“Temple Corruptions” – FBC Morning Light (8/20/2024)

Well good Tuesday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading we're continuing in the book of Ezekiel chapters 8 to 10 today. I'm going to focus on chapter 10, or I'm sorry on chapter 8. And in this chapter I think we have an ancient picture of a modern reality.

Let me explain. So in this chapter Ezekiel has his vision and it begins in a very peculiar way, a very odd way. He sees this great image, this likeness like the appearance of fire in verse 2. This person standing.

It looks like a person but it's all a vision. And you know the use of the word like is telling you that what he sees isn't actually what is. It's like this okay. So in verse 2 he sees this appearance of fire, this likeness of the appearance of fire, and the personage in this appearance of fire reached out and grabbed Ezekiel by the lock of his hair and picked him up and carried him to Jerusalem, okay.

So again this is a vision. Didn't actually happen or he would have been screaming his head off, literally. So in this vision he goes to Jerusalem and he sees this progression of wickedness, a progression of idolatry.

First he comes to the north gate of the temple and he sees the image of jealousy in verse 5. The Lord says to him, the glory of God says to him, son of man lift up your eyes toward the north. I lift up my eyes and there north of the altar gate was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

And he said you see this? I'm going to show you even greater abominations than these. He says, verse 7, he brought me to the door of the court of the temple. When I looked there was a hole in the wall.

He said dig into the wall. So he dug into the wall and there was a door. He says go through the door and see the wicked abominations they're doing there. He went in and he sees every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed all around the walls.

And then he sees that 70 elders of the house of Israel and they're all worshiping these idols. In verse 13 he says you'll see even greater abominations that they are doing. He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house and to my dismay he says women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz, a god, a false god.

Have you seen these? Turn again I'll show you greater abominations than these. He brings him to the inner court of the Lord's house and there at the door of the temple door between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs toward the temple and their faces toward the east and they were worshiping the Son.

And so the grievous apostasy of Israel, of Judah, is portrayed in this vision to Ezekiel, and it just, you know, from one step to another it's just worse and worse and worse. Now I say that this chapter is as an ancient picture of a modern reality in this sense.

I think that one of the travesties in the evangelical church is just the worldliness of what is so much of what is called worship. And what I mean by that, and I know I'm gonna sound like an old curmudgeonly guy, but what I mean by that is I've been in these kinds of churches and I have to wonder what is the pattern that has been followed that is being portrayed on the, and I'll call it the stage, where you've got the band up there and all the various instruments, the drums, the different kinds of guitars, the bass, acoustic, and so on and so forth.

And I don't have anything against instruments other than the piano and the organ, please don't misunderstand. I think that you can use other instruments in worship and do it well, I get that, no problem with that at all.

But what strikes me is some of the optics. So have you noticed that the participants in the band, they all look sloppy. I mean, just sloppy. Why do they have to have jeans with holes in them, and shirts untucked, and, I mean, just sloppy.

They literally look like the band that's playing down at the club, you know? So where is their pattern that's been established? You know, I've seen the contrast in some churches where they do this well, where the participants in the band, they're dressed nicely.

I mean, they don't have three-piece suits and ties and all that kind of stuff, but they're dressed nicely, respectfully, conservatively, and the way the instruments are played and so on and so forth, it gives help to the congregation to sing, rather than those churches where the band looks like the band at the club, and they're on the stage to perform.

I think that's a travesty. I think it seems to me that there is a worldliness that has crept into so much of evangelical churches, and they call it worship. But worse than that is the acceptance of some of the just the clearly unbiblical ideas in the culture.

You know, wokeness, moderating moderate views on homosexuality and all of those kinds of things. Worse than that is the outright rejection of Scripture and its authority, its inerrancy, its infallibility, in various degrees, in some of the mainline liberal churches.

Now all of this, I think, is a reflection of ancient Judah's corruption of the temple, and I think that I believe that we as God's people, who love Christ and want to worship and serve him, that we should do so reflecting holiness in our worship and our service of God.

We should be unashamedly orthodox in our doctrine, and separated in our cultural expressions, and our views, our worldview, should be completely different, radically different, from that of the world.

So every instance where that is not the case is a modern-day expression of this ancient malady. Oh, may God deliver us from it, and may we be committed to being faithful and true, holy before our God.

So our Father and our God, I pray, help us, help us not to compromise in our worship, not to compromise in our convictions, and in our adherence to your Word. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday.

Lord bless you in it. Good day.