A Call To FEEL Your Faith!

The last two days I have focused on the issue of taking a Christian stand against the evils of abortion. I want to add to that today from another perspective, namely the heart of those who are tender enough to resist evil in all its forms. Look at Ezekiel 9:4,

"Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." 

Jerusalem was a cesspool of sin aggravated by hundreds of years of intermittent but persistent rebelliousness. The time had come for judgment! "Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand" (v. 1). So the Lord sent the heavenly detective/police force (cherubim) throughout the city to mark the ones who'd escape death. And what was to be their criteria for this mark? Look for those who "grieved and lamented over" their dreadful plight (i.e., rampant sin). Don't look for those who profess faith ONLY, for that would be hypocrisy. Don't seek out those with a good religious resume either. No, look for their response; seek out the right kind of people by their behavior. BEHAVIOR ALWAYS BETRAYS BELIEF! And the behavior they are to detect is a grieving, lamenting heart. Indeed, Jesus would later proclaim, "Blessed are those who mourn (over sin, theirs and others), for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). The world doesn't like mourners, declares Don Carson. "The world in which we live likes to laugh. Pleasure dispensers sell cheers and chuckles, all for a neat profit. The summum bonum [i.e., "ultimate goal"] of life becomes a good time, and the immediate goal is the next high. The world does not like mourners; mourners are wet blankets" (Sermon on the Mount, p. 19). OK, that's the world's viewpoint. What of God's?

My Point?

The kind of people God looks for are those who FEEL THINGS. They aren't content to merely discuss issues; they don't satisfy themselves that they've done their duty after they've written about them, or read their Bibles on the subject. No, they FEEL the pain of sin, they FEEL the dejection of God's disappointment! Their heart aches. In short, they "grieve and lament." Do you feel anything in terms of your relationship with Christ and this world? Does anything bother you, or move you?

Pastors Included!

Then, almost before you know it, you've read 5 devastating words, "And begin at my sanctuary!" Start with the religious leaders--priests, scribes. I liken this today to our pastors or elders or deacons--ones who should certainly know better! These are ones who NEED to live better -- not perfectly, but better. When it comes to God's great grace, we pastors and leaders stand to receive the greater condemnation if we do not respond accordingly. That's not a threat; it is the natural concomitant of a wonderful privilege.

The end result is that all those who had not received the "mark" were slaughtered! That's right, men, women, boys and girls. EVERYONE! It's an amazingly serious cleansing. But my emphasis here is to encourage us all to first see the importance of FEELING sin and righteousness, then second, to act on it. Let us not rest content to have learned ABOUT bad things in the world, or to have become FAMILIAR with Bible doctrines. Rather, let us enter into them, to actually be moved by them. GRIEVE and LAMENT over today's sins, and tomorrow we may see Christ bring salvation--and FEEL IT TOO!