God's Search for a Man

GOD'S SEARCH FOR A MAN

Shelby G. Floyd

Today is Father's day and I planned a lesson that would go along with the theme of the day “God's Search for a Man.” When we think about father's Mark Twain said: "My Father was an amazing man, the older I got the smarter he got." Well we know that when we are a young man we feel like that our Father knows less than us, but when we get older we realize they were a little bit smarter than what we thought. There is an old English proverb that says, "One Father is more than a 100 schoolmasters.”

The Role of Fathers

I read this story about a Father and Mother and their children kept after them to get a puppy. You know how that goes. Everybody that has children go through that phase. The children want to get a puppy. So the mother and father talked about it, and finally they said okay we are going to get the children a puppy. They called the children in and the mother said, "Now we are going to get you a puppy, but you have to take care of it. You have to feed the puppy, water the puppy, take the puppy out and clean up the mess, and when it comes to the time that you stop doing that we are going to get rid of the puppy." So the children said, "That's fine, we will do that, we agree to take care of him and do all of the work." So they got a puppy and they named him Danny and sure enough the kids did a good job for the first few days. As the weeks went by they started slacking off and the first thing you know the mother was feeding the dog, watering the dog, taking care of the dog, taking him out and cleaning up the mess. The mother called all the children in one day and said, "You know we are going to have to find Danny a new home." She noticed that there was not much of a reaction on their part, and they didn't say hardly anything. Finally one of them did speak up and say, "If he would eat less, and clean up his mess can we keep him?" She said, No, "Danny has got to have a new home." They said, "We thought you said Daddy."

You know sometimes that is the way Daddy is looked upon. I remember when our children were growing up, we had a little dog, and I have allergies. We brought him in the house and I was sneezing every time I turned around and I was getting tired of it and said, “Now this dog is going to have to leave, it is either going to be the dog or me." I remember the children said, Bye Dad. That shows you how important sometimes Dad's are to the family. We only joke about it and have a lot of fun, but really the role of the Father in our society is not as good as it ought to be.

In our culture the Father is looked upon as the man that takes care of finances. He goes out and gets a good job and makes a lot of money so the family can have and do all the things that they want to do. In the Bible, the Father was more than that, he was that to be sure, but he was more than that. According to the Book of God, a Father is to be the director and manager of the household. God said one time, "I know Abraham will bring up his children in the way that they ought to go." So God selected Abraham to be a leader, because he knew that he would teach, train, manage, discipline, and take care of his children. There is in the book of Ezekiel a sentence that emphasizes the power of one person. God doesn't want a person to get lost in the crowd and get out of sight of everybody. That is not the role that he has planned for man. Even today in our worship, God is looking down at the individual. He doesn't necessarily look at the congregation as a whole. He looks at us as an individual and He is looking at our heart whether we are involved in the worship that we raise up to God Almighty.

Ezekiel 22:30

In Ezekiel we see the power of one individual. Ezekiel said, in Chapter 22: 30: "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none." We are going to focus first upon that phase "I looked for a man among them." He was looking for an individual. God today is looking for individuals in the political realm, in the religious realm and in the domestic realm. God is looking for a man who will standup and fulfill his responsibilities and do his job in the right way. Today, all of us men can be a father whether we have children or not. We can be a man who looks after other children and blesses them. We are not just talking about biological fathers. God is looking for a man who will be a leader. Today, we all need to make a resolution; all men in this congregation and this audience need to make a resolution that we will be the kind of man that God is looking for.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards, who was a well known preacher in the early days of our country made this resolve; he said, "Resolve first that every man should live at the highest and best for Christ always and everywhere, and second whether the other man should so live or not I shall strive with God's help so to live to the end of my day." That is a good resolution. Don't look and measure yourself by everybody else. Make your resolve and whether anybody does that or not you keep your resolution.

IN THE DAYS OF EZEKIEL

In the days of Ezekiel, the world was much like our world today. In fact, it was about ready to collapse. Ezekiel was exiled in Babylon. His contemporary prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned, and it is in that context that God said, “I looked for a man among them.” He wasn't talking about Ezekiel, he was in exile. He was talking about Jerusalem and Judea. He was looking for man who would be the proper leader. I read a story about a farmer, who went to see his banker. He told the banker I've got some bad news and I've got some good news. The banker said, "Well tell me the bad news first." He said, "Well I am not going to be able to pay anything on the principal or the interest on the land or the structures around the land." So the banker said, okay. He said, "Wait a minute I have some more bad news. I am not going to be able to pay anything on the principal or the interest on all of the equipment that you loaned me money to buy, the tractor, combine, and all of that. He said, okay. He said, "Wait a minute I have some more bad news, I am not going to be able to pay anything on the principal or the interest on the seed, the fertilizer, the insecticides, and all of that." The banker said, "What is the good news?" The Farmer said, "I still want to do business with you." You know that is kind of the way we are. We get out all of the bad news and we still want to do business with God.

God is a God of love and grace, but he is also a just God and he will do business with us if we try to do the right thing. In the days of Ezekiel their world was about to collapse. There was wickedness and corruption and every kind of evil that you could think of. There was a general decline in everything that was good. During the 6^th century before Christ (600 years before Christ) the decline of all kinds of standards raised the red flag to Ezekiel and to God Almighty. There was a decline of political standards. There was a decline of moral standards. There was a decline of religious standards. By the way, the reverse of that is the way that things happen. When religious standards decline, then morality will decline and then the political standards will also decline. So that is the reason the forefathers came over here and established this great country. They said you cannot have a country and exercise this kind of government without having a religious people who respect their creator. So with all of the controversy today our founding fathers believed in God and believed that a good citizen ought to respect and serve an all wise, and all powerful creator. The nation of Israel had fallen away from God and they were in exile because of their sin. That is the reason that Ezekiel was in Babylon. God carried his people away to Babylon for 70 years. Here are some of the things that Israel had done that caused God to decide He was going to stop doing business with them. They had desecrated the Sabbath day. I wonder about us today. A lot of people who wear the name Christian desecrate the Lord's Day—Sunday, and do not give the Lord's Day the proper respect, dedication and commitment that it deserves. Israel was guilty of idolatry. They had stopped worshipping the true God and had gone off to the gods of the nations around them who were worshipping idols. They had committed murder. People were being killed and blood was being shed on the streets of the cities in Jerusalem and Judea. They were guilty of every kind of immorality that you could possibly think of, and they had even offered up child sacrifices to Moloch, and God had forbidden them to do such an awful thing. So you can see why Israel had been taken away into captivity. All of these sinful and evil things were being practiced by the people from the Princes down to the people. As one writer says, "They were corrupt from the head to the toes of their feet.”

The Princes

Let's look at each of one of these ruling classes all of the way down to the people. It is found in Ezekiel 22 in the context from which we took our statement. In verse 25, we find that the princes were guilty of a conspiracy and the Bible says, "They were like a roaring lion tearing its prey." It is awful when the ruler of a land is guilty of a conspiracy to carry out evil. We are seeing it today; every once and a while in the political realm. Things are brought to light that ought not to have been carried out and usually it is because a few individuals get together and decide we are going to do this. In verse 25, Ezekiel says: "There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things, and make many widows within her.” So the princes, the rulers were doing this kind of thing.

The Priests

Let's look at the priests. The priests were the ones who officiated at the alter and they were doing violence to the law of God. They did not distinguish between the holy and the common. That is the reason I mentioned the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day is a holy day just like the Sabbath was a holy day in the Old Testament. "Keep the Sabbath day holy” was the commandment in the law, and God wants us to devote the Lord's Day to the activities that he has outlined for us. So they got to the place where they were not distinguishing between the common and the holy. In verse 26, "Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.” So when the preachers, elders and the leaders of the church, reach the point that we do not make any distinction between the common and the holy, between clean and unclean and treat the Lord's Day like any other day of the week we are doing the same thing that Israel did that caused them to be taken into bondage.

The Officials

Let's look at the officials in verse 27, "Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain.” What do we read in the paper and what do we see on TV? The officials in our land in many of the largest corporations are going to jail because they have committed fraud. A big corporation had a mistrial the first time and now they have put those men on the stand again. They found them guilty and they will probably go to prison for many years for defrauding the stockholders out of a lot of money by living a lavish lifestyle. That is what the officials in Judea and Jerusalem were doing. He says, "Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain.”

The Prophets

Let's look at the prophets. The prophets would be compared to the preachers today. The prophets whitewashed all of these wicked deeds by giving out false visions and lying divinations. All you have to do is turn the television on and listen to these TV preachers. It is almost laughable at some of the things they say. They come up with some of the craziest ideas that are as far from the teaching of God's word as it could possibly be. This is what the prophets were doing in Israel, verse 28. "Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says'-when the LORD has not spoken.” Paul told young Timothy, “Don't be like that Timothy the time is coming when men will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall be turned away from the truth and be turned unto fables. He said, Watch through all things and do the work of an evangelist and make full proof of your ministry. Preach the Word and be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.” This is what the preachers have to do today. The prophets were not doing that and the Lord took them into captivity.

The People

Let's look at the common people. The common people practiced extortion, committed robbery, and mistreated all kinds of people. In verse 29, he says, "The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.” Now we have looked at the princes all the way down to the people and that nation was as corrupt and evil from the head to the toes as it possibly could be and therefore God said I am not going to do business with you any longer. The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar are going to come and sweep against Jerusalem and take them captive for 70 years. Ezekiel was in exile and Jeremiah was in prison. In the midst of this God says in Ezekiel 22: 30-31, "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.” What kind of a man was God looking for? Oftentimes one man can save a country, save a church, save a family. That is the kind of man that God is looking for.

WHAT KIND OF MAN WAS GOD LOOKING FOR?

I have just finished reading the book 1776. It would do you a lot of good to would read that book. Our country was looking for a man among the citizens of the 13 colonies. They found such a man down in Virginia, George Washington.

George Washington

He did not have very much formal training as a solider, but he was a leader. He was a man that had virtue. He was man that had dedication. They said, "George, we are going to appoint you as General over all of the armies of the 13 colonies." It finally became known as the Army of the United States after the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776. We did not have a trained Army. It was a militia, they were farmers, they were shop keepers, they were artisans, and they did not have uniforms or shoes for their feet. It was said that they walked down the road bare-footed and that they would leave blood on the trail as they went. That is the kind of men that brought us this great country of America. George Washington looked for some men that could be leaders and he found two especially great leaders and great men. One was Nathaniel Green, and the other was Henry Knox. I will tell you what kind of man Henry Knox was. When the British brought all of their ships into Boston Harbor, the little Rag Tag Army of George Washington went upon top of Dorchester Heights. They started strengthening their defenses, but they were no match for all of those Frigates and those great ships that had a lot of guns. We had won a great victory at The Battle of Fort Ticonderoga. Nathaniel Green says, "George, I want to volunteer to go 300 miles up into Canada to Fort Ticonderoga and bring all of those big guns that we left up there. They thought about it and finally said go. He went up there and they dragged those cannons 300 miles. They accomplished this feat in a short time. Finally, there was a standoff between the British in Boston Harbor and George Washington's Army upon Dorchester Heights. The British did not know what happened until they woke up one morning and looked upon Dorchester Heights with all of those canons facing them. They did not want to go against them so there was a standoff for a while, and the British boarded their ships and went up to Nova Scotia and then they came down against New York. So George Washington had to rush his Army up to New York. It was a difficult place to defend. Eventually 400 ships came into the harbors of New York and we were no match for the British. We lost Brooklyn Heights. We lost the battle and had to retreat up to Harlem Heights and even had to retreat from there. Then we went down and crossed over into New Jersey to Trenton. It was at the end of the year. It was a time when armies do not fight as winter was about to set on. The British had hired Hessian soldiers to fight for them and General Howe had left the Hessian soldiers at Trenton. On almost the last day of the year, Washington took his Army and slipped across the water into Trenton, New Jersey, and when they woke up the next morning they were defeated. That was one of the battles that rallied our little country. From there on you know the rest of the story. Eventually the British were defeated at Yorktown and our little country had a start and today it is one of the mightiest nations on all of the earth. Why did all of that come about? It is because our forefathers found a man. They found several men among them who would be a leader.

God Looked For Spiritual Leaders

That is what God was looking for. God said, "I looked for a man among them.” What kind of a leader was he looking for? He was looking for spiritual leaders. The church today is looking for spiritual leaders. He was looking for government leaders. We are looking for government leaders today, who will do the right thing. He was looking for leaders within the common people and we are looking for those kinds of leaders today. He was looking for leaders within the family, husbands, and fathers who would stand up and be the right kind of leaders. There was a visitor that came to our country from another country and said, "That he could make a decision about what kind of a man he could find in the city by the city that he was visiting. He said there were actually four rules of the value of a man in our country. I wonder if that is still true. In Boston, the rule of a man was how much does a man know. In Philadelphia, the rule was who the man’s father was. In New York, the rule was, where does the man come from? In Chicago, how much money does the man have? Those are all pretty frivolous types of rules. Is that the standard of what a real man really is? Where did God look for a man? He was looking for leaders. He looked everywhere for a man of God, not a man of this world. Some of the men in this audience have pumped iron. Did you ever look like that muscle man? I would never look like that man if I pumped iron every day. People have the idea that this is what a real man is. God was not necessarily looking for this type of man and he wasn't even looking for a man that is not uncomfortable wearing a pink shirt. God looked for a man of God—a man who would seek God's glory and not his own glory. He was looking for a man who had conviction and had faith based on God's law. He looked for one who would give a book, chapter and verse of the Lord for everything that he would preach, teach or practice. He was looking for a man that would be faithful. Where did God look for that man? The writer of Revelations says, “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life.” He wants men today who will be faithful.

WHAT DID GOD WANT THIS MAN TO DO?

When God would find this man, what did he want him to do? He wanted him to build up a defensive work.

Build Up the Wall

In ancient times the protection of the family and the homes in a city was determined by the wall that went around the city. All ancient cities of any value had walls around them to protect them. When the enemy tore down part of the wall, there would have to be some men volunteers to go over and rebuild that wall and bring it up to were it was uniform with all the rest of the wall so they could protect the cities within the wall. This is the work that Nehemiah undertook 150 years after this. God said to Ezekiel, "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall in order to protect the land." He wanted somebody who would be a leader and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They had been torn down and demolished and there was no protection for his people after the exile was over. We read about this in Ezekiel chapter 13: 1-7. Ezekiel says, "The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, The LORD declares, when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, The LORD declares, though I have not spoken?" The prophets were speaking lies out of their own imagination instead of speaking the truth of God. Is it any wonder the people did not have a proper leader to lead them to do the right thing?

Stand Before God in the Gap

Secondly, when God would find this man among them, he wanted somebody that would stand before God in the gap. Have you ever seen a gap? Down in Kentucky there is a place called Hall's Gap. I can remember that as we used ride to Monticello, Kentucky, on a Greyhound Bus. We went through Hall's Gap, and the bus would wind around the mountainside many times. There is Cumberland Gap. That is a place to go see, where Daniel Boone came out of Carolina up into Kentucky and built Fort Boonsboro and fought the Indians throughout that area. A gap is a place between two other places. God says, "I need somebody who will stand in the breech before me." David in one of his Psalms told that Moses was that kind of man. Moses stood in the gap, the breech on behalf of God's people. By doing that he kept them from being destroyed along with all of the people down in Egypt. This is what God wanted a man to do in the days of Ezekiel. Here is what David said about Moses in Psalms 106: 21-23, "They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. So he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.”

Pray On Behalf Of the Land

In the next place when God would find that man among them he wanted somebody that would pray, who would pray on behalf of the land. We need to pray for America today, because we do not know how long this country is going to stand. We have a lot of good things, but we also have things that are destroying our freedoms, destroying the foundations. In the Bible it says, "If the foundation is to be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" If the foundations of our great country are ever destroyed it is going to be a struggle for us to save this country. Moses, Samuel, Daniel, Jesus, Peter, and Paul all prayed for the people on behalf of the land. Here is the sad thing in this text that we are looking at, "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” He said he found none. Isn't that terrible to think that God could not find even one person who would go and lead the people to rebuild the walls until Nehemiah came along 150 years later? He couldn't find anybody to stand in the gap. “I found none.” I remember my grandmother down in southeastern Kentucky was a staunch Democrat and Wayne County Kentucky is principally a Republican county. My grandmother and her family didn't go along with the crowd, as they were Democrats and she would let you know it. My brother used to go down and aggravate her, telling what Nixon did for her—that he got her social security raised, and she would get mad at him and argue with him. Kentucky had a Republican Governor and his name was Nunn. My grandmother's favorite saying was "All the other states have Governors and Kentucky has Nunn." That is exactly what was going on in the days of Ezekiel. God was looking for a man among them and He found none.

GOD FOUND NONE!

It is not the first time that this happened. You go back to Genesis 18and remember the story about Abraham and his nephew Lot. Abraham was good man, and basically Lot was a righteous man, but kind of selfish and he chose the good part of the land. Abraham said, "I will take what ever you refuse." So the Bible says, "Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom and Gomorrah." I wonder how many families today are pitching their tents toward Sodom and Gomorrah. Of course you know that is where the word sodomy came from. There were all kinds of evil going on in those cities and God said, "I am going to bring down fire and brimstone on those wicked cities." Abraham loved Lot. He knew his nephew was in that city. He had a family and he had little children, and Abraham started to appeal to God. If you can find 50 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah will you spare those cities? God said, "I will spare those cities if you can find 50." Abraham could not find 50, so he spoke to the Lord again. "If I can find 40 righteous souls will you spare the city and God said yes." Abraham knew that it would be a problem. He kept reducing it down. Lord if I can find 30, 20, and each time God said yes. Abraham said, "Let me bold one more time." That is the mark of a leader to go before God on behalf of the people, of the family, church and the brotherhood, and appeal to God to save his people. So Abraham said, "If I can find just 10 righteous souls in Sodom and Gomorrah will you save the city?" The Lord said, "I will not destroy for the sake of 10." Abraham could not even find 10. He could not even find one person outside of righteous Lot. The rest of the story reveals that the angel grabbed hold of Lot, his wife, and daughters. His sons-in-law laughed at him and mocked him, and the Lord brought down fire and brimstone and destroyed those cities. He looked for a man among them that would be a spiritual leader in his home, his family, his city, the nation and the government, and he could not find any.

THE LAST GLADIATOR IN ROME

One man can make a difference. I read a story about the Gladiators in ancient Rome, and if you saw the movie GLADIATOR, you remember that it was something of a sport that would be practiced in the Coliseum in the city of Rome. There was a monk that came into Rome and went into the Coliseum. He did not know what was going on and all of a sudden he slipped out into the arena and there were these two Gladiators, trying to kill each other. They were slashing each other with swords and instruments of death. He started yelling at the top of his lungs to stop this awful thing. The people around him were yelling and clapping there hands. They were enjoying this sport and finally the monk went down into the middle of the arena and got between the two Gladiators. He started yelling to stop fighting and he put his hands up. The crowd started yelling get out of there. Let us watch this sport. Finally because he would not stop, they rushed down into the arena and killed him. According to the story they realized what they had done and that was the last Gladiator fight held in the Coliseum in Rome. At least the fighting was stopped and whether or not that is true, it was because one man had the courage to go out there and face something and deal with it because it was not right.

SIN IS THE GAP BETWEEN GOD AND MAN

Sin has created a gap between men and God. In Isaiah 59: 2, "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Our sin is the gap between God and man. The wonderful thing is that God finally found his man. God found the man he was looking for and you know who that man was—it was Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is God’s Man

Jesus Christ stood in the gap. He was the mighty warrior that stood in the gap between man and his Heavenly Father and took care of that sin problem. In John 19:5 "When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, Here is the man.” Jesus was a real man. Jesus is the kind of man that God was looking for. The kind of man that God had planned for and God is looking for that kind of man today. If you want to be a real man just study and imitate the life of Jesus Christ and you will be the kind of man that God is looking for. The kind of man that God desires to build up the wall; building up the wall as a defense in your family and your home. We know that marriage and divorce is breaking up more and more homes and families. If you are a real man you will stand up to build some defenses around your marriage, home and family. Churches today are being destroyed because there is no leadership and no standing in the gap, or the breach, to speak out for what is right. Today, before anybody wants to say anything, they have to check to see if it is politically correct or culturally correct. When you read the New Testament, the culture that was going on in Rome, and all of the Gentile world, as well as the Jewish cities in Palestine, was corrupt and evil. What would have happened if the preachers had not gone out and gone against the tide? They did not stand up and say well now shall we say this so we can be culturally correct. They went against the culture and we have to go against our culture today and distinguish between the common and the holy, the clean and the unclean, the right and the wrong. Jesus was that kind of a man. He stood in the gap and He died on the cross, shed his blood, so that we might have life, and hope, and a wonderful home in heaven. Has God found that kind of a man in you? If you want to be that kind of man and you are not a Christian that is where it all starts. Today, come and let God know that that you want to be that man in your home, family, in your neighborhood, job, and country and in this congregation. If you are not in the church then you are not contributing to the growth, the stability, and strength of this congregation. Like the Marine Corp, God is looking for a few good men! *