The false pastors and the foolish church members

“Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, "The LORD declares," when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled.  …  You have profaned me among my people for a few handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to my people, who listen to lies, you have killed those who should not have died and have spared those who should not live.” (Ezekiel 13:6, 19)

           Now, God's sheep are suffering because of the greed of the pastors.  Now, the flock of God is leaving the church because of the pride of the pastors.  Now, the holy name of God is being defiled by the sins of the pastors (Ezek. 36:20, 39:7, 43:8).  Now, because of the sins of the pastors, they have profaned God among His people (13:19).

In the days of the prophet Ezekiel, the false prophets profaned God among His people (verse 19).  How did they profane God?  They profaned God by prophesying out of their imagination (vv. 2, 17).  They profaned God by following their own spirit and had seen nothing (v. 3).  They said “The Lord declares” and their visions are false and their divinations a lie (v. 6). Although they said, “The Lord declares” though God had not spoken, they had seen false visions and uttered lying divinations (v. 7).  That is, the false prophets tempted God's people by saying, “Peace,” when there was no peace (vv. 10, 16).  This was the lie of the false prophets.  How could there be peace for the Israelites who were sinning against God?  How could there be peace for the Israelites who ignored God's warnings and rebukes and continued to worship idols and sin against God?  Nevertheless, the false prophets falsely prophesied “Peace,” and the Israelites listened to that lie (v. 19).  How did the Israelites immediately hear such lie of the false prophets?  Perhaps the reason was because just as the false prophets wanted their words to be fulfilled (v. 6), so the Israelites wanted that false prophecy to be fulfilled.  In other words, even though the Israelites were sinning against God, they expected peace rather than God's discipline.  That is why they preferred to listen to the lies of the false prophets rather than to listen to the words of the true God told through the true prophet Ezekiel.  What a deceptive work of Satan.

Even now, Satan is making countless false pastors preach as they please.  Now, those false pastors aren’t preaching a sermon of repentance to the church members who are sinning.  Rather, they are preaching a sermon of blessing.  Rather, those false pastors are now preaching encouraging unrepentant members to continue to sin against God.  Now they are preaching the sermon of comfort and healing to church members who aren’t playing the role of light and salt in the world.  The false pastors are “foolish” pastors in the sight of God (v. 2).  What is truly absurd is that countless members of the church are hearing the false sermon of the false pastors.  What's even more absurd is that so many church members are now shouting, “Amen, Amen,” as they receive ‘cheap grace’ from the false pastors’ vain words.  How foolish are these believers?  However, after hearing the false sermon, the foolish church members pray and expect that the lying sermon will come true.  This is the culmination of their folly.  Now, God is waiting for them to repent of their sins and return.  The foolish pastors expect the lies they preached on their own accord will be fulfilled.  Even the foolish church members who heard the false sermon are persuaded by the lies of the false pastors, harboring the same expectations and leading a religious life with perverted passion.  So how can we serve as the light and salt of the world?  On the contrary, we can only profane God.