Now let's turn back in our Bibles
to Ezekiel chapter 33. I started this chapter last time
and I want to see if we can finish it out tonight on this subject.
The tragedy of hope denied. The tragedy of hope denied. I took the title from verse 32
of this chapter where it talks about how the people that were
in the captivity who had come to listen to the prophet Ezekiel
speak the word of God. It says in verse 32, Lo thou
art unto them a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice
and can play well on an instrument. In other words, they loved the
preaching. They loved to hear Ezekiel speak. But it says, for
they hear thy words, but they do them not. That's the tragedy. And the reason I call this message
the tragedy of hope denied is because that's exactly what Ezekiel's
talking about. He's talking about hope, the
future hope for the people of God, sinners saved by grace,
that's wrapped up and founded upon and conditioned upon the
coming Messiah. Look back at verse 10 of Ezekiel
33. At the end of that verse, we'll
just look at the verse. It says, Therefore, thou, O son
of man, speak unto the house of Israel. Thus she speaks, saying,
If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine
away in them, how should we then live? That question, how then
should we live? If our transgressions and our
sins be upon us. If sin is charged to us and we
are sinners, there's no doubt about that. The question is not,
are you a sinner? Am I a sinner? We're all sinners.
The question is, can we count ourselves among the blessed of
the Lord like David of old in Psalm 32 and say, blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Am I charged before
God with my sins? Well, if I am, how should we
then live? That's a cry of despair, isn't it? In other words, it's
kind of like a rhetorical question. If sin is charged to me, there's
no way I can live. Because the wages of sin is death.
The just penalty of all sin is death. But then look at verse
11. He says, saying to them, as I
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. Again, as I Spoke last time showing how the Lord God
is not a bloodthirsty despot who simply enjoys punishing the
wicked for the sake of his own pleasure and their pain. That's not what he is. He's about
God's judgment is the results of his justice, his holiness. God cannot just simply allow
sin to go unpunished. He would as soon cease to be
God. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? And people need to understand
that today. God cannot just look over sin.
He can't deny it. He cannot act as if it doesn't
exist. And his compassion is not such
that he just forgets about it in the sense of not dealing with
it. And that's what this is about.
But it's not because he's bloodthirsty. It's not because he's some kind
of a sadistical God that just enjoys seeing people suffer.
It's because he's holy, and he's just, and he's righteous, and
he must deal in truth. He doesn't deal in fiction. And
I'll tell you what, that's a comfort when you come to see how God
really saves sinners, isn't it? Because when God saves a sinner,
he doesn't deal in fiction there either. He doesn't deal in, he
doesn't deny reality. He deals with it head on. And
remember, I can't remember which psalm it is now, because I didn't
write it down, but where it talks about how, I think it's Psalm
130, but I may be wrong somewhere around there. 103, I think, where
it says, he hath not dealt with us after our sins. And I always
point out, he doesn't say there, he has not dealt with our sins.
He says he has not dealt with us after, he dealt with somebody
else for our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ. But look at verse 11,
he says, but that the wicked turn from his way and live, turn
ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house
of Israel? Now that's a message of hope.
God is holy, He must hate and punish all iniquity. So what
does He do? He commands sinners to repent. That's what He does. Now all
fallen men, here's the tragedy of man by nature. Here's the
tragedy of us by nature. Fallen in Adam, born dead in
trespasses and sin. And that's this, that all fallen
men and women without exception will choose death over life if
left to ourselves. So that's the case. Now why would
we do something like that? Why would we be so foolish as
to choose death over life? Well, it's first of all because
we're deceived. Deceived by Satan, deceived by
our own darkness and ignorance. We choose death because we think
it's a way of life. For example, when we talk about
salvation by works. I use this term, salvation conditioned
on the sinner. Now the reason I say it that
way instead of just saying salvation by works, let me ask you a question.
If you flip around on television or you go to just about any church
in this town tonight, how many preachers are you gonna hear
stand up behind their pulpits and say, we preach salvation
by works here? How many of you think is gonna
do that? I'll just about venture to say not one of them will actually
get up and say, I'm saying salvation is by works. Now they do. They, I mean, they, they do preach
salvation, but they won't say it that way. Well, what is salvation
by works? Well, it's any part of salvation
at any time, at any stage, to any degree conditioned on the
center and not on Christ alone who fulfilled the conditions.
That's the difference. That's why I say it that way.
But man chooses death because he thinks, he's deceived himself
into thinking that that death is really a way of life. It's
not true. Those false preachers who stood
before the Lord at judgment said, haven't we preached in your name?
Haven't we done many wonderful works? Haven't we cast out demons?
They thought that was their way of life. But in reality, it was
a way of death. And the second reason that men
will choose death over life is because of self-righteousness.
Man thinks more highly of himself than he is. Why would anybody
preach salvation conditioned on the sinner and call it life
and hope? Tell you why. Because he thinks
sinners can meet those conditions, whatever they are. And it depends
on what brand or denomination you go to, what the condition
is. You go to the Church of Christ, they say baptism is the condition.
You go to such and such another church, they say walk in the
aisle, confessing publicly in that way, repeating the sinner's
prayer, giving your heart to Jesus. They'll have all kinds
of conditions. They vary. But they think that
they can meet those conditions. Well, what does the Bible say?
The Bible says man will not seek after the living God. In fact,
the Bible says this, it even goes further than that. It says
that light has come into the world and men love what? Darkness
rather than light. They hate the light, it says,
because their deeds are evil. You say that whatever conditions
you think you've met in order to attain or maintain salvation,
if I were to tell you that that's wickedness, you're either going
to love that message or you're going to hate it. There's no
in-between there, is there? But that's the case. Men choose
death because they're deceived and because of their pride and
self-righteousness. I know. You know that. Because
that's where we were by nature. If God has shown us any different,
if He's opened our eyes and given us ears to hear. Now, beginning
here in chapter 33, what's happened here? Well, Jerusalem and the
temple have been destroyed now. You remember, Ezekiel's been
talking about that. He's shown in All kinds of prophecies,
the visions that God gave him. He himself was an acted out prophecy. And he kept telling them that
the city, you know, the city's going to be destroyed. The temple's
going to be destroyed. All these false preachers were
telling the people, no, no, no, God wouldn't destroy this nation. We're Abraham's children. We've
got the temple. We're the people of God and we're
going back home. But now, now the temple's destroyed. Now Jerusalem is destroyed. And
the people are thinking, well, if that's the case, it's all
over now. It's all over. What are we going
to do? We're in despair. But the whole
message of Ezekiel from this chapter all the way to the end
of the book is that there's something much, much, much better. and much more glorious coming. Something that's much greater
than that old covenant, better covenant. Something much greater
than that earthly city of Jerusalem. As beautiful as it was under
David and Solomon, look at it now, it's in shambles. Temporary. Things of this world pass away.
Something much, much better than that earthly temple. Something
better. Someone much greater than the
blood of bulls and goats and animals. And what is that something? Christ. Jesus Christ, the Messiah
of God. The one who was prophesied of
back in Genesis and the coming of the new covenant. And so the
message of Ezekiel is this, repent and turn to the Lord for righteousness. Don't look to yourself. And these
verses here, you know it's important that we really understand these
verses that right here beginning at verse 12. I dealt with them
a little bit, but let's make sure we understand what he's
saying. I'll put it to you this way. He's talking about when
righteousness shall not deliver and when sin will not condemn. You hear that? And that's what
he's going to be talking about in these next few verses. When
righteousness will not deliver. Now we think, well, righteousness
will always deliver. Well, there's a time when righteousness
will not deliver. And we think, well, sin will
always condemn. Well, there's a time when sin will not condemn.
Well, what's he talking about? Well, look at it again, verse
12. Therefore thou son of man say unto the children of thy
people the righteousness of the righteous Shall not deliver him
in the day of his transgression That's when righteousness will
not deliver when sin enters into the picture and He says as for
the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in
the day that he turneth from his wickedness Neither shall
the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the
day that he sinneth In other words, that wicked person, when
God brings that wicked person to turn from his wickedness,
he will not be condemned. And what he's talking about here,
look at verse 13. When I shall say to the righteous
that he shall surely live, if he trusts to his own righteousness,
which men by nature do, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness
shall not be remembered. But for his iniquity that he
hath committed, he shall die. For whatever righteousness a
man trusts in, it will not save him if sin enters the picture."
That's what he's saying. Now what righteousness do you
think he's talking about? Well, he's talking about the
righteousness of man. He's talking about righteousness
as men see it, and I'll tell you what. If you would even talk
about a perfect righteousness for man, which you can do scripturally,
how can you do that? Go back to Adam before the fall.
There's man in the garden in perfect righteousness. Now, when
sin entered the picture, what happened? God said, in the day
that ye eat thereof, thine thou shalt die. Adam's righteousness
couldn't deliver him. What does that tell you? Well,
you cannot trust to human righteousness, not even the best. Now, whatever
men see as righteousness today, it couldn't even compare with
Adam before the fall, could it? So if Adam's righteousness couldn't
deliver him when centered in the picture, what in the world
makes me or you or anybody else think that any human righteousness
that we concoct or try to work out could deliver us. Human righteousness
cannot do it. Now, of course, he's not speaking
of one who is truly righteous because he has no sin, because
we're all sinners. That's already settled in Scripture
since the fall. And he's not even speaking of
one who has Christ's righteousness imputed here because no sin is
charged to him. You know, that's why we need
the righteousness of God. That's why the gospel is the
revelation of the righteousness of God. Human righteousness won't
do it when sin enters into the picture. But with the righteousness
of God, which is Christ's righteousness imputed to us, Not only will
sin not enter the picture, sin cannot enter the picture. You say, what do you mean, preacher?
I'm a sinner. I mean, sin cannot be charged where the righteousness
of God is already charged. That's what I mean. That's why
we don't trust ourselves. You see, this is one who is not
truly righteous and a man's own righteousness in which he trusts.
It's like those that we read about last time in Luke 18. They
trust in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
The best righteousness of the best of human beings cannot deliver
from transgression. The only thing that can deliver
from transgression is the righteousness of God, the blood of Jesus Christ. He says here that when a sinner
is brought to repentance, he talks about turn from your wickedness.
Now, none of us by nature will turn from our wickedness. If
left to ourselves, we won't do it. So when a sinner is brought
to repentance to turn from his wickedness, what does the Bible
mean when it talks about turning from our sin, turning from our
wickedness, turning from our idols? Well, whenever the Bible
speaks of turning from sin, it always has in mind, and most
of the time it's stated out, it always has in mind turning
to someone, doesn't it? In fact, the only way a sinner
truly turns from his sin, his wickedness, and from his own
righteousness is when he turns to Christ for salvation. I mean,
he can turn to religion, but he's still not turning from his
sin, is he? He can turn to his own works, he can turn over a
new leaf, he can start acting differently, he can do a lot
of things that society and religion would applaud, but he has not
turned from his sin and wickedness until God brings him to turn
to Christ. And so when a sinner is brought
to repentance, what is he brought to? He's brought to trust in
the living God. He's brought to trust in Christ
for all forgiveness, for all salvation, for all righteousness.
And what he says here, that sinner shall not fall. Look at verse 14. Again, when
I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, if he turn from his
sin and do that which is lawful and right, Though that term,
you may see in your concordance here, the term lawful and right,
that term means to do judgment and justice. Now let me ask you
a question. How can a sinner in the sight
of holy God do judgment and justice? How is that possible? To do with
that which is right and lawful. We'll look over it Jeremiah 23
and you remember this now Jeremiah is contemporary with Ezekiel
what was Ezekiel's prophesying in Babylon the captivity Jeremiah
has been prophesying in Jerusalem now when the city and the temples
destroyed as you know Jeremiah was carted off to Egypt And so
whether he's there at this particular time or not, or getting ready
to leave, or whatever, we don't know. But look at what he says
in verse 5 of chapter 23. He says, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch,
and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall do what? Do that which
is lawful and right. Same language. He will execute
judgment and justice in the earth. That's the work of Christ, you
see. It's true that sinners can act justly and rightly towards
each other as far as our dealings with each other, and we should.
But that doesn't make up righteousness before God. And that certainly
will not be God's assessment of a sinner turning from his
wickedness and turning to the Lord. And it says in verse 6
there, in his days, Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell
safely, and this is his name whereby he shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. So all of this has in mind and
in view turning to Christ. You see, repentance not only
involves turning from immorality, but it involves turning from
our own righteousnesses. Paul shows that in Philippians
chapter 3, doesn't he? So there's no amount or degree
of human righteousness that can save a person from sin, only
the righteousness of God in Christ. Now look at verse 15. Now here,
this describes the actions of sinners who have truly repented.
In other words, is their repentance genuine? Or is it just fake? He says, if the wicked restore
the pledge, that is what they promised to pay, give again,
that is robbed. walk in the statutes of life
without committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall
not die." Now that, as I said, that's not describing one who's
trying to work out a righteousness of his own before God as in salvation
by works. In fact, Paul, by the Holy Spirit,
he said that Israel, Israel did not achieve righteousness for
that very reason in Romans chapter 9 and in how many other places. It's impossible for a sinner
to be justified before God by works. And then you remember
how the Bible teaches from the very beginning that man in sin
cannot work his way to righteousness. But this is describing one who
has truly from the heart been brought by the Holy Spirit to
true repentance. It's kind of like Zacchaeus.
You remember Zacchaeus? When he was converted, it's recorded
in Luke 19 and 8, he said, I will restore fourfold that which I've
taken, you know. Zacchaeus is not telling the
Lord there, well, you've given me a leg up, now I'm going to
work out my own righteousness. No. He's just simply saying this
was the thoughts of his heart, a repentant heart. And that's
what he's saying here. So verse 16 says, None of his
sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him. he hath
done that which is lawful and right, just and right, he shall
surely live. Well, life is in Christ. And when he talks about up there
in verse 15, without committing iniquity, he's certainly not
talking about anybody who's sinlessly perfect. He's talking about one
who's turned from his wickedness to the Lord, walking by faith. And here he's talking about a
lifestyle of faith in Christ and true love for the Lord. Well,
look what happens. Now here, God has set before
them life and death. Now that's what's happened. And
that didn't just start in chapter 33. I mean, Ezekiel's been prophesying
of that all along, hadn't he? God has set forth before them
the way of eternal life for all who come to him as sinners seeking
mercy. Every time the gospel is preached,
that's what God does. He sets before us eternal life
and eternal death, the way. And so he says in verse 17, yet
the children of thy people say, the way of the Lord is not equal,
but as for them, their way is not equal. So what does he do? What happens when the way of
life and they say, God, that's not fair. That's what they're
saying there. You're not being just. You see, they're offended. That's
what that statement, the way of the Lord is not equal. God
is not just, God's not being fair with us. He's talking about
salvation for sinners by grace. And look at verse 18, he says,
when the righteous turneth from his righteousness and committeth
iniquity, he shall even die thereby. I mean, that refers to anybody. who has iniquity, even the religious. He says in verse 20, Yet you
say the way of the Lord is not equal, O ye house of Israel,
I will judge you every one after his way. God says your way is
not equal, your way is not just. You see, fallen sinful man persist
in his depravity by bringing false charges against God. You
remember how the Apostle Paul dealt with that in Romans 9?
Is there injustice with God? God saves by grace. Through the
Lord Jesus Christ. It has absolutely nothing to
do with the works of the sinner. That's the offense of grace.
Somebody comes along and says, now you mean I've been trying
to be good all my life? And that doesn't earn me a thing?
Are you kidding me? God justifies the ungodly, not
those who deserve it. And the reason is because there's
none of us who deserve it. God gives wretched sinners the
same salvation by His mercy and grace. Here's a religious person.
Here's the rich young man. Lord, I've kept those from my
youth up. Here's the thief on the cross. I don't know about
the rich young man if he did enter heaven or not. There's
nothing indicated there in that episode. But if God were to save
that rich young man and he entered heaven with the thief, they would
enter heaven on equal terms. That's right. Both washed in
the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness. Here's
Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin. And here's the woman at the well,
an adulterous woman. If God saved them both, it would
be equally by grace. The woman at the well was not
in more need of grace and mercy than Nicodemus. That's what this
whole thing is all about, you see. But man in his pride, he
says, well, we want to be judged after our ways. But that's death. Well, look at verse 21. He says,
it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the
tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had
escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me saying, the city is smitten,
the city is fallen. This is the one who escaped.
You know, there was one person that we know of who escaped out
of the city and came to Babylon, and he delivered the report.
He told Ezekiel, he told the people, the city is fallen. Uh-oh. Well, God's word is true. And he says, verse 22, now the
hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening afore he that
was escaped came and he opened my mouth until he came to me
in the morning and my mouth was open and I was no more dumb.
Ezekiel's referring to the time he could not speak to the people
until God gave him a revelation to prophesy. The only thing Ezekiel
could say up to this point was what God told him to say. Apparently
he couldn't even just have a conversation with people. He was dumb in that
sense. But now, he said, I was no more
dumb. Verse 23, then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel
speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, but
we are many. The land is given us for an inheritance. What are they pleading here?
Well, they're going back to Abraham. They had their physical connection
to Abraham. Abraham's our father. That ought
to count for something. We're Jews. We're physical descendants
of Abraham. We're righteous because we're
Abraham's seed. Abraham was only one man. We're
many. Turn over to Isaiah 51 with me.
Look at this. This phrase about Abraham being
one is found in this prophecy of Isaiah here. One which speaks
of God restoring waste places. And listen to who it's directed.
Verse 1 of Isaiah 51. Hearken to me, listen to me,
you that follow after righteousness. You that what? Seek the Lord. That means they're seeking the
righteousness which is of faith in Christ, the promised Messiah.
Look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of
the pit which you are digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
that is, what did Abraham believe? Well, he looked to Christ, John
chapter 8. And unto Sarah that bare you,
for I called him alone, he's just one man, I called him alone,
and blessed him and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort
Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make
her wilderness like Eden. And her desert, like the garden
of the Lord, joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving,
and the voice of melody." You see, that prophecy seems aimed
at God's restoration of waste places, and these people Here
in Ezekiel they felt that since Abraham had a claim to the land
and he was all by himself, shouldn't they have an even greater claim
to that land? Because there's more of them.
But you see that prophecy in Isaiah 51 is directed to who?
Those who follow after righteousness. True righteousness. Those who
follow after Christ. Not just a physical connection
to Abraham. So here they are. Jerusalem's
destroyed. It's all over. That's what they're
saying. But Ezekiel steps in and he tells
them, now no, there's something greater coming. There's a greater
glory. Look at verse 25. Now here they're
pleading their physical connection with Abraham and he says, Wherefore
say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, You eat with the blood. That's idolatry. You lift up
your eyes toward your idols. You shed blood. Shall you possess
the land? You've given up your rights to
the land by your sin. An idolater. You stand upon your
sword. You work abomination. You defile
everyone, his neighbor's wife. And shall you possess the land?
Say thou thus unto them, thus saith the Lord God, as I live,
surely they that are in the waste shall fall by the sword, and
him that is in the open field will I give to the beast to be
devoured. And they that be in the forts and in the caves shall
die of the pestilence. For I will lay the land most
desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease. The mountains
of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
And then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid
the land most desolate because of their abominations which they
have committed." So, they've given up their claim to the land
because of their sin. And what this does, it vindicates
God's word. It vindicates God's prophet.
Verse 30, also thou son of man, the children of thy people still
are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the
houses. They speak to one to another, every one to his brother,
saying, come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh
forth from the Lord. Now, we don't know if that's
sarcasm or if they really want to hear what he has to say, but
they knew this, the city was smitten. The city was fallen. Ezekiel preached that. None of
these other prophets did. They said everything's okay back
there. But now we know the city's destroyed. So they say, come,
I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from
the Lord, verse 31, and they come unto thee as the people
cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy
words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show
much love, and with their heart goeth after their covetousness. They draw near with their mouth,
but their heart's far from me, Christ saith. And lo, thou art
unto them a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice
and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but
they do them not. Ezekiel speaks of hope. He speaks
of a bright future. He speaks the gospel. And they
say, we love to hear it. But they don't believe it. They
walk away unaffected. And when this cometh to pass,
verse 33, lo it will come, then shall they know that a prophet
hath been among them. When God's word is fulfilled,
they're going to know this man spoke the truth. They judge because they hear.
The people will be judged by God, rather, because they hear,
but they don't heed God's word. They would not repent, just like
over in the book of James that we read. They looked in the mirror,
they saw themselves, they walked away, forgot what they heard. I think that's a terrible, terrible
indictment, isn't it? That's a tragedy. Here he is
talking about the hope of the bright future that will come
in Christ. And they heard it, said they
loved it. Some of them probably even said,
we want to hear more. But they didn't believe it. Is it possible
that we could be sitting and hearing and just walk away unaffected? That's the tragedy of hope denied,
isn't it? Christ said, you know, before
He related those false prophets in Matthew 7, He said, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
What is it to do the will of the Father is to believe on the
Son. I thought about this in my situation,
in yours, and how I thank God for the new covenant. I really
do. God's grace in Christ. Because
you know what he says in the new covenant? He said, I'm going
to put my spirit within them. We're going to read about that
in chapter 34. I'll put my spirit within them. I'll give them a
new heart. They'll hear what I have to say. They'll believe it. They'll be
my people and I'll be their God. That's all the I-wills of God.
Because I know if left to our will, we'll just walk out whatever's
said. And you know, we as believers,
we can do that too. You know that. We can hear the
words of the Lord. He can speak to us. about our
situations and what we're going through, and we can just walk
out like, might as well just like water off a duck's back,
can't we? I've done it, you do it too. It can happen. To me, that's such a tragedy
too. When God brings a sinner under the preaching of his word,
what our prayer ought to be Lord let me he let me hear let me
heed what you have to say to me give me ears to hear don't
let me just walk out of here like I've just I've been to church
you know well big deal you've been to church did you feed upon
the Word of God did I feed upon it do you know it's possible
even preach it and not hear it I believe that I think one of
the One of the most common places that men miss Christ is standing
behind a pulpit. I really do. And that's why I
pray, Lord, don't let me just walk away from here and not be
affected by what I've just heard. Let me love Christ, follow him. Let me strive to be like him.
Not in order to be righteous, because I can't do that, but
because I already am. For he is the Lord my righteousness,
all right.