Ezekiel 14:12-14 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,… I. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE MOST GODLY CANNOT AVAIL FOR THE UNGODLY. 1. We prove this, first, by referring you to our text, and asking you to read it for yourselves. Mark ye how the anger of the Lord kindles, and how the words are launched forth like hot thunderbolts from the lips of the Most High. 2. Next, I ask you to inspect more narrowly the portraits of these men of God, who are presumed to have stood counsel for the defendants, and to have occasioned so much astonishment, because with all their special pleadings they signally lost their case. The Lord declares that if the whole three were put together they should not save son or daughter. 3. This truth may be further substantiated by observing the course of Providence as regards the things of this life. Could the merits of friends and parents secure the salvation of their relatives or children, we must expect to see "the son or the daughter" of a righteous man screened from the full punishment of his own misdeeds; but we have evidence that such is not the case. 4. Painful though it be, I must carry the assertion a stage further. The righteousness of good men has not availed to save their relatives from the terrors of the world to come. Cain, where are you tonight? Are you sitting here; and do you dream that your brother Abel now with God can by any means bless you? That must not be. Dispel the delusion. II. THE PRAYERS OF THE GREATEST INTERCESSORS CANNOT AVAIL IF MEN PERSIST IN THEIR UNBELIEF. 1. Remember that all the prayers of godly men cannot alter the nature of sin, and if they cannot alter the nature of sin, then they that continue in it must perish. 2. Moreover, the prayers of good men cannot alter the conditions of the eternal future, so long as the present abides the same. There is no law more immutable than that "to be good is to be happy," and to be bad is sooner or later to be wretched. It must be so. Trust not, therefore, to the prayers of others, but come to Christ for yourselves, that you may be cleansed from sin and made meet for heaven. 3. Perhaps you say, "Sir, I did not think prayer would suffice to effect a change in my circumstances without a corresponding change in myself; but I thought that somehow by prayer I should be compelled to believe and to repent." Compelled to believe and to repent? Well, man, what sort of repentance and faith must that be which comes of compulsion? ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, |
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