1. "The implicit question one has when reading Ezekiel is why? Why did this happen to God's people? The answer that Ezekiel's prophetic sermons targeted was this: it was sin and injustice and spiritual abuses of Judah's oppressive shepherd leaders that led to their exile."

2. "Throughout Ezekiel 34, and especially in verses 1 through 10, we see the convergence of a great judgment and a great hope—a great judgment against oppressive spiritual leadership of these false shepherds in Israel, but also a great hope for God's flock as his sheep who are under his shepherding care."

3. "Spiritual abuses are real. They are wicked. And we must acknowledge that these hurts are far more prevalent among those who claim to be God's people than we would like to admit."

4. "When God uses the words 'I will,' it reveals his perfect will, his perfect actions, his perfect ability, his unlimited capacity to accomplish all his promises. In all that God promises, He promises to bring it to pass."

5. "I used to think that church hurt was a wound that would heal and leave a scar. But lately I've come to find out that church hurt is a lot more like a latent infection. Once you get it, it always seems to be there. It will go dormant for a long time. And just like that, any kind of stress will cause a flare up."

6. "In a local church, and especially a healthy local church, we must realize that hurt people can help hurting people. There is hope in our weakness and woundedness."

7. "Selfish shepherds are always going to breed selfish sheep. It should be no surprise to us that these wicked sheep were just following their shepherd's example."

8. "The same hand of the shepherd that rescues is the same hand of the shepherd that brings judgment."

9. "God's solution to these bad shepherds then is not to replace them with a system of shepherding with something better, but rather to replace bad shepherds with a better shepherd. The solution for bad authority is never no authority, but rather good authority."

10. "These bad shepherds saved their own lives at the expense of their own sheep. But Jesus saves his own sheep at the expense of his own life. He is not just a better shepherd, he's the best shepherd—the good, great and glorious shepherd of the sheep."

Observation Questions

1. In Ezekiel 34:11-12, what specific actions does God promise to take for His scattered sheep? What do these actions reveal about God's character?

2. Looking at Ezekiel 34:16, list the six specific ways God promises to care for His sheep. How does this verse reverse the actions of the false shepherds described in Ezekiel 34:4?

3. In Ezekiel 34:18-19, what accusations does God make against the "fat sheep"? What specific behaviors are described?

4. According to Ezekiel 34:23-24, what are the characteristics of the promised shepherd? How is he described in relation to both God and David?

5. Throughout Ezekiel 34:11-24, count how many times God uses the phrase "I will." What does this repetition suggest about God's commitment to His promises?

6. In Ezekiel 34:17, 20, and 22, what repeated phrase appears about God's judgment? What does this repetition emphasize about God's role?

Interpretation Questions

1. How does Frederick Douglass's distinction between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of this land" help us understand the difference between true and false shepherds in Ezekiel 34?

2. Why does God shift from "I will" statements to "he shall" statements when introducing the Messianic shepherd in verses 23-24? What theological significance might this shift carry?

3. How does the metaphor of sheep muddying water and trampling pasture (verses 18-19) illustrate spiritual abuse within religious communities?

4. What connection do you see between God's promise to "judge between sheep and sheep" in Ezekiel 34 and Jesus's teaching about separating sheep from goats in Matthew 25:31-46?

5. How does the promise of "one shepherd" in verse 23 address both the historical context of divided Israel and the broader spiritual condition of God's people?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you experienced God's restoration in your life as described in verse 16 - being sought out when lost, brought back when strayed, or strengthened when weak?

2. Think about a time when you were wounded by church hurt. How has God used other believers to help in your healing process?

3. In what specific ways might you be "muddying the waters" for other believers in your church community? Are there areas where you need to examine your impact on others?

4. Which of God's "I will" promises in this passage do you most need to trust right now in your current situation? Why?

5. How can you specifically help someone else in your church who is experiencing spiritual wounds or church hurt? What practical steps could you take this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. John 10:1-18 - Jesus's extended teaching about being the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, directly fulfilling the Messianic prophecy in Ezekiel 34.

2. Psalm 22:22-31 - David's prophetic psalm about the gathering of God's people under His shepherding care, showing God's consistent character in caring for His flock.

3. Jeremiah 23:1-8 - A parallel prophecy about God gathering His scattered flock and raising up a righteous Branch from David's line, providing additional context for Ezekiel's shepherd prophecy.

4. 1 Peter 5:1-11 - Instructions to church leaders about shepherding God's flock properly, showing how Ezekiel's shepherd metaphor applies to church leadership today.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Hypocrisy of False Religion and the Need for True Restoration

II. God Pledges Restoration (Ezekiel 34:11-16)

III. God Proclaims Judgment (Ezekiel 34:17-22)

IV. God Promises a Messiah (Ezekiel 34:23-24)

V. Trusting in the Good Shepherd’s Faithfulness and Restoration

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Detailed Sermon Outline

- Douglass condemns slave owners who used Scripture to justify cruelty (Luke 12:47).

- Examples include ministers who stole, whipped, and exploited slaves while claiming piety.

- Witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (586 B.C.).

- False shepherds neglected, exploited, and scattered God’s sheep (Ezekiel 34:1-10).

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- “I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11).

- God binds the injured, strengthens the weak, and feeds the flock (Ezekiel 34:16; cf. Psalm 23).

- Physical, emotional, or spiritual brokenness requires the Good Shepherd’s care.

- “Hurt people can help hurting people” through Christ-centered community.

- God’s promises rest on His unchanging nature (Malachi 3:6).

- 27 instances reveal God’s sovereign commitment to His people.

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- Trampling pastures and muddying waters symbolize exploitation (Ezekiel 34:18-19).

- Corrupt leadership produces a corrupt community (Galatians 5:15).

- Echoes Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25:31-46.

- “Eternal punishment” for the false flock; “eternal life” for the true sheep.

- Urgency to repent and trust Christ for salvation.

- Maintaining purity in the flock through accountability.

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- “I will set up over them one shepherd” (Ezekiel 34:23).

- Fulfills the Davidic covenant as a perfect, eternal king (2 Samuel 7:8-16).

- John 10:11 contrasts Jesus with hired shepherds.

- Christ replaces corrupt systems with His righteous reign.

- Salvation through repentance and faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

- “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

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- “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Psalm 89:14).

- Finding restoration in His unchanging love.

- Embracing transparency and repentance (James 5:16).

- “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

- “He will wipe away every tear” (Revelation 21:4).

- Sharing the Gospel in word and deed.

In his autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass shares a blistering account of his experiences as a slave.

Throughout the narrative, and especially in the appendix of his writing, which if you have never read, you should go this afternoon and find the appendix to the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, look for that online, and read this afternoon, especially in the appendix of his writing, you can see that clearly Douglas is working through the differences between his own understanding of biblical Christianity, which he calls the Christianity of Christ, compared to the hypocrisy of his slave owners' understanding of Christianity, which Douglas calls the Christianity of this land.

And in one particularly striking account in this narrative, Douglass is sent back to his master in Maryland, Thomas Auld, in Talbot County, and in the midst of Frederick's enslavement, this slave master Thomas became religious. But his newfound Christianity, or so-called Christianity, did not make him any kinder as a slave master.

Instead, Douglas accounts that Thomas found religious sanction for his cruelty, even quoting the Bible to justify carrying out a brutal whipping of a crippled young female slave, saying to her these words from Scripture, He that knoweth his master's will and doeth not shall be beaten with many stripes.

With his eyes wide open, Douglass saw straight through the utter hypocrisy of those who traded and sold and beat and bred black men and women as chattel Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday to Thursday to Friday to Saturday. But then praise the Lord, preach the gospel, and commission missionaries on Sundays. Douglas writes, I am filled with the unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show together with the horrible inconsistencies which everywhere surround me. We have men stealers for ministers, women whippers for missionaries, and cradle plunderers for church members.

The man who wields the blood clotted cow skin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class leader on Sunday morning to show me the way of life and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister for purposes of prostitution stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it as a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me. He who is the religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred influence and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution.

The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families.

Sundering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers, abusing a person and the horrors of the entire system of the slave trade is obviously so incredibly evil and antithetical to God's design.

But underlying this evil is another more nuanced abuse, the religious and spiritual duplicity that oppresses and hurts and abuses others under its cruelty and hypocrisy. Decades later, C.S. Lewis observed this, of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst of all men. Spiritual abuses are real. They are wicked.

And we must acknowledge that these hurts are far more prevalent among those who claim to be God's people than we would like to admit. The same sentiment is shared here in the book of Ezekiel, where we open to again this morning Ezekiel chapter 34, which is on page 722 of your pew Bible.

Last time we were in Ezekiel 34, we were in the first ten verses back in early March, so let me take a moment just to reorient us to Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel, who was a priest turned prophet, straddles a very definitive point in Israel's history. He lives both before and after the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the exile to Babylon 586 BC. And like Douglas, Ezekiel saw many horrors, many destructions. He sees the enslavement and the hopelessness of his own people with his own eyes.

As a priest, Ezekiel would have worshiped in the very same temple where Judah's worship was sinfully compromised at this time. This is the same temple that has now been decimated by this Babylonian army. And as a prophet, Ezekiel was used by God while enslaved and exiled to speak to his people while in exile in Babylon over a thousand miles to the east of Jerusalem. So both as a priest and as a prophet, Ezekiel had a uniquely experience as he discerned all of the disappointment and the disillusionment and the destruction all in real time of his own people right before his eyes. And the implicit question one has when reading Ezekiel is this: why?

Why did this happen to God's people? Why could and how could this happen to God's chosen people? The answer that Ezekiel's prophetic sermons targeted was this: it was that sin. And injustice and spiritual abuses of Judah's oppressive shepherd leaders, that was the reason that led to their exile. But in this book, another question is also implied, even in these horrible circumstances, is there any hope for God's covenant people?

Is there any hope for God's chosen? And in Ezekiel, in grand and dramatic fashion. He absolutely answers, Yes, there is hope. And in so doing, God offers the hope that his people scattered in exile would one day return to him forever. And so here throughout Ezekiel 34, and especially in verses one through 10, which we looked at last time, we see the convergence of a great judgment and a great hope.

A great judgment against oppressive spiritual leadership of these false shepherds in Israel, but we also see a great hope for God's flock as his sheep who are under his shepherding care.

So let's read those introductory verses again as we recall the setting of this prophetic word. And then we'll spend more time this morning in verses 11 to 24. But we'll start here. Ezekiel chapter 34 verse 1 says this, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, 'Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!

Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered.

They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them. Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts since there was no shepherd and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, But the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep; therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep.

No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves, I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. And here's our text this morning here starting in verse 11. For thus says the Lord God, behold I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.

And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines and all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost. I will bring back the straight and I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.

Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep, because you push with side and shoulder and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad. I will rescue my flock, and they shall no longer be prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.

And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.

I am the Lord, I have spoken.

In the first sermon of this little three-part series, we asked from verses 1 to 10, How does God care for weak and wounded sheep? And this morning from verses 11 to 24, we move now to ask this question: When sheep bite and shepherds devour, How will God's provisions prevail? When sheep bite and shepherds devour, how will God's provisions prevail? This morning, we're going to notice three particular provisions from this section of Scripture to help us better understand the promises that God makes for us and to us as we again answer this question: When sheep bite and when shepherds devour, How will God's provisions prevail? Here's the three main points for those of you that love to take notes.

Number one, God pledges restoration. We'll see that in verses 11 to 16. Second, God proclaims judgment. We'll see that from verses 17 to 22.

God pledges restoration, 11 to 16. God proclaims judgment, 17 to 22. Then number three, God promises a Messiah. We'll see that in verses 23 and 24. So first, number one, God pledges restoration.

Right from the outset in this text, we see a summary statement of sorts there in verse 11. Textually, perhaps the most striking repetition throughout all of Ezekiel 34 are the two words that God consistently speaks over and over and over in this chapter. Those two words are I will. Using the first person promise, I will, God is expressing his intention for his scattered sheep. God seeks for them and when he seeks them and finds them, he finds them weak and wounded from the oppressive and aggressive abuses of these civic and spiritual leaders of the day.

And he directly says to all of them, verse 11, Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and I will seek them out. What a promise. I will. Just two simple words. I is a first person singular pronoun.

Will is a simple future tense verb. And when you put those two words together, the words I will indicates a surety of a person's future actions, intentions, their ability, their capacity. Just think about the instances when you use the words I will this last week. I'll be there on time at 6:30 a.m. I will put it on the calendar.

I'll make sure to get that to you before close of business today. I'll cook dinner tonight. I'll take out the trash. These promises are the kind of promises that we so often make but we so easily break. But what about the promises that carry a little bit more weight than your weekly trash bags and your garbage?

Have you ever noticed that in our church covenant that the words we will drive basically the entire statement and the entire statement's aspirations for how we promise to live together as a church? Such as we will work and pray for the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. We will work or excuse me, we will walk in brotherly love. We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and each other. We will, we will, we will, we will.

All of these are right and noble promises, but we must admit that these are the kind of promises that are spoken by fallible people. In our own strength, we don't have the ability or the capacity to fill these kinds of promises perfectly. And that's why church membership and church discipline are so important in a local church. Our church covenant, even the I will desires in our homes are always aspirational, aren't they? And we need God's ability in his capacity to fulfill these simple vows to one another.

We need God's help but we also need the help of one another. We make spiritual promises that we need other Christians to help us to keep because in our flesh we have a tendency not to follow through on our commitments and our promises. But not the Lord. Not the Lord. When God uses the words I will, it reveals his perfect will, his perfect actions, his perfect ability, his unlimited capacity to accomplish all his promises make.

I'm fond of saying that in all that God promises, he promises to bring it to pass. So when God speaks these first person promises, these are divine promises that we can rest entirely in and we can rest on because they rest on God's nature and his character. What kind of character do you ask? The fact that he's unchanging is a great place to start. The fact that he's always faithful.

The fact that he is forever true. And his promises are rooted in the very nature of this theological term, his immutability, his character, his will, his covenant promises can never change. He's entirely reliable and never subject to any whims of change or alterations in any conceivable way. So as a homework assignment this week, what I want you to do is go back to this chapter and simply underline those two words this week, I will throughout chapter 34. If you're a kid or a student here this morning, This is like a Bible word search, okay?

This assignment is especially for you if you're a kid or a student. Next week, I want you to come find me at my door over here after the service and I wanna see your work, okay? Look back at chapter 34. This week, and underline every single time you see God use the words I will, and I'll give you a hint, you'll see the word will 27 times in this chapter. But this, again, it's a two-part assignment.

After you underline the word will, Note closely the promises that God attaches to that word will. What will he do and what will he accomplish for the sake of his name and for the sake of his people. Here in this larger section of 11 to 24, we see 21 of those 27 instances of the word will, which is the most concentrated use of this word in the chapter. So look at the text again, verse 11 and 12. I will search I will seek, I will rescue.

In verses 13 and 14, I will bring them out and I will bring them in. I will feed them. In verses 15 to 16, I will be their shepherd. I will make them lie down. I will seek them.

I will bring them back, bind them up and strengthen the weak. That's just a few of these first person promises. And in all the mention of these first person promises, especially When you look at verse 16, what's happening here in verse 16 is that God is working through the logical progression of what a good shepherd would do to triage a sheep that he finds wounded. Look again at God's restorative acts there in verse 16. I will seek the lost, I will bring back the strayed, I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, the fat, and the strong, I will destroy, I will feed them in justice, God says.

When sheep bite, when shepherds devour, how will God promises prevail? Here we see that God pledges restoration. First he searches and seeks out the places where they're scattered and lost. And then when he finds those sheep, he rescues them by bringing them back into their own land in order to feed them well. And along the way, he's examining those who have been wounded while they've strayed.

And then he binds up the injured like a good shepherd does and he strengthens the weak. And when you look here at what God promises to do in verse 16, It's literally, literally word by word, a reversal of the damage that had been done by the false shepherds back up in verse four. Take a moment this week and find that connection between verse four and verse 16. Yes, our God is a good shepherd who restores. Here in verses 11 to 16, God is clearly providing this promise of restoration.

It reminds me of another very familiar Sentiment about our shepherd king. Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores. He restores. He restores my soul. A personal question for you this morning: Where do you need God's restorative hand to be placed upon you today?

Are you weak? Are you sick? Are you injured? I'm speaking physically and even spiritually today. Have you strayed?

Are you lost?

Here today. Perhaps you're here today and you simply feel overlooked, like no one knows or sees what's really going on inside of you or maybe that you feel so forgotten that it feels like even God himself is not seeking after you. If so, take Charles Spurgeon's advice when he said this: Appear to be what thou art and tear off thy masks. Church was never meant to be a masquerade.

Or perhaps you're here this morning and your story is a bit like mine. Especially in extending this metaphor here of Ezekiel 34 where you have experienced the pain of being bitten by a fellow church member in this flock or perhaps another one. Or maybe an attempt was made to devour you by a spiritual shepherd; the very person who was supposed to be feeding you was actually taking and devouring you.

Galatians 5:15 acknowledges this as a sad reality in the church. It reads this, if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are also not consumed by one another.

Personally, I found chapter 34 to be a balm to my weary soul after a few rounds of pretty prolonged ministry challenges. Where quite honestly, my family and I, we had some pretty obvious experiences of church hurt and that kind of crept up in my heart. After 15 years of ministry in two different churches where things were less than healthy, Grace and I came here to DC, pretty disoriented. We came here to CHBC to do the internship. Yeah, that's what it looks like on the outside but Grace and I came here to to heal, to get healthy.

To be truthful, I'm still healing and getting healthy even as a pastor on this staff. Over the last three and a half years, I want to thank you all so much for being a part of that rehab for the Marios family. A former colleague and coworker of mine explained her experiences at a church that we were at together, her experiences of spiritual abuse like this. She says, I used to think that church hurt was a wound that would heal and leave a scar. That eventually everyone gets better.

That eventually people with scars help people with wounds and that everything would turn out okay and live happily ever after or something like that. But lately, I've come to find out that church hurt is a lot more like a latent infection, like herpes or shingles or mono if you must. Once you get it, it always seems to be there. It will go dormant for a long time and just like that, any kind of stress will cause a flare up. And with each flare up comes the pain and the flare ups can be sporadic or recurrent and each is accompanied by agonizing pain known only to those who had suffered that same sort of pain.

I came to CHBC to realize that when it comes to church hurt, we are all wounded, but we all also do the wounding.

Except in cases of obvious spiritual abuses, there are no victims. Sadly, our woundedness often causes the wounding of others, but most times in Christian community, this wounding is unintentional.

It's often said, hurt people hurt people. But in a local church, and especially a healthy local church, we must also realize that hurt people can help hurting people. There is hope in our weakness and woundedness and that help and hope can only come from a God who promises restoration like this in Ezekiel 34. So again, I'll ask you, where do you need restoration? From the hand of the good shepherd today.

And consider how can other sheep in this fold lead you back to that good shepherd for your restoration wherever it is that you may need it. You might say, well, Troy, listen, I kind of like to process on my own first. Just very individualistic, I'll do my own thing. Well, that's a great place to start but you have to make sure that you don't end there. Invite some people in.

Invite the Lord in. And if you are more of an internal processor, a good companion to the promises that we read here in Ezekiel 34 is actually found on our book stall over there. It's a little tiny little booklet called Precious Promises by Joseph Aleeen. Pick up a copy, read it, trust that the promises of God are for you and trust that those promises are always pointing to the person of Christ. You see, the promise of God always lead us to point to the person of Christ and the person of Christ always lives to bring rest and restoration to our souls.

So back to this text, we see here these things to be true in verse 15, where God promises this provision of himself. He says, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. What will he do for his true sheep? God pledges the promises of his restoration. Secondly, God proclaims judgment.

When sheep bite and shepherds devour, how will God's provisions prevail? God proclaims judgment. If verses 1 to 10 describe the oppressive and false shepherds of Israel, then here in verses 17 to 22, we see Ezekiel prophesy now actually against the flock itself. This flock are not the true sheep who follow the good shepherd, but rather a false flock of sheep who have colluded with the false shepherds of Israel and live under their oppressive leadership. And the character of these false sheep is shown through their wicked conduct that's directed to God's true sheep.

Look again at verses 18 and 19. The imagery there is that this false flock loves to trample on the pasture's grass, intentionally muddy the waters of God's true sheep. So in order to differentiate the flock, God calls them rams and male goats and fat sheep because they're acting like playground bullies. They're pushing God's people around with their horns. They're driving them away.

Even in our day, how can we identify these found in the false flock? It's really quite easy. Selfish shepherds are always going to breed selfish sheep. It should be no surprise to us that these wicked sheep were just following their shepherd's example. Not following God as the good shepherd but rather following bad shepherds.

And why is this? Again, because selfish shepherds always breed selfish sheep.

So what will God do in response to this false flock? How will God not only rescue but then feed his true sheep in justice? Well, God's action of opposition to this oppression is that God proclaims judgment. On this false flock. Again, here in these verses, God continues to provide these first-person promises that we saw earlier.

Yet this time, rather than the comforting promises of rescue, God provides another I will promise. Look there in verses 17, verse 20. Again, also in verse 22, repeated here three times, I will judge between the sheep, God said. God promises to separate the false flock from the true sheep, and he does so in order to judge them.

One thing that I love most about the Scripture is how it attests to itself.

The Bible is comprised of 66 books penned by 40 different authors from diverse backgrounds written over the course of 1,500 years, three different languages, three different continents, yet with one divine author telling one central storyline.

God, man, Christ, response.

Creation, fall, redemption, restoration. You could explain it in many different ways but the Bible has one common theme: the God who created it all is redeeming the world and he's restoring the world and its creation, including us, back to himself. The reality is that God's holy creation fell into sin through Adam.

But in his loving redemption, God sent his son, Jesus, to redeem us from the curse of sin. And so now, salvation through redemption is available because of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Salvation from sin is available now to all of those who turn and trust in Christ. All of those who repent and believe on him alone for their rescue. And then what does God promise to do for those that have repented and believed, have turned and trusted?

God promises that he will one day redeem this world back to its perfect original state and restore those who have followed him into a perfect state of perfection for all eternity. And here's where the reality of the gospel intersects with our passage. In order for God to provide redemption and restoration, it's also implied in the Bible that alongside of this rescue from sin, there is also God's judgment for sin. Alongside God's rescue from sin, there is also God's judgment for sin. The Bible attests to itself, right?

Here are these words from Matthew 25 and see how similar they are to Ezekiel's. Even though these are spoken 500 years apart, here's what Jesus says in Matthew 25:31.

When the Son of Man comes, in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations, and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And then just a little bit further down in Matthew 25:41, then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me. And they will all answer saying, 'Lord, When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? And then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Jesus' future judgment as a good but just shepherd is real, it is certain, it's coming for us all. Both those who are at God's right hand and those at his left. Judgment which leads to eternal life is coming for those found in the true flock, but judgment that leads to eternal punishment is coming for those that are found in a false flock. And the same hand of the shepherd that rescues is the same hand of the shepherd that brings judgment. So which flock do you belong to today?

Which flock do you find yourself among? The true or the false? And how do you know? Imagine if you were at the son of man's throne like Matthew 25 describes, it will happen. Will you be found to be a sheep?

Or will you found to be a goat? Will you be on the right? Will you be on the left? If these questions are perplexing you and in love for the eternal state of your soul, I really hope that they do perplex you. Then talk with one of our pastors at the doors after the service.

We'd love to connect with you and talk with you about how repenting and believing on Jesus makes all the difference for your life now but also for the life to come.

Back to the text here, verse 22. Verse 22, if you look back at it again, serves as a summary statement of basically this whole section. It simply says this, I will rescue my flock, and they shall no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep. If you've ever wondered where a preacher gets his main points, I mean, you can just see right there, our first two main ideas pretty clearly there in verse 22, Rescue for the true flock, and judgment for the false flock. And again, the same hand come rescue and judgment.

And this warning here in verses 17 to 22 gives way to a final glorious promise for us this morning. Look again at verses 23 and 24. Again, we're going to ask, when sheep bite and shepherds devour, how will God's provisions prevail? Three ways. God pledges restoration.

God promises judgment. And number three, God promises a Messiah. Even as God rescues the true sheep and judges the false flock, he does all of this through the provision of providing a promised Messiah. Does he not? Look at verses 23 and 24 again with me.

It promises this, and I will set them, excuse me, and I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord, I have spoken. Notice from these verses here, for the first time in this chapter, God shifts his speech, doesn't he? He goes from I will in the first person to he shall in the third person.

And what does that indicate? It indicates that God the Father is promising that this Messiah, his Son, is for all the people and all of his people. It indicates that even in their exile and oppression, God has not forgotten them or the covenant that he's made to them. In the exile and oppression of our own sin, he has not forgotten his covenant with us. And in moving from I will to he shall, God the Father promises that he will one day send a shepherd king who will come to save his sheep and make an everlasting covenant of peace with them.

And when you look at verses 23 and 24, they beg two questions, especially for the original readers or hearers of this prophecy, right? Number one, what will this Messiah be like? And then secondly, who's he gonna be? Let's consider both of those questions. First, what will this Messiah be like?

From this passage, I see five characteristics of what the Messiah is gonna be like. And for your convenience, as you take notes, they all start with the letter S. All right, here's the first one. He will be set up. See that there in verse 23? He will be set up.

This is another one of those 27 I wills. I will set up. This Messiah will not be self-appointed. He will not be democratically elected by the people at large through a popular vote. He's not going to be set up to rule by a conclave of cardinals somewhere in Rome.

This Messiah will be anointed and appointed by God the Father himself and he will hold a perfectly righteous rule and authority and dominion over his people, his sheep. Secondly, he's not just set up but he's singular. You can see there where it talks about one shepherd. We read that earlier in John 10.

This is this Messiah's kingdom is not going to be divided like Israel and Judah were. In Ezekiel's day, this is a united kingdom, a kingdom that is going to be comprised of every tribe and tongue and nation and language, then it's going to be led by a single king who embodies the attributes and the characteristics of a dynasty, a Davidic dynasty, yet the lineage ends with him. He will occupy the throne singularly, alone, and he will occupy that throne entirely by himself.

Forever. Third, he's a shepherd. That's what the Messiah is going to be like. God's chosen king is going to be a shepherd of the sheep. This is actually mentioned twice here but then if you would turn over to Ezekiel 37, just for a moment, just one page turn over, this is reiterated in Ezekiel 37 verses 24 and 25.

Ezekiel 37:24, My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. And they and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever. And David my servant shall be their prince forever.

This Messiah is going to be set up. He will be singular. He will be a shepherd. Fourth, he will be a servant. God's anointed servant king is going to both feed and lead.

And actually, he leads through his feeding of God's people. The concept of serving through feeding is mentioned here again twice. The emphasis of this role is referenced throughout with this repetition. God's Messiah king is going to be a servant. And as we read on in the New Testament, the emphasis of the Messiah Here in Ezekiel 34, it's clear there in the gospels when Jesus says, the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He will be set up, singular, a shepherd, a servant, and then lastly, he will be a son. In his perfect holiness, this Messiah will perfectly fulfill the promises made under the Davidic covenant. And in that sense, he will be a son of David through that Davidic dynasty. And as a king, this Messiah will be a greater and more glorious king than King David ever was. Where else do we see this?

I'll give you three places in the Old Testament where we also see this prophesied. You can look up these references on your own this week or maybe with your small group as you discuss the sermon. Here's the first one, 2 Samuel 7:8. Where else is this prophesied? Jeremiah 30, verse nine; 2 Samuel 7:8; Jeremiah 30, verse nine; and then the third one is in Hosea 3:5.

Those specifically speaking about David even after David had died and was buried. So in total, what we see here from just these two verses is that this promised Messiah will be set up as a singular shepherd who will lead his sheep as both a servant and as a son.

Who do you think might fit that profile? As Martin Luther famously wrote, Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is he. Amen? In Ezekiel's day, they were waiting on a Messiah, but on this side of the cross, I proclaim to you that in and through the person of Jesus Christ, that Messiah has already come. Jesus is the one who ushers in for his people the blessings of the covenant by being the perfect covenant keeper in our place. When we couldn't keep our end up of the covenant, God did so entirely through Christ.

In our sin, when we broke our fellowship with God, God sent his servant son, Jesus, to uphold his promises to us. When we find ourselves oppressed and abused, weak, wounded, wandering far off like sheep without a shepherd. God comes to us in Christ in order to rescue us. So God's solution to these bad shepherds then is not to replace them with a system of shepherding with something better but rather to replace bad shepherds with a better shepherd. As Jonathan Leeman wrote in his book on authority, the solution for bad authority is never no authority.

But rather good authority. And through Jesus Christ, bad shepherds are replaced with a better shepherd. These bad shepherds save their own lives at the expense of their own sheep, but Jesus, Jesus saves his own sheep at the expense of his own life. He is not just a better shepherd, he's the best shepherd. He's the good, great, and glorious shepherd of the sheep.

He's our shepherd king. In him and him alone do we find our rest. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you sit enthroned forever. You have established your throne for justice, and you are a stronghold for the oppressed in their time of trouble.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. And Lord, your steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Lord, we praise you as a God who restores us, brings justice, and as a God who redeems and rescues us. So Lord, be near to us in our weakness and our woundedness. May we remain faithful to you as you remain faithful to us.

Be our shepherd leader, be our king as we proclaim our trust in you by following you. You who are and is the Good Shepherd. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.