A few brothers lately have brought to my attention that several well known ministers (nationally known) with rather large congregations have been exposed today for what they thought were “secret sins.” Secret sins which evidently they were covering up for many, many years. In Ezekiel 44:5, God vividly described the dark days we live in. He addresses preachers who have allowed idols and sin to dominate their hearts, as well as the individual lives of those in the congregations who sit under their ministries. God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.”
Pastors, teachers and ministers of God’s word have a holy responsibility to mark well the way of entrance into the kingdom of God, and to mark equally well how one falls away from the Lord. Dear Reader, examine your message, have you clearly marked God’s way of righteousness as a narrow way, or have you led the people to the broad way of destruction? Woe to the shepherds of God’s people who have PERVERTED THE ENTRANCE into God’s righteous kingdom and whom have OBSCURED THE EXITS, causing the sheep to walk in a false peace and security not knowing they have left the “sanctuary. And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, (enough of all your abominations.” (Eze 44:6).
There is a trumpet sound in the land today. God is arousing within his prophets a holy indignation against the sins and idolatrous practices of his people. They are calling God’s people to live godly and righteously in this present age of compromise and idolatry. Truly, it is a time for “judgment to begin with the household of God”, (1 Pet 4:17). Once again, God is saying to the church, by the mouth of his holy prophets, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:21-24)
I am not a prophet, but I ask you to join me in prayer for God to make his prophetic voice heard throughout our world. Most evangelist pastors and teachers need to proclaim the righteous judgments of God. Say to the rebellious, ENOUGH OF ALL OF YOUR ABOMINATIONS. “In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.” (Eze 44:7). And God warns, “And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.” (Eze 44:8). He says of the priests, “Her priests have violated my law (word), 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.” (Eze 22:26). These people are like those whom the prophet Malachi spoke of. “Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment.” (Mal 2:17)
This curse is rampant in our land today, thousands flock to churches Sunday after Sunday, only to hear someone tell them how righteous and secure they are in the stubbornness of their divided hearts. Multitudes are drawn to conventions and conferences each year and told how righteous they are, while they live in the rebellion of their flesh. The covenant is made void in the lives of the people by the voices of spiritual leaders, building a name, reputation, and ministry for themselves, while they do not keep charge of the holy things of God. No distinction is made between the holy and profane and the clean and unclean by preachers and teachers who delude the rebellious by promising that God’s grace covers their rebellion. Judgment is beginning at the household of God, where the entrance is perverted/corrupted and the exits are obscured/hidden. Those who love their idols will die in spiritual blindness.There is a stark contrast between this and the NT Apostles who contended with similar things in the early church. “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” (2 Cor 2:17).
How will God judge rebellion within His house? God describes His judgments on this condition of ungodliness in one of the most sobering and alarming passages in Scripture I have ever read. God says He will let those who pervert the entrance and hide the exits stand before the people and minister their idols to them. He will cover their eyes with spiritual blindness, and let them die in their sins because they love their idols and their carnal doctrines and their fleshly rebellion more than their love of the truth.
Don’t take my word for it, hear it from God’s Word. “And the Levites, (preachers in charge of the holy things of God), that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity.” (Eze 44:10-12).
God will judge those ministers by allowing their idols to blind their hearts while continuing to minister to the people. I remember years ago, one “national leader” from Colorado (whose name will remain anonymous) had confessed, “I have had sin in my life that I left unrepentant, but because God still let me minister and see some success, I thought He wasn’t judging me.” He was deceived, thinking it was ok to walk in rebellion and continue in his sin.
Not only does God judge the ministers, but He also lets the people who sit under their ministries be led away into blindness, and this is a warning to all of us. It doesn’t matter who you are reading or listening to, you should not receive anything into your heart and mind unless the Holy Spirit has confirmed it in your spirit. Why does God judge the people who sit under these ministries? Because they too have not made a distinction between the holy and the profane, “for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts (idols and fleshly lifestyles) shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they turn away their ears from the truth.” (2 Tim 4:3). Spirits of blindness cover their understanding, and they boast of having peace while walking in the stubbornness of their hearts. God’s wrath blinds their eyes, so they call good evil and evil good. They are a people without discernment. The Church has been conditioned to think that only the world calls good evil and evil good, but remember, this was first spoken of referring to God’s people by Isaiah. And, what happens when ministers and the people have no King they are loyal to? “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes”. Judges 21:25
Flee from all idols and fleshly lusts! Flee from every doctrine that allows you to feel safe and secure in the rebellion of sin. “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness.” (1 Tim 6:3) — FLEE FROM THAT MAN!
God used the prophet Ezekiel to describe two lines of the Levitical priests. He said those who go astray from him by going after the idols of fleshly indulgence, reputation, making a name for themselves, pride and greed, “shall not come near me to serve as a priest to me, nor come near to any of my holy things to the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and their abominations, which they have committed. Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the house of all its services and of all that shall be done in it.” (Ezekiel 44, 13, 14). God will judge their idols and sins, but leave them as a deluding influence before those who also hold idols in their hearts.“
Then Ezekiel speaks of another type of Levitical priest, another kind of minister of God’s holy word. “But the Levitical priest, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of my sanctuary, when the sons of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me and they shall stand before me to offer to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table to minister unto me and they shall keep my charge.” (Eze 44:15-16). There is a critical need for discernment in the body of Christ today, ministers who are motivated by greed, selfish ambition, and pride, God will not allow near Him nor any of his holy things. Yet there are holy men of God, who minister not only to his sheep, but minister to the Lord himself. They come to the table of God’s word and feed the sheep. They do not make God’s covenant void, but instead teach the difference between the holy and the profane, and deliver the holy things of God to the people. These are the ones who have laid aside idols of pride and vainglory, who spend time with the Master that they may have an undivided heart before him.”
In Malachi, God tells how to distinguish between these two lines of the biblical priests, “And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips: He walked with me in peace and in equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way, ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 2.4-8.
The righteous line of Levi walks in God’s covenant of peace and uprightness, and turns many back from their idols and fleshly indulgences. True instruction is found on their lips. They have marked thoroughly the entrance into the kingdom, and have not withdrawn from proclaiming the falling away of the rebellious. However, those ministers who have gone astray after idols have been left to minister to those idols in the hearts of the rebellious have corrupted the covenant and caused many to stumble. They are the ones who “profane the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and…married the daughter of a foreign god.” Malachi 2.11.