Ezekiel 24:12 - Homiletics.

A weary task.

Jerusalem is represented as endeavoring to remove her own evil, but as growing weary in the fruitless task. The rust cannot be cleansed from the vessel.

I. IT ACTS LIKE RUST .

1. It comes from a corroding agent . Temptation bites into the yielding soul like an acid.

2. It reveals an inferior character . Brass and iron become rusty under circumstances which leave gold and silver untarnished. Readiness to yield to temptation is a sign that there is base metal in the soul.

3. It corrupts the very substance of the soul . Rust on metal is not like moss on stone, a mere excrescence and parasite growth. It is formed from the metal itself; it is a portion of it disintegrated and mixed with an alien body. Sin breaks down the fabric of the soul-life, and wears it away in a slow death.

4. It tarnishes the beauty of the soul . Rust is like ingrained dirt on the bright surface of the metal. The rusty mirror no longer reflects light. The sin-stained soul has lost its luster and ceases to reflect the light of heaven.

II. MEN TRY TO REMOVE THE RUST OF SIN . This is the task that the people of Jerusalem are supposed to have undertaken.

1. They turn from their past . The atmosphere which caused the rust is abandoned. The old days are to be forgotten; a new life is to be commenced.

2. They put their souls under discipline . The attempt is made to burn off the rust or to scour it away.

3. They offer compensation . New deeds of goodness are to supersede and atone for old deeds of sin.

4. They offer sacrifices of expiation . The history of religion is full of such sacrifices—sacrifices which constitute a leading element in the Old Testament economy.

III. THE ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE RUST OF SIN IS A WEARY TASK .

1. New circumstances do not destroy old sins . Though the vessel be taken out of the damp atmosphere which first corroded it, it does not become bright. The rust is still on it. We may try to make amends in the future, but by such means we cannot get rid of the guilt and the consequences of the past.

2. Sin has eaten its way so deeply into the soul that no efforts of ours can remove it . It is not like dust that lies loosely on the surface; it has cut into our nature like rust. Our feeble self-discipline is ineffectual for removing so close-clinging an evil.

3. No compensation of good works nor expiatory sacrifices will remove this evil . "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin" ( Hebrews 10:4 ). Such sacrifices can be but symbols at the best.

IV. CHRIST HAS ACCOMPLISHED THIS WEARY TASK .

1. He has made the great atonement with God . He is the one true Sacrifice for sin ( Hebrews 10:14 ). Thus the way is now clear for the soul's cleansing.

2. He removes the rust of sin from the soul . As "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," Christ not only brings pardon, he produces purity. His mighty arm scours the rust off the soul.

3. This was a weary task for Christ . Even he found it no easy work. It required the humiliation of Bethlehem, the agony of Gethsemane, and the death of Calvary. Christ toiled, suffered, and grew weary unto death in the awful task. Yet he persevered to the end.

4. Christ invites us to abandon our useless, weary task and come to him for cleansing . It is especially to those who labor and are heavy laden with sin that he gives his great invitation ( Matthew 11:28-30 ).