Ezekiel 18

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Dad is in South Bend, so I’m preaching the worship service

Notes
Transcript

Introduction:

I’m going to give you a word, and I want you to answer the question: what comes to mind when you hear this word?
-It’s a word that carries a lot of weight and significance in our current cultural moment right now
-There’s a lot of discussion about it currently, and what it means and who gets to claim this title
-Don’t answer out loud, but what comes to mind when I say the word victim?
-For the most part, this word used to be reserved for those who had a crime or horrible atrocity committed against them
-Perhaps a victim of abuse or a murder victim
-Or someone who was sentenced and punished unjustly under a totalitarian government
-The idea of the word is basically this: a victim was someone who suffered innocently some form of injustice or atrocity at the hands of others
-However, as time has gone on, our culture fell in love with this word,
-I think mainly because our society fell in love with the idea of blaming someone or something else for the way my life is
-And soon, the word was being used to describe all kinds of people’s and groups who claim to have been held down or oppressed by others
-All kinds of victimized groups have popped up in our culture based on gender, or race, or religion, or socioeconomic status
-The debates currently rage across political and idealogical lines about who the real victims are in our current day and age
-And as I heard one Christian comment, it seems like there’s almost a scramble for everyone to pile into some kind of victimized or oppressed group so as not to be left out
-We love the idea that it’s not my fault that I am the way I am or that things are the way they are in my life
-And we’ve now come up with all kinds of scapegoats,
-people and things to blame when we don’t want to be held accountable for our actions
-When a teenage boy shoots another teenager at his school, the media proclaims that society has failed him
-When a young woman drives away her family because of her emotional instability and selfishness, she says her parents have failed her, that they were not the supportive parents they should have been to her as a child
-A man may blame his broken marriage vows on the fact that his wife has failed to meet his needs
-Recently, it’s been a social media trend for people who show up late for work have blamed their late arrivals on a mental illness they claim to have called “time-blindness,”
-which apparently means you’re incapable of showing up on time for work or other events
-The psychology and therapy industry is full of other nonsense labels like this, serving a country of people who are eager to find someone or something else to blame as to why they behave the way they do
-At the core of all of this is the human instinct to cry out “it’s not my fault!”
“The problems I’m causing or experiencing, or the hardships in my life is due to some unfairness”
-Whether it’s God, or my parents, or my spouse, or society, I just know that I’ve received the short end of the stick
-I’ve got a raw deal
-I’m not to blame
-It’s out of my control
-And as Christians, you and I can even begin to slip into this kind of thinking
-We can begin to believe that, “I wouldn’t be so frustrated all the time if my husband wasn’t so unloving, or my wife wasn’t such a nag”
“I wouldn’t be so impatient if my kids weren’t so frustrating”
“I would have a more joyful attitude at work if my boss or my coworkers weren’t so annoying”
“I would be more faithful to cultivating a deeper walk with God if I wasn’t so busy with work or school or the other 100 things that vie for my attention”
**I can remember being outside playing sports with some of the neighborhood kids when I was around 9 or 10
-I can’t remember what happened, but I got into an argument with my older brother Ben during this sports game
-And one of the other kids, a little older than my brother, came over to us and said, “hey, you guys shouldn’t fight. I know that it’s not good for siblings to argue. There’s no good reason for that.”
-Both of us kind of quieted down and felt shamed and rebuked, knowing that this kid was right
-Then he said, “. . . except for me and my younger brother. It’s ok for me to argue with him because he’s so annoying.”
**
-Ever since God asked Adam what he had done, and Adam replied, “the woman YOU gave me . . .”, we as sinful humans have been trying to blame our choices on someone else
-We want to believe that my sinful actions aren’t my fault
“I’m the victim of unfortunate or unavoidable circumstances
-or “I’m the victim of aggravating or evil people”
-And on the one hand, it’s certainly true each of you in this room has experienced hardships or cruelties or disappointments in life that are not you fault
-Parents get divorced, leaving their hurt and confused in their kids in pain
-A husband or a wife cheats on the other, leaving their spouse bewildered and deeply wounded
-People do get murdered or raped or stolen from, not because of anything they’ve done to deserve it
-Some of you have been deeply hurt or betrayed by others
-People have broken their promises to you or betrayed you or treated you cruelly
-Some of you have very real physical ailments that you suffer with
-And every single person certainly suffers in life from circumstances, or from the hands of other people
-And some of these sufferings are not brought about by anything wrong that you’ve done
-But in the ultimate sense, in our standing before God, are any of us victims actually victims?
-When I stand before God one day, will I be able to say that the way that I am is someone else’s fault?
-Is there any way that I’ll be able to blame my actions or choices on someone or something else?
-The answer is given to us directly by God, through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel
-Ezekiel began his ministry right around the time Judah was being taken captive by Babylon
-The Babylonians deported the people of Judah out of their homeland in 3 waves: the first came in 605 BC, the second in 597, and the final wave, in which Jerusalem was destroyed, came in 586 BC
The prophet Ezekiel was taken in the second wave and was deported to Babylon where he prophesied the word of the Lord to those who were already captive there
-He preached a message judgment on the nation of Judah, proclaiming that they had broken covenant with God and would suffer under His judgment
-But it wasn’t entirely a message without hope, as we’ll see in our text today
-However, the people didn’t like this kind of preaching
-They didn’t like being confronted about their sin
-And they certainly didn’t like being reminded of the coming judgment
-And so they had a popular saying they passed around among themselves to show their displeasure with God and with the situation they found themselves in
-God, however, did not appreciate this saying and takes a whole chapter to deal with it AND the attitude underlying it:

The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, 2 “What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

And the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

-Here’s what the Israelites are saying: It’s not fair!
“it’s not our fault!”
-The proverb essentially is saying that they’re the ones who are experiencing the consequences of their fathers’ actions
-The fathers have eaten sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge
-It would almost be like saying, “the fathers have eaten all the candy, but the children are the one’s to get the cavities”
“it’s not our fault that our ancestors have been sinning and rebelling since they came out of Egypt almost a thousand years ago!
“Why are we the ones who are finally have to experience the judgment for their sins?”
“We’re victims of an unjust system!”
God however, does not appreciate his justice being called into question,
-and He is determined to set the record straight once and for all about who’s a victim and who’s not
-About who’s ways are truly just and who’s ways aren’t
-God is going to defend His judgments and show that He is always righteous in how He evaluates each person

“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.

4 “Behold, all souls are Mine;

The soul of the father

As well as the soul of the son is Mine;

The soul who sins shall die.

there are two principles that God makes clear about His way of judging people:
-First, every single person belongs to God
-All souls are His!
-Every single person will stand before God as their Judge one day
-Because of this, He holds all people to the same standard
-the soul of the son as well as the father is His
The Second principle is this:
-The soul who sins shall die
-What does that mean? All people die, and we’re all sinners
-So what is God saying here?
-This entire chapter has a courtroom feel to it, and death refers to God finding fault with the sinner and dealing with him accordingly
-This could certainly include physical consequences here and now
-But ultimately, a sinner who has not repented for their sin and turned to Christ in salvation will be sent to hell
-The soul that sins shall die
-In other words, the way that God operates, is that He holds every single person accountable for his or her own sin and metes out His justice accordingly
-This certainly applies to those who don’t know Christ
-But this principle of God’s righteous evaluation is true for Christians also
-Each of us as Christians will have to give an account to God for our own choices and actions
-And God will hold every single Christian accountable for his or her own choices
-there is no room for blaming someone else
-When you stand before God, He won’t be judging you based on your parents’ failures, or your spouse’s failures, or the ways others have wronged you
-He’ll judge you based on what you have done
-Based on what you have said
-Based on how you have responded in your circumstances
-So how does this work?
As a preacher, you’re constantly trying to think of good illustrations to help people really picture and understand the word of God
-But here, the Great Illustrator, God Himself, supplies His own illustration
God says:

5 But if a man is just

And does what is lawful and right;

6 If he has not eaten on the mountains,

Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,

Nor defiled his neighbor’s wife,

Nor approached a woman during her impurity;

7 If he has not oppressed anyone,

But has restored to the debtor his pledge;

Has robbed no one by violence,

But has given his bread to the hungry

And covered the naked with clothing;

8 If he has not exacted usury

Nor taken any increase,

But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity

And executed true judgment between man and man;

9 If he has walked in My statutes—

And kept My judgments faithfully—

He is just;

In other words, this is a man who truly walks with God
-The first half of verse 6: he doesn’t worship idols
-The second half of verse 6: he remains pure and says no to sexuality immorality
-Verses 7-8: he’s loving towards others
-He seeks to live out what it means to love his neighbor as himself
-In summary, he walks in the fear of the Lord and keeps God’s commands
-This is a man who truly lives righteously
What’s the verdict on this man?
He shall surely live!
-In other words, this man is properly evaluated by God and rewarded by God in perfect justice
-God judges this man based on his own actions, and no one else’s
-But God continues His illustration:

10 “If he [the righteous man] begets a son who is a robber

Or a shedder of blood,

Who does any of these things

11 And does none of those duties,

But has eaten on the mountains

Or defiled his neighbor’s wife;

12 If he has oppressed the poor and needy,

Robbed by violence,

Not restored the pledge,

Lifted his eyes to the idols,

Or committed abomination;

13 If he has exacted usury

Or taken increase—

Shall he then live?

He shall not live!

If he has done any of these abominations,

So this son does the opposite of his father
-He sees the good example that’s been lived out in front of him
-He sees his father’s righteous living
-But what does he do?
-He lives completely opposite from how his father lived
-He’s violent
-he’s immoral
-he’s an idolater
-he treats people poorly
What is his sentence?

13 Shall he then live?

He shall not live!

If he has done any of these abominations,

He shall surely die;

His blood shall be upon him.

This man stands before God, and is judged to be guilty by God and punished accordingly
But there’s one more stage to this illustration
God goes on and says:

14 If, however, he [the wicked man we just talked about] begets a son

Who sees all the sins which his father has done,

And considers but does not do likewise;

15 Who has not eaten on the mountains,

Nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,

Nor defiled his neighbor’s wife;

16 Has not oppressed anyone,

Nor withheld a pledge,

Nor robbed by violence,

But has given his bread to the hungry

And covered the naked with clothing;

17 Who has withdrawn his hand from the poor

And not received usury or increase,

But has executed My judgments

And walked in My statutes

-This wicked man has a son
-And his son sees the terrible lifestyle that his father has lived
-And he decides to live completely opposite of his father
-He’s not an idolater
-He remains sexually poor
-He loves his neighbor as himself
-He truly walks with God and seeks after Him
-What’s this man’s sentence?

17 He shall not die for the iniquity of his father;

He shall surely live!

God evaluates Him based on his own actions, not the actions of his father
-How do we know that?

18 “As for his father,

Because he cruelly oppressed,

Robbed his brother by violence,

And did what is not good among his people,

Behold, he shall die for his iniquity.

A father and a son, judged completely differently based on their own actions
Now, what does all this mean?
First, let’s start with what it doesn’t mean:
-God is not here teaching that we can earn our salvation
-The point of this passage is not that if you do enough good things, you can somehow earn your way into heaven
-That would contradict the rest of Scripture, and would make the death of Christ completely pointless
-What is being taught here is that God evaluates and judges each person completely based on their own choices and actions
-When you are evaluated by God, He will judge you based on your actions and your response to Him, not on the based on the actions or choices of others
Let me first talk to any here who are unsaved:
-Maybe you’ve come to church today knowing that you’re not a Christian, or unsure of whether you are or not
-Perhaps you grew up in a church and experienced a lot of hypocrisy
-Perhaps you’ve been hurt by people who claimed Christianity
-Perhaps you had a parent or both parents who called themselves Christians, and yet lived wicked and hypocritical lifestyles
-If that’s you today, first, I want to say that I’m genuinely sorry for the evil or hurt that you may have suffered from people who called themselves Christians
-But it’s very important that you understand this:
-When you stand before God, you will not be able to blame your rejection of His Son Jesus Christ on anyone else but yourself
-God will judge those other people for what they’ve done and their hypocrisy, but He will judge you based on how you have rejected His gracious salvation
-You will not be able to play the victim card in God’s court
-You will have no one to blame but yourself for when you stand before His throne of judgement
-You will not be punished for the sins of others
-but you will be punished for your own sins
-You will not be held responsible for the wrong that has been done against you
-But you will be held responsible for the wrong you have done against others and against God Himself
-And because of your sin, God will condemn you to hell
Let me talk to all the Christians in the room:
-There are some of you here who are blaming others for your sin
-There may be some of you here who are impatient, frustrated, or down-right angry at home with your spouse and children
-And you think it’s their fault
-It’s their shortcomings that make life so hard on you
-But when you stand before God to be evaluated by Him, you will have no one to blame for the way you choose to respond to them
-Your spouse may be a very immature person, and your kids may be hard to live with
-And God will not hold you responsible for their sins
-But He will hold you responsible for how you respond to them in anger and frustration
-Some of you here may have suffered evil from the hands of someone near you
-Perhaps you were mistreated by parents in the past
-Perhaps you were neglected by other family members
-Perhaps you’ve been betrayed by close friends
-Perhaps you were lied to and deceived and are still dealing with the heartaches and trials of the ways others have treated you or hurt you
-And those are hard things to deal with
-And what happened to you may not have been your fault at all
-God will not hold you responsible for the sins of your parents, or your loved ones, or friends
-But He will hold you responsible for your bitterness and unforgiveness towards them
-He will hold you responsible for the sinful ways you have lashed back out against those who have hurt you
-Perhaps some of you here have fallen upon hard times physically and are suffering from some malady or illness or physical hardship
-Those things are very difficult and hard
-But please understand:
-God will evaluate and judge you based on your reaction to these hardships
-These kinds of trials are no excuse to live sinfully or to be harsh towards others
God goes on in defending His ways to the Israelites:

19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

“God, why don’t you hold the son guilty for the sins of his father?”
-Because God is perfectly just!
-Because He holds every person responsible for their own actions!
-He doesn’t punish the son for his wicked father’s actions
-Yes, that son probably suffered hardship due to his father’s sins
-He probably had a difficult time overcoming the poor family reputation in the community
-Perhaps it was hard for him to get a job and make friends
-I’m sure he had to deal with the hardships of family life with such a wicked, immoral father
-But God did not hold him accountable for one sin that his father committed!
-God evaluated him completely based on his own choices to serve and please God!
-Furthermore, God didn’t judge the grandfather, the righteous man at the beginning based the wicked actions of his son
-God judges each person according to his own choices
In many ways, this can be a hard message to hear
-It’s not easy to hear that we are going to be held responsible for our own sin
-But brothers and sisters, you must understand what God is saying here
-You must be willing to own your sins and failures
-Listen, the idea of victimhood is so soothing to our souls sometimes
-It’s so nice to think that things aren’t my fault
-But it’s a false kind of healing
-It’s an unhelpful soothing
-It’s like taking morphine to forget the fact that you have life-threatening cancer in your lungs
-It’s like taking sleeping pills when you have a gaping wound that’s draining away your lifeblood
-The real cure hurts at times!
-It’s easier to take narcotics and forget the pain than to have an extensive surgery that will actually fix the problem!
-But brothers and sisters, please don’t flinch from the pain and run back to the lies of victimhood, that your sins are someone else’s fault!
-Because although this is a heavy message, there is hope for you this morning!
God is not finished:

21 “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. 23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?

This is the best news in all of the Bible!
-You will not be condemned based on the sins and failures of others
-But you don’t have to be condemned based on your past sins and failures either!
-It doesn’t matter if you’re the most wicked person in the world today!
-or it doesn’t matter if you’re the most immature and selfish Christian alive today!
-Because if you hear this message this morning, and are willing to take it to heart, then there is still time for you to repent!
-If you’re unsaved, there is time this morning to repent and trust in Christ and have Him wash away your sins entirely!
-And if you’re a Christian, no matter how poor a spouse you’ve been
-No matter how poor a parent you’ve been
-No matter how bitter and unforgiving you’ve been
-No matter how angry and impatient you’ve been
-No matter how anxious and untrusting of God you’ve been
-You can choose to own your sins this morning
-You can claim your sins as your fault and no one else’s
-You can confess your sins and repent and God will forgive you and judge you based on what you do now!
But the same is also true in the opposite way:

24 “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.

-This verse is not speaking of someone who lives for the Lord but falls temporarily into sin
-Rather, this verse is speaking of someone who seems to be living for the Lord, but then decides to abandon God and live his or her own way
-Jesus described this kind of person in his parable of the soils as someone who hears the word, receives it with joy, and seems to begin to grow
-However, when hardship comes along or persecution for the sake of God’s Word, this person falls away from the faith and shows their true colors
Maybe this doesn’t seem fair to you
It didn’t seem fair to Israel:

25 “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’

“God, we don’t like the way you handle things”
“We don’t like the way you judge people!”
“Your ways aren’t fair!”

Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair? 26 When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies. 27 Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. 28 Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?

-If you don’t think this is fair, it’s not God’s justice that’s skewed
-It’s your’s
-When someone turns from their lifestyle and lives a new lifestyle, God will judge that person on how they now choose to live
-If they turn from following God to pursue sin, God will judge them accordingly
-But if they recognize their sins
-And they turn from those sins
-And they seek after God
-God will forgive them and judge them based on their choice to follow Him now
-It’s not God who is unfair
-You and I don’t get to question God on His judgements
As Paul says,

let God be true but every man a liar.

So what do we do with all of this?
-What’s the point of all of this?
-I’m glad you asked:
-God Himself applies His own sermon:

30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD.

-Did you hear that??
-Here’s what God wants you to do this morning:
-Repent!!
-Turn from your sins!
-Why?

so that iniquity will not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”

God takes NO pleasure in bringing His judgment down on sinners
-His desire is that every person repent and come to the knowledge of the truth
-The whole point of this tough, hard to swallow, confrontational word from the Lord is to give you the good news that there is life,
-There is joy,
-There is peace,
-There is forgiveness waiting for you from God in Christ if you’ll repent
-If you’re unsaved, you can today be forgiven by God
-If you’re willing to own your sin
-To admit that you are an enemy of God who has broken his Law more times than you can even remember
-To say, “guilty as charged!”
-And then to cry out to God for mercy
-To repent of that sin
-And to turn in faith to Jesus, God’s own Son whom He sent to die on the cross as the substitute for your sin
-To believe in your heart that He rose again
-To confess Him as Lord
-You can be completely forgiven and lay hold of eternal life
And Christian,
-You must stop making excuses for your sin
-Your bitterness
-Your impatience
-Your worry
-Your anger
-Your lust
-Your pride
-Your selfishness
It’s not anyone else’s fault
-It’s not your parents’ fault
-It’s not your spouse’s fault
-It’s not your children’s fault
-It’s not societies fault
-It’s not your medical condition’s fault
-Your sin is entirely your own choice
-And that’s hard to admit and come to grips with
-But if you do,
-If you truly see it for what it is and confess it
-You can repent from it
-You can be forgiven
-You can grow and develop Christ-like character where sin used to reign
-But this will never happen as long you view yourself as a victim
-It will never happen as long as you still blame someone or something else
Please, hear this final word from the Lord on the matter

“Therefore turn and live!”

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