What Difference Does It Make?
Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have
profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and
profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean,
and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
Intro: The Book
of Ezekiel was written during the time that the nation of Israel was in
captivity in Babylon. For 70 years, God’s
people were judged for their failure to obey God and His commandments. Ezekiel
was a priest who had been chosen by God to be a prophet to His people – to declare
to them through a series of prophecies, parables, signs and symbols to
communicate God’s message of judgment to His exiled people. Though the nation
of Israel was like a valley of dry bones, God had a plan to reassemble them and
breathe new life into them as a nation.
Several times in Ezekiel’s writings, he pointed out the
failure of God’s people to understand the DIFFERENCE between the holy and the
profane.
·
DEFINITION
OF “DIFFERENCE”: to divide, separate,
sever; to separate, set apart; to make a distinction, difference; to divide
into parts
THREE THINGS ABOUT
THE DIFFERENCE:
1. It needs to be TAUGHT - Ezekiel 44:23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and
profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
NOTE: TITUS 2:11,
12 - The grace of God will teach you
these things, if you’ll let it!
~ HOLY – sacred,
consecrated
~ PROFANE –
desecrated, polluted, defiled, stained, broken
The life of a believer should be described as HOLY – NOT PROFANE.
·
Our minds should be holy; not profane
·
Our mouths should be holy; not profane
·
Our manners should be holy; not profane
~ Some say that preaching and teaching the church the
difference between the holy and the profane will keep from building a big
church. It is not my job to build the church – that is God’s job. It is my job
to teach the people the difference between the holy and the profane.
2. It needs to be IMPLEMENTED - Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference
between the holy and profane,
He’s referring to the priests of that day – they failed to
implement the separational standards between the holy and the profane.
In the New Testament, the believer is referred to as “a
royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9)
·
1 Peter
2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
3. It needs to SHOW - Ezekiel 22:26 “…neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean…”
So – you may ask – “If I’m saved, and I can’t lose my salvation,
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?”
Living God’s way means the difference between...
I. Being Happy or
Miserable
Today’s society is obsessed with being happy.
The philosophy of the humanists is to do whatever makes you
happy.
The problem with that philosophy is it is a lie of Satan to
steal, to kill and to destroy you.
A life of profanity and uncleanliness has ever produced a
happy life.
·
Proverbs
28:14 Happy is the man that feareth
alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
·
Proverbs
13:15 …but the way of transgressors
is hard.
II. Answered or
Unanswered Prayer
·
Isaiah
1:13-15 Bring no more vain oblations;
incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of
assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your
new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me;
I am weary to bear them, And when ye
spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
·
Psalms
66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
III. An Asset or a
Liability
ILLUSTRATION: In the book of Joshua chapter 5 and 6, a man by the
name of Achan chose to take of the “accursed thing”. He chose to deliberately
partake of the forbidden spoils of Jericho – When he was caught, here’s what he
said: “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two
hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I
coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the
midst of my tent, and the silver under it.”
Joshua had warned them very
specifically - Joshua 6:18 And ye,
in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves
accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a
curse, and trouble it.
As a member of the church – if you chose a life of the
accursed and the profane over the life of the holy and consecrated, you are
hindering the effectiveness and the power of the church to move forward.
You might say, “But what I do had no effect on anybody else.”
·
NOTICE
what God said about Achan’s sin: Joshua
7:1 But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of
Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and
the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
IV. Blessings or
Cursing
God has given every one a choice. It is not a complicated
choice. It is very simple. The terms are simple, and the results are simple.
·
Deut.
30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
·
16 In that I command thee this day to love the
LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his
statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD
thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
·
17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou
wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
·
18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall
surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither
thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
·
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day
against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
·
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and
that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he
is thy life, and the length of thy days:
Conclusion: God
has given each of us the choice – to choose the holy or the profane? Do you know
the difference?
