I'm Out
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Intro
Intro
One of the saddest verses in the bible is:
20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
judges 16:20
Here, Samson wakes up to fight the Philistines but didn’t realize that the Lord had left him and was no longer in His presence.
If you think back to Moses, he treasured the presence of the Lord so much that he didn’t want to move forward with the Israelites if God wouldn’t go with them.
15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
ex
In , the prophet receives a vision of Jerusalem. Again this is bad news. Because of the people’s rampant disobedience, debauchery and defilement that ultimately leads to their destruction.
While reading through this our focus could be only on the fact that God’s glory departs from the people but based on everything that is going on we should ask why did God stay as long as He did?
1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.
2 Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.
3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy.
6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
7 And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.
8 Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance.
9 And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”
10 So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.
11 And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.
12 Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”
13 He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
15 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.
17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose.
18 Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
Ezekiel
I don’t talk about this much because I’m a little embarrassed but I’m a fan of professional wrestling. I’ve been watching wrestling for the majority of my life.
I grew up watching characters like Hulk Hogan, The Junkyard Dog, Rick Flair, Jimmy Superfly Snuka all the way through more current guys like The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
One of the more recent wrestlers is John Cena. John Cena is like the superman of wrestling. He’s seems to be unstoppable. One of the things he does is wave is hand in front of his face and says, “You can’t see me.”
In reading the opening few verses of chapter 8 here, this image comes to mind of the elders of Israel doing this to God.
v. 8:12
God asks Ezekiel if he’s been paying attention to al the things they are doing in the darkness? They say, “The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.”
Israel is going on acting like God doesn’t see them. They act like He is not going to do anything about their rebellion. Not only that, they didn’t care what God had to say about what they were doing.
Of course, they were wrong. The Lord could see everything and He was going to put an end to it.
Ezekiel is shown a vision where men, women, leaders and various people but none of that worship was directed to the Lord.
“It includes idolatry imported from all sorts of surrounding nations (Canaan, Egypt and Babylon) and involving all kings of gods. This is a unified, universalized religion, the ultimate multifaith worship service. From the Lord’s perspective, however, the picture is one of abomination piled on abomination.”
I’ve had a few conversations with people about what we do and don’t do in our worship services. As we refocus FBC Bolingbrook on how we glorify God and make disciples, it’s good and healthy to step back and take a look at what we do and how we do things.
However, It’s sections in scripture like this that highlights why we need to not only take our worship seriously but ensure that what we are doing is, in fact, worshipping our Father in Heaven.
Listen to what Iain Duguid says in his commentary on this verse:
“It includes idolatry imported from all sorts of surrounding nations (Canaan, Egypt and Babylon) and involving all kinds of gods. This is a unified, universalized religion, the ultimate multifaith worship service. From the Lord’s perspective, however, the picture is one of abomination piled on abomination.”
Chapter 10
The presence of God is truly a blessing.
29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.
31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
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The absence of God is a sign of His rejection.
17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’
18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
God had been very patient with them but this patience was coming to an end. Due to their disobedience, their punishment would not be death but the departure of God’s presence.
16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’
17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’
18 And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”
22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
23 And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
24 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me.
25 And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.
Eze 11:16-
16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’
Eze 11:
Even amongst all the bad new that Ezekiel is asked to deliver, there is some good. The Lord would not leave His people in foreign lands forever but would gather them and give them the land of Israel.
Conclusion
Conclusion
What about you?
How much do YOU value the presence of the Lord?
Does His presence make you distinct in Bolingbrook, in your workplace or even in worship?
If God were to remove His presence, how would you feel about that?
Would you be devastated?
Would you even notice?
Are you like Asaph where he writes in Psalm 73:25:
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
psalm
Are you like David when he says:
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
psa
When we talk about hell, the worse part isn’t the fire. The worse part is the forsakenness. Not being in the presence of God.
That is why, right now, at the moment, I urge you submit you life to God and follow Him.
Christ lived among His people and the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
The departure of the Lord that we read about in will not happen to Christians because it happened to Christ on the cross.
God forsook His Son so that He would never depart from US.
Brothers and sisters, the gospel is not about cleaning yourself up and doing something to get God’s attention.
The gospel is not about working your way to heaven.
The gospel is the news that Christ left heaven to live among, atone for and rescue the exiles.
All that God expects from us, He provides for us in Christ.