In the book of Ezekiel, we find
that Ezekiel is sent to a people who are rebellious, who are stiff-necked, hard-hearted,
who would not heed God's Word. If we read the book of Ezekiel,
you'll find that that's what the Lord told Ezekiel when He
sent Ezekiel to this people to preach to them. What had happened was the people
in Ezekiel's day had seen some judgment come upon their land. And that judgment had come upon
their land because For generations, they had been a rebellious people.
But when they saw this temporal judgment of God come
upon their land, and saw the sovereign hand of God's displeasure
in the mighty nations that He brought up against Israel to
take Israel captive, they reformed their lives. they got real religious. Whenever the terrorists attacked
the towers in New York City, this land got real religious,
got very religious. It doesn't take the Spirit of
God to reveal in a man God's judgment upon a land when something
like that happens. Man has a has the law of God
written on our hearts. And we see something like that
happen. And we know, if we know anything at all about God, either
we totally out and out deny Him, or we see that and there's something
within us that says, we're not living right. We're not doing
something right. So natural man, in his perception
of these things, will attempt to do something that'll take
away that judgment. Take it away and please God.
And so, they reformed their lives, they stopped being, or stopped
letting people see them as being so outwardly lewd and immoral. Cleaned up their act. And they
began to Attend the ceremonies where God was supposedly supposedly
worshipped and began to attend these places with some regularity
because they wanted to to Be free from this judgment of God
and God continued to show his displeasure towards them and
This people was the people that God said to Ezekiel when He said,
they're rebellious people. They won't hear you. They're
not going to hear what you tell them because they're rebellious. And yet at the same time, if
you and I were to look upon this people, they would be those that
were in worship services, They would be those that called upon
the name of God, used that name when they called upon Him. They
would be people who were of the nation of Israel. These were
Israelites. And it would be the same as us,
if we looked upon them, And we were to say, one of God's messengers,
as Ezekiel was to say, these men are hard-hearted, they're
self-righteous, they do not know God, they worship in another
God. And for God, and for one of us,
you and I, to say, well now, they're Baptists, they attend a worship service,
they read God's Word, They know God's law. They know what His
statutes say. They pray. They're sincere. They're earnest. It's a little too hard for you
to say that these people are hard-hearted and self-righteous.
Let me tell you something about judgment. This whole chapter,
this whole book of Ezekiel has to do with judgment. true judgment,
God's judgment, and God's justice. That's what it has to do with.
And as I was preparing this message, something that occurred to me,
and I'll confess, after we talked the other day, this was on my
heart, it was on my mind as I thought of this, and I saw over and over
where the Lord sent Ezekiel, and He said, I'm going to make
your face hard against them. You're going to say things that
they're going to reject. You're going to say things. But
God in His judgment, He said this to Ezekiel. If you go and
you tell them the truth, and they continue in their wickedness,
which as we'll see here is nothing more than religious, free will,
self-righteousness. If you tell them and they continue
in it, they're going to die in their sins and you're going to
be free. But if you go and you don't tell them, you decide,
well, because they're so much like us and we're all going towards
the same common goal, I don't want to be too hard. That might
be too judgmental. What we do when we do that is
we set ourselves up as judges. We become judgmental when we
do that. You know when the Lord told the
disciples, judge not that you be not judged? How can you cast
the speck out of someone's eye when you have a beam in your
own eye? And then He says, And don't cast your pearls before
swine lest they turn upon you and rend you and split you and
devour you. The whole of the message is about
preaching the truth, casting forth the pearls of God's truth,
which is the best thing a man can do for a sinner. I don't
care how religious he is, that's the most non-judgmental thing
he can do is to tell him the truth and stand for it. But if
I judge, if Ezekiel judges these people and decides, I don't think
I ought to go tell them. That might be a little too harsh
for me to stand up and say that to them. There's a beam in Ezekiel's
eye, and it's called self-righteousness. It's called, I don't want to
deny myself and have to be looked at as a bigot or dogmatic or
bear the offense of the cross. I'd rather just be looked at
as somebody that's gracious to everybody. In fact, that's no
graciousness at all. That's being judgmental. That's
saying, I can decide who's righteous and who's not, and therefore,
I'm not going to be offended by these things. I'm going to
just let it slide. God said, if you do that, I'm
going to require they're bloodied on your head. And so, He comes
forth here preaching the truth to this people and setting them
straight on exactly what His Word says. Let's look here and let's see
what God's Word says. Ezekiel 18, verse 1. The Word
of the Lord came unto me again, saying... And as we go through this, I
want you to bear in mind, this is just a man, just a sinful
creature, an earthen vessel standing up and declaring this to people
who were, this would be like walking into a First Baptist
Armenian congregation and preaching this message to them. This would
be like walking into a Calvinist free will church and preaching
it to them. And I say that because a man
can learn the five points of Calvinism just like he can learn
the ten commandments and all he's done is switch from one
system to another and he still has not bowed to God as Lord. As you'll see as we go through
this scripture, when the Lord addresses Himself, speaks of
Himself, He speaks of Himself as the Lord God. That means covenant
God. That means God of promise. That
means what I say will come to pass. This is how it is. You
either bow to it or you reject it. And if you reject it, you
deem yourself unworthy of eternal life. Now here's what He says.
The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What mean ye?"
Speaking to the people, he says this, What mean ye that 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. This was a paraphrase, if you
will, of the second commandment. The second commandment said,
God said, I'm a jealous God. He said, don't bow down to any
graven images. Don't put any gods before me.
Don't bow down to any graven images. Don't follow after the
idolatry of any. Because I'm a jealous God. Visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation. And so these people, taking that
commandment, taking that law, not using it lawfully, not according
to what God's Word said. This was the proverb that they
said. The fathers have eaten sour grapes. The fathers have
committed iniquity. And the children's teeth are
set on edge. The children are paying for what
the fathers did. That's what they said. And the
Lord declares that His displeasure with particular individuals is
not due to the sin that their fathers committed, but due to
their own individual unbelief." Here's what the accusation they
were making. Look here at the last verse of
Ezekiel 18. This was the accusation they
were making. They were saying, verse 29, The house of Israel
were saying, the way of the Lord is not equal. That's exactly what the charge
they were laying to God. And they were using His own word
to lay this charge to Him. They were saying the fathers
committed iniquity. And we're bearing the judgment
that they committed. And God says here clearly, that's
not the case. That's not the case. In verse
three, he says, as I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have
occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. I'm fixing
to show you, God says, without a shadow of a doubt, that this
is not the case. And you won't be able to say
these things anymore. Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the Father, so
also the soul of the Son is mine. The soul, the individual soul
itself that sinneth, it shall die. Not because your father
did it, because you did it. Now, the same holy justice of
God demands that if a man be just and do that which is lawful
and right, he'll live. He'll live. And He gives us,
because they used that second commandment about the third and
fourth generation, He gives three generations here to show exactly
what He's talking about. And here they are. Verse 5, But
if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right...
Now, without a doubt in my mind, the next verses that He gives
here about what it is to be lawful and right, First and foremost,
this is exactly what they were doing. This is exactly what they
were doing and calling it righteousness and saying, therefore, God's
unjust to be pouring out His judgment upon us. These things
that he's going to list is what the people were doing and what
they were calling righteousness. He says, if he does what's lawful
and right, hath not eaten upon the mountains, Neither hath lifted
up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath
defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near to a minstrel's
woman, and hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the
debtor his pledge, and hath spoiled none by violence, hath given
his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a
garment. He that hath not given forth
upon usury neither hath taken any increase that hath withdrawn
his hand from iniquity, and executed true judgment between man and
man. This man hath walked in my statutes,
and he hath kept my judgments to deal truly. He is just, and
he shall surely live, saith the covenant God, saith the Lord
God." This man will live. Now he uses those things because
in giving those things to show how man will live, everyone that's
listening to him give this illustration is sitting there, and in their
heart of hearts, they're saying to themselves, well, I've done
these things. I've done these things. But now
then he goes on. He's giving us an illustration.
And he says, now if he begets a son, This man that's just,
this man that's done right, lawful and right, and he begets a son,
he has a son, and his son is a robber and a shedder of blood
that doeth the like to any one of these things, and that doeth
not any of those other things that are good things, but even
hath eaten upon the mountains, defiled his neighbor's wife,
oppressed the poor and needy, spoiled by violence, hath not
restored the pledge, hath not lifted up his eyes to the idols,
hath committed abomination, hath given forth upon usury, hath
taken increase, shall he then live? If a man does these things,
shall he live? He shall not live. He hath done
all these abominations, he shall surely die. His blood shall be
upon him. It's not that his father did
these things. His father was righteous. His
father was just. He came forth doing these things.
Shall he live? No. He'll be judged. He'll die. And then he goes on. Now, here's the third generation. Now, if this man who was unrighteous
and did evil, contrary to what his father did, Now this right
here is just the grandson of the man who did right. And in
between them was the son who did wrong. And he has this next
son. And he sees all his father's
sins which he hath done. And he considereth these things. And he doeth not such like his
father did. He's not eaten upon the mountains.
He neither lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath
oppressed any, hath not withholding the pledge, neither hath spoiled
by violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry. He's covered
the naked with a garment. He's taken off his hand from
the poor, has not received usury nor increase. He's executed my
judgments, walked in my statutes. Shall not die for the iniquity
of his father, but he shall surely live As for his father Because
he cruelly oppressed and spoiled his brother by violence and did
that which is not good among his people lo even he shall die
in his iniquity You die for his own sins The just judgment of
God says this, that though a man be the son of an evil man, holy
judgment says that if the son turned from his own way, from
following the iniquity of his father and believes on God, he'll
not die. But his self-righteous father,
he'll bear his own guilt and die because he rejected God.
Now here's the people's error. Ezekiel 18, 19. Yet say ye, why? Why does not the Son bear the
iniquity of the Father? Now, let's put ourselves here
in the shoes of what's taking place. God's man comes forth. And to
them, it's just a sinful man that comes forth, and he comes
forth with this word. And he says, you have misinterpreted
God's Word. You've twisted God's Word. It's
not that you're going to die and bear iniquity because your
father sinned. It's because you sinned. And
they respond to Him with God's Word to God's messenger because
they can't get to God Himself. And using God's own Word, they
try to tell Him He's wrong. You know, you're wrong. That's
not right. That's not what God's Word said.
And God spoke this to His messenger. God revealed this in His messenger
and sent Ezekiel forth with this Word. And he's a man come from
God with this Word. And the people responded just
like God said they would. They said, no, that's not what
God's Word says. That's not what God's Word said.
And they use His word to try to attempt to refute Him. And they quote, they're basically
quoting that second commandment. Now let me give you an idea here. Let me just put this in simple
terms. When God said, when he said,
I'll visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And he
said, and I'll show mercy unto thousands of them that love me
and keep my commandments. Here's what he said to those
that hate him. You take a father, hates God,
and he raises his children in a godless religion of self-righteousness. If these people right here who
twisted God's law and said that they were bearing the iniquity
of what their fathers had committed, and they raised their children
to believe that, and their children go on believing that, the iniquity
of not understanding God's Word, of walking in their own way,
will be passed on to their children. And their children, if they teach
their children. Now, if a man, say, he doesn't
want to have anything to do with religion at all, and he raises
his children outside of any kind of religion whatsoever, and they've
never taught the truth, and they follow in his steps, it'll go
on through the third or fourth generation. They'll hate God,
and the iniquity of their fathers will be passed right on to them,
and they'll continue hating God just like their fathers did. when a father leaves his family
and leaves his children, leaves his wife, they suffer for that. That family has suffered for
that for three or four generations because of that iniquity that
the father committed. Judgment upon a nation for the
sins of their fathers will cause those children to be born into
a nation that's affected by that judgment. But now that doesn't
take away from the fact that God's going to deal with sinners
individually. There may be the effects of sin
all around us that we see, that are the effects of sin. It don't
change the fact that God's going to deal with you and me individually,
according as we follow Him or reject Him individually. And so, here's what they were
doing. By saying that they were, they were saying basically that
they were righteous. We've done all the, we've reformed.
We've changed. We're going to church now. We're
worshiping God. We've memorized the five points
of Calvinism. We stand for the five points
of Calvinism. We preach the law every time
we get in the pulpit, but we believe the five points of Calvinism. And what they're saying is, so
God's unjust to judge us because we're righteous. God's the one
that's unjust. He should pour that iniquity
out on our fathers, but He shouldn't judge us because we're righteous.
We've walked according to His ways. We've done that which He
says do. So we shouldn't be bearing the
blame. We shouldn't have to be suffering for something somebody
else did. And such a twisting of God's
Word made them conclude that God was the one that's unequal.
That's what He said. You say, I'm unequal. I'm unequal
in my judgment. And so God's showing them here,
I'm not the one that's unequal. You're the one that's unequal.
Now let's see that. people, if they could blame somebody
else, if they could blame their fathers, then they could soothe
their own conscience from the fact that they themselves were
guilty. And that's the whole, anytime the word of God is twisted,
anytime the word of God is brought forth wrongly and is set forth
in a wrong manner, Underneath every bit of it, underneath the
underlying motive behind it all is a man trying to justify himself
and go on in his rebellion, not bowing to God, not bowing to
the Lord Jesus Christ, not saying God's just and I deserve everything
I'm getting. That's exactly what's taking
place here. The truth will not make room for a lie. God will
not Overlook a lie, and he's praying it out here He sent his
messenger to tell the truth whether they'll hear it or not the messenger
sent to tell the truth and he sent with a with a with a command
from God a Mandate from God to tell the truth and here's what
he said. I Verse 19, When the Son hath done that which is lawful
and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath 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. So,
now we come to these, or when we go back to those first three
verses, when He says, 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? The Lord said, as
I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more
to use this proverb in Israel. God will not allow his true people,
his true Israel, to continue in such absurdity, but he's going
to destroy everything they put their trust in. Everything they
put their trust in, He's going to destroy it. That's what He's
going to do for you individually if you're His. He's going to
take away everything from you that you put your trust in. And
one day it's going to come right down to this very thing that
you call your life, our bodies. We're going to lay one day with
a death rattle in our throats upon the bed if we die. That
way we're going to lay there and we're going to come to the
realization that nothing I put any trust in in this world is
worth anything. Nothing. He's going to destroy
the temple. He's going to destroy the city.
He's going to destroy the nation. He's going to scatter the people
so they can't even claim ancestry to Abraham for righteousness.
Not only that, but the mountains where they worshipped on the
high mountains, He says, if you read on in Ezekiel, He's going
to bring them low and destroy them. He's going to take everything
away so that this proverb can't be said anymore. So that all
the people will be able to say is, they're going to bow the
knee and they're going to say, You're Lord of Lords and King
of Kings. That's what's going to happen. Here's what one old
writer said. It was just as if he had said,
I will drive out of you this boasting by laying bare your
iniquity in such a manner that the whole world shall perceive
you to suffer the punishment you yourselves deserve and you
shall not be able, as you have been hitherto endeavoring, to
cast the burden on your fathers. You know, we get, we do something. I find myself doing this all
the time. I do something that I would rather not do. Do you
find yourself saying, that is just like my daddy? That's just
like my daddy to do that. It's not my daddy's fault. It's
my fault. I'm the one doing it. It's my
fault. I can't blame it on anybody else.
God will strip his people of all false salvation and bring
his people to the feet of Christ. Now here's true judgment and
true justice. God shows how just he truly is. Verse 21. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that
he hath committed. Now let me just ask you a question. Who do you think of? What comes
into your mind when you read that term wicked? He's talking about the people
who had reformed and who were saying they were righteous and
who by all appearances, if you looked at them, you'd think,
boy, these folks right here are pies. They followers of the Lord. To look on such and to say, I'm
going to have some, I'm going to be easy with them, even though
you know that they're saying a lie, as Ezekiel knew they were
saying a lie, to look on them and to say, I'm not going to
be too harsh on them. I'm not going to stand up and
tell them the truth, which is so narrow that they're going
to be offended by it. That's being judgmental. That's
judging them according to outward appearance of things. That's
looking on their righteousnesses. Now, it's okay. Those very people
that look on a sinner, that's a vile, outward, immoral person
and look down their noses on them and say, ah, that man's
a, he can't be God's. Well, what's the difference in
looking at him and saying he can't be God's and looking at
them and saying they can't be God's if they're obviously telling
a lie? Ain't no difference. Ain't no
difference other than we want to judge and say, and defend ourselves and say
we're not going to cause ourselves any offense. We're not going
to bring ourselves into any kind of slander that we might encounter
by telling them the truth. What did the Lord say? If a man
loved father and mother more than me, he's not worthy of me. Whatever it is, whatever the
reason is, we won't tell somebody the truth. It all comes down
to this. Self. We love ourselves. Our mother and our father, that's
just an extension of ourselves. When God says things like that,
He's saying, you love yourself more than me. That's why He said,
if a man tries to save his life in this world, he's going to
lose it. But if he loses his life for me, he'll save it. Look
here, if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and
right, he shall surely live, and he shall not die. But furthermore,
listen to this, all his transgressions that he hath committed, they
shall not be mentioned unto him. And his righteousness that he
hath done, he'll live. This man will live. He gives
the case here of somebody that you could only say this about
somebody, a wicked man. I'm talking about the most pious,
I'm talking about Saul of Tarsus, a man who is steeped in religion,
a man who did everything he did in the name of religion, defending
God for God's glory, for God's honor, for the good of God's
people, killing God's people, and crucifying the Lord in the
process, in his heart. I'm talking about that wicked
man. This is a man that would only turn because God had eternally
loved him, and God had put him in Christ, and Christ had bore
his iniquity and paid it in judgment and justice. And the Holy Spirit
had turned him and caused him to turn from his way, his righteousness,
his self, all those things he loved, and turned to God and
confessed his sins and said, you're the way. You're the way. You are the truth. You are the
life only. That describes this man. Not only, God says, will he be
just, but his wickedness will never be brought up again. He says, not only do I not hold
the repentant sinner chargeable for the evil of his father, I'm
not going to charge him with his own sin that he's committed.
And then he asks this question of such a wicked man who repents.
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Saith the Lord God, all my pleasure
is in that he should return from his ways and live. That's my
pleasure, God said. Should I have any pleasure that
one such as this, that his sin should be brought up again? And
that he should die for his sin? No! That would be unjust for
me to bring up his sin again. But here's some points I want
you to see on this verse. Self-righteous men, they were
accusing God of inequality as if he was a sinful man, as if
he executed justice like a man executes justice. And let me
give you this illustration. A man transgresses against me.
He commits some awful transgression against me. And he never comes
to me and asks for forgiveness. He goes on saying he's right,
he's just in what he did, and he does not ask for forgiveness.
And he has a son. He has a son. And his son does
the same thing to me. His son transgresses against
me. He hates me. He won't have anything to do
with me. But he considers what his father did. And he comes
to me. and say I own a business or something. He comes to me and he says, you
know what? I've been wrong. I transgressed against you. And
my father did too. He was wrong. But I'm not here
to represent my father. I'm here on my own, standing
on my own two feet telling you I apologize. I'm sorry for what
I've done to you. I need a job. I need some life. I need livelihood. And I was
to say to him, would a self-righteous man say this? You expect me to
forgive you after everything you did to me? After everything
that your cussing daddy did to me and that you've done to me,
you think I'm going to give you a job? You hit the door, buddy. I ain't having anything to do
with you. That's exactly what the folks
were accusing God of being like. They were saying, we're right.
We haven't done anything. We've come to you. And we're
worshipping you. And yet you're pouring out your
wrath on us as if we're guilty. And it's our fathers who are
guilty. We're righteous. It's not just to do this. And
God said, if a wicked man turns to Me, leaves his ways and confesses
That he's nothing and bows to me and trust me and lays hold
of eternal life Not only will I forgive him of his transgressions
Not only will I not bring up the sins of his father. I won't
bring up his own transgression ever again and he says now that's
justice that's justice and And then something else I think we
ought to see here too is that God takes no pleasure in seeing
a wicked sinner who has turned to Him who is the life. He don't
take any pleasure in seeing him perish. Because if he perishes,
that's counting the blood of his son as vanity. And he won't
have that. That won't bring him any pleasure.
But a self-righteous man who wants to hold on to the law,
who rebukes God's Messenger like these men did, and who says,
no, that's not what God's Word said. If God saves that man out
of that place and brings him out of that nonsense and brings
him to the truth, that self-righteous man will say, well, he's going
after those people that go in the narrow way, those bigots
that they think they're the only ones that's right. They don't
rejoice in it. That's God's opposite of man. He said, I want a wicked man
that turns and repents of his sin. I'm not going to bring up
his sin again. How many times have you heard
of men being brought before the great Sanhedrin in the churches
of our day? and judged because their righteousness,
because some sin they did, and their righteousness didn't meet
up to the righteousness of the devout, pious, self-righteous
people that stood before them, and they kicked them out. And
then when they come back with their tail tucked between their
legs, trying to say, I'm sorry for what I did. I haven't lived
up, and I'm not as righteous as you are. Then they're held
in suspicion the rest of their days. God said, I'm not like
that. I don't bring it up again. It's
finished. You look back up there at verse
5. Here's why he doesn't bring it up again. When he says, if
a man be just and do that which is lawful and right, the only
way a man can be just is by trusting the just one. The sinner can
only be just by trusting the faithful one who obeyed God's
law, who is lawful. A sinner can only be just by
trusting the Lord Jesus, who's altogether right, the Lord our
righteousness. The following laws and statutes
that he gives there through verse 6 and 7, they have their end,
their fulfillment in Christ, who's the end of all God's Word,
for He alone is the just one. If we'd be just, it's going to
only be by simply trusting Him by faith. And if we come to Him
by faith, turning from our own ways and trust Him, God said,
I'm not bringing up your sin again. I'm not bringing it up
again. Should I have any pleasure that the wicked die and not rather
that he turn from his sin and come? This is for what end I
sent my Son into the world, that he turn and come, that sinners
be brought to repentance. Look here, verse 6, when it says,
He had not eaten upon the mountains, neither had lifted up his eyes
to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled
his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near a mistress woman.
Let me tell you something about the mountaintop experience. The
covenant God promised to meet with His people one place, one
place, the mercy seat in the temple. That's the only place.
It's a picture of Christ and that's the only place He'll meet
with them. Yet these people worshiped Him in a place that they deemed
better, in a higher place, in a more beautiful place, upon
the mountains. They're closer to God up there.
We're closer to God on the mountains than we are down there in that
old ugly temple. That's the same as a man saying,
I'll come to God the way I want to come to God. This is how I
think it ought to be, so this is how I'll come to God. God
said, no, you come in one way, the way I've said. Everything
that's said here about this, it's not about turning Some people
might preach this and tell you to turn to the law and say, now
you need to do these things. I'm telling you everything that's
said here about a just and lawful man is Christ. He's the just
and lawful man. And the end of what God is saying
here about a wicked turning from himself, from his own ways, is
turning from the law and your self-righteousness and turning
to his son and trusting him, who's the fulfillment of all
of these things that are mentioned here. What about the neighbor's
wife and the minstrel's woman? What about that? How does that
glorify Christ? Everything about His law and
His judgments glorify Christ. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, they're the neighbors. They're neighbors
with one another. And they all have one bride. one bride. And when Christ came
to this earth, he didn't defile their bride. He saved her and
presented her as a chaste virgin without spot and without blemish
to God. That's what he did. And that's
what sinners do who turn from their way to trust Christ alone. What about the minstress woman?
That's not a pleasant description, is it? That's the result of what
happened when Adam obeyed Eve. That's the result of what happened
to Eve when Adam obeyed her rather than, like the second Adam, obeying
God and trusting Him. He didn't go to his bride and
say, now let's do this the way you want to do it. Don't let
me offend you now. How is it you want to come to
me? I'll just stand and knock and if you'll let me in, I'll
come in. He obeyed God and thus saved
the woman. The mistress woman pictures anything
that's false, anything that's a lie. It pictures disobedience. It pictures the false religion. He didn't enter into those things.
He wasn't turned from the truth to a lie. He is the truth. And
so, when it says here, when God says, I'm pleased. I'm pleased with the man that
turns from his way. It's turning from these things
that they were doing. They were eating on the mountains.
They were lifting up their eyes to idols in doing so. And then they were committing,
literally committing these sins, defiling the neighbor's wives
and all of these things because they had no reverence for God
whatsoever. They're going their own way.
Let me hurry here. God said, He'll see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. That's where God's satisfied.
He's satisfied with what Christ did. And therefore, any man that
turns from his way to trust the One with whom God is satisfied,
God said, I'll never bring his sin up again. It's put away.
And then I saw something else too this afternoon. When God
chastens His children, There was some folks here, there was
a remnant here that he's going to save. A remnant. Not because
they were physical Israel, not because they were Abraham's physical
descendants, because they were his elect, chosen. He's going
to drive them out and then bring them back and call them back,
just like he calls out every Gentile. He's going to call them
out by his spirit. All of these temporal things
that were happening here, all of this destruction of the temple,
destruction of Israel, all of these things that had to come
about to strip them of any self-righteousness, any other thing they put their
hope in but God. This is chastening to those that
He loved. And it says here, And this would be called deaths
to them. It's deaths to them because it's
killing that which they called life, which was really death.
It's stripping them of it. It's taking it away from them.
And he says, I don't take pleasure in it. Look over at Hebrews 12.9. We have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not
much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and
live? For they, our earthly fathers, verily for a few days chastened
us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we
might be partakers of his holiness. When he says, I take no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his
way and live. I take no pleasure in chastening
my people, but it's for his profit that he might be partakers of
my holiness." You get me? See what I'm saying? When you sit down with your child,
and you may have to spank them, and be very strict with them. How many times have you said,
Son, daughter, I don't take any pleasure in this. And God says, I'm not like a
man. I don't wait until I get angry and then in sinful anger
find some kind of pleasurable gratification of turning around
and taking out my anger on you and spanking you because I didn't
correct you in the first place. That's what we do. We wait till
fourth or fifth time and then we get mad and lash out at our
children. I said, I'm not like that. When
I correct you, I correct you for your profit. And I don't
take pleasure in having to bring this hurt upon you, but it's
for your good and it's for your profit. And so that's why I do
it. Let me finish up. Now he says this. When the righteous
turneth away from his righteousness, verse 24, and committeth iniquity,
the self-righteous man who turns away from Christ, who is his
only righteousness, his only hope of righteousness, and in
doing so, he commits iniquity, and doeth according to all the
abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? God
said, this wicked man that turns from his wickedness and turns
to Me, shall he die? And then he turns right around
and says, But this self-righteous man that will not turn to me
and commits iniquity, shall he live? Shall I take pleasure in
him living? No. No. What he's saying is,
I'm just. My way's just. I'm not going
to clear the guilty. But by the same token, I'm not
going to condemn those that I've justified. Verse 25, Yet ye say, the way
of the Lord is not equal. Here now, O house of Israel,
is not my way equal, or not your ways unequal? When a righteous
man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and
dieth in them, for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. And again, when the wicked man
turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, his self-righteous
thoughts, that he's righteous in himself, that he's truly obeyed
God's holy law, and he does that which is lawful and right, comes
to believe on the Lord our righteousness, who is the lawful and right into
the law, he shall save his soul alive, because he considereth
and turn away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, all his
so-called righteousnesses, and he shall surely live and shall
not die. And yet, saith the house of Israel,
the way of the Lord is not equal, O house of Israel, Are not my
ways equal or not your ways unequal? And he concludes, therefore I'll
judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,
saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from
all your transgressions that you call righteousnesses. Turn
from them so iniquity should not be your ruin. Cast away from
all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, make ye
a new heart and a new spirit. For why will ye die, O house
of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the
death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore, turn
yourselves and live ye. God takes no pleasure. He's not
pleased in our evil ways. He's not pleased in our transgressions
that we call righteousnesses. They don't bring Him any pleasure.
He said, Lebanon's not sufficient to burn. You take all the cattle
in Lebanon and burn every one of them as a sacrifice to me.
That don't please me. It ain't the act of your bringing
a bullock or a lamb or any other thing that you call righteousness.
It's bowing to my son and trusting him. That pleases me. He says, all of these things
that you call life, which are really death, they don't bring
me pleasure. And not even your final end in death is going to
bring me satisfaction. You're going to suffer for all
eternity. So why will you die? Ask that
question. Why will you die? Why will you
continue in those things? I'll tell you why a man will
continue in them. Because by nature, we love our ways and
we hate God's way. We love our self-righteousness
and we hate the righteousness of the Lord. We hate them. I
may bring another message here later on this, but later on,
they asked this question again. But it's a different question
this time. It's, if our sins are upon us,
And if we pine away and continue to pine away to deteriorate in
our sins, mourning to one another, complaining to one another about
this awful sin that we're in and all of these things, how
then shall we live? And God says, shall I? He tells
Ezekiel to preach the same message again. He preaches the same message
again. And He's saying to them, if you
continue in them, and you just mourn in them and complain about
them and pine away in them, you won't. You won't live. And He says, turn ye, turn ye,
turn ye, and live. And after all of the destruction
came upon their land, You find later in Ezekiel, you
know what they started saying then? Well, we're Abraham's children,
and God did all this so He can give us that land. Is that not
what people say when they say that God's going to restore national
Israel? They say He's destroyed Israel
so that He might restore national Israel again. They based their
righteousness the same thing they based it on before, saying
it's because of our ancestry. That's why God's done all this
for us. And he said, I'm just, and your ways are unequal. As
long as you continue in that, he said, you won't live. You
won't live. Turn to me, he said, you'll live. You'll live. All right.