August 9
Ezra 8:21-9:15 | PS 31:1-8 | Prov 21:1-2 | 1 Cor 5:1-13
Pastor Chuck Smith issued this short prayer: "By our silence, Lord, we have encouraged the enemy. Help us to stand in Your strength in this all-out war that the enemy has declared against You. Lord, be our strength, be our fortress, be our help. In Jesus' name, Amen." I'm not sure when Pastor Chuck wrote this, but it was at least over fifteen years ago. He went on to state, "The enemy has declared open war against God. Are we just going to sit by and let our Lord be blasphemed? Or will we separate ourselves from the world, rise up, and take a stand for Jesus?" Let these words sink in for a minute. Now consider the world that we find ourselves in. The purpose of the One Year Bible Challenge is to encourage you to be in God's Word daily, and to receive your counsel from Him and Him alone. We can not even know what is right and wrong without being in a daily relationship with Him. Simply going to church once a week will not suffice. Unfortunately, being called a church, being called a pastor or priest, is not a guarantee that what is being put forth is consistent with God's Word. God's Word is absolute on every topic. It is just as relevant now as when it was first written. God's Word need never adjust to society. Society should adjust to God's Word. God is also never wrong on any topic. If your church or your pastor is twisting or adjusting God's Word, approach that pastor with the authority of God's Word. If he continues to take a position contrary to God's Word, then run and find a place which lifts up the Word of God as authoritative.
Ezra no sooner arrives in Jerusalem that he is confronted in Ezra 9:1, "When these things were done, the leaders came to me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites." God had been clear. In fact, the people of Judah spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity due to their compromised walk. It was only a sheer act of grace and mercy on God's part to bring them back into the land. We see Ezra's response in 9:3-4, "So when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard, and sat down astonished. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice." This was not a demonstrative show. Ezra was literally in shock at the transgression of the people. It was only through God's Word that Ezra could see correctly as we read in 9:10, "And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments,". He concludes, without hiding or trying to explain anything away, trusting completely in the mercy and grace of God, as we read in 9:13-15, "And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this,...O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”"
We are called to separate, or to be holy. We are called to be part of God's remnant, not the majority. We are never told to assimilate or become one with that which is not of God. Are we compromising? May we never forget the very first commandment, as written in Deuteronomy 5:6-7, "‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me." Yet that is the very commandment which seems to be ignored first. Placing the teachings of man, the norms of society, above God's solid counsel is nothing less than fashioning a god in your own image. If you have never spent time in His Word, please do so. If you have departed for whatever reason, please return. He is immutable or never changing. He and he alone will guide us through these tumultuous times.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: