Ezekiel chapter 18. Ezekiel chapter
18. I guess if I had a title, it
would be an accusation against God. An accusation against God. Or a bad proverb. A bad proverb. The scripture
here says in verse 1, And the word of the Lord came unto me,
saying, What mean ye that ye use this proverb concerning the
land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children's teeth are set on edge? These Jews at this time were
in captivity. They were in captivity, enslaved
to Babylon. And they began to murmur about
their lot. They were murmuring and complaining
about where they were. And what their proverb was, what
their saying was, was that the fathers have sinned and now we've
been smitten. In other words, it was my father's
fault. If our fathers had done better,
we wouldn't be in this place. And so they said, the fathers
have eaten sour grapes and the children have tasted. That's
what it means to set on edge. You eat a sour something and
your teeth are just, you know, get that pucker face. That's
what he's saying. The fathers have eaten them,
but the children have the sour face. This was a saying. And the meaning
of it was that God was unjust and cruel to punish them for
the sins of their fathers. And that they would make themselves
to be innocent and they justified themselves by this proverb. And the Lord said before in the
Scriptures. He said that He would visit the
iniquity of the fathers unto the children to the third and
fourth generation. The Lord has said that He would
visit the iniquity of the parents unto the children. He did this
for a very specific reason. He did this to warn them. To warn them. If their fathers
had sinned, God was warning them not to continue in the sin of
their fathers. If they continued in that sin,
then He would punish them. This was an act not of God's
unrighteousness, but rather God's long-suffering. God's long-suffering. How many
years did God extend this message to the people of Israel? After
they followed Jeroboam. Remember, Jeroboam set up those
other houses of worship. And God says, don't follow after
your father, Jeroboam. If you follow after him, you
will be punished. And so God gave them how many
years? Hundreds of years before He actually
brought judgment on them. So instead, God was saying, in
mercy, that if you continue in your parents' sin, then you would
be judged. The same was true of the children
of Judah, who followed after the sin of their father Manasseh. God says, if you continue in
that sin, if you continue to follow your fathers, He said,
then I will punish you unto the third and fourth generation,
and however many generations that follow, that follow after
their father's sin, that's how many generations I'll punish.
Therefore, God says, how dare you accuse me of being unrighteous,
you foolish children. That's what they were doing.
When they said it was our father's fault, really what they were
saying, it was God's fault. It was God's fault. Yet is this
still not the proverb of our generation? Is this still not
the same thing that our children and their children are saying?
It's my parents' fault. I'm in this condition because
of my mommy, because of my daddy. What are they doing? They are
accusing God, trying to excuse themselves. You are a foolish
child to say such things. They're saying, men say that
they're under a certain consequence because of their sin. They accuse
their parents. Well, if my parents, if they'd
have just been there, I'd have been a better person, liar, That's not true. They use this same proverb. These
psychiatrists and psychologists use this all the time. Tell me
about your mom and dad. You got problems, I want you
to tell me about your parents. Why? They're shifting the blame.
Shifting the blame. I said, if your daddy wasn't
a workaholic, or if your daddy wasn't a drug addict, if your
mama wasn't a prostitute, then you would have been a better
person. No, you wouldn't have. You are who you are. You are
a sinner. You are a sinner. And so God says this, is nothing
less than shifting the blame from our sins to justify ourselves,
and in consequence we are accusing God of being unrighteous. That's
what God's telling him. He said, you're accusing me.
When you accuse your father, when you say it's your father's
fault that you're in Babylon, you're a liar and you're accusing
me of unrighteousness, of injustice. Is this not the same sin of Adam? When Adam was confronted with
his sin, what did he say? He said to God, the woman you
gave me. It was a backhanded slap in God's
face. He was blaming the woman, but
really he was blaming God. The woman you gave me. It's your
fault. It's her fault and it's your
fault, but it's not my fault. God says this, listen. He says,
as I live, does God live? You bet He does. As I live, You
shall not have occasion anymore to say this proverb. I'm going
to tell you something that's going to take this excuse that
you have and it's going to throw it right out the window. As I
live this morning, you will not be able to use this excuse again.
Listen, every one of you will not be able to use this excuse.
God is going to give you the answer to this so that everyone
is clear as to why you will go. If you go to hell, you'll know
why. And it's not your parents' fault.
If you go to hell, it will be your own doing. Your own doing. First of all, see this. God declares
His divine right. He says this in verse 4. He says,
Behold, stop and consider this. Listen to this. This just flies
in the face of all false religion. God says, behold, all souls are
mine. You get that? Who owns all men? God does. God does. You are owned. In our day, everybody is so anti-slavery. Everybody wants to put away flags
and things like that, foolish little things. But truly, everyone
here is a slave under God. Yes. I don't care which country
you live in. I don't care which government
you have. You belong to God. He made you and you did not make
yourself. He has divine right as Creator
to do with you as He pleases. Spit at Him if you want to. You
are who you are and where you are because God owns you. He
owns you. All souls are mine. And truly God does not have to
give an account of Himself to anyone. To anyone. I remember hearing this blasphemous
preacher, Baptist blasphemous preacher of free will works religion. Don't mistake me, listen, all
free will works religion is blasphemy. You hear that? I want to make
that as plain as I can. All free will works religion
is blasphemy. This man said this, he said at
the cross there were two games being played, two gambles being
made. He said one was at the foot of
the cross where the Roman soldiers were gambling for the garment
of Jesus Christ. He said the other game that was
being played was Jesus Christ was gambling for the souls of
men. That is the heart of free will
works religion. God says, I own all souls. Jesus Christ was not gambling
for anything. They believe that He died so
that men might give Him their souls. They believe man is some
kind of neutral creature that stands between God and Satan
and He gives His soul to whomsoever. God says, No, I own your soul
because I made your soul. And I'll do with it as I please.
I'll do with your soul as I please. And how will God deal with the
souls of men? God is the owner of all souls. How will God deal with your soul?
What will God do with your soul? Whatever God does with your soul,
know this, it is holy, it is right, and it is just, because
God is holy, God is right, and God is just. He cannot do evil,
and He will not. He will always act rightly. You and I are just the opposite.
We'll always act wrongly. Praise God my soul is not in
your hands and your soul is not in my hands. I'm thankful my
own soul is not in my hands. Praise God for that. It's in
His hands. He owns all souls are His. The
father, the son, the son of the son, the grandson, the grandchild,
all souls are His. And what does God say about the
souls of men? Look at this in verse 4. He says,
Behold, all souls are mine, and the soul of the Father, so also
the soul of the Son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Is this a probably Is this a
maybe? Is this a perhaps? No. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. Truly all souls of men belong
to God as they were created by Him and He sustains them and
the Holy God is above all reproach. You put a man in a perfect environment. Perfect situation. And I promise
you, you'll sin. Isn't that what we learned with
Adam? Adam was given everything perfect. He had a holy nature.
He had everything. He had dominion over the world
at that time. He had a perfect wife. He had everything! And yet he sinned. God gave him
one commandment. One. Do not eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely..." What? "...die. The soul that sinneth,
it shall..." What? "...die." Is this not the same
message He's been telling us all along? The soul that sinneth
against Me, the owner of the soul, shall surely die. God is just and He must punish
sin. See this, that God made Adam
as a representative man of all his race. So that when Adam fell,
we all fell in Adam. We all died in Adam. And so death passed upon all
his posterity, all his seed, all his line, all his descendants,
born dead. As a result of one man's sin,
all humanity died, spiritually died. Wherefore God had sovereignly
ordained Adam to represent a whole race, the whole race of man.
And when he died, we died. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. So death came upon all
men, passed on all men for all sin. When Adam sinned, you sinned. This was God's sovereign will
to deal with men's souls in a representative. Why? Because if Christ, because if
God had not dealt with us in a representative, none of us
would have been saved. There would be no salvation.
But because God from before the foundation of the world chose
some of Adam's race to be made holy by Jesus Christ, the representative
of all his elect. You see, before Adam was ever
a representative, Christ was a representative. God had taken
His elect people, His chosen people, and He owned them. He could do with us as He pleases.
And He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world as
a representative man. He was our surety. Man says if salvation is by the
will of God and not by the will of man, then God is unjust. What are they saying? They're
saying, if I go to hell, it's because of Adam. No. You won't go to hell
because of Adam. Go to hell because of you. Go to hell because of you. Men say, and they reply against
God, they say, well, that's not fair. Go over to Romans chapter
9. That's not fair. God didn't give me a free will. Romans chapter 9, and beginning in verse 18. Therefore, this is the conclusion
of election. He loved Jacob and hated Esau.
He raised up Pharaoh just to show his power. And he says,
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom
he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say unto me, Why does
he yet find fault? In other words, why is he punishing
anybody? If God chooses to love one and
hate the other, you're going to say to me, then why does he
find anybody at fault? For who hath resisted his will? Well, if I'm going to save, I'm
not going to resist His will, and if I'm not chosen, then I'm
just going to go on. You know, who resists His will?
See what they're doing? They're blaming God again. They're
pointing the finger at God. Well, if I go to hell, it's God's
fault. He didn't choose me. It's His fault. No! But, old man, who are you to
reply against God? shall not the thing formed say
to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath
not the potter power of the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another to dishonor? Is it not God's
right? It is God's right. Why? Because He doesn't take of a
bad And a good, he takes all from the bad. Every man is of
the same lump. We are all fallen in Adam. We
are all sinners. Worthy of what? Death. Death. That's what sin brings.
It brings death. Not just physical, but spiritual,
eternal death. That's what sin brings. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. And all men are doing by their
proverbs and by their sayings is blaming God. God is just to do with us as
He pleases, but I tell you this, God will do right by you. God
will do right by you because God is just. How shall we who are born sinners
judge God who made us, who sustains us, we should be so thankful that
he did not throw us in hell from birth is that not mercy alone
is that not compassion alone that God allows us to live and
breathe his air all the while we were rebelling against him
all the while we were cursing him and whether you like it or
not you belong to God And because God is holy, every soul that
sins will die because of his own sin. If you go to hell, I
promise you, it will be because of your sin. Your sin. Listen, I pray you'd be honest
with yourself. This morning, I want you to be
honest with your own soul. Have you sinned? Have you sinned? God says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall surely, it shall die. Now in verses 5 through 18, the
Lord lays out before us three generations of men. He says,
there's a Father. He says, this man, take a man,
and if this man were to live just his whole life, if this
man were not an idolater, if this man were to do good all
of his life, if this man were to live righteous, listen to
God, He says, if a man live righteous, he'll live. Is that not just? Is that not
right? If a soul lives righteously,
then God promises. He says that man will live. But
if that man have a son, and that son does not follow his father. Say you've got a father who lives
holy and justly and righteously before God, and he has a son,
and his son is a horrible person. This man, he's a sinner, and
he does everything against what his father did before him. Do you suppose that man will
live, God says? He said, I tell you, he will
not. If he is a sinner, he will die. Now listen, if that man
has a son, see we've gone through three generations now, you've
had one that was holy, one that was righteous, obedient, then
you had one that came along and he was a wicked, vile man, he
did sin, he'll die. Now then this guy, this wicked
man has a son. Now he looks at his father and
his father did all these bad things, he said, I'm not doing
that. and he turns and he goes into the good direction that
his grandfather went. God says, then that man, if he's
obedient, if he is just, he'll live. Now tell me how that's
wrong. Is that not right? Even in our
wicked eyes we can see that that's correct. We can see that that's
just, that that's holy, that that's good. Now then, which one of us, which
one of these three are we? Which one are you? Have you lived wholly, righteously,
and justly, completely, obedient to God? I didn't say, did you
do the best you can. Have you followed all of God?
Okay, do you know all of God's statutes? Can you recite all
of God's statutes? I'm not just talking about the
Ten Commandments. I'm talking about the whole law. This thing
isn't partial. This thing isn't just piecemeal
here and there. The whole thing. You heard that,
that ignorance of the law is no excuse? Isn't that right?
That's true of God's Word. Just because you don't know about
it, Doesn't mean you're not guilty of it. The law is there. It's even in your heart. Even
in your heart. Which one of these men are you? What shall we do? If God owns us, If God says the
soul that sinneth, it shall die, regardless of what your parents
did, what will you do? Praise God for verse 19. I'm sorry. Yes, beginning in verse 19. He
said, Yet you say, why, doth not the Son bear the iniquity
of the Father? When the Son hath done that which
is lawful and right, and kept My statutes, and done them, He
shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The Son shall not bear the iniquity
of the Father, neither shall the Father bear the iniquity
of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon
Him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon Him. But,
oh precious, precious conjunction, but if the wicked, wait a second,
that's me, that's me, if the wicked will turn from his sins
that he hath committed and shall keep my statutes and do that
which is lawful and right, he shall surely live and shall not
die. He shall not die. Do we not deserve to die? Has God not proved this? Has
He not proved this to you? Behold the grace then of God. Are you a wicked man? Then God
says to the wicked man, the man who deserves death, if he turn
from his sin that he hath committed, in order for you to turn from
your sin, you have to confess it. Is that not right? You must
confess it. You must confess that all your
righteousnesses are as filthy ray. You wicked man, listen. God has given you a great benefit
here. The Gospel says, if the wicked
shall turn from his wickedness that he's committed, turn from
all his iniquity. What is your iniquity? It's everything
you've done. That's your iniquity. I'm not
telling you to pick one sin here and one sin there. You've not
just done one sin here and one sin there. All you are is sin. All you've done is sin. And all
you deserve is death. He says, confess and then repent. Turn. If you turn, it's simple. A child
can understand if I'm facing this direction and I turn, I'm
facing another direction. What are we turning from? I'm
turning from my sin that causes death, and I'm turning to something,
rather someone, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm turning from my sin
because it's not going to get me anything. It has no fruit.
It can't satisfy me, and it definitely does not satisfy God. So I turn
from all I've done and all I'm doing, and what do I do? I turn
to someone. I turn to Jesus Christ. This
is the Savior. This is the one God sent. This
is the one to whom we turn and repent and believe on Him. Oh, but how shall we obey his
statutes? He says not only turn, but he
said keep all my statutes. Well, just confess, we didn't
even know them all. How can we keep them? Because
I'm going to tell you about one who did. Jesus Christ has obeyed
all of them. And this is the gospel. That
to everyone that believeth, he gives his righteousness. And
it becomes theirs. It becomes ours. This is the
good news. I turn from my sin and I get
righteousness. Yes! This is the gospel. This is it. I get someone else's
righteousness. And not just anyone's righteousness.
I get the Son of God's righteousness. Not an angel's righteousness.
I get the Son of God's righteousness. This is the gospel message to
sinners. The Son of God came to seek and
to save that which was lost. And I tell you, only the lost
need to be found. Isn't that so simple? If you're
not lost, you don't need to be found. Only the lost need to
be found. If you know your way, I know
that, I know that, well, you're not lost then. You seem to know
everything. I'm talking to lost. I mean hopelessly
lost. Those are the people who need
to be found and those are the only ones that will be found.
Do you need mercy? Because these are the ones who
obtain mercy, are those who need mercy. Well, I just need help out of
this problem I'm in. Well, you don't need mercy. You
just need help in your circumstance. I don't need help in my circumstance.
I need absolute free mercy. I need free forgiveness. And Jesus Christ has provided
all of that. In Daniel it prophesies of Him.
In Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24 it says, 70 weeks are determined
upon the people and upon the holy city. Here it is, to finish
the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation
for the iniquity, for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's what Jesus did. He brought
in everlasting righteousness. And He gives it, freely gives
it. See, this is the problem. Men
want to give something for it. They want to say, well, Jesus,
I will take your forgiveness if you take my works or if you'll
take my will. No! It's only free or it's not
at all. Free. Free. Only Jesus has honored
and magnified the law and only Jesus has satisfied The justice
of God. The soul, listen, the soul that
sinneth, it shall what? Die. What did the Lord Jesus
Christ do on the cross? He died. You see, He was made
sin for us who knew no sin. And He surely died. And if He died, if He paid the
penalty for my sin, what then do I owe? I have walked in all His statutes
in my substitute. I have walked in all His ways. He has died for my sin. He has
raised again for my justification and I'm free. I'm free. There was no gamble on the cross. I am so glad for that. Jesus
Christ did not gamble for my soul. He took my soul in His
hand and He said, I'll pay for this one. I'll pay for it! And He did. And now He says,
set that one free. I've paid the price. I've paid
the price. There was no gamble at the cross.
Christ truly died for the sins of His people. All sinners hear
the Word of God. Look in your text at verse 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby you have transgressed, and make you a new heart and
a new spirit. For why will you die, O house
of Israel? This we know that a new heart
and a new spirit is something only God can create. But I tell you that all who believe
on Christ have also made a new heart and a new spirit. Faith is a gift of God's grace. But I tell you, everyone that
has faith believes. Is that not so? Well, I got faith,
but I really don't believe. How can you do that? That's impossible.
You can't have faith and not believe. And you know what? It's personal. In other words,
the faith of your parents has no effect on you. You will not
enter into heaven because your parents were believers. Neither
will you go to hell because your parents were unbelievers. Do
you see not this? Listen to me. If you go to hell,
it will be your own fault. It'll be your own fault. Listen,
why will you die? You'll die because you don't
believe this. You don't believe what I'm saying.
You think I'm full of hot air. You don't have any interest in
this because you don't believe that's true. You're telling God
that His Word is not so. Oh, everything's going to be
alright. No, it's not. No. You must believe. You must believe on the Son of
God. And I'm not talking about like
you believe in Santa Claus. I'm talking about like He gives
you a new heart to believe. It's a miracle of grace to believe. And when you believe everything,
is made new. I am so thankful that God by His
grace revealed to me that I am a complete sinner. And at the same time He revealed
to me Jesus is a complete Savior. And I believe. Do I give any glory to self?
No. I believe because He made me
believe. I believe because He gave me
faith. But I do believe. And God says, look at this in
verse 23, verse 22. All His transgressions that He
hath committed, listen, they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he
hath done he shall live I blame no one for my sin but
me and I give no glory to myself for righteousness it belongs
only to God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And you know what God
says? I won't even mention his sins
anymore. Why? They're not there. They're gone. Yes, but they're in my mind,
in my heart. I feel them. They're gone. They're gone. Christ died. Yea, rather is risen
again. Who is he that condemneth? It's
God that justified. May God give every one of us
grace to repent, to believe. And if you don't, you'll die
in your sins and it will be your own fault. God have mercy. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.