Ezek 16:42-17:24 | PS 106:13-31 | Prov 27:7-9 | Heb 8:1-13
We tend to play this odd comparing game which often makes us feel better about ourselves. But this is indeed a game. The nation of Judah compared themselves with others and felt they were not so bad in comparison, but we read God's appraisal of the situation in Ezekiel 16:46-52, "Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south. But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption. As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. “Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous." America is toying in areas we never should. We are as guilty as every other nation. We are just as godless and brazen as every other nation. But oddly, using our own basis of comparison, we feel pretty good about ourselves.
Besides comparing, we also tend to play another game, that somehow God doesn't mean exactly what He says. As long as we get close, try our best, we are sure that He will understand. We read in Hebrews 8:3-5, "And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”" Everything was to be made exactly according to the pattern established. Many feel they are pretty good. They go to church, do some good things, in their minds, of course God will understand this effort. God has established a pattern for salvation, and there is nothing gray about it. Repentance, acceptance of His sacrifice, and making Him Lord. Trying any other way just doesn't make it.
We must stop trivializing sin and elevating our own thoughts. God is perfect, we are not. God gets to establish what is right and wrong, we do not. God knows what is necessary for salvation we do not. Concerning goodness, none of us are. We are not comparing ourselves with one another but against the perfect standard of God, and with this in mind we all come up short. We should read His Word seriously and literally. He has given us a straight path and asks very little from us, but we are never to compromise with God's holy word.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: