Ezekiel 14:6
Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Repent and turn away from your idols; turn your faces away from all your abominations.
Sermons
Repent!J.R. Thomson Ezekiel 14:6
Disastrous Answers to PrayerJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 14:1-11
Heart Disease the Worst DiseaseEzekiel 14:1-11
Heart IdolsJ. Parker, D. D.Ezekiel 14:1-11
Hypocritical Inquirers of GodW. Jones Ezekiel 14:1-11
Idolaters Inquiring of GodR. Einlayson, B. A.Ezekiel 14:1-11
Idolatry in the HeartJohn Bate.Ezekiel 14:1-11
Idols in the HeartJ. Ogle.Ezekiel 14:1-11
Mental IdolatryS. Leathes, D. D.Ezekiel 14:1-11
The Idols in the Heart a Barrier to the TruthEvangelical PreacherEzekiel 14:1-11
Alienation from GodArchdeacon Furse.Ezekiel 14:5-6
RepentanceW. Greenhill, M. A.Ezekiel 14:5-6
Sin not ToleratedAnecdotes of Luther.Ezekiel 14:5-6
Things that Estrange the Heart from GodEzekiel 14:5-6














This was the admonition of every herald of God, whether under the old covenant or the new. It was the burden of Isaiah and Ezekiel, and it was also the burden of John the forerunner and of Jesus the Messiah. From this it may be inferred that human nature and life, on the one hand, and the character and government of God on the other hand, are such that repentance is an indispensable condition of the establishment of right relations between God and man.

I. THE NEED OF REPENTANCE. If we are upon Divine authority summoned to change, this must be because there is something wrong and reprehensible and dangerous in man's heart and condition; if called upon to turn, we must be going the wrong way. The admonition of the text follows upon a picture of Israel's idolatry and rebellion against a righteous God. The form of the sin may vary, but the principle of sin is ever the same. Whether in ancient or in modern times, in barbarous or in civilized states of society, men are universally prone to sin and guilty of sin. Where there is no sin, repentance is needless. It is in the departure of the heart's affection and the life's loyalty from the righteous God that man's error lies. Israel's idolatry symbolizes human iniquity.

II. THE NATURE or REPENTANCE. As more fully explained in New Testament Scripture, this is a change of heart, of disposition, leading to a change of character and of life. Mere sorrow for sin is not repentance, inasmuch as emotion of every kind is to some extent matter of temperament, and sorrow does not always lead to reformation. True repentance goes much deeper, and prepares the way forevery spiritual blessing. He who repents looks at things otherwise than before, tutus his thoughts into another channel, his steps into another path.

III. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE.

1. It is a gracious call. The justly offended sovereign may leave the rebel to the consequences of his acts. It is not thus that God deals with us. It is not his wish that any should perish. He sends his messengers to the offending race, with a summons to submission, with proffers of mercy.

2. It is an authoritative call. He commandeth men everywhere to repent. It is true that our Creator and Judge does not interfere with our liberty. Yet he publishes his will as binding upon every moral agent. He has a right to our repentance. It is our place to obey his summons, to offer the repentance which he demands and requires at our hands.

IV. THE DIFFICULTY OF REPENTANCE. This lies in the very character itself of the change. If verbal submission or outward conformity only were required, this would be comparatively easy. But God, who searcheth the heart, will not be satisfied save with the heart's subjection and conversion. Old habits of unspirituality, worldliness, and selfishness are not readily abandoned. Especially in advanced life a radical and inward change is effected, for the most part, only with effort and difficulty. It needs a supernatural motive and a supernatural power to cause old things to pass away and all things to become new, to exchange darkness for light, and the service of Satan for God. Such a supernatural motive we have in the gospel; such a supernatural power and agency in the Holy Spirit.

V. THE FRUITS OF REPENTANCE.

1. These are exactly opposed in character to the fruits of self-indulgence. Other seed in other soil yields other harvest.

2. Reconciliation with God replaces enmity towards God. The conditions of salvation, as laid down in the New Testament, are "repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

3. Repentance works a change in a man's own character; the principles and motives and ends of life are all new.

4. Through the power of repentance a man's relations to his fellow men are changed - justice takes the place of wrong, and love that of hatred and uncharitabieness. - T.

They are all estranged from Me through their idols.
We read here, in God's own words, His rule of dealing with persons who come to Him in a certain disposition of mind.

1. The word "estranged" implies a former condition of close relationship and affection, from which they have since fallen. You would not apply the term to foreigners. You would not say of a Frenchman that he was estranged from this country, simply because he never belonged to it; but if an Englishman resided so long in Paris as to lose his patriotism and interest in our affairs, you would say that he was estranged. So, again, you would not say of a mere acquaintance, if you ceased to see him, that he was estranged from you; but if the love of an old friend grow cold, if a child become indifferent to his home, or a husband fail in his devotion to his wife, you describe such a falling off as estrangement. In this temper certain elders of Israel presented themselves before the prophet of God. They came to inquire His will and seek His aid. What self-delusion, then, is this! what blindness of heart! Men coming to God to inquire of Him, and not knowing that there is that within them which will forbid God's hearing them! Who has persuaded them to come this way at all? No voice but that of their own heart! And yet do you say that it is their heart which bars the way of God against them? "Estranged from Me through their idols!" Oh, to us, who may be as these elders of Israel, how hard does this rule of God press upon us! Like them, only far more favoured in all spiritual blessings, with everything to turn our feet towards God, the very currents of society swaying us in this direction, the breeze of fashion gently impelling us hither, the hand of custom with its constant but almost unfelt pressure laid upon the helm of our daily life to guide us within the haven of the Church. We learn to say our prayers, and prayer becomes a trick of words. Bibles are cheap, and in every man's hand. And yet, even now, there may be amongst us some who do not remember, that with idols in our heart we are estranged from God, and that He will not be inquired of by us at all!

2. But this is not the worst. The question God puts expects the answer "No"; and yet it is not the answer which He gives it. His answer admits us to a nearer view of His mysterious dealings with man. We see Him work by a rule that we know nothing of, a rule of mystery, marvellous and inscrutable, but one which example and experience teach us He applies with unerring force. When men thus estranged and alienated from Him in heart present themselves in person before Him, He does not refuse them an audience. They pray — He hears — their prayer is answered: but how fatal is the gift which He grants! "I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols." What illustrations of the Divine conduct does Scripture offer both in the Old Testament and the New! The Jews clamoured for a king, and God gave them one, but in this wise, — "I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath." They cried in the wilderness for flesh, — "So they did eat, and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire; they were not disappointed of their lust. But while the meat was yet in their mouths," etc., "and smote down the chosen men that were in Israel." Balaam received the king's messengers a second time, and though God had once answered him, he professed to inquire of Him again. He came with idols in his heart, his affection estranged from God: and what was the result? Did God forbid his praying? Oh that He had done so! Did He refuse his prayer? Alas! He granted it, saying, "Rise up and go with them." And Balaam, too happy to get the permission, went. But God's anger was kindled because he went: and the end was that he fell from sin to sin, selling himself to do the tempter's work; and he died among God's enemies, his own pious prayers and blessings ringing the curse of the hypocrite in his ears. There is yet another example nearer the person of the blessed Lord Himself; and therefore the warning is more terrible. Jesus chose but twelve to help Him in His work; and even on one of these He looked — a man with idols in his heart — and said of him, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" This man came near to Christ, as the eleven: he passed as one of them. He was with them almost up to the very last; he just wanted a little time to go away and finally arrange the plot, and that time he had. God gave him the opportunity, — say not gave, but permitted him. Jesus looked at him and said, "What thou doest, do quickly." Was ever prayer heard like that? was ever man on earth answered after the multitude of his idols like that?

3. God's purpose in answering the evil desires of hearts alienated from His love. Their heart is to become their snare, the net in which they shall be caught, the pitfall in which they shall be entrapped. Your talents and tastes and affections and ruling desires, — the gifts with which nature's hand has made you rich, the inheritance with which you started in life, — your physical strength, your youth, your beauty, your wit, your attractiveness, your amiable temper, your power of sympathy, your grace of manner, your aptitude for business, your strong will, your influence over others — with these you made your casts early in life: they have brought you in glittering spoils and stores of comfort, and have enriched your home with pleasures and with wealth. But these very instruments of gain, what else have you done with them? Have they entangled you too much in the world? impeded you on your way to God? implicated you dangerously with others? Have you ensnared others, and made inextricable confusion in their projects of a peaceful, holy, happy life? And now, as you grow older, are you so involved in this world's business that you cannot escape its toils? When Christ, the rightful Master of your heart, calls to you from the quiet shore, and bids you leave your nets, and become, if not expressly "fishers of men," yet at least servants in His work, is your heart free to follow Him? is your heart His at all? nay, is your heart your own to give? Have you not given it away already to idols, to false gods, to the world? or it may be, you have lost your heart in sin!

(Archdeacon Furse.)

It was a true and beautiful remark made by the mother of Wm. Allan, the Quaker chemist, when she was seeking to win her son to give more attention to religion, and to devote less time to the prosecution of his studies in his favourite and fascinating science: "Remember, my boy, that Christ cast even the doves out of the temple." The lesson thus gently taught was effectually taken to heart. Young Allan learned, with lasting profit, that the most innocent and lawful of earthly objects of interest may not occupy that central place in our affections which our Saviour claims for Himself; but in the souls of the redeemed all other desires will, without painful effort, arrange themselves at due distances from this centre.

Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols.
1. Repentance is a turning from sin to God. It is not any turning, but a turning of the judgment, so that men judge otherwise of God, of His laws and ways, of sin, of themselves, than before; a turning of the will and affections, so that they are carried wholly and fully unto God (Joel 2:12).

2. Repentance is a continued act. It is a grace, and must have its daily operation, as well as other graces. Where a spring breaks forth it is always flowing.

3. Sinners should stir up themselves, and do the utmost which lies in their power to further their turning unto God. "Turn yourselves from your idols"; use all arguments you can to cause your hearts to turn from idols, and from other sinful ways. Consider —(1) That they are separated from the Lord (Isaiah 59:2).(2) That man's life is short, and the pleasures of sin but for a season.(3) The daily treasuring up of wrath, and danger of final impenitency (Romans 2:5). It is a seal of condemnation.(4) The condemnations of a man's own heart and conscience (Isaiah 57:20, 21).(5) Absolute necessity of repenting and turning unto God (Luke 13:3). "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

4. True repentance and turning to the Lord doth manifest itself in the effects and fruits of it: it hath meet fruit (Matthew 3:8), worthy fruit (Luke 3:8). Now, here are three effects thereof in these words:(1) When the soul is truly turned to God it seeks to turn others; it is not content that itself is come to God, but would have many come to Him.(2) It dispenses with no sin; it saith not, Lord, be merciful to me in this, but turns from "all abominations," from every idol, the most daring sin shall then go to it (Hosea 14:8).(3) It avoids the occasions of sin and appearances of evil.

(W. Greenhill, M. A.)

When his people at Wittenberg showed him their licences to sin, Luther's answer was, "Unless you repent you will all perish."... "Please God, I'll make a hole in his drum," he said, when he first heard of Tetzel selling these indulgences.

(Anecdotes of Luther.)

People
Daniel, Ezekiel, Job, Noah
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Abominations, Cause, Detestable, Disgusting, Faces, Gods, Idols, Practices, Renounce, Repent, Return, Says, Thus, Turn, Yea, Yourselves
Outline
1. God answers idolaters according to their own heart
6. They are exhorted to repent, for fear of judgments, by means of seduced prophets
12. God's irrevocable sentence of famine
15. of wild beasts
17. of the sword
19. and of pestilence
22. A remnant shall be reserved for example of others

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 14:6

     5763   attitudes, positive to God
     6195   impenitence, results
     6627   conversion, nature of
     6733   repentance, nature of
     8468   renunciation

Ezekiel 14:1-11

     8648   enquiring of God

Ezekiel 14:4-9

     7774   prophets, false

Library
Education of Jesus.
This aspect of Nature, at once smiling and grand, was the whole education of Jesus. He learned to read and to write,[1] doubtless, according to the Eastern method, which consisted in putting in the hands of the child a book, which he repeated in cadence with his little comrades, until he knew it by heart.[2] It is doubtful, however, if he understood the Hebrew writings in their original tongue. His biographers make him quote them according to the translations in the Aramean tongue;[3] his principles
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus

"Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. "
From this Commandment we learn that after the excellent works of the first three Commandments there are no better works than to obey and serve all those who are set over us as superiors. For this reason also disobedience is a greater sin than murder, unchastity, theft and dishonesty, and all that these may include. For we can in no better way learn how to distinguish between greater and lesser sins than by noting the order of the Commandments of God, although there are distinctions also within the
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works

"All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver.
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee,"
Isaiah lxiv. 7.--"And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee," &c. They go on in the confession of their sins. Many a man hath soon done with that a general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to. You may see here sin and judgment mixed in thorough other(315) in their complaint. They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolate estate of captivity, as to forget their provocations. Many a man would spend more affection,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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