• Why is the KNOWLEDGE of God important? My Sin of ! â You cannot BELIEVE in a God you do not know. 6:1-14 ã You cannot OBEY one you do not know. Deuteronomy 4:23-31 ä You cannot LOVE one you do not know. Colossians 3:1-11 å You cannot WORSHIP one you do not know.

Idolatry and A Jealous God (vv. 1-7) A Jealous God at Work (vv. 11-14) • The Israelites had defiled the land with idols. • Yahweh (the God whose COVENANT has been broken) tells Ezekiel to “ pound • Nations today are defiling their God-given his fists and stamp his feet. ” lands. They think nothing of it. • BECAUSE of all the IDOLATRY in the land (God calls them “ evil • The Church is NOT over concerned with the abominations ”) the idolaters will fall by God’s three judgments: amount of idolatry in so-called “Christian â The SWORD – war. lands.” ã Famine – starvation. • TODAY is the days of Elijah. In 1 Kings 16:29-34 we find that King Ahab had ä Pestilence – disease. seriously defiled the land with idol. 1 Kings 17 tells us about Elijah praying • Yahweh says, “ I will stretch out MY hand against them . . . ” for a drought because God was forsaken for empty idols. Elijah was serious! • Yahweh will DESTROY their ALTARS and make the land desolate – just as He ARE WE? promised! - How upset are we that other religions are practicing in our countries? • What covenant was broken? - Are we as upset as God is? - See Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7; Deuteronomy 5:27-29; Joshua 24:24. - God is a JEALOUS God! (Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 5:9; Joshua • The people had FORGOTTEN God. God would cause them to REMEMBER 24:19; 1 Corinthians 10:20-22) and KNOW Him through His judgments. • Idolatry is sin against the greatest commandment – Matthew 22:36-38. • Idolatry is ANYTHING that takes our focus off of God. Idolatry is ANYTHING get You and I more of our attention than God. Paul calls COVETOUSNESS idolatry. • Those who have been born-again have entered into a covenant with God. • BUT WE DO NOT REALLY BELIEVE THIS. -When we call Him LORD (Romans 10:9-10) we are saying, “All that the • God promises to stack the children of like firewood beside their altars! LORD say we will do.” • GOD IS SERIOUS. - Consider Jesus’ words in Luke 6:46. • For 2000 years God has been LONG-SUFFERING, BUT His patience will - Remember Matthew 7:21-23. (See also Matt. 12:48; Luke 11:28) SOON run out. • All of have IDOLS in our lives. (money, careers, sex, computers, hobbies, sports, television, movies, eating, spouses, family, security, home) God Will Save a Few! (vv. 8-10) ANYTHING that we consider more important than God is our IDOL. • God say, “ I WILL leave a . . .” • WE NEED TO SMASH OUR IDOLS or GOD will SMASH them for us. • God has made promises about Israel, the Messiah, the Church, and the world • God is SERIOUS about the FIRST and GREATEST commandment. If we get that He will keep, therefore, He will have mercy on a few. this WRONG we get ALL the others wrong as well. • This Biblical concept of the FEW saved runs through Old and New Testaments. • The KNOWLEDGE of God is more important than our worship and good deeds. • See Matthew 7:13-14 and 7:21-23. To ignore the STUDY of God’s Word is to IGNORE God Himself. • God’s mercy has purpose for those who receive it – to show them their sins and (See 2 Timothy 2:15) that they may KNOW Him! • The Israelites failed to take God absolutely serious. We must not make the • God expects His people to KNOW Him more than ANYTHING else. same mistake. (1 Corinthians 10:6-11) - See Hosea 4:1, 6; 6:6 • We need to PRAY just like ELIJAH (James 5:17) that God will ONCE again be WORSHIP in our countries!