PP0524 DATE
GOD’S MAN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
Ezekiel 22:30-31.
"And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
"Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD."
INTRODUCTION: This last four years has been a time of a semblance of a move back to the way America was founded. We have seen the challenge by our President to move away from immorality, and efforts to make the home and family strong. In the last 30 years we have seen more than 40 million babies aborted. We have seen the advancement of homosexuality. We have seen a rapid increase of drug use. Much of this must be attributed to a past break down at the White House.
Let me define what I mean by White House. I am not referring to the actual “White House” that all of us know is where the President of the United States lives and conducts global business, rather I am defining it as the place where policy, agendas, and leadership direction develops for this nation. It is the place where our future as a nation is harbored.
In our text for today we see God searching for a man. A man to stand for Him, and for the land. A man to represent God to the land. One man would have been enough. He needed a man to stand in the gap. Notice it says, “I found none.” Everywhere He looked all He found was corruption and degradation.
God is not looking for a man for His, or God’s benefit. He needs no man to make His existence complete nor His surroundings complete. God is complete in Himself. The man God is searching for is for the benefit of the land or the nation of Israel. “For the land”, or “For the benefit of the land.”
I have three thoughts I want to present to you today. I believe this will help you to see the condition of our country. Although I doubt if you need any additional information about our nation and its condition.
I. THE PREDICAMENT HE SPEAKS OF Vs. 26-29.
I am going to tell you why we are in the pickle we are in.
A. He Sought For A Man Among The Priests, But Found None. Vs. 26. (Ezek 22:26) "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them."
1. They had violated His law. (Psa 119:126) "It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law."
The priests were the religious leaders of the nation. Religious but lost. They followed after their own ways.
Humanism has swept our land.
a. Humanism has no thought for God or His law. Man makes his own laws religiously. Man says, “I will be my own god.”
b. Humanism honors only the man and never God.
2. They have profaned my holy things.
a. They profaned the Lord’s Day.
b. They profaned the Bible. Swearing by the Bible when the Bible means nothing to them. Why is it that the Bible can be read and even preached in prisons but not in our schools? Why can there be opening prayers in the Congressional Houses, but none is allowed in the public schools.
c. They profaned the Church. The local churches have little sanctity among the community anymore.
d. They profaned His Name. People use His holy name loosely.
3. No difference in the holy things and the profane. “Profane” means “to pollute or make common.”
a. They have tried to pollute the Bible and make it common. It has been removed from everything concerning people. They have tried to change its message and meaning. Oh, but listen, they can’t change it. (Psa 119:89) "LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven."
How can it be settled in heaven forever? God made a back-up copy before He ever gave us our copy. He has a copy in heaven that is the right version. Man can never change that. It is eternally settled in heaven.
b. They have tried to pollute the church. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(1) The Universal crowd has tried to change the meaning and purpose of the local N.T. Church.
(2) The ecumenical crowd has tried to weaken it with a mixture of everything.
(3) The cults have tried to make it a place of false doctrine.
Listen, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will not be defeated.
4. “No difference between the clean and the unclean.”
a. There is no separation in the churches today.
b. There are some things that God says must be different. You can’t take a hog and make it look and act like a lamb. They are different.
You can’t take a social gospel and make it acceptable to God.
Salvation brings a change in ones life. If there has been no change there has been no salvation.
5. Not keeping the Lord’s Day.
6. They even profaned God. Man has created many gods.
This is the condition of the religious element of the nation today. There are only a few, and a very few, who are still following the true Word of God correctly.
Then notice:
B. He Sought For A Man Among The Princes, But Found None. Vs. 27. (Ezek 22:27) "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain."
1. They are like ravening wolves ravening the prey.
This is the political leaders. The Senate, the congress, the judicial system.
Have you ever felt like you have been sold down the drain? Well, you have.
The Senate and Congress take our tax money and uses it for their own power and prestige. They use it for things that aren’t even of American interest.
Recently they allocated money to measure the average length of an airline stewardess’ nose.
They allocated money to see how insects mate.
They spent nearly billion dollars to develop a ball point pen that would write in a space capsule as zero gravity. The Russians use a lead pencil.
We have been thrown to the ravening wolves by the princes of this land. They could care less about the voter. All they want is power. They want to be on one of the important committees. They talk about family values yet they don’t know what a real Bible family is.
2. They shed innocent blood.
If the Washington politicians had to live by the same law that Joe Blow Citizen has to live by, we would see a lot of changes made quickly.
If the Senate and Congress really wanted to they could put a halt to abortion in 4 weeks. They don’t want to.
40 million abortions. The class room ratio is to be 1 to 30. That would be over 1.1 million new teachers alone. Think of all the other increases in our economy if those 40 million people were living.
In the USA for every four people there is one job created. Forty million abortions have costs this country more ten million jobs. Think of the hamburgers, the Nike shoes, the blue jeans, the bicycles, the bubble gum, cokes, candy bars, etc. We could carry it on out as far as we want to.
How long will God allow this horrible sin to continue in America? Not long.
3. To destroy souls.
a. They make laws that prohibit the Christian schools in their ability to teach the Bible in its entirety.
b. Laws that hinder churches from running buses, having S/S. If it involves the local church ministry there will be a law soon that will prevent it.
c. Some states have a law against door to door witnessing.
4. To get dishonest gain.
When you vote in November don’t forget all of the dishonest gain that we have heard about recently on TV.
When you vote in November don’t forget all of the moral conduct on many of the “Princes.”
(Isa 1:23) "Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them."
This verse should be inscribed on the walls of the Chamber of Congress.
They want us to believe that they care about the homes and the widows, but don’t believe it, it is a lie. They care about “dishonest gains” only.
I doubt if there is one senator or one congressman who is solely and completely honest and that has the right motive in mind.
C. He Sought For A Man Among The Prophets, But He Found None. Vs. 25&28.
(Ezek 22:25) "There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof."
(Ezek 22:28) "And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken."
I wish I could skip over this point, but I can’t. He condemns the prophets twice.
This is the pastors and preachers of today. I would hope that surely God could find at least one man among the preachers that would be able to fill His need. He couldn’t find any then, and He won’t find one now.
1. Untempered mortar.
a. Unhardened or the wrong mixture. The mortar wouldn’t do its job because it was the wrong mixture.
The preachers were going around telling everyone that they were doing fine. They didn’t tell them what the problem was.
Let me tell you now what the problem is. It is SIN. We need preachers to go up and down this land of America crying out against all manner of sin.
The preachers were not standing in a hardened way. They were soft on sin. They were handing out untempered mortar. That means they were preaching watered down messages. They weren’t preaching under the power of God. They were allowing the things of the community to dictate to them what they preach.
These prophets didn’t have a backbone. Matthew Henry says, “Daubing prophets are great supporters of ravening princes.”
What America needs is a generation of Bible preachers who will stand in the pulpit on Sunday AM and preach with the fear and fire from God. When the Moodys, the Finneys, and the Billy Sundays were going up and down this country preaching America was a much better place. Our preachers have given away to untempered mortar today. If you build a house or a building with untempered mortar it will crumble in no time. America is crumbling because not enough preachers have preached hard, preached Bible centered, sin naming repentance demanding sermons. We must throw off that untempered mortar and preach with fervency and the fear of God.
Do you want to know why most of the preachers have changed their message to an untempered one? Because the people in the pews don’t want to hear preaching of that nature. Do you know what would happen here, if I, every Sunday, go up here and preached what was really wrong with this church and each member? If I told you every Sunday about your sin, and what it was doing to you, your family, this church, and this community, nearly all of you would leave. Then you would expect me to continue on making the building payments and keeping the church grounds looking good. That’s crazy.
2. Seeing vanity. There is nothing that is vain or vanity today. Everything is acceptable. Preachers leave the ministry to go into money making schemes. They leave the ministry because of immorality. They leave the ministry to set down and do nothing.
3. Divining lies unto them.
If I don’t tell you and warn you of the consequences of your sin then I have failed you, and lied to you. (Gal 4:16) "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?"
If I don’t warn your children that sin is deadly, then I have failed.
If I don’t warn you of what will happen if you continue on the same sinful road that many of you are on, then I have failed you.
There are those who don’t tithe. God is not happy with you and He will get what is His in due time. He may have to bankrupt you to do it, but He will get it eventually.
There are those who don’t witness. God is not pleased with you.
There are those who are not faithful to all programs of the church. God is not happy with you.
For me to stand up here and say, “God bless you, you precious people, God is so pleased with you.” For some that would be true, but for many it would be divining lies.
D. He Sought For A Man Among The People, And Found None. Vs. 29. (Ezek 22:29) "The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully." No one was qualified.
1. They used oppression. That is putting down someone else in order to raise self up. Oppressing another for the benefit of themselves. We see this every day with the liberal left opposing the righteous right.
2. Exercised robbery. (Taking that which wasn’t their own – borrowing and not returning.
a. There are hundreds of robberies committed in OKC in a years time.
b. Taking from another to enhance self.
c. Street robberies.
d. Armed robberies.
3. Vexed the poor and needy.
a. Not thinking of others.
b. Do anything it takes to get rich.
c. The poor always finance the rich. The rich will usually take from the poor and give back to the rich.
II. THE PERSON HE SEEKS FOR Vs. 30.
(Ezek 22:30) "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
A. “I Sought For A Man.”
1. One would have been enough.
2. God didn’t specify any credentials. Apparently most any man would have been sufficient.
3. Where was the man for that day?
4. If one man doesn’t step up that nation will be destroyed.
B. “Among Them.”
1. There was none that could fit the qualifications.
2. They were all corrupt from the top down.
3. No one could be found.
C. “To Stand In The Gap.”
There is a gap between man and God. It was true then and it is true now. Sin had separated them from God. The gap kept getting wider and wider.
Today, man has drawn farther and farther away from God. There is no politician that can stand in the gap. The gap cannot be filled by mortal man. This gap is too wide for mankind to try to cross over. It is uncrossable, and for man to attempt it alone is unthinkable.
One man could have saved the land. America is looking for that man in November. The cry of every voice today is, “We want a man to stand in the gap.” We have seen this gap widen and widen – the cry for more and more social programs to prolong man’s misery and ultimate destruction.
We will look and look, we will seek and seek, we will hope and hope, BUT WE WILL NOT FIND A MAN. There will be no one come forth in November to fill this gap. There will be no knight come riding in on a white horse with shining armor to rescue us.
God’s words ring out, “I found none.”
He looked among the priests; the princes; the prophets; and the people and He found none.
D. God Had Someone In Mind All Along. God knew that He could not find the man He needed among the men of Adam. Adam’s race had all disqualified themselves because of sin. God had someone else in mind all along. When the time was right, that man came unto this world, born of a virgin woman in a manger in Bethlehem. That night as the star shone bright in the heavens and on that little Bethlehem manger, God said, “I have found the man I wanted. Now there is Someone to stand in the gap of sin and One who can deliver mankind from sin.” That man is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David, the Holy One of Israel. He said, “The Man I want in the White House of the United States of America is Jesus Christ, My only begotten Son.”
Many men have tried to be Jesus. Many have come in His name. But only One can be the Child of the Bethlehem manger. Only One can be the Man God sought for to deliver His people.
III. THE PARDON HE SENDS FORTH Vs. 31.
(Ezek 22:31) "Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD."
Because of the failure found in Vs. 30, we see the recompense of Vs. 31.
Vs. 31 will not be understood unless we look at in the light of prophecy. It’s all past tense. God is speaking as though all of this has already happened. (Ezek 22:31) "Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD."
Vs. 31 was to take place in the future. It had not happened yet when God was speaking in this verse. Yet God speaks as thought it was in the past. “I have poured...” That’s past. “I have consumed.” That’s past. “I have recompensed...” That’s past. God is saying that all of this has already happened. It is in the past. When did it happen? On the Cross of Calvary. To God that happened before the world began. This plan to redeem fallen man was in the mind of God before man was ever created. (Eph 1:4) "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:"
God knew He wouldn’t find anyone to stand in the gap of man’s sin. He knew there was no one that could do that. Therefore He sent His only Begotten Son to stand for you and me.
God had already transferred man’s sins to His Son. Only God can transfer the sin of one to Another.
Isa. 1:18, “He hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Rom. 5:8, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
2 Cor. 5:21, “He who knew no sin became sin for us.”
The man that we need in the White House is Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can stand in the gap. God poured out His wrath on Christ. If only America would allow Jesus to set on the throne once again we could survive.
If we could really say, “In God we trust.”
Only the Son of God can lead men into places of victory and freedom. Only Jesus Christ can turn mankind into a substance that God will accept.
But you wait, America will reject this man Jesus. He has already been rejected. Not only in Nov. but in Dec. and in Jan. also.
Political America doesn’t want anything to do with Jesus Christ. God’s Man for the White House will be rejected again.
Someday soon, the Lord shall appear and then He will become the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords and He will rule and reign forever and forever.
America has turned Him away, don’t you do the same. Come to Him today. Come and be saved.
Be comforted, Jesus is coming again.
INVITATION
BETH HAVEN BAPTIST CHURCH
PO BOX 891523
OKC OK 73189-1523
405-691-8701
www.bhbc.net
icasteel1@cox.net
This sermon and thousands of others are available on a CD Disk that may be purchased for $75.
If interested contact the above address.
