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DEPARTURE OF GOD FROM HIS TEMPLE
THE vision with which the Prophet Ezekiel was favoured, and which he records in the first chapter, is of very difficult interpretation. In it there were represented to his view four living creatures, all moved and actuated by the Spirit of God [Note: Eze_1:4-14.]; there were also wheels moved by them [Note: Eze_1:15-21.], and the glory of God was enthroned above them [Note: Eze_1:26-28.]. The general import of this vision we apprehend to be, that the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the ministration of angels and holy men devoted to his service, manages every thing for the good of his Church. But from the eighth chapter God shews, that when his people shall provoke him by their impieties, he will withdraw from them, and give them up to all those judgments which their iniquities have deserved. This is at first but slightly intimated [Note: Eze_8:6.]; but in our text it is actually carried into effect. The manner in which his departure took place, is deserving of particular attention. It was by several successive steps; the bright cloud, which was the symbol of his presence, and which is here called “his glory,” left the accustomed place of its residence between the cherubims, and descended “to the threshold of the house [Note: Eze_9:3.].” From thence it moved to the court of the temple, which was on the north side, whither the cherubims had already moved [Note: Eze_10:3-4; Eze_10:18. The word “went,” ver. 4. should rather be, “had gone.”]. After that, it went to the door of the last gate, attended both by the cherubims and the wheels [Note: Eze_10:19.]. Then, lastly, with the cherubims and the wheels, it deserted the city altogether, and went to the mountain on the east side of the city [Note: Eze_11:22-23.]. What was the design of God in all these gradual removes, but to manifest the reluctance with which he yields to the necessity imposed upon him, of leaving his people to the ruin they have merited?
Hence then we take occasion to shew,
I. How averse God is to forsake his people—
Look we to his declarations?
[What can be more express than his assertion, yea, his oath, that he “has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live [Note: Eze_33:11.]?” How pathetically does he lament the obstinacy of those who withstand all the influences, and defeat all the purposes of his grace: “How long shall it be ere ye attain to innocency?” “Wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be [Note: Jer_13:27.]?” The idea of abandoning his people seems almost to overwhelm him: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee up, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim [Note: Hos_11:8. See also Psa_81:13-16.]?” But of all the passages in Holy Writ in which the Divine compassion towards obstinate offenders shines forth, there is none that exceeds the lamentation of our blessed Lord over Jerusalem; “O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things belonging to thy peace!” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”]
Look we to examples?
[What more astonishing than the forbearance of God towards the antediluvian world during the space of one hundred and twenty years? Mark his patience also towards his people in the wilderness, where for forty years their conduct was one continued scene of murmuring and rebellion. Even towards the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had imbrued their hands in the blood of their Messiah, he commanded his messages of mercy to be delivered in the first place: that city which had exceeded all others in iniquity was to be the most favoured of any in the whole universe, by the united labours of all the Apostles. But we need no further proof of God’s backwardness to cast off his people, than what we may all find in our own bosoms. We all are living monuments of his patience, and long-suffering, and forbearance. If his compassions bad not been infinite, not one of us would have been here this day, to speak or hear of them.]
True it is, that “his Spirit will not always strive with men:” but yet he does not abandon them at once; as will appear, whilst we shew,
II. What are the different steps by which his approaching departure may be discovered.
God “has pleasure in the prosperity of his people:” but, when constrained to leave them, he manifests his anger gradually, in order to awaken them to repentance, and to prevent the execution of his severer judgments. He withholds,
1. The manifestations of his love—
[Whilst his people conduct themselves in a becoming manner, he delights in every possible exercise of mercy towards them. He “draws nigh to them,” and “lifts up the light of his countenance upon them,” and “sheds abroad his love in their hearts,” and testifies to them of their adoption, and “witnesses with their spirits that they are his.” But when they draw back from him, he withholds from them these gracious communications. They now pray indeed, but find not a present and prayer-answering God: they read also, but feel not that power and sweetness in the word which they once did: they attend ordinances, but find them not, as once, to be “the gate of heaven.” The sun is hid behind a cloud; and they are no longer animated with his cheering rays: “I hid me,” says God, “and was wroth, because they went on frowardly in the way of their hearts.”
Inquire, then, beloved, whether any such calamity as this is come upon you? If it be, know that this is God’s first step towards a final departure; and if you do not arrest his progress by penitence and a renewal of your first works [Note: Rev_2:5; Rev_3:3.], he will go yet farther from you, and be brought back again to you with ten-fold difficulty. If you have lost the cheering presence of your God, know that he has already gone “to the threshold of the house.”]
2. The influences of his grace—
[God is pleased to strengthen his people with might by his Spirit in their inward man, so that they are enabled to overcome the world, to mortify the flesh, and to with stand all the principalities and powers of hell. He endues them with grace sufficient for them: but, if they are unfaithful to the grace received, he will withdraw it, and leave them to the unassisted efforts of their own arm. Then, like Samson with his locks shorn, they will become weak as other men: the world will regain its ascendant over them: their natural propensities will return with renewed force: and Satan will be able so to practise his former wiles, as to gain the most fatal advantage over them. They are like Israel before Ai, because of the Achan in their camp [Note: Jos_7:11-12.].
Here then is another subject of inquiry for us. Do we find that we are less able than formerly to resist our besetting sins? that we have less power to repress the workings of evil tempers, and of corrupt affections? Do we find that duty is more difficult than in former times, and sin more easy and pleasant? — — — Then we may know that God has gone, not to the threshold only, but even to the court. O fearful state! What cries, and tears, and labours, become the person that is reduced to it! He has not a moment to spare: if he would not lose God speedily and for ever, he must humble himself before God in dust and ashes; he must “repent and turn himself from all his transgressions, else his iniquity will become his ruin.”]
3. The warnings of his Spirit—
[The conscience of one that lives nigh to God is made tender, as the apple of his eye: and if by any means he be betrayed into sin, he mourns, and weeps, and never finds a moment’s rest, till he has “washed it away in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.” But this sensibility is soon lost: it is God’s presence only that preserves it: and if God’s “Holy Spirit be quenched by us, he will give us over to a hardness of heart,” so that the things which once would have occasioned the deepest humiliation, shall now scarcely produce a sigh.
And can it be, that any one is so far left, as to have his eyes blinded as to the malignity of sin, and his conscience seared as to the commission of it? — — — Yes: there are many who are thus beguiled by Satan from the simplicity that is in Christ;” and they have reason to fear that God will speedily take his flight, and execute that threat, “If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy.” Verily, “there is but a step between them and death.”]
This leads us to set before you,
III. The dreadful state of those who are forsaken by him—
“Woe unto them,” says God, “when I depart from them [Note: Hos_9:12.]!” yes, woe unto them indeed; for,
1. They are delivered up into the hands of their spiritual enemies—
[As, when Jesus had departed from Mount Olivet (the very mountain on which the glory of God abode, when it had forsaken the temple and city) that began to be fulfilled, “Your house is left unto you desolate:” and when, “by grieving and vexing the Holy Spirit we have provoked him to become our enemy,” our case is become altogether desperate: he says concerning us, “They are joined to idols; let them alone.” Then “the evil spirit that had been driven out, taketh to him seven other spirits to occupy our hearts;” and our “last state becomes worse than the first.” Not that such a person must necessarily be given over to gross and open vice: he may be left under the power of pride and infidelity, or of terror and despondency, or of hardness and obduracy: but, to whatever he is left a prey, “God swears in his wrath, that he shall never enter into his rest.”
2. They live only to increase their guilt and misery—
[Every day they live, they only augment the measure of their iniquities: and, strange as it may seem, immediate death, though attended with immediate damnation, would be to them a mercy. In one view indeed, the shortest respite from death may appear a blessing: and so it would be, if they were not sealed up under condemnation: but, being “given over to a reprobate mind,” they live only “to heap up misery against the last days,” and to “treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.” Unhappy soul, whoever thou art, when thus forsaken by thy God! “Good were it for that man if he had never been born.”]
We will conclude this subject with answering two questions—
1. How are we to reconcile this doctrine with other parts of Scripture?
[It is certain that the Scriptures speak much respecting the determination of God never to forsake his people [Note: 1Sa_12:22. Isa_54:9-10. Jer_32:40. Heb_13:5.] — — — And we believe that God will fulfil his promises, and that not one of them shall ever fail. But there are passages equally strong on the other side [Note: 2Ch_15:2. 1Co_9:27. 2Pe_2:20-22.]; and they in their place need equally to be enforced. The former are necessary to encourage hope: the latter, to excite our fear. The truth is, we apprehend, that no person is warranted in believing himself a child of God, any farther than he has an evidence of it in the conformity of his soul to the will of his heavenly Father. With the progress of sanctification his confidence may well increase; but with a declension in sanctity there ought to be a proportionable relaxation of his confidence. When therefore he is in a truly spiritual state, he may fitly he carried forward on the wings of hope, and love, and peace, and joy: but when he declines from that state, he needs the quickening influence of jealousy and fear: and, if any “turn back unto perdition,” they then prove to the world, that their former confidence was delusive; and we must say of them, as St. John does, “They went out from us; but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us [Note: 1Jn_2:19.].”
If men would receive the whole word of God, without contending for human systems, they would find no such contradictions as they are apt to imagine: or, if they found some expressions which they knew not how to reconcile with others, they would at least learn to exercise candour towards those who differed from them, and to leave the full explanation of these hidden mysteries till the day when God himself shall cast the true light upon them. Our concern is, not so much to reconcile the difficulties of Scripture, as to learn from every part its appropriate instruction, and its legitimate use.]
2. How are we to avert this awful calamity?
[We should mark with extreme care the very first motions of the Deity that indicate his displeasure. The occasional hidings of his face should lead us to inquire, what there has been amiss within us, what neglects or miscarriages that have grieved his Holy Spirit. We should instantly betake ourselves to fasting and prayer, entreating him to “shew us, wherefore he contendeth with us?” Like Jacob, we should “wrestle with him all the night, and say, I will not let thee go until thou bless me:” and, having regained his presence, we should labour constantly to “keep a conscience void of offence towards both God and man.” Were we thus to exert ourselves in the first instance, we should walk continually, as it were, in the light of his countenance: but if we disregard the first intimations of his displeasure, and suffer him to depart, from his throne to the threshold, from the threshold to the court, from the court to the gate, we shall find it no easy matter to recover the testimonies of his love, and the influences of his grace. “Be instructed then, (says the Lord,) lest my soul depart from thee [Note: Jer_6:8.].” Be instructed in the necessity of unintermitted watchfulness and prayer. Be instructed to “guard against the very appearance of evil,” on your own part, and against the smallest withdrawment on the part of God. Thus will your whole life be a continual feast; and God will be greatly glorified in the whole of your conversation.]