King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]
Date: Thursday, September 01, 2022
Chapters: EZEKIEL 18-20
Study: Filthy Rags
Hello My Friend,
The age old question that believers often get from the world when you tell them about Jesus is, “Why does a loving God send good people to hell?” Well, the answer to that has two reason. One; God, sends no one to hell and two; what we see as good is not the same as what God sees as good. Compared to Jesus, the good that we do is as filthy rags, [Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.]
Do you see the key word in the Scripture? [unclean] Before we get saved our righteousness truly is as filthy rags simply for the fact that we are covered in sin that pollutes every effort we make. Serving God being unsaved is just as though we were cleaning a window with a rag full of grease. Now, once we come to understand that it is our sin that pollutes us and that Jesus gave His life to save us, we are now clean and that is when God will see our good works and be pleased with us.
[Romans 3:23-26 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.]
Now, with that said, we can understand how the reprobates or someone wicked ends up in hell, and we can sort of understand how those ignorant to God end up in hell, but even we who know the truth can have a hard time grasping that someone that lives a moral and decent life ends up in hell, or one led under a false religion for that matter. To understand this, we have to see each and every soul through the eyes of God. As we continue reading Ezekiel, God flat out tells us that all souls belong to Him ad how it can avoid death.
[Ezekiel 18:4-9 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, 6 And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour’s wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman, 7 And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; 8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, 9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.]
[But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,] Jesus said it this way, [Matthew 5:17,19-20 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.] You see, the reason why our own works cannot get us in heaven is the fact that we would keep doing all of these that God approves us, but the second we commit a sin, all of that gets wiped out and we back to square one. God, goes on to explain that all souls that sin will die because of sin, He also explains how we are each individually responsible for our own soul and cannot die for another persons sins.
[Ezekiel 18:20-23 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. 21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. 23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?]
[Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?] Remember, God does not want to see any soul in hell. He takes no pleasure at all in seeing even the most vilest sinner being cast into hell. Why? It is His soul, He created it, and it is the most valuable of all His creation. Hell, was never meant for the souls of man, only for Satan and his minions, but that was changed when man succumbed to sin as well, [Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die….Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.]
Again, there is nothing written in new in the New Testament that was not already written in the Old, and if you think that God is unfair in how He deals with a soul, well, God, explains how a wicked person can get saved and also how a good person can end up in hell.
[Ezekiel 18:28-32 Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29 Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? 30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.]
[The way of the Lord is not equal.] This sounds familiar also, [Romans 3:3-8 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. 5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.]
If there were no consequence to sin, then why was it necessary that Jesus die? If there were no consequence to sin, then why would it be necessary to be separated from the world? If there were no consequence for sin, then why is it necessary that anyone lives by the Word of God? I will tell you why, in fact, I do not even have to tell you why, all you have to do is look around and see all the lawlessness going on all over the world and you can understand the necessity of there being a consequence to sin, and that includes those who are saved to continue living in sin, [Romans 6:1-2,6,15-16 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?]
Our own righteousness cannot save our soul, which is why God sent Jesus in that His righteousness He can save all who believe in and receive Him as their Saviour. We have to see past our flesh and look at the state of a soul that does not have Christ in it, simply put, it is dead. It is God who gives the breath of life to our flesh, and that is the only thing keeping the body of a dead soul alive. The grief we feel about loved ones who have passed, and are in hell ought to be the drive we need to tell all we know and see about Jesus while they still have their breath in them. This is what God is telling the Jews to do, He wants them to lament over their captivity, and the ones who fled to Egypt and died. God, compares the kingdom of Judah as a lioness.
[Ezekiel 19:1-3,8,10-12 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. 3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. 8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. 10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. 11 And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. 12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.]
[But she was plucked up in fury,] Jerusalem was a vine, flourishing and fruitful, as compared to the soul that was dead and given the water of life. This vine, rather the body of the soul, is now destroyed due to its sinful life, and although, it has not been plucked up by the roots, its body gets devoured by the fuel of sin within itself. The true Vine, Jesus Christ, and the Lion of Judah, [Genesis 49:9-10 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.] is the center of every saved soul, and He will never pluck it from His hands, [John 10:28-29 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.]
Since God is always in control and people choose to live they way they want regardless, He will let them suffer in their sin until they repent. God, gives everyone ample time to find His Son, but there does come a time when time does run out, and their hope is gone. You see, there is only one person who determines how long our life on earth will be, it could be one minute or one hundred years, and that is God. Now, as the Jews in Babylon hear Ezekiel speak these words many of them became uneasy and asked Ezekiel what would become of them.
[Ezekiel 20:1-4,24-26 And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the LORD, and sat before me. 2 Then came the word of the LORD unto me, saying, 3 Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you. 4 Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers: 24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. 25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; 26 And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.]
[in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb,] God, actually withdraws Himself from those who despise Him, kill innocent life, and yet still want to be saved. And if you wonder why evil seems to be overtaking and there are so many babies not given the opportunity to live, here is our answer.
[Ezekiel 20:31-35 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you. 32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. 33 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.]
[and shall I be enquired of by you,] God, will not listen to one fool who questions Him, let alone seeks answers from Him about the way He handles their soul when they are the ones committing the evil and refuse to repent. Now, it is one thing to ask God questions, we all do, and He welcomes that, but to question and criticize His ways, that is blasphemy, and He will not stand for it, [James 1:13-15 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.]
If people want to believe a false religion over God, then so be it, but He will have nothing to do with them when they come crying to Him at judgment. He gives all a choice while they still have their breath in them to choose Christ, those who reject Him only have themselves to blame for doing so. God, could destroy all the false religions, the false Christians, and the rebellious Jews right now, but the reason He does not is because He will not have His name defiled in front of the world.
[Ezekiel 20:39-40,43-44 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 43 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. 44 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.]
[but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts,] How would God look if He wiped out all the saved who are living in sin and the ones He calls His chosen who refuse to acknowledge Christ? A heartless, tyrant. God shows the world His mercy through the mercies that He has on His people, and that is what mercy is for. Jesus, will surely bring us to remember our sins, which is why every knee will bow to Him, [Romans 14:11-12 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.]
Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for Your gift of salvation, I know that there is nothing more I can do apart from receiving Your Son as my Saviour that will save me from my sins. His finished work on the cross is all that is necessary for me to be able to stand righteous before You. But Lord, I want the rest of my time on earth to be one of gives glory to You, one that not only pleases You, but brings others to You as well. Lord, Lead me and guide me, give me Your power to discern right from wrong in Your eyes, the knowledge to understand Your Word, and wisdom to know how to handle situations, obstacles, and difficulties that contend with my faith. Pour out Your mercy and grace upon me so that I may grow and be a faithful and honorable witness of Your Son in me. I ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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