EZEKIEL 20 I WILL RULE OVER YOU2010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 20 I Will Rule Over You

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010.

Ezekiel has been ministering to the people of Israel who are captive in Babylon. They were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar. He conquered Jerusalem and took a bunch of people captive back to Babylon. And so they're held there. But there's still some inhabitants that are in Jerusalem. He left a remnant there. He left some of the people there. He said, hey, you guys be good. Pay your taxes. Pay tribute. And he said, hey, you guys be good.

and I'll let you exist, but they turned out to rebel against the king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar. And so now King Nebuchadnezzar is on his way. He's going to attack Jerusalem for the third time. And this time he's going to wipe it out. He's going to demolish it and bring all the inhabitants back, whoever survives the battle, back to Babylon into captivity. So

Ezekiel is with those who are already there captive in Babylon. They are hoping that they will be set free. They're hoping that somehow God will give them victory over Babylon and they'll be able to go back to Jerusalem even though throughout their captivity and before God has been telling them that that is not what is going to happen. God has been telling them that...

This judgment is from him that Babylon will be successful and that they will be captives in Babylon for 70 years. He spoke that to them through the prophet Jeremiah. And also here on this side, Jeremiah was in Jerusalem, Ezekiel is over here, and God has been speaking through Ezekiel to the people.

that this judgment was from God and that they were going to be there captive in Babylon and that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. And so we have a people that have been rebellious to God to the point that he has brought judgment upon them.

They've rebelled, he's warned them, but they insisted on continuing in their rebellion. And so now they're in captivity as a result of their rebellion against God. But they're still not waking up to the realization, they're still not turning and saying, oh

Okay, God, now we want to follow you. They are still worshiping false gods. They're still continuing in their rebellion against God. And that's the context of the kind of people that God is dealing with as he speaks through Ezekiel. And as we look at chapter 20, God is reminding them of all of the rebellions of the nation, of the nation of Israel throughout their history. And so we pick it up in verse 20. It says, It came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month,

Verse 1.

Here as we begin chapter 20, God speaks to Ezekiel again and He speaks to him when some elders, some leaders of the people come to Ezekiel and say, we want to hear from the Lord.

And so you can picture this here. Ezekiel is there in his home. He's a prophet. The people know that he speaks the word of God. Although they haven't been listening, now they come before him and they say, Hey Ezekiel, we want to hear from the Lord. What is the Lord saying? We want to inquire of the Lord and find out what God says about certain things that are going on in our lives.

Well, God speaks to Ezekiel here and it might be a little bit shocking to us because he says, as I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. God says, I will not allow you to inquire of me.

I'm not going to speak to you. I'm not going to listen to what your request is. I'm not going to pay attention to what you're asking. God says, no, the door is shut. I'm not going to entertain you. I'm not going to listen to you. You are not going to inquire of me. God would not let them come to him. Is that shocking? Does that shock anybody? Does that kind of throw

Throw you for a loop a little bit. Whatever happened to, you know, whoever wants to come may come. Whatever happened to Isaiah 55.1. Whoever thirsts, come to the waters. You have no money. Come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and price. Where God was inviting the people to come to Him. And now there's people coming to Him and He says, no, I'm not listening to you. I'm not going to pay attention to you. You cannot inquire of me.

How could this be? How could God be turning His back on them in such a way? Well, the rest of the chapter, God is explaining why that is the case, why He will not allow them to inquire of Him. So verse 4 says, Will you judge them, Son of man? Will you judge them? Then make known to them the abominations of their fathers. Say to them,

Thus says the Lord God, on the day when I chose Israel and raised my hand in an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised my hand in an oath to them saying, I am the Lord your God.

As God begins to now explain...

why he will not allow them to inquire of him, he goes back kind of to the beginning of the nation of Israel, back in the land of Egypt. He says, Ezekiel, I want you to render judgment to them or share this judgment with them. Share with them my decision and why I will not allow them to inquire of me.

He says, "...say to them, here's what the Lord says, on the day I chose Israel, He says, I raised my hand in an oath." You ever wonder where we get that practice, you know, raise your right hand and promise or make an oath? It's biblical, it's something we see throughout the scriptures. And so, God is giving this language here of this promise that He made, this oath that He made.

He says, I made the oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob. He says, I made myself known to them and I made an oath to them saying, I am the Lord your God. God made a promise to the people of Israel at that time. He says, okay, let's go back in time, back to the beginning when I chose Israel. They became my people.

I made a promise to them. And the promise was, I will be the Lord your God. God promised to be their Lord and to be their God. He promised to be the one that would provide for them and protect them and take care of them. He promised to be the one who would lead them and guide them. He promised to be their Lord and God. That's the oath that he made to them.

He says in verse 6, He also made an oath to them to take them out of the land of Egypt and into the land that flows with milk and honey, or the land of Canaan, where we know of the nation of Israel today. That's the land that God promised to them. And so He made an oath, He made a promise, I'll be your Lord and God, and then He made a second promise, I'm going to take you into the land that I've set apart for you. These promises though...

do have a condition. God has a request. He says, this is what I'm going to do for you, but here's what I need you to do in order for these promises to take place, in order for this to happen. He says in verse 7, then I said to them, each of you throw away the abominations which are before his eyes and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

And so God says, here's what I need from you. Here's what God asks of the nation of Israel. He says, throw away your idols. Throw away those false gods. Throw away those other things that you worship and let me be the Lord your God. Let me be your master. Let me be your passion. Let me be the one and only God in your life.

That's what God asked for. He says, look, I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to be your Lord. I'm going to be your God. Here's what I need from you. Get rid of all the junk. Get rid of everything else that's not of me. Get rid of those things that are part of Egypt, that are part of the flesh, that are part of the world system. Get rid of those things. As we look at this history of Israel, there's much for us to learn. We can learn a lot from what God is explaining to them.

We learn as we look at this that we cannot come to God on our own terms. Israel could not come to God and say, that's so wonderful. You want to be our Lord and our God. That's great. That's wonderful. I understand you want us to be devoted only to you, but how about this? How about we be devoted to you and like 10 other gods?

No, it's not a negotiation. Then God comes back and says, okay, you can be devoted to me and five other gods. And then they come back, oh, no, no, we'll be devoted to you and seven other gods. It's not a negotiation. It's not up for debate. It's not up for discussion. We can't make up our own terms. Yes, I want to come to you, God, and I want heaven, and I want salvation, but I don't want to give up

Or I don't want to have to do that. Or I don't want to discipline myself to spend time in Your Word. I don't want to spend time with You or whatever we might say or whatever it is that we're wrestling with. We can't come up with our own terms and say, okay God, yeah, I want heaven, but I don't want it exactly the way that You've called me to get there. I want to do it my way.

I want to do what I think is right. I want to follow my thoughts and my wisdom. And I want to disregard some of what you say, God, because I don't really care for all the things that you say. Now, we might not be blatant enough to say those things out loud, but...

Many times that's how we live. We live as if we could kind of make an arrangement or negotiate with God that, yeah, I want to go to heaven, but I can live my life however I want. I don't have to be submitted to God completely. I can be involved in these other things that are not of God and it's not that big of a deal. After all, that's why there's grace and mercy.

But here, as God is speaking to Israel, He says, here's what you need to do. Here's your part. Throw away those idols. Make sure I'm the priority and the passion of your life. You cannot come to God on your own terms. You come to God on His terms or not at all. It's His way or the highway. And that highway is the highway to hell.

His way or the highway. That's it. You only come to Him based upon what He said in agreement with Him or you turn from Him and you have no part of God whatsoever. We come to God on His terms according to what He said. And that means there must be no other gods before Him.

Verse 8, he says,

But I acted for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles, among whom they were, in whose sight I had made myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them.

Moreover, I also gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between them and me that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. God says, so this is what I asked of them. I asked them to get rid of all the idols of Egypt, all those false gods that they worship. But then right there in verse 8, we see, they rebelled against me, God says. They turned away from me. They didn't follow what I asked them to do. They rebelled. They turned. They turned.

They did not cast away those abominations. And so the right thing to do, God would have been fully justified in bringing down judgment upon them at that point. He would have been justified in pouring out His fury. But He says in verse 9, "...but I acted for My name's sake, that My name should not be profaned among the Gentiles." He says, look, I had attached My name to this people...

And so even though they rebelled against me, I showed mercy and grace for my name's sake because all the rest of the people, the people around them, knew that I had attached my name to them. They knew that they were my people. And so God says, I showed them mercy, I showed them grace, not because they deserved it, not because they were worthy of it, but for my name's sake so that my name would be honored and revered among the Gentiles and not blasphemed among the Gentiles.

So God says, I brought them out of Egypt anyways. I went ahead and brought them out. I delivered them from the bondage that they were in in Egypt. And I brought them out into the wilderness. And not only that, God says, but then I gave them my judgments and my statutes. I gave them the Word of God. I gave them the Bible, God says. I gave them my Word. I gave them my commandments. I gave them a way to have relationship with me. I gave them my instruction.

He says, "I also gave them my Sabbaths as a sign to them that they would always remember that they might know," he says, "that I am the Lord who sanctifies them." So God says, "They rebelled against me, but I still tried to work with them. I showed mercy and grace. I gave them the word that they might have an opportunity to get right, that my name would not be blasphemed among the nations. I did all this," he says, "so that they would know that I am the Lord."

You see, God is God. Whether we act like it or not, whether we live our lives like He is God or not, whether we like the idea that He is God or not, whether we believe that He is God or not, God is God. And so God is working in the nation of Israel that they would know that He is the Lord, that they would know that He rules on high, that He has all authority, that it's Him that they need to be listening to.

It prompts me to ask, as it often has throughout the book of Ezekiel, do you know that He is the Lord? Do I know that He is the Lord? Not an intellectual, yes, I believe that, but in your life, do you know that He is the Lord? Does your life demonstrate that you know that He is the Lord? Does your life show that He has all authority? In other words, are you submitted to Him? Does He have full authority of your life?

This last week was the Harvest Crusades. Your involvement in the Harvest Crusades, whether it be little or a lot or none at all, was that according to what God has instructed you? Were you submitted to His authority in your involvement in the Harvest Crusades and not being a part and being a part however much or little? Was it not based on what you thought or what you felt, but was it based on what God said? Maybe give you another example. Do you ask God's permission to spend money?

Does He have full authority in your life? It's your submission to Him. He's the Lord. He's the Master. And, well, everything needs to be checked by Him. He's the one who has the authority to give you the green light to spend in that way. Is He your Lord? Do you know that He is Lord? Do you live your life as a demonstration of He is God? He reigns on high. I'm submitted to Him. Verse 13.

He says,

that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands. Because they despised my judgments and did not walk in my statutes, but profaned my Sabbaths, for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless, my eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness. So as we look at their history, they rebelled. After God made these incredible promises to them, they rebelled.

But God showed mercy for his name's sake. He spared them. He brought them out of Egypt anyways. He took them in the wilderness. He gave them his word. He gave them the law. He brings them to the land of Canaan and they rebel again. They won't go in. God says, here's the land I'm giving you. Go, take it. They say, no, we're too fearful. We're too scared. We can't take it. So they rebelled against him one more time. They disregarded his judgments. They disregarded his statutes.

It would have been right. God would have been just in pouring out fury upon them and bringing them swift judgment. But verse 14 again says, He acted for His name's sake. Because again, He had attached His name to this people. And so that His name would not be profaned in the nations around Him. Saying, Oh, God brought them out of Egypt but couldn't bring them into the land or whatever the unbelievers might accuse of God. He instead of judging them, He shows them mercy. And He makes another oath.

This time the oath is, you will not enter into the promised land. That was an oath that he made to the older generation. All the adults, 20 and above, they would not enter into the promised land. We know from the historical account there in the Old Testament that they didn't enter in, that it was the next generation led by Joshua who entered into the land that God had promised to them.

And so he makes this promise. He says in verse 16, Because they despised my judgments and did not walk in my statutes, because they disregarded my word, because they disregarded what I said, I promised that they would not enter in to the land that I had given to them. He says, But I spared them from destruction. I didn't wipe them out. I didn't make an end of them in the wilderness. He left that younger generation to be raised up and to be able to enter in to the land. Verse 18 says,

But I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my judgments, and do them. Hollow my sabbaths, and they will be a sign between me and you that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to observe my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them.

But they profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my fury on them and fulfill my anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless, I withdrew my hand and acted for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Gentiles in whose sight I had brought them out. The older generation is gone. Died in the wilderness. According to God's promise, He would not bring them in. Now here's the younger generation. God says, Okay, younger guys, I'm giving you a chance.

You saw what happened with your parents. You saw what went on. You saw how they rebelled. So you walk with me. I am the Lord your God. Don't be like your fathers. Don't be like your parents. Don't defile yourself with idols. Turn from those things and walk with me. Keep my Sabbath. Keep my commands that you will know that I am the Lord your God. God's saying, look, submit to me. Live your lives in such a way that everyone knows that I am the Lord. Live your life in full submission to me.

Let me reign on high. You listen to what I say. You be obedient to me. But what happens in verse 21? The children rebelled against me. They didn't follow my word. They didn't keep my commandments. They didn't walk with me. They didn't keep my Sabbaths. Again, it would have been right and just for God to pour out His fury upon this generation as He had given them another opportunity. It would have been right for Him to wipe them out in judgment. He would have been justified. No problems. It would have been right. But...

He says, I withdrew my hand and acted for my name's sake. In verse 22. Why? So that his name would not be profaned in the Gentiles. You see, sometimes we play around with sin in our lives. We allow it. We put up with it. It's not that big of a deal. We don't cut it out of our lives like Jesus tells us. We don't get rid of it. We don't take it seriously. We don't deal drastically with sin. And a lot of times that's because, well, we look around and we think, hey, nothing really happened. I mean, I was...

doing this or I was involved with this or I'm living this way and it doesn't really seem to have much effect on my life. We think, well, God must not care. It must be okay. He must approve because He knows how weak I am or what kind of person I am or what kind of situations I face or how hard things are, you know, in 2010. What we don't understand and what we fail to realize is that many times God is delaying His judgment for His namesake because you told your neighbor, I'm a Christian.

You shared with them. You've been preaching the gospel to your co-workers. You've been sharing with your family. And God says, okay, I'm going to show you grace and mercy for a season here. It's perfectly right for me to judge you right now. For my name's sake, as an effort to reach out to them to honor my name, I'm withholding judgment for now. God withholds judgment many times for the sake of the people around us. But understand, that doesn't mean that we escape. It doesn't mean that we get away with it.

The children rebelled against God. They could not come to God on their own terms and say, okay God, this is what you say, this is what you want, and here's what we can offer, here's what we can do. No, they're going to be dealt with for their sin.

They're going to be dealt with for their rebellion. Verse 23, he says,

Therefore, I also gave them up to the statutes that were not good and judgments by which they could not live. And I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts and that they caused all of their firstborn to pass through the fire that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the Lord. So he goes on to say, look, you're not going to escape. What's going to happen now is the nation is going to be scattered among the Gentiles. God makes another promise.

Remember the first promise? I'll be your Lord and God. Second promise? I'll take you to the land that I've given to you. Third promise? You're not going to enter the land. The next generation is going to enter the land because you've been rebellious. Fourth promise? He says, you're going to be scattered. You're going to be removed from this land that I've given to you. And so now they're going to be spread out among the nations, which them being...

In Babylon at the moment, as Ezekiel is sharing these things with the people, is a fulfillment of what God promised. They're already in the process of being scattered among the Gentiles. And Nebuchadnezzar was on his way to Jerusalem to conquer it, to make that scattering complete, to remove all the inhabitants from the nation. And the reason why is because they hadn't executed God's judgments. Because

He was not their Lord. Although they came to church, they came to the temple, they said, He's Lord. But their lives were not lived in submission to Him. By their lives, they demonstrated that He's not really my Lord. Because they were worshipping these other gods. They were following these other things. They were disregarding His word and His commands. They were not submitted to God. And so God says, I pronounce them unclean. They're unclean. They're fit for judgment. Again, you cannot...

Come to God on your own terms. You cannot just disregard His Word and pieces of things here and there that you don't like or that you don't like to apply or take out of your life. You can't negotiate these things. This is about coming to God on His terms, what He has said. Jesus called us to repentance. He didn't call us to say a prayer and then just continue living life the way that we always were.

He calls for a transformation, for repentance, for us to turn from sin, to walk in fellowship with God. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him, to be like Him, to put on His character, His nature. He commands us to be filled with the Spirit and to manifest the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. We can't negotiate and say, well, yeah, okay, God, I'm going to be a Christian, but I'm just going to still be an angry person.

Okay, God, yeah, yeah, I'm going to be a Christian. I want heaven, but I'm still going to be involved in this sexual immorality, this fornication, this adultery, this pornography. Yeah, okay, God, God, I want to go to heaven. I want to walk with you, but I'm still going to live this way. Or I'm not going to do that. God, just don't ask me to read my Bible. You know I don't like to read that much. It gives me a headache. I'm not going to spend time with you. God, don't ask me to share with others. God, don't ask me to whatever we might add.

Listen, we can't pick and choose. It's either that we follow God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, or we don't follow Him at all. We can't come to God on our own terms. We must come on His terms. Do you know that He is Lord? Are you fully submitted to Him? Is your life governed by what He says, by what He commands? Is He your Lord? Verse 27, He says, Therefore...

Verse 2.

Then I said to them, What is this high place to which you go? So its name is called Bama to this day. Bama means high place. Verse 30. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, Are you defiling yourselves in the manner of your fathers and committing harlotry according to their abominations? For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols even to this day. Verse 30.

So shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. What you have in your mind shall never be when you say, We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries serving wood and stone. So God kind of summarizes here. He says, Okay, now, Ezekiel, speak to these people and say to them, You're just like your fathers. You're just like your parents. You don't listen to me. You don't obey my commands.

I brought them into the land that I promised to give them, but still you've not followed me, you've not obeyed me. You saw all the high hills, and on those high hills they would set up their high places, which is where they would go and worship these other gods. Even some of the hideous practices of offering their firstborn to these false gods, putting them to death in the fire. They were involved in severe idolatry.

But they were still wanting to go and hear from God. Here are these elders, here are these leaders of Israel coming to Ezekiel and saying, Oh Lord, we want to hear from you. But the rest of their lives were filled with all this stuff that was not of God, that God had forbidden, that God had said, No way, that can't be a part of your life.

And so that's why God says, I will not be inquired of by you. Because again, you cannot come to Him on your own terms. You must come to Him and say, You are Lord. I'm submitted to you. And Lord, what you speak, I will obey. You can't come to God and say, Lord, I want to hear from you about this situation. But what we really mean is, Lord, can you tell me what your thought is so that I can decide if I like that thought or not and then decide if I want to obey it?

You see, when we come to God with an inquiry, if we want to inquire of the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to do in my life? What do you want me to do in this situation? How do you want me to handle this? We must come with a heart. It must be with the attitude. We must be of the mindset already, whatever God says, that's what I do.

If it doesn't make sense to me, that doesn't matter. He's Lord. If I don't like it, that doesn't matter. He's Lord. If I don't feel like it, that doesn't matter. He's Lord. I'm not. I don't have the authority to live my life however I want. I must come to Him knowing with my heart saying, He is Lord. And I'm submitted to Him. And I will be obedient to Him. It doesn't matter what He asks. If He asks me to, like Abraham, take my...

child, take what's most precious to me and offer it to Him, then I'll be obedient because He's Lord. He reigns on high. It doesn't matter if it's my favorite thing in the world. It doesn't matter if I don't like doing what He's asked me to do. He's Lord. But they were coming to God. They were wanting to hear from God. They were wanting God to deliver them and work in their lives and bless them. But they weren't willing to turn from the things that God said, this must not be a part of your life.

They weren't willing to fully turn to Him. What God desires of us is a full commitment, a wholehearted commitment. And we completely trust Him and say, I believe that you want what's best for me. I believe you will take care of me. So I'll trust you completely, wholeheartedly. I'll obey you fully. God says there in verse 32, He says, What you have in your mind shall never be.

They're saying, hey, we're going to be just like the Gentiles. We're going to worship these gods. Oh man, this is so awesome. We get to worship these gods. And then we get to come and then we get to worship our God. God says, you must be crazy. That is never going to happen. I will not allow that. I will not allow you to inquire of me. If you ever wonder why the lives of Christians are not much different than the lives of unchristians, at least here in our neck of the woods, I would consider this verse.

See, when we try to live our lives like everybody else, and then we try to come to God and say, God, speak to me. I want to hear from you. God says, that's not going to happen. You can't live like everybody else. You can't be involved in all the things that the world's involved in. You can't have the same priorities as the people around you. You can't be focused on those things and have your heart divided between all these things. You can't have all of this sin and junk in your life and expect to hear from me.

You can't live in the world and live in a relationship with God. You can't do both. That's not going to happen. That will never be, God says. What God desires, what God requires of us is for us to fully commit to Him. You can't be like all the other nations. You can't be like all the other people. You got to be different. That doesn't mean you got to be weird and start acting crazy. Don't start acting different just to be different. But submit to God.

And by submitting to God, your life is going to be radically different. It's going to be different. There's going to be a transformation. If your life is the same as it's always been, there's something wrong. If there's not a change, if you're not growing, if there's not transformation that's happening, something's wrong. If you're like everybody else in the world, something's wrong. Because God says that will never be. We can't come to God on our own terms. Saying, yes God, I want to follow you, but I'm going to do it my way.

There's no such thing. God says that will not happen. Verse 33, As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you.

I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with fury pour it out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples and there I will plead my case with you face to face, just as I pleaded my case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So I will plead my case with you, says the Lord God. I will make you pass under the rod, I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, I

I will purge the rebels from among you and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. You see, God is inviting them to come to him and to know that he is Lord and to live accordingly. But if they will not, if they refuse, he says, well, here's what's going to happen. Then I'm going to make it happen. And by the end of me making it happen, you will know.

that I am the Lord. I want you to come and be obedient to me and walk with me and know that I am the Lord. You're my people and I love you. He says, but if you don't want to do that, if you insist on rebelling against me, they had. And so here's what God says. Here's what I'm going to do. With a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm. It's interesting. That's what's described when Moses, God brought the people out of Egypt with Moses.

It talks about God bringing them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. With the judgments that He poured out on the land of Egypt to bring His people out. He says, look, in the same way, I'm going to bring judgment upon you to bring you to the point that you know finally that I am the Lord. And so God has delayed judgment. He's put it off for His name's sake. But now it's to the point where God says, okay, now I'm going to deal with it. Time's up. No more waiting. No more patience. No more waiting.

Now I'm going to deal with your rebellion. So he's talking about his outstretched arm. He says, with fury poured out, he says, I will rule over you. You know why God will rule over you? Because he is Lord. And you can try to kid yourself and live opposite of that and rule over yourself and not submit to God's authority. And God may allow you to do that for a time. But then there'll come a point where he says, okay, that's enough. Now I'm going to put you in a position. You're not going to like it.

but I will rule over you. And you are going to know that I am the Lord. It's just like what we often talk about with every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. And we will do that right now. We can bow our knee. We can confess that He is Lord right now.

Or, on the day of judgment, we stand before Him and bow our knee and confess that He is Lord. The difference is, if we bow our knee right now and confess that He is Lord, we have salvation in Him. If we wait till then to bow our knee and confess that He is Lord, we have eternal judgment in store for us. And so we get to choose when we confess that He is Lord, when we bow our knee. The nation of Israel rebelled to the point that God says, that's it, judgment, no more opportunity.

Now you're going to know that I'm the Lord because of the judgment that I bring upon you. Listen, what is it going to take for you and I to know that He is Lord? For you and I to finally and fully submit to Him. What is it going to take? What is it going to require? Will we right now willingly choose offering ourselves to Him, submit to Him, to know that He is Lord right now? Will we bow our knee and confess that He is Lord?

Not just the words, but to live our lives accordingly. Or will we put ourselves in a position where God says, okay, now I'm bringing discipline. Now I'm bringing chastisement. Now I'm going to have to deal with you harshly, with fury, with wrath, with anger, because you've insisted on rebelling against me. God is going to do whatever is necessary to bring his people to submission.

To the point that in the end, he says, then you will know that I am the Lord. What's it going to take for you to know that he is the Lord? Will we make a willful and deliberate choice right now? Or will we force God by our rebellion to bring discipline, chastisement, judgment upon us? And only after that will we know that he is the Lord. Verse 39. He says, as for you,

O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, go serve every one of you his idols, and hereafter if you will not obey me, but profane my holy name no more with your gifts and your idols. For on my holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve me. There I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your sacrifices together with your holy things. I will accept you as a sweet aroma. When

When I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will be hollowed in you before the Gentiles. Verse 42, Then you shall know that I am the Lord. When I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised my hand in an oath to give to your fathers, and there you shall remember your ways and your doings,

And so God here gives a beautiful promise. We again see His mercy and grace. He says, look, I'm going to bring judgment.

I'm going to bring discipline. I'm going to bring chastisement. Not for a final cutting you off, but to bring you back. And you're going to know that I'm the Lord and I'm going to bring you back into the land that I promised you. And I'm going to accept your offerings and you're going to bring your offerings. You're going to be serving me. You're going to be obedient to me. And you're going to know that I'm the Lord and you'll be in the land that I promised you.

And you're going to know that I've dealt with you according to my own namesake and not according to your wickedness. You're going to loathe yourselves. You're going to be so upset. How could we live that way? How could we be involved in those things? When you look back and you realize all that I've done for you, when you realize that I am the Lord, what's it going to take for you to know that He is the Lord? Do you want Him to bring you through judgment to that conclusion, to that decision?

Or will you make that decision right now? Will you submit to Him right now? You know, we want to hear from the Lord. We want to inquire of the Lord. But we can't be lukewarm. We can't have one foot in a relationship with God and one foot in the world. We can't try to have it both ways. We can't make up our own terms. He will rule over us. In what circumstances do you want that to be? Will you submit right now to His rule? Or when He shows you?

through discipline, through chastisement, that He is Lord. The worship team is going to come up and close us out in a song. And as they do, let's take this time to inquire of the Lord. Let's take this time to seek Him. You have questions? You have concerns? You have things going on in your life? Let's ask God about those things. Let's seek Him for what He wants to do in our lives. But as we do, as we inquire of the Lord this evening, let's come to Him, not half-heartedly, not one foot in and one foot out,

Not with our own terms, but let's come to Him ready to submit. Saying, Lord, speak to me, and whatever you speak, whatever you say, that's what I will do. Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, a willingness to submit and obey is the mark of a person who can seek God's guidance and expect to receive it. You can expect to receive God's guidance, but

When you come to Him with a willingness to submit and obey. So let's inquire of the Lord this evening. Let's come to Him with a willingness to be obedient with whatever He speaks to our hearts. Let's seek Him together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.