Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Reverent. Bowing Before Our Awesome God

BE REVERENT

Published by David C. Cook

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All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; and NLT are taken from the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

LCCN 2010930523

ISBN 978-1-4347-0050-6

eISBN 978-1-4347-0255-5

2000 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Reverent published by Victor Books in 2000 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 0-78143-304-5

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, and Karen Athen

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: iStockphoto

Second Edition 2010

Contents

: An Introduction to Be Reverent by Ken Baugh

1. (Ezekiel 13)

2. (Ezekiel 47)

3. (Ezekiel 811)

4. (Ezekiel 1214)

5. (Ezekiel 1517)

6. (Ezekiel 1821)

7. (Ezekiel 2224)

8. (Ezekiel 2528)

9. (Ezekiel 2932)

10. (Ezekiel 3335)

11. (Ezekiel 3637)

12. (Ezekiel 3839)

13. (Ezekiel 4048)

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Reverent

by Ken Baugh

I hold the office of the president of the United States in high regard. I have had the privilege of visiting the White House a number of times, and each time I walk the halls and look into the Oval Office, I am in awe of the power and influence that the office of president has.

I used to dream of meeting a standing president. I dont know why, I just wanted to shake his hand and look into his eyes. A few years ago that dream came true, and I was able to shake hands with former president George W. Bush. I will never forget that day as long as I live. I was standing with a small group of people on the south lawn of the White House, awaiting his arrival when all of a sudden three marine helicopters in perfect formation began their descent. At the last second, two of the helicopters peeled off and allowed Marine One, the presidents helicopter, to land. It was exhilarating just to watch this, but I waited anxiously as President Bush stepped out onto the grass.

Most of the time, he would greet the small crowd of people standing by, but only if his schedule allowed. I was hopeful that this day would not be one of those too-busy days. I was not disappointed. To my surprise, President Bush greeted each person, taking the time not only to shake his or her hand but to speak to him or her. Of course when he got to me, he shook my hand and looked into my eyes, and all I could think to say was, Its nice to meet you, Mr. President. My wife, whom he greeted next, had a much better address. She said, God bless you, Mr. President. I thought, Man, why didnt I think of that?

When I remember the reverence and awe I felt being in the presidents presence, Im aware of how seldom I think of God in the same way. It may seem like a bizarre comparison, but I wonder if my familiarity with God has caused me to treat Him too lightly. I know that God is my loving heavenly Father and that I am His adopted son through the atoning work of Christ on the cross. I know that I am forgiven of my sin and saved by His grace. As such, I know that I will one day be with Him for eternity. But I wonder if this familiarity has undermined my reverence for God. Therefore, instead of taking God the Father for granted, I need to be reminded of His holiness and awesome power. In short, I need to be more reverent.

The book of Ezekiel can help me, because reverence is the Big Idea that runs throughout this book. The Israelites had been taking God for granted for years, living for their own desires and worshipping idols, until God finally had enough and allowed the Babylonians to lay siege to Jerusalem and take captives into exile. Much of Ezekiels prophetic ministry was to bear witness to these Jewish exiles of Gods glory (Ezek. 1:28; 3:12, 23; 9:3; 10:4, 1819; 11:23; 43:45; 44:4), Gods holiness (1:2628; 811; 43:17), and Gods justice (18:25, 29; 33:17, 20). Ezekiels message at least in part was to remind his hearers of Gods character, with hopes that the reminder would lead them back to a lifestyle of worship and obedience. Lets take a look at how these three attributes of God (glory, holiness, and justice) help us to live a life of reverence toward God.

The Glory of God. The best way to understand Gods glory is to think of it as the summation of all His attributes. For example, God is eternal; He has always existed (Ps. 90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17). God is unique; there is no one else like Him (Ex. 15:11; Deut. 33:26; Mic. 7:18). God is unchanging in all His ways and always keeps His promises (Mal. 3:6; James 1:17; Heb. 6:17). God is all-powerful; He exercises dominion over all creation and even governs the hearts of men (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 66:57; 102:2527; Rev. 17:17). God is everywhere present (Jer. 23:24; Ps. 139:710). God is all-knowing (1 John 3:20; Ps. 147:5; Heb. 4:13). God is love; everything He does is motivated by love (1 John 4:8). God is gracious (Ps. 103:812). God is merciful (Deut. 4:31). When we see God clearly, we are filled with awe, and our natural response is to fall at His feet in worship. As we see God revealed, we cry out like Isaiah: Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the L ORD Almighty (Isa. 6:5 NIV ).

The Holiness of God. God exists in perfect moral purity. He is separate from anything that would defile His perfection. God hates all that is evil and is likened to a consuming fire (Isa. 6:3; Hab. 1:13; Ex. 3:25; Heb. 12:29). God cannot tolerate sin but is gracious toward the sinner and desires to know each of us personally (Ex. 34:6; Ps. 31:19; 1 Peter 1:3; John 3:16; 17:3). And God wants us as His children to live holy livesto hate sin as He hates it and to live lives of obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit. In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers said, The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. Gods one aim is the production of saints. He is not an eternal blessing machine for men; he did not come to save men out of pity; he came to save men because he had created them to be holy.

The Justice of God. God is just in that He must punish sin, and God is love in that He loves the sinner. Therein lies the great paradox for many people. How can a loving God punish the sinner whom He loves? The answer is found in the crossJesus is the solution to the great paradox of a loving God who must punish the sinner, because He is the One who took our sin upon Himself so that we could be declared righteous. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21 NIV ). When I see Gods love and justice come together in Christ, I fall at His feet in gratitude, knowing that if not for Gods grace I would live for eternity in hell.