Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19940320.htm

EZEKIEL: BLOSSOMING DURING LIFE'S MOST SEVERE CRISES
Part V: "God's Work To Keep His Commitments With Even Wretched Backsliders"
(Ezekiel 15:1-16:63)
  1. Introduction
    1. There comes a time in the lives of many Christians when they sin so wickedly that they wonder how God can not only forgive, but ever tolerate salvaging them for heaven! At times, they can doubt the doctrine o f Eternal Security due to this waywardness!
    2. Though the prophecies of Ezekiel deal with divine judgment on great wickedness in Israel, there is an amazing ray of hope found in Ez. 15-16. It addresses the needs of those who feel that their backsliding is so awful that there is no need of trying to be godly anymore!
  2. God's Work To Keep His Commitments With Even Wretched Backsliders, Ez. 15:1-16:63.
    1. Israel was compared to a wild grapevine of the woodlands that could not produce righteous fruit; as such, the nation was doomed for the fires of judgment just as wild grapevines are good only for the fire when they die, Ez. 15:1-8.
    2. To display just how wicked Israel was, God put forth an analogy of Israel as an unfaithful marriage partner to the husband, God, Ez. 16:1-52:
      1. God pictured the early days of the nation as the days of a courtship between a young suitor and his bride-to-be, Ez. 16:1-14:
        1. Israel is pictured as an infant daughter who is born to the Amorite father and a Hittite mother, v. 1-3. These peoples were pagans of Canaan, a picture of the amazing grace of God seen in taking the people of Israel from the nations t hrough Abraham to be a holy nation for Himself.
        2. When God helped Israel out of bondage in Egypt, the nation was likened to an infant that had been delivered but not yet washed or cared for. God washed the infant and brought her up, v. 4-9.
        3. When the nation became blessed of God, it was likened to a beautiful young woman, decked in precious jewels and desirous for marriage by her suitor, God, v. 10-14.
      2. But following this sparkling rise out of a tragic, sinful beginning, the beautiful bride went into gross unfaithfulness to her husband, God, Ez. 16:15-34,46-52:
        1. By trusting in her own beauty, this bride, Israel, became spiritually unfaithful to God, going after idols just as a woman might become unfaithful to her husband and commit adultery, 16:15-16.
        2. What was so insidious to God was that the articles that He had given to Israel were the very things used by Israel in her adulterous appeal to idols, 16:17-19.
        3. The children that Israel produced by God's blessing--GOD'S infants--were used as human sacrifices in this spiritual adultery, 16:20-22.
        4. Besides, Israel became lewd beyond belief in her spiritual adultery, 16:23-34: (a) She sought false gods of every kind, 23-30; (b) In fact, Israel stopped having spiritual union with God so as to have adulterous union with false gods, v. 31-32; (c) then Israel paid royalties to mingle with her lovers unlike normal prostitutes who receive pay for favors, v. 33-34.
        5. In fact, Israel's sins are compared to the homosexuality of wicked Sodom that was destroyed and found to be WORSE than those of Sodom, v. 46-52!
      3. Accordingly, God promised to defame Israel before her Gentile lovers, the pagan nations, by having them destroy her in judgment, v. 35-45.
    3. Yet, in spite of such wickedness, God would take back his estranged, horribly immoral "wife" to fulfill His eternal covenant in the Millennial Kingdom, v. 53-63. In fact, God's covenant would be an everlasting covenant that would anticipate Israel's sinfulness and correct it forever, v. 60b!!
Lesson: If God likened Himself to a man who raised a forsaken infant girl to be a beautiful bride, then married her only to have her become so unfaithful to him that she was worse than a lesbian or a homosexual, then judge her, only to take her bac k in a new marital relationship with an everlasting covenant, then Eternal Security is a "must" doctrine! It is always worthwhile hoping in the forgiveness of God! If we have sinned, even to wondering if God can forgive us, go ahead and confess it, 1 Jn. 1:9! God WILL forgive, for He has promised to do so! Ez. 15-16 proves that He will forgive!