Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Sep 5th Conviction

Today’s Passages – Ezekiel 20 – 21; Proverbs 5

(Second Milers also read – Galatians 5 – Ephesians 2; Memorize – Psalm 85:6)

“And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.” – (Ezekiel 20:43)

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” – (Romans 7:24)

Just a quick thought from the Scripture this morning. Here in chapter 20 & 21, God is delivering a stern rebuke upon the people of Israel for their rebellion against Him. However, there is one place in these two chapters where I see hope for the children of Israel. and it comes here in v 43. This is the place where the people finally recognize their sin against God, and actually feel what would be to us the convicting power of the Holy Spirit of God. I cannot say that I enjoy the feeling of being pronounced guilty from within my own spirit; but I am very glad that God loves me enough to let me know when I am guilty. Incidentally, one of the best assurances that you are a child of God is the presence of the Holy Spirit of God within you.

Paul felt the same way about himself in the Book of Romans. He called himself a wretched man. He recognized the sin that was within him. The Holy Spirit of God pointed it out to him, and he didn’t attempt to cover it, hide it, or defend it. He came clean with God. We need to do the same thing. When our Heavenly Father points out to us the things in our lives that displease Him, the best thing that we can do is agree with Him, confess them, and then forsake them. The whole process starts, however, with conviction.

Sep 3rd The Flesh is Weak Indeed

Today’s Passages – Ezekiel 14 – 16; Proverbs 3

(Second Milers also read – 2 Corinthians 10 – 13; Memorize – 1 John 5:14 – 15)

“How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;” (Ezekiel 16:30)

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:” (Galatians 1:6)

In today’s reading from Ezekiel 14 – 16, God is pronouncing judgment upon His people for turning their back completely on Him. He reminds them in chapter 16 how that He blessed them more than any other nation on the face of the earth. He took them from nothing and gave them everything. Yet, they soon bit the hand that fed them: they forsook God and turned to the idols that were worshipped by the Heathen nations that surrounded them, even going as far as sacrificing their own children (burning them). In the midst of chapter 16, God says, “How weak is thine heart…seeing thou doest all these things…”.

I got to thinking about my own weakness. God blessed me above anything that I could have asked for; and He has convinced me over and over again regarding surrendering my life to Him completely. However, I continue to forsake His principles and do things (or not do things) that I have committed to do. Why is it that we have no willpower to resist evil. The other verses listed above share the same principle: the disciples were too weak to stay awake at a prayer meeting; and the Galatians were easily swayed from the doctrine of Grace. Our flesh indeed is weak. Our hearts are desperately wicked.

I don’t think the solution to this problem, however, is an increase in our fleshly will power. Paul gives us the solution in Galatians 5:”walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”. Do you want to have more spiritual willpower? Walk with God: walk in His word; spend time communing with Him in prayer; gather with His children; and serve Him with all of your heart. I can look back at my life and clearly see that the times that I struggled the most with my thoughts and actions were times that I was not walking with God as I should have been. The closer I get to God, the farther away goes the desire to sin.

By the way, notice what it says about the cause of Sodom’s fall:

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16:49)

We can see here that Sodom had the same problem that Israel (and America) has. They are too proud to acknowledge that God is the source of their blessing; they have too much free time on their hands and they are not using this time to serve God; and they are very prosperous, yet they will not share their wealth.

Sep 2nd Prophesy Against The Prophets

Great Article from Pastor Paul Chappell, “Pure Religion – What It Is Not” – The Pastor’s Perspective

Today’s Passages -Ezekiel 10 – 13; Proverbs 2

(Second Milers also read – 2 Corinthians 6 – 9; Memorize – 1 John 5:14 & 15)

“O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.” – (Ezekiel 13:4-6)

In Ezekiel 13, God tells the prophet Ezekiel to prophesy against the prophets. At this time in Israel’s history there were many false prophets that were telling the people that everything is going to be OK, and that there is no need to fear. The Bible calls them prophets of peace. The problem was that they were wrong; they were deceiving the people into a false sense of security. They preached much on the love and mercy of God, without speaking of God’s holiness and justice. The truth of the matter is that judgment was on it’s way; and God wanted the people to be warned of that judgment so that they would have an opportunity to repent and turn back to him. The reason for the judgment was because the people of Israel had forsaken the Lord, and had become idolatrous as well as immoral.

We have many prophets of peace today also. They preach about a god that doesn’t seem to care about sin when the truth of the matter is that our God hates the sin that is running rampant in our land today. America has thrown God, and the Bible under the bus; and He cannot possibly be pleased. I am not a prophet. I have no special revelation from God, but I do know what the Bible teaches. Yes, God loves people, and He wants to see them saved. He sent His only Son to die on the cross for their sins. But in order for people to be spared the coming judgment they must turn to God in repentance and faith. As a nation, America has almost completely turned her back on God, but that does not mean that I have to join in. I stand for God. I will preach the message of God’s love for sinners like me, but I will also declare God’s hatred for their sin. Judgment is coming to all who reject God and His message of salvation through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you trusted Christ as your Saviour? If you haven’t I beg you to trust Him today before it is eternally too late. For more information about salvation read “Are You Saved?”

Be careful who you listen to regarding what God says:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” – (Matthew 7:15)

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” – (Jude 1:3-4)

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” – (2 Peter 2:1)

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” – (1 John 4:1)

Sep 1st God Sees What We Do In The Dark

Today’s Passages – Ezekiel 5 – 9; Proverbs 1

(Second Milers also read – 2 Corinthians 2 – 5; Memorize – 1 John 5:14 & 15)

Read last years post from this passage – “Conviction, Contrition, and Correction”

“Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.” – (Ezekiel 8:12)

“Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.” – (Ezekiel 9:9)

As I was reading this morning’s passage from the chapters 5 – 9 of the Book of Ezekiel there were two phrases that caught my attention. The first one is found in Ezekiel 8:12, “hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark“. The second is also found in that verse, and is found again in Ezekiel 9:9, “the Lord seeth not“. Man sometimes convinces himself that if his sin is done in privately (“in the dark”), that God somehow is unable to see it. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing that can be hidden from the eyes of God: He sees all that we do, and hears all that we say; and He even knows our thoughts. Scary.

Did you ever think about how much of our sin is done “in the dark”. To be sure there is also a lot of sin that is done in the open, especially among those who are not in the family of God. The lost world does not seem to care as much if their sin is exposed; and they would certainly not even consider much of what they do as sin in the first place. However, my thought this morning does not concern unbelievers. I am thinking today about Christians. People who go to church every week. People who look sparkly clean on the outside. People who appear to have their spiritual house in order. People like you and me. We wouldn’t dare take our sins into the public arena, out there for everybody to see; but how much sin is going on “in the dark”? What do we talk about privately? What are we participating in with one other person, or perhaps even a discreet few other people? What do we look at, listen to, or think about when nobody is watching?  Oh, but there is Someone watching, isn’t there? God sees it all. Christians somehow think that because their sin is hidden from most people, that it doesn’t really matter; but it does matter to God.

I think it is time for us within the church to be honest with ourselves. There is an awful lot of junk going on “in the dark”. You can’t see it at our services. You won’t spot too much of it when we all get together for fellowship, but it’s there.  Most people can’t see it; but God does. The public doesn’t get wind of it until the sin finally blows up our lives. When will we learn?

God, help us to truly be “in the dark” what people see “in the light”. Help our inner lives to match what we display on the outside.

Aug 31st The Watchman

Today’s Passages -Ezekiel 1 – 4; Proverbs 31

(Second Milers also read – 1 Corinthians 14 – 2 Corinthians 1; Memorize 1 John 5:14 – 15)

“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” – (Ezekiel 3:17-19)

The Book of Ezekiel is a very fascinating portion of Scripture, containing many mysterious creatures and visions. I must confess that there is much about this particular potion of the Bible that I do not understand; but the verses that are given above are pretty clear to me. God made Ezekiel a watchman to the house of Israel. The watchman’s job is not difficult. He must stay alert, keeping his eyes open to any possible danger; and if any do appear, he is then to sound the alarm in order to warn the people. Ezekiel’s job was to warn the people of Israel regarding the judgment that will come if they continue in their rebellion to God. God reassured Ezekiel that he was not responsible for what the people did with the warning. God was only going to hold Ezekiel accountable if he didn’t warn the people.

We can certainly make application of this passage to our lives today. As Christians, we possess the greatest Truth that the world has ever known. We have the knowledge of the Saviour, and we have the ability, through our words as well as our lives, to share the wonderful news of redemption and salvation to the world around us. As it was with Ezekiel, we are not responsible for what people do with the message; we are only commanded to deliver the warning. We are to warn people about the impending judgment that awaits them if they do not repent and believe the gospel. Whether they accept that truth or reject it is on them. Of course we should not be like Jonah, who reluctantly delivered the message to the Ninevites. We should be eager to do all that we can do in order to adorn the gospel, and convince people of the wonderful love of the Saviour.

We can also make application of this passage of Scripture to those of us who have been given the special responsibility of preaching or teaching the Truth of the Word of God. Sometimes I get very frustrated when saved people do not apply the clear teaching of Scripture to their lives; but I must remember that my responsibility is only to be the right example before them, pray for them, and then teach them. It is their decision whether or not they will apply the principles, or heed the warnings from the Scripture. Again, I hope that they will, but the truth is that many will not, at least not all the time. In fact, if I could be perfectly honest with myself, I would have to admit that there are many times that I do not listen to my own advice very well. But that does not change the Truth. The Truth is still the Truth whether I follow it or not; and it is still right to preach and teach the Truth even though, in the flesh, we all fall short of it at times.

I guess the conclusion of the matter is that we are all watchman in some respects. We all have the obligation to warn the world around us of the judgment that is surely coming, and share with them the salvation that can only come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we must realize that we also should be heeding the warnings and applying the life principles that we receive from the watchman that God has placed in our lives to bless and protect us.