Turn Away From Evil Ways

Turn Away From Evil Ways

REPENT

As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways. Ezekiel 33:11

Many times people can misunderstand the sovereignty of God and assume that God is pleased with all that He allows to happen in the world. We might even presume that God condones some sin in which we are engaged, even though He expressly forbids it in His Word.

You may have been justifying to yourself a particular sin, or even a sinful way of life, by telling yourself that if God wanted you to change then He would let you know. But He has! He tells us in His Word: “turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways.”

Have you been listening to God and to His Word or have you been following the dictates of your sinful nature, your corrupt conscience, your lustful desires? Know for a certainty that God is not for a moment pleased with your rationalized rebellion.

On the other hand, God delights to see wicked sinners turn from their rebellious ways and live. It is, of course, He who gives them the strength to do so in the first place.

Sinner, there are only two ways before you: the life that is found in pleasing God or the death that is found in your current way of wickedness. Turn from your way and live.

Prayer: Lord, guide me on the path of righteousness.

Scriptural Reading: Ezekiel 33:10-16

10 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?”‘

11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God,’I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

12 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’

13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.

14 Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,

15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

16 None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

NKJV

Turn Away From Evil Ways