Sermon Volume 5:8 (Ezekiel 34:17)

Sonia Sevilla, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Here is an outline of the eighth sermon in Volume 5 of the sermons. It is 8 pages.

Ezekiel 34:17 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

In this tender and alarming manner did the God of Israel address his ancient people: And his language is still the same to them that love him. All real saints are his flock and the sheep of his pasture. The number is small compared with the wide world; but collectively considered, they are a multitude which no man can number. When he shall gather together his saints which have made a covenant with him by sacrifice, they shall come out of all nations and from the uttermost parts of the earth. What was promised to the natural seed of Abraham shall be more abundantly verified in his spiritual seed; they shall be more numerous and the stars of heaven or the sand upon the seashore.

I. Consider the objects of the divine discrimination 

1. He will judge between the Church of God and its enemies, the genuine professors of religion and its opposers 

2. The Lord will distinguish also between the hypocrite and the sincere believer 

3. A distinction will likewise be made between saints and saints; for the Lord shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he made judge his people 

II. The manner in which these various characters shall be distinguished: "I will judge between cattle and cattle".

1. Judgment sometimes signifies the same as discernment as when it is said "Gthd judges the righteous and is angry with the wicked every day - The spiitual man judgeth all thngs, yet he himself is judged ofh no man 

2. It implies correction or judging in a way of punishment 

3. Though the Lord often makes a wider distinction between the righteous and the wicked in the present life, yet he will do it more effectually and more awfully in the last great day 

Let us then anticipate this awful scene by erecting a tribunal in our own breasts. Let us judge ourselves that we may not be condemned with the world. Oh reader, oh hearer! let not a day pass over thy head without thinking of that day for which all other days were made.

"The last in nature's course, the first in wisdoms thought." (Night Thoughts, Young)

The trumpet's solemn sound

The lightning's spread abroad

(The) Opening skies, the shaking ground

Proclaim a coming God

Behold the Judge descend (at hand)

With majesty and power

(Sinners and saints) Tribes of men before him stand

Some tremble, some adore

Each action, word and thought

Now stripped of all disguise,

(To) The impartial test is brought,

(Of his discerning eyes) Exposed before his eyes.

Now causeless fears subside

False hopes no more beguile

(Whilst) His unerring hands divide

The precious from the vile

The one he calls by name

And seats them near his throne

(The) Other (dooms to endless) fills with grief and shame

And (miseries) dooms to woes unknown

Then be it all my care

Each hour to watch and pray

Oh may sovereign grace prepare

For that tremendous day.

(May Jesu's lovely face

No frowning aspect wear

When I, the vilest of our race,

Before his bar appear.)

(803 where 6686 becomes 6676)