Two kinds of people

 

1 Samuel 31; Psalm 48; Ezekiel 9; 1 Corinthians 11

The Word of God often speaks about a judgment in which the Lord separates His people from those who are not His people. Most of us are familiar with the illustration Jesus used of sheep and goats. The sheep are distinguished by their ministry to His people and the goats are those who do not. Jesus associates their treatment to Himself; as they did it to the least of His brothers, they did it to me.

The Old Testament has several instances where God separates the righteous from the unrighteous. One of them involves a mark put on those who are burdened about the sin in their world.

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. (Ezekiel 9:3–6)

I am glad that I feel a burden and groan over sin. However, knowing it is a God-given burden does not ease the weight of it. The Lord wants me to pray for these many things, to be still and know that He is God.

This morning, our church participated in the Lord’s Supper, a reminder of all that Jesus did for us on the cross. In his description of the proper way to unite in this ordinance, Paul criticizes the church in Corinth for various factions and says a surprising thing:

"For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized." (1 Corinthians 11:18–19)

I’ve read this many times without seeing the significance; factions are another way that reveals sheep and goats. Sheep indicates believers and the NT speaks of our unity in Christ (See Ephesians 4:4-6). If the unity is not there, it could be from false teaching, immaturity or failure to study the Bible, or it could be that some are not sheep at all. The conflict happens because they do not have the Spirit of God and just don’t ‘get it’ when it comes to what the Bible says. In other words, church in-fighting could indicated the presence of goats.

Another identifying quality is the ability of sheep to stick to it and persevere. Some leave Christian church attendance for a variety of reasons, but the most serious is that they are not believers in the first place:

"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us." (1 John 2:19)

Another separation or division is infiltration by false teachers. It began early in OT history and continues with many warnings from the Lord to His people. One of the first is this:

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 13:1–3)

APPLY: There are more ways Christians are distinct from those who do not put their faith in Christ, however today the one from Ezekiel gives me encouragement to endure the burdens and keep praying. The others remind me to be alert and always to do good to the people of God and to others. It is the mark of who I am.