we will notice that Ezekiel is still in a vision seeing things that are going on in the temple of the Lord…

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It is painful to have people kick you while you are down. You already feel low. You are already hurting. Your mind is already spinning. You already feel like you can’t get any lower. But then someone comes along who you hoped would help you and they only make things worse. Job’s three friends fall into this category. Job’s friends spend 7 days in silence only then open a barrage of words against Job, pointing out all of his flaws and problems, many of which were not even true. When we are down and hurting, we need someone who can really help us. One of the hard things can also be that even those who come to our side and want to help cannot really do too much for us. They can listen. They can be encouraging. But there is not really much else they can do. We need someone who can really help. This is the picture of what we need in a savior. Jesus wants you to see him as the savior you need and put your hope in his name. Turn in your copies of God’s word to Matthew 12:15-21…

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Ezekiel 8-10 gives us one of the more shocking pictures of God’s activity with his people. We are going to see the Lord leave his temple and leave his people. Such a picture immediately causes us to ask, “What would make God leave his people?” God said to David and Solomon that he would put his name at this temple and in Jerusalem forever (2 Kings 21:7). So what could possibly make God leave his temple, the place where he said his name would dwell forever? If we can see the reasons why God leaves his people, we can then know when God is with us and what finally causes God to have to leave…

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