Ezekiel 14

“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?” (Ezekiel 14:3, ESV)

God is a God of reality and truth. The world is full of misleads and lies. Before the public, people pretend to be one way but are different in private. On the surface, certain Jewish elders came to Ezekiel seeking a word from the LORD, but they regarded idols in their hearts. How could God let them inquire of Him when they were violating two of the Ten Commandments? They feigned loyalty while they were being unfaithful. Did they really think that God didn’t see or didn’t care? The LORD refused to answer them because they did not approach Him in truth. Our worship of Yahweh must be single and sincere. We cannot love the world and also love God.

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4, NKJV)

They needed to repent of their idols and the sin they were regarding in their hearts if they wanted to be friends with God.

A man shared with me recently that he was focusing on obedience as a step toward restoring the “first love” he once had for the Lord and His people. He has been going back and doing some of the “first works”, and it has been reviving his walk with the Lord! I do believe that this is what we must all do if we are to see widespread revival and a change in the tide of our culture.

We cannot “play church”. We cannot pretend to be Christians and yet not truly imitate Christ or be conformed to His image. God sees right through the sham and won’t tolerate it.

Would you join me and repent of every known thing that displeases God, and ask Him to reveal to you anything else that hinders your devotion to Him? Will you commit to doing the first works to restore your first love? If we don’t do this, then who will?