Ezekiel 28:1,2                        Am I A God?

I. The Historic setting.
        A. The city of Tyre was one of the most beautiful and richest
           cities in the world.
                1. The king of Tyre was very wise and a shrewd business
                   man who had increased greatly the riches of Tyre.
                2. As the people began to laud him for his great wisdom,
                   they began to hold him up and worship him as a God.
                3. The problem was he began to believe it and began to
                   declare that he indeed was God. His heart was lifted up
                   and he was saying that he was God.
        B. The city of Tyre is soon to be destroyed, and the king of Tyre
           slain. The prophet asks, "When you are slain will you say to
           the man ready to slay you that you are God?"

II. The fallacy that man is a god goes back into the history of man.
        A. Today we hear many voices declaring the man is a god.
                1. The new age movement with it's demonic channeling is
                   bringing this enlightened truth to man.
                        a. As the demons speak through the channelers the
                           consistent message is to discover the truth of
                           your deity.
                        b. We hear constantly the message of the human
                           potential.
                        c. School children are taught to meditate and find
                           the help from the powers within themselves.
                        d. We have programs designed to elevate the self
                           esteem of the child.
                        e. The rich, the beautiful and the talented 
                           Hollywood movie stars who are leading the world
                           down the tube to moral corruption are
                           worshipped as gods and goddesses.
                2. The guru's, the professed holy men of India, have
                   brought this enlightenment to the Western world, and
                   the rich and famous, and jaded people of the West, as
                   they try to fill the void in their lives, flock to
                   their Ashrams in India to sit at the feet of these
                   god men to learn how to ascend into godhood.
                3. For a long time the Mormons have been telling their
                   adherents how to become gods. If you will follow
                   faithfully the tenants of Mormonism, go through the
                   temple rites, that Joseph Smith borrowed from the
                   Scottish Masonic Order, you will become gods, and will
                   be granted some planet in the Universe to start and 
                   watch over your own world.
                4. Not to be outdone many heretical Charismatic evangelist
                   have taken up this doctrine of demons, and are now
                   proclaiming that we are gods.
                        a. This was a natural progression of thought from
                           their faith teachings.
                        b. They taught that if you exercised the proper
                           faith that you could have whatever you wanted.
                           That God in some way was obligated to grant
                           your every faith spoken word. Thus riches,
                           healings, power, was all available to you by
                           you claiming it in faith.
                        c. Nothing was said about the will of God. To them
                           the prayer, "Thy will be done." was scoffed at
                           as a cop out.
                        d. God became as the magic genie who was bound to
                           respond to your demands as you created your own
                           reality through words of faith.
                        e. If I am the one who is now in control of
                           running things according to my desire and
                           wishes, and God is running the errands for me,
                           then that makes me God, and He with His super
                           power fulfills my whims.
                        f. If the prophet today were writing to some of
                           these people who have purchased their Rolls
                           Royces in faith, their lavish diamonds, he
                           would probably say to them "Are you going to
                           say to the bankruptcy judge that you are god?"

II. There is nothing new about this lie.
        A. In verse 12 as Ezekiel takes up a lamentation for the king of
           Tyre, the text takes on an interesting form, for it goes behind
           the scene, and describes the origin of the you are gods
           message. The king of Tyre suddenly becomes Satan, or Lucifer.
                1. He is described as the seal of perfection.
                2. Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
                3. As having been the Eden the garden of God.
                4. Covered with precious gems.
                5. A ruling cherub.
                6. Having been in the holy mountain of God.
                7. He is to be cast out of the mountain of God and
                   destroyed.
                8. Isaiah 14 tells us of the sin that caused him to be
                   brought down. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O
                   Lucifer, son of the morning. For you have said in your
                   heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
                   throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon
                   the mount of the congregation in the sides of the
                   north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds:
                   I will be like the Most High."
        B. When God created man, He created man in His own image, and
           likeness. Whatever that may have entailed.
                1. Man through sin fell from that image and likeness.
                2. What temptation did Satan use to lure man into sinning?
                   "You shall be as gods." The very same temptation that
                   he had succumbed to.
                3. It has been such a successful line through the ages
                   that he has not changed it.
                4. I am not suprised at the lie, only at the variety of
                   messengers who are spreading the lie.
        C. There is something in man that desires to be like God. Perhaps
           that desire goes back to the Garden of Eden when man fell from
           the likeness of God.
                1. There is a vast difference between the desire to be
                   like God, and the declaration that you are god.
                2. In Isaiah 46:8 God asks, "Is there a God beside Me?
                   There is no God, I know not any." When these men who
                   are claiming to be gods, as they come before the Lord
                   seeking and entrance into His Kingdom on the basis of
                   the healings and miracles done in His name, will they
                   be those to whom He declares, "Depart, I never knew
                   you."?
                   He said that He did not know any God other than
                   Himself.
                3. Man takes this desire of his fellowman to be like god,
                   and exploits it, but being a god takes a lot of money,
                   it will cost you a lot, your money is a false god that
                   keeps you from being like god, so you must give all of
                   your money to the guru, who only is able to handle the
                   pressures of having wealth, for he is already god.
                4. The desire to be like God I believe is planted in the
                   heart of man by God.
                        a. In my heart I want to be like God, I want to be
                           pure as He is pure, holy as He is holy, true as
                           He is true. Gracious as He is gracious,
                           forgiving as He is forgiving, merciful as He
                           is merciful.
                        b. To this end He has given me the indwelling of
                           His Holy Spirit that He might conform me into
                           the image of Jesus Christ.
                        c. John tells us that we are now the sons of God,
                           but it does not yet appear what we are going
                           to be, but we know that when He appears, we
                           shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He
                           is.
                        d. Paul tells us that as we behold the glory of
                           the Lord we are being changed from glory to
                            glory, into that same image by the power of
                           His Spirit working in us.
                5. Like God, yes, God please make it a reality in my life.
                6. A god? never, that is a lie from the pit of hell, you
                   are a man, and your glasses, or contacts, your decaying
                   teeth, and your wrinkled skin, and death in time will
                   prove it.